by Starla Night
New shock hit the warriors.
“Has Dragao Azul fallen so far?” Kadir asked.
Elan wiped his mouth of blood again. “You do not know how it is in the cities. Your leaving, Soren, caused a huge rift. No one would take the First Lieutenant position. They forced me back into it. No one would lead this army at the request of the All-Council. Here I am.” He gritted his bloodied teeth. “One word from your old All-Council representative and my son dies.”
Since he stormed out of Dragao Azul, Soren had focused on Atlantis. His warriors. The city under siege. Kadir’s injuries and risks. Atlantis had to fight to survive.
He never considered the plight of males in other cities.
Alone, with no one to help, they were punished or exiled. Elan’s fate was as bleak and hopeless as the ones they faced now in Atlantis.
“You should have killed me when you met me at the ruin.” He glared at Soren. “Then I could have died without knowing my role in ending the lives of other warriors’ young fry.”
So he was giving up.
The warlord Soren had respected and then hated for so long was giving up.
Was that what he had done to Aya? She had begged him to marry her. Rather than help her in any way possible, he had turned her down because he didn’t like the frightened look in her eye.
Wasn’t that just him running away? Seeing disrespect where none was meant? Believing he was unworthy, when what he really needed to do was focus on being worthy for her?
The depth of his idiocy stunned him.
And so did Elan’s.
“You are an honorless coward who deserves to lose your son,” Soren spat.
Elan jolted. The others gaped. He turned on Soren with a fury. “They took him from me! What would you have me do?”
“Take him back.”
“I cannot leave. You heard what they will do once they know I have helped you.”
“Adviser Creo is about to have other things on his mind.” Soren nodded at Kadir.
Kadir jerked his chin at the other warriors.
“You are leaving me?” Elan floated in the middle of the empty courtyard, unbound and unbelieving. “Alive?”
“Go home, Elan,” Soren called over his shoulder.
His former First Lieutenant kicked, shooting up the tunnel after them. “You are mad. All of you. The megalodons have already seen your city. No lure can turn them aside now. And if I leave or fall, another male will lead the army. This attack will not disappear. The All-Council also will not turn aside.”
“We are not turning anyone aside.” Soren burst from the tunnel. “We are bringing them together.”
In the open water, the low, eerie sounds of the megalodons grew louder. In the distance, three shadows emerged from the direction of the trench. The current blew hard as a riptide.
Soren conferenced with the warriors lingering at the Life Tree — learning of Aya’s actions from Faier there — and then he fought to swim in the direction of the army.
They had to lure the megalodons away from the Life Tree. Gailen kicked beside him. Kadir flew in the middle, with the other warriors ranged around him. Behind them, the Life Tree’s lights pulsed white and gold.
Elan pulled up sharply beside them, kicking hard to tread water. “That army is mostly composed of dissidents like me. That is why the All-Council waited so long to attack. They had to gather the dissidents. The All-Council intends to purge the other cities and demonstrate their ruling power in one decisive victory.”
“Then we will not give them a decisive victory.” Soren kicked forward.
Elan shouted after them. “You do not care your city will be destroyed?”
“Our city will not be destroyed.” Kadir called back at him. “Do you not know? We have three queens.”
Elan frowned.
“The light you see is our Life Tree. Queens wield its power. A megalodon has no chance.”
Elan stared at the lights. “Can it be?”
Soren addressed his former First Lieutenant. “This is your only chance. Go now. Save your son.”
He blinked and straightened. The possibility of winning, despite the overwhelming odds of facing down the All-Council and the elders in Dragao Azul, filled him with a new glow.
Everyone knew it was impossible to defy the All-Council — and yet, Elan was looking at the warriors who had broken Kadir out of their impenetrable abyssal prison. It was impossible to fight a megalodon. And yet, the arrival of the large army had caused that action to become possible.
He hesitated, then finally spoke something useful. “These warriors are only supposed to hold you. They have not studied the battles of the past. None have fought a megalodon.”
“Even better.” Soren smacked his chest. “I have fought one. We will survive.”
Elan studied him. Belief filled his features. “You have done well, Soren. If our situation had ended differently one year ago, and my Zara had remained with me to raise our son together, I would not have been sorry to yield my First Lieutenant position to you.”
He flushed. His chest swelled. The tingling feeling of fleas biting him intensified. He wanted to slap it away and twitch or scream. But instead, he held himself still until the feeling seeped into his heart and throbbed there.
“With that thought, you may consider going to collect Zara first,” Kadir said. “You could use a woman of her powers to safeguard your son.”
“Powers?” He frowned at the flashing lights.
“Teach her to make her fins. It is the first step. She is more powerful than either of you know.”
If more brides knew their powers, Atlantis would be unnecessary because none would leave against their will ever again.
“And,” Kadir added, “she deserves to know her child.”
Elan twisted his lips thoughtfully.
The eerie inhaling sound intensified. The ocean floor groaned and shuddered. A chunk of rock the size of Soren’s head detached and flew past them.
Elan kicked hard. “Fight well, lords of Atlantis. The fate of the rest of the cities — of all freedom — rests now on your tridents.”
Chapter Thirty
Elan raised his empty hands and roared in farewell.
Soren and Kadir repeated the gesture. Honorably met, honorable war. Ironic, with the megalodons shadowing their city—the definition of dishonorable war. But in Elan, they had met an honorable opponent after all.
Perhaps they would not win today. Perhaps Atlantis would fall. But Elan might succeed in saving his son. Perhaps he would do so with Zara, and a new queen would awaken.
Hope spread with every new merman they empowered to stand against oppression and choose freedom.
Choose their orders. Choose their bride. Choose love.
Elan swam hard away from the army.
They swam to the half-way point between the city and the army. Hopefully it would be enough of a head start that the megalodons would see and be attracted to them as lures, but not eat them immediately. It was a small hope, but it was all they had.
The old ruin was stationary. Aya, Balim, and Ciran must be working hard.
“King Kadir.” Lotar pointed at the triumvirate of megalodons converging on the castles.
Kadir stopped kicking. The others did as well. They floated back on the swift current toward the megalodons.
Leading the three, like bobbing bait, struggled the young warrior Soren had seen before.
Gailen shouted. “There is the lure!”
Unlike before, this time he was lopsided, his mouth bloody and cheeks puffy with bruises. He drifted toward the Life Tree blindly, beyond any desire to war, only frightened and young and hurt.
“He got chewed on,” Gailen said. The inhalation pulled the warriors toward the Life Tree. “Looks bad. And there is only one. What of the other two?”
Tial made a noise. “I do not see teeth marks.”
No. A mer had worked the youth over. Had he changed his mind and tried to run?
The youth
could not outswim the megalodons anymore. Now they converged on the city, they would swallow him down.
Soren clenched his hands. Even flying hard with the current, he could not save the youth a second time.
From the Life Tree entrance, a figure emerged.
“Faier has him,” Soren said.
Faier grabbed the young warrior and dragged him into Queen Elyssa’s castle. The youth collapsed into his arms, exhausted. The castle sealed up behind them, closing its entrance to enemies, hardening into a ball that was impenetrable. It was an effective defense.
But not against megalodons.
The first reached the castle and inhaled.
They were not lured by the sight of Soren, Kadir, and the other warriors!
The castle strained on its ball but did not break.
The megalodon lowered until the castle was inside its mouth. Its teeth crossed the widest point. It closed its jaws. Sharp teeth sliced Kadir’s castle in half.
Kadir grabbed onto a stable boulder in the sea bed. The rest of the warriors stopped beside him. His jaw hardened.
Soren felt ill.
The lower half of Kadir’s castle fell to the sea floor in a broken mess. The megalodon opened its mouth. The upper half fell out, mashed to bits.
Where were Faier and the youth?
The megalodon rolled sideways and eyed the descending structures. Normally, a hundred mer might shelter inside the castle. This time, only a single orange spot flew out.
“Is that a house guardian?” Tial asked, raising his voice to be heard over the wind.
“Yes,” Soren confirmed.
Benji attacked the megalodon’s exposed eye.
The megalodon moved sideways, rolling to escape the infuriated creature. Guardians and sharks were natural enemies. Although the house guardian was a tiny speck against the huge monster, it attacked like a needle, and the megalodon exhaled to change direction, scooting away from Aya’s castle.
Faier and the youth shot out of its mouth.
They had survived!
Faier flew for the Life Tree.
The second megalodon approached the Life Tree. Attracted by the flashing lights, it bypassed Aya’s castle and focused on the broken sanctuary.
Behind Soren, the army condensed into a troubled unit. A single, juicy unit of warriors who did not wish to be here and were probably horrified by what they saw.
The second megalodon moved forward as though contemplating going to the army. Then it backed away and focused on the Life Tree again.
Tial looked at Gailen. “It has been an honor serving with you.”
“And you.” Gailen stared up toward the surface and sighed. “I wanted to open a sushi restaurant.”
“Megalodon is a specialty no one had tried before.”
He smiled faintly. “Shall we?”
Tial and Gailen let go of the sea floor and swam for the second megalodon.
“Hold!” Soren swam after them. “What are you doing?”
“We are the youngest.”
“The megalodons are not responding to us lures. They will eat you in one bite. You will get yourself killed!”
“Do not ruin our strategy. Be inconspicuous.” Gailen shouted back at him. “You must tell Lucy’s young fry about our heroism on the day of their birth.”
“You are crazy!” he shouted, helpless to do more but obey. “I do not ask this of you.”
Gailen’s response was torn away by the sudden return of the eerie wind tunnel. The second megalodon, at the Life Tree, positioned itself over the crackling light.
Gailen and Tial flew at it hard. They waved and shouted.
Even though they were still a great distance away, their noise and activity finally caught the attention of the megalodon.
It obligingly left the Life Tree and floated toward them. Its eerie noise started.
Gailen and Tial hurtled out of control through the water and were sucked directly into its maw.
No!
They both scrambled. Tial kicked hard. Gailen disappeared into the mouth and kicked out of it.
The jaws closed, and then the megalodon realized it did not have them. Unlike the slow, steady pace it used for following the youth, now it sped forward, a fin-flick that crossed half the city in a stroke, and closed again on both mermen. They were going to be sliced in half.
Soren bunched himself to fly.
The first megalodon smashed into the second, jostling it sideways for a bite.
Tial and Gailen split, flying opposite directions.
The megalodons smashed into each other again. Gailen and Tial flew up, aiming for height and distance. The two megalodons passed over Soren and the other warriors hugging the ocean floor. The ground shuddered beneath Soren’s grip and his legs were torn from underneath him, but his grip held. The megalodons passed by.
The current shifted to yank him the opposite direction – away from the city and toward the army.
Behind him, the army shifted nervously. Their giant, ancient enemies sailed toward them like harbingers of doom. Perhaps they realized Elan was no longer in charge. Discipline first failed at the edges, and then the center split into a screaming mass of terror. Warriors dropped their tridents and dove for the sea floor.
The megalodons settled their differences, opened their giant maws, and feasted.
Soren turned away.
If there had been only two megalodons, Aya’s plan to lure them away from the city would have worked.
The third megalodon floated over the city. Tentacle sucker-scars marked its mouth. This was the monster he and Aya had faced in the trench. Its eerie call clawed up his back.
The crack of the Life Tree drew its interest. It hovered over the sanctuary, turned, and studied the inhabitants.
Kadir made a helpless noise and pushed off the ground. He shifted to fins and kicked toward the sanctuary.
“Kadir!” Soren shoved off the ground and flew after him.
They could not arrive in time.
The third megalodon positioned its deadly, teeth-filled mouth above the broken sanctuary and inhaled.
Kadir tumbled at the maw. Soren fought for control.
Elyssa floated up behind a shining white shield. She was not sucked into the jaw, but floated calmly between the megalodon and the Life Tree. A brilliant white avatar, she glowed with energy.
Kadir hurtled backward into the protective shelter.
She grabbed his hand.
He curled around her.
The jaws of the megalodon began to close around them.
Soren lifted his trident with a roar. He flew straight into the black mouth, his trident aimed at the roof for the monster’s inner skull.
Chapter Thirty-One
Aya sat on the edge of the second tier and watched. The army finally realized the danger of two hungry zeppelins flying over them.
The third hovered over the Life Tree.
It did not bode well.
“The final stage is broken.” Ciran floated beside her. His hands were greasy and his eyes darkened with recrimination. “Balim is examining it but his conclusion is final. It will never rise.”
So, even if the megalodons were scared by the noise of the rising city, they couldn’t make any. She had wasted all this time coming here for nothing.
Soren and the others were battling. They gave everything. She failed them.
Aya had to think.
Plan B was to raise the city, frightening off the megalodons. That had failed, clearly. Plan C was to misdirect the army so they could smuggle out Lucy and everyone undetected. Plan D was to awaken Octopus Kong for this purpose. But it would be impossible to smuggle out Lucy with a megalodon hovering over the Life Tree.
Aya had made a tactical error.
All plans hinged on raising the final stage. Which was impossible.
She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Can you pry something out the rubble?”
“The beams connecting the final stage have shattered. We would have to
carve new beams and counterbalance the load.”
“How big are the beams?”
“The thickness of the castle anchors.”
So, about five people’s arm spans, if they all hugged the beam together, fingertip-to-fingertip. She pinched the bridge of her nose again. “I thought we had one more stage to raise.”
“I am sorry, Queen Aya.”
The ruin was her secret weapon. It was her nuclear sub, her depth charges. It was the thing she relied upon to drive the megalodons away.
“I am so sorry.”
She wasn’t going to say it was okay. She was going to think.
There had to be something she was missing.
Because they had exhausted all of their other resources. Right now, a megalodon was eying the Life Tree. She was out of time.
She needed to send an underwater SWAT team. She needed to send a bomb-laden drone. She needed to send a superhero.
But there was only Aya.
And she was going to have to be enough.
“It is over.” Ciran was white as he stared at the destruction. “You must escape.”
“It is not over.” She stood up. Power pulsed in her chest. He was wrong and she would prove herself right. “And I’m not going anywhere. Come on.”
She dropped down the hole in the ruined city and flew for the ocean floor.
“Queen Aya!” Ciran struggled to keep up with her. She used her power to add propulsion, and he kicked all-out but was falling behind. “First Lieutenant Soren made me vow to take you to the surface if we could not win!”
“Great, I’ll take you up on that if we hit that point.” She poured on the speed, leaving Ciran far behind. The cave of Octopus Kong loomed below. She would fly in and —
The gigantic octopus was already out. It rested on a rock ledge, watching the megalodons attack the army and the city, and warbled mournfully, harmonious as a symphony of bees puking on a drum machine.
Plan D it was.
Octopus Kong turned one eye on her. The other remained focused on the megalodons.
She fluttered to a stop in front of him. “I understand that octopi are the natural enemies of sharks. What are you doing just sitting here?”
