Strangers in Atlantis

by Matt Myklusch

  Dean blinked. Did she just make a joke? “How did you know I’d be here? Were you following me?”

  “I’ve been following you since you got here. After you went through the grate at the edge of the city, I knew there was only one place for you to come out.”

  She took a hard turn to starboard, banking toward a gap in the Magic Mountains. Dean held onto the manta for dear life. He couldn’t believe his luck. She was just the person he needed to tell about Finneus and Shellheart. “Lyndra, the plot against the queen. You were right!”

  “Of course I was right. My only mistake was that I thought you were working with either Finneus or Shellheart. I should have known it was the two of them together.”

  “Working with them?” Dean said. “You don’t understand, they forced me to—”

  “Don’t try to worm your way out of this. I heard you talking. You said he sent you to kill the queen.”

  “That was a mix-up. I didn’t know he wanted me to kill her.”

  Lyndra’s eyes narrowed. She didn’t believe Dean for a second. From her point of view, she hadn’t rescued him. She had captured him. The water around them grew brighter as they approached the glowing mountain range outside the city. “Where are you taking me?”

  Lyndra scoffed. “Where do you think? I’m bringing you before the queen. I’m going to tell her everything, and this time she’s going to listen. Thanks to you, I finally have the full story.”

  “I have to see my friends first,” Dean said. “They’re in danger.”

  “You’re in no position to ask me for anything.”

  “Please,” Dean pleaded.

  “Be quiet!” Lyndra ordered. “You’re not talking your way out of this. Not after what you’ve done.”

  Dean held his tongue, silently cursing himself and his predicament. Lyndra could have been a valuable ally, but it was too late for that. She’d never trust a word he said. Dean didn’t exactly blame her, but he couldn’t let her take him in, either. He scanned the ocean as they flew along on the giant manta’s back. They reached a path that ran between the Magic Mountains, and Dean had to shield his eyes from the glare. Hoping that the light had temporarily blinded Lyndra as well, he acted fast, throwing his rope’s grappling hook off the manta and tying a quick knot with the rope’s free end.

  “What are you doing?” Lyndra asked as the hook dug into the crystal terrain below them. A second later, the rope yanked her off the speeding manta by the wrist.

  “Sorry, I’ve got places to be that don’t include jail,” Dean said, sliding over to take control of the fish. “At least, not in a cell of my own.” The manta bucked, sensing Dean’s inexperience, but he held on long enough to figure out how to steer the creature through the mountain path alone.

  He reached Atlantis and found the spot where Gentleman Jim was being held. Just as Dean remembered, there were no guards on the water side of Jim’s cell. He checked behind him and was grateful to find that neither Lyndra nor Finneus and Shellheart had caught up with him yet. Dean ditched the manta and swam up to the Heavy Water barrier, hugging the ground as he went. The idea was to get Gentleman Jim out of the city first and then go back for Ronan and Waverly. He didn’t have a plan past that point, but so far, all his plans had gone sideways in a hurry. He doubted he could do any worse making things up as he went along.

  Dean dove through the Heavy Water barrier, landing right inside Gentleman Jim’s cell. Gentleman Jim jumped out of bed, startled by Dean’s sudden appearance. “You! What are you doing here?”

  “What does it look like?” Dean asked. “I’m here to rescue you.”

  “What?”

  “I’m breaking you out.”

  Gentleman Jim turned around to look at the front door of his cell. “How?”

  Dean shook his head. “Not that way.”

  “What other way is there to . . .” Gentleman Jim trailed off, perhaps realizing that Dean was—for the time being—a merman. “You look different.”

  “Just give me your hand. There’s no time to explain.”

  “I thought I told you to go home. Forget about me.”

  “You also told me no one gets left behind.”

  “I never said that.”

  “How would you know? You don’t even remember meeting me.”

  Gentleman Jim made a face that said he couldn’t argue. “I’ll fill you in later,” Dean continued. “For now, just brace yourself. This is going to feel a little weird.” He took out the vial of the Blood of Poseidon. “Well, if you want the truth, it’s going to hurt like the devil.”

  “What is that?” Gentleman Jim asked as Dean took his hand.

  Dean uncorked the vial and spilled out a drop onto Gentleman Jim’s palm. “You’ll see.”

  Dean squirmed uncomfortably as the blood transformed Gentleman Jim. The freezing cold, the blinding light, the excruciating pain in the chest . . . having been through it himself, the process was hard for Dean to watch. To his credit, Gentleman Jim didn’t make a sound.

  The “blessing of the sea god” concluded with Gentleman Jim stumbling around his cell, clawing at his throat in a desperate attempt to breathe. Dean remembered that feeling too.

  “To the sea!” he said, pointing at the watery fourth wall of Gentleman Jim’s cell. “Go!”

  What once had been a prison wall was now an open door. Gentleman Jim dove through the waterfall barrier and out into the ocean. Dean followed him out. On the other side, Dean found him a few feet off, swimming in circles. Gentleman Jim had started testing out his new body and feeling around with his new senses. If he was anything like Dean, he would adjust quickly.

  “It’s all right,” Dean said. “Just follow me and do as I do. We need to find the others before it’s too late.”

  Unfortunately, it was already too late. Dean saw Gentleman Jim staring at something behind him: Captain Lyndra, who was floating a few feet off. Strangely, she made no move against them.

  “You used the blood to set him free?” she said. Her voice was soft. Shocked. “That’s why you wanted it?”

  “That’s why I wanted it,” Dean replied and then pointed past Lyndra. “It’s not why they wanted it.”

  “Stop!” cried Finneus, arriving at last alongside Duke Shellheart. They had commandeered a pair of sea horses and were riding in hard and fast.

  “Guards!” shouted Shellheart. “Your prisoner is escaping!”

  The guards on the dry side of the Heavy Water barrier looked up from their posts and shook with surprise. Wasting no time, they dove through the barrier and came surging through the water toward Dean and the fugitive Gentleman Jim. Lyndra looked back and forth between the guards and Gentleman Jim and then spoke the last words Dean expected to hear:

  “Go.”

  Dean’s eyes were the size of sand dollars. “Go? You were just—”

  “Go now!” she yelled at Dean and Gentleman Jim, and swam off to intercept the guards. There were four of them and only one of her, but she went at them with the tenacity of a shark. Meanwhile, Shellheart and Finneus were closing in. Dean knew Gentleman Jim was in no condition for a fight. It would take at least a few minutes more before he acclimated to his new mer-form. They had to flee. Dean grabbed Gentleman Jim’s wrist and pulled. “Come on!”

  As they darted through the water, Dean frantically scanned the seascape for a cave opening or a reef. They needed a place to hide. What he saw instead was a winding trail of glowing water off in the distance. The Waterway!

  Behind them, Shellheart and Finneus had gained ground quickly. Just before Dean and Gentleman Jim reached the current, Dean felt something grab his foot. He turned around to see Shellheart’s snarling face. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  Riding to the rescue once again, Lyndra barreled into the duke, knocking him off his sea horse. Dean briefly pictured four guards unconscious in the water near Gentleman Jim’s former cell. As Shellheart spun away, Finneus charged in with a knife. Lyndra caught him by the wrist and twisted his arm, pul
ling him off his mount as well.

  Dean moved to drag Gentleman Jim away as Lyndra resumed grappling with Shellheart. “We have to get out of here!” Dean said. The Waterway was right there. Just a few more feet, and he and Jim would be gone.

  Since becoming a merman, Dean had swum into hard current more than once. He had done it both times that he had exited Poseidon’s Chamber, and also when he had snuck back in. But entering the Waterway would be different. The last time Dean took this ride, he had been strapped into a seat that had been bolted to the floor inside a strong metal sphere. He had been protected. He had planned to go home with the same protections in place, but circumstances dictated otherwise. Instead, he and Gentleman Jim charged into the Waterway headfirst, helpless against its fury.

  Salt water pounded Dean’s body as he coursed through the depths at a blistering pace. The current flipped him around, feeling more like mortar than water, with a force that would have broken an air-breather’s neck. Dean went limp and tried not to fight it. He hoped Gentleman Jim realized the only way through this was to try and become one with the flow. Dean would see him on the other side—if they made it.

  The sea grew bitterly cold, and then warm again, as Dean and Gentleman Jim passed through arctic waters on their way home. As they flew along, they were pelted by all manner of sand and shell. The tiny grains felt to Dean like a million pins, pricking his skin over and over. There was no way to avoid it. He couldn’t have moved his arms to cover himself up if he tried. The only relief came whenever the Waterway current twisted him around so he faced away from the oncoming sediment, and then when the ride finally ended.

  The Waterway spat out Dean and Gentleman Jim in almost exactly the same spot where Dean had first found it. They exited the current beneath the sea and drifted up, doing the dead man’s float.

  By the time Dean reached the surface, his rejuvenation at the hands of the Atlantean healers had been completely negated. He felt like he’d been beaten with a sack of rocks. He turned around slowly and tried to get his bearings. He spied Aquatica on the horizon in one direction and a ship anchored far off in the other—Skinner’s ship, the Crimson Tide. Gentleman Jim came up for air next, coughing and spitting out salt water. Dean went to check on him.

  “Are you all right?”

  Gentleman Jim turned around, his eyes drifting as if he’d just been on the receiving end of a knockout punch. Then his entire body shook as Dean came into focus. “Seaborne?” he exclaimed. “Can that be you?” A moment later, he grabbed Dean by the shoulders, nearly pulling them both under. “It is! I don’t believe it!”

  Dean smiled. “Good to have you back, Cap’n.”

  Gentleman Jim looked around. “What about the others?” he asked. “Where’s everybody else?”

  sink or swim

  Chapter 27

  Back So Soon?

  “Was that Lyndra?” Gentleman Jim asked.

  Dean nodded. Gentleman Jim appeared to be struggling with the flood of long-term and short-term memories that had just returned to him. He looked around for Captain Lyndra as if she were right nearby.

  “She’s not here, Cap’n,” said Dean.

  “What about Ronan and your friend, the girl? Surely they got out before you came for me.”

  “No.” Dean shook his head. “We left them behind.” He felt ill as the words left his mouth.

  “Seaborne! I told you to leave me behind! What were you thinking?”

  “This wasn’t the plan.”

  “I should hope not! We need to go back. We’ve got to fix this!”

  “Aye, sir. We’ve got our work cut out for us.”

  “First things first.” Gentleman Jim scanned the horizon. “There’s a ship there. If we’re lucky, the people on board are friendly.”

  “We’re not lucky. That’s a pirate ship.”

  “You know it?”

  “Too well. Nothing but murderous scoundrels on board—worst I’ve seen since One-Eyed Jack. He’s dead, by the way.”

  Gentleman Jim’s mouth fell open. “What?”

  “You heard me. It’s a whole new world up here, Cap’n. At least, it was supposed to be. I’ll fill you in on the way. We need to make that ship before sunrise.”

  “You have a plan for dealing with its crew?” Gentleman Jim said.

  Dean squinted at the Crimson Tide. “I might. Their captain . . . he’s an ice-blooded blackguard, but he knows the value of a good deal.”

  The ship was several leagues away. The swim would have been difficult, if not impossible, for anyone saddled with human legs (and lungs). But in their transformed state, it proved to be an easy task. They reached Skinner’s ship in less than an hour.

  Along the way, Dean took time to catch Gentleman Jim up on everything he had missed. First, he explained how they had survived the wreck of their ship, the Reckless. Then he told Jim what had become of One-Eyed Jack. That tale ended with Gentleman Jim’s former crew, the Pirate Youth, alive and well, free to live out their days on the enchanted Golden Isle of Zenhala. Gentleman Jim was overjoyed to hear that part of the story, but it didn’t change the fact that one member of his crew was still unaccounted for. As long as Ronan stayed in Atlantis, he was in more danger than ever—assuming he hadn’t already been smothered by the Sponge. Waverly wasn’t safe either. If Dean and Gentleman Jim hoped to have any chance of getting them back, they were going to need some help.

  When they reached the Crimson Tide, they dove down deep beneath the ship and came up on the other side fast enough to fly out of the water. They shot up into the air like jumping porpoises and landed on the deck. Dean touched down right next to a half-asleep pirate who was attempting to stand watch.

  “Gah!” the man exclaimed, nearly falling over. Gentleman Jim’s sudden appearance had the same effect on Long Tom Cannon. He uttered a soft “Boo!” that sent the big man reeling. Long Tom backpedaled away, tripping over a few pirates who were sleeping on deck, and then fell on top of them. They cried out in discomfort, and it wasn’t long before the whole ship was awake.

  “What’s going on here?” Marlon Spyke demanded, crossing the deck. “By the powers!” he said, stopping short to gawk at Dean and Gentleman Jim. Standing in the light of the moon, with their pale blue skin, the two of them looked like ghosts.

  “Where’s Skinner?” asked Dean.

  “In his cabin,” Spyke replied, his eyes the size of doubloons.

  “Get him up.”

  Spyke nodded. “Long Tom . . . wake the captain. Seaborne’s back.”

  Lanterns were lit as the crew waited for its captain to come out on deck. The pirates surrounded Dean and Gentleman Jim on all sides. Just like the last time Dean was on board Skinner’s ship, he was hopelessly outnumbered. Unlike the last time, Dean was not at all afraid. Skinner was a heartless rogue, but he was also doggedly pragmatic. Right now, he knew nothing of what had transpired since Dean had last been in his sight. Dean held all the cards, and Skinner wouldn’t touch him until he found out what they were.

  “What’s all this, then?” Skinner asked when at last he emerged from his cabin. “Seaborne, is that you? We wasn’t expecting your signal ’til tomorrow morning.”

  “Things have changed.”

  Skinner took a lantern and held it up to get a good look at Dean. “I can see that,” he said, noting his blue skin. “What’s happened to you, lad?”

  “It’s been an interesting couple of days.”

  “Clearly.” Skinner turned his attention to Gentleman Jim. “And who might you be, friend?”

  Gentleman Jim puffed his chest. “Gentleman Jim Harper, formerly a captain in One-Eyed Jack’s Black Fleet. And I’m not your friend. You have a prisoner. A man called Verrick. We want to see him.”

  Skinner scowled. “That sounded ta me like an order. I’m the only one giving orders on this ship.” He pointed at Dean. “I ordered you to get me into Aquatica. I don’t care if you come back here blue, green, or purple. It don’t change anything. The only color that matters
to me is gold.”

  “You’re wrong, Skinner,” Dean said. “Everything’s changed. The good news is, I can get you into Aquatica. The bad news is, there’s nothing there.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Aquatica’s a smokescreen. It’s not a holiday spot for kings and queens. It’s a border station. The gateway to Atlantis. If you want your treasure, you’re going to have to go a little farther to get it.”

  Half the crew laughed their heads off at what Dean had told them. The other half laughed even harder.

  “Listen ta that fish tale!”

  “You expect us ta believe that?”

  “What kind of fools do ya take us for?”

  As the crew guffawed, showing off black-toothed smiles that had never once been brushed, Skinner stood in silence. He put a hand up, a signal to quiet the crew. The rowdy laughter ground to a halt.

  “Ordinarily, I’d be suspicious of such a story,” Skinner began. “But things being the way they are . . .” He motioned to Dean’s strange appearance, then turned to his crew. “Get the prisoner.”

  Skinner’s crew was so shocked to hear him say he believed Dean that none of them moved.

  “You scalawags hard of hearing!?” Skinner bellowed. “Get the prisoner, I say!”

  The crew scattered. Most of them did not come back, but they did push Verrick out from below deck. He climbed through a hatch, looking weary and beaten, but the sight of Dean breathed life into him.

  “Dean!” Verrick said, stumbling forth. “What’s happened to you? Where’s Waverly?”

  “She’s fine,” Dean said. “Last I saw her, anyway. She won’t be for long, unless we go get her. In Atlantis.”

  “Atlantis!”

  “Hold on a blasted minute,” Skinner said. “You’re not going anywhere. I need to think about this.”

  “What’s there to think about?” Gentleman Jim asked Skinner. “You want your treasure, don’t you?”

  “That’s right. You’re not going to get any richer waiting around here,” Dean said. “Go on, hoist that sail and set a course for Aquatica. We haven’t any time to lose.”