Lords of Atlantis Boxed Set 2

by Starla Night

  How strange to hear such a title. Dosan awaited his orders.

  Uvim lifted his chin. He would strive for wise decisions.

  Xalu drifted on the tides, lost. His bride was not Milly. His bride was not on the boat. The sacred islands were empty. Where must he look?

  A good question.

  Uvim too had impossible tasks. He must still gain a blossom to secure Milly. And he must decide how to handle her ongoing requests to expose the mer at the Sea Festival.

  This festival was important to her.

  “We will discuss,” he said. “Remain with the tour boat today. Out of sight.”

  “One question.” Dosan kicked under the boat’s shadow. “What is this object your bride warned us about?”

  “What object?”

  “I believe she called it, ‘dynamite’?”

  He shook his head. It was a foreign word. He had studied much of English but his Portuguese — the most recent language of the sacred islands — was stronger.

  “No?” Dosan’s lips curled with the irony. “We will know when it attacks.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Milly chucked seawater, heaving and coughing, while the strong arms of her coworkers dragged her on board.

  “Jesus, Milly!” Brody glared at her in panic. “What the hell happened?”

  “Down the wrong pipe,” she choked.

  He wrinkled his brows in disbelief. “Where were you?”

  Milly gasped. Her heart jumped. She made it look as real as possible. “Thought I was going to die.”

  “Die?!” A panicked woman shrieked at a looming shadow in the water. “Shark! Shark! I saw a shark!”

  Brody wheeled on the woman. “Calm down. We already established it was a dogfish.”

  Dogfish had the shape of a shark but the pattern and coloration of a muddy brown to protect itself from larger predators.

  Such as a giant octopus.

  The woman gasped. “But I saw—”

  “Something like this?” He showed her the picture of the dogfish on his phone and she calmed.

  “Before. But just now I saw something different! It was large and black.”

  “Shadow.” Milly’s voice rasped in her throat. She coughed, face hot. “A cloud.”

  “A cloud?” The woman evaluated the cumulonimbus rolling in. “Oh. Maybe…”

  Whew. They had escaped.

  Brody gave Milly a long, searching look and then tended to his guests. The tourists Milly was supposed to tend as well.

  Milly escaped to the galley to prepare lunch. Grilled ham and cheese paninis, cut pineapple and melon, prosciutto and potato chips, her favorite crusty bread, farm cheese with spicy pimento, snackable yellow lupini beans, and cookies.

  Half way through preparations, the condiments got fuzzy, and she remembered to put her glasses back on.

  Huh.

  So, now it was official. She was with Uvim.

  Xalu — the beefy warrior broader than he was tall, with smoky black tattoos and a righteous lilt to his chin — was not her type.

  Would he forgive an accidental air horn injury? Doubtful. But she couldn’t get a read on him. They didn’t resonate.

  Being presented with another husband had cleared her feelings. She didn’t want to be a queen just for the special abilities. She wanted to be with Uvim.

  Uvim’s surprise she preferred him had been comical — and a little sad.

  Why had he been so surprised? Couldn’t he see the “fire” in her soul? Didn’t he know she was changing? Yielding? Falling for him?

  Surrendering to the tide of her feelings?

  Milly carried out her trays. The tourists devoured them with enthusiasm. Maybe her chef’s training hadn’t been useless.

  Everyone gorged and napped while Roberto piloted to their next destination.

  Confiscated dynamite hung from his steering column. Good thing the sunlight couldn’t set it off. This much dynamite would blow him — and the boat — to bits.

  This sea was too beautiful to be dynamited.

  Roberto anchored at their destination: a sea cave on a secret seamount between Faial and Ilha Sagrada.

  She pushed the thoughts from her mind to focus on her job: Fitting the tourists with Snuba regulators and harnesses.

  Brody gave another safety talk. He ended it with, “Aside from the fantastic coral, you’ll see ‘Octopus Hollow,’ a series of caves where an entire colony of octopi lives in harmony.”

  How close was Clifford? Maybe they’d see a lot more.

  Milly double-checked tanks and then she and Brody pushed in the Snuba rafts. She snapped each tourist’s harness to the raft via a twenty-foot rope, then secured the regulators.

  Snuba was neat because it united the freedom of snorkeling with the depth of scuba diving. While their air tanks floated on the surface, the tourists could paddle to the limit of their ropes and examine sea life. It was the closest any human could get to the freedom of the mer — and freedom stopped at the length of the hose.

  People were naturally buoyant, so they had to wear weight belts to descend. Otherwise, they’d pop to the surface.

  Funny how she didn’t need a weight belt after she transformed.

  Brody led the first group for their twenty-minute tour.

  Milly monitored the rafts and bubbles with Roberto. Some second group members, waiting for their turns, strapped on their snorkels and paddled around the surface.

  Brody climbed out at the twenty-minute mark.

  He said nothing about seeing a ginormous black octopus. But he stared at Milly again as though he had a lot of unanswered questions.

  After he got back, Milly prepared the second group. One woman with a voluptuous purple swim dress and crinkly black hair remained behind. Her husband slept on her thigh and she shaded him.

  “He’s not feeling well.” Her tone sounded resigned. “I have to stay behind.”

  “Are you sure? This is the best part,” Milly said. “You’ll be back in twenty minutes. I could find him a pillow.”

  “It’s fine, hon. Thanks.”

  How unlucky! Well, she would not force anyone into the water. Milly double-checked weight belts and cleared regulators.

  Her tourists held onto their rafts, bobbing in the gentle waves.

  “Visibility’s so good - almost a hundred feet. The octopi are out,” Brody called to her.

  He loved the octopus colony.

  She waved an acknowledgment, checked in with her group, and dipped below the surface.

  Exotic coral tangled on a pointed seamount that housed vast marine life. They fringed a deeper drop-off. But the highlight was the colony of octopi living in the cave-pocked rock.

  The octopi popped out of their caves like curious residents of a multi-story apartment building.

  Their big bulbous heads and plus-sign eyes were so cute. Easy to see why Brody liked them. A few batted colorful stones. Others stood up on their arms like apes resting on fists. Others twirled, multi-color parasols.

  She continued to glance outward. Her humanity limited her vision but Brody was right. Unprecedented visibility let her see much farther into the dark depths than usual. With her prescription mask, they veered sharply into focus.

  Something flickered on the edge of her vision.

  She turned.

  A male with long fins swam along the underside of the boat.

  Who was that? Dark tattoos … Sapphire?

  Unease slipped into Milly.

  Their bubbles obscured a great deal. Maybe no one else would notice…

  The tourist next to her turned and jolted. She tapped her husband and pointed.

  Uh oh.

  Soon everyone on her tour gestured excitedly and nodded. They saw Dosan. Several ascended to the rafts and called out to the others on the boat.

  And she’d just told the warriors to stay out of sight!

  Oh well.

  Their twenty minutes of air finished. Milly helped everyone ascend and disconnect the Snuba equi
pment. Roberto sounded the chime to recall the snorkelers to the boat. She ascended the ladder with the first Snuba raft. Her tourists chatted about their sighting.

  “I swear I saw a merman,” one woman was saying.

  “I did too!” her husband said. “I swear I saw two.”

  “Three!” said another woman.

  Her husband agreed. “I thought someone was swimming without their regulator or mask and then it hit me. Hello! It must be a merman.”

  “So cool!” the first husband enthused. “They’ll never believe this back home.”

  “I’ll never forget it my entire life,” the other said, while their wives grinned.

  These couples were as thrilled with seeing mermen as they had been with seeing the other marine life. So, there was hope for humanity. And the family with the jokester husband was quiet. Ah, the brash father snored on the deck.

  “Look, Jen.” The husband who’d been ill nudged his wife and pointed at the returning Snuba divers. “You missed the best part. I swear you’re the only woman in the world who would work through her own honeymoon.”

  Jen sighed, resigned. Although her husband had the dark creases under his eyes, she looked like she had a deeper tiredness in her soul.

  Milly dove in for the last Snuba raft. She unhooked the tanks and handed them up to Brody one at a time.

  Brody said nothing but something weighed on his mind.

  A dark stone slid across the raft.

  “Weight belt,” Brody noted. Someone had just dumped theirs on top – unfastened – and the square metal weights slid off. He hauled the rest of the belt onto the deck.

  Two loose weights plopped in the water.

  She sighed and fixed her mask. “I’ll see where they go.”

  “Wait—”

  She dove.

  The weights dropped like stones.

  She kicked a few feet and oriented herself against the closest landmarks. Gorgeous coral. Close to the octopus colony. Really, really far from the bottom.

  This was pristine.

  And impossible to collect the distant, tumbling weights without revealing her transformation.

  Oh well. She’d be back.

  Milly kicked for the surface. Time to return to the harbor, report to her boss, and figure out what to do with three warriors instead of—

  Something buzzed near her face.

  It was a long, white, plastic candle. The string was lit; it fizzed.

  How could it burn underwater? It must have a water-proof coating—

  Dynamite!

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Dynamite.

  The realization slammed into Milly like a fist. Her heart thundered in her throat. This slender white plastic stick could kill her right now.

  No, the fuse was long. She had a few precious seconds.

  A few precious seconds…

  She kicked after it, snatched the tube, and pulled out the fuse.

  The fuse hissed in her shaking fingers. The white coating disintegrated leaving only a dull black thread.

  The dynamite — the actual powder — was in her other hand. So it was safe.

  She had de-activated—

  White-hot pain gnawed on her fingers.

  Ow!

  Her hand spasmed. She jerked back, releasing the burning fuse.

  “Wob,” she burbled in pain. Her voice disappeared in the air bubble. She closed her mouth to the water.

  The fuse hissed to the tip and fizzled out. It became an inert black thread.

  Her fingers throbbed.

  She was so dumb.

  Uvim appeared before her. He gripped her wrist and examined her burned fingers.

  She tried to tell him. “Dynam-wob.”

  Crud. Did he get it? She lofted the white cylinder. This was dynamite.

  Another dynamite struck the water and hissed.

  No!

  She thrashed.

  He released her, darted to it, and captured the hissing dynamite.

  And then he held it. Hissing. In his hand. While the spark chewed up the fuse closer and closer to the explosive body.

  She lunged for him and yanked out the fuse. This time, she released it. The fuse hissed and dissipated.

  She stared at him. Did he understand?

  He stared back at her. Blank.

  Crud. Crud. Crud.

  She kicked for the surface.

  He launched her to the surface.

  Milly flew out of the water. “Brody!”

  The boat bobbed. Guest chatter muffled her cry.

  She smashed into the water. Under the surface. She coughed liquid — Do not shift! — and forced herself out. Waved and shrieked.

  No breath. No voice.

  She gagged. “Brrgh!” There, her voice came back. “Brody! Roberto! Brody!”

  Brody’s head popped over the tourists. He approached the railing and his searching gaze lit on her. “Milly?”

  Further toward the bow, another stick of dynamite dropped over the side of the boat.

  It would shatter the hull.

  She threshed her plastic fins toward the bow. “Someone’s throwing dynamite!”

  “What?”

  She lofted the plastic dynamite she’d disarmed. “They’re throwing dynamite! Now!”

  His face blanked in horror.

  He turned, scanned the guests, and an unrecognizable expression crossed his easy-going face. He shoved through the guests. “Roberto!”

  A stick of dynamite arced high over her head and plopped the water behind her.

  One close to the hull. One far behind her.

  She couldn’t get both.

  Milly focused on the one closest to the boat.

  “Milly!” Brody shouted, muffled. “Get out of the water!”

  She kicked hard.

  “Get out!”

  She ripped off her mask and dove.

  The dynamite closest to the boat descended. It stood out in stark relief. Her scuba fins sped her forward. She grabbed the plastic tube and separated the fuse.

  It hissed and went inert

  Deactivated.

  Safe.

  She gulped water.

  Her stomach rebelled.

  She coughed and sucked in more seawater.

  Her body fought the shift. Her will crumpled. It couldn’t stand against biological need.

  She kicked the wrong direction, drowning herself. She thunked the seamount and passed the panic.

  Songs tangled in the surrounding water.

  In the colony, each octopus squawked like a seagull fighting over French fries in an ugly yet so adorable song. Nudibranchs, parrotfish, wrasse. Rock crabs. Tiny sea horses.

  Dynamite would destroy them.

  Human dynamite.

  Her and Uvim too.

  The warriors appeared in stark relief. Startled by her appearance. Unsure of what to do.

  “Bride Milly!” Dosan kicked for her. He held out the hissing stick of dynamite like a torch. “The dynam! You chased it.”

  “Destroy it! It’s a bomb. Pull out the—”

  Uvim grabbed the dynamite and crushed the white cylinder in his hands.

  “—fuse.”

  The powder floated away. The plastic peels dropped. The fuse floated on another current, away from the dissipating powder, until it went out.

  Well, apparently crushing it worked too. “Okay. Sorry for the scare. But if any of that powder had ignited, we’d be fish food.”

  He and Xalu both looked surprised.

  “A dangerous accident,” Dosan said.

  “No.”

  They turned to Milly.

  Their naïve confusion was so heartbreaking. She wished she could lie and say it was a mistake. But Brody had searched bags. Roberto had made an announcement. And no one had thrown dynamite until they spotted mermen.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  Uvim was grim. He understood.

  The others did not.

  “What is the meaning?” Xalu asked.
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  She tried again to explain. “There are always a few jerks who make life harder for everyone else.”

  “Humans attack us now?” Xalu looked at the surface. “Do they not understand? We mean them no harm.”

  “Yes. They should.” She had no easy answers. “Brody and Roberto must be taking care of the culprits right now.”

  “We are so few,” Dosan mumbled.

  “Secrecy is our only safeguard,” Xalu said. A harsh note made him bitter.

  “But why?” Dosan gripped his trident. “We triumphed over the All-Council. We came so far.”

  Her heart squeezed. She reached for Uvim’s hand. He took hers, already moving toward her with unspoken understanding.

  “This will stop,” she promised. “You speak at the Sea Festival. Everyone will see you are good people who’ve endured tyranny and atrocities and survived. And until the Sea Festival, I’ll take responsibility for you. You’re under my protection. Nobody’s getting hurt on my watch.”

  The warriors relaxed. Believing in her.

  “You’re safe,” she said.

  Slender cylinders spattered the water. Like someone on the boat had dumped over a bucket of fish. Except these fish were hissing dynamite.

  Oh, no.

  “Destroy!” Uvim shouted.

  The warriors scattered, attacking the dynamite. She dove, capturing and yanking fuses.

  One white dynamite hissed past her face.

  How many more?

  Uvim chased a stick of dynamite floating above the octopus colony.

  The small octopi came out on their ledges and watched the falling, hissing sticks — and the desperate warriors — with friendly curiosity. An empty dynamite body landed on a rocky ledge right in front of one of their caves. A brave red octopus batted it off like an irate neighbor sweeping off garbage.

  They’d be pulverized. Smashed by the shock wave into jelly. Their caves would shatter. The playful, adorable octopi.

  She kicked harder to reach the barrage of falling explosives. Yank, yank, yank. So many hissing fuses. No way she could stop all in time. No way.

  There. She deactivated the ones closest to her. Xalu and Uvim had destroyed theirs. Only a few sank out of their reach … the warriors got them … and they were almost done…

  The last dynamite twisted on a current. It dropped into the colony. The fuse hissed to the lip of the plastic.