Dark Depths

by Lani Lenore

  Nathan carried himself along, noting all the sights and smells surrounding him and having so many memories. The acrid stink of a dirty sea, the smell of earth and vomit and rum lingering about in wafts. A fair portion of the docks district was pleasant and upstanding, but he had wandered away from all that, off to what almost seemed like a separate land where drunkenness and piracy were the norm. He knew he was where he was supposed to be, but this place did not feel as comfortable as it once had. The palace had spoiled him.

  He reached his destination around the back before he came dockside, for he could see the weathered mermaid peeking over the top of the building, and viewing her splintered flesh, he had to muse that she was an accurate depiction. Since his business here was not to drink or gamble, he put his hand on the back door and pulled it open.

  The room he entered into was wide and dim, lit by a fire in a stone hearth. This was a kitchen, though a rather stark one. The air was damp and smelled of mold, but he hadn’t expected much else. He wasn’t sure he’d find anyone here in the back, but after he had stepped inside, he was quick to notice a young woman who was sweeping the floor with a ragged broom.

  She was a slip of a girl, with untamed brown hair and an unimpressive dress, but she had a slender nose, and there was something fair about her eyes and mouth. The girl looked up from her sweeping to cast her gaze upon him, and when her eyes met his, she was quick to freeze.

  For a moment, he wondered if he had only surprised her, but came out on the other side of that contemplation with a different idea. To him, her face had the appearance of a woman who had been looking for something, and when she had looked upon him, she appeared to have found it. At least, that was his perception for a short moment. She was quick to catch herself, gazing at him without much fear and even gripping a notion of arrogance.

  “There’s a perfectly good front door ‘round the other side,” she said, speaking with better English than he’d expected. “You’ll probably want to be using it instead.”

  She went back to her sweeping as if uncaring that there was a strange man in her midst, but he could see that she was keeping watch on him from the corner of her eye. He was not done, however. There was quite a bit of noise coming from the main room, and he was alone with this girl in a quieter place. Perhaps she could help him. In fact, he was set on it.

  “I’m looking for a man named Gideon,” he told her, and he caught her attention once again.

  She looked over him, examining his tattered shirt and vest, noting the state of his boots. Finally, she met his eyes once again.

  “And who are you?”

  “My name is Nathan,” he obliged her. “I was sent to ask a question, and I must have the answer by morning.”

  “And why is it that this question is so important?” The girl reverted to a haughty stance, looking back at him with her chin tilted upward slightly and a hand on her thin hip.

  Nathan wasn’t sure how to answer her question. Ellister had not told him what exactly he should do to justify himself, but by telling him to dress down, Nathan assumed it may not be the proper thing to go spouting off the fact that it had been Ellister who had sent him. Gideon would know, certainly, but who was this young woman to even be involved at all? He might have simply disregarded her and gone farther into the tavern, but he reminded himself that he should not dismiss her so quickly.

  “You are holding me up deliberately,” he said. “Am I to believe you are him then? Is the man I seek truly a woman?”

  The girl tilted her head, looking a bit confused by this, but there was an air of pleasure about her face. She seemed to appreciate the fact that he had given her such a station. She watched him another moment as he stood there, then seemed to make up her mind.

  “Follow me,” she said in a short way, and turned promptly, propping her broom against the wall.

  He followed her up a few steps and onto the main floor, which was not quite filled with drunken ruffians, but was certainly littered with scoundrels.

  “Wait here,” she instructed, and left him beside a wooden column to approach a burly man behind the bar. He had a bald head and a long scar down the side of his face, with numerous tattoos across his skin. He gave her attention, and she spoke quietly to him, but Nathan could not quite decide what she was saying. At one point, she motioned toward him, and he thought she saw her mouth form the word 'Ellister'.

  After a moment, the bald man motioned for another to watch the bar, and he left his post to approach Nathan. The young woman followed him back.

  “I’m Gideon,” the man said, and when he had come to stand before Nathan, he saw that the man was a full head taller than he was and quite a bit broader. Nathan knew he should not give it any regard. He would not be intimidated. “And what is it you are wishing to ask me?”

  “I’ve come to ask if the conditions are right. I was told that you’d know what that means.”

  Nathan was fully unsure of what he expected. The man sucked his teeth absently, nodding, before he spoke.

  “So, he’s caught onto it as well, has he?” Gideon considered to himself, then raised his eyes to Nathan. “Come with me.”

  All this coming and going and vague secrecy was making Nathan a bit wary—especially when the place he followed Gideon to was the entrance to a dim, dank cellar. He recalled the mood Ellister had been in when he’d sent him away, and the man had certainly not seemed pleased. Was he truly upset with Nathan over the blood in the mermaid pool? Had that one incident made the prince lose all favor with him, to send him to this obscure tavern where this frightfully large man was going to take him into a dark cellar and end him?

  Gideon descended, and the only thing that made Nathan feel a bit better was that the young woman was behind him, aiming to follow them down. This consoled him a bit, for he figured that any decent man would not kill another in the presence of a lady. That, of course, did not mean that Gideon was a decent man or that the girl was a lady, but it was enough to urge him down into the passage. The girl closed the door behind her, shutting them away in darkness. Nathan kept a hand on his gun all the way down the creaking stairs.

  He was not sure what he expected to find. Was this business truly so secret that it had to be hidden below the ground? Or was it an ambush that awaited him? Somewhere in front of him, he could hear Gideon moving around, though he sounded to be going farther away from Nathan, and that was acceptable. He heard the sound of a match, followed by the sight of a flame. The fire was lowered to the wick of a lantern, which gave more light to the space.

  When the glow emerged and lit the walls, Nathan felt much more relaxed, for he was able to notice all the maps and charts lying about, as well as sketches of mermaids upon the walls. Ellister had not sent him here to be killed. This place was genuine, and Gideon seemed to be as well-versed to this secret world as Ellister was.

  “We’ve been trading information with Ellister for quite some time,” Gideon said, lifting the lantern and carrying it over to a table which had more grooves than an elder’s face, setting it amidst the papers that were scattered about. “He used to come himself. I’d heard that he had some sort of agent working for him now, but wasn’t sure we’d be seeing you. But I imagine we’ll be seeing a lot of each other if you’re the go-between.”

  “Perhaps so,” Nathan said, following the man to the table.

  “Oh, and this is my daughter, Sophia,” Gideon said, motioning toward the girl in their midst. “I’m certain she didn’t introduce herself.”

  The girl looked a bit sullen at that statement about her character, but she dared to look at Nathan’s eyes for a moment before directing her gaze back to the maps.

  “Ellister sent you here for a second opinion, I suppose,” Gideon assumed. “He already suspects the worst, but he wants to know if I have also noticed.”

  “You’ll forgive me for asking, but I really have no idea what this concerns,” Nathan said, wondering if he had interrupted. “Ellister said that you might be obliged to tell me, since
he apparently thought sending me here was much too urgent to waste the time explaining.”

  Gideon chuckled behind his teeth. “Ellister is a man of urgency, but since you say you have until morning, I have no qualms with explaining,” he said. “Knowing that the deep sea nymphs are real, we must also take rumors relating to them into account. It is a piece of legend that the sea nymphs have the power to resurrect an ancient creature called the Leviathan. I’m sure you’ve heard of it.”

  There was no pause as the man gave his speech, but it was at this moment that Nathan began to gape slightly.

  “It is said that once certain conditions are met, the nymphs will be allowed to pray to the sea for the creature to be resurrected. If the sea obliges, certain signs will follow over the next several days, and then, well, we don’t exactly know. But we do know that the Leviathan will be used as a threat against man.”

  “What does that mean?” Nathan asked, confused and aghast by the whole idea.

  “It means that you tell Ellister that he’s right about the conditions. After six months, three storms have been summoned successfully, the moon has been in the appropriate phases… It means we might be looking at war.”

  War? Nathan’s mind was boggled. This was not what he had expected to discover in coming here tonight. He was too surprised to even question how they knew these things.

  “We just have to wait for what happens next,” Gideon added, “and it will be up to Ellister to deal with it.”

  “Seems quite a heavy load,” Nathan commented.

  “Ellister has asked for it. If there is nothing left to do but desert the kingdom, he will make that choice. That is all I can say. I imagine that you planned on going straight back to Ellister in the morning, so you’re welcome to stay, though all I can offer you is a mat down here.”

  This cellar wasn’t quite like his lavish room in the seaside castle, but it would do for one night. This was nothing different from sleeping on the hard floor of a ship.

  “This will be fine, thank you,” Nathan said, deciding to be gracious.

  Gideon nodded. “Sophia, prepare a mat for him, would you?”

  Without a word, the girl did as her father asked, moving to a cabinet and pulling some blankets from it that Nathan imagined were rather musty and damp. He didn’t say anything against it, however.

  “If you’ll excuse me, I have to make sure that everything’s still running smoothly upstairs,” Gideon said, and with that, he took his leave, passing up the rickety steps.

  The man was leaving them alone? This struck Nathan as odd; then humorous.

  “What sort of man leaves his daughter alone with a stranger?” he asked with a disbelieving laugh.

  She stood upright, casting a glare at him.

  “I can take care of myself,” she assured him. “Care to try?”

  This girl was steely. Perhaps she had more balls than some of the men he’d met.

  “Wasn’t on my mind,” he promised.

  After a lingering stare between them, Nathan looked away, and she went back to her work. While Sophia prepared the bedroll for him, Nathan busied himself by looking around the room, examining the writings, maps, and drawings that were pinned to the walls. He saw what appeared to be written accounts of creature sightings, as well as several drawings of the hideous nymphs beside their lovelier forms.

  As he looked, passing many of them by at a glance, one picture in particular caught Nathan’s attention. He leaned closer to get a better look at it, thinking that the image seemed rather familiar to him, but a closer inspection made him change his mind. It was a drawing of a woman perched upon a rock, but it hardly looked like a woman at all once he had peered at it. Her face had sharp eyes with enormous brow ridges. Her top lip was curved down to a point, much like the snapping mouth of a turtle, or possibly resembling a beak. Her hands and feet ended in long claws, and ragged-looking wings sprouted from her back, folded in a restful position.

  Nathan took the picture in his hand, pulling it forward from the wall, and then soft footsteps told him that Sophia had approached. He did not regard her for his furrowed brow and confusion.

  “What is this?” he asked, lifting the picture.

  The girl looked over his shoulder.

  “That’s a siren,” she said easily. “I drew it, based on the description from a man who claimed he saw one.”

  She had drawn these? The fact washed over him and then retreated. He was too absorbed to comment on her talent.

  Nathan was surprised to hear this come from her mouth, though if he had compared the image to anything, he supposed a mythical siren would be the closest thing. It resembled a winged woman, but it certainly had little in common with the voluptuous female with wings that was tattooed on his back.

  “I’ve always heard that sirens don’t exist,” Nathan said quietly, staring at the sketch.

  “Men neglect many things in this world,” Sophia said. “You should know that. Granted, we haven’t seen as much evidence of sirens as we have sea nymphs. They don’t seem to cause as much trouble, and no one seems to know what their true motives are. The man who described this said that he saw the siren sitting on a rock over the water, and it looked directly at him, seeing that he looked at it. He said he stared into its eyes, and then it simply turned away and continued to sit, unbothered. It never made a move against him.”

  Nathan considered this, thinking back to a night that was several days past now. He had been on Ellister’s odd ship, battling more than a dozen nymphs, and just when things were looking hopeless, something had knocked him down from behind, standing on his back and forcing him to stay down, its claws digging into his flesh. He knew it could not have been a deep sea nymph, but a creature that had wings could have easily gotten behind him and pushed him to the floor.

  “May I ask you a question?” Sophia asked, interrupting his revelation.

  “Go ahead,” he said, still refusing to look at her for the picture.

  “Do you care at all about this cause of ridding the sea of danger? Or are you just one of Ellister’s puppets who sees no more than what’s in front of his face?”

  He was surprised by her boldness and the nastiness of her tone. He turned his head to look at Sophia, catching her staring at him. If she’d only known the truth about him, she would not have asked such a question. He wanted to rid the sea of monsters, yes, for there was something beautiful below that was worth saving.

  “I’m not some ignorant fool who was chosen,” he told her. “I know the truth, and what kind of man would I be if I did not care?”

  Sophia stared back at him, but Nathan wondered over his own response. Was that his true conviction, or were these just pretty words? Her face did not change much at his proclamation, though she seemed to accept it as an answer.

  She did not bid him goodnight. The girl turned and walked away, leaving him alone in the basement with the sketched images.

  3

  Ellister walked along the shoreline just below the castle, his boots hardly making marks in the packed, wet sand. He stared at the ground as he took slow steps, the light from the moon and the faint flash of a distant lighthouse allowing him to see his path. Smoke from his pipe drifted into the air, near unceasing, and anyone who might have looked on would have known that his mind was heavy—even the guards who waited near the slope, silent as the night.

  There were many things passing through his head in turn, but none that could be dealt with at the moment. He had to wait until the morning to learn if Nathan would confirm his speculations, though Thaddeus already assumed he was right about them. Then he had to decide what needed to be done. How could he protect his kingdom from what was coming? The dangerous times were not over, and he wondered if, after so much time spent, he was unprepared.

  As if those things weren’t enough, another had come back to him this day, adding to his trouble, and he found it strange that the matter vexed him. His advisors had suggested that he should take a wife, and he had actually agree
d, but thinking on it now, he knew he did not want to marry, for he did not wish to change his ways. Any wife of his would find herself neglected and bitter. Were those things the makings for a happy kingdom? He thought it was a terrible idea, personally, but he would go through with it if it would settle the people for a time. The poor woman-creature would be miserable, but if she could learn to keep her mouth shut and simply accept her post, they would present a fair impression.

  There was only one woman he could ever love, and he would accept her with or without legs, though he preferred mermaids only because she was the standard. He had loved her all the days of his life that he could recall, from the moment she’d pulled him out of the sea when he was a mere child, and he’d tried his best to do what she had asked of him. He loved her—by God he loved her! Why would she not come back to him? How long could he stand to wait? She’d promised she would return to him one day if he did his job well. Would he be an old man on his deathbed before she showed her face?

  As he thought through all of these things, Thaddeus became angry, but it cooled quickly to sadness and depression. He had given her a name. Did that mean nothing to her, or perhaps she did not even recall.

  My perfect one… Do you feel that I have failed you?

  The waves were washing gently onto the shore—which led the sound of a large splash to grip his attention. The prince looked toward the frantic sound, hearing a gasp and a light cough to accompany it. A short distance away, he saw a shape moving up onto the beach from the water, digging hands into the sand to pull forward.

  The figure crawled onto the beach with a blanket of wet yellow hair clinging to a naked body. Ellister took a step forward in disbelief, but he did not have to in order to realize this was a woman, coming to the beach from the only place that she could have come—from the sea.

  The woman, out of breath, pulled herself up to sit, looking down at legs that she had not used to aid her in getting further onto the shore. She looked surprised but pleased to see them, and a sound much like an incredulous laugh escaped her throat as she touched her own thighs.