Chapter Forty-Five
ADRIAN
Adrian walked through the streets of Lake Lilac, an ease in his chest for the first time in weeks.
He knew how to heal Annabel. The rivers passed him by, crystal clear, and he could have sworn they called out to him—sang to his blood.
He let his bejewelled hand drift out towards one and curled a finger.
A thin stream of water arced out of the air, wrapping around his wrist like a bracelet.
He stared at it a moment, blinking. It had come far more easily than it usually did, as though his powers were stronger.
He crept closer, following the river towards the giant lilac lake.
A song began, low and beckoning. It was not in a language that Adrian recognized, but no matter—his very soul seemed to understand it.
He brushed past people, barely noticing them. A faint thought reminded him that he had to make haste back to the ship, to ask Enzo to accompany him to Neptuna. But it ceased to matter as the song heightened. He looked around only once. Did no one else hear it?
When his feet touched the water, he did not stop.
Nor when the water lapped at his waist or when it reached his neck.
When his head ducked under the surface, a great clarity washed over him.
He took a deep breath in, fighting past the reflex to panic as he allowed his water-breathing magick to kick in.
He felt anchored by something—something great and inexplicable—as he continued to follow the lakebed down.
Breathing underwater was something Adrian had always taken for granted. He couldn’t quite imagine how people didn’t. Any tideweaver could. He looked around, marvelling at the shining lilac waters, how clear they were.
Adrian usually preferred the ocean to lakes, finding pools of water stagnant and a little eerie—usually murky, too.
But this was an entirely different world.
Fish flitted by, mink too, playfully swirling.
He’d always found them the sweetest of animals and as a child had begged his parents to let him keep one as a pet.
As his eyes scanned the water, they came across a giant shell on the lakebed, as big as a house. It was a beautiful misty twilight hue, twinkling in the dim light gifted by the surface.
The song beckoned, growing louder as he moved towards it.
No logical sense of danger entered his mind.
He reached out a hand to the shell, marvelling at the power that emanated from it.
Closer, he could see something strange about it.
A nautical map seemed to be etched upon its surface, as well as constellations—so many that Adrian understood where the shards of light came from; it was as though stars were trapped inside the structure.
He squinted, frowning at landmarks on the shell he had never heard of; ones he absolutely knew, from his many years as a pirate, did not exist.
Then, to his disbelief, it began to shudder.
Adrian stumbled back as two gigantic pincers emerged from the shell, followed by four, then eight, then ten spidery legs.
Finally, an armoured face peered out, large black eyes wide as they observed Adrian.
‘Y-y-you’re—’ He gulped, shaking his head. ‘This isn’t possible.’
The crab blinked.
‘You’re Karkinos,’ he croaked. ‘The mythas in the deep.’
It has been a long time since someone has wandered this far down, came a deep rumble in response.
Adrian’s shoulders tensed. The crab could talk?
How did you find me, boy?
‘I…I heard a song,’ Adrian said, blinking his daze away.
A song? How interesting.
‘It wasn’t you?’
A raspy laugh. I don’t sing.
‘I can still hear it now,’ Adrian whispered. Though it had quietened, it was still there, a comforting hum that wrapped around his heart.
The crab shifted, kicking silt up in clouds, the stars and paths upon its shell momentarily dimming.
Then there must be a reason you’re here. And I don’t think it’s to keep an old crab company—one who hasn’t seen another mortal in centuries.
‘How do others not find you? Altalunians?’
None have been able to walk the lakebed, save you.
‘I barely understand anything that’s happening around me,’ he muttered. ‘First my powers, then this.’
Your powers?
Adrian nodded, sitting down gingerly upon the sand and crossing his legs. ‘Ever since the moon rose, they’ve been growing stronger.’
Karkinos clacked his great pincers as though pondering something.
Are you sure that’s the reason why? he asked.
Adrian blinked. ‘Well, what other reason could there be?’
There were once three who ruled above, and three below. If the three above have awoken, perhaps your powers are tied to one.
Though the words the crab uttered were making little sense, Adrian felt his body responding to them as though they did.
‘Three above and three below,’ he murmured. ‘The Celestes?’
Ah, Karkinos replied. So you’re already familiar with the word. Which means you’ve already acquainted yourself with one or two.
Adrian nodded. ‘The…the Sun and the Moon.’
Karkinos only blinked eerily again. We feel them all, even here in the deep. But up until now, no whisper of the three below. Perhaps it is the Moon that you’re responding to. The Moon that is calling to your magick.
Adrian shrugged. ‘And what does that mean for me?’ He was trying to ignore the sway of the music, the way his eyes kept being drawn to the crab’s shell.
It means that you are more powerful than you realize.
Adrian had stopped listening, eyes glazed as he stood and staggered towards the crab’s shell.
‘What do you have in there?’ he rasped, nodding at it.
Karkinos scuttled back. What be it to you?
Adrian shook his head. ‘I can’t shake this feeling. There’s something in there that I need to see. Something that’s calling me.’
Karkinos stilled. He was quiet for a while before he responded. Enter, if you dare, pirate. And see what treasure it is that lures you.
Adrian stepped forwards shakily as Karkinos shifted to the side, exposing an entrance to the cavernous shell. It was dark inside, and Adrian took a deep, lake-filled breath before he entered.
It truly was a cave, all manner of treasures twinkling in the lake water. Necklaces, coins, crowns and other plunder. Some that had clearly been thrown to the lakebed.
They’re offerings, said Karkinos behind him. From those who still dare to believe in the old ways. They throw them into the lake with the belief I will protect them. And I do. His tone had taken on a softness, as though he truly cared for the citizens of Altalune.
‘In The Mythas of Celestia, you’re described as a terrifying creature,’ Adrian said, letting his feet and his heart lead him towards the back of the shell. ‘One who eats those who venture too far out into the lake.’
Do they? came the reply. Adrian had the vague sense of a shadow blocking the entrance to the shell. But he continued on, to where he could see the object of his desire—the song so pure and sweet as it glowed from inside a chest spilling with jewels.
He knelt before it.
‘Yes,’ he said faintly as his hands reached out, parting the myriad precious gems until his fingers wrapped around something.
An open oyster shell, with the most beautiful pearl he had ever seen lodged in its centre.
But something else caught the corner of his eye, and his gaze switched to it, noticing a skull.
Then more, other bones littered around the shell that he’d been blind to before.
Then perhaps you should listen to the tales next time, said Karkinos, before a pincer drove towards Adrian and wrapped around his waist.
Adrian shouted in alarm as he was pulled from the shell and held high in a deathly grip.
Oh, how I have yearned to taste mortal flesh, said the crab. Too long it has been, with nothing but prawns and cockles to sate me. I will savour your sweet, proud blood, pirate.
Adrian tried to calm his breathing, looking everywhere for a weapon, for a way out. Karkinos squeezed and Adrian let out a pained gasp. No one knew he was here. No one would find him. His bones would decorate the lakebed and no one he loved would be any the wiser.
His crew would search for him—but Elara would think he’d abandoned her. Even Oceanne. Oceanne would think he had disappeared, refusing to help her cause.
And Annabel—gods, Annabel. She would die, scared and alone without him.
He saw his sister’s face in his mind, as it had been when she was a child.
He remembered the first time he had held her, her chubby cheeks and bright blue inquisitive eyes.
The way her small hand had wrapped around his little finger, and he’d understood, just like he had with his other sisters, that she was his to protect.
Despair alchemized into fury, and Adrian gritted his teeth, willing himself to ignore his pain and spread his palms wide. A rush of magick, so strong it made his body convulse, poured out of him. He wasn’t sure exactly what he had even willed until the very lake parted in two.
He heard screams from above, and Karkinos gasped in shock as he was left utterly exposed, air rushing down to meet them.
No, the crab screamed. I need the water. I need my water.
He tried to scuttle towards it, but Adrian clenched a hand as he allowed another surge of power through his body, this again as though commanded by something else.
The moon was full and bright above him, and his magick sang as the rays touched him.
Whatever Karkinos said must have been true.
It was the moon that was changing his powers. It had to be.
The water to his left began to swirl around and around, a pure maelstrom within the lake. They were being pulled towards it to certain death. Debris flew past, and the crab’s treasures. Its shell made a deep, shuddering, creaking sound before it too began to lift off the lakebed.
No! Karkinos cried. Not my home.
‘Let me go,’ Adrian commanded, and he was shocked that the voice didn’t sound like his—but deeper and more guttural.
At that, the pincer around Adrian loosened and he fell back towards the lakebed, chest heaving. He brought his palms together and the water calmed, the two sides of the lake merging into one once more.
As Adrian began to step away, still clutching the pearl, he heard a chuckle, to his utter disbelief.
You are exactly who I thought you were, Adrian Mereille. You just had to prove it.
The voice was teasing, not threatening.
Adrian turned slowly, incredulously. He was near certain that crabs couldn’t smile. But if they could have, it probably would have looked like what was upon Karkinos’s face. The crab lumbered back towards its shell.
You look after that pearl, pirate. It’s worth more than all this treasure combined.