Sea of Secrets Anthology

by J E Feldman

  “The majority of our people are not taught of its existence because it has been dormant for so long,” Dom explained. “But it is mentioned in our most ancient histories, histories that only the scholars would think to peruse. And this creature…well…mention of it is so brief and scarce that it was never deemed important for our current world. The last time it was awake, it ravaged the lands and the seas. If the gods had not lulled it sleep, I fear it would have continued on until every living thing had died.”

  “That was not considered important history?” Mariana repeated, shocked.

  Dom shrugged helplessly. “As I said, the gods subdued it. It has been asleep for almost a thousand years. The scholars felt it was more a part of the sea bed than a living creature.”

  Mariana didn’t like it, but she understood his point. A new thought occurred to her.

  “If this Leviathan is real, it must not be as uncontrollable as you think,” she argued. “Father would not set something so dangerous upon the world. If what you say is true, it could very well turn on us. But Father called it our “protector.” If that is the case, it would not destroy us.”

  Dom ran a hand through his long, dark hair.

  “That’s what the scholars would have us believe,” he admitted. “They say there is a way to control the beast, but what if they’re wrong? Mariana, it could kill us all. We don’t know enough to take this chance, to place our faith in what could be a monster.”

  Dom’s stare was earnest as he held his sister’s gaze. His sincerity wormed its way into her heart and placed a kernel of fear there. Mariana pursed her lips. For the first time in her seventeen turns, she doubted her father.

  “Maybe they won’t be able to wake the beast,” Mariana suggested. “Our people have lived here for a thousand turns, and it has been asleep for almost all of that time. Think of it, Dom. The gods put it to sleep. It has been in a slumber so deep that everyday occurrences wouldn’t wake it. What could we do that would disturb it?”

  “There is a spell,” Dom murmured.

  “Then there is also one to put it back under,” Mariana insisted, refusing to abandon her positivity. “Does this spell that wakes it also control it?”

  Dom shrugged. “Supposedly, but who really knows.”

  “How far away does the Leviathan sleep?” Mariana asked. “Father was preparing to depart this day. How long will it take him to reach its lair and wake it?”

  “He’ll be there before the sun sets,” Dom answered in a monotone voice, his focus back on his inner thoughts.

  A cold entered Mariana’s mind, causing the scales on her exposed shoulders to glimmer.

  “So soon,” she murmured. She contemplated the idea for a long moment before shaking herself out of her reverie and placing a slim hand on Dom’s. The light touch brought him back to awareness, and he looked up, focusing on her once again. “I will pray to the gods. Everything will work out, Dom. You’ll see. The gods will make it right.”

  He gripped her fingers to accept her reassurance and tried to smile, but it was a shaky attempt. Mariana’s own smile was forced as well. She stood and hurried from the library. Her afternoon water explorations had been canceled, so normally she would have gone back to her room to change into something more appropriate for her royal position, but it hardly seemed important at the moment. Mariana’s bare feet slapped against the smooth, pearlescent floor as she hastened through the halls to the private temple within the palace.

  When she reached the holy sanctuary, she was greeted by the sight of many others already deep in prayer. How long they had been there and how long they would remain, Mariana didn’t know or care. Silence reigned in the shrine. As a rule, no one spoke, their prayers whispered in their minds. The gods would hear their thoughts, no one else needed to. At the entrance, she touched her fingers to her forehead as she bowed to show due reverence, then took an empty spot in front of the gods’ effigy. Closing her eyes and stilling her body, she upturned her face and began her silent prayer.

  Words drifted across the still waters. There was no current. Nothing moved except what the strangers brought with them. The sounds were like a distant memory, but different somehow. Muted. As if through water. Of course through water. It lived in water. But it hadn’t heard those sounds in water before.

  Consciousness wafted in and out as if on its own tide. It clung to peaceful sleep at first, refusing the pull that tried to induce it out. But with each tidal bulge, awareness grew stronger. It opened its eyes, spying the small humanoid figures that floated in front of it. It sniffed the water to see what they were. Their scent reminded it of something that existed outside of its salty home. In a place that had no water, that was hot and dry and miserably bright.

  Memory clawed to the surface as a pain ripped through its belly. It had tasted them before, had pulled their slippery yet impenetrable hide across their hot sands. Their voices had called out in feeble cries as they scampered to and fro, unable to escape it. That had been before its long hibernation. Before the call of the gods had lulled it to sleep.

  It opened its eyes wider and stretched its long, undulating body, moving its neck side to side as it inhaled the cold, salty water. It gazed down at the insignificant creatures that called to it. Their voices were nothing like the gods’. It opened its mouth wide as it lunged toward them.

  After a thousand turns, the Leviathan was awake. And it was ravenous.

  Clawed arms pulled the creature from the cave it had hibernated in. Several men gasped and jerked back. The king himself stiffened, fighting back the urge to flee from the gigantic monster that surfaced before them. Razor-sharp teeth that were about the length of a grown man’s body filled the Leviathan’s mouth. As it moved, clouds of churned-up silt billowed out into the water.

  Taking a shaky breath, the king continued the chant after his initial pause at seeing the gigantic beast come awake. When it lurched toward them, mouth gaping wide, the king braced himself but continued reading the scroll the spell was recorded on. The men behind him screamed and cowered down, squeezing their eyes shut so they wouldn’t bear witness to their rapidly nearing demise.

  The moments ticked past, but they remained uneaten. One after another, they cautiously opened their eyes to see what had happened. The Leviathan loomed over them, twisting its head back and forth as if trying to clear its mind. Its snarl thundered through the murky water in a deafening rumble. One of the king’s arms was outstretched as he shouted out the remainder of the chant, his voice strong and commanding. When he had finished, silence washed over the party, and they waited for the churned-up mud to settle once more.

  The Leviathan’s head stopped its shaking, its four eyes staring at the king, as if it waited.

  After another moment, the King of the Sea Dwellers shouted out in a clear voice, “To the Land Walkers. Destroy our enemies! You will obey me!”

  The Leviathan’s lips quivered away from its long teeth as a growl emanated from deep within its body. The men gathered behind the king felt fear squeeze their hearts. They doubted the strength of the spell and were convinced the creature would attack them if only to punish them for their presumption at thinking they could control such a being. But it didn’t. Snarling once more, it bunched its massive arms and launched itself away from the sandy bottom. Silt and mud engulfed them, obscuring their view. Choking on the debris that had suddenly filled the area, they hurried to swim away to clearer waters.

  Fury. Loathing. Hunger.

  These things filled Mariana’s mind as she slept. It overpowered her senses, sweeping her up in the tidal wave of its primitive consciousness. Her thoughts were swamped by the ferocity of…of…She couldn’t put a name to it. Couldn’t think of anything. She was drowning in the feelings. Her belly twisted painfully from the hunger gnawing at her. A violent rage drove her onward. If she could not eat the morsels that had disturbed her, she would seek out these others and feast upon them instead. For the time being. Then, when she was strong enough, she would break free of t
he bonds placed upon her. She would turn on the man who dared make demands of her.

  The ocean would be hers. As it was always meant to be.

  Her tentacles undulated through the waters, the strong muscles propelling her in powerful bursts to her targets. A gleam of light reflected off something smooth and grey. She sniffed the water but couldn’t identify the scent. What was it? She pondered that question for less than a second before deciding it didn’t matter. Baring her sharp teeth, she sped toward it, using the long talons on her webbed hands to slice the strange creature open. An easy enough task, but the outlandish mass secreted a kind of black blood that stank in her nostrils. She recoiled in disgust. As she watched, small figures scattered into the water as they fell from the grey animal. Instead of swimming or fighting back, the beast slowly began to sink. Amidst the stench of the ink-like liquid, Mariana detected a familiar scent. It was similar to the ones who had woken her. The enemies spoken of.

  What kind of beast would carry creatures uneaten in its belly? An aberration! There was a muffled boom. Mariana turned her head in time to see something shoot out from another of the sleek creatures. It struck her impenetrable hide and exploded. The impact felt like nothing more than an annoyance.

  Mariana roared in revulsion. A creature of the sea attacking her, its queen? To save the insignificant lives of those who don’t belong in her waters? She struck out, using the barbs that were hidden at the ends of her long tentacles to rip the offending beast apart. Rather than ingest the inky blood that was pouring into the briny water, she let the small creatures from within it sink and drown. She would tolerate the beating of the hot sun in order to feast upon the Land Walkers that lived beyond the ocean’s edge.

  Then she would return and rid her marine world of their sea-cousins.

  Mariana screamed as she shot up in bed, sweat covering her trembling body. She stared around the room, taking in her surroundings in wild bursts, then she looked down at her own body. Her slender, webbed hands, the gleaming claws that were similar, yet so unlike the creature from her dream.

  A dream, she thought. It was a dream.

  But had it been a dream? It had felt so real. The anger, the hate. Her belly still burned with hunger. What were those things the Land Walkers had been in? Those things that had spewed inky liquid when killed?

  Mariana breathed deeply, forcing her heart to slow. Getting out of bed, she hurriedly donned a robe. It wasn’t like the sleek, body-hugging outfit she had worn earlier. This one was loose and wasn’t meant for exploration, but she didn’t intend to wander far. She was sweaty and needed to clear her mind. A swim always helped calm her down.

  Everyone was still asleep as she moved silently through the twisting, pearlescent halls. The moment she had slipped down the stairs and into the water, she felt her heart rate slow. Her unbound hair undulated behind her as she dove under the surface and passed through the palace walls to the sea gardens. A floating calm descended upon her as she inhaled the cool, saline water.

  Remembering her promise not to wander the lands, she confined herself to those gardens around the palace. Certainly those would be safe enough. And, if they weren’t, then the Land Walkers were too close for anywhere to be safe.

  Surrounded by algae and anemones with the occasional young stingray gliding gracefully along the sandy bed, Mariana’s mind wandered back to her father. The king had been in her dream. She had had a brief glimpse of him with his arm outstretched, commanding her to destroy their enemies. Had it really been only a dream? Why had she imagined herself to be the Leviathan? There was nothing else she could have been. Her father had gone to wake the creature in order for it to save them, and that’s exactly what she had been doing.

  Then what were those things the Land Walkers had been in? The ones with the black blood? It couldn’t have been an animal. An animal would have eaten them, but they were alive.

  No, she corrected herself as she glided along. They had been drowning. They were dead.

  Mariana frowned. They were dead. It felt true. Not just something that had happened in a dream. She felt it had actually taken place. Those Land Walkers had been coming to kill them, but now they were the dead ones.

  Because of the Leviathan.

  But if the dream had been true, if she had somehow been connected to the beast, then it was also true that it would be coming for them next. It considered them intruders in its home, its dominion.

  Mariana gasped, her heart racing once more. It didn’t matter to her that her conclusion didn’t make sense. She knew it to be true. Felt it in her soul.

  No longer comfortably gliding along now, she was sprinting, slicing through the dark water to get back inside the palace. She needed to find her brother and warn him what was to come. With their father gone, he held temporary power and could make decisions. They needed to prepare, to find a way to stop the Leviathan before it grew too strong to control.

  “Mariana,” Dom said gently after she had woken him and explained. “It was just a dream.”

  “No, Dom, it wasn’t,” she insisted. Upon seeing his look of patience and disbelief, she stumbled on. “I don’t know why or how I saw what happened. I just know it’s true! Perhaps it is from the gods.”

  “The gods?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Yes!” Mariana said, latching onto the idea. “Is it so crazy? We prayed to the gods before to help us, and they sent us here where we have lived in safety for a thousand years. Maybe they sent me the dream to warn us of danger. To warn us when the Leviathan is done killing the Land Walkers, it will come back…for us! You said yourself you didn’t trust it. What if it’s a monster we can’t control? Well, it is!”

  Dom shook his head. “You dreamt this because of what I said. It’s your fears manifesting. The worries I planted in your mind. I’m still anxious over this plan of action, Mariana. That hasn’t changed. But I do not believe your dream was truth. You were not the Leviathan. It was a conjuring of your sleeping mind to release the fears from your system. Be at peace, little sister. Go back to sleep and try to forget your worries.”

  “How can I when our lives are in danger and you won’t believe me?” Mariana burst out in frustration.

  Before her brother could reply, she hurried from the room, still dripping water from her earlier swim.

  The swim that should have relaxed me but gave me clarity instead, she thought.

  Instead of heading back to her room as her brother had suggested, Mariana made her way back to the palace’s holy sanctuary. This time, the good-sized room was empty of inhabitants.

  Everyone is asleep, she thought as she knelt in front of the statue dedicated to the gods. Everyone but me. Dom wants me to have faith in our father, but how can I when I know he has made a mistake?

  Mariana stared at the carved stone faces of the gods. Silent and unmoving, hard and vacant. Stone was in front of her, but she knew they existed. They had saved the Sea Dwellers once before. In her heart, Mariana was certain they were trying to save them again.

  But knowing the Leviathan would eventually kill them wasn’t enough. It was a good warning, but they needed more. They needed a way to control it, destroy it, or put it back where it came from before they all died.

  She closed her eyes and prayed.

  Mariana was standing, one of a small circle of people. Male and female, young and old. Their hands were linked, their faces raised, eyes closed as they concentrated.

  She was anxious. What if her plan didn’t work? What if they weren’t strong enough?

  Mariana bit her lip and shook her head once.

  No. She needed to have faith that the gods were with them. They wouldn’t desert them, not now.

  Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes to better focus her thoughts.

  Mariana’s eyes fluttered open. The dark temple was bright, the braziers lit with warm yellow fire. Groggy, she pushed herself up into a sitting position and craned her head this way and that to stretch out her stiff neck. She had fallen asleep
whilst praying in the temple.

  Frowning, Mariana considered that. Had she fallen asleep? She hadn’t felt drowsy. One moment, she had been praying and the next…she was waking up on the floor.

  A priest knelt down next to her, placing an inquiring hand on her arm as he searched her face. He said nothing, as was the custom in the holy place. Instead, when he saw she was merely groggy instead of ill, he gestured to the door and helped her to her feet.

  When they had left the sanctity of the shrine, he said in a hushed voice, “Your devotion does you credit, young princess. It is morning. What brought you back to our doors? Did you wake in the night?”

  “High Priest, I had a dream last night, but it wasn’t a dream,” Mariana confided in tones as soft as his. “I believe the gods are trying to warn us of danger.”

  The priest frowned. “What danger, child?”

  Relief swept through her when she saw he believed her. She poured forth her story of the Leviathan and what she saw and felt through its senses and mind. “I told my brother last night, but he didn’t believe me. So I came here because I know a warning is not enough. We need to know what to do, how to protect ourselves from the danger we have unleashed. As I was praying last night, I had another dream.”

  As she said it, she knew it was true. She hadn’t merely fallen asleep from exhaustion. The gods had sent her another dream. Joy buzzed through her, causing the scales along her arms to tingle and glow. They were not lost. The gods would save them!

  “Tell me what you saw,” the priest said.

  “The gods have spoken to us, but no one is heeding their words,” the high priest told the council.