Chapter 18

Eighteen

Arges

Arges hated to leave her undefended in a strange new world that likely she was terrified of. He understood how scary it must be for her to be underwater where she could not breathe, and now there was no one else there to help her. It was... horrible what he had chosen to do.

But he had no other option. Daios had come to the cave, and he couldn’t leave her where his most dangerous brother had found her. So he had to move her. He had to bring her elsewhere until he could find a more permanent place for her.

In the meantime, he had to return home. He needed to show his face to the others, so they knew he had not run. He hadn’t turned to the depthstriders in shame and asked them to take him in.

Arges was still the leader of his pod. He was still the favored son of their Mitéra and no mission with the achromos would change that.

At least, he didn’t think.

Soaring through the waters away from Mira felt like he’d left a piece of himself behind. He feared for her safety, and what would happen during their distance between each other.

She could be attacked by all manner of sea creatures. Even sharks frequented that area of the ocean, and she was an easy snack for them to take a bite out of. Although, with all those bones, he didn’t think they would actually eat her. Just likely try a bit, and then she’d bleed out in the kelp. He’d find her surrounded by a plume of her own blood.

And though the thought was concerning, he found himself wondering what color her blood even was. His was dark, almost inky, like the emission of an octopus. But she didn’t seem to be made of the same stuff.

His thoughts clouded with worries about her and musings about what her body was even like. He found himself at the heart of the ocean far sooner than he had expected. And what he found there made his blood turn icy in his veins.

His pod. Larger than before, with more males than he could count and females armed to the teeth. They swirled in a slow circle around the central meeting place. Around Mitéra and Daios, who raised his arms into the air and jabbed his clawed hands toward the surface.

They were not supposed to be here. Not his pod.

Not with him.

Anger raging bright and colorful, he used the currents to push himself through the tangle of arms, weapons, and tails. Someone’s fluke caught him hard in the back, shoving him forward so he raced into the center with a little too much speed to be polite.

But he did not care about politeness right now. Not when his brother had clearly gone too far.

Though the silence that fell after his arrival sent ripples down his spine, he would not back down. “Brother,” he hissed. “What is the meaning of this?”

“There is no meaning. We have been hiding from the achromos for too long. With all your plans of watching and showing our curiosity and not our teeth, we have wasted too much time. We will attack them and we will tear their kingdom apart with our claws.”

“This is madness,” Arges replied, shaking his head and looking at Mitéra. But the undulating mass of her hair was still.

She... agreed with Daios?

His Mitéra, the woman who had always favored him above all others, wished for his brother to hunt?

He turned around, watching the others as they swirled in a circle around them. The pale light of their home flickered on scales and sharp, bared teeth. They agreed with his brother. Then they circled him like sharks. All of their sharp tails and weapons held with clenched hands and emotions bared for all to see. Bright colorful lights danced down their tails, filling the ocean with a rainbow of angry colors.

“We will lose many lives,” Arges murmured, his gills flat with displeasure. “The achromos have weapons unlike anything we’ve seen before. We cannot just attack their home, or I would have led our pod into battle a long time ago.”

“Then why didn’t you?” Daios drew himself up high, his tail coiling and red electricity flickering up and down his body. He really thought that Arges was just too weak to lead them. He thought that Arges wouldn’t have taken the chance, even if the time was right.

With a flick of his tail, he met his brother head on. Their rib gills slapped against each other, his tail already coiling around his brother’s and ready to flex, to make him bend should this fight require it.

“I am no weak leader,” he hissed. “This is my pod, and you will take them nowhere without my permission.”

Although Daios growled back at him, teeth bared, he knew that his brother would not fight him. For even if Daios was a capable fighter, even if he wore the scars of many battles, he was no match for Arges. This was a fight he would not win unless Arges was weakened.

Mitéra’s hand passed between their faces. Her pale webbed fingers were likely the only thing that might have stopped Arges from ripping his brother’s head off. Even so, he still bared his teeth in a snarl and wrenched their tails apart, rocking his brother forward before he turned to Mitéra.

Bowing his head, he ground out, “My apologies. You do not enjoy seeing violence in your own home, and I have broken that covenant.”

“Indeed, you have.” She still brushed her fingers over his face, though, drawing his eyes up to hers. But the warmth he usually saw in them was not there. Not in the slightest. “My favored son, you already have a mission. You are to speak with the achromo you stole and learn their secrets.”

“It will take time for us to converse.”

“I understand that. This is why your brother has stepped in to lead our pod. Our weapons are strong, and our hearts are brave. Daios is quite certain he can lead us to victory, and I have given him permission to do so.”

It felt like she’d shoved a knife between his ribs and twisted.

“Why?” he rasped. “Why would you do this when you know we will lose so many?”

His brother answered. Harsh, grating laughter filled the waters between them. “You have such little faith in me, brother. There will only be a few lives to lose today, and the rest will be those of the achromos who will scream and writhe as they drown.”

A cry echoed his own. A hundred of their people, so pleased with what they were about to do and not capable of seeing the future.

Mitéra dropped her touch from his chin and turned to his brother. Ashamed that he had been cast aside, Arges wilted to the ground of their home. He pressed his hands to the dirt, feeling the grit of it against the webs of his fingers as he sent out prayers to every ocean god and goddess that he could remember.

“Watch over our people,” he said, his voice low and quiet. “Bring them to battle, but do not make them scent the blood of their loved ones. Show them their folly, but do not take their lives as payment.”

He murmured the words over and over again as the pod above him took off into the distance. He could hear their tails lashing through the water, the clinking of weapons that knocked against each other as they made their way toward the achromos’ home. But mostly, he heard the happiness in his brother’s voice as he led them toward what he was certain was victory.

And it would end in all their deaths.

Quiet descended upon his home. The only people left were the elderly, the young, and the women who had just given birth. Those who could not fight, and likely still wished they had enough muscle in their tails to go.

A cold, webbed hand glided down his back, delicately plucking at the spines pressed flat to his skin.

“They must learn the hard way,” Mitéra said. “You know the violence in your brother’s heart. You have seen the darkness that lingers underneath his skin, and how he will not give up his desire to kill and harm.”

“There are better ways to learn.”

“Not for him. Daios speaks a language that is only blood and pain.” Mitéra tapped a long tail on the back of his skull, forcing him to look up from the sand and at her. “He will learn this time. He will see that there is a great demon in this ocean, and it does not live with the depthstriders.”

“I could smell them on him.”

“I know. So could I.” She turned those colorless eyes in the direction all her people had gone, and for a split moment he saw a flash of fear cross over her features. “This was not an easy choice.”

“You sent them to their deaths.”

“I have given them a head start.” She turned that emotionless gaze back to him, and he already knew he would not like this plan of hers. “They need to be reminded who leads this pod, and why. So you will go after them, Arges, and you will save all that you can.”

He frowned. “I can catch up with them now. I can stop them if I need to.”

“You will not go now.” She nodded her head, acknowledging that he was faster than most. “You will finish your prayers. To every ocean god and goddess, that they will guide your hand and that you will be able to save as many of your people as you can. And you will ask for forgiveness.”

“Forgiveness?” he repeated.

“For me.” Mitéra’s colors flashed blue, then a deep black. “For I was the one who sent them to their ends.”

He would waste no more time. Arges bent back into the sand, whispering the words of his prayer to every god he could think of. He asked for speed. He begged for their grace and to allow him to find their people quickly. None of them could afford for him to waste any time in getting to them. He would rush through the waves, and the currents would toss him to the achromos’ home.

And when he finished, he didn’t even look at Mitéra. He threw himself into motion, his tail springing into action and his gills opening wide so he could get enough air to chase after them.

Hearts thundering in his chest the entire journey, he rushed forward into the unknown until he met the massive wall that led up to the human home. Even looking up, he could see the bright flashes of light that preceded the blinding pain of the achromos’ weapons. Small explosions rocked through the water, raining debris down on his head.

His people were fighting. As he surged forward, up the cliff, closer and closer to the battle, he could see they were losing.

Badly.

A body floated down into the depths past him. Her hair had been seared off, and part of her face was missing. Though her gills still fluttered, he knew she was already gone. Her torso led the way back into the arms of the abyss, her tail trailing after her.

And then another.

Another.

So many that he could hardly count through the bodies floating past him and disappearing into the darkness of the deep.

Arges moved faster. He pushed the muscles of his tail and back hard, until they screamed with overuse, then he burst above the cliff and out into the madness beyond.

His people had swarmed the achromos’ home. So many People of Water were attached to the glass structures, arms flexing in the bright flashing lights the achromos used. Their weapons glinted, striking the metal and glass tubes, and then bouncing right off.

They didn’t have the right weapons for this. They had nothing that would help them defeat the city.

Frantically, he searched through the crowds of his own people for anyone who would listen to him. Maketes. His brightly colored, yellow finned brother was in the distance, dragging a body toward the edge of the cliff.

“Brother!” Arges shouted, swimming closer and hooking his claws underneath the injured man’s arms. “We need to get them out of here.”

Dark blood already bloomed from Maketes’s ribs, and he winced. “You think? This was a terrible idea.”

“I did warn you all.”

“And yet, here you are.” Maketes grinned, even through the pain. “Here I was believing you didn’t have a hero complex. Yet you cannot keep your nose out of our deaths, even!”

“Shut up,” he growled. “Where is Daios?”

“I don’t know. He led a larger group toward the central tower. He said that was where the weapons were kept.” Maketes pointed up.

Arges swore. “Of course he did. The fool.”

“I’ll gather the others. Get them to start heading home and lick our wounds. Yeah?”

“Don’t forget the dead.”

His usually playful friend’s features darkened. “I never forget the dead, Arges.”

Leaving Maketes to do the right thing, he speared through the water toward the command tower. What had been his brother’s plan? Take out the weapons with sheer force, and then perhaps the achromos would have nothing left to fight them with? This was a foolish mission, and he should have seen it from the very start.

Anger heating his blood, he pivoted to round the central tower only to find himself immersed in even more chaos. He’d never thought to see such folly from his own people.

So many dead floated around his brother and a small pod of others who were still alive. They wrestled with one of the mechanical blasters, similar to Mira’s junk that she insisted on bringing with her. But their wrestling was only blasting more pieces of them into chunks.

As he watched, two of their people fell away from his brother, and Daios lost his mind. Enraged, colors flickering brightly and teeth bared in a grimace, his brother grabbed onto the blaster and wrenched. It gave one final pulse of heat, then his brother twisted. He couldn’t rip it off the platform and instead, the weapon took his arm.

Arges watched as though time itself had slowed. His brother’s arm fell first, black blood pluming in the water like his brother had startled an octopus. It didn’t seem real that a limb could come off so easily, and so quickly, and yet... it had.

He raced forward, wrapping an arm around Daios’s waist before forcing them both back. Toward the edge, toward safety. He could save one person, and let it be his blood brother, the idiot who had been with him in the womb.

“Stop!” Daios shouted, and Arges had to wonder if the pain had yet to hit him. “We almost succeeded!”

“You almost died!” Arges argued, throwing him down over the edge with those who remained. “You killed nearly everyone. When will it be enough?”

Daios shoved him, clearly trying to do so with both arms. And then his brother noticed the wound. The lack of a limb and the pain that came with it.

All the lights in his tail went out. He lifted a shaking hand to the piece of him that was no longer attached, and his gills shook along his sides. “What⁠—”

“We stop,” Arges said, then shouted it again. “We stop this now before we lose even more!”

A small murmur started up through the crowd of his people. Some were dragging the injured back, but he saw the truth in their eyes. They were afraid. They understood why he had made them wait for such a long time, and he was sorry they had to discover his reasoning like this.

He saw movement at the edge of the cliff and watched as his dark brother backed away from them all. “No,” Daios muttered. “No, this isn’t over yet.”

“How is it not over? You’re missing an arm, Daios. You need help.”

“There is another who can give us answers. You have never done your job right, Arges. Never completely.” And something black flashed through Daios, something down right evil. “I will get us answers if you cannot.”

And then his brother took off into the depths. Toward the one thing that made Arges’s hearts stop beating before he raced after death itself.

Not death for him.

But for her.