A Kingdom Beneath the Waves

by Bowles, David;

  “Sensitive to changes in water pressure and displacement,” he cautioned as they hauled the wide-eyed triton back. “Let us wait a moment to allow equilibrium to establish itself.”

  After a few minutes, they slowly made their way down the main corridor to a hub with multiple archways ranged in an irregular polyhedron, as if the nexus had been grown haphazardly like a crystal. A glyph glimmered above each.

  “Anybody read man-fish?” Johnny quipped.

  Ana floated up toward an archway above them. “I believe it is Middle Apantic, though scrawled as if by a child. This reads ‘Observation Tower.’ ”

  She glanced about muttering the different names to herself. Johnny wondered how in the world she knew such an ancient language.

  Mihuah apparently noticed his befuddled look. “A Royal Historian must learn all the languages in which our annals have been written. Middle Apantic, if I am not mistaken, was still in use up to about 10,000 years ago among our ancestors.”

  “Come on, this place can’t be that old, Mihuah.”

  “Well, probably not. But the tlacamichimeh are much longer-lived than we are. Only during the last millennium have they begun to learn the newer tongues.”

  “Here.” The princess pointed to an archway at a forty-five-degree angle from the main corridor that was titled ‘Map Room.’

  This time the guards were a lot less gung-ho about entering the new corridor. When the low hum began, there was time to slip into shallow niches along the wall as a sickly green wave of energy rushed down toward the hub.

  Johnny glanced up and down the corridor till he saw the crystal skull encrusted in the stone a little way ahead.

  “Tenamic,” he called, pointing at it.

  “Ah, there it is. Well done, Johnny. It senses the heat and shape of our bodies. The builders of this place despised the Atlacah and sought to keep us from exploring it too deeply even after they abandoned it.”

  Closing his eyes, the Archmage muttered a spell and sent a bolt of white fire crashing into the sensor, which cracked and went dark.

  “I believe the way is safe now,” Tenamic said, leading the group a few more meters into an uncharacteristically perfect sphere. It was filled with smaller crystal spheres of varying sizes, floating haphazardly, onto which maps had been etched.

  “Uh, that’s a lot of maps,” Johnny said. “How do we find the right one?”

  Ana grinned. “You are focusing on the little details, friend. Take a look at the wider world.”

  She stretched out her arms, and Johnny saw it—the walls of the room itself were a huge map, finely detailed, different points sparkling with a form of chemical or magical light. Johnny recognized North America’s Pacific coast below him. He dove toward it, and the others followed.

  Tenamic tapped the butt of his staff against a red dot. “Is this where we are now, Princess?”

  Ana came closer, ran her fingers across the glyphs. “Yes, that represents the waystation.”

  Everyone looked south from that point, hoping to see an indication that Atlan was close by. The dark line of the trench skirted the Mexican coast, but there was no indication of where the ruins might be.

  Her fingertips tapping the glyphs, Ana wondered aloud, “How does one get to Atlan from here?”

  All around them, a snarling voice gurgled and wheezed.

  “What the holy heck was that?” Johnny exclaimed, his eyes scanning the map room.

  Tenamic put a hand on his shoulder. “It was the voice of a tlacamichin. Conserved by sorcery in this chamber.”

  Carol turned to Ana. “And what did it say?”

  The princess looked at her fingertips and then at the glyph. “It says ‘restate query.’ Oh! It did not understand. I know what to do.”

  She pressed her fingers to the glyphs and grated a question in the ancient language.

  A flickering blue line shot out from the red dot representing the waystation, traveling along the trench for the entire length of Mexico and a bit beyond before terminating in another red blotch.

  The disembodied voice spoke again. Ana translated.

  “Atlan lies 600,000 rods south, off the coast of Kihtyei.” She blanched. “That is an ancient name for the land of Cuauhtemallan.”

  Guatemala, Carol translated.

  Yeah, I know. Map’s right there. Besides, I’ve been speaking Nahuatl for longer than you, Sis.

  Oh, I forgot. A whole six months longer. But Guatemala? That’s like fifteen hundred kilometers from here, Johnny! What the heck are we going to do?

  Tenamic was clearly thinking the same thing. “By the goddess! 600,000 rods? It would take us twenty days to reach Atlan.”

  Mihuah began swimming along the blue path that had lit up between the waystation and the Abyss.

  “Why is it shimmering?” she asked aloud.

  Carol dipped toward her, and together they examined the route.

  “There is a glyph, hidden in the flickering!” Mihuah exclaimed. “Do you not see it, Ana?”

  Without removing her fingers, the princess leaned closer. “Yes! It reads ‘half-watch by Roqha.’ The name is familiar…ah! I recall it now. Roqha is what our ancestors called the Atoyatl.”

  One of the guards made a dismissive gesture. “That’s foolishness. The Atoyatl is a story for children. A fairy tale.”

  Johnny looked at him and then back at Ana. “Wait, hold on. Humans in the house. What is this Roqha-Atoyatl thing?”

  “A legendary current,” Tenamic said, gripping his staff tighter, “that flows as fast as sound, pouring eternally into the Abyss.”

  “Oh,” said Johnny. “I can totally see why he doesn’t buy it. That’s pretty much impossible.”

  “Maybe magic?” Carol ventured. “But even then, wouldn’t that kill anyone who tried to travel inside it?”

  “Yeah, like being duct-taped to the wing of a jet.”

  They’re not…

  …going to understand me. Yeah, I know.

  The Archmage seemed to ponder the question for a moment. “Often the patina of legend hides a forgotten truth. While I doubt the existence of a current capable of moving at the speed of sound, it also seems unlikely that the map would lie. If it suggests that there is a way to travel to Atlan in the space of half a watch, I am inclined to investigate. The current must have its source close by, to judge from the illuminated route. I will notify the castellan and marshal about these developments and then take a team to scout ahead. In the meantime, Princess Anamacani, you should lead Mihuah and the twins in an examination of the other maps in this room. Perhaps you will find information that will further aid our mission.”

  He gestured at one of the guards and began to leave.

  “Oh,” he added, turning back to glance at them, “take great care in all you do. Be certain to exit exactly as we entered. Who knows what other traps might await intruders in the bowels of this strange place? Or indeed in this very room?”

  Oh, great, Johnny muttered sarcastically into his sister’s mind. That’s very encouraging.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Thankfully, there weren’t any booby traps in the map room. Carol felt pretty useless, wading through the floating crystal globes that represented places she’d never seen labeled with glyphs she couldn’t read from a language she didn’t know. Ana showed them the symbol for Atlan, a stylized mountain with seven circles, so they concentrated on looking for maps with that mark.

  After a couple of excruciatingly boring hours, Mihuah shook her head in exasperation. “I cannot continue, friends. I simply must get out of this chamber. Not only because of how intolerably dull and pointless this exercise is, but also because I must attend to…certain…personal matters.”

  Johnny snickered. “Oh, that’s cool, Mihuah. When you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go.”

  She arched an eyebrow at him and shook her head in mock disappointment.

  One of the three guards present drifted to her side. “I’ll accompany you, Lady Mihuah.”

&nbs
p; “No, that is unnecessary. I am going straight out the way we came. Stay here and take my place searching through these inscrutable globes.”

  With a quick hug of her cousin, Mihuah slipped from the map room.

  Lucky her, Johnny complained mentally. This is really lame.

  Anything that might help us get the mission accomplished faster and help Mom is worth a little annoyance. Besides, I’m pretty sure you don’t mind hanging out with your crush, huh?

  Again with that? Get a new joke, loser.

  Carol laughed despite herself.

  Ana looked at them dubiously. “Has anyone ever told you two that it is rude to hold a telepathic conversation in front of others?”

  Johnny nodded. “Our mom. Lots of times. Sorry, Ana.”

  Carol cast about for another sphere to examine. She found one about the size of a Ruby Red grapefruit. Embossed at one of its poles was the glyph for Atlan.

  “Hey, guys, look! I found something.”

  Ana paddled over and took the globe from her hands. “Oh, well done, Carol! This is a map of Sulamala itself, where Epan and Quelel had their final confrontation. I am certain it will help us locate the Shadow Stone before Maxaltic.”

  “Yay, Carol!” Johnny yawned. “Can we get out of here now? I’m getting hungry and pretty anxious for movement.”

  “Hopefully Tenamic gets back soon with good news,” Carol said, heading toward the entrance. “Johnny’s usually too antsy for his own good, but this time I totally agree.”

  With the other two laughing lightly at her back, Carol led the way back down the corridor to the oddly shaped hub.

  There was something waiting for them.

  A massive jellyfish.

  It filled the entire hub, its gelatinous bell fringed by a thick shock of golden tentacles. Coming from its center and stretching out across several meters were four oral arms—dangerous strands that dangled from the creature’s mouth, clutching hungrily.

  “By the goddess!” Ana exclaimed. “That is a minamicqui, the deadliest jellyfish of the Deep. The venom in those arms can easily kill an atlacatl.”

  “Crap,” Johnny muttered, glancing about. “Is Mihuah okay? Did she make it through before this thing wandered in here?”

  “I don’t see her,” Carol answered. “I think she’s safe.”

  “Or floating in the main corridor after getting stung. Okay, we have to get past. What animal can we use, Sis? Anything armored in your repertoire?”

  Carol looked down at her necklace, which floated just above her white yoke. That’s it! she thought. We don’t have to shapeshift at all.

  “Johnny, we’ve got the clothing of gods. I’m pretty sure we can make it if we create armored bodysuits with them. Then we can shield these four from getting stung as they move through the hub.”

  “Not bad, Carol! I like the way you think.”

  Johnny closed his eyes and soon Huitzilopochtli’s cloak had reformed itself into a suit of scalloped black armor covering all but his face. Carol pictured white oyoroi of the type that samurai wore in her favorite Manga, and then she coaxed Mayahuel’s robe into that shape.

  “Alright,” she said when she was ready, “let’s do this.”

  The twins dove toward the jellyfish. The oral arms slapped against their armor with sickening thuds, but no poison reached them while they pinned the appendages against the walls.

  “Go, quick!” Carol called.

  The guards shielded the princess as they swam her quickly through the hub. Once they had crossed, the twins released the jellyfish and joined them in the main tunnel.

  There was no sign of Mihuah.

  “Thank the goddess,” Ana said. “She must be safe.”

  They finally exited the waystation to find Enehnel and Captain Xicol guarding the entrance.

  “Have you seen Mihuah?” Carol asked anxiously.

  “Yes, Lady Carol. She emerged not long ago.”

  “Oh, that’s a relief. Captain, there’s a huge minamicqui inside. You should probably seal up the entrance and not let anyone else in. We got everything we needed, anyway.”

  “That seems prudent. Castellan Nalquiza asked to see the three of you once you had finished. Enehnel, please escort them.”

  As they swam past resting guards, Enehnel looked the twins up and down. “I like this fancy new armor—you’ll put even the military pretensions of the castellan to shame, I’m betting.”

  “Dude, that’s your commanding officer you’re smarting off about,” Johnny said. When Enehnel’s eyes went wide and he began sputtering an apology, Johnny cracked a smile. “I’m just joking, man. We all think she’s pretty uptight, too.”

  Enehnel relaxed and gave a bemused laugh.

  “Ah. I’d forgotten about your weak jests, boy. Well done.”

  Carol soon found her samurai armor to not be particularly streamlined or suitable for swimming.

  I’m going to go back to the regular siren clothes, she told her brother. More comfortable.

  I think I’ll keep this look for a while, Sis. Just in case.

  They found the castellan and the marshal consulting with their staff around weighted maps that lay across a flat boulder. Mihuah was with them, and as the twins approached with Ana and Enehnel, she looked up, a second of confusion crossing her face before she smiled.

  “Did you find something after all?” she called.

  Ana held up the globe. “Yes. A map of Sulamala. We also found a minamicqui waiting for us in the hub. Had it not been for Johnny and Carol, I doubt we would have made it out alive.”

  “What? Are you unhurt?”

  Ana rubbed her cousin’s shoulder. “I am well, Mihuah. The twins have considerable powers to protect.”

  The castellan clenched her hands into fists. “This time you are unscathed, Princess. We can no longer continue to risk your royal person. Marshal Cenaman carries orders from your mother the Queen. You are to be sent back with a contingent of guards. You cannot accompany us on the final stage of this mission.”

  Ana turned her head sharply, electric blue dreadlocks whipping about like eels. “Absolutely not. Consider for a moment. Would it not be just as dangerous for me to return to Tapachco, even with an armed retinue, given all the dark forces running amok in the Deep? Besides, I am the Royal Historian, well versed in our ancestral languages. Who else can read the ancient inscriptions that we may encounter in Atlan?”

  Nalquiza gestured off toward the distance. “Archmage Tenamic, who even now searches for a current capable of carrying us quickly south, has some knowledge, does he not? Are not the obscure grimoires of his sorcery written in those forgotten tongues?”

  “Such is true, Castellan. The lexicon of those magic books is quite different from the words used in public life. You need me.”

  “I must reluctantly agree with Anamacani,” Marshal Cenaman said abruptly, pulling her orange eyes away from Johnny’s armor, which she had been staring at in envy. “You have encountered great ill in the Deep. She is safest with this entire regiment around her, accompanied by the naguales and the Archmage. And her knowledge of history and language cannot be discounted.”

  Before the castellan could object or silence her second-in-command, an explosion rocked the waystation, sending bubbling currents of force rolling out in all directions. They were far enough away from the blast that no one was hurt, but they felt warm water push insistently at them as an orange radiance lit the landscape, outshining the regiment’s glow spheres. In slow motion, the tallest of the spires collapsed onto the rest of the waystation, causing the strange seething heat to intensify.

  In a matter of moments, half of the ancient structure had been obliterated.

  “Enehnel!” shouted the castellan. “Go, quickly, and bring me word of any casualties!”

  Carol wanted desperately to go with him, but Ana held her and Johnny back. “Wait, friends. This may be a trick meant to lure us close. Let us wait a moment for a report.”

  The twins reluctantly agreed. John
ny swam in circles, his eyes fixed on the fading ruddy heat of the explosion.

  Fire. Underwater. What the heck?

  There’s probably lots of magnesium or some other really reactive mineral in there. Remember the lab we did last year with Ms. Banda?

  Yeah. Damn. If we had still been inside there, Carol…

  I know. If we had retreated when we saw that jellyfish, we’d be dead.

  More swiftly than they had expected, Enehnel returned.

  “No one was killed,” he announced. “But a dozen men were wounded, two severely, and we lost most of our sixgills and supplies. The center of the explosion was just outside the waystation, where we had corralled the beasts.”

  Cenaman slapped a fist into her open palm. “Tenamic warned us you had discovered ingenious traps within the waystation. Perhaps one of the sharks triggered something similar outside the building.”

  “I’m not sure,” Carol cautioned. “A killer jellyfish? An explosion that manages to wipe out most of our supplies? Seems a little too convenient if it’s all an accident.”

  Nalquiza’s scar seeped red fury into the rest of her face. “Are you suggesting sabotage?”

  “Maybe. Or maybe the prince has agents nearby. Or maybe the Lords of Water are getting their revenge in some twisted way. But an accident? I’m voting no.”

  But if it’s sabotage, who? Could be any of these guys.

  Yeah. Ruling out Ana, of course. I don’t know, but we need to be on the alert. If there’s a traitor here, we don’t know them well enough to suspect anything.

  O sea, estamos fritos.

  Something like that, yeah.

  As field medics brought the wounded closer to better attend their wounds, Carol felt a familiar nagging at her mind. It happened to her on tests sometimes. Because of the tension, she was missing something obvious. The answer was right in front of her, but she couldn’t see it.

  It’ll come to me eventually, she thought. I just hope it comes in time.

  Chapter Fifteen