David sat down beside her and tucked his knees up to his chest. “Are you ready for this?”
“How could someone ever be ready for war?” Faren asked, her gaze never faltering from the brave mers getting ready to fight. “When I was a little girl, I daydreamed about fighting the sea demons. Back then, I always pictured myself a hero.” She looked down at the sand in shame. “But now that it’s here, I’m afraid I’ll find out I’m a coward.”
David took her in his arms and smiled when she leaned against him. “You’re far from a coward,” he said and kissed the top of her head. “You’re the bravest girl I’ve ever met. That’s what I love most about you.”
Faren loved David more than life itself for his kind and generous nature. She couldn’t imagine living a single day without him. “I could be at my worst and you always know how to pick me up,” she said, looking up into his eyes. “I’m very lucky to have you.”
“I’m the lucky one,” David said, “and I’m ready to fight for you and everything you stand for.”
“Faren Sands,” Salene called out, walking toward them with Servio right behind her. “I need to speak to you.”
Faren climbed to her feet, her mind a jumbled mess of agonizing questions she wasn’t ready to face. What would the High Council do to her? Would they force her from the island back to her lonely jail cell? What would happen to David? Her heart raced with anticipation as the gap between them got smaller.
“I know I should be upset with you, Miss Sands,” Salene said, stepping up to Faren, “but I don’t condemn those I feel obligated to commend. You may have broken the law when you became involved with a human,” she said, gesturing to David, “and then again when you dismissed your sentence and left Atlantis without proper authority, but your selfless actions since then pardon you from past trespasses.”
“My selfless actions?” Faren looked to Servio for answers, but his silent stare kept her guessing.
“You occupied an island crawling with sea demons,” Salene explained further, “and you and your friends could have killed the sadistic guard at the jail, but you didn’t. You showed him mercy, so I feel we must do the same.”
Those words were like music to Faren’s ears, though they sounded too good to be true. Then she thought of the unfortunate souls still trapped in Atlantis. “What about the other prisoners?”
“Don’t worry about them,” Salene said. “We’ve sent Arnov to a separate prison where he’s waiting to be tried for his atrocious crimes. Your friends may have saved many lives when they informed us of his offenses.”
Her friends! Faren searched the beach for any sign of them but came up empty. “Are they in trouble for helping me; where are they? Is my sister safe?”
“Your friends and family are still in Atlantis, and they will not suffer for their part in your escape,” Salene replied. “I believe they felt they were doing the right thing at the time.”
Servio cleared his throat. “Even though I don’t hold you in the same high regard as my fellow council member,” he said, “I do appreciate what you have done for Atlantis. No matter how strongly I may feel about your past indiscretions, it would be wrong for me to take your act of bravery away from you.” He looked back at David and stiffened. “There is a condition attached to your pardon.”
An awkward silence followed for many seconds.
“You and your human must part ways here and now,” Servio said, his words soaking Faren like a bucket of ice water. “And you, my boy, will be escorted back to your hotel, where you will remain,” he told David, his words bordering on threatening. “You must never speak of us.”
Before David had a chance to respond to the council member’s cruel instructions, a guard took his arm.
“Please, say your goodbyes,” Servio said, locking his gaze on the horizon. When neither Faren nor David moved, he glanced back at them. “If you have anything to say to each other, now would be the time.” He motioned for the guard to step back, allowing them a little more privacy.
David wiped Faren’s tears away and hugged her. “I’ll come back to you,” he whispered in her ear. “I won’t let them keep us apart.”
“I don’t want you to leave,” Faren whispered back. “I can’t bear this pain.”
He took her by the shoulders and kissed her, breathing his last words against her lips. “I will come back, I promise. I love you.”
Faren watched him follow the guard down the beach and into the surf. David glanced back at her once more before the sea swallowed him whole.
“I love you, too,” Faren mumbled under her breath.
Tristan walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. “I’m so sorry,” he said.
Faren pushed him away. “Don’t pretend to care!” she wailed. “This is what you wanted, right? Well, you have it. I’ll never forgive you for what you’ve done to me.”
“Faren, I’m sorry. I didn’t want–”
“Enough!” Servio shouted. “We have more important things to discuss than your love life.” He gave Faren a warning look. “Mr. Everheart told us he overheard the demons talking about having the Ring of the Ancients in their possession. Were you telling us the truth when you said they attacked you and your human to steal it?”
“Yes,” Faren said defiantly. “I was.”
Servio shook his head in disbelief. “I can’t believe that after all these years of thinking it was a legend–”
“Tell us how the ring fell into the wrong hands, my dear,” Salene interrupted him.
While she told her story, Faren relived the attack as if it were happening to her all over again. She could still picture David tied up in the bottom of the closet and smell the demon’s nasty breath. “We tried to keep it safe,” she said once the truth was out in the open. “I’m sorry I failed you.”
Servio was unaffected by her heartfelt apology. “I think we have all the information we need,” he said. “Miss Sands, Mr. Everheart, a guard will be along shortly to take you back to Atlantis. This is no place for children.”
Faren watched him leave to gather the warriors for one last speech. His voice rang out over the sound of the surf. “These brutes have threatened us for thousands of years!” he cried. “This is our opportunity to climb out from under their tyranny.” Servio paced back and forth, bombarding the warriors with overheated emotion. “We need to find the Ring of the Ancients before it’s too late. Remember this–your number one priority, second only to killing as many of these monsters as you can, is to find it before they can use it against us.”
“Selkies!” a scout called from down the beach. “The selkies are here.”
Faren watched hundreds of seals crawl ashore. She had never seen them shape shift before, and it intrigued her. As if having seizures on the sand, the selkies twitched, and their hides slid away to reveal smooth, pale skin hidden underneath.
With their transformation complete, three warriors of great stature headed their way with their pelts thrown over their shoulders. Loincloths made of sealskin covered their groins, and their dark, shoulder-length hair swayed as they walked.
Faren left Tristan’s side and joined Salene and Servio as the three selkies approached. The tallest introduced himself. “My name is Cezar.” He motioned to his comrades. “And this is Thorn and Roe.” He spoke in a thick Scottish accent.
“We’ve been aware of the situation concernin’ the brine demons for many centuries now. We know the world is in danger, and we are mindful that their queen is to soon awaken.”
“Yes,” Thorn replied, “we have been awaitin’ her arrival since the beginnin’, and it seems as though the time is approachin’ for us to work together to rid our lives of this monstrosity once and for all.”
Servio shook the selkies’ hands. “As council members of Atlantis,” he said, turning to Salene, “we agree with you completely. Pavire, our sister city to the south, will be joining us in battle. Our third council member is with them now, and we expect them to arrive shortly.”<
br />
“Get ready!” someone cried. “They’re comin’. The brine demons are here!”
Mers on horseback rushed to form lines of battle near the surf. The selkies joined them, ready to defend the world with their lives.
Suri burst from the sea. Around her sea demons boiled from the water in vast numbers. She opened her mouth and let out a blood-curdling battle cry, screaming orders for the massacre to come.
Horses reared up and bodies clashed. Sea demons scurried over the iron and wooden barricades only to die by sword on the other side.
As good and evil collided, with the sound of steel on steel, Faren caught sight of her little sister down the beach. For a split second she froze, too shocked to do anything but stare. When she found her feet, Faren raced up to Cindel and grabbed her arm. “What are you doing here?” she demanded. “Salene told me you were in Atlantis. Did you come here alone?”
“We followed the warriors here.” Cindel yanked her arm away. “I’m here to help.”
“We need to hide you! Come on!” Faren grabbed her sister’s arm again and tugged her toward the forest.
Cindel fought the entire way. “No, I’m not leaving. I’m not leaving you.” She tried to pry Faren’s fingers from her arm. “I have as much right to be here as you do.”
Faren got Cindel into the woods and took her by the shoulders, hoping to talk some sense into her.
But Cindel began to cry. “Please, don’t make me stay here,” she cried through her tears. “I don’t want to stay here.”
“Cindel. No. This is the way it’s going to be and that’s that.”
“Why?” Cindel motioned around the forest with her hands. “It’s not safe here. There aren’t any safe refuges on Seneca. The sea demons are everywhere.”
“The forest gives you something the beach can’t: places to hide. Out there it’s wide open.” Faren prayed she could get Cindel to understand.
“I don’t want to hide like a scared child!”
Faren maintained her composure despite her growing irritation. “I promised Father I would take care of you, and letting some filthy beast spear you isn’t my idea of taking care of you,” she said in a softer tone. “I need this one thing, just this one thing from you, please.”
Cindel looked away and crossed her arms. Her stubborn streak was notorious to anyone who knew her, and right now it shined triumphantly.
“Please wait for me here,” Faren begged again. “Please.”
Distant voices shattered their private moment. “They’re through the lines. Retreat!”
The girls looked up to see several mers race past them. Their white breech cloths were stained with blood, their bodies streaked with injuries. Some had wounds that made Faren cringe. She was no longer asking Cindel to do anything. She was telling her. The wounded soldiers had pushed her past the point of debate.
“Don’t come out until I come back for you. You don’t have a choice,” Faren demanded. She hugged Cindel, knowing it could be for the last time.
“Don’t leave me,” Cindel cried. “I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you.”
“I promise I’ll come back.”
Cindel didn’t argue the point any longer. She let go of Faren’s hand and slumped her shoulders in defeat. “Come back to me soon,” she said.
“I will, I promise.”
* * *
Suri grinned when she spotted a lone selkie, weaponless in the midst of the fight. He turned in desperate circles on bloodied knees, scattering sand as he tried to feel for something with which to defend himself.
She drew her sword and slithered ever closer, weaving around other fighters to stay just out of the selkie’s sight. She was close when he grasped a dagger. Excitement washed over his young, beautiful face and his eyes, black from terror, turned bright purple. Suri took the moment to knock him to the ground. She jumped on his back and pinned his arms behind him. He could not move.
“Can you hear the sounds of death all around us?” she whispered in his ear, and, when he didn’t answer, “Do you?”
The young selkie was trembling under her, and his wide eyes had darkened again. “Yes.”
“It’s the last thing you’ll ever hear.” She snapped his neck. The loud crunch put a smile on Suri’s face. Oh, how she loved that sound. She watched her victim’s ashes blow away and turned back to the battle.
* * *
When Faren emerged from the trees, fighting was everywhere. Mers, sea demons, and selkies struggled and died, turning the sand and waves a nasty rainbow of crimson and bright blue–screams and the smell of death poisoned the air.
A lone selkie fought several sea demons, eyes blazing scarlet with anger. The monsters circled him, jabbing him with spears. Faren, with horror, realized they were drawing his death out as long as they could, enjoying it; the wounds they inflicted barely bled. The selkie was quick and cunning, but there were too many against him. Two of his attackers grabbed him from behind and held him while another wrapped her tentacles around his body.
Faren grabbed a fallen branch and sprang to help. But before she had taken a second step, a grinning sea demon drove a blade through the selkie’s heart. A red river gushed from the wound.
Faren clenched her eyes shut and turned from the morbid scene, too distraught with the massacre to bear witness any longer. She never had the chance to see her attacker before his heavy body crushed her into the sand. He flipped her onto her back and pinned her arms to her sides.
“Look around you,” he hissed. “This is the last day Atlantis will ever see.”
She struggled, looking up into his dead black eyes as he raised a curved dagger to drive into her. Terror made her freeze for the blow. Before the dagger started its plunge, Cezar rose behind him and drove his sword through the creature. The demon howled and fell, a dead weight, away from her.
“Watch your back,” the selkie said, helping Faren to her feet. He gave her a quick wink and darted back into combat.
Faren snatched the dead creature’s bloody dagger in time to see another beast charge. She took her fighting stance, bracing herself for the attack. When he came at her with appendages flapping, she sidestepped and buried the weapon deep in his chest. The demon screeched and collapsed on the sand, a pile of jellyfish slime.
For the first time in her life, Faren felt invincible. She looked around at the struggles surrounding her, but stopped when she saw her father, reaching for his fallen sword. She knew he did not see the enemy behind him, raising its own weapon to strike. Faren’s breath caught in her throat, and everything around her ceased to exist.
“Daddy!” she screamed, racing toward him. “Look out!”
When Atticus heard her voice and looked up, the monster stabbed him in the back. Atticus’s mouth popped open in surprise, and he screamed in pain. The monster pulled him toward her and stabbed him again… and again. Atticus’s body jerked with each thrust of her blade; he stood a few seconds longer before his eyes rolled back and he collapsed. He was dead before Faren could make it to his side.
Faren locked eyes with the monster still clutching the bloodstained knife and bolted toward her screaming her own war cry. The demon reached for her, but Faren slid under her arms and rammed the knife in the side of her throat. The monster made a gurgling sound and died.
Faren saw ashes rise around her–her father’s ashes. She dropped to her knees with an empty howl as they surrounded her in a last, cold caress, then blew away. Her world was falling apart, and she was powerless to stop it. Her despair turned to fury. She ripped the dagger from the monster’s slimy remains and plunged into the raging battle, killing anything with tentacles, like a mindless robot.
What rationality she had left evaporated fast, leaving only vengeance. Faren sliced down demons where they stood, or fought or ran.
With her chest heaving from her murderous rampage, Faren watched mers on horseback round up large groups of sea demons with nets; they beat them through the mesh restraints with logs and ro
cks. When other demons saw their comrades in trouble, they knocked the mers from their horses and stabbed them to death with spears and swords.
Faren turned to see Mace circling her like a vulture scoping out its prey. “Here we are again,” he said. “We lost you in the woods, but where will you hide now?”
Faren glared at him. “I don’t plan on hiding,” she spat. “I’m going to kill you and go on with my day.”
Mace chuckled. “We’ll see about that.”
Faren tried to kick him in the chest, but the beast caught her leg and threw her to the ground before she could make contact. She fought back like a wild cat, stabbing Mace in the stomach and neck. He fell to the ground, writhing in agony.
Faren jumped up and looked down at him. “Obviously, I can take care of myself,” she said and ran off.
Mers and selkies dropped at the feet of their enemies, and sea demons died in vast numbers. Agonizing howls of pain resounded over the beach, cloaking everything in misery. Faren would never forget the cries of the dying; those victims would forever be a part of her.
* * *
David thought of Faren and the war he was forbidden to fight. He needed to come up with a way to get back to her, but how could he manage that with a guard watching his every move? Even if he attempted to escape his babysitter, he would never be able to out-swim him.
They came up on the remnants of a steamer resting quietly on the sea floor. Its rusted hull hid beneath many layers of microorganisms, and schools of red and yellow fish swam in and out of the sunken vessel, content with their dangerous surroundings. The drop-off, where the sea floor plummeted seventeen thousand feet into the great abyss of the open ocean, loomed ahead. And in the distance, something sped toward them. David couldn’t tell what it was, but it was large and… he stumbled back when the creature got close enough to see clearly.
The sea demon shot toward them with fire in her eyes. She was alone, but David knew there would be others along soon enough. These monsters reminded him of roaches; where you saw one, there were hundreds more hiding in the shadows.
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