Faren could tell he was more than ready to find the crystal so they could go home. His twitching tail gave away his anxiety.
“Teegan, you take Luna and Harmony with you. Faren and I will meet you back here in one hour. Be on the lookout for demons,” Tristan warned the others.
After they separated, Tristan and Faren set off on their own. The couple swam past many rooms filled with mer treasures–former council members’ robes, scepters and more statues dedicated to those in the photos. A couple of courtrooms, four hallways and never-ending junk rooms later, the crystal’s whereabouts was still a mystery.
“I wonder when the sea demons took over the city,” Tristan whispered. “And where did the true citizens of Pandora go?”
“I think you already know the answer to your last question,” Faren said. “They’re dead.” She peeked into the throne room, mentally exhausted by her anxiety. “All right, we haven’t gotten anywhere on our own. I say we find the others and search for the crystal together.”
“I agree. The sooner we get out of here the better.”
Faren and Tristan retraced their steps as best they could. It didn’t take them long to find the rest of the group.
“Any luck?” Teegan asked, swimming toward them. Luna and Harmony weren’t far behind.
Faren was at the end of her rope. “No,” she admitted. “And we’re running out of time.”
“There are more passageways on the other end of the great hall,” Teegan suggested. “The crystal has to be there.”
Harmony’s eyes widened. “That means we’ll have to swim past that oversized tattle tale again.”
Faren took Harmony’s hands in her own. “We all knew this would be dangerous,” she said, trying to soothe her nerves. “Everyone in Atlantis is counting on us. We wouldn’t want to let them down, would we?”
Harmony sighed. “No.”
Tristan intervened. “Then let’s come up with a plan.”
* * *
“I wish he couldn’t see us,” Harmony whispered when they made it back to the great hall.
“That’s something we all want,” Faren whispered back, “but since mers built the warriors to guard the temple from all enemies, you know it’s immune to our gifts. Even if the sea demons hadn’t taken over.”
“We already know the dangers,” Teegan said as if speaking to a group of children. “That’s why we have a plan. Even if it isn’t much of a plan.”
The mers made their way to the vaulted ceiling and swam for the other side of the room as quietly as they could. Faren led the way. She grabbed Luna’s hand and held on tight. Faren could feel her friend’s nails digging into her palm, and she tried to shake her loose, but Luna refused to let go. Faren bit her lip and continued swimming.
The mers were halfway across the room, and the statue remained motionless. Faren watched the warrior and counted in her head to remain calm.
One, two, three, four.
The passageways got closer with each agonizing stroke they took, yet the statue remained motionless. The last leg of the journey seemed to take forever. The seconds crawled by.
One, two, three, four.
The warrior moved his fingers.
One, two, three, four.
His hair turned dark and floated freely around his head.
One, two, three, four.
The statue moved his left foot, then his right. Luna squeezed Faren’s hand tighter, and Harmony clutched Faren’s flukes as if her life depended on it. The mers ducked into the hallway before the statue could wake up fully.
The friends swam up and down hall after hall. There were numerous dead ends and cluttered rooms, many of them containing nothing more than junk. When they feared they might never find the crystal, the group spotted a faint glow spilling into the passageway.
Set in the middle of a large room, the crystal gyrated within a glass vault, suspended by magic. Piles of rubble surrounded it. Rusted furniture and broken chunks of larimar lay strewn across the floor. Human bones converted the room into a cavern of horror.
The mers swam up to the glass case. The crystal was smaller than Faren had ever imagined–no bigger than the palm of her hand.
“We’re going to be revered as heroes… us,” Harmony squealed with delight. “Can you believe it?”
As soon as Faren plucked the crystal from the vault, it lost its lustrous pink color.
“All right, we have it,” Teegan said in a hurry. “Let’s get out of here.”
The sea demons’ thoughts coming down the hall quieted him. “Our ancestors did their job when they took over this city. Since Pandora’s crystal was lost in the attack, it’s our responsibility to bring it back to life. Mineane, you see to the crystal, and I’ll let Suri know we have things under control.”
Luna was frantic. “What do we do now?”
“We need to get out of the city before any of these monsters find out that the crystal’s gone,” Tristan said, doing his fair share of panicking.
They met the sea demon in the hall and snuck past her. Faren knew their heartbeats were pounding loud and clear. Ba-Dum, Ba-Dum.
But would the demon hear them? They didn’t stick around long enough to find out. They swam through the maze of corridors, finding their way back to the great hall with relative ease. They hesitated at the statue.
“Swim!” Faren shouted when she heard Mineane’s shrill screams coming from the vault room. “She’s coming!”
The mers bolted from the corridor and past the statue. He immediately came to life and jumped from his perch. Boom, boom, boom. The sound of his feet hitting the floor reverberated through Faren’s head.
He hurled his spear at the front door; it bounced off with a metallic clank, barely missing the fugitives.
The mers’ luck ran out when Luna smacked into a large sea demon floating just beyond the entrance to the temple. The monster looked stunned, but it only took him a few seconds to figure out what had just slammed into him.
“Mer!” he shouted. “There’s a mer in Pandora! Shut the gates!”
As the mers flashed around and past the big demon, Faren looked back to see Mineane emerge from the temple, flinging her arms in every direction. “The crystal’s gone!” she shouted. “The mers have the crystal! Don’t let them get away!”
Word spread like wild-fire.
“Stop them!” another sea demon shouted. “Stop them!”
When the mers made it to the front gate, they were relieved to find it still open. The word of their intrusion hadn’t reached the guards yet.
“Hurry,” Tristan whispered urgently. “Go, go. Don’t look back, whatever you do.”
“Close the doors!” one of the guards shouted to the other. “There are mers in Pandora!”
Upon his command, the gates slammed shut. Teegan, Tristan, Harmony and Luna escaped just in time. Faren, on the other hand, found herself staring at her friends from the wrong side of the entrance.
She flattened herself against the wall, doing her best to stay clear of the incoming horde of sea demons.
Suri stopped right beside Faren. “Did they escape?” she demanded to know.
Faren could smell her stench. She could feel her hair on her face. The deep pockmarks chiseled into her cheeks looked magnified this close up.
“We’re not sure,” one of the guards answered, looking through the bars.
“Scour the city! If there are mers here, we will find them!” Suri commanded. She swam away, leaving Faren to cower against the wall.
Faren scarcely breathed. She floated there, watching the crowd thin out.
“Block every entrance! Search the city! Allow them no sanctuary… no safe haven,” a sea demon shouted. Everyone around him cheered.
“Faren,” a familiar voice whispered through the bars. “Faren… over here.”
Faren grabbed hold of the gate, too scared to speak, to see Tristan looking back at her. A mixture of relief and panic raced through her at the sight of him.
He touched he
r hands through the bars. “The others are searching for another entrance from our end,” he whispered. “But you need to leave Pandora. If there is another exit, it’ll most likely be outside the city limits.” When she hesitated, he added, “Hurry, go.”
Faren escaped the horrifying scene, to the outskirts of Pandora. The back of the cavern loomed ahead, rising one hundred and thirty feet from the sea floor. With her heart in her throat, Faren swam for the bluff. She raced back and forth, searching for openings, but so far, all she found was a smooth wall.
No… there has to be another way out! Where is it? Where is it?
Faren rushed from top to bottom, scouring the rocky surface. She fought to stay calm even though her mind overflowed with hideous images of her own death.
She drifted to the sand, trying not to imagine what her family and friends would endure if she didn’t make it back to Atlantis in time. To think of their doomed fates broke her heart.
Faren pounded her fist in the sand and laid her head back against the wall. She was close to giving up when she noticed the school of fish swimming headlong into the cliff. Curiosity overtook her, and she swam toward the oddity.
Relief washed over her when she got close enough to see the secret of their magic act. The hole carved into the cliff wall was partially blocked off by crumbling sandstone. It was tiny–Faren could tell the sea demons had not used it for many years–but with a little extra effort she squeezed through the breach.
The sheer size of the cave overwhelmed Faren. The number of passageways branching off the main room posed a new problem; she had no idea which one to take.
As she contemplated which route to follow, a menacing voice called into the cavern from outside. “I saw you come in here,” the sea demon said singsong-like, peering in at her. “Your relief gave you away.”
Faren backed up against the wall, too horrified to move. She didn’t have to worry about remaining visible very long. As soon as she heard the creature’s thoughts, her body went into defense mode.
The beast pounded his fists against the side of the bluff and massive chunks of rock came crashing down.
Faren dashed down the first corridor. It didn’t take long for her to realize it was the wrong one. It wasn’t an exit–just a solid wall. She swam back to the main room, but as soon as she started down the second passageway, the monster bulldozed his way through the gap.
Faren couldn’t believe her bad luck. This was also a dead-end. She backtracked, keeping her eyes open for her enemy.
“I may not be able to see you, but I can hear your heart beating. Thump, thump, thump. Ahhh!” He smacked the walls with his mighty fists.
Rocks crashed all around them and sand flew in every direction. Faren dashed through the debris, toward the last passageway. As she snuck past the demon, a large jagged piece of stone crashed into her and she cried out.
The monster spun around and caught her arm, hauling her toward him. Faren thrashed and kicked, doing her best to hang onto the crystal.
The crystal!
Faren used it to slash the demon’s face. When he stumbled back, she rushed into the tunnel. This one was different from the other two. The corridor shot straight up, guiding her up the inside of the massive cliff. After many agonizing minutes, she swam into another cavern–smaller than the first.
The demon joined her. “I’ll find you sooner or later!” he wailed. Then he laughed. “You mers are all the same. You think you’re so cute, flitting around. Look at me,” he mocked her. “I’m a mer. I’m special.”
Faren searched the room for an exit.
Please, please, please.
There it was! The hole in the ceiling of the cave was small, but it was her only chance.
The sea demon grew enraged again. “You think you’re so pretty!” he shouted, pummeling the wall, “sly,” he said, hitting the wall again, “and dead!”
Ba-Dum-Ba-Dum, Ba-Dum-Ba-Dum, Ba-Dum-Ba-Dum! The monster reached for her, missing her by mere inches. “Where do you think you’re going?” He swept his arms back and forth in front of him before following her racing heart.
Faren dove for the opening, guided by the moonlight shining down on her. Even though it was a tight fit, the sea demon still managed to follow.
He screamed at her again. “Get back here!”
Faren shot up the tunnel, her gills gasping. To her horror, the chasm shrank around her. Now it was almost too small to escape. She reached up through the hole and dropped the crystal on the sand. Faren twisted her body this way and that. Amplified by her own fear, the sea demon’s grunting echoed around her.
Faren grappled for the grass growing along the sea floor. It was pointless; she yanked it out by the handfuls. She caught the edge of the hole and hoisted herself up, but before she could slide free, the sea demon grabbed her tail. He dug his fingernails into Faren’s fins and began dragging her back underground.
“You’re dead! You’re dead!” he screamed.
His chanting fueled Faren’s anger, giving her a fighting chance. She gripped the edge of the hole again and fought her way back to the seabed. When she managed to crawl halfway out, the sea demon yanked on her fins again.
Faren screamed in pain when the jagged rocks cut into her sides. “No, leave me alone!” she cried. “Stop!”
Faren continued to struggle with the sea demon as her blood wavered around her body in a blue fog.
The beast yanked on her tail again. Faren could see the sea floor slipping away as he dragged her away from her safe haven. She felt around for anything she could use to stop the monster from hauling her back into the darkness.
Sea grass, seashells… fish.
Before the beast could overpower her, something else grabbed her hands, prompting a painful game of tug of war. Faren tried to shake the new creature off, but it held on tight. When it felt like she would rip in two, the sea demon’s tentacles slipped off her tail, and Faren flew from the hole.
“Faren, are you okay?”
Faren looked up to see Tristan staring down at her. He had the crystal in one hand, and her in the other.
“Thank the Spirit we’re immune to our own gifts. I never would have seen you otherwise,” he said with gasping gills. His eyes widened when he saw Faren’s injuries. Cuts and abrasions crisscrossed her stomach and hips, and the same wounds ran up and down her tail like railroad tracks. “We need to get you out of here. You’re hurt,” he said in a hurry. “Harmony, Luna, help me get her back to Atlantis.”
Teegan interrupted the reunion with a horrifying exclamation of his own. “Sea demons!” he shouted, pointing toward the creatures racing toward them. “We need to get out of here now!”
They swam as fast as they could for Atlantis, leaving behind a trail of blood and a handful of fading heartbeats.
* * *
“Oh,” Faren whispered, “we’re too late.”
She and her friends hovered near the edge of the mighty cliff, looking down into the city. Faren couldn’t believe how dark Atlantis had gotten in three hours. The sun had stopped twirling, and it was now suspended high overhead, a nearly transparent ball of useless energy.
The mers made their way beneath the arch and started for the temple. Atlantis seemed deserted. The streets were empty, and the houses looked like shadows. Even the water felt foreign. It was colder than Faren remembered, and the mountains all but vanished into the beyond.
No wonder the streets were empty. Everyone was in the courtyard. Without adequate light, it was hard to see the crowd of mers until they were right on top of them. By that time, Faren could hear Servio’s thoughts loud and clear.
“We have failed,” he said in a melancholy tone. “Scouts have informed us that our warriors were killed outside of Pandora. They never had the chance to fight their way into the city.” Servio closed his eyes tight. “We have lost many courageous mers today,” he said, “and we need to bow our heads for those lost in battle… and for us all.”
Like the curl of a descending wave, everyo
ne dropped their heads. Some of them cried. Some of them prayed. Most of them looked too defeated to do anything. When Faren and her friends entered the courtyard, no one looked up.
“We have something for you,” Tristan told Servio. He swam over to the temple steps and handed him the crystal.
“Where did you get this?” the council member asked. He couldn’t take his eyes off the precious jewel.
Tristan glanced back at Faren and smiled. “We all followed the warriors to Pandora,” he gushed, gesturing toward his friends, “but Faren was the one who stayed behind. She risked her life to keep the crystal safe.”
Servio gave them a grateful smile. “On behalf of the entire city of Atlantis… of every council member to reign before us… thank you. You will all be commended for your bravery.” With that, he rushed the crystal back into the temple with Thaden hot on his fins.
Salene joined Faren and her friends, smiling. “You’re all heroes and should be very proud of your accomplishment,” she told them. She turned to address the crowd. “We have been saved! These five brave souls have changed the fate of our great nation!”
Everyone cheered and sobbed tears of relief. Faren had never hugged so many mers in her entire life. Everywhere she looked there was another hand out, another set of arms ready to pull her close.
Faren’s father and sister pushed their way through the crowd. “Oh, my baby,” Atticus cried, clutching her tight. “You’re safe.”
Cindel swam up to Faren and smiled. The younger mer’s raven hair billowed around her face in a dark aura. “What is it like in Pandora?” Her face lit up with intrigue. “How did you escape?”
Faren turned to her friends. “I had help.”
“Well, now I know you’re okay… don’t ever do that to me again,” Cindel scolded Faren. “You could have been killed. My pigmy octopus is upset with you, too.” She lifted the tiny brown and beige spotted animal for Faren to see before acknowledging the rest of the group. “Hello, hello, hello,” she said, facing them one at a time. When she got to Teegan, she blushed. “Hello, Teegan.”
Teegan wasn’t oblivious to Cindel’s crush, but he didn’t help the situation the way he flirted back either. Faren always suspected her sister’s feelings of admiration were mutual.
Mythos Page 5
