by A. L. Knorr
“That has to be them,” I panted, speeding up. “Did they know we were waiting? What on earth are they doing on the wrong side of the airport?”
“They’re going to the water, look!”
We sprinted across what seemed like miles of empty field and pavement, watching helplessly as the figures which had deplaned climbed onto the rocky shoal lining the coast, and disappeared over its edge, now completely out of sight.
My heart was wedged in my neck, throbbing painfully. My legs burned as I urged them faster. Emun was ahead of me now, legs and arms pumping like an Olympian.
We passed by the small plane, where the airport employees were in an argument with a man in a uniform who I guessed had to be the pilot. They didn’t notice us as we ran by. The plane’s engine still whirred and electronic sounds filled the air, while the sound of crashing waves grew loud. An emergency alarm wailed in the background. The noises together were deafening.
Reaching the dark boulders, we peered over the edge and saw lights bobbing in the water. Shapes picked their way toward the lights, and I recognized Antoni’s silhouette as a flashlight beam came across his body from someone nearest the water.
“Antoni!” I screamed, my voice drowned out by the sounds around us.
“It’s a submersible,” Emun yelled into my ear. “Look!”
The dark shape with the lights in the water was not much to look at, just the suggestion of a much larger body invisible below the surface.
He was right. A hatched door was propped open and the small group of men, with Antoni second from the front, was climbing inside. We were too far away to catch them and my voice was useless if they couldn’t hear it.
“Come on.” Emun grabbed my arm and pulled me to where we could cross over the rocky border and pick our way down after them.
23
Bubbles and foam crested the water’s surface as the sub sank from view. My heart was in overdrive as Emun and I ran for the water’s edge. Without so much as a question between us, we stripped our clothes and left them in two little heaps hidden in the rocks.
The lights of the sub could be seen as a dim retreating glow, and I dove headfirst into the black water, legs melding and vision sharpening. I heard a splash as Emun entered the water behind me, but I barely noticed him. Antoni was inside a submarine! One that was quickly headed out into a dark sea. I was wrestling with a barrage of fear-based emotion, even as the salt plied at my mind.
Emun and I trailed after the submersible, keeping the lights in view and staying within its wake.
For roughly thirty minutes, at a depth of about fifteen meters, we trailed the sub in silence as it headed roughly west. The time passing, and the salt-water, did wonders for my frantic mind. I had been imagining horrible scenarios where the men on board tortured and abused Antoni, or worse, had already killed him. Seeing him well and moving under his own powers was a small comfort. But what did they have planned for him?
I became aware of Emun’s presence, the powerful movement of his fins and his lack of talk. He seemed to know that I was too upset to make conversation. Glancing at him in my periphery served as a good distraction. The only other mer-creature I had ever seen was my mother. Emun was an entirely new sight and in spite of the stress I was under, I couldn’t help but observe him.
I let him pull ahead of me slightly so I could take a closer look.
In the dim light, his coloring was difficult to make out because his tail was nearly as dark as mine was light. I couldn’t tell if his scales were black or dark gray or blue, but they gleamed like they were made of resin. His dorsal fin and the ends of his tail had lighter tips that might have been red or rose colored, I couldn’t tell in exact shade in the darkness. His tail was thicker and longer than my mother’s, as he was broader at the waist and lacked the flaring hips Mom and I had. While his scales were smooth, cords and mounds of muscle could be seen moving under the surface, flexing gracefully as they powered him through the Atlantic. His pale skin gleamed, reflecting light and easily the most visible part of him, while his black hair blew out behind him, dark as onyx.
He glanced over at me, his eyes nearly all dark pupil to let in the light of the waning moon.
“Getting a good look?” His voice came out smoothly, without air bubbles or distortion. It was startlingly loud.
I nodded, unabashed. “Where do you think they’re taking him?”
“I don’t know, Targa, but it’s going to have more to do with the pendant than it will to do with Antoni.”
“It doesn’t make sense that they’ve taken him. The have the necklace—what could they possibly want him for?”
Emun didn’t answer right away. We swam in silence for a time, keeping the sub’s lights in view.
“They might want insurance for a future plan,” he ventured. “Perhaps they aren’t done with the wreck, perhaps it’s Antoni who has something they want, perhaps they’ll contact you for ransom.” He threw me a sympathetic glance, magnified by the way his pupils were so large and liquid black. He looked a little doll-like with those eyes, and those fine bones in his face. “We’ll get him back, Targa. How many people do you know that can stand up to the power of a siren and a triton together? Just don’t forget that we don’t know who we’re dealing with. If they’re Atlanteans, then they’ll have immunity to the power of your voice, but they won’t be as physically strong as us. They won’t be immune to the power of my voice, but if I use it on them, I’ll hurt Antoni, and possibly you as well.”
“I don’t understand. What do you mean?”
“The powers of a triton’s voice differs from that of a siren. I don’t have the ability to erase memory or make irresistible commands, but I can force incredible volume, enough to burst an eardrum, break glass, or do other kinds of damage.” He reached forward in the water and propelled himself with a graceful stroke, turning his head to look at me from time to time. “I don’t want to have to use it if I don’t have to, but a deaf Antoni is better than a dead Antoni, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Let’s agree not to use your voice, Emun,” I replied. “A deaf Antoni is not acceptable to me or to him. I understand that it is better than a dead Antoni, yes, but that does not make it acceptable. There will be another way we can rescue him, even if my voice turns out to be useless.”
He looked at me and I couldn’t read his expression.
I grabbed his arm and slowed him down, desperation rising in my throat. “I mean it, Emun. Promise me you’ll not use your voice if there’s a chance it could damage Antoni’s hearing.”
“I don’t know if I can make that promise,” he began.
I squeezed his arm. “You have to,” I hissed, and I felt my fins stand out erect and my face change. The points of my teeth became razor-sharp and pressed against my tongue.
The lights of the sub grew dim in the distance.
“Promise me or you go no farther,” I snarled. “I’ll go on my own if I have to.”
I prepared myself to call on my elemental powers, bristling as I waited for him to comply. My fingers grew tense, curled in on themselves.
“I promise,” Emun responded gently, his voice soothing, and he pried my fingers from his arm. “He’s yours, I’ll respect your wishes. You know why I am here.”
We picked up speed again until the sub lights were bright. My defensive reaction eased and my hackles lay themselves down.
Yes, I knew why Emun was here. He wanted the pendant, but so did I. I liked him, but I didn’t fully trust him. I would have given anything for my mother to have been at my side instead of him.
For a time we did not communicate again, and I was left alone with my scheming. If it came to a confrontation between Emun and me, who was more powerful? I could bend water to my will and break metal with my bare hands, but what kind of powers did tritons have? Triton, rather, since it appeared perhaps there was only one. It had already been demonstrated that they, he, was not just a male version of a siren, but a different creation with other abilitie
s and powers.
“They’re descending.” Emun’s voice brought me out of my musings. The sub’s lights were drifting downward and its beams pointed into the depths where the tops of craggy mountains could be seen.
We followed, our bodies adjusting to the pressure as the depth increased. A jagged mountain range rose out of the gloom, sinister and with deep black abysses between the jutting spires and ridges. Silhouettes of sharks cast themselves against the rocks, and the beams of the submarine illuminated startled sea creatures, including a large squid which vanished into a crack in a craggy cliffside.
The sub leveled off for a long while, skimming over the tops of the mountains. Just as monotony settled in, it descended again and slowed considerably.
I felt Emun’s hand touch my forearm as we slowed to watch.
The sub slowed to a crawl and its beams became brighter, as though someone had flicked to high-beams. The twin spotlights illuminated a huge cliff face, craggy and deeply shadowed.
The sub moved forward, slowly.
“They’re going to hit the wall,” I cried. “What are they doing?”
“No…” Emun’s hand tightened around my wrist. “They’re going inside the mountain.”
He was right, and we watched, aghast, as the lights illuminated an entrance point large enough to accommodate the sub.
“This is unbelievable,” Emun muttered. Both of our eyes were glued to the sub as it moved forward, penetrating the crack and disappearing from view inside the rock face. The only sign of its passing wasa dim glow lighting the cave from the inside.
Without another word, Emun and I followed the sub into the bowels of the underwater mountain. The sub slowed considerably, understandable since they were now locked in on all sides by rock faces and craggy teeth.
“They’re insane,” I muttered as we followed, worry for Antoni’s life rising again in my chest. What if they crashed into the rocks? What if the sub had a malfunction? We were hundreds of feet down—not a problem for Emun and me, but a huge problem for a human reliant entirely on technology and superior piloting skills to keep them alive.
“They’ve been here before,” Emun stated.
I nodded. Come to think of it, that was obvious. Whoever was piloting the sub seemed to know exactly where they were going.
We followed the sub deeper into the cave, which became tight in spots and opened out into huge caverns in others––caves which had to be crossed and the exit selected out of many options––some which likely led to a way out while others to more tunnels and caves.
A new problem began to rear its ugly head. We were following someone who knew where they were going, but the cave was a network, and we’d already passed multiple other entrances to different fingers and arms of the cave. If we didn’t have a sub to follow, how were we going to get out?
I opened my mouth to bring this up to Emun but he had been pondering the same problem.
“Wherever they’re going, they either need to hit upon a cave with oxygen to get out, or they have to have a robot to be able to interact with their environment. If they don’t get out, we can’t rescue Antoni or get the pendant, and if they do…”
“We’ll have a confrontation, which we have to win, but then we have to get Antoni out of here safely, which means we need the pilot.”
Emun nodded. “Yes, so we’ll have to subdue them somehow, and force them to take Antoni out of here safely.”
“And if my voice has no effect?”
“We should assume that is the case. We don’t know where they’re going or what they’re doing down here, or even why they have Antoni. Let’s see where they go because we can’t form a plan until we have more information.”
Frowning, I agreed that this was the best we could plan at this point. Unless the men got out of the sub, there wasn’t much we could do.
As we followed the sub deeper and deeper into the cave system, my mind wouldn’t rest because of the fact that we had to rely on the men we were following to get back out again.
Putting my hand down at my side, I began to form a continuous column of ice as we swam. The ice crackled and drifted up to find the ceiling where it broke into chunks against the rock, but at least it provided a temporary thread in the direction from which we’d come. The water was cold enough down here that the melt rate would be very slow. For now, it was the best I could do. I supposed if I had to, I could use sonar to find my way out, but the deeper we got, the more exhausting it would be to get out that way. Sending sonic signals would tire me sooner than anything else.
Emun heard the sounds of the snapping ice columns and looked back. I couldn’t help the satisfaction I felt at the impressed look on his face.
“I’ve never seen that before,” he said, watching the ice trail behind us as it drifted and made a strange looking tube against the dark rock surface. “I don’t think that’s a normal siren trait, is it?”
“It’s an elemental trait,” I murmured, continuing to form ice as we traveled.
“Element…” He paused, looking bemused. “You’ll have to tell me more about that.”
“Perhaps when my loved one isn’t in mortal danger.”
“Of course.”
Emun had been right about one of his predictions. The sub slowed to a near-halt beneath a big black maw yawning over its hatch. There were buzzing and whirring sounds as the sub’s previously dormant props in its belly came to life and propelled it upward through the rock.
The fissure in the rock broadened until its walls were no longer visible in the inky blackness. A huge cave had opened up around us, and the silver seam of the water’s surface could be seen above our heads.
“You see,” Emun muttered, and the sound of his voice had completely changed. No longer was it bouncing off the rock walls around us, but it expanded into the huge cavern we’d entered. “They’re surfacing where there is air.”
Emerging with just the tops of our heads as water sluiced from the sub’s surfaces, the sound of sloshing water echoed off the distant walls and even more distant ceiling. Emun and I concealed ourselves behind one of the many rocky protrusions in the cave and waited for whatever was next.
The sounds of the sub’s engines dying and the whirring sound of its hatch opening filled the cave. Men’s voices followed, speaking a language I wasn’t sure I could identify as it wasn’t Polish, French, Italian, or Spanish.
Emun and I glanced at one another, listening, heads cocked.
“Dutch?” I guessed, only mouthing the words.
He shook his head and mouthed back, “Swiss German.”
This revelation bothered me for a reason I couldn’t put a finger on in the present stress I was under. Swiss German… This meant something, triggered something in my memory.
“Do you understand?” I mouthed.
Emun shook his head no.
If the circumstances hadn’t been so dire, I would have asked him what the benefit of being one-hundred-sixty years old was if he hadn’t used that time to learn the world’s major languages.
Peeking over the top of the rocks, we watched as five men emerged from the sub. I was not surprised to see the finely formed jaw of Adrian. My attention was drawn to his hand where he held a small device from which emerged a faint teal glow, like a weak laser-beam. No matter which way Adrian turned, or how the device was jostled in his hand, the teal light pointed in one direction only, like a compass.
Antoni came out as the fourth man and I clamped a hand over my mouth to keep from crying out. Emun shot me a warning look and shook his head. He put a finger to his lips and I nodded in agreement, I knew I had to be quiet. The urge to come out from the rock blasting the men with my siren voice was nearly overwhelming, but if they were Atlantean, we would have given our major advantages away––the fact that they didn’t know we were here.
I fought to control my breathing and watched Antoni, combing him for any sign of injury or mistreatment. I let out a long slow breath when I could see that he was moving normally. He
was being shadowed by two of the men, his every movement and position carefully monitored; he was under their control. He’d never fight against the men who held his only chance of leaving this cave alive.
The head and shoulders of the last man paused before getting fully out of the sub. He spoke to the others, gesturing with his hands. There was laughter, and the men sounded relaxed, almost jovial.
Emun and I shared a look at this. They were not worried about a thing, not even stressed or looking ashamed that they’d forcefully taken someone against his will. They appeared to have all the confidence in the world that they knew where they were going, they were perfectly safe and in control, and they were happy and maybe even excited to be in this freezing and deeply subterranean cave. The cold didn’t bother me or Emun, but the men were bundled up in jackets, hats, scarves, and fingerless gloves. Even Antoni had been given a hat and scarf.
The last man disappeared into the sub’s hatch and reappeared repeatedly, handing backpacks down to the others, one for each of them except Antoni. Finally, he too left the sub and jumped onto the cave floor as the rest of the men were fitting headlamps to their foreheads and turning on handheld flashlights. They heaved their backpacks onto their backs and began to move toward the back of the cave where a black crevice yawned upward. Adrian led, with that strange teal beam of light leading the way.
Emun and I shared a look of alarm. Where on earth were they going now? And on foot?
Keeping Antoni in the middle, they disappeared into the crevice in the wall just wide enough for one man to go through at a time.
After Antoni disappeared through the crack, followed by the last two men, my fins returned to legs and Emun and I padded across the stone, naked and barefoot. At the tall jagged entrance we didn’t hesitate, and darkness folded around us. Flashes of light and the sounds of conversation ahead of us were easy to follow.
The rock beneath our feet was damp and cold but smooth and in some places, a little slippery. The sound of dripping and running water was quiet but perpetual. The narrow walls of the passageway rose above our heads into blackness, making it impossible to see how high up it went. The sounds of the men’s voices up ahead, their relaxed chit-chat and sometimes laughter echoed and bounced through the passageway, off endless hard surfaces, and through tunnels and smaller depressions and caves as we passed.
