by Chloe Garner
“I need more heat,” she said.
“I know,” Jesse said. “Come back. Benth has a rope and he’s going to tie us into a raft of sorts with the floats. It won’t get us out of the water, but it will keep us up while you sleep.”
She put her arms around Jesse’s neck as a set of fins wrapped a pattern of rope around her, Jesse, and the floats.
“Get up as high out of the water as you can,” Jesse said as she started to drift again. She shivered. “I know it’s cold, but once you get dried out some, it should help.”
She shifted unconvincingly, then dropped her head onto Jesse’s shoulder. The waves rocked them up and down and then she didn’t remember any more.
Twice, Benth and Pane fought off something in the dark. The first time, the two of them just disappeared, leaving Jesse and Cassie alone in the dark. Benth had laughed when they returned. The second time, the sea had roiled around them as some great sea-creature with slippery limbs and surfaces that Cassie couldn’t identify tried to take them. Cold flesh slid across Cassie’s legs and she kicked at it, frustrated that she couldn’t fight.
“Can’t fight what you can’t see,” Jesse commented. She was annoyed at how unconcerned he sounded.
“They can see?”
“They’re born in the dark and they spend half the time in darkness,” Jesse said. “Of course they can. They can feel the vibrations in the water.”
Cassie kicked again as a wave slid past, exposing a great yellow eye that glowed in the moonlight. It was as wide as Cassie’s arm was long.
She punched it.
An eyelid slid closed over the eye and it wasn’t there after the next wave.
“How big is this thing?” Cassie asked.
“No telling,” Jesse said. “If I’ve got the species right, they grow until something kills them.”
“Like a pair of Adena Lampak?” Cassie asked.
“They don’t normally hunt them, because they don’t taste right, but they’ve driven them off of their tower zones well enough,” Jesse said.
“How in the world do they stand a chance?” Cassie asked. Jesse laughed.
“Don’t let them hear you ask that.”
A mouth sucked at her feet, and Cassie kicked, finding the flat, rocky edges of either teeth or a beak. Or rocks, who knew. She popped underwater for a moment, her ankles held tight by muscle the texture of wet rubber, and she pulled her torso down, looking for something sensitive to rip at. There was another sucking motion and she was up to her hips, the teeth gripping her at the thigh. She punched and pulled at the orifice that held her, kicking at the softer tissue that ran over her calves, and then there was a hard shudder that threw her sideways, still held tight, and a fin ran around her waist. She found a slit in the muscle a hand deep and the length of her forearm, and she pulled. The creature thrashed again, and this time the Adena Lampak knife caught a glimmer of light as it slashed. Benth or Pane pulled her loose as the monster let her go, and something struck the pair of them from behind. It was like getting hit with a snowball the size of a house - not a hard force, but with an inevitability that was terrifying. The Adena Lampak pushed the knife into Cassie’s hand and pushed her toward the surface. The fight went on without her.
She broke the surface with a gasp, looking for something to stab. The water still rolled with black flesh, but none of it was in reach.
“Sharp teeth?” Jesse asked.
“No,” Cassie answered.
“I’ve got it right, then,” he said.
“Oh, good,” she said. The adrenaline hit her late.
She swam for the nearest ridge of monster and tried to get her feet on it as it rolled past. It was moving sideways faster than she had guessed, and it rolled her onto her side. She plunged the knife into it, letting it drag through the resistive flesh for as long as she could without being pulled under.
“Would you not do that?” Jesse called. “Bad enough they have to rescue you because it’s trying to eat you.”
She ignored him, pushing off and slashing at the next motion in the water.
“Hold,” Benth said, catching her hand. “Friendly.”
“Sorry,” Cassie said.
“He shouldn’t have given you a knife,” Benth said. “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” Cassie said. “Why should I not have a knife?”
“Because you’re going to try to use it,” Benth answered. There was a grunt and he blew air through his mouth.
“Are you okay?” Cassie asked.
“Nothing that won’t leave a great scar,” he said. “We’ve got it on the run. Stay out of it, okay?”
It was a teasing tone and Cassie considered ignoring him, but in the end she swam back toward where she thought she had left Jesse.
“Where are you?” she asked.
“This is why you shouldn’t try to attack a giant sea monster in the dark,” Jesse called from behind her. She turned, swimming toward his voice. There was a huge gurgling noise and an explosion of air bubbles around them, and Pane and Benth resurfaced.
“Warm water makes you frisky,” Pane said. Cassie wanted to point out that the water was only just survivably warm, but kept it to herself.
“You’re going to get him killed,” Benth said. “I told you he was a soldier.”
“And you’d be okay, left in the open, unarmed when a sambath tried to eat you?”
“I was guessing andon,” Jesse said.
“Sambath is a kind of andon,” Benth said, ignoring Pane.
“You want to eat, or keep moving?” Pane asked Cassie. Cassie missed cooked fish. Anything warm in her stomach would have been better than the salt-cured raw meat.
“Let’s just go. How much further?”
“Half a sleep,” Pane said. “We’re close.”
“And until dawn?” Cassie asked.
“About the same.”
Cassie sighed.
“I’ve lost my breathing tube,” she said.
“It’s here,” Benth called. Pane retrieved it and brought it back to Cassie.
“You’re less fragile than I thought,” the Adena Lampak said. Backhanded as it was, Cassie took it.
“Thanks.”
She stretched out her shoulders, then settled her arms around Pane’s neck again and they were off.
The first pinking of dawn found them at sea, without landmark or any discernible change beyond the steady, gradual increase in water temperature. Cassie had another belly full of cold, raw sea critters; Benth promised that the colony had a small farming plot set up, so there would at least be vegetables to eat, soon.
“Well, we’ve been spotted,” Benth said as he and Pane surfaced. “What’s next, Palta?”
“I need you to leave,” Jesse answered.
“You what?”
“Adena Lampak are nothing if not curious. They’ve got some very good reason to avoid you, if they’ve stopped talking to you at all, but if we’re here on our own, I’m willing to bet they can’t help but come see why.”
“Or just drown you,” Pane said.
“Either way, we aren’t your problem any more,” Jesse said.
“We’ll stay in hearing range,” Benth said. “Yell when you need us.”
“Wait,” Jesse said as Benth and Pane started to dive. They hesitated. “I appreciate the faith in us you’re showing, here. You’ve put a lot on the line for this.”
“We’ve got family down there,” Benth said. “Do what you said you would do.”
Jesse nodded, and the Adena Lampak were gone.
Cassie felt like she’d been treading water for her entire life.
“How long do you think this is going to take?” she asked.
“Is this a new form of execution?” a new voice asked.
“No, this is a last-ditch rescue attempt,” Jesse said, spinning to find the Adena Lampak who had surfaced behind them. The creature was covered in scars, but on his elastic blue skin, it was almost beautiful.
“You’re Palta,” t
he Adena Lampak said, rising in the water to dive.
“The last Palta you knew didn’t do right by you,” Jesse knew. “But he came to you with armed guards and the upper hand.” The Adena Lampak paused. Jesse went on. “Didn’t he?”
“Count your words,” the blue creature answered.
“You could drown both of us without even thinking about it. I’m here because I admire your species and don’t want to see it ended.”
“You’re hardly harmless,” the Adena Lampak said. “That one’s armed.”
Cassie had kept the knife as Pane had never asked for it back. She took it out and offered it to the Adena Lampak hilt-first. He sneered.
“Not that that would change anything. Keep it.”
“That’s a mistake, but never mind,” Jesse said. “The predator wave is coming.”
The Adena Lampak’s face flickered and went stony again.
“Tricks.”
“To what end?” Jesse asked.
“Anyone who asks a Palta’s motivation is a fool,” came the answer. Jesse acknowledged it.
“We often don’t make much sense,” he said. “Right up until the end. I don’t know why he did what he did. That’s the truth. But he wanted to drive a wedge between you and your own people. To eliminate your ability to reproduce as a species.”
“There’s nothing wrong with us,” the Adena Lampak said.
“I want to do what I can to make it right. The war is stupid. You have a problem with science, and somehow it turned political, and I think we can both guess how that happened, but… Wait, what?”
The Adena Lampak’s eyes showed a sort of haughty smugness that was almost playful.
“Don’t know everything, do you air-walker?”
“No,” Jesse said. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Neither do you. Between the two of us, I think we can end this. Before your species is permanently eradicated from the planet.”
“We don’t need you,” the Adena Lampak said. “They need us.”
“Right up until the predator wave gets here. Even a properly equipped army with a tower to fall back to wouldn’t go out with them.”
“If they come, we will deal with it,” the Adena Lampak said, but Cassie could tell it was a show. He didn’t believe them, but the inevitability of it wasn’t something he was dismissive of, either.
“You will die,” Jesse said. “Sunset at the latest. Midday, more likely.”
“Then you’ve come too late, either way,” the Adena Lampak said. “We couldn’t move everyone in that time, anyway.”
“It’s as much time as we had,” Jesse said. “I’m sorry. We have to try.”
“Where would we go, Palta? Back to the Commander to have the rest of us exterminated?”
“The Commander is dead,” Cassie said. The Adena Lampak jerked to look at her.
“It speaks,” he said. “What happened to the Commander?”
“Mab killed him,” Cassie said. There was a sharp blink.
“Klath will be very sad to hear that,” he said. “What came between them?”
“Probably you,” Jesse said. “The Commander always intended to bring you back, didn’t he?”
“It’s what he said, but who can tell with the minds of those controlled by Palta?”
“Indeed,” Jesse said. “He wasn’t lying. Mab killed him and left Cartan in charge of the armies.” He paused. “Do you know what that means?”
“Cartan would see us dead by his own fin before he let our secret out,” the Adena Lampak said.
“He has left you to die,” Jesse said. “Just by inaction.”
“We took a big risk, coming here on our own,” Cassie said. “I almost got slurped by a giant fish just a few hours ago. You know about that better than I do. I’d rather not meet the ones you people are afraid of.”
The Adena Lampak tried unsuccessfully to cover amusement.
“You can confirm our story with the two Adena Lampak we came with, if you want,” Jesse said. “But we haven’t got much time.”
“We tire of your intrusions,” the Adena Lampak said, looking from Jesse to Cassie. “If we determine this is a trick, all four of you will die.”
“That seems fair,” Jesse said. There was another stern glance, then the Adena Lampak vanished into the water. Cassie stretched her arms over her head.
“I want nothing more than solid ground and a fire,” she said. “I am so tired of this.”
“More pink-skinned air-walkers,” someone said. Cassie dropped her arms and looked. There were four new Adena Lampak around them.
“We’ve said what we came to say,” Jesse said. “We won’t make any sudden moves and you’ll be bored standing watch.”
“You ever wonder what pink meat tastes like?” another of them asked.
“Better than cold fish,” Cassie muttered.
They waited.
The waves here were much shallower, and the water warm enough that Cassie had stopped noticing it for now. The sea floor gave the impression of being visible, below them, but Cassie had the sense that it was still a long, long way down.
Somewhere down there was a colony of Adena Lampak, but the surface gave away no sign of it.
They tried not to stare at each other for maybe fifteen minutes before three Adena Lampak broke the surface of an oncoming wave. In the light, Cassie noticed the long, shallow gash down Benth’s back. He hadn’t mentioned it since the fight. Apparently it wasn’t bothering him too badly.
“I believe them,” the stranger of the trio said. “They’ve agreed to be disarmed to go see Klath and make their case.”
There was general disagreement among the new arrivals, but no one directly confronted the announcement.
“What about the air-walkers?” one of them asked after a moment.
“Leave them here.”
“They’ve earned the right to be a part of our council,” Pane said.
“It’s unacceptable.”
“We trusted the last Palta, too,” one of the new arrivals said. “Look where that got us.”
“Mab hated him,” Benth said.
This seemed to carry some weight. There was quiet conversation around them for a moment, then the first one spoke.
“Fine. But they’re your responsibility. They do anything suspicious, we kill them and it’s on you.”
“Same deal I made before we left,” Pane said. “Still might do it, myself, if anything changes.”
There were grunts of agreement, and then the new Adena Lampak vanished back underwater.
“What’s his descent rate?” Pane asked Jesse.
“About the same as mine,” Jesse said.
Cassie looked from Pane to Jesse.
“You actually intend to drag me underwater?”
“You’ll be fine,” Jesse said. Pane took out the inflatable skin and blew it up with a single breath.
“Here,” he said.
“What am I supposed to do with this?” Cassie asked.
“Breathe,” Pane said, putting a fin across her shoulders and pushing her underwater.
It might have been better if the descent had been faster, but Pane drifted deeper through the water like his intent was actually to drown Cassie. Cassie held the air under her chest, trying to breathe normally as the bag lost more and more volume. The air went sour and Cassie wiggled, trying to communicate that something was going to need to change soon as the pressure on her ears continued to increase. Even with her eyes closed, she could tell that the world had gone dark. She wiggled again; the air she had to breathe was hardly better than nothing, and her heart rate ramped up as her body started looking for the opportunity to get away. Her arm brushed against a rock.
She was in an underwater cave.
There was no way she would get out, now. Not without light and without knowing exactly how she’d gotten here. She’d trusted too far and somehow they’d forgotten that she needed fresh air. She kicked at Pane, and the Adena Lampak let her go. Under its own buoyancy, Cassie�
��s body shot up several feet.
And her head broke into air.
She took several deep breaths of the clean air, wiping her face. Jesse was there.
“Welcome to the Adena Lampak caves,” he said.
There was an orange glow coming from under the surface of the water and Cassie watched as Benth rolled to take a breath from the pocket of air. The ceiling was out of reach for Cassie, but not by a lot. Jesse was looking overhead with a look of marvel.
“The air is actually structural,” he said. “They don’t have real bedrock here, so they cement the roof as best they can, but that much sand above us will inevitably collapse the cave, so they use air as a support structure. Like balancing a broom on your palm. I’d read that this was how they did it, before they built the towers, but I didn’t know they remembered how.”
“The oldest arts should never be forgotten,” Pane said. He looked at Cassie. “You know if I wanted to drown you, I’d have done it by now.”
“You don’t tell me anything,” Cassie said. “Just drag me underwater and figure I’ll put up with it.”
“Didn’t have much choice,” the Adena Lampak said. “Breathe in.”
It took her most of the window that the Adena Lampak gave her to figure out what he was talking about, then she stole a breath as he pulled her underwater again. Water rushed past, and slick Adena Lampak skin slid past her as a tail flicked. There was noise, deep and rumbly, and she popped up into air again. She found herself in a much larger cavern with dozens of Adena Lampak surfaced around her. Ahead, there was a small platform where an Adena Lampak sat on a crude coral throne.
“Welcome,” the leader said. “I am Klath. My people have brought you to me to determine your fate.”
“Amazing how quickly we get to threats,” Jesse said. “I’m the son of Eno-Lath Bron. If you are anyone of consequence, you know what that means, and you’ll temper your manner a bit.”
Most of the room apparently didn’t recognize the name, but Klath did.
“Very well,” he said. “Speak and we’ll drag you out of the cave and let you go. See how far you pop out of the water.”