In Dawn and Darkness Page 8

  “And the cooperation of the surfacers,” I said. “They could play a larger role in this than Itlantis thinks. I understand we are looking for fighters to reclaim Primus.” I pointed at the swarm of surfacers. “I think you might find some among them, some who are willing to fight.”

  He nodded, pursing his lips. “I believe you.” He hesitated, his chin tipping up as he gazed upward. “This... I did not expect this. The sky is so vast.”

  Footsteps crunched on the pebbles as a man approached us. As he drew closer, I recognized him.

  Senator Jak.

  He approached us as though we were another problem to deal with. Darek stepped back, giving him space to speak with me. “My lady,” he said, the nicety more of a snarl on his lips, although he bowed as deeply as Darek had. “I see you have your motley band of outcasts with you. I don’t suppose you’d tell me why you’re even in this quadrant?”

  “No,” I agreed. “But you can thank us for those two ships that are now in Itlantean control, and these prisoners who might know valuable information.” I paused. “Perhaps it’s a good thing I didn’t run.”

  I wanted to prove to him that I wouldn’t be cowed into silence, not by his promises or his threats.

  Jak smiled thinly, unruffled by my mention of his scheme. Perhaps I had misjudged his desire for secrecy. “Hmm. That remains to be seen, my lady. That remains to be seen.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Keli clicked her tongue at the sight of Garren and Kit’s wounds from where she leaned in the doorway. Kit’s former identity as a soldier for Nautilus seemed to be fading in everyone’s mind, as they all fussed over the wounded two.

  Valus, it seemed, was unharmed.

  “He wasn’t with us when we were attacked,” Garren said. He muttered something unintelligible beneath his breath as he stripped off the bandage and dabbed at the wound with a healing salve Myo had dug from the cargo bay medical box.

  As if summoned by the mention of his name, Valus appeared in the doorway to the common room. “Yes, because I was scouting ahead to determine the location of the soldiers, as asked. Are you implying that I betrayed you?”

  “It wouldn’t have been the first time you’ve acted in your own interests,” Nol said.

  “Yes, and last time it was in your interests too, Dron, and your lot was more than happy to hear from me.”

  “Stop fighting,” I snapped.

  Was there anyone on this ship who wasn’t about to jump at everyone else’s throat?

  Nol and Valus backed down, both glowering. Valus looked at me with an indecipherable emotion in his eyes, and I thought he might say something, but he only turned and retreated to his bunk.

  I moved for my own sleeping chamber, but Nol snagged my arm, stopping me.

  “Aemi,” he said. “About Senator Jak—”

  “I can’t believe you wanted us to trust him. You aren’t my defender, Nol. You need to let me decide for my own safety.”

  He let go of me as if I’d slapped him, and I didn’t look back as I disappeared into my chamber, but once I was inside, I leaned against the wall and shut my eyes as my heart pounded.

  You are not my defender.

  The words had knifed me as I’d spoken them. I’d wanted him to disagree, to argue with me, to fight for that position of trust to be restored.

  But he hadn’t.

  In that moment, I felt so deeply alone.

  ~ ~ ~

  We left the island for the open ocean, passing through deep water and ruins lit by rippling sunlight as we dove farther into the blue of uncharted water. As half the ship wasn’t speaking to the other half except in the barest of words, the atmosphere simmered with faint tension. Kit and Myo played game after game of Hooks, each winning some rounds and losing others. Now that Kit had learned, they were evenly matched as opponents, and many games ended in stalemates. Sometimes, the others played. Garren against Keli, Nol against me, Keli against Nol. Garren and Keli had several particularly fierce matches before she retreated to the control room.

  Kit and Myo sat hunched over the board, both staring at it. Another stalemate looked to be in the works.

  Finally, Kit groaned. “I think I am out of moves. We both lose yet again.”

  “It’s not always about winning or losing. Sometimes it’s about learning how to be better next time,” Myo said.

  Keli stepped into the common room and overheard him. “Tell that to the Dron, eh?”

  Garren, who also watched the game, snorted. “Some people have no choice but to fight until their last breath, because if they don’t, they’ll still lose, and there will be nothing, no next time, not for any of them. Their children will be stolen and they will be left to starve. But Itlanteans wouldn’t know about that.”

  Keli shook her head, and the beads in her hair jingled. “Because we Itlanteans are all the same, yes? We all live in golden palaces and eat whale liver and drink ambrosia.” She snorted. “Hardly. You wouldn’t believe how the people on Magmus live. Like animals. No, worse. Like worms.”

  Garren folded his arms and gazed at her. “The Dron have been hiding for decades. We know what it’s like to live like animals.”

  She pointed to the beads in her hair. “Each bead represents someone I know who has died. Life for those who live in the city of Magmus has never been easy, Dron. I lived in relative slavery before I escaped. All of us did. Have you ever seen someone die from too much heat? I have. The skin ripples and puckers before it burns. The screaming... you’ll never get it out of your dreams. Never.” She paused. “They make the little ones go into the places the adults can’t fit. Sometimes, they don’t come back.”

  Garren grunted and looked down. Everyone else looked ill.

  “You know what they call a firstborn child in Magmus?” she continued.

  No one said anything.

  “Kindling,” she said, her lips twisting. “Because sooner or later, we all burn.”

  Sickness gathered in the back of my throat. “Does the rest of Itlantis know what goes on in Magmus?”

  She shrugged. “Few ever left Magmus even before the war with Nautilus, and I’ll bet you none do now. There were always bigger problems. No one cares much for the lowest of the low—what can they do? They only exist to be fuel for Itlantis.”

  A silence filled the room after that. I gazed at her, hearing the words echo in my mind. Determination seized me, along with the beginnings of an idea.

  “Well,” Keli said. “As I was saying, you might want to prepare yourselves to dive, and Dron—” She aimed her words at Garren. “—send whatever signal you intend to send. We’re approaching our destination.”

  ~ ~ ~

  When the waters had grown dark and cold, we reached the facility. The lights from the Riptide cut through the blackness, illuminating broken stone covered in yellow seaweed. I watched through a port while the others busied themselves with preparations behind me.

  A shark darted away from our approach, and a shiver slipped down my spine.

  We were in unsafe waters.

  Myo cleared his throat, and I turned to face the others.

  “The facility lies between two great rocks,” Myo said. “With sensors placed all around to detect the approach of a ship. We can slip between them with the help of the Dron and their methods.”

  Garren nodded. “The Dron have used sea creatures to travel the seas for hundreds of years. We have a unique relationship with the dolphins, and we entrust this secret to you now. Don’t disrespect them, and they will assist you.”

  “How does one disrespect a dolphin?” Valus asked in a way that suggested he didn’t care about the answer because he thought it was ridiculous.

  Garren ignored him. “Grab the fins on their backs and let them carry you. Hold on tight. They are fast.”

  As we suited up, my stomach curled into a knot. I stared at the dark water in the diving room and prepared to jump.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  THE WATER CLOSED over my head, and I sank in a flurry of
froth and bubbles. A panic laced with the memory of being kidnapped and thrown into the water from Primus filled me. Then, the water cleared and I could see a few feet from the faint glow coming from the lines of light on my suit. I sucked in a deep breath of air from my mask and moved my arms and legs, righting myself as I looked up at the Riptide’s side and around me at the great expanse of blue-black. Garren kicked through the water ahead of me, swimming with powerful strokes. Another body slipped through the deep to meet him, and I sucked in a breath.

  A dolphin.

  The animal brushed past me, its gray body slippery and muscled, spinning me sideways with the impact.

  I struggled to calm the clutching sensation of being suffocated as I kicked my arms and legs. The suit and breathing apparatuses, Dron-made and designed to be used to swim great distances, pulled at my limbs and weighed down my back. I found myself thrashing as the tug of the weight sparked a panic in me.

  A hand gripped my arm. Valus. I seized his shoulder for support, and he wrapped an arm around my waist as he kept his place in the water. He was a strong swimmer, which I hadn’t expected. Bubbles rose from the mouthpiece of his mask, and through the slitted eye goggles, his eyes stared into mine.

  The dolphin reached him and thrust its nose into his hand. Garren reached up and grabbed ahold of the dorsal fin on the dolphin’s back before gesturing to us to do the same.

  Something bumped my shoulder as flashes of dark gray swirled around us. More dolphins. One swam beneath me, and I placed my hands around the fin on its back. It began to swim, and a laugh bubbled from my lips as I was dragged along.

  A memory filled my mind. Valli, speaking as we ate in the dining hall of the Dron ship.

  “When the Dron strike, they are swift and silent.”

  “Your ships are no more swift than Itlantean ones,” I had protested. “They are old and heavy.”

  She tipped her head to the side at my words and smiled. “We do not usually attack with our ships.”

  This was the Dron secret, then. They used sea creatures instead of ships to make their attacks.

  We swam deeper, pulled by the dolphins into the infinite dark blue of the water. Nol kept behind me, his arm slung over a dolphin with a scar down its side that appeared to have been made with teeth. Kit kept close to my side. Valus hung tight to his ride, shaking his head as the dolphin darted between two rocks. The dolphin made a clicking sound, as if laughing at him, and bubbles erupted from Garren’s breathing mask.

  I suspected Garren had signaled for the dolphin to do that on purpose. Judging by the rude gesture Valus gave him, Valus did too.

  We left the Riptide behind as the dolphins took us deeper, their bodies slicing through the water like spears with each powerful thrust of their tails. The sounds of our swimming, the glug of bubbles and the swish of strokes against sea, came faintly to me, as if slowed down. Fish scattered at our approach, melting into the never ending blue that surrounded us like the cupped hand of an ancient god, squeezing us as we journeyed farther and farther into the dark.

  There was something dreamlike and ominous about such deep water, so vast and empty as we trekked across it, bourn by dolphins, interlopers outside the safety of our ships. The water grew cold, the faint blue faded to indigo. I felt naked in the infinite expanse, exposed, and I dared not look down for too long at the black below, or a crawling sensation of terror began to tickle my skin and clench at my throat. Once I spotted a whale, as long as a ship, slipping away into the depths below. Another time, a sinuous shadow passed above us, thin and snakelike, but far too large to be a snake.

  My fingers grew numb from clutching the fin of the dolphin, which swam tirelessly, following the others ahead, but I kept them closed tight as visions of being left behind filled my mind. Garren led us, giving signals and commands to his dolphin by touching different places on the dorsal fin, and the others swam hard to keep up.

  Finally, when my hands felt stiff and bloodless, we reached a rock cliff, and here, we stopped. My feet touched stone. I exhaled, bubbles slipping up around my face as I released the dolphin’s fin.

  Myo motioned for our attention and pointed down.

  The facility.

  The building clung to a crag of rock like a huge metal octopus, pillions extending in all directions downward, anchoring the structure to the ocean floor. Muddy yellow growth clung to the struts, illuminated by ghostly lights that pierced the darkness in streaks. Strange spires topped with undulating seaweed clustered on the sandy bottom.

  Myo let go of his dolphin and drifted down, his arms and legs tucked close together to make his body as slim and unobtrusive as possible as he swam toward the facility, taking care to keep out of the light. As he passed over the spires, the seaweed disappeared, and I realized with a start that those things were alive. Slowly, they crept back after Myo had moved on, tendrils reaching up.

  Myo reached the facility wall and swam up, his chest almost skimming the edge. He vanished into a shadowed curve of the building, and the rest of us hesitated, waiting.

  Valus swam up beside me, his dark hair fanning around his face, bubbles escaping from his mask. He tapped my arm and gestured toward the ocean floor.

  I looked down, and horror froze me in place.

  Two sharks the size of canoes slid across the floor, their bodies glowing with phosphorescent stripes as they moved in unison, leaving puffs of sand in their wake as they skimmed across the rocks. I recoiled, slipping on the rock. Kit grabbed my arm to steady me, his head turning to see what had frightened me at the same time. I felt him stiffen.

  Myo reappeared and signaled for us to cross to join him.

  As I watched, the sharks slid along the edge of a rock cliff at the far end of the facility and then rounded a corner.

  I didn’t breathe until we’d reached Myo. My arms and legs tingled with anticipation of attack, but then we were in the shadow of the facility, and light shone from a slice in the wall, and then we were swimming up and up into a metal tube. My head broke the surface of the water, and the sound of my splashing echoed as I reached for the rusted ladder that clung to the side of the tube and disappeared over the top.

  Myo climbed up first, and then Valus. I was next, and my bodysuit streamed water as I ascended. I swung myself over the metal lip at the top and fell onto my hands and knees. Water dripped off me and drizzled through slats in a metal floor marked with a symbol of a circle and triangle.

  Azure.

  Valus helped me up, one hand under my elbow and the other at my waist. He’d pulled off his mask, and his dark hair stuck to his forehead and neck.

  “Careful,” he said, and the faintest smile touched his lips. I smiled back, a nervous twitch of my mouth as I turned to scan our surroundings. We were in a round room that smelled of dank seawater. A low ceiling pressed down over us, and pale stripes on the walls illuminated metal floors. Rust stained the round sealed door directly ahead, and the light above it shone red.

  Faintly, a humming sound met my ears.

  When we’d all assembled, Myo spoke.

  “We must move quickly,” he said. “Follow my lead. We’re looking for the room of records. We’ll find what we need and then leave. Don’t cause trouble.”

  Garren murmured something under his breath. Valus, who still stood beside me, tensed.

  Myo turned and entered something into the panel beside the door. The red light winked out, and he turned the wheel on the door. It unsealed with a hiss.

  We stepped through the opening into a dark corridor. The humming sound growled louder now, a rhythmic chug that matched my heartbeat and thrummed in my veins. My ears throbbed. Our feet clinked against the floor as we slipped along the wall.

  Something about this place was familiar. I turned my head to gaze behind us, and a strange feeling crawled through me, making me shiver. It was as if I’d seen this place before in a dream.

  Myo held up a hand to signal us to halt as we reached a split in the corridor. A ladder led upward, and the path di
verged into two directions, each disappearing into darkness. From one, the humming sound emanated. The other was silent, and smelled of fish and salt.

  Myo looked back and forth.

  “This way,” I said, shocking myself as the words left my lips. I pointed down the silent corridor.

  Myo nodded, unperturbed by my certainty. “As you say.”

  My head swam as we continued. I looked to my left, somehow knowing that a streak of rusty red would be there in a stain shaped like a dolphin, and a dart of fear speared me when it was so.

  “I’ve been here before,” I said, my whisper barely audible above the hum.

  The corridor ended in a room with three doors. Two were locked, and they did not respond to Myo’s code. He tried the third, and it opened. The room beyond was black, but when we stepped inside, light flickered across the ceiling.

  The sharp scent of alcohol met my nose. Scrawled handwriting zigzagged across the walls, some of it crossed out, other parts underlined. Tables laden with instruments lined the floor. The space was neat, each tool organized and shining.

  “Do you recognize this?” Myo asked me.

  This room was unfamiliar to me. I shook my head.

  Garren paused over one that looked like a spear, the tip needle-thin.

  “Weapons?” he asked, his voice lined with interest and disgust at the same time.

  “Hmm, I think not,” Myo said, nodding at a far table, where a tray held the bones of a sea creature. “Tools. For experiments.”

  I remembered what Valli had told us when we were in her capture.

  “According to the rumors, the experiments were being carried out on humans.”

  What else would we find in this place?

  I wondered if Nol remembered it too. He gazed around the room, his jaw tight.

  “This isn’t a record room,” Valus said.

  “You don’t say,” Garren drawled. He touched one of the instruments that had a wicked-looking hook, and Myo slapped his hand.