CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
The guard yanked Laziel from the vent, his fist slamming into the mer’s face.
Somehow, Laziel’s shove backwards concealed me enough that the guard never noticed me hiding behind him.
Punch after punch, the mer shoved into Laziel, each blow rushing the air through his gills.
I was a coward, hiding in the tunnel, watching from within the vent.
“There’s no justifiable reason for our colonel to be in the thermal vent,” the male seethed in Laziel’s face, shoving him into the stone wall of the room. “They’re looking for you. Only took the patrolling front-line to speak to the Lockwarden to know that you are a traitor.”
Gods. Wait. Colonel? I didn’t know what to do or how to help. How did I not question his thorough understanding of the prison’s layout?
I could faintly make out the small office, dimly lit by mage torches and cracks within the architecture to the outside.
The guard dragged Laziel through the water with ease, his hand gripping tightly around the traitor mer’s throat.
He accepted every hit, every snarl, every remark about his guiltiness.
But I couldn’t take it any longer. I couldn’t hide in the shadows and watch the mer be beaten to a pulp.
The guard shoved his elbow into Laziel’s chest, cracking his clavicle with the hit. The water around surged in the combat, throwing them both against the stone wall. Laziel roared in agony, but he did not spill any information.
I took advantage of the distraction and pounced. Instant relief flooded me as I threw myself from the vent, spearing the guard to the ground. He was thrown off balance, and we both flipped in the water, crashing into the nearby rocky desk.
My head cracked along the sandstone, my vision blurring, fading to black. I shook my head slowly, begging for my eyes to work, and after far too much time passed, I could make out my surroundings again.
The guard straddled me, a blade’s tip poking above my heart. No… no. It pressed deeper, threatening to pierce, but recognition flashed across his face, leaving only a look of disgust.
“The missing sacrifice,” he snarled, a slight lilt to his tone. “Bounty on your head is big.”
I laid still against the pressing stone, every sensitive spot of my back searing.
“So, I’ve been told,” I managed to spit.
“Not coin. No,” he replied mischievously as if contemplating how he would turn me in. “But royal status.” The blade inched its way through my leather vest, digging into the flesh underneath.
He reached behind him and pulled forth a set of shackles. His calloused hands scraped my skin abruptly, yanking my arms forward. The metal locked around my first wrist, and my heart dropped into my stomach.
The tether connecting Noctis and I faltered under the shackles, my body losing strength as the first one dragged my arm down under its immense weight.
I failed. The entire realm would soon fall, and it would be in my name.
Laziel seized the guard’s head from behind and wrenched it sharply aside.
A brutal crack split through the office, loud as breaking stone, and my stomach lurched violently in response.
The guard’s body went slack at once, drifting lifelessly to the floor, his life’s cord severed.
His eyes stared out into nothingness, fixed and unseeing.
“Oh, Zyrphria…” Laziel muttered under his breath, swollen eyes glued to the dead mer guard. The God of Peace and Forgiveness would not bless a murderer, but he tried anyway.
“He attacked you,” I attempted to calm his nerves. I could see the panic seeping into Laziel the longer he stared at the guard's motionless body.
“But I should have been attacked. We are sworn in here to protect the Abyssal Hold and crown with our lives.” His eyes lingered on the mer before lifting to mine, a moment of something sharp and conflicted passing between us, quickly buried beneath something more calculating.
“The same crown that is killing innocents just above us. The same one sacrificing our people.”
“Not everyone in the depths is an opponent,” Laziel’s voice cracked as he pointed at the guard.
There was no doubt the truth in the statement, yet the meaning refused to settle in me, slipping beyond understanding. There was not a being in the depths that did not bring me pain and suffering.
“Good thing we know the God of Forsaken Souls, right?” I tried to break the tension.
“They’ll never accept me back after this.” His words were nearly lost in the space between us.
“I think that was finalized after you lied about me as a prisoner to the front-line guards. But you can join our crew. You don’t have to be alone.”
Laziel’s lip quivered as he dropped to the guard’s side, but the violent shake of his hands felt more like performance than panic. After that staged act to get us into the prison, I knew I’d be looking past every reaction he gave, searching for what he wasn’t showing.
“Here,” he whispered, offering the shackle’s key.
“Part two?” I asked quietly. The key clanged against the lock as I jammed it in, the metal at my wrist digging in like it meant to stay.
“Part two.”
Silence was a curse—one that spread through the prison like the one spreading through my blood. Our movements rippled through the depths, easily marking us as targets, evidence of our movement trailing behind.
We had only one more level to descend before reaching the prisoner chambers, but every time I pushed my tail to move closer, I wasn’t sure I could complete the mission. My body dragged heavily, wracked with the degenerative curse and the lesions peppering my skin.
Completing the heist would cost a lot—possibly too much to bear according to Laziel’s relaying of the creature I would soon approach. But I’d do it regardless. Besides, I was the decade’s sacrifice anyway.
Murmurs and metallic clinking carried through the water, traveling far longer and wider than air. Iron rich scents lingered in my nose, tears lining my eyes at the stinging sensation.
“South exit. Don’t linger,” Laziel ordered, voice stern but worried. He branched off at the next intersection, leaving me purging forward alone through the Abyssal Hold.
The stairs eventually plateaued, revealing a stretch of flat stone. I peered around the corner, just enough to inspect the other side. Chambers and barred up cells lined the walls—the exact location I hunted for. And at each iron gate holding in a prisoner stood a mer guard at attention.
I forced a breath, filling my lungs as I fiddled with the distractor in my pocket.
Pull, throw, swim. No distractions. I repeated Laziel’s instructions over and over, in hopes that in the moment, I would hold true to them. Don’t mess this up.
I unsheathed my dagger that I shifted around my waist for my sea form, rotating it in my palm until it felt right.
The scarf around my nose and mouth nearly suffocated me, but I yanked it tighter.
Then, I pulled the trigger and threw the vial toward the soldiers, releasing the clear, Oceanwrought lirion fish poison into the water.
Chaos ensued immediately.
Uniformed guards ambushed the doorway I watched through, but they didn’t make it to me fast enough before the poison seeped into their systems. Dizziness overwhelmed me, a small stagger slowing my swim. The guards drifted down, eyes closing—falling asleep sluggishly against their will.
Clever, Laziel.
I weaved past, dodging the arms and swords that slashed through the water lazily in any attempt to slow me down. A blade grazed my shoulder, glimmering blue blood swirling in the water, but I pushed onward.
Wide-eyed prisoners clasped to the iron bars, their bodies also giving out to the poison that filtered through their gills and into their systems. They looked desperate, pleading to be released from the depths, and for some reason, my heart ached to set them free.
My distrust in the Ocean Mother convinced me the prisoners were innocent.
I promised myself I would return for them when the realms were safe—give them trial and offer them freedom if deserved.
Laziel could be the decider, having worked in the Abyssal Hold as a guard, he would know the allegations against each being behind bars.
But I also knew I had no power in offering them a fair trial.
The guards and prisoners all met the ground, eyes closed in a deep sleep. I had only minutes before they all awakened. Minutes to find the chamber that kept the last trident piece. Minutes to collect it and escape before chaos resumed.
I rushed through the chamber, searching each of the tens of cells on the level, every one containing a tattered and malnourished prisoner.
Grime slicked across the stone in the tiny chambers, algae blooming through the cracks that held them behind bars.
Kelp salads molded on silver platters, the chains that locked merfolk to the ground rusting, and many breathing shallow or not at all.
A soft shuffle sounded behind me, and I whirled.
“It’s at the end, hiding in shadow and stone,” a young voice whispered from the corner of a chamber.
I approached it slowly and reared back at the sight of the child, a torn cloth held over his face.
“What is?” I asked, my voice riddled in pity.
“The thing valuable enough to break into this miserable place. But there’s something inside… someone. Keeps us up all night. Sometimes it shows me my mother.”
My heart shattered for the boy who couldn’t have been older than twelve.
His hair, once perhaps bright, now hung in dull, tangled strands past his shoulders, and bruises mapped his arms like cruel tattoos, each one a story he shouldn’t have had to carry.
He held himself too still, as if even the smallest movement might make things worse.
I’m going to save him.
“I’ll come back for you. I promise,” I assured, my voice cracking. He reminded me of me. Too young for the cruelty of the realm. Too innocent. Too good.