by J. F. Penn
Mila could sense the creatures out in the waters of the bay, gathering for their feast. Beyond them, somewhere in the deep, she could sense the giant creature they all worshipped.
They needed to get out of here but Mila had to rein in her power while the team were outnumbered. She could whip the sea into weapons and turn her own body into water, but the others would be injured or worse if she acted too soon. Better to wait until at least some of the tribesmen had gone.
But the priest remained silent alongside his team of men, eager eyes fixed on the water outside the cave, waiting for the sharks they served to come for the feast.
They weren’t leaving.
A wave washed over Jari’s face and she spluttered and coughed, straining to lift her mouth and nose above water.
“Please,” Finn whispered. “Help her.”
Mila knew his words were for her. He had seen her wield her water magic before when they had been cornered by the Warlord’s men. But they were still outnumbered — she had to wait just a little longer.
A dorsal fin of a shark broke the surface just outside the cave, moving quickly toward the bleeding figure on the rocks.
The priest raised his hands to the heavens. “Take this sacrifice in the name of Requin Géant.” His voice echoed around the cave.
“Move, Jari!” Finn shouted.
The shark lunged out of the water just as Jari arched her body backward, pulling her wrist and ankle shackles as far as they would go.
The shark’s jaws snapped shut only an inch from her stomach, then it slid back off the rocks into the water circling around to swim back and forth just a few meters away.
The priest clapped his hands in delight. “Next time the water will be higher. We will witness the sacrifice.”
Mila couldn’t wait any longer. As the waves washed over her feet, she summoned her magic, becoming one with the liquid. Her skin shimmered, expanded and the shackles broke around her ankles.
The priest turned, shock on his face. The tribesmen by his side raised their spears and charged.
Mila reached down to gather handfuls of the sea and spun it into two whips of water in the air. She snapped them at the legs of the men, knocking them off balance so they stumbled and fell into the rising waters.
As they tried to scramble to their feet, Mila spun her whips again, snapping off the shackles that held Perry and Finn captive. They each turned to the guards nearest them, pushing them under water. The drowning men writhed as they tried to escape but Finn forced one into his shackles, snapped them shut, then turned to help Sienna out of her bonds as Perry wrestled with the other.
Mila turned back to the priest.
He pulled the shark’s tooth blade from his belt once more, advancing with eyes blazing. “You dare challenge the priest of Requin Géant? You will pay with the salt of your blood, Waterwalker.”
The priest rushed forward, surprisingly fleet-footed for a man so big. He thrust the blade at Mila. As she whipped the air before him, he cut through the water droplets with no hesitation, laughing maniacally as he bore down upon her.
“Help!” Jari’s voice was desperate as the shark fin rose in the water before her, the dark grey of its great body visible beneath the waves.
A flash of white teeth.
The priest turned his head in triumph, eager to witness the devouring of his latest sacrifice. Mila charged at him, propelling the fleshy man across the cave so he tripped and fell back over Jari’s shackled body, his head dangling right over the water.
Just as the shark rose and bit down with its terrible jaws.
Blood spurted from the priest’s decapitated corpse, soaking the warrior woman beneath, pooling in the water by her side. Mila bent down and used the expanding water to snap the shackles from Jari’s wrists and ankles.
Jari sprang to her feet, her clothes covered in blood. She kicked at the body of the priest, rolling him into the water. “Go feed your precious sharks, you bastard.”
Out in the bay, more shark fins appeared, drawn by the gore. The two tribesmen, now shackled further back in the cave, began to beg.
“Please, we were just doing our duty. Let us go.”
Mila turned to see Sienna reaching for the closest one, her friend was ever the forgiving type. But this was no ordinary place, and Mila had the sense that there was more to this hidden city than they knew as yet.
She walked over to stand in front of them, the rising waters now thigh deep. She looked them both in the eyes.
“One chance. Is there an older temple here? A temple for those with my kind of magic?”
One guard looked blank but Mila saw a flash of recognition in the other’s eyes. She bent closer to him. “Do you know of it?”
He shook his head. “I’ve heard of it, but only rumors. The Waterwalkers are said to be extinct but—”
“We’re not.” The voice came from behind, near the entrance to the cave.
Mila spun around to see a young man pull himself out of the ocean. Water dripped from his body as he stood tall, wearing only a pair of shorts that did nothing to hide his muscular physique. His skin was the color of earth after warm rain and Mila couldn’t help but want to run her hands across it. His black hair was cropped short, his eyes wide above angular cheekbones marked with wavy lines tattooed in tiny dots. Mila had read of this scarification, the markings made to honor the water gods.
The young man walked closer, his eyes fixed on Mila. “I’m Ekon, the last Waterwalker left in Ganvié.” He reached out a hand and Mila stretched out hers in return. As their palms touched, she felt an electric spark between them, conducted by the water that bound them together.
“I’m Mila. These are my friends — Sienna and Perry, Finn and Jari.”
Ekon looked at the group, his eyes resting on the half-moon tattoo on Jari’s face. “Do you vouch for them all?” He half turned to indicate the sharks drawing ever closer in the lagoon, a pack of fins breaking the surface as the predators circled. “They still require sacrifice.”
Mila took a deep breath, part of her wishing she could just ditch Jari here and now, let her be devoured by the sharks, be rid of her for good. But Finn wouldn’t allow that, and they needed Finn.
“I vouch for them all.”
Ekon nodded. “You’ve come a long way and you are of my blood, Mila Waterwalker, so I will show you the temple.” He walked to the entrance of the cave, the waves now almost waist-deep. “We must hurry or your friends here will be shark bait.” His face hardened as he looked at the tribesmen. “Leave those two. I’ve seen them watch enough people die down here. This time it’s their turn.”
He slipped around the pillar at the entrance. Mila hurried after him, Jari and the others right behind as the shouts of the doomed tribesmen faded in the distance.
Holes and crevices pitted the rock wall outside the cave where the water had eaten away at it over time. Giant ferns hung down, casting shadows over the water, the sound of waves against the rock beating time.
There were plenty of places to hold onto as Mila clambered along, trying to keep Ekon in sight as he scrambled sideways along the water’s edge. She knew that he climbed instead of waterwalking to enable her friends to follow but she longed to see him slip into the water, his dark skin rippling alongside her own. She had never swum with anyone of her blood before, and now, here he was. Questions filled Mila’s mind about whether she could be from this region, whether she once had a home here — and could there still be one?
Ekon turned to make sure she was watching. He gave a cheeky grin and ducked into a narrow entranceway just above the waterline. Mila followed him down a tunnel that soon opened out into a large cavern. Stalagmites climbed toward the roof, glistening with milky white crystals. It was cool and smelled of salt water and the earthy scent of minerals leached from the rocks around.
One wall was carved with wave patterns, similar to the scars on Ekon’s cheeks.
“This was once the Temple of the Waterwalkers,” he explained. “Our
people were abundant, happy. They lived in union with the sea and its creatures.” He turned and looked at Mila. “But the Shadow grew strong in our ruler and he traded many of the women for more power. Young men escaped rather than be forced into slavery. Our magic was lost and our people faded into history.”
Mila reached for his hand. “Not all of us.”
He smiled and Mila felt the moment stretch on, lost in the dark pools of his eyes.
Sienna broke the silence. “We’re all facing a threat now, regardless of race or magic or which side of the border we stand on. We need to find the Map of Plagues and we think a knight came here hundreds of years ago. He may have buried something here.”
Ekon nodded. “I know of this knight. Follow me.”
He led them toward the back of the cave, through a winding passage between dripping walls of rock, emerging into a hollowed-out cavern. A rock in the shape of an anvil sat in the center covered with tiny sculptures made from carved driftwood and dried seaweed. Some were desiccated, shriveled with age and others were juicy and wet, recent offerings from one who still honored the ancestors.
Mila stepped up to the altar, feeling an urge to kneel here and pray to those whose blood ran in her veins. She reached for one of the sculptures and brushed the seaweed gently. This place felt so familiar.
Ekon pointed to the rocky wall behind the altar. “Is that your knight?”
It showed a mural of a man in unusual armor and a helmet painted in the natural colors of kelp and coral, faded by time. Next to him, a Waterwalker stood with a crown on his dark curls, his black skin shiny with new paint, the colors renewed over time in a sign of respect. The men stood shoulder to shoulder against a backdrop of a city that was nothing like Ganvié, a pyramid in pride of place marked with the black lines of a death’s head skull.
Sienna walked closer to the wall. “He certainly looks like a medieval knight, and that image on the pyramid was also in the library. Perhaps he hid another piece here with the help of a Waterwalker?”
Mila examined the city behind the men. “It looks almost Egyptian, but how can that be?”
Ekon circled the altar to stand by her side. “As land is pushed over from Earthside, forming new places in the Borderlands, the same happens underwater but not at the same rate. This city is beneath us, an ancient place of mystery buried by the ocean perhaps thousands of years ago. Our ancestors worshipped at its altar but it is unreachable by any except our kind.” He pointed at the Waterwalker king. “If he had to keep something safe, it would be in the city below.”
Mila turned to face him, her eyes bright. “Will you take me?”
13
Mila and Ekon sat on the edge of a pool at the back of the cave. It had clearly been formed by ancient tools, each inch of hard-won stone carved by those who spent their lives in the dark, the sound of metal on stone ringing in their ears.
“Have you been down there before?” Mila asked.
“Many times.” Ekon ran his hand over the stone and into the water, his flesh shimmering, turning to liquid as he touched it. There was evident pleasure on his face, a sense of longing for the deep that Mila recognized. On Earthside, she fought the urge to swim, to call on her water magic and sink into the canal or the river or the ocean, because each time she used it, she exchanged a piece of herself with the shadow. But now, she could give in to her desire, sink into the blue, become one with the waves with no guilt. The penalty was still the same, but somehow, it didn’t matter any longer.
Something changed along with her body when she became water. Sometimes she wondered whether she might turn into a sea creature if she remained underneath long enough. Her magic made her part of the water, and she didn't know how long she could stay down for. She had never tried it for too long, aware of the seconds ticking away and the drops of shadow turning in her blood.
Mila glanced sideways at Ekon. He didn’t seem bothered by fear of what might happen. He seemed entirely at ease with his magic. His dark skin was several shades deeper black than her own, his body sculpted with well-used muscles. She couldn't take her eyes off him.
Ekon met her gaze. “My ancestors came from Africa on Earthside, you know.” He shrugged. “At least that’s what they told me when I was growing up in the camp. Perhaps we’re related.”
Mila turned her face away to hide her blush. I hope not.
Sienna came to kneel next to Mila at the edge of the pool. “Are you sure you want to do this? We don't know what's down there.”
“But I do.” Ekon’s voice was confident, sure of himself. “I’ve been down to the ruined city many times.” He looked at Mila, his glance hesitant. “We should be fine. I mean there are creatures down there, things that came over from Earthside. They should be as extinct as this city but they still survive here. Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye out for them.”
Sienna put her hand on Mila’s arm. “You don’t have to go.”
Mila looked down into the deep blue pool. All she wanted was to swim away, to lose herself in the depths — and some time alone with Ekon would be good, too. But Sienna didn’t need to know that. She sighed. “We need this piece of the map.”
Sienna nodded. “But we don't know for sure that it's down there.”
Finn stepped forward, his deep voice resonating in the chamber. “The mark on the pyramid matches the Librarian’s map piece. All the signs point to it being down there and we have no way of exploring the city without you two. It must have remained untouched for so long because there are so few of your kind.”
Your kind. Finn’s words echoed in the chamber and Mila caught a tightening in Ekon’s jaw at the implication.
They were the ‘others’ here. She and Ekon were outsiders and in a small way, it thrilled her. Mila had always felt like the odd one out and usually, in the Borderlands, she was lumped in with the rest of the Mapwalker team. But suddenly, she had kin. There was another of her kind here. Was this her true home?
Mila swung her legs around and put her feet into the water. The shimmer of blue washed up her legs as they became fluid, edges blurring into the pool. She caught Ekon's eye as he looked at her, his eyes darkening as he followed her curves into the water. Men had looked at her body with desire before, but never like this. Ekon saw her true self.
She looked up at Sienna and Finn. “We’ll just go and have a look, then report back. We won’t be long.”
Ekon pushed himself off the edge of the stone rim into the pool, sinking quickly, his body quicksilver flashing beneath. Mila pushed herself off to join him, leaving her friends behind.
The water was clear turquoise and as they descended, the outline of the sunken city became clearer. It was nearly ten kilometers long and half as wide, bisected by a grand causeway lined with statues and a colonnade that led to the looming pyramid in the center.
Ekon darted in front of Mila, his features obscured by the water as if a layer of silk had been laid across his flesh. She had never seen herself in a mirror underwater after the change but she imagined that she must look the same way. Smooth lines gliding through the water like a water sprite. She wanted to touch him, to see what his body felt like down here.
“Isn't it incredible that this was built nearly ten thousand years ago?”
Mila froze, hanging in the water, stunned that she could hear Ekon's voice.
He frowned. “You can hear me, right?”
Mila nodded. “I didn't … I didn't know you could speak underwater. There’s never been anyone for me to talk to before.”
Ekon laughed, the sound muted, pressed down by the weight of the water above them. “It seems there are a lot of things you didn't know about our kind.”
He said the last words in an approximation of Finn’s voice and Mila giggled.
A giant manta ray suddenly flew out of the blue toward them, black wings gliding on the current, gaping mouth open to filter feed. Ekon flipped over on his back, letting the wash move over him as it passed, then gliding in its wake. Mila loved to see him en
joy his watery body. She had spent so much time in denial of her true nature, it was refreshing to see someone so at home in his. There was a sinuous beauty in the way he moved and she wondered if she could ever be as graceful.
Ekon gave a cheeky grin as he turned in the water, catching her eye. He swept his arm over the drowned city before them.
“Some say it was buried under water when the ice caps melted, thousands of years before known civilization. After the memory of this city faded on Earthside, when it was written out of your history, it ended up here.”
“But we’ve been told that the border was only drawn a few hundred years ago.”
Ekon raised an eyebrow, a ripple in the water as he shook his head. “It may be your Mapwalkers strengthened what already existed, but there are things in the Borderlands that you haven't seen on Earthside for many generations. There are many levels to history — and to truth.”
They swam down to the grand entrance gate, flanked by statues of ferocious warrior gods, swords held high in multiple hands reminiscent of the Hindu god, Kali.
As Mila swam closer to examine the weapons, a huge shadow passed overhead, blocking out all light, turning the water to inky black.
Ekon grabbed Mila’s hand and pulled her quickly behind the pillars of the colonnade. She peered out, wondering what could make such a shadow in the water.
A massive shark cruised by above them, at least four times as big as a Great White. Its colossal tail caused a current as it swept back and forth through the water and Mila had to hold onto the pillar to stop herself being washed away.
They had been in its way only seconds before. Mila’s heart pounded as she considered the near miss. She had mostly waterwalked in the canals and inland rivers of modern England, threatened only by discarded metal or entanglement in fishing lines, as well as dealing with the occasional Feral Borderlander who crossed over. But she had never even considered the hierarchy of the deep.
Perhaps she didn’t belong down here after all.
As the massive shark faded into the deeper blue, Ekon swam out from behind the pillar into the main causeway again and hovered above the huge cobblestones. “I’m not sure if the shark could even sense the signals we give off down here. I don't know anyone who's ever studied us, do you?”
