38. Chapter 38

The stone tablet I picked up from the bottom of the sea turned out to be a wealth of information even though at that time I didn’t know how life changing it would be.

After a thorough cleaning, I got to work on my palmtop, since this tablet wasn’t filled with images like the walls and columns, but filled with actual writing. The palmtop was amazing, it took me all night, but I managed to decipher the entire text.

Stunned I leaned back on the sofa, tablet in front of me, palmtop with the translated text in my hands, staring at the lines. The people who had lived here before had called themselves Zuten.

Just like I had figured out from the mosaics, the Zuten had made incredible headways in the discovery of gene manipulation for both fauna and flora. They had even discovered some sort of spaceflight, but it had been in the early stages, kind of like when humans first landed on the moon. Well, a bit more sophisticated than that. But the Zuten were lucky to have several colonizable planets in their solar system, and weren’t as isolated as Earth had been .

They had managed to send some of their species to the other planets, leaving me to conclude that they most likely had been the Leanders forefathers. Assuming this, I felt an urge to explore the other planets in the Leander system for ruins. Hoping Myles would be amenable to the idea.

Unfortunately, the Zuten biological experiments got out of hand one day when they tested a gas in the atmosphere that would increase rainfall, to cultivate more barren parts of the planet. Well, it did begin to rain, the problem was, it didn’t stop.

When the Zuten realized their entire planet was about to flood, they sent a few more spaceships into their solar system to save as many of their species as possible. The others were left to drown or to find refuge at what was now known as Fall Mountain Island. At the time it had been the biggest mountain on Oceanus.

The story described how they hollowed out the mountain with explosives to make it livable and stopped there, I imagined the writer had either made his or her way to Fall Mountain Island or drowned. They had left the tablet behind though.

I drummed my fingers on my palmtop, trying to figure out if I should take a ship to let Myles know or wait for him to return. I doubted that after all these years, there would a survivors inside the mountain on the island, but… how amazing would that be? Finding another species, or their descendants after all these years?

I pulled up images from the island and studied the mountain from all angles, but if it was indeed hollow inside, I found no indication of it from the pictures. No matter how much I zoomed in, I didn’t see any secret cave openings, well, if they were secret I didn’t think I would find them like this.

Only one thing stood out, on the very top, the mountain resembled the inside of a giant bowl. Curiously I noticed several openings, large enough for a person to crawl through.

The sound of the doors closing diverted my attention and I lifted my head to look up, but I was alone. The noise had startled me enough though to realize that my stomach was growling ferociously. It had to be already around noon. I had been up all night and the last time I ate had been yesterday’s dinner.

I was surprised to find domed dishes set on the table. It must have been the servants bringing the midday meal that startled me out of my musings. Had they done that for breakfast too and I had completely ignored it?

My hunger drove me to the table and I grabbed one of the rolls, and began to alternately take a bite from it, while breaking off pieces of a chunk of cheese.

I forced my mind to return to other things than the Zuten and Leandars, because I worried I would fall into another trancelike state. With that though, my mind returned to Myles and I realized something else, it was already midmorning and he had promised to contact me through the palmtop the minute he finished his underwater scouting. He was supposed to be on his way back by now.

I put the food down and creased my brows. This wasn’t like him .

Just as panic was growing in my stomach, the doors opened, a guard announced, “Vissy Niara, Queen—”

“Thank you, I can sshow mysself in,” Queen Sarissa pushed the dragoon to the side and slithered her way in. The dragoon gave me a questioning look, but I waved him off.

Sarissa didn’t even wait for him to close the door. “You have exactly an hour to leave Oceanuss. You and all your treacherouss, dissgusting humanss.”

My stomach flipped as a cold hand made its way up toward my heart. “Why would I do that?” I asked, even though I already had an idea, but managed to keep my voice even.

“Because I have Myless in my custody and I will have him killed if you don’t obey.”

My heart dropped into my stomach. No, no, no , that couldn’t be, it just couldn’t. Myles could never be captured. Not by her. This was a trick. It had to be.

“I don’t believe you,” I replied in a voice smaller than I liked it to be.

“Ssuit yourself,” she shrugged as if it didn’t matter to her one way or another.

My palmtop still lay on the couch, I moved to retrieve it and tapped the appropriate commands, to be connected with Myles. Nothing happened for a while, finally one of the dragoons who had gone with him appeared, his face reflected how unused he was operating the palmtop.

“Vissy Niara,” the sound of my title was a reminder of who I was, helping my confidence to return .

“Where is Vissigroth Myles?” I demanded sounding stronger with each word.

The dragoon looked left to right as if hoping to find someone higher ranking to help him decide what to do or say and my heart dropped a little bit lower.

“I’m sorry, Vissy Niara, Vissigroth Myles hasn’t returned yet.”

“Hasn’t returned yet?” I repeated, making it a question. My voice wavered more with each word. “If they’re still down there, they’re out of oxygen.”

“We were connected through a line, they were supposed to tug if they needed help, they never did.” The dragoon said, more to fill the empty air between us than anything, or to stop me from a meltdown, I didn’t know which and didn’t really care at the moment either.

“What happened to the line?” Now my voice shook.

“It was simply dropped.”

I closed my eyes. I was the one who told Myles about the line. Dropping meant they were in trouble but there was no sense sending help. Dropping it could have meant a thousand different things, from a sudden siren ambush they knew they were outnumbered. They could have gotten trapped somewhere or attacked by a swarm of sea creatures. But with Sarissa standing in front of me gloating, I suspected the former, giving me hope that he was alive.

“Keep you position and send dive teams to see if you can find out anything else,” I ordered.

“They’re already down there, Vissy Niara,” the dragoon assured me, even though his facial expression didn’t make any promises, we both knew that by now Myles and the others would have run out of air.

Oh Myles , I thought desperately, where are you ?

Coldly I stared at Sarissa. “I am the Vissy of Oceanus, I demand you surrender Vissigroth Myles at once.”

She laughed meanly, “Look at you, getting all high and mighty.” Her expression sobered just as sudden as her laugh had started. “No, you’re not the one giving orderss here any longer, Vissssy Niara ,” she pronounced my title and name like it was some kind of disease. “You may remain vissssy, in name only, but the true Vissssy of Oceanus, the one giving orderss here, iss me.”

The door opened again and Kyle strode in, “Is everything alright, Vissy?”

“Ah good, just the male I wanted to sspeak to,” Sarissa’s upper body swiveled on her tail. “Congratulationss, you are the new Vissssigroth of Oceanuss.”

Kyle stared at me open mouthed.

“Queen Sarissa is holding our Vissigroth hostage,” I explained with more patience than I felt.

“And if you want to keep him alive, you will do ass I ssay,” Sarissa stated sending a hateful glare at me.

“For all intentss and purpossess you will be the new Vissssigroth, but you will do exactly what I tell you to do.” She informed Kyle.

Kyle shook his head, “This is not how this works. Nobody will accept me as a new Vissigroth. I don’t have any scales.”

Sarissa waved her hand dismissively through the air, “Minor detailss. We will ssay Vissigroth Myless iss otherwise occupied and you will be hiss sspokespersson. In time we will produce a little Myless complete with sscaless and all will be happy.”

My mind worked feverishly, and so did Kyle’s from the looks of it. He pulled his sword. “Why don’t I just take you hostage instead and we will have a prisoner exchange?”

I liked his idea, hopeful I stared at him, but the icy hand by my heart warned me that this wasn’t the end.

Sarissa laughed. “Oh you maless and your love for weaponss and blood. I ssusspected thiss iss what you would do. To make thiss eassier for you, Leander, I have already chossen my ssuccessssor and sshe iss aware that in this sscenario, the deal will sstill be on the table. Vissssigroth Myless might losse some body partss, but nothing will change, except I will be either your prissoner or dead.” She shrugged as if she didn’t care.

Speechless Kyle and I stared at her.

She stared at me cold and hard through her slivered pupils, “You’re sstill here? I thought I made mysself clear.”

My eyes returned to Kyle but his expression was as stunned as mine and didn’t offer any help.

Without knowing where Sarissa was holding Myles… wait… an idea formed in my head. A crazy, desperate idea, but it warmed my chest enough to push the cold hand out.

“I need more than an hour to get all the humans to leave,” I told Sarissa.

She didn’t respond, only wiggled her fingers suggesting for me to start walking .

“Now, you and I will discussss what you will tell the other vissssigrothss and the susssserayn,” Sarissa ordered Kyle, ignoring me.

“I need to make sure the vissy has transporters available,” Kyle interrupted her.

She slithered in front of him, without a trace of the alluring voice she usually used, she said, “I don’t care how she gets out of here, you are mine now. If you don’t want to be in this position, I will find someone else.”

Kyle opened his mouth to disagree, but I shook my head at him over Sarissa’s shoulder. It was better this way. With her dismissing me like this, I could follow up on the plan that was slowly coming together in my mind. Kyle’s help would have been easier, but I would find someone else and he would keep Sarissa occupied.

It was a desperate plan, if I was wrong about where Sarissa was holding Myles it could mean that she would hurt him or worse. I didn’t think she would follow through with her threat of killing him, at least not yet. For now she still needed him. It was the later that worried me. That and the fact that she didn’t seem concerned that I would bring an entire Leander army down on her.

She had to know that I would plead with the susserayn for help for Myles. She also had to know that the susserayn would grant it.

I doubted Myccael would care if Myles was dead or alive though. He would try to restore him, but in the end he would sacrifice Myles for the greater good of Leander and place another vissigroth in his stead .

I stood outside the closed doors to my suite, tapping my foot, while the dragoons eyed me curiously.

Was this Sarissa’s plan? Did she think that if Myccael put another vissigroth in power in Myles’s stead that she would be able to handle him like she had Myles for so long?

No, she wouldn’t be happy with that. She wanted Oceanus and she wanted it for herself. Kyle would be her puppet for the time being and then she would pretend Myles’s son had been born. But how could his son be born when I was exiled from Oceanus?

That’s when I realized I was never meant to leave Oceanus. Somewhere between here and the transporter an ambush would wait for me, to either take me also prisoner or to kill me out right. This wasn’t about ridding herself of the humans. She could do so herself once she was in charge.

“We need reinforcements. Now!” I turned to the dragoons guarding the door.