“Still no. Besides, what’s wrong with having Treylen go with you?”
“Because sometimes we want to be alone and we don’t want him around. No offense, Treylen.”
“None taken,” the old man said. He and Randel were sitting in the shade of his favorite tree. The girls were standing looking down at them.
“Sometimes we just want to be by ourselves,” Liv added.
“You’re by yourselves all the time,” Randel protested. “You spent all morning down by those rocks by yourselves. I didn’t bother you a single time.”
“That’s not the same. We want to go out in the boat, don’t we, Aislin?” Aislin shrugged. “Hey, you’re supposed to be helping,” Liv told her. She looked back at Randel. “So, it’s okay, then?”
“What?” Randel said. “How’d you get there? I said no didn’t I?”
“I thought you might have changed your mind once I explained things to you,” Liv said sweetly.
“You didn’t explain anything.”
“Then I’ll try again.” With exaggerated slowness she said, “We’re girls. We have things to talk about. Sometimes we need to be alone.”
“That still doesn’t explain why you need to go out in the boat.”
“I’m starting to understand why Mommy gets so frustrated with Daddy,” Liv said, crossing her arms. “Men can be so pigheaded.”
“How am I being pigheaded? I’m only trying to do what your mother told me to.”
“Maybe you can explain it to him,” Liv said to Aislin. “He doesn’t seem to be listening to me.”
Randel pressed the heels of his hands into his temples. “Now I remember why I’m glad I don’t have any kids of my own yet.”
“You’re not ready,” Liv told him firmly. “You get upset too easily and you won’t listen to reason.”
Randel turned to Treylen for help. The old man was smiling. “Can you believe this?”
“She’s something else, isn’t she?”
“Okay, I’ll make a deal with you,” Liv said, “since you’re so upset. We’ll only go out a little ways. How’s that? Everybody wins.”
“I tell you no, but you go out in the boat anyway. How do I win anything?” Randel asked in disbelief.
“You win because you get to have us stay close where you can call us if you need to.”
“That doesn’t feel like winning to me.”
“Maybe you’re looking at it wrong.”
Randel slumped back, defeated. “Okay, okay. You can go out in the boat. But you have to stay close to shore.”
“I knew you’d come around!” Liv said. “You’re the best, Randel.” Randel muttered something, but neither girl paid any attention to him. They were already heading for the boat.
“I can’t believe he said yes,” Aislin said.
“I knew all along he’d give in,” Liv said confidently. “You just have to know how to talk to them.”
After that first day, it was easy for Liv to talk Randel into letting them go out in the boat alone. The two girls went out alone nearly every time they went down to the sea together. Each time they went a little further from shore. At first, Randel stood anxiously at the shoreline, calling out to them, worrying about them. But as time passed and nothing happened, he became less and less vigilant. Finally he went back to sitting beside Treylen in the shade.
One day when Aislin and Liv were out in the boat, Liv said, “Take us over by the cliffs. I’ve been on top of them lots of times and looked down. I want to see what they look like from below.”
Aislin obligingly steered the little boat over near the cliffs. Liv stared up at them. “They look so different from down here,” she said in awe. She looked around and spotted something. “What’s that?” she asked, pointing.
Aislin looked. “It’s a cave.”
“Can we go in it?”
The tide was out. It would be easy to beach the boat and walk over to it. But Aislin hesitated for a moment. She hadn’t thought about the cave and the strange, secret room with the glowing thing in it for a long time, had kind of forgotten about it as a matter of fact. She knew that if Liv saw the stairs—which she would, because she would want to explore the cave—then she’d want to climb them. Aislin still felt strangely reluctant to have anyone find out her secret. A moment later she made up her mind. Liv could be trusted. She wouldn’t tell anyone. “Sure. But first…”
“What?”
“I’ll show you something, but you have to promise not to tell anyone.”
“A secret? You have a secret?” Liv said wide-eyed. “I swear I’ll never tell a soul.”
“Then I’ll show you.” Aislin maneuvered the boat closer.
“What is it?” Liv wanted to know. “Is it treasure?”
“Kind of. Not really.”
“A secret room? Maybe a dungeon? Is it a dungeon? Are there skeletons chained to the wall?”
“You sort of have to see it.”
“I can’t wait.” Liv was practically jumping up and down and in her excitement she was making the boat rock quite a lot. “I can’t believe you never told me before. Oh, I can’t wait. Make the boat go faster!”
Aislin beached the boat and the two of them hurried over to the cave. “It’s dark in here,” Liv said.
“It’s a lot darker where we’re going,” Aislin replied.
“Stairs!” Liv said when they got to the back of the cave. “Where do they go? It’s a secret room, isn’t it? I knew it. I knew that’s what it had to be.”
Her excitement made Aislin smile a little. She was glad she’d decided to share her secret with her friend. It would be a lot less scary climbing the stairs with Liv along. “I think the stairs go all the way up to the tower,” she said. “But the vine blocks them so you can’t go the whole way.”
“I wonder who built them. Did you really climb these stairs by yourself? Weren’t you terrified?”
“It was pretty scary,” Aislin admitted.
“Are the stairs the secret or is there more?”
“There’s more. There’s…something I don’t really know what it is.”
“I wish we would’ve brought a candle with us.”
“If it’s too dark for you we can go another time.”
“Are you kidding me? We can’t leave now. I wouldn’t be able to sleep a wink knowing this was here and wondering what is up there. I’ll go as long as you come with me.”
Aislin put her foot on the bottom step. “It’s going to get completely dark. You just have to go really slow and be careful, okay? Some of the steps are broken.”
“This is the most amazing thing I ever did,” Liv said as they started up the stairs. “I can’t believe you came up here by yourself. You must be the bravest person I know.”
She chattered on for a little while after that, but then her words petered out. Aislin understood why. It was hard not to feel the weight of all that stone pressing down on them. It made her feel small and fragile.
The girls crept on in silence for some time. Aislin found herself hoping that Randel wasn’t starting to worry about them. She didn’t want him to start asking a lot of questions when they got back. Finally she saw the faint reddish glow that marked the entrance. She stopped in front of the crack in the wall.
“Where’s it coming from?” Liv whispered. It was strange hearing her talk so much quieter than she usually did, but Aislin wasn’t surprised. It felt unreal being here, like they were on the edge of a different world.
“You’ll see,” Aislin said. “Follow me.”
The girls wormed their way through the crack. It was tighter than Aislin remembered. Did that mean she really had grown? Or had the rock moved? What would happen if they were trapped in here? Would anyone ever find them?
All at once the crack opened up, and the two girls stepped into the small cavern. On the far side was the wall of black, glossy stone with the pair of circular doors in it. One of the doors was ajar, just as she’d left it. The red glow came from inside.
“Oh, wow,” Liv said in a whisper. “What is it?”
“I don’t know,” Aislin said. “Follow me.”
She led Liv toward the doors, but halfway across the cavern Liv stopped. “I can’t go any further,” she said.
“Why? What’s wrong?” Aislin asked, turning to her in alarm.
“Suddenly I don’t feel good,” Liv said. “I think I’m getting sick.” Sweat was running down her face and she trembled a little. “I think it’s coming from that.” She backed up to the other side of the cavern. “That’s better,” she said. “But I still don’t feel very good. Doesn’t it make you sick?”
“No,” Aislin said. “I wonder why.”
“It’s because you’re the hero, I bet.”
“Maybe,” Aislin said doubtfully.
“What’s in there?” Liv asked.
“There’s a red, glowing thing, like part of a disc. The masters put it there.”
“Who are the masters?”
“I don’t know.”
“How do you know about them?”
“I’m not sure. I touched the red thing and I saw pictures in my head of some kind of…creature. He was wounded, dying I think. He was one of the masters.”
“Did he tell you that?”
“No. I just sort of knew it somehow.”
“What is the glowing thing?”
“I don’t know. I only know that the masters put it here to keep it safe from the Devourers.”
Liv stared at her openmouthed. “What are the Devourers?”
“I don’t know that either. I think they’re the big trouble that’s supposed to be coming.”
“How long have you known this was here?”
“For a couple of years,” Aislin admitted.
“That long? And you never said anything to anybody?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Aislin winced. “I don’t know for sure. I just have this feeling that it’s supposed to stay hidden, that no one should know it’s here.”
“You should tell Daddy.”
“And I will. Only…not yet. You’re not going to tell are you?” Aislin asked. “You promised me.”
“Of course I won’t tell. What kind of friend would I be? How long are you going to keep it a secret?”
“I don’t know. Not much longer, I guess. I—” She broke off and stared into a corner of the cavern. “Did you see that?” she asked.
Liv looked where she was pointing. “What? Where?”
“Right there. I saw something, like a person standing in the shadows. He had white skin.”
“Now you’re scaring me,” Liv said, clutching her hand. “I want to get out of here. Let’s go.”
As they left the cavern, Aislin looked back over her shoulder at the spot where she thought she’d seen someone, but there was no one there. Had she imagined it?
“You were gone for a long time,” Randel said when they got back to shore.
“Were we?” Liv said. “It didn’t seem like it.”
“I couldn’t see you anywhere,” Randel said. “Where did you go?”
Aislin froze when he asked. She wasn’t sure what to say at all. But before she could stammer something, Liv came to the rescue.
“Here and there,” Liv said vaguely.
“Here and there? What kind of answer is that?”
“It’s hard to tell when you’re out on the sea,” Liv said. “It all kind of looks the same.”
“Don’t go out so far next time, okay? I don’t want something to happen.”
“We won’t,” Liv assured him. “We just lost track.”
The two girls walked on down the beach. “That was close,” Aislin said.
“Not really,” Liv said breezily. “It’s actually pretty easy to sidetrack Randel. My mother is the hard one. Once she gets suspicious she’s like a dog with a bone. She never lets go.”
“How do you do that?” Aislin asked.
“Lots of practice. That’s all it is.”
Chapter Seven
“Something’s coming,” Treylen said. He’d gotten up from his seat in the shade and walked over to where Aislin and Liv were playing in the sand. He looked down at Aislin. “Did you call it?”
“Call what?” Aislin said. “I don’t—” Then she broke off. There was something coming. She felt a twinge of uneasiness. It was no sea creature she was familiar with. There was something…unusual about it. It was no normal denizen of the deep. She stood up.
“What is it?” Liv asked, jumping up too. “What are you talking about?”
Neither Aislin nor Treylen answered her. Sensing something was wrong, Randel got up from his spot in the shade and started toward them. After a couple of steps, he went back and picked up his sword.
Treylen was staring out to sea. He held out one hand, palm down, and closed his eyes, concentrating. After a moment he opened them and turned to Aislin. The look on his face startled her. He was always so calm. She’d never seen him truly upset. But he was frightened now.
“Run!” he told her urgently. “Both of you, run! I’ll try to hold it off as long as I can.”
“What is it?” Aislin asked.
“It’s a zhoulin,” he said.
“What’s that?” Liv asked.
“There’s no time! You have to go. Now!” He pushed Aislin away from the water, then turned back to face the sea once again.
Aislin and Liv moved away from the water, but they didn’t go far before they stopped and looked back.
“Get them out of here!” Treylen yelled to Randel. “Get as far from the water as you can!”
“Come on,” Randel said, running over to them and shooing them back.
Aislin went, but she went reluctantly and kept looking back over her shoulder. So it was that she saw the dorsal fins that broke the surface of the water, out beyond the surf. There were two of them, like shark fins but twice as large and such a dark blue as to be almost black.
Aislin stopped and stared at the fins as they rapidly drew closer. It was clear to her that the zhoulin was no ordinary creature. With other sea creatures she could feel the throb and pulse of their vital fluids as they moved through their bodies. She could feel the soft spots and the weak points where they could be injured. But there was none of that here. The zhoulin was like a force of nature, a wave or an earthquake. It had no soft spots.
“We have to keep moving,” Randel said.
Aislin started moving again, but reluctantly. For the first time she felt frightened. But not for herself. She was frightened for Treylen. There was no way he could stand against the zhoulin. “I have to help Treylen,” she said.
“Treylen can take care of himself,” Randel said, taking hold of her shoulder and pulling her along with him.
But Aislin wasn’t so sure. She could feel the power radiating off the zhoulin, so much that it staggered her. She turned back around in time to get her first real look at the zhoulin.
Randel turned back then too. “By all the gods living and dead,” he said in awe, coming to a stop. Liv was frozen to the spot, staring.
The zhoulin looked a lot like a shark, but far larger than any natural shark could possibly be. As it got into shallow water its head lifted from the water, showing the huge, downward-curving crescent of its mouth. Its mouth was open, revealing rows of triangular teeth each the size of a man’s hand. Its underside was lighter in color, blue chased with green.
It continued to rise up out of the water and as it did so its form altered. Its head flattened, its eyes sliding forward from the sides of its head to the front. The pectoral fins on its sides withdrew, narrowing, changing shape, becoming more like arms than fins. Its long tail changed also, shrinking rapidly as thick, stump-like legs sprouted from its torso. In seconds it stood there on two legs, water streaming from its flanks, easily ten feet tall. Wrapped around its torso was a mass of seaweed.
It looked around, its black, pupil-less eyes moving over Treylen, dismissing him, then across the
beach until they fixed on Aislin.
It raised one hand and pointed at her. A harsh tangle of sounds came from its mouth, difficult to understand, though it sounded like it said, “You will come with me!” It began striding forward.
Treylen moved into the zhoulin’s path. “Go back where you came!” he yelled. “The child goes nowhere with you!”
The zhoulin paused, as if surprised by the resistance of this insignificant human. Treylen was shaking, but it was not from fear. Even from where she was Aislin could feel the Seaforce he was drawing from the sea, so much that it was causing him to shake. His sparse hair was standing on end and a faint, greenish glow was visible around him.
He raised his hands, holding them about a foot apart, fingers curved slightly. Between his hands an orb of dark green light appeared. Then he yelled and flung the orb at the zhoulin.
The orb struck the creature and exploded. The zhoulin staggered backward. It looked down at the fresh burn mark on its chest, something that might have been surprise on its alien features.
Treylen hit it with another glowing orb of Seaforce, knocking it back another couple of steps, then another one right after that.
But Aislin could see that each orb was smaller than the one before. Treylen was bent over, barely managing to stay upright. Feebly, he raised his hands to try to summon one more, but before he could do so the creature charged him. It backhanded him with one hand, knocking him flying. He lay sprawled on the sand, blood leaking from his ears and mouth.
Randel’s paralysis lifted and he began pulling on Aislin once again. “We have to get out of here,” he said urgently.
But Aislin wasn’t going anywhere. When she saw her friend fall, she snapped. Letting out a wordless cry of rage, she jerked away from Randel and ran toward the sea, ignoring his shouts. As she ran she reached for the water.
And the sea responded. A wave the size of a small hill rose up rose up out of the sea in a heartbeat and crashed down on the zhoulin, snarling and foaming with Aislin’s fury.
Yet when the water receded a moment later, the zhoulin was standing there unscathed.
“Do not fight me,” it growled, walking toward her. “You cannot win.”
Sea Born (Chaos and Retribution Book 3) Page 9