by Jade Kerrion
We have to get back to land. How far are we from Kalymnos?
Far enough to not attempt an open-water swim. She frowned. The Beltiamatu aren’t used to searching the ocean floor; not when most of our enemies swim freely. If we stick close to the seabed and risk open water only when close to Kalymnos, we might have a chance.
It’s longer that way.
You’re more likely to arrive alive. The corner of her mouth twitched up in a smile.
He nodded, then reached for her hand as she turned away. Ashe glanced over her shoulder. In that moment, his expression earnest, his gaze penetrating, Varun was nothing like his great-whatever-grandfather. Varun’s eyes were open to truths beyond his physical world. He did not always understand everything immediately, but he kept trying. Would you have returned to the ocean, if I hadn’t leapt in first?
I haven’t returned to the ocean, Varun. I—
You know what I mean. You made it clear you thought I was overreacting to the expanding dead spots in the ocean.
Until I realized you weren’t. It certainly would have been easier if I’d returned alone. A few extra air molecules wouldn’t have attracted as much attention as an air-breathing human. She glanced out of the cave mouth. The waters around them were clear, for the moment, and the relative safety of rocky seabed beckoned. Let’s keep moving. We have a long way to go.
She darted from the cave and took cover beside large rocks, then glanced over her shoulder. The water tugged her long hair away from her face. Varun drew a deep breath. Ashe may not have had a tail, but she still looked like she belonged to the ocean—all sleek, unnatural grace, her movements as fluid as water itself.
Varun gritted his teeth, and lunged from the cave too. He felt large, clumsy, and ponderous in water even though he was not weighed down by his scuba diving equipment. Moving along the seabed was both slow and onerous, each mile of progress won only through patience and effort. He did not know how long they crept along the ocean floor, crouching among the rocks to avoid the frequent Beltiamatu patrols. This isn’t normal, is it?
No, we rarely patrol these waters. The rip currents usually keep humans away, and most of our enemies aren’t foolhardy enough to attack the Oceans Court.
Why?
It’s too well-protected, at least against an army. It’s actually easier for a small number of people to sneak in and out, especially if they’re not actually swimming, but hiding. Careful now, we’re close to Kalymnos. Close enough to make a run for it.
Varun glanced up. The surface seemed infinitely far away. Sunlight had faded to a dim glow by the time it reached where they were hiding. He studied the Beltiamatu patrols, each one of them at least ten strong. He counted five patrols…no, six, including one that he glimpsed in the distance through the clear water.
His heart thudded. I don’t know if we can make it. There is zero cover between here and Kalymnos. If we wait, will they leave?
Perhaps—Ashe glanced over her shoulder.
Varun stiffened. What was that?
You felt it too? The ripple of water.
It wasn’t a ripple. It was practically a wave. What is it?
Something passed over Ashe’s face. If he did not know better, he might have thought it was fear. The Big Thing is probably a little irritated.
How bad is a little irritated?
Great white sharks hide. She yanked him down among the rocks as the Beltiamatu patrols, obviously alarmed, swam back in the direction from which they had come. They also know it’s coming. Go! Let’s go.
Ashe darted out from the cover of the rocks; Varun swam close beside her. A gust of air propelled him forward. The water in front of him also seemed thinner, as if air, too, cut a path for him. Obviously, Ashe did not think he was capable of keeping up with her—
Pain pierced his ankle.
His scream released a flurry of bubbles. Varun twisted around to see a thin, needlelike spear—longer than a barb, shorter than a harpoon—embedded in the fleshy part of his ankle. A thin trickle of blood trailed from the wound. He tried to swim away, but the spear yanked down on his leg. Only then did he notice a thin threadlike reel tied to one end of the spear.
A Beltiamatu patrol, at least ten strong, raced toward them.
Ashe swam back to him, her blue-green hair swirling in the swift currents. She flung her arm out. Air, sharper than a blade, cut through the reel.
Go! she shouted into his mind.
He kicked away despite the pain screaming through his leg, and pulled himself through the water toward the safety of Kalymnos. It was harder, and it was not just because he had an injured leg. The column of air ahead and behind him had vanished.
Varun twisted around in the water. Ashe hovered several feet away, between him and ten mer-warriors. Damn it! He started to swim back to her, but she vanished.
One of the mermen screamed as something invisible drove them back. Varun would have put his bet on an extremely furious Daughter of Air in her truest form. She could not keep it up indefinitely though. Turning into a tornado in water had exhausted her. He had to help her.
He turned and raced to the surface, popping out of the water several feet from the Veritas. Some of the sailors were leaning on the rail, staring out at the approaching storm clouds. They goggled, slack-jawed at him. “Where did you—?”
“Give me more WASP knives and bang sticks. Hurry.”
One of the sailors darted away and returned moments later, tossing two WASP knives and several bang sticks overboard. “Where are you going? Is the captain—?”
Varun grabbed the weapons and dove back down. In the distance, he could make out the merfolk. No sign of Ashe, although that meant nothing, given her ability to shift back and forth between physical and intangible forms. However, the fact that the merfolk seemed unable to cross some undefined barrier in the water implied that Ashe was still holding them at bay.
What would happen when her strength ran out?
Would she transform back into her physical form?
He did not know, but he knew he couldn’t let them take her.
He would not have bet any money on her surviving her son’s vengeance.
Varun swam back toward the Beltiamatu. Their eyes widened with fury as he approached. They swarmed toward him, but were thwarted by Ashe’s impenetrable wall of air. Their massive tails beat against the invisible barrier, vibrating the water with each blow. The barrier trembled from each attack.
Varun shoved the tip of the bang stick through the barrier.
He suspected he got through only because he was pushing in the same direction as Ashe.
The bang stick exploded against the side of a merman’s chest. He screamed; the sound pulsed like the wail of a lost hunchback calf. He reeled, sinking. Blood spilled from the blackened hole punched into his side.
Another Beltiamatu warrior threw his head back and uttered a cry. The sweeping, haunting sound rolled out over the current. As one, they hurled themselves against Ashe’s wall as Varun took out another warrior, this time with a bang stick against the merman’s temple.
The second body floated lifelessly away from the battle.
A second Beltiamatu patrol approached. Two slammed through Ashe’s wall, and Varun found himself grappling with two mermen. Without his equipment dragging him down and with a steady supply of air around his face, he was more than a match for the Beltiamatu—as long as he avoided their tails.
He stabbed a WASP knife into a merman’s chest. The blade sank into flesh. The attached syringe slammed air outward. The merman’s eyes widened as his organs froze in shock. The air filled his body and he floated away, his body beyond his control.
Varun twisted around in the water, painfully aware of the tightening around his lungs. He was running out of air. His vision wavered. He blinked hard, trying—failing to focus on the other merman attacking him. He tried to kick away but the effort was sluggish. The merman’s claws ripped down the length of his left arm. Varun’s scream expelled his remaining air, and
his vision frayed further. The WASP knife trembled in his grip.
Something whooshed around him, surrounding him. Air infused his lungs again. He opened his eyes to find himself within a rapidly spinning column of air. Ashe?
She did not respond, which worried him.
Shouts of alarm rose from among the Beltiamatu, an unearthly echo that resounded through the water. The mermen attacking him twisted around in the water to face a sinuous shadow snaking through the depths.
It had the body of sea serpent and a disproportionately large gaping maw. In fact, Varun thought it looked like a sperm, except that no one would ever dare tell it so to its face. Even from a distance, Varun could see the seemingly endless length of teeth in its mouth
As it drew closer, Varun realized that he was about half the height of one of the creature’s teeth. Mermen darted out of the sea serpent’s path. Its mouth opened, larger than Varun could have imagined.
The currents suddenly altered. The Beltiamatu flailed, tails heaving as they struggled against the suction drawing them into the serpent’s open mouth. The column of air around Varun wavered, expending tremendous energy just to stay where it was.
Ashe!
The sea serpent drew closer. The power of its suction increased. Mermen were sucked into its mouth, their arms flailing, their screams fading into haunting echoes. Varun too was drawn into that endless maw.
The column of air around him spun, to no avail.
Varun suddenly realized that if Ashe were alone, she could have escaped easily. Disperse into air molecules. Vanish.
The only reason she was still around was because she was trying to save him.
The creature’s mouth was larger than a cave, its “ceiling” ridged, its far end beyond the range of human vision. One of the Beltiamatu vanished into the endless darkness.
Dying was not on the agenda today; Varun didn’t have time for it.
Varun shoved his bang stick against the inside of the creature’s mouth.
The explosion was absurdly small, but the nearly infinitesimal shift was enough. Its suction broke for a fraction of a second, and the column of air carrying him launched forward, then twisted sharply to the side, racing away from the monster’s mouth.
We have to turn Big Thing. Ashe’s voice sounded thin.
What do you mean?
It’s facing Kalymnos. It’s tearing the island apart with wild seas. Anything on the shore will be washed away. Anything on the water, anchored or not, will be dragged down.
Including the Veritas.
Varun grimaced. But it’s bigger than an aircraft carrier. How do we turn it? Pull on its tail?
The column of air suddenly stopped spinning. Varun… There was a hint of laughter in Ashe’s voice, exhausted though it was. You’re a genius. The bubble around his mouth refilled with air. Now, you need to get out of here.
I’m not leaving you.
You don’t belong in the water.
What are you going to do?
I’m going to turn it. Now go. Ashe vanished.
Varun darted down to the seabed. It seemed safest down there as long as Big Thing prowled the water. He looked up and could almost see the current move.
Air pushed against water, changing its direction. The pressure exerted along the end-tip of the creature’s tail altered. The transition was slow and almost imperceptible, but the monster’s course shifted, fractions of an inch at a time.
It seemed to take forever.
Varun’s breaths came in shallow heaves. His air supply thinned.
He had to leave if he wanted to live, but he saw no sign of Ashe. He could not leave her in Beltiamatu-infested waters.
He kicked away from the seabed and swam toward the back of the creature, where he knew Ashe had to be. He did not see a column of air, but he felt the steady pressure of a current that should not have been there. He reached out.
Something brushed against his fingers. Invisible. Reassuring.
Ashe.
The water swirled. A shape emerged. A heart-shaped face with long, drifting strands of hair in every shade of blue and green. A slender body with the hint of a tail. The faint outline vanished as Ashe’s body solidified. The memory of a tail reshaped into legs.
He grabbed Ashe as she sagged in the water, her shoulders slumping. Her face was ashen even in the scarce light at that level.
With Ashe in his arms, Varun kicked his way to the surface.
A low, haunting song rolling through the water snapped his attention back over his shoulder.
In contrast to that mournful, slow sound, several dozen Beltiamatu were racing toward them. Their numbers had been thinned out by Big Thing, but not nearly enough. Even on his best day, Varun could not outswim a Beltiamatu. He had no chance of it while carrying Ashe.
Ashe. You have to turn back to air. Get out of here.
She remained motionless in his arms.
Ashe, please. He stared helplessly at her, and then in a final act of desperation, lowered his lips to hers.
The air in the bubble around his nose and mouth, the air she had provided, touched her face.
Her eyes flickered open.
Her gaze shifted instantly from confused to irate.
Get out of the water! He shoved her out of his arms and toward the surface as strong hands grabbed his ankles.
Ashe twisted around in the ocean with the sinuous grace of a mermaid. She lunged down at the Beltiamatu—Zamir’s grandson, Kai—her hands extended, her hair streaming out behind her. Her incisors sharpened into fangs. Her nails extended into claws.
And for an instant, her legs looked like a glistening mermaid’s tail.
She was breathlessly, stunningly beautiful.
Kai’s eyes widened as if he had suddenly recognized his own. His grip loosened. Kai’s lips shaped an inaudible word, as Ashe swept around Varun and grasped his waist. Her powerful swim propelled them up to the surface, but Kai and the Beltiamatu warriors did not abandon the chase.
The water transformed from dark blue to bright turquoise as Ashe and Varun raced toward sunlight. Above them, the Veritas tossed in the waves created by the passage of the titan.
The Beltiamatu closed the distance, their hands stretching out, clawing at the water. Sharp talons pricked the bottom of his feet. Varun’s heart thudded in his chest. Panic stalled his thoughts. They weren’t going to make it—
Ashe vanished, and a powerful gust of air propelled Varun out of the water.
He tumbled through the air and landed on the deck. The cushion of air beneath him vanished as the crew swarmed around him. “What the hell was that? What happened?”
Ashe? Where was she? Ashe?
She did not respond.
Varun shoved the crew away and stumbled to his feet. He raced down the deck to the captain’s cabin. Without knocking, he flung the door open.
Ashe lay facedown on the ground.
“Stay back,” he ordered the men as he wrapped a blanket around Ashe and carried her to the bed.
Her eyes did not open. Her chest did not move.
Was she all right? Did an air sylph wearing a human disguise actually need to breathe? What the hell did he know about elementals?
The crew crowded by the door. Jackson pushed past them and entered the room. He stared at Ashe, her body curled into a fetal ball beneath the blanket. His breath shuddered out of him. “What happened? Does she need a doctor?”
“I don’t know,” Varun confessed. He looked at Jinn, perched on his stand.
The parrot glared at him. “Dumbass.”
Varun grimaced but bit back his reply. He was not going to get into a yelling match with a parrot. Besides, the parrot was right. If he had stayed out of the water, Ashe would not have had to expend as much energy as she did trying to save him.
He leaned over her “Ashe? Wake up. Can you say something?”
Jinn squawked, “Get out.”
Varun looked up at the parrot, then back at Ashe. “Was that you or Jinn? Say somet
hing else so we know you’re all right.”
“Next time, I’ll let him eat you.”
Varun choked back laughter.
Jackson looked confused. “What was that?”
“Nothing. I think she’s all right. Let her rest for a while, and I’ll check in on her again later.” He ushered the other crew out of the room. Before stepping out, he glanced back at Jinn. “Take care of her, will you?”
“Dumbass. Dumbass.”
He closed the door firmly, then turned around to find the crew arrayed against him.
“What happened?” Jackson asked. “About twenty minutes after you went into the water, the captain said you were in trouble and went in after you. It’s been hours! Where’s your diving gear? And how did the captain land up in her cabin, dead to the world?”
“Long story.” Varun searched the faces staring at him. “Is everything all right here?”
“Lost our sea anchor. We had to cut it when the waves started dragging us down, or it would have pulled the whole ship down. As it is, we almost went vertical. Your lab is soaked. The water from the three tanks got everywhere, and the kitchen is a wreck. Not gonna have good meals until we clean up and restock.” Jackson glanced at the sky, which was a brilliant, clear blue. He shook his head. “It came out of nowhere. The sky was just like that—the most perfect day ever—but the waves tossed as if the storm was coming up from the water, not from the sky. We weren’t just dealing with surface waves. Something was down there, churning the water.”
Yeah, the Big Thing and several dozen Beltiamatu against Ashe. And a human, just to tip the odds in her favor.
“Come on, Varun. What the hell is going on?” Jackson demanded.
“I don’t know,” Varun confessed. “I don’t have all the answers.”
Jackson glanced at the closed door. “And does the captain?”
Varun ground his teeth. “I don’t know either.”
“What should we do? Just wait?”
“Set a watch on the sea. When all hell breaks loose, I’d like a bit of a warning.”
The first mate drew a sharp breath. “When?”
Varun nodded. His jaw tensed, and a muscle twitched in his cheek. “It’s coming. And God knows, we’re not ready.”