Heart of the Deep

by Tiffany Roberts

  “You know,” Dracchus said.

  “We have made no secret of our dislike for humans, just as Kronus voiced when the first of them were brought here.” Neo’s gaze flicked briefly toward Macy. “Is our stance no longer valid? Have we no right to wish for the preservation of the ways of our people?”

  “You are a coward who cares nothing for the ways of our people,” Dracchus replied.

  Brow falling low, Neo shifted to crimson.

  “And so we come to the reason for this gathering,” Ector called. He looked at Dracchus and nodded.

  “Six days ago, the meat we store in the kitchen, the meat eaten by our humans, their mates, and their younglings, was poisoned.” Dracchus kept his gaze locked on Neo, who wore the same smug smirk he’d displayed while the last hunt was being organized. “Aymee and Larkin fell ill. Jax and Rhea fell ill. Melaina, Jace, and Sarina fell ill.”

  A shocked murmur rippled through the crowd. Though most had heard the news beforehand, how many had believed it? How many kraken could imagine that one of their kind would do such a thing?

  “Despite her suffering, Aymee was able to guide Arkon and Macy through treatment. Had they not acted so quickly, we would have lost the younglings.” Dracchus lifted an arm and pointed toward Macy. “Had she eaten the tainted food, we would have lost a youngling-to-be.”

  The muscles of Neo’s jaw ticked.

  “All the food, wasted,” Dracchus continued. “Eight lives nearly taken.” He swung his arm forward, pointing directly at Neo. “And it was his doing.”

  “You have no proof of this!” Neo shouted, tentacles writhing around him. “I led the hunt that day, I could not have—”

  “The hunt you insisted Jax and Arkon partake in. The hunt during which you ordered us to wait, rather than utilize methods that would increase our chances of a fast, productive encounter. The hunt during which you abandoned your fellow kraken to save yourself.”

  Several kraken turned their heads toward Neo, anger in their eyes.

  “I did all I could,” Neo growled.

  “Randall is the one who saved Kronus after you fled. One of the humans who has been a target of your hatred. Arkon repaired Kronus’s wounds using Aymee’s teachings, and she would have done it herself, were she not poisoned. If not for humans, Kronus would have died.”

  “Dracchus commanded us to the deep,” Vasil said. “To safety, without needlessly confronting the humans. Even Kronus agreed. But Neo insisted upon attack.” Vasil’s gray eyes fixed on Neo. “I suffered at the hunter’s hands as much as you, Neo. I was held in the cell beside yours.” He glanced fleetingly at Larkin. “But I have seen great kindness from humans, far more than I have seen cruelty.”

  “They are our enemies, and I was leading the hunt! It was a betrayal that you all defied me.” Something gleamed in Neo’s eyes; was it a spark of desperation?

  “You placed our people in danger,” Dracchus said.

  “I wanted to face our foes, to fight! But all of you are honorless cowards who wanted to flee.”

  “You accuse us of being honorless when you sought to poison our mates? Our younglings?” Jax snarled, moving forward. “I will accept that lack of honor if it means I can tear your guts out and force you to experience every moment of a slow death!”

  Dracchus extended an arm to the side, blocking Jax’s path. Despite Jax’s bristling fury, he stopped. He held his glare on Neo for several heartbeats before returning to his mate’s side.

  “This prejudice has gone too far,” Ector said calmly, looking at Neo.

  “There is no proof I did anything to them,” Neo said. “Wild accusations should not hold so much weight.”

  “I am proof.” All eyes went to Aja as she spoke. “I, too, have allowed my anger to mislead me. To distrust the humans who have lived among us.” She looked at Neo then swept her gaze over the crowd. “I was there when Neo spoke of his plans to kill the humans and their offspring. He said that if Dracchus, Jax, and Arkon did not join them on the hunt, then they deserved to die alongside their humans.”

  She bowed her head and closed her eyes. “I did not think he would do it. It is to my own shame and regret that I did not speak of this to anyone while I might have stopped it. I never thought he would truly harm a youngling or any of our kind.”

  “Traitor!” Leda yelled, baring her teeth and flashing crimson.

  “It is no proof!” Neo lunged toward Aja.

  Kronus blocked him, meeting Neo’s gaze. “You would attack a female?” he asked in a low voice.

  “They spoke of using needler venom to taint the food,” Aja said, glaring at Neo.

  “This is proof of nothing,” Neo repeated, face ablaze with fury as he stared at Kronus. “Two more traitors, too fearful of action to be of any benefit to our people.”

  “The only traitors I see are you,” Kronus replied, lifting his chin to indicate Neo and the kraken gathered behind him. “You have harmed our own kind. This is not worth our blood.”

  “The scanner detected the unique toxin of the blue needler in all the afflicted,” Arkon said. He was met with several confused looks. “The computer confirmed they were poisoned by needler venom.”

  “Now we are to take the word of some human-built machine?” Neo demanded.

  “We were built by humans,” Dracchus said. “We live in a place built by humans, on a world settled by humans. Were it not for humans, we would not exist.”

  Neo turned to face Dracchus. The cords stood out on his neck, and his eyes were wild. “They have served their role, and now they are only a threat to our kind. But we are the superior creatures. We need never suffer at their hands again!”

  “Nothing you say will change his mind,” Larkin said. She tilted her head back to meet Dracchus’s gaze when he turned his head toward her. “I think he broke on that ship. Words aren’t going to fix that.”

  Dracchus clenched his fists. His body was in the same state it assumed while in wait during a hunt; senses heightened, muscles thrumming, blood hot. But what would be accomplished by a fight here? Violence had only worsened this situation. It wouldn’t change any minds now.

  “Our accusations have been made.” Dracchus faced Neo and the group of kraken that supported him — nearly twenty able bodies, nearly twenty of their species, lost to this madness. “Our people should not have their lives threatened by our own. We have always worked together for survival. This action is far beyond what can be tolerated. It cannot be forgiven.”

  Neo narrowed his eyes. “What are you saying?”

  Ector moved forward, placing himself between Neo and Dracchus. “It is clear that your prejudice against the humans has changed you all. You have become a threat to human and kraken alike.” He turned toward the rest of the gathering. “The time has come for action. We must make this decision together. You have heard the accusations, heard the evidence provided, and you know those who have acted.

  “If you support Neo, do so now. If you believe that killing the humans, at any cost, is the correct path, swim it with him. It does not befit us to hide our true allegiances like cowards.”

  In the tense silence that followed, three of the kraken in the group behind Neo broke away and went to the edge of the larger crowd, looks of disgust and shame on their faces. No one else moved; Leda, Garon, and Orphus maintained their positions behind their new leader.

  Ector nodded, a sad look in his eyes. “I leave it to you, my people. An act like this cannot go unpunished. By the old ways Neo and his followers claim to preserve, such harm to females and younglings would mean death.”

  “No!” Neo shouted, triggering a great commotion. Skin flashed crimson on all sides, kraken lunged forward, and a desperate fight nearly erupted.

  “Enough!” Dracchus roared over the cacophony. Silence fell over the gathering as he approached Neo.

  “I challenge you,” Neo growled. “I challenge you for leadership, for dominance, for our lives!”

  “No,” Dracchus replied evenly. “Your right t
o challenge me has long since passed. You are not worth the effort I would expend to kill you.”

  Neo and his followers railed, raising claws and bearing teeth. To either side of Dracchus, other kraken formed a line — Jax and Arkon, Brexes and Vasil, Rhea, dozens of others. Randall and Larkin joined the line, shoulder-to-shoulder with the kraken around them.

  “Had your plot succeeded, I would have slaughtered each of you with my own hands,” Dracchus said. “But our numbers are already diminished. Our people have suffered enough, and those willing to live in peace, those willing to adapt and work together, will suffer no more by your doings. You are banished.”

  “You cannot do this!” Leda cried, shoving another kraken aside to come forward. “I am a female!”

  “You are a bitter female filled with hatred,” Vasil said. “No male here is willing to have you.”

  Leda’s skin flared, and she turned her eyes on Larkin. She lunged toward the human, claws poised to attack. Before Dracchus could make a move, Larkin extended her arm, pointing the barrel of her pistol at Leda’s face. The female kraken halted abruptly.

  “You cannot kill me,” Leda snarled.

  “I’m not feeling quite as merciful as my mate, so I suggest you back the fuck off,” Larkin said.

  Anger and pride collided in Dracchus, one fueled by the brazen attempt to harm his mate, the other by Larkin’s quick, cool response.

  Leda growled, but eventually drew back, eyes narrowed on Larkin.

  “This is because of them!” Neo thrust a finger at Macy. “The hunters would never have come had we killed that human slit in the beginning, and our people would not be divided!”

  Jax growled. “It is not too late for you to face the old punishment, Neo.”

  “This is no longer your home,” Dracchus said, “and you are no longer our people.”

  “And what of Kronus?” Garon demanded.

  Dracchus swung his gaze to Kronus, who had remained in his earlier position with Aja just behind him.

  “Do you stand with them, Kronus?” Ector asked.

  “No,” Kronus replied, “but I cannot deny my part in this. I will accept the same punishment.”

  Voices stirred throughout the crowd, some filled with regret, others with shock. Dracchus met Kronus’s gaze; the ochre kraken’s eyes were filled with many emotions, but foremost among them were shame and humility.

  “So be it,” Ector said.

  “And you, Aja?” Ceres asked.

  The female glanced at Neo and Kronus, then focused her attention on Ceres. “I will stand with the humans…for peace.”

  “You are all traitors!” Neo snarled. “You turn your backs on our ancestors by befriending those who enslaved us, all to shove your cocks into their filthy slits! You taint our blood, and we will not—”

  “Leave. Now.” Dracchus finally allowed his skin to turn crimson. “Should any of you show your faces here again, it will be at the cost of your life.”

  Growls and curses followed as Neo’s groups shoved their way out of the room, filing through the door.

  Orphus turned and glared at the crowd. “You will pay for choosing humans over your own kind,” he vowed.

  The kraken nearest to him shoved him into the corridor, and a portion of the crowd broke off to ensure the banished found their way out of the Facility.

  “I was sure a fight would break out,” Larkin whispered after releasing a shaky breath.

  The line of kraken dispersed, and Jax returned to his mate, taking her in his arms. “It would have been ended swiftly,” he assured her.

  “Not without injury,” Larkin replied, holstering her pistol.

  Dracchus extended an arm, covering her cheek with his hand. She looked exhausted — dark circles under her eyes, pink blotches on her cheeks, her hair drawn back and tied hastily, leaving loose strands around her ears and temples.

  Exhausted, but still beautiful.

  “For all their bluster, they are cowards,” he said. “The chances of them fighting ended once they realized the numbers that would oppose them.”

  She placed a hand over his and turned her face into his palm, kissing its center. “I would have fought beside you regardless.”

  He smiled. Whatever she’d gone through, Larkin’s spirit was far from broken. “I know, female.”

  Dracchus lifted his gaze from his mate, and only then realized that the other kraken were looking at him expectantly, some with open curiosity on their faces. Though they’d all known of the presence of humans, relatively few had likely seen more than a glimpse of one. Fewer still were likely to have seen any such interaction between human and kraken.

  “This is nothing to fear,” Dracchus said as he drew Larkin into his arms. “This will not destroy our kind. It will not destroy who we are. We can only be stronger for it.” He looked over his shoulder — Aymee and Arkon, Jax and Macy, Randall and Rhea; all were nearby with their younglings, standing together unafraid, unashamed.

  “This is the way forward,” he continued, facing the crowd again. “For myself. For my family. The conflict we have known is not the fault of these or any other humans. It has been carried in our hearts for generations, and they have made us face it. Befriend them or do not. Appreciate them or do not. But they do not deserve hatred. They are our people, too.”

  “Everything has changed,” someone said in the crowd. “We cannot go back to the lives we knew, not after this.”

  “But change can be good,” Ceres said gently.

  “For good or ill, change must be faced head-on.” Dracchus looked into Larkin’s eyes. “Together.”

  He returned his gaze to the crowd, searching their faces. Though these events had begun well over a year before, Dracchus realized that this was the turning point. This was the moment when the kraken faced all that had happened and all that would happen. There could be no more denial.

  “Our kind have long preferred solitude,” he said, “but we have always drawn together to survive. Now, we must come together to adapt. We must come together to ensure this change is one that benefits our kind. We must create a future worth having, for the younglings yet to come.”

  Chapter 22

  Larkin tracked the gulper ahead as the fish drifted in and out of the seaweed. Movement in her peripheral vision caught her attention. She smirked to herself. Ikaros, anticipating the coming kill, was settled beside her, ready to dart forward.

  A few weeks ago, she could never have imagined this scene — she lay on her stomach on the rocky seafloor, harpoon gun propped before her, hunting fish with her brother and a trained prixxir. If she’d dreamt of this, she would’ve shaken her head and called herself a fool.

  She refocused on the gulper, inhaled, and fired. The harpoon shot through the water in a flurry of bubbles. It impaled the gulper, pinning it to the seafloor.

  “Four out of four!” Randall declared through the diving suit’s comm system.

  Ikaros chirruped and raced to retrieve the fish.

  Randall swam to her side and turned his head toward her, grinning behind the mask. “You’re making me look bad in front of the big guy. Guess some things never change.”

  Larkin laughed and lifted her gaze to Dracchus, who was drifting on the current nearby. He nodded, offering her a smile, and raised three fingers.

  Three more before we head home.

  She was tempted to miss a few shots just to make this last a little longer. This was only the second time he’d taken her out of the Facility. It’d been two weeks since the banishment, and while things had been relatively peaceful, tension lingered in the air. She couldn’t quite place it, but she knew Dracchus felt it too; an instinctual sense that things weren’t done.

  Ikaros swam back to her, carrying the skewered fish by the harpoon. She took it and scratched under the prixxir’s chin, handing the catch to Randall, who removed the harpoon and placed the fish in the net with the other six they’d caught. Randall had missed three out of five shots before deciding it was easier to retrieve
harpoons that weren’t launched into the thick seaweed. Larkin had been mildly disappointed that he’d forfeited so early.

  “Macy cooks gulper in some kind of winefruit sauce, and it’s delicious,” Randall said, handing her the harpoon. “We should see if she’s willing to make some.”

  Larkin reloaded the gun. “If it keeps Aymee out of the kitchen, I’ll even beg her.” She looked and Randall and grinned. “She would have made a terrible wife.”

  Randall laughed, shaking his head. “Not like you’re any better.”

  “At least my cooking is edible. We’d all starve if we were depending on her.”

  “She would’ve made a great wife,” Randall said. “Would’ve kept my figure trim.”

  Larkin snickered. “I think Rhea is doing a fine job of that.”

  She couldn’t be sure, but it looked like he blushed as he turned away. “I am not having that conversation with my sister.”

  “Just making small talk,” she said, settling back into position.

  She scanned the vegetation ahead, seeking out the little flashes of orange that meant a gulper was swimming through the stalks. Ikaros lay beside her, tail wiggling in anticipation.

  “So, how are things between you and him?” Randall asked.

  Larkin glanced at Randall from the corner of her eye. “Great. He’s…really great,” she said, distracted but genuine. She pulled the trigger, skewering another gulper. She turned toward Randall as Ikaros went to collect it. “It’s just…”

  “Too big?”

  “Randall!”

  “You started it!”

  “You really want to know how big—”

  “No! Hell no!”

  Larkin sat up, laughing. “Yeah well, let’s just say he puts you and every other guy to shame.”

  “I’m your brother, Larkin. You’re only supposed to talk about my dick when you’re making fun of me to your friends.”

  “Your friends were my friends, Randall.”

  He grinned, but the expression faded suddenly. She knew where his mind had gone — some of the men who’d betrayed him had been their friends, had been people they’d joked with around campfires, who they’d trudged through muddy swamps and cloying forests alongside.