Doomsday Hunter 4, page 13
I wondered if mating with the Fishfolk woman had already started to make a difference on my Wayfarer abilities.
I followed Maurya over to where she’d swum to the hull of the moored submarine, and she pointed at the thick iron chain that floated like a sentinel. I could see, even at surface level, the bioluminescence growth the metal was coated in, and we all nodded in silent confirmation before my newest Wayfarer arched her back and began to swim deeper into the ocean.
The four of us followed the Fishfolk woman down, and I admired her body as we swam. She had unfurled the webbing between her fingers and toes, which she’d told me last night she would normally keep hidden when out in the open. Then she gracefully danced through the water like a bird in the sky, and I hovered for a moment as I appreciated her movements. Just from an impressed standpoint, it had nothing to do with the fact her toned body dipped and swayed and cut through the water with the grace of a mermaid…
Okay, maybe it had a little to do with that.
We pushed further and further down through the water and interrupted a huge school of glittering silver fish that darted around us in annoyance as we broke through their formation, until eventually Maurya pulled her arms out to stop her descent and curled her legs around to face us. She pointed at the mooring chain as her greenish-blue hair floated around her face, and I realized we had already made it down to the seabed. From this depth, the bioluminescent growth that coated the thick metal links shone a bright extraterrestrial blue, and the glowing algae wafted in the water’s current.
Maurya held up a slender green finger at us to get us to wait a moment, and then she closed her pale-green eyes in concentration. Then I watched in awe as her beautiful sea-colored skin slowly began to sparkle and illuminate with the same shimmering blue as the chain links. When she eventually opened her eyes after a long moment, every inch of her gorgeous skin was glowing a rich jewel-toned sapphire color, and she shot me a tiny, satisfied smile.
She wanted to light our way.
Maurya turned gracefully in the water again and arched her back in the same way as she prepared to dive even deeper. I could see where the seabed dropped off like a massive underwater cliff, and as we followed Maurya’s glowing body, the water became colder and darker, almost black in color.
Except right below us was a dull glowing green spot I assumed was where we’d find the capital.
The pressure started to build within my head as we followed the Fishfolk woman down, and though I still had plenty of breath left in my lungs, it became harder and harder to hang on to as the depths tried to reclaim it. After what felt like an eternity, the glowing green spot below us started to grow larger, and I kicked my feet harder and used the strength in my arms to drag myself through the water after Maurya. The Fishfolk woman had sped up at the sight of the green aura, and after another minute, the city of Anadonis slowly materialized in the water below us.
The city was made up of incredibly tall spired buildings that rose from the depths like the petrified tentacles of a monstrous deep-water being, and through the murky waters, it was difficult to make anything else out. The entire city was enclosed in the glowing green aura we’d seen from far above, and I hoped this was what Maurya had meant when she’d explained how Anadonis was built within an air pocket.
Maurya gestured for us to follow her again, and she dove forward at an incredible speed, with her body aimed like an arrow toward a large arc covered in blue bioluminescence.
I hoped to god this was the capital’s idea of a landing strip.
I hung back for half a second so Natalie, Tracey, and Daphne could swim ahead to the blue archway, and as we approached, Maurya stopped.
She must have had the same idea as me and wanted to do a head count.
I let my four other Wayfarers pass through the glowing blue archway first before I kicked my feet one last time and dove through the arc myself.
I was still horizontal and swimming when I felt the water disappear from around my body, and then I collapsed unceremoniously to the ground in a wet smack. My face met slippery, algae-covered stone, and I groaned as I released the remaining air in my lungs and took a huge breath with my cheek still plastered to the floor.
“You look like a trout,” Maurya giggled as she delicately stepped over me, and I pulled my head up to see my four lovers looking down at me all with grins on their faces.
“Well, I wasn’t expecting the water to just disappear,” I grumbled breathlessly as I hauled myself up to my feet. I turned around to see the glowing blue archway we’d just swam through had a wall of water rippling past it, like a portal to another world.
Which, I guessed it was.
Natalie, Daphne, and Tracey were all soaking wet still and just as breathless as me, but they were all alive and present, which was all I could have hoped for with a journey like that. It’d be easier on the way back up, particularly because we knew what to expect.
“I feel like I’ve been holding my breath for an hour,” Daphne gasped as she squeezed the water from her curly black hair between her hands.
“It was the pressure,” Tracey said as she wrung her shirt out. “Made it harder to hold my breath.”
“I’ll say…” Natalie muttered as she ran her hands through her blonde hair and shook the lengths out.
“You all did amazingly.” Maurya grinned. She was no longer glowing, and her skin had returned to its original colors of the ocean.
“You were the amazing one,” I said to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “You were freaking glowing!”
“That was honestly incredible, Maurya,” Natalie said with a firm nod.
“You were beautiful,” Daphne agreed and blinked her large black eyes. “You were like a light in the darkness.”
“Thank you,” Maurya said seriously, though her cheeks were flushed again, and she tried to hide a bashful smile. “I know that must seem so odd to you, but… I thought it would help.”
“Well, it did,” Tracey chuckled as she peered back through the rippling wall of water. “How does this work? Is the air pocket natural or is it something you created specifically for the city? And if it was created, then how? This would honestly be a feat of technology even my old world couldn’t accomplish.”
“I honestly don’t know,” Maurya admitted. “It has always just been like this, as long as I’ve been alive.”
“If you’ve got any scientist friends down here, I’d love to pick their brains about it.” Tracey grinned as she pushed a slender finger through the water wall.
My programmer, always so curious.
I looked around at our surroundings and couldn’t hide my amazement. The watery veil we’d passed through was literally a portal from the deep ocean into a huge sprawling underwater city.
We had dropped into a long stretch of corridor, with bioluminescent plants turned into makeshift lanterns that were nailed straight into the stone. The walls were slick and wet with seawater still, and layers of moss coated almost the entire ceiling above where we stood. It was rudimentary, but it reminded me of traveling to any other city.
Train stations and airport hangars weren’t exactly made to be luxurious.
Maurya led us down toward the city for about a mile, until eventually we reached the Anadonis equivalent to an arrivals gate. The watery stone corridor emptied us out into a large circular room that was brightly lit, with candles burning in round glass baubles that magnified the light where they were nestled within golden sconces. The floor looked like marble, until I realized the pale shimmering pink of the slabs was actually made from the insides of seashells.
We stood, dripping wet still, in front of an ornate double-doorway made of the same pink shell marble as the floor, and the plinths on either side were carved into the shape of beautiful mermaids, with glittering opals for eyes and gold flecks in their pearly hair.
“Wow…” Daphne muttered, and I could see she’d instinctively squinted her large dark eyes against the sudden brightness.
“Welcome to Anadonis,” Maurya said, and the Fishfolk woman pushed the polished pink shell doors open with a flourish.
Even with all the different wonders I’d seen since I had followed my fate and became a Wayfarer, this underwater city was something else.
The creepy-looking spires I’d seen on our swim down were, as it turned out, were absolutely breathtaking. They stretched up as high as any land-dwelling city skyscrapers I’d ever seen, but they were constructed from different colored corals and rocks, and they glimmered as the water above us reflected on their surface.
I could see a huge bridge in the distance made from what looked like a massive slab of pinkish-purple reef, with crowds of Fishfolk traveling over it in either direction as they went about their business. Unlike the mess of the port town on the surface, the capital of Anadonis was spacious and clean and quite obviously rich.
We had come out of the stone corridor into a massive town square, where the floor was made of the same marble-looking seashells, and it had a gigantic golden fountain in the center. The fountain statue depicted a muscular hero holding a trident in one hand and riding the back of a great white shark, with his fist pointed triumphantly upward and holding a writhing mess of tentacles.
“Prince Dorian,” Maurya explained when she caught me staring. “From the old world. The legend says he was the only one to ever tame the kraken.”
“Show-off,” I muttered, and Maurya giggled.
“This way,” my Fishfolk mate commanded, and Tracey, Daphne, Natalie, and I all followed her out of the main square and through the city proper.
“They’re staring at us…” Natalie said under her breath as we walked hurriedly, and I nodded grimly.
We all received disgusted stares and heavy frowns as the Fishfolk that milled around us started to notice our skin color. They seemed more put off with that than the fact we were dripping wet and bedraggled, but Maurya kept us on path as we hustled forward.
The Fishfolk were all beautiful, too, and they resembled Maurya more than they resembled the pirates we’d first met. Everyone we could see was dressed in ornate clothing made from seaweed or shimmering silks and fashioned in the style of Roman togas, and the floaty material was always clasped on one shoulder with either massive hand-sized opals or beautiful glittering seashells, and I even saw one elderly Fishfolk woman had a thin golden tiara twisted up in her gray-blue hair, the ornate headpiece decorated with a scattering of pearls.
“Stinkin’ Sunfolk!” a middle-aged man suddenly yelled at us, and we all spun around at his venomous voice.
His face was flushed with anger, and it mottled the green tone of his skin. His shout had caused the other Fishfolk around us to stop walking, and the street suddenly seemed incredibly claustrophobic.
“Get back to the surface, pink-skin!” a younger male shouted as he lobbed a chunk of orange shell at us, and I watched where it clattered noisily at our feet.
“We need to move,” Natalie said with her jaw clenched, and I grabbed her hand to stop her from retaliating.
“Maurya, where do we go?” I asked quietly and kept my eyes locked with the young Fishfolk man, who was breathing heavily out of sheer anger.
“The High Council is this way,” Maurya said and slipped through a side alley made of purple coral. “Quickly.”
We hastily followed the Fishfolk woman and kept silent in an attempt to stay as covert as possible. I knew tensions ran high between Sunfolk and Fishfolk, but I wasn’t expecting to receive such unbridled hatred first-hand.
We hurried through side streets and back alleys, and even those were luxurious and clean, until Maurya eventually came to a stop outside a massive building made entirely of marble seashells. It had the same pearly-pink sheen, and a massive clock was built straight into the facade made of thick white coral. It reminded me of the city hall building back home. It was at least three stories high with tall windows, and the front of the building had deep-green drapes made of seaweed with the city mark, an ‘A’ inside of a perfect circle, braided in gold.
“The High Council of Anadonis,” Maurya announced, and we came to a stop at the bottom of pale stone steps that led up to the council building door.
The door itself was made of gold again, with two huge knockers shaped like turtle shells, but even more concerningly, two grumpy-looking guards were standing on either side.
They were dressed in seaweed togas, too, but their clasps were just a simple disc of gold with the letter ‘A’ embossed into the metal, and they had burnished gold armor plating on their chests. The guards each held long golden spears in their green hands, and they frowned down as the five of us slowly made our way up the steps to greet them.
“I request an audience with the Council,” Maurya said, and the guards took a second to mull her request until they both let out loud shouts of laughter.
“Lady, we ain’t about to let filthy Sunfolk into the high chamber.” The one on the right stopped laughing and frowned down at our bone swords and pistols. “Particularly armed ones.”
“More to the point, what’s a gorgeous Fishfolk like you herdin’ these hideous pink-skins about our city for?” The guard on the left took a step toward Maurya, and I balled my hands into tight fists as the guard leered down at my newest mate.
“My name is Maurya Everfinn,” she stated bluntly, and the two guards immediately stood up straighter as all the color drained from their green-skinned faces.
“M-My apologies, M-Miss,” the guard on the left stammered nervously, and the guard on the right immediately yanked the marble door open and held it for us as we followed Maurya into the building.
What the hell was that about?
My green-skinned mate led us up another flight of pink marble stairs until we eventually entered a massive chamber that had incredibly high ceilings and huge oil paintings hanging in thick golden frames on every wall.
A large marble podium stood in the center of the room, and eight Fishfolk were seated in carved golden chairs around a large wooden table. At the base of the podium, a number of smaller tables, covered in scrolls and parchments, were occupied by a busy-looking group of Fishfolk who didn’t even look up from their work as we entered.
The eight governors of The High Council of Anadonis surveyed us quietly as we made our way toward the center of the chamber, and Tracey slid her hand into mine as their eyes bored into us.
I gave her hand a reassuring squeeze and smiled at Daphne and Natalie as we eventually came to a stop in front of the governors.
Maurya stood in front of us and stared up at the seated Fishfolk, until the one in the middle slowly stood from her seat.
She was old, with blue-gray hair twisted into intricate braids and pinned in such a way that made the braids tumble over one shoulder, and her skin was more blue than it was green. She wore a silky pale-green toga that had a huge glittering sapphire clasping the material together, and her eyes eventually softened as she smiled serenely down at us.
Then the old Fishfolk lady locked eyes with my newest Wayfarer mate, and her smile widened.
“Maurya Everfinn,” the councilwoman announced in a regal voice, and she clasped her hands together. “Welcome home, my daughter.”
Chapter Eleven
“Daughter?” I heard Natalie gasp from behind me.
“Wait…” Tracey started with a frown.
“She’s your daughter?” Daphne spoke straight to the high councilwoman, whose smile only widened.
“Girls…” I muttered quietly, and I watched Maurya shift from foot to foot with her cheeks pink and her pale-green eyes glimmering with moisture.
So, this was why the Fishfolk woman had been evasive when I’d asked about her family?
“Mother,” she said quietly as she kept her head lowered and let her sea-colored hair fall across her face to avoid looking at us.
“My daughter,” Maurya’s mother said evenly, and the elder Fishfolk woman clasped her hands together. “I trust you are well? Your last correspondence was a week ago, and it took you longer than I expected to return home.”
“Yes, I’m fine.” Maurya’s voice remained quiet, and I could feel the guilt rolling off her like the waves on the ocean. “I… apologize for my delay. I wanted more time to gather intel, and then I ran into… complications when I attempted to return home.
“Maurya…” When I spoke her name, the newest Wayfarer’s shoulders hunched up, and her head lowered even further. Eventually, she whirled to face us with tears streaming down her flushed cheeks.
“Please don’t think I did anything to purposefully deceive you.” Her voice shook as she spoke. “Hunter, I still want… I mean, we… I’m sorry.”
“Councilmembers, my daughter has returned.” Maurya’s mother spoke over her daughter’s stammering voice. “What can you tell us of the Sunfolk, Maurya?”
My Fishfolk lover turned her back on us again and faced her mother, only this time she held her head up high and swallowed back her quiet sobs. Then she cleared her throat, and when she spoke once more, her voice was more or less steady.
“Esteemed councilmembers…” she said as she addressed the chamber. “As you know, I am currently undertaking regal training in order to prepare myself to assume the role of High Council Leader upon my mother’s death. When Lady Everfinn passes this role onto me, I intend to be prepared.”
“She’s a Lady?” Tracey whispered to me, and I shushed her so we could listen to Maurya’s speech.
“And what have you learned, my dear daughter?” Lady Everfinn asked, and her commanding voice echoed throughout the mighty High Council inner chamber.
“Unfortunately… tensions still remain high between Fishfolk and Sunfolk,” Maurya announced with a sad sigh. “Both on the surface and beneath.”
“That much we already know,” Lady Everfinn agreed as her expression turned grim.
