“Why, you ought to look on this as an opportunity.” The chief guard grinned. “After all, you've only had other people's word for how good your ‘instruments' are.” He moved forward to stand under the chin of the Interrogator and force his head upward. “Now,” he said, his eyes shimmering, “you'll be able to explain firsthand exactly how they all work!”
Then the guard's lips became a thin line. “Bring him in. The questioner is waiting.”
* * *
Lord Necros stared down at the form that groveled in front of him and then looked up to the guard. “Did the questioner complete his work?”
“Yes, my lord,” the chief guard said, his eyes glittering. “I understand that he gave the Chief Interrogator his most careful attention. He assures you that there is nothing that you might wish to know that the man will not tell you.”
Lord Necros looked down again. “Look at me, you miserable worm!”
Elmas was not wearing his customary scarlet robe and gold rings on his fingers, the signs of his office. A short garment of rough cloth covered him, reaching to his knees, and when he lifted his face, his eyes were blank. They looked like the eyes of a frightened animal that had been highlighted in a forest. He was shaking all over, as if in a fever, and his lips twitched.
“Now,” Necros said harshly, “you have not carried out your promise. The Seven Sleepers have not been recaptured. Every command that I've given you has been broken. Can you tell me any reason why I should not send you back to the questioners?”
Elmas fell on his face again and began pleading, “No, no! please don't send me back there! I will go myself to the Citadel. You will see, sire, it will all be done as you command. I will capture these Sleepers—”
“No, you will remain here.” Necros's face was nearly hidden by the heavy cape that almost covered him. His thin lips turned upward in a cruel smile. “I must have you here, Elmas, so that if your latest plan fails, we can see if the questioner can extract a little more from you.”
The very mention of such a thing shook Elmas so fiercely that his teeth chattered, and he began to babble, “It will not fail! It cannot fail! We have Lord Aramis completely under our control, and we will capture the Sleepers again, I promise.”
Lord Necros glared down at the shaking figure, silence fell over the room, and once again a powerful sense of evil emanated from the Dark Lord. “Your life is forfeit, and your only hope lies in success. I will accept no excuses.”
“I … I will go at once and contact Duke Lenomar,” Elmas said. “May I be dismissed?”
“Go.” Lord Necros motioned with a strong hand. “When I hear from you again, I trust to hear better news.”
* * *
Duke Lenomar stood holding the message that had just been brought to him. He recognized the special lieutenant of Elmas the Chief Interrogator, his master, and said, “Wait. I will see if there is to be an answer.”
He scanned the words quickly and froze as the messenger watched furtively.
Duke Lenomar kept his eyes on the paper for a long time. He was a handsome man with dark eyes and dark hair, who wore the symbol of authority in a medallion around his neck. He had made himself indispensable to Lord Aramis, and now, in many cases, he exerted the power that that young man had once wielded.
Finally looking up, he said, “Take this answer back to Lord Elmas. Tell him that all shall be done as he commands.”
“Yes sir,” the messenger said. Doubt came to his eyes, and he hesitated. “I think it would be well if you succeed, sir. If not, Lord Necros has a long arm. He can reach, I think, even down here to the Citadel of Neptune.”
“Begone!”
Duke Lenomar watched the messenger turn on his heel and leave the room. He frowned and began pacing back and forth. Thoughts ran through his head and were reflected on his swiftly changing features. He was a man of tremendous intelligence, he was accustomed to power, and he had moved upward in the kingdom of Atlantis from a low post to the second highest in the land. He had even greater plans for when Aramis retook the kingdom, but these he kept to himself.
At last he reached a decision. In quick, firm strides he left his quarters and made his way through the Citadel, crossing many passageways, until he came to a door guarded by two sentries, who eyed him sternly.
The duke gave the password that even he must give, and the guards opened the doors. Passing through them, Duke Lenomar saw Aramis standing before a map of the kingdom. He approached and said cautiously, “My Lord Aramis …”
Aramis turned, his blue eyes coming at once to rest on Lenomar. “What is it?”
“The Sleepers, my lord. I must speak to you of them.”
Aramis moved over to a black chair positioned in front of the map, sat down in it, and ran his hand over his blond hair. Even in repose, he looked strong, this Lord Admiral. At twenty-five, he had lived enough for several men's lifetimes. But restlessness and confusion were in his voice as he said, “They are not dangerous.”
“I do not think, my lord Aramis, that you recognize how powerful these young people are.”
“How can they be powerful? There are only seven of them, and the oldest of them is a mere boy. What can they do to a kingdom such as this—to a force such as mine?”
Duke Lenomar bit his lip. He had been through this before with Aramis but now knew that he must make him understand. “My lord, strength does not always lie in the heaviest battalions. Sometimes there are strange things that cannot be explained, for the world we inhabit is not only physical, but spiritual.”
Aramis put his gaze on Duke Lenomar, studying him. There was a quick intelligence in his eyes, despite the cloudiness that seemed to haunt them. “I did not know you believed in the gods.”
“I believe in force,” Lenomar answered rapidly, “and somehow there's power in these Sleepers. They managed to escape all the forces of the Sanhedrin, did they not? We know that much about them. Anyone who can escape my lord Elmas is not a fool. These seven young people are somehow tied in with destiny. I know it. And their destiny is to destroy us. Therefore, my lord, we must find them and kill them.”
Still Aramis hesitated. At last he said, “They did not kill our guards. Why was that?”
“I cannot answer that.” Lenomar hesitated. “But one act does not negate their mission. They are sent by the one called Goel to establish the kingdom of King Cosmos—this much we know.”
“Goel.” Lord Admiral Aramis said the name slowly. “Who is this Goel? Is he the same as in the myth that I've heard—and the songs—'the House of Goel will be built’?”
“My lord, you are not well,” Duke Lenomar said. “Trust my judgment in this.”
There was a long discussion between the two, and the longer it went on, the more Lenomar became alarmed. Aramis, he saw, was slipping from his control.
Aramis said wistfully, “Sometimes, Duke, I think I was wrong to lead this revolt. I know you counseled me to do so, but my mind is troubled over it.”
I've got to put him under stricter control, Lenomar thought. Quickly he crossed to a cabinet, pulled out a bottle, filled a glass. Keeping his body between his hand and the admiral, he slipped his fingers into his inner pocket, drew out a small glass vial, and managed to pour several drops of liquid into the drink. Then he turned and brought the glass to Aramis. “Drink this, my lord.”
Aramis frowned. “I do not need medicines.”
“You are weaker than you thought. The pressures,” Lenomar urged, “have been terrible. All the destiny of our people rests on you, and you are tired. This will help you to rest. I know you have not slept.”
Aramis hesitated, then took the goblet. “You're right, I've not slept. I'm troubled about all of this, Lenomar, very troubled.” He stared at the drink, then shrugged his wide shoulders and drank it down. Handing the glass to the duke, he leaned back in his chair and grew quiet.
Lenomar replaced the goblet and returned to stand to the right of the admiral. He waited for some time, speaking of inconseque
ntial things, and then he put his hand lightly on the blond head of Aramis and began to whisper, “You are sleepy—you are very sleepy. You are falling asleep.” He continued for perhaps three minutes, then saw with satisfaction that the admiral had indeed fallen asleep, his head resting against the back of the chair.
Now Lenomar moved behind the young man and again put his hand on his head. His voice grew deeper, and he began to repeat certain phrases over and over again rhythmically. “King Cosmos is evil—he will destroy Atlantis— you are the rightful ruler.” Over and over again he said these things, and then, “The Sleepers must die—the Sleepers must die—the Sleepers must die. And when all is done, Lord Necros will make you king of Atlantis, but the Sleepers must die.”
Aramis sat there stiffly. Finally, when the voice of Duke Lenomar paled, he opened his heavy eyes and whispered, “The Sleepers must die. King Cosmos is evil. The Sleepers must die.”
Lenomar smiled and went at once to the door. Opening it, he spoke to one of the guards. “Lord Aramis has a message that must be sent to all units.”
“Yes sir, I will take it myself.”
“Lord Aramis commands that every available mariner be sent to search for those called the Sleepers. They must be found.”
“Yes, my lord.” The guard nodded obediently. “And what shall be done with them, sir? Shall they be brought here to the Citadel?”
“No!” The dark eyes of Lenomar gleamed, and he said in a chill voice, “Kill them! When you find them, kill them at once. This is the order of the Lord Admiral Aramis!”
10
Monsters of the Deep
We'll have to go around Hook Reef,” Valar said grimly. “It's a dangerous place, but we've got to get away from the guards. They'll be coming this way any time.”
“Can't we just go straight on through to the Citadel?” Josh asked.
Val shook his head, his mouth clenched tight. “There's no hope at all that way. There are outposts strung in front of it, and the guards fan out in all directions.” He said roughly, “We don't have as much chance now as we did. We've set the alarm off, and you can be sure that Aramis is smart enough to close the gates. Are you sure you don't want to turn back?”
“No,” Josh said quickly. “We can't do that.”
“There's a difference between courage and foolhardi-ness,” Val said. “We don't have much chance, whichever way we go.”
“But Goel told us what we're to do,” Sarah said. “He's never led us wrong. Please—” she put her hand on Val's arm “—please, let's try. We've got to do our best.”
Val shrugged. “All right, but if you remember the map, we're up close to the top of the Hook now. We'll have to go back to the shank, go around, and come up the other side.” He hesitated. “I have to tell you, they call that area on the south side of Hook Reef the Sea of Rays.”
“That sounds nice,” Abbey said. “You mean like rays of the sun?”
“No, I mean like giant stingrays.”
Wash's eyes popped open. “You mean them big things that look like bats? I've seen them on TV”
“You haven't seen any like these,” Val said. “These are not just stingrays. Some of those, in the old days, got to be as much as three or four feet across, some of them even larger. But—”
“You mean—” Jake stared at him “—you mean these are bigger than that?”
“I mean some of them are fully fifteen feet across, wing tip to wing tip.”
The group just looked at him. Dave finally swallowed hard and said, “What about stingers? Do they have those too?”
“Worse than anything you ever heard of,” Val said gloomily. “It's kind of like a dart, and a sting would be bad. They go right through a diving suit. The suits automatically seal, but unless you get to a doctor real quick, you're a goner.” He looked around. “Maybe we'd better take a vote about whether to go on or not.”
“No,” Josh said grimly, “we've all decided to go on to the Citadel. This is just going to make it harder, that's all.” He looked at Val. “We're in your hands, I guess, and I'll follow wherever you lead.”
Val smiled then. “Well, I'll try to get us through, but let's hope we don't run into a swarm of giant rays.”
He led out again, and by the time they had reached the eastern side of Hook Reef and turned back west, Wash and Reb rode close together. Josh heard Reb say, “You know, it's downright pretty down here, ain't it? Everything's all in Technicolor.”
Everybody knew Wash was still afraid of water, but as he looked about at the swarms of red, yellow, and purple fish, some of them bigger than the Sleepers themselves, Wash said, “I'd like to get a picture of all this.” As they moved on, he asked, “Are you scared, Reb?”
“I don't know. I'd hate to tell you if I was.”
Wash said, “Shoot, I ain't afraid. Oh, well … maybe a little. But we'll be OK.”
They moved along the reef. Josh too was conscious of the brilliant colors of all sorts of animal life. He had never dreamed that a reef was so busy nor had he ever seen such weird, fantastic formations.
They had gone for almost an hour when Val said, “All right. This is where the Sea of Rays begins. Keep a lookout.”
They gathered in a group to have more firepower.
“This is kinda like pulling the wagons around in circles, ain't it?” Reb said. “That's the way they did it out West. Then the Indians would gallop around but couldn't get at them, they were all so close.”
“Well, if you ask me,” Jake said, his eyes darting about nervously, “I think these rays Val's talking about are worse. The Indians didn't have stingers in their tails, anyway.”
On and on they swam. The shark sea beasts moved beneath them effortlessly. At one point Val led them down deeper, saying, “Less current to fight down here.”
Only a few moments later, he cried, “Look out, there they come! See—over there!”
Josh saw overhead a group of huge, shadowy stingrays approaching. They looked like great bats, their wings moving slowly.
“Stop,” Val said. “Be absolutely still. Maybe they won't see us.”
The Sleepers drew up their beasts and grouped as close together as they could. For a moment Josh thought the monsters overhead would pass, but suddenly one of them veered downward.
“They've seen us,” Jake yelled. “Here they come!”
“Get ready,” Val commanded. “Load your guns.”
Josh grabbed a compressed-air dart, loaded it, waited, and saw that the others had done the same.
The first ray came fluttering down, the stinger in his tail twitching back and forth, as if it belonged to a huge cat.
“Don't everybody fire. We'll have to fire volleys so that when some of us are reloading, the others are still armed,” Val yelled. “Jake, you and Wash and I are one group, the rest of you the other group. Get ready, and the first group will fire.”
The rays swam above them like great birds. “That's what they do,” Val said. “They get down on top of you and smother you. Get ready, they're all hitting at once. One— two—three—fire!”
Jake, Wash, and Val fired quickly—the first beast was only ten feet away—and all three spears sank in its midsection, penetrated hide, and went off with a muffled sound Josh heard even through the water. The ray suddenly flipped over. Writhing wildly, it tried to swim away but had gone no more than twenty feet when it began to sink, absolutely motionless.
“Here comes the rest of them,” Reb yelled. “Our turn now.”
Josh yelled, “You and Dave take that one on the right, and we'll take the other two.”
The giant ray began to settle as the spears flew upward. Unfortunately two missed, and it was Val with his group who had reloaded who were able to drive the others off.
Val was the hero of the hour. “Stay together, fire volleys, wait till they get down right over us, but watch out for those stingers.”
That was exactly what they could not do. Three big rays came in at once, and while the Sleepers killed t
wo of them, the other one suddenly covered Reb, who had moved off to one side.
Frozen with fear, Josh saw the stingray settling down on his friend.
Reb reached up and tried to shove the huge, rough beast away. It didn't work. Then Reb turned his compressed-air gun toward the stingray's leathery stomach.
“Here she goes!” Reb cried.
The dart fired off, drove into the beast's middle, but apparently at such an angle that the ray was only wounded. It turned and began to flutter away, and then the wildly twitching tail suddenly collided with Reb's right leg.
Josh left his sea beast and swam quickly down. “Are you all right, Reb?” But Reb's eyes were turned upward in his head, showing only the whites.
“Got to get him out of here!” Grabbing Reb's arm, he pulled him back to the group and found that the rest of the rays seemed to have been discouraged and were slowly withdrawing, their huge wings moving slowly.
“Reb got hit by a stinger. We've got to help him.”
Val shook his head. “We'll have to get him out of here. And the only place to go is up on the eastern side of the island. It's called Theor's Cave. Can you tie him into the saddle? Maybe we can make it.”
They worked quickly getting Reb tied into the saddle, and Josh and Dave rode on each side to be sure that he didn't fall off.
“Come on,” Val said, “we've got to make it as quick as we can. The poison works fast.”
They drove their sea beasts to the limit of their speed, but still it was an hour before they turned north. Five minutes later, Val led them into what seemed to be a wall of solid rock.
“Here,” he said. “This cave moves upward and has an air space in it. Hurry!”
Josh held Reb, who had become totally helpless.
As they entered the cave there was darkness, but then they emerged into an above-water cavern.
“Hang on. I know where the lights are,” Val called out. He had switched on his own light, such as they all carried, and quickly moved out of sight. “Just like an underground river,” he said, hurrying back. “We'll tether the beasts here. Bring him up on the shore.”
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