Waterborne (13 page)

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Authors: Katherine Irons

BOOK: Waterborne
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At some point, the cheerful Hafoka had acquired a luminescent eel that he wrapped around his right wrist, up along his arm, across his shoulders, and down the other arm to his left wrist. The sinuous creature had an oversized head and prominent fangs, features that insured that Ree kept her distance. Yet, as they traveled deeper and deeper into the catacombs, the light source did make Hafoka easy to follow.
“Where do we go when we reach the other end?” Ree asked Alex. “Provided there is an end.”
He glanced toward Hafoka and shook his head, clearly not willing to share his plans with the fairy. Obviously, Alex trusted the small man no more than she did.
The corridor grew narrower, and sometimes, where the roof had caved in or a flow of now-hardened lava had invaded the passageway, they had to crawl through low spaces between roof and fallen stone. Here, in these smaller places, bones were stacked from floor to ceiling. Strange outcrops of shellfish grew on the piles of human remains, and their twisted shells opened and closed, revealing whiskered orange and purple mollusks.
Jellyfish floated and drifted through the catacombs. Most were nearly transparent with black stripes, but some shimmered with all the colors of the rainbow. Thankfully, Ree noted that these were smaller than the tribe of jellies that had menaced them before they’d taken refuge in the sanctuary. None were larger than a dinner plate, and many were smaller than the palm of her hand.
“Take care that you don’t brush against them,” Alex cautioned. “These are poisonous as well. A sting might not kill you, but it will make you so sick that you might wish it had.”
“Advice noted,” she replied.
She found herself keeping close to him. She’d never liked caves or enclosed places, and this was one place she didn’t want to find herself alone. The water was almost too warm for comfort and there didn’t seem to be any tidal flow. Visibility was poor, and gas bubbles rose in lazy columns from the muddy floor making Ree think longingly of the lovely bath in the guest chamber they’d just left.
“How much farther?” she asked. The light was growing dimmer; the walls were nearly lost in shadow.
“Hafoka?” Alex asked. “Are we nearing the end of the tunnels?”
“Soon, soon,” he chirped.
“Good. I’m beginning to think that this is worse than the lava flow,” Ree grumbled.
Alex glanced back at her. “It isn’t.”
“Do you know the name of the island?” Ree asked him. “Were these people Polynesian?”
He glanced at their guide.
“Nobody remembers,” the fairy chirped. “Too long ago. Forgotten they are. As long past as unicorns.”
Loose debris began to drift down from the roof, and the sludge underfoot grew deeper. Now, they were not so much swimming as wading through a mixture of shell, mud and rock, and bones. Ree hoped that the fairy was telling the truth about them nearing the end of the catacombs. So long as there was a way out. She didn’t want to think about retracing this route.
Abruptly, she began to feel nauseous. Momentarily, she felt a familiar sense of dizziness, and almost at once, images flashed behind her eyes. Etched across the screen of her mind, she saw an Atlantean warrior, crouched in hiding, a trident grasped in his hand.
“Alex! Look out!” she shouted. Not shouted, she realized. Sent the words as he did by thought. “Soldiers! Just ahead! Around that corner!” Instinctively, she gripped her spear and slid the dagger from her belt sheath.
“No! No!” Hafoka cried. “No soldiers! Safe here!”
Alex drew his sword, and the fairy fled, swimming straight up and squeezing through a narrow crack in the ceiling.
“He’s gone!” Ree said. “He’s left us.”
Alex motioned her to silence, indicating that she should follow him toward an outcrop of stone that jutted out forming a shallow alcove along one wall. They waited, weapons drawn, muscles tensed, and hearts racing as seconds stretched into minutes.
Abruptly, a group of men charged around the corner. Alex moved to shield Ree with his body. “Stay back!” he warned. “Behind me!”
Ree saw a group of combatants coming at them. One tattooed Lemorian, a woman, separated from the others, circling right, attempting to come at them from the side. The armor-clad warrior Ree had glimpsed in her far-sight surged ahead of his comrades and hurled a three-pronged trident.
“Get down!” Alex shouted. He dodged and she ducked. The razor-sharp points slammed into the wall behind them.
A heartbeat later, Alex had seized the trident. The warrior who’d thrown the weapon backed water, and two green-skinned men swam at Alex. One thrust a spear at his chest, but Alex slashed downward with his sword, slicing the spear in two and leaving the assailant with three feet of stick in his hand. He brought up his sword to block Alex’s charge, but it was too late. Alex’s sword ar continued in a figure eight pattern, coming up and decapitating the spearman.
The water turned dark around the headless body, but the second man continued his attack. His curved sword hissed through the water barely missing Alex’s left arm, just before Alex ran him through with the trident. Another soldier joined the fray, and Ree heard the dull clash of blades, but could spare no more time watching Alex’s struggle.
The tattooed Amazon who’d broken off from the pack hurled her spear at Ree. Ree sidestepped the missile and threw her own spear. The woman saw the cast and twisted to avoid it. The spear struck her in the hip. She yanked it free and kept coming, curved sword drawn back to strike. Ree caught a glimpse of Alex out of the corner of her eye as he nearly cut an opponent in half with a blow from his sword. The falling man dropped his sword, and Ree dove for it.
Before she could reach the weapon, something heavy slammed into her chest, knocking the wind out of her and forcing her back against the jagged wall. Sharp stones cut into the back of her head and her right shoulder as she slid down. For an instant, she nearly lost consciousness, but then gained control as she shoved at the spearhead wedged into the crease of her body armor. The spear fell away, and Ree struggled for breath as the Amazon closed in on her.
CHAPTER 13
 
R
ee managed to hold on to her dagger, but the Lemorian coming at her with murder in her eyes had a bigger weapon, and her arms were longer than Ree’s by half. Ree knew her chances of fighting off a sword attack with a knife were slim, but the dagger was all she had. Worse, the bitch wore bulky armor that protected her from neck to knee, a barrier that would be too tough for Ree’s blade to pierce.
Instinct told her that her opponent would expect her to try to escape. Ree launched herself at her attacker, and then instantly realized that she was no longer the target. The woman’s deadly sword stroke wasn’t meant for her. It was directed at Alex’s unprotected back.
“Alex! Behind you!” Ree screamed. Nearly blinded by the murky water, she propelled herself up and thrust her blade under the woman’s sword arm, sliding the thin blade through an unprotected crack between the sections of upper-body armor.
The woman cried out and twisted away, attempting to complete her swing, but Alex spun and knocked the sword out of her hand. Wounded and bleeding, the Lemorian rolled into a ball and kicked out at Ree. Scooping up the discarded sword, Ree saw that the injured woman was in full retreat. Instead of chasing her, Ree used the weapon to fight off a net-wielding savage with purple skin and a forked tail who suddenly appeared on her left.
This soldier was male, big and ugly with a flat nose and gills along his neck. He didn’t look Lemorian, but what race he was didn’t matter to Ree because he was trying to kill her with a two-pronged pitchfork. Gill-man cast his net in an attempt to trap her, but she sidestepped it and blocked his jabbing strikes with her sword.
So far, Ree reasoned she’d gotten lucky, but she wasn’t sure how long her luck would hold. The woman’s sword was curved and the weight unfamiliar. Given her own weapon, Ree had confidence that she was more than a match for most swordsmen, but here ... under water ... Her hopes faded, even as she renewed her attempts at driving her opponent back.
She risked a glance at Alex as he countered another parry and dispatched his opponent with a single blow. Gill-man threw his net again. It tangled around her sword arm and he dove at her, but Alex wheeled and severed the net with his blade, then moved to beat back her attacker.
Struggling for breath, Ree dragged the net off and threw it aside. By the time she was free of the webbing, Alex had wounded the gill-man and driven him back out of the alcove. Ree counted three more Lemorian soldiers—one male and two females—on their feet, plus the leader wearing Atlantean armor.
Maybe we will walk away from this,
she thought.
Four to two, that isn’t bad odds. Not as bad as how we started.
Someone threw a spear at her. Ree flung herself sideways and grabbed for the spear as it slid past her through the water. She caught the butt of the shaft and turned to defend herself with it. Her stomach twisted as she saw three more screaming reinforcements pour down the passageway toward her.
“Oh, shit,” Ree muttered between clenched teeth.
But as suddenly as the ambush had begun, everything changed. The Lemorian warrior-woman in front—who Ree assumed had come to join the attackers—thrust a trident through the back of the man who’d just attempted to spear her. The others charged the two Lemorians challenging Alex.
In seconds, the enemy leader, the Atlantean that Ree had seen in her warning vision, had turned back down the tunnel, swimming for his life. The other Lemorians, minus the purple-haired woman that Ree now recognized as Anuata, fled after him.
The Amazon raised a bloody trident to hurl after the hindmost, but Alex shouted at her. “No! Let them go. Enough have died here.” He rushed at Ree and seized her shoulders. “Are you hurt?” he demanded.
She shook her head. “A few scrapes, nothing serious.” Other than the knot on her head, she was in good shape. “I’m fine.”
Meanwhile, the two Atlantean men who’d accompanied Anuata had swarmed Alex, pulling him from her and throwing their arms around him. A grinning Anuata joined them, nearly knocking him off his feet with powerful slaps to his back.
“Enough,” Alex protested. “You’ll drown me. You took your good time getting here.”
“I tried to tell them.” Anuata grinned at Alex’s friends. “Neither have the wits of a dolphin. And the little man is as stubborn as—”
“Hold your tongue!” the smaller of the two warned. “Or I’ll cut it out for you.”
Alex glanced at Ree. “My team. Bleddyn and Dewi. Anuata, you know.”
“You’ve been too long in the Pacific if you’d trust a Lemorian,” the man Alex had identified as Dewi grumbled.
“I trust this one,” Alex said. “And so will you when you come to know her.”
Ree looked at the two strangers. They were obviously Atlanteans by their garments and the style of armor. Both were big men, hard-bodied and keen of eye, and both were unusually handsome. Bleddyn, the taller of the two, was dark haired and olive-skinned with the hint of a beard on his cheeks, while his companion had fairer skin, light brown hair, and blue eyes. Either one could have written his own ticket in Hollywood without uttering a word.
“I’m Ree O’Connor,” she said. “And if any of you know a quick way out of this murky hell, I wish you’d show us.”
Anuata nodded. “The horses are outside.”
“Horses?” Alex glanced quizzically at Bleddyn.
“Sea horses. She insisted,” he answered. “They’re mean, but fast.”
“We could get only four,” Anuata said. “Your human will have to ride double with someone.”
“We were hoping that you’d be alone.” Dewi grinned. “You know how Bleddyn feels about women interfering in his missions.”
Alex shrugged. “If you’d seen Ree fight, you’d have a change of heart.”
Sea horses?
Nothing would surprise her, but the only sea horses that Ree was familiar with were smaller than her hand and floated around in fish tanks. She couldn’t imagine a man riding one.
“Let’s move,” Alex said. “The longer we waste time here, the easier it will be for them to come back with a larger force.”
Ree thrust the curved sword through her belt. She hoped she wouldn’t have to use it, but if they were attacked again, she meant to have the means to defend herself.
Alex motioned to her. “Stay close to me.”
She didn’t need to be told a second time. She wasn’t squeamish, but the close quarters with spilled blood and mangled bodies were enough to turn her stomach.
Anuata led the way, taking first one corridor and then another, choosing from a division of tunnels that looked exactly alike to Ree. Soon the water around them became clearer and saltier, and she could smell the sea. No more than half an hour passed before the Lemorian woman led them through a small jagged hole in the wall into the open sea.
It took a few seconds for Ree’s eyes to adjust to the expanse of blue-green water and the light streaming down from above. Here were towering forests of kelp and schools of fish of every shape and color. A gray shark that must have been at least eight feet long glided by, but neither Alex nor his team members seemed to notice it.
“Isn’t that a tiger shark?” Ree asked.
“It is,” Alex answered. “But it’s already fed. It won’t bother us.”
“How can you tell?” she asked.
He threw her an incredulous look. “Trust me. If he was hungry, you’d know it.” He pointed to a thick wall of foliage. The leafy fronds shook and bulged, and Ree heard a high-pitched sound that reminded her of a tiger-cub’s squeal. “I hate sea horses,” Alex confided.
“You don’t give them a chance,” Dewi said. “For a man who communicates so well with other species, you’re oddly prejudiced.”
“Is this a joke?” Ree asked. “Are we really going to ride sea horses?”
“I’m going to ride,” Alex said. “You’re going to hold on to me with every ounce of strength you’ve got. And you’re not going to fall off. If you do, and I’m still in the saddle, the beast will probably savage you before I can prevent it.”
“They’re bred for war,” Anuata explained.
Ree looked from one to another, uncertain if this was a hoax.
“Where did you get them?” Alex asked.
“The royal paddocks,” Anuata said. “Where else?”
Bleddyn grimaced. “She lifted them, pretty as you please, right out from under the Lemorian guards’ noses. And then broke into the stables for the saddles and bridles.”
“This is what I’ve come to,” Dewi said. “A hero of Atlantis. A legend in his time. Nothing but a horse thief.” He pulled away a section of greenery that disclosed a small clearing in the kelp jungle.
Ree stared, not certain that she was really seeing what she thought she was seeing. Four huge creatures were tethered by gold rings clamped through their lower jaws ... tethered being a loose term. These magnificently fierce bucking, plunging entities looked as though they had leaped out of a child’s fairy-tale book—the old German fairy tales with frightening ogres and shrieking witches.
“Our transportation,” Anuata said.
Ree’s eyes widened. “They are sea horses.”
Hippocampus.
Great muscular beasts with oversized heads and monstrous curved tails covered in spikes. She couldn’t comprehend their size. They must have been twenty hands at the withers, if you could call the scaled protrusion between neck and back withers.
“Are they real?” she whispered, taking in the sight of the strange saddles strapped to the vertical bodies.
“Real enough to rip your arm off with those bony plates that serve as teeth,” Dewi said. “Or bash in your head with a blow from that tail.”
“They aren’t known for their good tempers,” Anuata offered. “But they are very useful for making a quick escape from hostile waters.”
Ree couldn’t stop staring. The sea horses’ heads were a shimmering silver-blue in color, with silver manes and red glowing eyes. Their bodies darkened until the last half of their tails were a dark indigo blue. They twisted and lashed out with their thick tails, whipping at those on either side and rearing back in an attempt to tear loose from their bonds.
“You’re sure these are broken to saddle?” Alex asked. “They look like wild stock to me.”
Anuata laughed. “We rode them here, didn’t we?” She climbed hand over hand up a pillar of kelp until she was higher than the nearest sea horse, before dropping into the high-backed saddle. The creature squealed and spun, attempting to throw her, but Anuata leaned forward and severed the rope that held her mount captive.
She pulled hard on the reins, drawing the great head tight against the body and spoke soothingly to the sea horse until its flared nostrils relaxed and the undulating muscles in the neck and tail grew less violent. With a self-satisfied expression, she edged the stallion closer to one of the other beasts and seized the bridle. “I’ve caught him for you, Prince Alexandros. Now it’s up to you to ride him.”
Ree looked at Alex. If he was amused, it didn’t show on his face.
He took hold of her waist and lifted her high up into the branches of the kelp. “Hold on until I tell you to jump,” he ordered. “And if you value your life, do exactly what I say, when I say it.”
Ree looked down at the restless sea horses, suddenly thrilled by the idea of riding one. She was an accomplished horsewoman, but these creatures were beyond anything she’d ever attempted. She laughed. Beyond anything she’d ever dreamed of seeing ...
Alex circled the creature that Anuata held by the bridle and chose another mount, one with a tail nearly indigo. He swam toward the stallion’s head, undeterred by the fierce snorts and snapping jaws, put one hand on either side of the horse’s head and stared into its eyes. Almost instantly, it ceased attempting to bite him and grew still. Alex ran a hand over the proud neck, seized hold of a spike, and swung himself into the saddle.
Leaning forward, he used his sword to cut the sea grass rope, then backed the horse until it was directly under where Ree perched. “Now,” he said. “Jump.”
He caught her and helped her to settle behind him. Ree locked her arms around his neck and braced her knees against his legs. There were no stirrups, but she could see that Alex had slipped his feet into a hollow in the frame.
“If you start to feel lightheaded, let me know,” he said. “This species prefers to swim closer to the surface. The change in pressure doesn’t bother us, but you’re still an unknown.”
“Understood.” A thrill rippled through Ree. The barely controlled power of the sea horse beneath them was unbelievable.
The two men quickly mounted and the five of them were off. The speed of the horses was startling, and it seemed to Ree that they were truly flying under water. Far below, she could see rivers of fire and fish and plants too strange to fully comprehend. They passed over deep crevasses, sheer faces of rock, wide ribbons of roads that stretched for leagues, and forests of kelp and sea grasses. Ree saw pods of whales and schools of fish that numbered in the millions, seabeds white with shellfish, and coral wonderlands.

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