“Yes, General,” Octavia, Cutter, and Rian reply in unison before scattering to gather their mounts and allies.
❖
Andromeda
Andromeda wakes with a start, gasping for air and finding mouthfuls of sea in its’ place. She gets a brief glimpse of the dark room she’s woken in before her eyes begin to water from her gasping and sputtering.
“Don’t fight it,” a tattooed hand appears on her forearm. “Take the water into your lungs.”
Andromeda shakes her head violently as she shrugs off the hand. Her vision begins to tunnel into tiny pinpricks as she kicks and thrashes in place.
“Do it,” the male at her side urges — his voice commanding yet calming at the same time. Without warning the male’s fist thumps her hard on the back and she coughs as sea water slides down her throat. Andromeda inhales deeply and miraculously her airway clears and breathing becomes easier. She gulps as more water seeps into her, into her pores, her skin, filling her with delicious, familiar oxygen.
“Feel better?” the male asks smugly.
“Yes, I-” Andromeda turns her head toward the voice as a sliver of silver light peeks through the porthole. Her eyes widen as she sees a gold and black fish with sharp spikes shooting through its’ back swim past the porthole. “This isn’t real,” Andromeda blinks a few times to clear the vision from her sight. Her wide eyes scan the room more thoroughly now, taking in the dark wood paneling and maroon accents of what appears to be the captain’s quarters. Maps and scrolls are sprawled over the surface of a desk below the porthole and sitting on a wooden stool balancing the back legs against the wall is the man — no, the Mistborn, who helped Andromeda escape from the Watierai Warriors dungeon before forcing her upon this rickety ship. “You,” she points a quivering finger at him.
“Is that any way to treat someone who just saved your life, Highness?” Daegan’s smile is wolfish, the whiteness of his teeth the clearest part of him visible in the dark room.
“I think I’d rather have taken my chances with the Warriors.” Andromeda replies darkly. “I demand you return me to shore at once.”
Daegan whistles and quickly looks away, “I don’t know, Highness. You’re in pretty rough shape. See for yourself.”
He reaches across her prone form, his arm brushing against her chest sending splinters of pain and some other feeling she’d rather not name through her being. With a flick of his thumb and forefinger he illuminates the room with a flickering green orb contained in a glass lamp.
A thin blue sheet is all that separates her flesh from Daegan’s gaze and Andromeda feels suddenly shy as heat creeps into her cheeks. She doesn’t know why she should feel embarrassed, the Warriors that tortured her saw far more of her after they destroyed the uniform Rian constructed for her. As evidence, the ruined suit lays discarded on the floor near the door.
Hesitantly Andromeda lifts the sheet and hazards a glimpse and nearly gags at the sight of the welts and burn marks scarring her torso and legs. Her breasts have been sliced with large red “x” shaped scars in increased sizes marring the skin.
A whimper escapes her lips.
“I’m truly sorry, Highness.” Daegan murmurs as his eyes remain fixed on the floor.
“Please, stop calling me that,” Andromeda whispers. The fight in her is gone completely as she sinks back onto the lumpy pillow. All the pain that sleep masked charges through her and she groans as she shifts and tries to get more comfortable on the spongey bed.
“We’ll reach Faeloria soon,” Daegan grabs Andromeda’s hand and squeezes. “There you’ll be reunited with your family so you can truly begin the healing process. I hear the physicks in the palace are the best in all the world.”
Andromeda turns her face away from him as tears leak from her eyes. She wants to go home. She wants to make bread with Midge and sit in the garden with Father late at night listening to stories from his childhood. Andromeda feels a lifetime away from them now, forever lost to the sea, never to return home again.
She rubs the tears from her cheeks but her fingers catch on something rigid on her cheek, a crooked line. Andromeda examines her face gently with her fingers and find another, then another. Spindly, raised spiderweb-like scars cover her face from forehead to jawline. They’re a permanent echo of the iron mask the Watierai Warriors had burned to her face during their days of torture.
Against her wishes the tears bead up at the corner of her eyes and sit on her eyelashes like dew.
“They will pay,” Daegan whispers. “On that I swear. For now just rest.”
History of Esternwhorl #9
Advances below the Surface
Above the sea’s surface, in the three Landborn kingdoms of Esternwhorl advancement has been stilted. The only light sources are flickering flames, leaving long stretches of darkness beyond the candle or lantern’s reach.
For whatever reason, the Landborn believe in doing things the hard way; from cooking to cleaning to the cultivation of crops and more. It is a life devoid of every day magic. But beneath the surface of the sea it is a different story.
In the Perscesian’s drive for knowledge they have also strived for advancement to place them ahead of their Landborn counterparts. In addition to the largest library in Esternwhorl, Faeloria is home to the best physicks in the world and the inventions created by Perscesian engineers far surpass anything created on land, bringing the world under the sea into a new millennia while the rest of the world struggles.
Physicks apprentice at the Royal Institute of Tonics and Potioniers, tending to the sick and experimenting with flora native to the sea to create cures to ailments that remain fatal on land. Fewer women die in childbirth in the Perscesian kingdom, and many diseases that once meant a death sentence have been fully eradicated.
In the laboratories and workrooms of the Little Academie of Schemers, the best and brightest engineers and inventors create new modes of transportation, such as the seaskipper, smarter designs for multi-family dwellings in Faeloria, flameless lighting, and streamline sanitation systems and clean water pipelines in and out of the city. Meanwhile in the landborn kingdoms people still travel by horse and carriage, dwellings are made of wood and grasses, maids must empty chamber pots multiple times a day, and water must be boiled before it is safe for drinking.
If only the Landborn did not scoff and murder their advanced counterparts, how the teachings of the sea could be brought above the surface and shared. New collaborations and creations could be made, lives could be saved, and life could be so much easier.
Ah, but this narrators supposes that the Landborn would rather remain in the dark than come together with the source of Zarouk’s scorn.
Chapter 9
Andromeda
Andromeda sits on the side of the lumpy bed, elbows balanced on her knees and her chin in her hands as she stares blindly through the porthole when the door to her newest make-shift prison opens. Daegan sticks his head inside, his gold eye and sightless milky eye sweeping over the britches and tunic Andromeda found among his belongings and adapted to fit her.
Without commenting on her attire, Daegan’s eyes flick to hers, “Do you wish to come aboveboard and see your first glimpse at your home?”
“No,” Andromeda shakes her head without looking away from the porthole.
“Come on,” Daegan insists on crossing the room and pulling Andromeda to her feet, “it will do you good.”
“I don’t want to,” she replies more forcefully. “I don’t belong here.”
“Suit yourself,” Daegan turns as if to leave but then fakes to the side and slides his arms around her, sweeping Andromeda up into his arms and spiriting her up the groaning wooden stairs, taking them two at a time before bursting onto the bustling deck.
Andromeda protests and beats against Daegan’s chest but neither he nor his crew pay her any mind as Daegan strides across deck to the bow, his arms like steel bands around her.
“See there, Princess,” Daegan points a finger of the
hand supporting her legs ahead of her and her eyes reluctantly follow to see what is in store for her. “That there in the distance, that bright bit of light is the capital city, Faeloria.”
Andromeda remains silent to project her indifference as her eyes drink in the glittering blue city unfurling before them. While Vacantia’s capital city, Vanyia, is all sandstone and jewels the Mistborn capital is bright and magical, light shining from within the teal blue sea glass structures that stab high above toward the surface.
At the far end of the city a palace made of turquoise blue coral and teal sea glass rises above all other buildings, stretching across the sea floor as far as the eye can see with spires stretching nearly to the sea’s surface. A blue coral archway leads into the city, flanked on each side by statues dedicated to Faeta, the forgotten sea goddess and her consort Mellouk, the god of mist. Below the ship’s hull steel tubes run the length of the sea floor creating a tract system into the city proper.
“What do you think?” Daegan asks eventually.
“It’s… nice.” Andromeda murmurs trying to hide the amazement she truly feels at the sight of the advanced city sprawling before her.
Daegan snorts beside her as he too looks upon the city.
“You know, you’d be half-way attractive if you’d keep your mouth shut.” Andromeda tears her eyes away from the view to glare at him.
“I didn’t say a word,” Daegan protests though the smirk does not drop from his lips.
“Maybe not, but you were certainly thinking something by the sounds of that snort.” Andromeda narrows her eyes at him.
“Now don’t go accusing me of thoughts,” Daegan chuckles, “you’d ruin my reputation as a spur of the moment kind of guy.”
Andromeda shakes her head in annoyance and turns forward, choosing to ignore him instead of indulging his insufferable ego.
The ship docks at the archway into the city and the crew lowers a gangplank into the sandy sea floor. Daegan hurries Andromeda off the ship guarded by the octupus-armed man and an intimidating looking female. A copper and sea glass contraption that looks like a smaller scale whale waits below the archway. The octopus man opens a hatch in the side and disappears inside.
“Ladies first,” Daegan ushers Andromeda into the cavernous interior.
Tripping over the threshold, Andromeda’s eyes bounce around as she studies the strange enclosure. The octopus man sits behind a large wheel. His female companion slinks in behind Andromeda and slides into the seat across from him. Behind the two seats that face the giant glass window, two long benches line the sides of the contraption.
“What is this thing?” Andromeda pivots around to ask Daegan.
“We call it a seaskipper,” Daegan explains as he strokes the exterior lovingly. “Queen Carina, your true mother, commissioned the palace engineers to create a method of transportation through the city. They run on a steam engine that runs on coal and dead coral.”
Andromeda looks at the seaskipper skeptically as she sits on one of the benches and grips the seat until her fingers tingle with numbness. Daegan chuckles under his breath at her apprehension and takes a seat on the bench opposite her.
Andromeda crosses her arms over her chest though the motion makes her wince in pain and stares out the front window to avoid looking at Daegan’s smug face. If he hadn’t freed Andromeda from the Watierai Warrior’s dungeon she’d probably have punched his handsome face by now.
The seaskipper rumbles as the octopus man pulls a lever beneath the window and the contraption raises from the sea floor. Another twist of the lever sends the seaskipper careening forward past the archway into the city. Buildings shaped like tall towers, short domes, and massive mushrooms blur by as the octopus man guides the machine through the city streets, careful to avoid other speeding seaskippers.
Men, women, and children travel along pathways paved with sparkling sea stones some carrying pouches or large gourds as they disappear into buildings. They seem oblivious to the water surrounding them, breathing it in as if it was as invisible and easy to move through as oxygen above the surface.
A few of the tall towers are topped by bright red roofs that look like giant sea-glass starberries, their seeds poking outward like fist-sized beads.
Daegan watches her silently as Andromeda takes in the cityscape. She’s never seen anything like Faeloria and it must show on her face. She’s too busy admiring the architecture that Andromeda barely notices the seaskipper jolt to a stop in front of the grand, crystalline palace.
❖
Daegan leaps to his feet and opens the hatch with a sharp tug to a handle hidden in the side panel of the seaskipper. He hops down onto the sea stone pathway and offers Andromeda his hand. She stands slowly, her legs feeling wobbly beneath her as she takes one test step then another remembering to inhale the water into her lungs like Daegan told her.
Each step is painful and Andromeda’s knees nearly buckle as her feet make contact with the sea stone path. She jerks forward and Daegan lurches forward on instinct to catch her before she falls on her face. Andromeda’s face burns hot with embarrassment as she uses Daegan’s shoulders to steady herself and raise to a standing position.
Daegan takes her hand and slides it into the crook of his arm and begins escorting Andromeda into the palace. Two bare chested guards in tight leather trousers flank the shimmering metal gate made up of dozens of tridents. Their gazes pierce Andromeda in place as sharply as if they had ripped a trident from the gate and impaled her with it.
“Daegan Brykmaker, requesting an immediate audience with Queen Carina,” Daegan bows his head to the guards.
“The Queen is busy,” one of the guards grunts, his face contorting into a sneer. “She’s not seeing visitors today.”
“She’ll want to see me,” Daegan raises his head, eyes narrowed at the guard that had spoken. “I bring news of the missing princess.”
This changes the guard’s attitude immediately. Holding up a hand he says, “Wait here a moment.”
He nods to his companion to watch them and slips inside the gate dashing up to the palace doors and disappearing inside.
Daegan shifts on his feet distractingly as they wait for the guard’s return. His impatience is palpable and it causes a fluttering of unease in Andromeda’s stomach. She scans the palace grounds through the gate and the bustling streets at their backs as her mind whirls. A plan begins to form. Up until now she’s been docile since entering the city, but Andromeda knows she does not belong here, of this she’s sure. All Andromeda needs is a moment’s distraction and she could blend into the bustling masses on the pathways and make her escape before Daegan even knows she’s gone.
As if he’s reading Andromeda’s mind Daegan’s hand clamps down on her wrist hard enough to threaten the fragile bones of her wrist should she try to make a break for it. His gaze is deadly as if telling her to go ahead and try it, that she will regret it.
Andromeda shoots him an equally murderous look as she wishes she had her aquaswift on her person, but she left it behind on Daegan’s ship leaning against the wall of his cabin where he’d propped it after saving her and her few bodily possessions from the Warrior dungeon. Before words can be exchanged between Andromeda and her charming captor the second guard returns and pulls the gates open wide to allow them passage, “The Queen will see you now.”
Daegan bows his head gratefully to the guard and tugs Andromeda along as he crosses the threshold onto the palace grounds. The pathway is bordered by luminous sea grasses and iridescent teal roses that bloom from closed buds into full blooms as they pass.
The palace doors open of their own accord and Andromeda’s stomach sinks as she enters the palace. Large, rectangular windows made of frosted sea glass let in rays of light that shimmers off dark blue tiles that look liquid at first glance. A shallow waterway runs up the center of the corridor and a ferryman stands waiting aboard a narrow, canoe-like vessel with tall carvings of sea serpents on either end.
Daegan hops down
into the vessel and startles Andromeda by grabbing her round the waist and plopping her down onto the narrow wooden seat of the boat. He makes a solo clicking noise with his tongue as his eyes bypass her and connect with the ferryman as he takes his seat opposite Andromeda. The ferryman, understanding Daegan’s silent command, pushes the vessel off from the edge of the tile floor. Andromeda feels the ferryman at her back, his gaze boring into the back of her head as he paddles the vessel further into the palace. The corridor separates into three additional corridors as light floods in from a clear domed ceiling. Andromeda looks up and sees jellyfish and sharks swimming overhead.
The ferryman continues in his backward strokes and Andromeda turns around as they’re brought into an exquisite throne room. The floor is laid with more of the shimmering, liquid tiles and large arching windows are carved from the sea glass walls, overlaid with lacing green coral. Crystal statues of sea serpents and the goddess Faeta and other women whom Andromeda doesn’t recognize adorn the room spaced between floating orbs of fire to light the room.
Seated in the center of the room on a throne made of glass is a deceptively young looking woman. At her side is a silver-haired man dressed head to toe in black.
Andromeda fidgets as Daegan yanks her from the boat and guides her across the tile floor toward the woman. As she draws nearer the young queen’s eyes transform from dull and dead to vibrant, liquid gold and her mouth drops open. She rises unsteadily from her throne and crosses the distance between them. Andromeda tries to step back but the queen traps her in place by putting her hands firmly on Andromeda’s shoulders. Andromeda tries to protest, to tell the hopeful queen that she is not who she thinks Andromeda is but something strange happens when the queen places her hands on Andromeda. Andromeda sees a flicker, just a dash of a memory really, of the young queen sitting atop a large flat rock in the middle of the sea, cradling a baby in her arms as she sings softly. The song is so familiar to Andromeda, a lullaby she remembers vividly although her mother never sang to her as a child, never showed Andromeda such affection. Could Daegan be right? Is this woman, Queen of the Mistborn, truly her mother? It is true that Andromeda resembles her, they have the same coloring, the same hue of blue-gray skin and golden eyes; identical waves of thick mahogany hair.
Monsters & Mist Page 12
