CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
No one wanted to break the silence by saying the goodbyes we all knew were inevitable. By the grace of… well… the gods, Laziel and I would return, and the goodbye we dreaded would, in fact, be temporary.
I looked around at the crew, memorizing their somber, worried faces. My gaze lingered on Noctis, but his only held promise—a reminder of what awaited us on the return.
To have the ability to remember the crew after so many of my memories had been stolen in the past. That was what drove me then. The people on that ship were what gave me purpose. It felt like power.
I used that power to drive myself over the rail and into the ocean.
Laziel followed closely behind, both our bodies transforming into our merfolk forms almost instantly. Waiting for our eyes to adjust to the darkness, we swam in circles, blinking feverishly to cast out the haziness.
“Go get ‘em! Well… get it!” Calvin’s muffled voice ruffled through the water, lazily reaching my ears. A slow smile tilted my lips at my friend. I pocketed his voice in the chest of my mind, saving it for later, right along with the fierceness of my Blood Tie’s face.
I had forgotten how beautiful the depths were in my time out of water, even the parts of them that were not populated with sea beings.
Schools of shimmering fish swarmed past us, glistening like living jewels.
Towering coral formations painted in hues of orange and turquoise gave homes to the fish inhabitants.
The Oceanwrought kingdom drew near, but we needed to sneak in from a distance to avoid being caught.
“The south end will be guarded less. At rotation––twelve minutes exactly––they will switch. Then, we wait,” Laziel replayed the first task, handing me a matching oceanic stopwatch like the one he fisted.
We swam through the kelp, keeping low until the kingdom surged into view.
Luminae jellyfish hung corralled in wire baskets across the castle grounds and villages, working to illuminate the area.
Living coral formed caves and alcoves for merfolk to live—homes that grew and changed shape throughout the years, then were molded by the hands of merfolk artisans.
The coral’s delicate branches twisted, forming intricate archways into the structures.
Overlooking the beauty towered the scheming Ocean Mother’s castle dwelling, another evil amongst the loveliness. I was accustomed to attracting the brutality of life to myself like it magnetized to my own scales.
The goddess lived within the sunken city of Drathin, known to have fallen beneath the waves of the Pantheorn Sea when a mortal man abandoned the goddess of adoration decades prior. She nearly drowned the entire continent, only talked out of her fit of rage by the son they bore.
Basalt spires held the stone walls of the castle, cracks symmetrically running up the building, bubbles floating upwards as air still seeped from the openings, even decades later.
A tattered flag floated peacefully in the currents atop the tallest peak.
Except I knew how ironic it was to see beauty and peace in my former homeland then, as the goddess waged war just above the sea’s waves.
We glided past the castle, hiding amongst the shadowed divots in the seafloor on the way to the Abyssal Hold, but every time I propelled my tail my heart rate increased. It would explode straight through my sternum well before we arrived at the prison.
Breathe, Caelyn, I reminded myself, focusing to steady my raging anxiety.
At least, I thought, the Ocean Mother and much of the Oceanwrought armies had surged above the waves rather than below, thinning the defenses in the depths and, I hoped, keeping the goddess away from what remained there.
However, I wasn’t sure I preferred it that way, not when they were gathering to wreak havoc on the Terraguard Bound above.
The blackened walls of the Abyssal Hold loomed in the distance, nearly unnoticeable in the void of the depths. By design, it lurked, a deadly reminder to stay in the goddess’s favorable graces.
“Are you ready?” Laziel whispered as we got closer, and I caught the way his brows drew in what looked like frustration.
I wasn’t sure how to answer, so instead, I nodded and hoped he understood the lack of words.
Onyx iron-clad spikes protruded from the walls of the prison that stood many times taller than even the kingdom’s castle.
Wrapped in metal armor, the merfolk guards circled the structure in unrecognizable, varying patterns.
From top to bottom, the Abyssal Hold had patrolling eyes on it at all times.
“Four minutes,” Laziel murmured, glancing at his stopwatch.
We snuck forward, nearly in arms reach of the prison and shuffled into a bramble of sea kelp.
“North,” Laziel whispered.
I turned quickly to find a guard approaching.
Double checking our surroundings, I ensured I was completely submersed in the shrubbery, and then, the waiting began.
When the armored guard swam past our hiding place, Laziel shot out a blast of power, catching his mouth and ankles with a force the guard did not expect.
He yanked the guard into the kelp bush and secured his limbs, quickly stripping him of his uniform. The guard writhed against the restraints, but Laziel held firm.
Part one complete.
“Two short blows,” Laziel ordered quietly as he shoved the perfectly fitting uniform over his own clothing.
I pulled the wave pipe from around my neck and blew into it two quick whistles, loud enough the guards surrounding the prison hesitated before congregating at the front entrance.
Exactly as we planned.
Laziel buckled the belt around his waist, right above the line merging his skin to his scales, and when he looked up at me, his expression changed. His eyes hardened, fists gripping the uniform coat until his knuckles turned white, and his lips stayed downturned.
“Forgive me,” he muttered, jaw tight. He struck me across the face with a surge of water and shackled my wrists tight before I could even ask why he desired forgiveness.
I fought against the silver shackles as Laziel pushed me toward the Abyssal Hold entrance.
I will kill him.
“Keep fighting, and you’ll only hurt yourself,” Laziel muttered close to my ear, so I writhed harder.
The metal tore into my skin, pain searing across my flesh.
The mer shoved me before him, earning a gasp I didn’t mean to expel.
If this were how I were caught, I would arrive in the enemy hands with dignity.
Heat simmered beneath my skin, broiling and begging to be released—Noctis. Stone by stone, I focused on blocking our connection. I needed all my brain power to escape, and Noctis was a distraction.
Two guards at the gate stood at attention, confusion wracking their faces.
“Laziel,” one of the guards greeted cooly.
“Thal’Maruun sent me to deliver her pet,” Laziel spat.
No way. Laziel was one of them.
“You caught the loose sacrifice?” one asked in bewilderment.
Laziel pushed me forward with a grunt as if presenting his trophy. Their eyebrows lifted, eyes widening.
“Touch me and find out what will happen to you,” I hissed.
The guard ignored me, only speaking to Laziel as if he was accustomed to looking over prisoner snarls. “How?”
“Where do you think I’ve been all this time?” Laziel huffed as if offended. “Why I haven’t been on the rotations?”
My blood boiled. Laziel was sent to capture me, and I fell right into his trap. I fought against the shackles, ripping further into my flesh with each tug.
I’m going to make sure he struggles to detain me.
“Well,” one of the guards said, tilting his head past the gates, “you know where to take her. Kizar will notify the Lockwarden at next round.”
Laziel didn’t hesitate, only walked around the patrolling guards and into the Abyssal Hold with me as a prisoner.
Darkness embraced the corridors like an unwelcome hug, seeping into each crack in the wall, the corners of every room, and the bones of every merfolk and ocean creature imprisoned.
Volcanic stone torches hung in sconces along the hall, only serving to cast dreary shrouds as Laziel shoved me around the bend.
He abruptly stopped.
“Turn around,” he ordered quietly, and his hands fidgeted with the shackles. They fell from my arms, a sudden relief. “I would understand if you never trust me again.”
I spun and lunged toward the mer. My blade rested just above the lump in his neck, taunting him to swallow once and end it all.
“One more move like that, and I’ll carve the lesson into your bones.”
“Understood.”
Blood floated from the gash in my cheek, dispersing around in the water. It might have been a show to him, but nothing about it was gentle or warranted.
“You were a prison guard here.”
Laziel nodded instead of speaking at first, his eyes diverted as if pained of the past.
“Before I ran off to find my brother.”
“Why didn’t you warn me?”
“Shock factor… They wouldn’t have believed––” Laziel attempted, but a crash interrupted. There was a slight metallic ring, but it was blurred by the water—heavy, ominous, and distant. It echoed dully through the depths, barely reaching our ears at all.
I peeked around the corner but quickly shot back.
“Guard,” I mouthed to Laziel.
We shifted through the water slowly at first, careful not to interrupt the stillness. When we were nearly at the end of the corridor, draped in gloom, we tore off. We needed to reach the dungeons, levels below where we swam, but already, we were off plan.
Heat radiated the further we pushed ourselves away from the approaching guard. My entire body submerged in sweltering temperature, making breathing difficult.
“Backup plan,” Laziel murmured between breaths.
He froze and quickly dropped to the floor above a rusted, metal grate. I lowered beside him, helping pull the iron lattice until it squealed over enough for us to slip inside.
The tunnel pushed in on our shoulders, just wide enough to barely squeeze through that it wouldn’t be comfortable by any means.
I didn’t envy Laziel’s broader shoulders, each scraping against the tunnel walls.
A radiating heat wave purged past us, blistering my skin immediately.
A puny whimper snuck out between my lips as I trailed Laziel.
The further we pushed through the underground thermal vent, the more the heat increased.
Puss-filled sores began to swell along my tail’s flesh, shifting my scales outward as they bubbled over and ruptured.
The walls slowly narrowed until my shoulders scraped along the stone, tearing open the blisters at contact.
“Almost there,” Laziel barely breathed out, but I wasn’t sure I was going to survive to the end.
I pushed my body through the water, arms outstretched toward the mer. My pace slowed, exhaustion wracking my body. I couldn’t move much faster. I couldn’t move much further, either. If I stopped, though, I would let down everyone. The Terraguard Bound would be in ruin within hours.
I crashed into the back of Laziel, who shoved with as much force as he could muster to open the grating. It was taking too long. My shoulder pressed on his back, helping move the blockade. A slight creak echoed through the water—muffled and stretched.
Laziel reached over the ledge to pull himself out, only to scream in agony. He whipped his tail backwards, barreling me backwards out of sight.
A slimy, gravely male voice filled the void.
“And what exactly are you doing down there, colonel?”