Chapter 32
Thirty-Two
Ellie
Ellie fought as hard as she could, but there was no point in doing so.
The undine who had his arm around her waist wasn't going to let her get away, and she knew damn well it wasn't possible for her to fight him.
Still, it made her feel a little better to struggle against his grip.
She kicked out at him, trying to catch him in the sensitive parts of his tail.
And when that didn't work, she jammed her elbows back toward his gills.
Unfortunately, all that did was get a grunt out of him.
She stared helplessly back at Proteus, seeing the others dragging him away from her. These were undine she recognized. The red one had been at the facility. She remembered him so well because he had been missing an arm at the time.
No longer. That metal arm was stronger than any flesh could be. He dragged Proteus through the water with an ease that shouldn't have been possible.
"Where are you taking me?" she asked, her eyes locked on the group that was still swimming far away from her.
"Back where we are from," the undine finally said. And that was the last thing he said for the rest of the journey.
Halfway through it, he paused. It was then that she realized he had a pouch over his shoulder.
He rummaged through it, holding her by the back of her wetsuit as though she weighed absolutely nothing.
She hung limp over the abyss, praying to any god that would listen that he wouldn't drop her and assume she could swim.
Thankfully, he did not do that. But he did pull a fistful of what looked like eels out of the bag and started rubbing them all up and down her body. Ellie shrieked, struggling once more as he mashed the eels against her suit and essentially turned them into pulverized meat.
"What are you doing?" she yelled, twisting and turning because at least that felt like she was trying to get away from him.
He didn't reply. Instead, the big blue beast flipped her over in his grip so he was holding her by the ankle. Upside down now, she was glad to have the face mask to breathe because she was certain she would have gotten saltwater all up her nose, and that certainly would have made her drown.
Eventually, she gave up hope of struggling and just hung there. Allowing him to rub the mashed up eels all over her body before he nodded. "Good enough."
And then he dropped her.
She tried to swim. She really did. She kicked her feet and her arms desperately, trying to do the same movements she had seen countless people do in her life, but none of it got her anywhere.
Maybe, for a few moments, she floated. She could feel that something had changed, but then there was a tug of the current against her body and she was sinking once more.
At least, until a new arm wrapped around her waist and hauled her through the water.
With a shocked sound, she looked down to see a yellow arm around her this time. She looked at the undine with wide eyes, trying to understand what was happening to her and why she was being passed off to yet another captor.
"The scent will make it harder for him to track you," he said.
This one grinned as if this entire situation was one big adventure that he was just happy to be part of.
"And now Arges will head off to lead him in the other direction.
Do you know how hard it was to get him to agree to be the bait?
He likes to control everything, but he's the third biggest after Fortis and Daios.
And obviously they had to be the ones to get Proteus put down in the sea. "
She made a choked sound at the last bit. Put down? Had they killed him?
This undine looked her over and rolled his eyes. "Not like he's dead. He's a god. I don't think anything can kill him, and if it can, it's not going to be a little pufferfish poison. Or a lot, as it was. Took us weeks to get that much, you know."
The breath she'd sucked in all came rushing out as one. At least this one seemed a little more inclined to speak with her.
"Where are we going?"
"Home," he replied. "You're going to meet the girls, and I'm just going to drop you off. Don't worry, not much longer now."
Not much longer felt like ages passed. There was nothing in the sea he dragged her through. No creatures, no light, just the never ending darkness that he apparently knew how to get through. Until the water turned lighter blue, and then a city appeared in front of her.
It wasn't much of a city, she'd admit. But there were many domed buildings. She counted at least thirty as they swam by. Not to mention the homes of the undines that were... well, more than she'd expected.
At first, all Ellie noticed were the spiraling stones that marked the sand far below them.
But then there were things that looked like corals, dead corals now that she had seen live ones, but they were definitely coral built upon each other.
Making it so that the homes were twisting tunnels.
Now that she'd seen one, it was easier to pick them out. Some of them even had undine in them.
One she could see a huge tail hanging out of it, and a plume of dust then erupted around the tail as though they were digging something out inside. From another, a small child darted out while his mother rushed after him.
There was a riot of color here. All the undine turned the blue and yellow sea into rainbows. It was beautiful, remarkable, and, honestly, like something out of a fairytale. She might have been more impressed if she hadn't been kidnapped.
The yellow undine brought her to a central location and deposited her outside. Then he gestured for her to go up into what was very clearly a moon pool above their heads. "Go on."
Ellie sank down onto the sand and stared up. With a kick of her legs, she tried. But the water didn't work with her and no matter how hard she propelled herself, she sank right back to where she started.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, trying again. "I'm sorry, I'm really trying."
Clawed hands grabbed onto her waist. And instead of the judgement she had expected, his expression remained soft. "I didn't know you couldn't swim. You could have asked, you know."
With a gentle push, he brought her up to the surface and held onto her waist until she'd grabbed onto the edge. Only then did she feel his hands leave her sides and then the water movement of him darting off somewhere else. Likely to keep Proteus off the scent of this place.
More hands grabbed onto her. This time, though, they were hands that were decidedly more human.
"Finally," the grunted words were angry as she was pulled out of the water and left on the floor unceremoniously. "Took them long enough. Now the clock starts ticking."
"Alexia." The scolding tones were from another person, but Ellie was so caught up trying to get the damn rebreather off her face, she couldn't hazard a guess at who spoke. "Really. You could be a little more delicate about it."
"I have never been accused of being delicate."
"You could give it a try. You catch more bees with honey."
"Bees have been extinct for years, Anya."
Finally, Ellie got the rebreather off and then ripped off her fogging goggles as well. She tore a good chunk of her hair out with the movement, and that left her wincing until she could finally see who surrounded her. The people who were revealed surprised her though.
It was just two women. Two women she definitely recognized.
"You?" she said, confused. "But... but you were the ones who sent people to the facility to work with us."
Alexia crouched down in front of her, all bulging muscles that made Ellie want to cower back in fear. She wore a loose fitting white shirt that revealed even more powerful pectoral muscles, and pants that highlighted just how thick her thighs were. "And you've been lying to us."
The air was all sucked out of her lungs. She had no idea what to say to that because yes, she had. She'd been lying a lot, and so had Proteus, and she wasn't sure what lie they were talking about.
But now was the time when she could finally come clean. She could tell them everything, just like she believed they should have from the very beginning. Doing so would make Proteus angry with her, though.
"Lying about what?" Ellie tried, but she could hear how bad the words were on her tongue.
Anya sighed, and that was when Ellie looked over at the pretty blonde woman.
She wore a white dress with pretty lace on the edges.
The short sleeves showed off her arms and the pearls that dripped all along her wrists.
There was even a pearl bracelet around one of her legs.
She had a droid attached to her face, with a screen over one eye.
But the expression on her face was one of disappointment.
They knew. Of course they knew.
Alexia sighed and reached out a big hand for her to take. "Come on, Ellie. Get up. We'll show you what we've discovered in that facility of yours, and you can tell me exactly what you think we need to know."
She didn't want to do this. But Ellie didn't think she had a choice in the matter.
Grabbing Alexia's hand, she allowed the big woman to help her up and followed them into a separate room.
This dome was a marvel. It was hard for her not to stare at the arching metal and the huge glass panels that held the sea at bay.
They were surprisingly close to the surface here.
Close enough that she could see a storm leaving as they walked through a long tunnel toward another room.
Ellie reached out and touched the glass where kelp waved on the other side. It was so clear it felt like she could reach out and touch the seagrass.