5. Chapter 5

We returned at once to a startled Nathan, whose happiness of seeing me quickly dissipated when Myles barked commands at him to bring him any diving gear Horn had in stock.

"Do you make your own?" He wanted to know when the first tanks were brought.

"Yes," I said, "one of the first settlers who came to Oceanus knew how to and taught his children, who taught theirs."

"Who is this male?"

"She is not a male and she is me," I corrected him.

Astonished he stared at me. "Will you show me how to use it?"

For a moment the words what's in it for us ? lay at the tip of my tongue, so used to bartering, that I had to swallow it down. Right now it was much more important to win his good graces than any amount of credits he might have paid had we come to him with this first instead of purchasing the doomed transporter.

It had never occurred to me though that the diving gear we had was anything special. We used it day in and day out to catch and harvest quanip and graff. I suppressed a deep groan at the thought of that we had the means to our problems right in our hands the whole time and hadn't known it.

Effortlessly I picked up the first tank, checked the oxygen gauge and showed Myles how it went on his back. I handed him the mouth piece and he sucked on it, his eyes widening in surprise. He removed the mouthpiece to ask, "How long can you stay underwater with this?"

I attached the gauge to his wrist and explained how to read it. I had simplified it when my grandfather first taught me how to build them, changed the initial measurements to hours that made more sense to me.

"You start with six," I pointed at the green area, "you're reaching your halfway point at three over here in the yellow, and when you hit red, it's time to come up. You still have an hour left, but it's better to be save." I didn't add that most men and women tired out after three hours, suspecting that he would want to push his tank to the limits.

"I've only dared to reach the last hour once and then I stayed in shallow water, where I could have easily risen, but the quality of oxygen lessens and I was beginning to hallucinate." I explained.

I read the suspicion on his expression, and warded it off before he could voice it or threaten me, "I have no interest in killing you. It would only bring a temporary relief before your guards would throw me overboard or to the sirens."

The edges of lips twitched as if he were about to laugh, but forced it back. "You will go with me. "

"As you wish. I need to change though, I can't dive in this dress." I waited for his nod, he gripped my wrist instead.

"You will return or I will turn this entire heap of trash upside down."

I stared at him dismayed that he would think me so dishonorable to hide from him. "Trust me, if I were to hide in this heap of trash you wouldn't find me."

"Don't try me," he hissed.

"Nathan, will you show Vissigroth Myles the rest of the equipment?" I more demanded than asked my brother as I shook my wrist to make him unhand me before I turned on my heels to march to the workhouse where I stored all my equipment.

I couldn't have said why I felt stung by Myles's words, it wasn't as if we were friends or anything. But there had been a moment aboard the Nautica , where I felt we might be and stupid me had actually believed we were more than me being his hostage and he my keeper.

Stupid, stupid, stupid , I told myself grabbing my favorite black bathing suit. I made for the small curtained off area where I usually changed still grumbling to myself. Irritated with myself was too generous a description, I think I would have happily slapped myself for my idiocy. First for never thinking of that the diving gear could be a bartering tool and second for… what? Thinking Myles and I could be friends after we had known each other for a mere few hours? After he pulled you out of the great hall by your hair ? I reminded myself disgustedly. D on’t forget he’s a vissigroth and you’re are… a human, a mere baron’ s daughter .

I reached the dock and was momentarily struck by the sight of our vissigroth. Good gods, that man was… packed. He should have looked ridiculous in his goggles, snorkel sticking out into the air, a giant tank on his back and swim fins on his feet, but no… not him. His black leather pants hugged him like a second skin, tight, allowing his giant thigh muscles to ripple with every step he took and doing nothing to hide the incredible bulge between his legs.

He lifted his facemask and scrutinized me from head to toe.

"What?" I asked defiantly, signaling my body, "It's not like I can dive in a dress."

Despite my defiance I physically felt his hot gaze on me, causing my face to flush. I had worn this bathing suit hundreds of times, around men and women. Nobody had ever commented, or stared at me like Myles did. I felt suddenly naked under his black eyes, and… liked the sensation. I pulled my shoulder blades back, aware that the movement made my tits stand out more. Yeah, look your fill , I thought vengefully, see what you may never have .

I didn't want to contemplate where that notion came from, even more disgusted than I had been before with myself over liking the way he stared at me.

"Fins," Kerstin, one of the diving team members, held them out to me and I ripped them harder from her hands than I meant to.

"Thank you," I said, to make up for my rudeness.

I still felt Myles hot stare on me when I sat down on the pier to wet my feet before I pushed them into the fins.

Kerstin helped me to stand up, while Nathan placed a tank on my back .

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Nathan whispered.

"Do I have a choice?" I hissed back.

Automatically I checked the oxygen level, took a lungful of air, put on the mask when Kerstin handed it to me, while all the while very aware that Myles kept staring at me.

When I was ready, I very ungainly with my long fins, made my way to the end of the pier, stepping off it with a long stride without looking back. My body knew what to do, I didn't even have to remind myself to keep my hand on my mask to keep it in place.

The impact with the water felt good. It was cooler than in other areas of Oceanus, but it served me just fine since it cooled my temper slightly.

"Are you coming?" I called out, using the long fins to prop most of my upper body up out of the water so I could peek over the edge of the pier.

Again, Myles should have looked ridiculous, just like I had when I marched down the pier, fins weren't meant to make one look good when walking, but damn, why did he have to make it look so sexy?

Sexy?

I really needed to get a hang of my mind.

With a splash he landed next to me.

In a few steps I ran him through the basic rules, making a circle with pointer finger and thumps, ok, thumps up, let's go back up , a slashing notion with a straight hand across the throat, I'm in trouble .

He made the ok sign and dove under before I had a chance to explain anything else. With a sigh, I put my mouthpiece in and followed.

Thankfully it was still light enough outside for the sun's rays to penetrate several feet under the water surface to allow us to see. He was already further away than I would have anticipated, his long, muscular legs moved up and down with the fins, propelling him forward as if he had done so all his life and for a moment I wondered if he had deceived me and had been diving all along.

But when he returned to me, and I spotted the amazement in his black eyes through the mask, I knew that this was his first time. I felt a thrill of being part of this with him. Our divers learned from a young age and I didn’t get to see their excitement very often.

He pointed forward and I nodded, not caring where we went.

The water wasn't too deep here, fifty feet at most, and soon we reached the bottom, where Myles fingers dug into the loose sand, brushed over corals and startled a six-eyed fish.

An eel poked his face out of a grouping of rocks and Myles swam straight for it. I grabbed his ankle and pulled him back, enjoying my power in the water. On land I would have never been able to pull or push him.

Questioningly he turned and looked at me. I pointed at the eel and made a slashing movement with my hand across my throat, before I exaggerated falling into a spasm, which would happen if he touched the eel.

He nodded and only stared at the long creature instead for what seemed forever, before the long creature withdrew, probably tired of the staring contest.

I followed Myles to a large field of quanip where several of it had already been harvested by our divers. More out of habit now than actual need for us, but none of our citizens knew what Nathan had been up to. So it was important to keep up appearances.

We kept swimming for a while, stopping here and there for Myles to investigate something, while my mind drifted to Attourna. I would have loved to dive through those ruins.

A long time ago we came across a sunken ship and I begged and pleaded with my father to stay there for a week, while I dove every day, staying under as long as possible while investigating the wreckage. Sometimes two, three times a day. I couldn’t get enough of searching through the wreckage, no matter how much it was falling apart. I still kept a turned greenish, metallic cup as a momentum in my room.

I cried when we left the area and we never returned, at least not to my knowledge.

Thinking of that filled me with a deep passion to see Attourna, to swim through the crumbling columns, maybe even enter a building. I decided to ask Myles when we were back on his ship, realizing I would barter pretty much anything if he would take me there.

Which, hopefully, wouldn't be too hard, judging by how much he was enjoying himself right now.