by K.N. Lee
“Faye, it’s too rushed—”
“You don’t have to do this, Kai. It’s not your war. You’ve said it before—you’re my guard, and we’re not equal. That means you don’t have to give your life for my family.”
She pushed open the door to the back alley. Their transport awaited. The rusty box shuddered to life as she approached. Ordinary mer-citizens would have to use a key to turn the ignition. But she was no ordinary mer-creature. The energy projecting from her could start any machine of this primitive scale without her even touching it.
“Faye, please think about this. We need a plan.”
“I have it figured out.”
“You don’t. Your judgment is clouded—”
She wagged her finger at him. “One more mention of my feelings for Lorcan, and I will never speak to you again.”
He backed away. “Just promise me you’ll be careful.”
Seeing the pain in his eyes, she calmed down a bit. “I have a responsibility to my people. So yes, I will be careful. Will you?”
He nodded and let go of the handle of the vehicle’s door. From the rearview mirror, she saw him standing there, looking out for her. He had always been there for her and her family, through all the ups and downs.
He had been a constant in her life.
She couldn’t imagine what it would be like if he hadn’t pulled her out of the burning ruins and fled with her to this town. She promised herself to keep that in mind and knew she would be forever in his debt.
Chapter 10
It had been quiet for a while. Lorcan was pretty sure Faye and the warrior had left the premises, so he opened his eyes and surveyed the room they’d put him in. High ceilings supported by large stone columns. Round shape. No windows. He figured the door was most likely locked from the outside.
He sat up. The quick, hard hit to the head from Kai had knocked him out because he hadn’t expected it. But he’d recovered shortly. He had kept his eyes closed and pretended to be unconscious to gather information. It had surprised him that Faye and Kai had conversed in English. He realized now that that although Kai had a slight accent, Faye spoke perfect English.
This wasn’t Earth, so who were they? And why did Faye refer to him as the keeper of the Key of Pisces?
He didn’t know much about this place and had no intention of spying on them. He knew for sure that he wasn’t on Earth, and he figured he was holding some information he wasn’t aware of. It seemed they all wanted him for that information.
He needed to get out of here.
He approached the door, and as he had thought, it was locked. He chuckled. It would be insulting if it took him more than five seconds to unlock it. He shouldn’t be too haughty, though, because he could tell this was only a residential house. The lock wasn’t designed to keep anyone inside.
He glanced around the room. Light pierced the small holes scattered about the wall. He approached them and peeked through one of the holes. He could see the landscape of the city, the same as before, vibrant and strange. He smiled to himself. It was land and air. Meaning, he could escape.
He picked the lock in four seconds and stepped out into a grand hallway flanked by white columns made of what looked like polished coral. A similar pattern was repeated in the large floor tiles. A million stars sparkled on the walls, creating a scene of the cosmos.
Lorcan shook his head in disbelief. The cosmos undersea? The resplendence confirmed what Kai had said—Faye wasn’t a commoner. Regardless of what world this was, this wasn’t an ordinary residence.
When he approached the end of the hallway, he saw the thin silvery fabric from the hem of Faye’s dress, the one she had worn at the hospital, in the gap under the door to a side room. The fabric moved in and out and sideways as if someone wearing the dress was moving around behind the door, not realizing part of it was visible from the hallway.
He glanced at the empty end of the corridor and inched forward, making a move to escape. Then he stopped at the door. He wasn’t going to sneak out. Faye had helped him and rescued him. She had put herself in danger by doing so. If he had doubts, he would ask Faye about them to her face.
He inhaled, left the door, and turned back to the side room.
Before he knocked, the door swung open. The couple who walked out hadn’t anticipated running into Lorcan. By all appearances and by the looks on their faces, they hadn’t expected to see anyone at all. The man’s shirt was undone, and his trousers hadn’t yet been zipped up.
The woman was wearing Faye’s dress. Her hair was tousled, and her face still blushed. Her lips were slightly swollen, obviously from recent sexual activity.
The woman yelped. The man hissed audibly and pulled out a short handgun that Lorcan had only seen in steampunk movies. He raised the gun at Lorcan and said something in Nepolymbian.
Chapter 11
Faye sauntered into a stupendous square room, tracing her fingertips along the silhouettes of the marble statues. It would have cost the owner a fortune to obtain such an art collection on Earth, she thought. She loved art but had never had the heart to spend her funds on things other than her life mission—which was not pretty in any way.
Pexami, the most notorious gang leader in the outskirts of the submarine dimension, entered the room abruptly and walked straight toward her. “We agreed never to meet in public!”
She smiled and gestured widely at the room. “I consider this location private. Don’t you?”
He shrugged.
“Is this how you usually treat guests?” she asked.
He sighed to refrain from showing his frustration and punched a button on the wall. “Pure water for our guest,” he ordered.
Shortly afterward, the door slid open, and a man with a seahorse body walked in on two legs. He set the water down then respectfully bowed and withdrew.
“You have a very interesting staff,” said Faye.
“They’re pets. Not staff.”
“You mean slaves?”
Pexami chuckled. “Mere terminology. They do their job. That’s all I care about.”
Faye took a sip of the pure water. She glanced at Pexami, knowing he was waiting for a compliment.
“The best and most expensive water available,” he said. She smiled. Pleased with himself, he drank his water.
She praised some of the artwork to ease his mood. It worked.
Then he said, “What do you need? I asked for an extension on the job.”
“Then you’ll have it. A forever extension.”
Pexami waved his arms. “I can’t give you your deposit back.”
She smiled. “I’m not asking for the money back. But I’m afraid I have to cancel the job.”
“Come on! I know the key means a lot to you, and I’m the best you can get here.”
“Exactly. Here, in this submarine dimension. But when the key floated to the human world, you were no longer the best person. As the results have shown—”
“Sonya is—or was—my best soldier. Her loss caused much damage to my business.”
“You wouldn’t have a penny of my money had I known you would use her. She isn’t a soldier. She’s a witch. And I told you the artifact attracts interest from the toughest players in the submarine dimension, didn’t I? Spells and magic won’t cut it. If she’s your best bet, then seriously, you have no hope of getting the key. So I am canceling the job.”
“But Sonya didn’t die in vain. There was an incident, an explosion of some sort, and I know for a fact that the key had been sent back into our dimension—on my turf. All you need is a bit of patience. If the key is here, I’ll find it for you.”
“Patience is something I don’t have. Instead of canceling the job, I’m swapping it for a new one. What do you say?”
Pexami contemplated. “It depends. What do you need done?”
“I need you to get someone out of the Heating Ducts.”
Pexami stared at her blankly for a brief second. His reaction didn’t surprise her. The Heating Duc
ts was the informal moniker of the nastiest prison system in the submarine dimension. “That’s a totally different kind of job.”
“You can’t handle it?”
“I didn’t say that. It’s just very different—”
“You’re not getting another penny out of me.”
“There are two things that might make the job difficult. The Heating Ducts doesn’t house ordinary petty thieves. Whoever it is you want me to yank out of there has to be a big deal. Second, to break into the Heating Ducts, I have to get the right pets, and they don’t come cheap.”
“No pets are getting into the Heating Ducts!”
“Exactly. You need high-end pets, and a master of my caliber. That’s what you’re really paying for.”
“As I said, I won’t pay you any more money than what we’ve already agreed upon. If you can’t do the job, I have someone else in mind.”
“Good luck!”
Faye smiled and turned as if to leave.
“Can I think about it?” he asked to her back.
Without turning around, she said, “No. As I said, I have no patience. If you accept the job now, and get it done by tomorrow, you will get the money, and I’ll even throw in a ten percent bonus. If not, I’ll get someone else. Others may not be of your caliber, but they’ll get the job done—when and where I need it done. No questions asked.”
“All right. I accept. Ten percent extra for the rush job.”
She stopped, turned around, and smiled at him.
Faye exited Pexami’s house as quickly as she could. When she was safe and sound in a carriage used by her trusted dolphins, she opened her purse and checked the tubes of potion she had inside. A row of ten pockets, with two empty now.
She knew she had put them to good use. One for Lorcan. One in Pexami’s water.
A few days were enough for Pexami to finish his task for her. Then he would vanish for good. Nobody cared about the disappearance of criminal of this submarine dimension.
Chapter 12
“I didn’t see you, and you didn’t see me, all right? Let’s both of us go about our own business.” Lorcan raised his hands, making peace with the couple he had caught in the middle of intimate activity. He didn’t need to be super intelligent to tell they shouldn’t have been doing whatever they were doing where they were doing it.
The man didn’t look convinced. He approached Lorcan slowly and glanced cautiously at the empty corridor.
Lorcan was a fraction taller than six foot one, but his head ended just above the man’s chest. He figured he would be at quite a disadvantage in a one-on-one fight. Plus, the man had a gun.
He backed away, and the man advanced.
“No, Grant. Not here,” the woman said in English as she tugged the man’s elbow.
“But he saw us, Millie! Is he the human you talked about?” Grant’s English had a heavy accent.
“It’s a pleasure to be the topic of conversation in the middle of your busy activities. But since you know so much about me, and I don’t know anything about you, don’t you think it’s safe for you to let me go?” Lorcan backed out further until his back hit a wall.
Grant thrust the gun’s muzzle in his direction.
“Don’t, Grant. Everyone will be back soon. If you shoot him now, there won’t be enough time to clean up.”
“I’ll be quick,” Grant growled, once again aiming the gun at Lorcan.
Lorcan raised his hands, seeking a truce. “Okay, we all want the same thing. I want to leave, and you don’t want Faye to know what you’re doing here. So why don’t you just let me leave, and we’ll consider we never met.”
Grant brandished the gun. “Dead people don’t talk.”
“And they don’t give information, either. I haven’t given Faye the information she wants from me. I can give it to you, if you’d rather.”
Millie and Grant glanced quickly at each other.
“How can we be sure you won’t cheat?” Millie asked.
“You can’t be. You’ll have to take my word for it.”
Grant looked at Millie. “I can hold him until we get to the master. If he’s bluffing, it’ll be up to the master to take care of him.”
Millie hesitated.
Grant held her shoulders. “Come on, honey, this could be our one and only chance.”
“What if he’s already told Faye? What if she’s on to it? Did you see Kai come in? He rarely makes an appearance like that around here unless he’s sure they have something.”
“I haven’t told Faye anything,” Lorcan said.
“Why did she leave you alone?” Grant asked.
“She didn’t exactly. Kai knocked me out. She locked me inside the room, and I picked the lock to get out.”
Grant nodded. “That’s why she left. She didn’t think you could get out.” He turned toward Millie. “I’ll take him now, Millie. You pack your things. I’ll come back for you tonight, and we’ll leave together.”
Millie nodded.
“Be careful.” Grant kissed Millie on the cheek and pushed Lorcan out the door.
They walked out onto the street, Grant right behind Lorcan. His gun was hidden inside his jacket, and he kept it pressed against Lorcan’s back.
It was just a normal town outside, and people were going about their business. If Lorcan hadn’t known this was Nepolymbus, he would have thought he was in Brighton, a seaside town in England, during a festive season where people wore strange costumes and sunbathed on rocky beaches.
They soon approached the dome wall and the gate that marked the boundary between the water and air dimensions. Others zoomed in and out of the gate. When they entered the water, they began swimming like fish. As soon as they reached land, they walked on feet.
While it was sunny inside—if that was how you could describe the gray shade of daylight inside the dome—outside the gate, it was pitch dark. The water looked eerie.
Lorcan knew he was in no condition to swim, but Grant pushed him ahead toward the water.
“Where are we going?” Lorcan asked.
“I’ve got to go to work. I work at the Heating Ducts, and I think it’s the perfect location to keep you.”
“I can’t go in the water.”
“Well, you’ll have to. I’m not paying for your transport.”
Lorcan tried to wriggle out of Grant’s grasp, but Grant pulled the gun out from under his jacket and pointed it at him in plain sight. Bystanders on the street stopped and stared. Grant flipped a pocket open, flashing something that looked like a badge. They acknowledged it and walked away.
“There’s one thing you should know about this dimension. The Heating Ducts is a prison for the most dangerous criminals. I’m a guard there. That makes you a criminal. You can scream, or tell people what you saw back in the house, but nobody will believe you.”
Lorcan pushed Grant away.
Grant brandished the gun. “I can shoot you right here—in the line of duty. Nobody will miss you. Or you can start swimming now with me, and I can lock you in the Heating Ducts for safekeeping. You’ll live if you choose the second option. What do you say?”
Lorcan nodded and moved toward the wall of water. He knew this option would have the same outcome as the first option Grant had given him—he wouldn’t be able to survive the watery environment as a human. This was the bottom of the deep sea, somewhere far beneath the Earth.
Grant continued to walk into the water, pushing Lorcan further away from the gate. Lorcan wanted to swim back to the dome, but every movement seemed as difficult as moving a mountain. He couldn’t breathe. His lungs and his brain would stop working in a few seconds due to the pressure he was already feeling.
Grant must have thought he couldn’t swim. He tucked his gun away and pulled Lorcan farther away from land.
Lorcan couldn’t speak. He couldn’t get away from Grant, and it was too dark for him to see anything. His brain had gone numb, and so had his body.
Using the last bit of strength he had, Lorcan reach
ed for Grant’s gun. Feeling the tug, Grant looked back, but it was too late. Lorcan aimed at his head and shot. As Grant’s body sank, Lorcan felt nothing else. His brain was dying. He couldn’t hold onto the gun. He let go, and his body floated to and fro with the currents.
Then he heard a cheerful whistling sound. In the mysterious dim light that permeated the water, he saw the silhouettes of the dolphins and the carriage box charging toward him.
They swung the box over toward him. As the door slid open, Lorcan rolled inside. The door closed instantly, and the water that had come in with him drained out quickly from the bottom of the double-layered floor. The floor immediately sealed itself up afterward.
Lorcan flopped onto a passenger bench. “Thank you, Miracle and Flipper.”
He heard another whistle, and the dolphins surged ahead and then swam in a circle. Maybe they needed him to tell them where he needed to go. He recalled seeing the surface on the way from the hospital to Nepolymbus. He didn’t know what their word for the hospital was or what they would call the surface.
“Can we go to the surface?” he asked.
The dolphins continued swimming in circles.
“Okay, so I guess you don’t understand that. Can we go back to the hospital?”
They let out a happy sound and swam ahead. Lorcan figured they would follow the same route. When they reached the place where he had seen the surface, he would point it out and ask them to take him up. Content with his plan, he leaned back and relaxed. In no time, he got the feeling they were getting close to the spot. He looked out of the window and upward.
But instead of seeing the surface, he saw the shadows of the sharks.
Chapter 13
Millie scrambled back to her quarters to change into her work clothes right after Grant took Lorcan out of the house. This could be a disaster. She should have been more disciplined about her activities and her lust for Grant. If her cover had been blown because of this incident, she would have wasted years or planning and preparation. Most importantly, she would disappoint her father.