by Cheree Alsop
“The Airborne Defense thinks we’re aboard the Pyxis,” Zyla said, her voice thick with horror.
“They’d better answer quick or they’ll be reaching the sea before any of us,” Captain Dawes replied grimly.
The man in the crow’s nest ducked as another volley of bullets rained down. When he rose again, he appeared to be in a shouting match with the man at the stern who wore a captain’s coat. The argument was abruptly ended when a bullet struck the captain and he slumped to the side. A crewmate ran up, checked the man, then yelled to the one in the crow’s nest. He immediately returned the red and black flag signal.
All around them, ships began a quick descent to the sea.
Orion watched them with troubled eyes.
“We need to get there first,” he said.
Zyla followed his gaze to the water below. Apparently, the chaos of battle and the ships that had already fallen beneath the Skirmishers’ relentless attacks had caught the attention of more creatures. A massive shark tore through the wreckage of a fallen Trader while a black and white orca bigger than the Circinus made short work of a Dweller. Families huddled together on planks as their ship was destroyed.
Movement out of the corner of her eye made Zyla turn. Orion stood on the railing with his gaze on the water below.
“What are you doing?” she asked in shock.
“With faith in foe and sea divine, the fates change footsteps with the nine,” he repeated.
She grabbed his hand to keep him from stepping over the edge. “That doesn’t mean jump to your death!”
He gave her a small smile. “I’ve got to do this. Trust me.”
At Orion’s nod, Uncle Demetri took Zyla’s hand and pulled her back.
“Be careful,” he told the young man.
Orion nodded in reply, then dove over the side of the ship.
Chapter Thirteen
Orion
Striking the water felt like a thousand little knives. I wondered if I should have waited for the ship to get lower, but the sight of the families trying to survive the ravenous monsters of the deep ate at my heart. I didn’t know if the prophecy was real or fake. There was no way to be sure if I could trust it, but at that point, I had to put my faith in something.
Reality had struck hard when I read the story of my death in the book in Captain Dawes’ quarters. I wasn’t just some wanderer who had forgotten my past. I truly didn’t belong to Zyla’s world. If I was a stranger brought back by the fates to face Hades, I would protect as many people as I could to do so. Bringing the ships to sea may have been a too-literal take on the prophecy, but I was determined to make it work for the good of Zyla’s people.
A colossal black shadow raced toward me in the water. Apparently, my splash had caught the attention of something far bigger than the sea creature Zyla and I had ridden before. Time slowed, the shadow’s teeth parted, and I found myself staring into the depths of a shark’s mouth so big I couldn’t see where it ended.
I shoved my hands and legs down and shot away. The force of the teeth snapping shut inches from my feet sent me spiraling head over heels in the cold, limitless liquid. I righted myself to find that I was inches from a black, emotionless eye bigger than I was tall. I resisted the urge to pull the blade from my waist and blind it. Instead, I raised my hand and slowly drew the goggles from my head.
I didn’t understand why my eyes glowed. The strange things I had learned with the Circinus crew and the fact that I had managed to make the creature listen to us after Zyla and I were shipwrecked before left no reason in my mind for the shark to listen to me. Yet the story I had read in Captain Dawes’ quarters mentioned power over sea creatures. Submerged in the water, I had nothing but my eyes to compel him. Blue reflected back at me from his dead-looking iris.
Suddenly, the iris shimmered like a stone dropped into the water in a well. The image cleared and I found myself staring at a familiar face.
“Hello, brother.”
I opened my mouth, but the water prevented me from saying Persephone’s name. I blinked, my tears lost in the vast sea.
“I need you to send Hades home,” she said.
Her voice sounded as though it came from a far distance. There was sadness on her face, but also the determination I remembered from our youth. Persephone’s long dark hair swayed around her shoulders as if she, too, was caught in a dark ocean.
Flashbacks of our childhood rushed through my mind. I saw Persephone as a little girl, stubborn and carefree as she raced Despoine across the grassy meadows on their matching stallions. She climbed to the highest point of a tree in another memory, and our father barely managed to catch her when the branch broke and she plummeted toward the ground. Everyone at the picnic had paused, sure that she would burst out crying, but the little girl merely looked up at Father and grinned, her dark eyes sparking with merriment.
“Again!” she had demanded.
Another memory pushed the others away. We sat in my dark room. She had woken me up with despair on her teenage face. “I love him, Orion. I don’t know what to do.”
“Mother always said that love can make anything happen. Follow your heart, Sephie. It will lead you right.”
“But it didn’t,” the Persephone in the shark’s eye said, breaking me from my memories. “I was young and foolish. I thought Altair loved me and I was blinded by that love. I deserve my fate.”
I shook my head. I wanted to yell, to tell her that she didn’t deserve to spend the rest of eternity in the Underworld with Hades, that love was real. The thought of Zyla in danger in the ships above made my heart race in my chest. I was running out of time. I didn’t know how to save everyone I loved.
“I am where I need to be, Orion,” Persephone said.
There was strength in her eyes and acceptance on her face. I realized I wasn’t looking at a beaten, lost little girl, but at a woman who understood her role in the universe. I wished I felt the same way.
“Don’t despair, brother,” she said. A hint of humor showed in the small smile she gave me. “You always were foolish when it came to love.” Her smile turned self-deprecating. “As was I. But in you, that love becomes a strength.” Her gaze lowered. “I shot you when Altair convinced me killing Despoine was the only way we would be happy together.” Her eyes locked back on mine. “When I found out what I had done, I chose a life in the Underworld determined to keep Hades from fooling others and causing the chaos he loves so much. But recently he tricked me and escaped.”
My head began to pound with the need to breathe. I let out the last of the air I had used and took in a mouthful of water. My body used the ability it had inherited from my father and took the oxygen it needed from the liquid. The urgency to surface faded.
“Orion, I need you to send Hades back to the Underworld,” Persephone continued. “I promise to keep him here for as long as I can.” She shook her head and her eyes flashed like they used to when she was younger. “He’s tricky, but so am I. I will do whatever I can to keep him here if you can just return him to me.”
I lifted my hands to show that I had no idea how to do what she asked.
“Stab him with the black tooth, but be careful not to cut yourself. The poison is fatal for our kind.”
She motioned and the shark opened its mouth. A tooth darker than the deepest part of the ocean floated out. I took off my shirt and caught it in the fabric, careful not to let the serrated edge cut me before I could wrap it up securely. I shoved it behind the hem of my pants where it wouldn’t fall out.
“Now, my brother, it’s time to make your prophecy come true. Climb on.”
I managed to slip my goggles back on and grab the dorsal fin before the shark shot through the water and into the air like a deadly ship-sized bullet. It caught two of the Skirmishers in its rows of teeth before it closed its mouth with a resounding crack. We crashed back to the sea in the center of the lowering ships.
The sea creatures that had been attacking the wreckage vanished at the sight of the
gigantic shark. The shark moved slowly forward in the water, propelled by a tail taller than the Circinus’ masts.
The Skirmishers stopped firing and lifted higher in the air as though afraid the shark would take to the skies and eat all of them. The sight of the Orion far above the tiny ships sent a surge of anger through me. The man who had caused my death and Persephone’s suffering, not to mention the countless individuals he had impacted in both lifetimes, stood on that ship. I vowed to make him pay if it was the last thing I did.
“Orion!”
I looked over to see Zyla standing on the bow of the Circinus. Several Skirmishers had landed on the Hauler and were fighting with the crew. One man had a knife to Zyla’s neck. He forced her back toward a Skirmisher where the pilot and other soldiers waited.
“After her!” I commanded the shark.
The creature surged forward in the water. Its massive wake sent the ships who had landed bobbing through the waves. The crew of the Skirmisher saw us coming. Shouts sounded, Zyla was pulled aboard the small craft, and it rose into the air. The others lifted off with it as Dawes’ crew fired at them.
Unaware of my goal, the shark continued its headlong rush toward the ship.
“Turn,” I shouted before the shark could connect with the side of the Circinus.
With barely time to react, the creature pushed its massive tail to the left and barely avoided connecting with the ship. It slowed to a halt and my eyes locked with Captain Dawes’. The man looked as though he was barely standing as he held onto the wheel at the helm.
“What now?” he called out.
“The shark will guard the ships,” I told him. “You’ve got to get me up to the Orion.”
He nodded. “I have an idea.”
I slid down the side of the shark and used its fin to cross to the ship amid the stares of the crew. As soon as I was on board, the towering beast surged forward through the water and began to swim in slow circles around the ships clustered there. No creature would dare to battle the giant of the deep for a taste of splintered wood and the mere fare they would find aboard.
Captain Dawes met me on the main deck as if welcoming someone aboard from the back of a shark was part of a normal day. If his face was a bit pale and his eyes wider than usual, I chose to attribute it to the roiling of the waves beneath the hull. He led me forward toward a port in the deck covered with a sliding door.
“Jack, it’s time,” Captain Dawes said.
The small man in the tall top hat appeared from seemingly nowhere. The enthusiasm on his face belied the fact that we were in the middle of an intense battle. At that moment, bullets scattered along the deck from the ships above. The crafts kept their distance after seeing their comrades be eaten by the shark, so the relatively poor aim didn’t send us running for shelter.
“I’m thinking now is as good a time as any!” the man said.
“Time for what?” I asked.
“You’ll see,” the Captain replied. “Jack’s been begging me to let him try his dirigible all year.”
“And I’m thinking now is the time,” Jack replied.
I had no idea what they were talking about and could only watch as both men shoved the door in the deck aside. Bits of multi-colored canvas and rope were revealed, not the Skirmisher I was hoping for.
“Now what?” I asked. My tone was tight. The thought of Zyla in Altair’s clutches made me furious. It was all I could do to keep from diving into the water and demanding that the shark leap up after them. The knowledge that the great creature was too big to push itself so high kept me still.
“Climb into the basket,” Captain Dawes directed.
I did as I was told. “Maybe I should have a gun,” I said.
“I don’t think you’re going to want a gun anywhere near this thing,” Captain Dawes replied.
“And I’m thinking you should hold on,” Jack said.
He yanked on a piece of metal which released the catch on a canister that stood next to the basket tied to a contraption beneath the canvas. A hissing sound followed. The man pulled a piece of flint from his pocket and struck it against the steel of his gun. The resulting spark floated past the gas that hissed from the canister. A flame followed that quickly turned blue. The hot air from the flame flooded into the canvas. Immediately, the canvas filled and began to rise.
Jack danced away from the hole with a look of glee on his face.
The dirigible began to lift into the air. I held onto the ropes with one hand and kept my gaze on the ship far above that held my Zyla captive.
“I’m thinking I told you it would work, Cap’n,” Jack said with a hoot of merriment. “I told you!”
“We’ll see how high he can get with those Skirmishers around,” Tower said from near the mast.
Captain Dawes’ gaze lifted to the canvas balloon rising above me. His eyes shifted to the ships far above that circled the Orion. The Captain shouted, “Shoot the Skirmishers down! Don’t let a single bullet hit the dirigible!”
Instinct told me to jump from the balloon’s basket before it rose too high into the sky, but the danger Zyla was in kept me still even as the sound of Skirmishers drew near. Bullets tore through the air around me, drawing closer to the balloon. I closed my eyes, sure it would be struck. My eyes flew open again when the sound of an answering bullet sped past and connected with the closest attacking ship. I looked down at Mason as he lowered one of Barnaby’s long guns. I gave him a wave of gratitude. The young man whose ribs I had bound waved back and he lifted the gun again.
I watched with my heartbeat pounding in my ears as the crews from the rest of the ships joined the Circinus in taking out my attackers. The sight of the monstrous shark keeping them safe from the sea’s predators filled me with relief as the dirigible neared the Orion. The Skirmishers fought desperately to take the balloon down. Despite a few bullets that managed to snake through the basket, boarding the Orion became a near reality as the remaining Skirmishers were taken out by the well-trained Revolters below.
Two more shots sounded from the below and the Skirmisher on my left fell from the sky. The pilot of the Skirmisher on my right glared at me with a look that made my blood turn cold. If I had any doubt that the servants of King Tolier would die for him, they were answered in that gaze. The pilot turned his ship to point it directly at the balloon.
I scrambled, looking for any way to escape, but there was nothing around besides the air and the water far below. The Orion was still several feet above the top of the balloon. A look back at the Skirmisher told me one thing. If I didn’t do something, I would be visiting Persephone far before Hades did.
In an act of desperation, I kicked over the canister that fueled the flames. The basket immediately caught fire. I grabbed one of the ropes from the side and sliced it with my knife. I wrapped the end around my wrist and kicked free just as the basket was consumed by the blaze.
The resulting burst of hot air made the balloon rush upward toward the Orion. I met the gaze of the Skirmisher’s pilot and gave him a taunting, calculated smile. The man’s eyes narrowed and he adjusted his attack angle. I climbed quickly up the rope as the canvas of the balloon caught fire. The crew of the Skirmisher shouted at their pilot just before he slammed into the basket of the dirigible and, secondarily, into the hull of the Orion. The entire ship shook. I was nearly thrown from the rope, but the impact pinned the balloon to the ship as I had hoped.
Water was poured down from the ship above in an attempt to quench the flames. My hands slipped and I inched down toward the wreckage. The rope lowered with a jolt as whatever the balloon had caught on began to give way. I looked around in desperation.
I spotted the bolted glass of a circular window a few feet from me. Aware that I was out of time, I kicked away from the hull and reached for the window frame. My fingers grabbed the edge as the balloon gave way altogether. I held on with one hand and watched as the dirigible and the wreckage of the Skirmisher fell toward the sea. I could only hope the ships were out of
the path of the disaster.
My fingers started to slip.
Something slapped the side of the ship next to me.
“Grab on.”
I looked up to see the silhouette of several soldiers peering over the edge of the Orion. With no other course of action available, I snaked my free hand around the rope. A quick tug showed that it was indeed held securely. When both of my hands were on the cord, the men above hauled me slowly upward.
I rolled onto my back on the Orion’s deck. Massive solar sails and wind sails blocked out much of the afternoon sky. I willed my breathing to slow as the adrenaline faded from my fight for survival. I lifted a hand to shield my goggled eyes from the sun and realized my fingers were shaking. I lowered my hand back down.
A face blocked out the sunlight.
“Get up.”
It was the same gruff voice from before. I turned over and pushed up to my knees. A look around showed that I was surrounded by Airborne Defense.
“Where’s Zyla?” I asked.
“No questions,” the man replied. “Get up.” His words were emotionless and his eyes showed the same dull glint of the shark before Persephone had taken over its thoughts. Hades was indeed brainwashing them with his control.
I closed my eyes for a moment to gather my strength, then rose to my feet.
“You’re all blindly following a king who has shown no care for your families. He destroys your loved ones without mercy. He—”
My words were cut off when the man kicked me in the back of my knees, knocking me to the ground again.
He stepped over me and said, “No talking.” The curt order of “Cuff him, then bring him,” followed.
Two soldiers grabbed me beneath my arms and yanked me to my feet. Another fastened metal handcuffs around my wrists, pinning my arms behind my back. They then looped their arms under mine and dragged me forward. I could have helped, but chose to reserve my strength in case another fight presented itself.
They half-carried, half-dragged me down the hall and through golden doors into a grand room. Windows rose from the floor to the ceiling; a glance down showed that glass covered the floor as well. The room had been built to project out in front of the bow so that those inside it had a clear view of the ocean below and the world beyond.
