by S. M. Welles
“Jessie!”
She lay unconscious, clothes plastered to her skin with mucous. I kneeled over her and brought the side of my head close. Her heart wasn’t beating and she wasn’t breathing. I rolled her onto her back, tilted her head so her wind pipe was nice and open, then delicately opened her mouth and checked for blockage. To my relief, her mouth and throat were clear of mucous. Using one finger, I began administering CPR. Her body was no bigger than my hand. I felt like I was trying to resuscitate a kitten.
I’d expected to be at this for a while, but after several pumps, I stopped as Jessie started coughing and gasping for air. I sat up, hoping to avoid giving her a heart attack the second she opened her eyes, and listened to her heart beat. It raced for several seconds, then slowed as her breathing normalized.
“Jessie, what are you doing here?”
Her eyes popped open and she did a full-body flinch. “Good god! You scared the crap out of me.” She relaxed her limbs and lay there, catching her breath a second time.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’ve come to rescue you. Rhode said you were being held prisoner.”
“You saw her, too?”
“She sent me to help you escape.”
“Escape how?”
“I’m Amphitrite’s avatar. Apparently I’m the only one who can help.”
“And how are you going to use said status to get me out? I’m blocked off from all exits.”
Jessie thought a moment, then shrugged. “I don’t know. I hadn’t thought that far ahead. Are the naiads gone?”
I bowed my head and closed my eyes, and let out a resigned sigh. “At least you came alone. I’d have my hands full trying to protect a bunch of you.”
“I was supposed to come with Jacobi but I refused.”
I snapped my eyes open. Jessie looked at me, unfazed by what she just said. “What?”
“Rhode wanted me to bring him as a trade for you. The naiads said it would really piss Amphitrite off if I just took you and left without giving something in exchange.”
I digested her words a minute. Jessie had disregarded direct instructions from a goddess, yet had found a way to bypass that and reach me. That took some gall, along with a healthy dose of either courage or stupidity. I leaned more towards stupid, since she’d arrived inside the mouth of a water serpent for crying out loud. Rhode had probably wanted to trade prisoners in hopes of pissing her mother off a little less for helping me.
Jessie sniffed a saturated arm and crinkled her nose. “Oh, god. This isn’t water! What am I—oh, gross!” She bolted to her feet and started for the pool.
I stuck my clawed hand in her path. She flung up her hands but managed to stop herself before running into me. “Don’t bother. It’s blocked off.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s solid, like back in the cave. That’s the exit right there. Now hold still and hold on. I’ll rinse you off.” I held out a finger and pointed to the water vein with my other hand. She looked at vein, then, realizing what I wanted, clutched my finger with her minuscule hands. She studied my features with open wonder, but disgust with her own hygiene crinkled her nose again and made her grimace. I pulled water with a minor hand gesture and gave Jessie the spin-rinse treatment I’d given myself the day I regained my faculties. I had to be careful not to put too much will into my command over water, lest I send her body flying. My demon form was exponentially more powerful.
Once I figured Jessie’s lungs were burning for a gulp of air, I let the water suck itself back into the vein. Jessie took several deep breaths.
“Feel clean?”
She sniffed a sodden shoulder. “I think so. I don’t smell anything anymore.” She took in the cavernous hall, admiring its beauty, like I had the first time I’d come here.
“By the way, I appreciate you not bartering my crew for my release. I know Jacobi has been anything but kind, but I don’t think even Tethys would deserve that kind of punishment.”
“He got what he deserved,” Jessie said coldly.
“That he did. And this brings me to my next question. How were you supposed to get me out, even with the trade?”
“We never covered that in the conversation. When I refused, they just warned me that it’d be very dangerous to help you like this.”
“As I see it right now,” I said dryly, “you’re just prisoner number two.”
She studied me a moment. “Well, I just got here. I haven’t even tried looking for a way out yet. I’m positive I can get you out of here.”
She was so convinced that I almost believed her. I wanted to believe her but I didn’t want to get my hopes up.
“You said this is the exit, right?” She pointed at the pool.
“Yes, but it’s blocked off.” I stepped out onto the middle of the unyielding pool to demonstrate my point. “You’re gonna have to find another exit and hope it doesn’t seal up before you can get through.” The sight of all those halls covering up had dissuaded me from taking another lap around the chamber. Once was demoralizing enough.
Jessie walked up to the lip of the pool and stopped, studying the water and its murky depths. The pool was hollowed out rock with ridged sides and clear water that got very dark in the middle.
Jessie looked up at me, gaze full of empathy. “This must be torture for you. How long—?” She’d taken a step out over the water. Instead of stopping on the surface, her boot sank right through. Her eyes widened and she flung out her arms right before she splashed in.
Alarmed, I ran over to her and kneeled before where she fell through. She flailed her arms and her head popped above the surface. I plucked her up and my giant demon body splashed in to join her.
I reflexively shifted into my aquatic form and one flick of my tail brought us back to the surface. Back to the surface. I looked down the cavernous hall from my new perspective. After all that brooding, holding Jessie had freed me. I cupped her in both hands and waited for her to finish spitting out water and wiping it from her face.
“Well that was unexpected,” she said. “At least this answers how I’m getting you out.”
I glanced into the depths, then down the empty hall. “This can’t be all it takes.”
“Sometimes things are simpler than you’d expect.”
“Not this. Rhode wouldn’t lie to you about it being dangerous to come rescue me. This is too easy. There has to be a catch.”
“Well then let’s leave before danger finds us.”
Sound logic there. I pulled her closer.
“Please don’t put me in your mouth!”
I looked her tiny frame up and down. “Are you kidding? You think I’d put you in my mouth after where you’ve been?” I cradled her against my chest, then sent a tendril of water down the hall and retrieved my trench coat. Jessie draped it over an arm. “Now don’t freak out. I’m putting you in an air bubble, so let’s hope Rhode overestimated how dangerous this’ll be.” I wasn’t counting on escaping without some sort of confrontation. There was no way. Amphitrite would notice before long, if she didn’t know already.
Jessie curled up against me and I held her protectively in both hands, she who’d overcome so many crippling fears to arrive at this moment. I was indebted to her.
I sank below the surface, forming a dome of water against the palms of my hands, encasing Jessie in what I hoped would be enough air to get her to the surface. She tensed until we were fully submerged, then relaxed a little when she realized she could keep breathing freely. I rolled forward and entered the dark tunnel, head first. We went from calm lighting to pitch black in seconds. Worried about how frightening being in this claustrophobic place full of water, I sent a reassuring thought Jessie’s way. Just hold tight. I’ll make this as quick as possible. Somehow, I sensed her suddenly feeling shocked.
Am I going crazy, or did I just hear you speak in my head?
I stopped swimming and looked at my bubble-wrapped cargo. I could sense her electromagnetic pulse more th
an I could see her vague outline. She was staring up at me with open awe. I guess this explains why Rhode wanted me in demon form.
I’m not sure I follow.
You commune with water creatures. I’m one right now. I resumed swimming as fast I could as the tunnel wound up and down, and took sudden turns. It felt like I was being flushed through an elaborate plumbing network.
True, but I never communed with you to find you.
The naiads did. They probably guided—don’t worry about it. I hated explaining things. Let me focus on getting us out of here. I felt her awareness pull away like feeling a partner rolling away from me in bed. The sudden extra space helped me focus on my winding trek and gave me back my personal space. I really didn’t want to share my deep dark thoughts. Jessie being able to commune with my demon form made logical sense, after what I’d seen with the whale flounder and nereids.
Ugh, I couldn’t wait to turn back into my human self. I needed to ground myself in reality as I wanted to pretend it was.
Modest light seeped in the final stretch of the tunnel. I sped out into a deep sea coral colony growing on some geometric formation…
…And stopped at the sight of thousands of nereids, naiads, and bigger water monsters positioned between us and our path to freedom. Well, here was the danger part Rhode mentioned. Hold tight. We have a lot of company. I made sure I was holding Jessie nice and close so she wouldn’t be bouncing around and glanced up. We were in maybe five hundred feet of water with a modest amount of sunlight reaching down. Jessie wrapped her arms around a finger as I took in our unwanted company. Every last one of them was looking our way, waiting, I guess, for their cue to attack. I had no intention of fighting a single one. I’d defend us as I had to, but I had a crew to get back to. The little ones I could out-swim, but the ones as big as me, and a few bigger? This might turn into a lengthy chase.
No monsters swam behind me. They were one huge mob ahead and above me, meaning I’d have to go straight through them. I drifted a little closer, just to see what they’d do.
All the nereids swam a little closer as well. Demon pet must go back. Punishment will be worse if you don’t.
That’s nice. I don’t care. Like hell I was going to let Amphitrite dictate my behavior when I was free to choose, free to make mistakes. No way I was turning around after having been her sex slave.
Every last nereid surged towards me.
Time to flaunt my power. I swam in a circle and hurled a current of water at them, sending their thousands flailing like leaves in the wind. I charged through them, letting those in my way bounce off as they tried to regain control. They gave chase after I broke past them, and the bigger monsters waited for me to get near. Once I drew dangerously close, I veered away, parallel to the surface, and sent another current of water at them. I didn’t look back to see if it had any effect. The nereids were catching up already, latching on, and biting and clawing. They were too small to hurt any more than a mosquito, but their sheer numbers slowed me down. I rolled and twisted, shaking them off and dozens more took their places. Angling towards the surface, I swam in an erratic pattern as I continued to shake off hundreds of them. Their dolphin-like calls bombarded my sensitive hearing, but I tuned them out and focused on reaching the surface.
Something huge rammed me in the stomach, stunning me. I retained enough control to keep Jessie safe in her bubble as I absorbed the blow, then resumed swimming and getting swarmed. A water serpent came at me head-on. I veered at the last moment, letting it snap on water, then felt something tear my dorsal sail. I rolled and winced at the sharp pain, then forced myself to shrug it off. The chase had only begun.
Another big monster bashed me in my spine before I could roll back over, and then a sharklike monster dived at me. I tried to veer away but its jaws sank into my shoulder, just missing my hands. Pain lanced through my body. I coiled my tail around it and tore its body in half as I pried its jaws off with one hand. The sea clouded with blood.
I resumed swimming, holding Jessie down with one hand. I thought of sticking her in my mouth, since it’d make swimming easier, but chances were I’d need my fangs more than two hands. The nereids were unrelenting with their swarming and biting, but they weren’t causing any real damage. I had a tough hide with scales that acted like armor. I changed tactics and just ignored them. All the big monsters were closing in. They would play my cargo handicap to their advantage.
They attacked me in ones and twos. I retaliated with blasts of water, tore gaping wounds with my claws, and severed spines with my fangs as needed. I didn’t care how many I killed, didn’t care how much this would piss Amphitrite off. I was so sick and tired of letting my curse run my life.
After what felt like an eternity, the nereids’ numbers began to dwindle. I’d chomped a good number of them and spit them back out. Hopefully that’d broken their morale and they were more interested in preserving their survivors. However, the big monsters kept coming at me from all sides. I dodged and lashed out, and presented my back whenever I couldn’t get out of the way. There were just so many of them, and they attacked in rapid succession, barely keeping out of each other’s way as they took turns trying to take chunks out of me.
One evasive roll put me in the path of another monster shark. I tried to keep rolling but it bit down on one of my forearm fins and swam away with almost the whole thing in its mouth. I scored three lines in its flank as a second shark took a chunk out of my tail. My blood began to cloud the water, and I blocked out more pain.
The loss of my fin hampered me more than my shredded sail. My agility suffered and I began to miscalculate more and more as I drew closer to the surface. I braced against blows as I tried to swim away as fast as I could, slowing to lash out whenever something clamped on and didn’t let go. I soon lost count of my injuries. I was hurting all over but nowhere near tiring. The nereids disappeared altogether and the water serpents’ numbers dwindled. I’d torn up dozens of them and hundreds of nereids, but they still kept coming at me as I reached the surface and kept fleeing. I snuck Jessie a fresh pocket of air.
By then it became an all-out chase. I got bitten all over and rammed in the stomach several more times before they gave up the assault. I swam at full speed without looking back, using my command over water to propel me forward even faster, now that I wouldn’t run the risk of sucking unwanted company along with me. And good god I was in so much pain. I wanted to curl up into a ball and let the current take me wherever.
Some time later, I recognized the landmarks that belonged to the Straight of Gibraltar. I finally slowed to a stop and rolled onto my back, floating along the surface. I winced as salt water flushed my wounds, then released Jessie from her bubble. She still clung to my finger as she squinted at the sunlight and looked around.
“Is this the Strait of Gibraltar?”
“Yeah.” I let her sit on my chest and protectively held my hands around her. She leaned against one of them. “Are you alright?” I didn’t see any injuries on her, but she looked a bit rattled.
“I’ll be alright. I feel like I’ve been through the tumble dry cycle in a clothes dryer. I got jolted every time something rammed you.”
An apology sat on the tip of my tongue as I caressed her cheek with a finger. I didn’t say anything since I wasn’t the one who owed her an apology. Amphitrite did. Jessie held my finger to her cheek. I could sense gratitude emanating from her. No wonder Mido had fallen so hard for her. She was such a sweet, innocent thing. I felt so guilty for dragging her into my cursed life. I owed her so much for getting me out of there. I just… “You’re so different from the other avatars.”
“How so?”
“They were all eager to help me, but none of them tried as hard as you do. I owe you so much, even if my curse is never lifted.”
“You’re letting me keep Mido. You owe me nothing, so long as you never give up trying to lift your curse.”
“Fair enough.” I began speeding along the water on my aching back, swiftly
passing through the strait. I dodged ships and boats, and didn’t try to hide myself from them. I was in too much pain to care.
“Shouldn’t you give swimming a break? You’re bleeding all over.”
“I want to get back to my ship. I can recover there. Plus I don’t want to run the risk of letting everything we just escaped from catch back up. Where was the shipping route headed before you left?”
“The Falkland Islands. We were gonna gonna work our way up the east side of both Americas to spend some family time back at everyone’s homes, unless you returned sooner.”
“I think we all need that after everything that’s happened.” I flung my mind southwest along the oceans’ rolling surface. Within minutes, I felt the familiar shape of the Pertinacious’s hull plowing through the water. She was halfway along the coast of Brazil. “Found em. We’ll be back on the ship in less than twenty four hours. Do you have any money on you?”
“Plenty. Why?”
I veered towards Morocco’s shore. “Go buy some food to last you until we get back. I’m not stopping for anything except bathroom breaks.” I swam right up onto the beach and set Jessie down. She hopped off my hands and marched right over to an open air market as dozens of people ran screaming from demon me. I took a moment to assess my numerous injuries while she bought food. I was missing half my dorsal sail and my entire right fin, and it looked like I was covered in more cuts and bite marks than a fish had scales. I was striped with blood trails, which reddened the surf, but I didn’t care. I was in too much pain to care about anything but getting back to my ship and crew.
Minutes later, Jessie marched back over with a bag of food and climbed into my hands. She gave me a concerned look, but I ignored it and the building pandemonium. I clutched her to my chest and dived just below the surface, then swam off at full speed and full force.
