Crystal Doors #2: Ocean Realm (No. 2) (21 page)

Far beneath her feet, Gwen saw a flicker of gray skin and a triangular fin cruising after them, searching. The four friends continued to climb toward the air, pulling themselves through the tangled, waving fronds. Another shark passed through the seaweed to Gwen’s left. She thought she had read in her marine biology studies that sharks weren’t able to see very well. That was one consolation, at least.

Someone grabbed her arm and yanked her down. Gwen jerked back and almost screamed, but saw it was Vic desperately trying to pull her into a dense knot of doolya. Like a giant golden dragon, a sea serpent cut through the thick weed, its large arrow-shaped head nudging the heavy doolya aside. Gwen hid next to her cousin and watched the thick golden scales pass by. The two drifted backward, among the thickest stalks, no longer able to see either of their friends.

The sea serpent continued to prowl. Riding its back, Blackfrill shoved wafting seaweed away with Tiaret’s staff. He looked very upset. Gwen used the long metal pin clutched in her hand to move aside a slimy clump so they could slip behind it for cover.

The movement must have caught Blackfrill’s attention. The merlon general turned and focused his round, fishy eyes on the spot from which Gwen had just disappeared.

“I think he saw me,” she said quietly to Vic.

Goading his serpent, Blackfrill turned the creature’s armored head and plunged toward them, ripping tangled fronds aside. A vibrating underwater bellow from the serpent rumbled like sea thunder.

Suddenly, Tiaret darted in front of Blackfrill, slashing with her crystal-tipped spear. The jagged edge caught one of the extravagant frills around his head, slicing through the webbing of his crest. The merlon general recoiled and nearly lost his grip on the serpent’s harness.

Startled, the sinuous monster opened its jaws and roared again. Tiaret jabbed inside the glistening pink mouth, piercing tender tissue. The sea serpent went into an agonized frenzy, and Blackfrill had all he could do to hold on as he struggled to reassert control over the monster. Tiaret darted away, having accomplished what she needed to for the moment.

Gwen and Vic swam furiously, putting more and more distance between themselves and their pursuers. “Sheesh, talk about exciting,” Vic said. “But I’ve had enough excitement for today — in fact, maybe for a whole year.”

When the cousins came together with Tiaret and Sharif again, all four of them were grim. “Now that they know we are here,” Sharif said, “the merlons will concentrate their efforts on this doolya forest. They can call more sharks, serpents, hunters. . . .”

“We will have a difficult time escaping,” Tiaret said.

“On the bright side, if they think we’re here, maybe Lyssandra has a better chance of getting away,” Vic said. “The merlons will assume we’re all together.”

“We have to keep moving,” Gwen said. “I’m not ready to make our last stand yet.”

Defiantly she swam onward, picking her way through the doolya forest, always looking out for the merlons. Darkness was falling overhead, and she found it harder to see around them.

Something gray-green darted in front of her, like a serpentine ribbon surrounded by a lambent glow. Two glittering eyes stared at them, and crackles of static raced along its hide. Gwen recognized the blunt nose, the mouth full of tiny, sharp fangs. An electric eel! She didn’t need to see the brand mark on its side to know that this creature was a spy for the merlons.

“Yow, look out!” Vic cried, swirling backward with an instinctive move that his mother had taught him.

“Do not let the eel get away,” Tiaret said. “It will report where we are.”

The sparking eel turned to dart off. Without thinking, Gwen moved with the coiled swiftness of zy’oah that her mother and Aunt Kyara had taught the cousins. She took Tiaret’s spear, jabbed, and skewered the creature on the first try. The eel thrashed, trying to bite at the spear. Its teeth fastened on the shaft, but without effect. It writhed before finally dying.

“Way to go, Doc!” Vic said as she gave the spear back to Tiaret. “You’ve got a real talent for harpooning.”

“Just how many undersea creatures did the merlons actually enslave?” Gwen looked at the familiar merlon symbol sizzled into the scaly hide. The very idea of such scars angered her, even on an electric eel. She studied books on oceanography and loved to visit aquariums, marveling at the wonders of sea life. It offended her that the merlons would turn eels, sharks, and fish into their slaves.

As she simmered with anger at the merlons, Gwen noticed a doll-sized creature like a tiny mermaid hiding among the shadowy leaves. “Not all sea creatures serve the merlons.”

Vic spotted the creature, too. “An aquit!”

Gwen bit her lower lip. Aquits were messengers of the seas, loyal to Elantya. “At least we can send a warning.” She coaxed the creature out of its hiding place. “It’s okay. We’re your friends. We won’t hurt you.”

“We’re from Elantya,” Vic added. “You know — the good guys.”

The aquit swam out of its hiding place, looking warily around for sharks or eels.

“Please swim to Elantya. Take this message to Ven Rubicas,” Gwen said.

“And to my dad,” Vic added. “Dr. Carlton Pierce. Sage Pierce.”

Gwen spoke quickly. “The merlons captured us and were holding us in an undersea city. They worked some kind of magic on all of us so we can breathe under the water.” She pointed to the gill slashes on her neck.

Vic blurted, “Orpheon is here, and so is Azric!”

Gwen concentrated on the attentive aquit, choosing her words. “We’re trying to escape — but in case we don’t get away, we have to let you know. The merlons are preparing to attack Elantya. They’re planting lavaja bombs under the island. They want to sink it!”

“We don’t know all his plans yet, but Azric’s up to some major bad stuff,” Vic added. “Please send a rescue team for us — if you can figure out how.”

The aquit suddenly darted away and vanished into the tangled seaweed. Gwen turned to see Sharif and Tiaret looking alarmed. The warrior girl whirled, jabbed at something behind her with her crystal-tipped spear, then continued to swim.

Knowing their pursuers were close again, Gwen bolted upward. Near the surface, she could see a glow from the full moon shining down. It was dark outside now. She stroked harder, still holding her sharp iron bar.

Sharks circled closer. Blackfrill had returned on his golden sea serpent, and now two other ferocious-looking serpents had joined the hunt, guided by more merlon warriors. Gwen realized with a sinking heart that she and her friends had no place to go. No way to escape. They were discovered!

The sharks drove in like wolves, bumping the escapees, not using their sawblade teeth but herding the four friends together. Gwen imagined that the predators wanted the four apprentices to fight back, which would give them an excuse to attack. Blackfrill and his merlon fighters closed in. Two of them swung barbed grappling hooks on silken cords; four held weighted nets.

“There’s only about two merlons for each of us,” Vic said, “uh, not including all the sharks and sea serpents. You think we can fight our way out of this?” He swished his nail-spiked club through the water in a threatening gesture.

Tiaret seemed perfectly willing to fight to the death, and a resigned Sharif was right beside her. The muscles in Gwen’s chest contracted. What should they do? The aquit had gotten away with the message, and Lyssandra might have, as well. Maybe there was a chance, somehow. . . .

A large, graceful shape flashed in front of them, like a black hang glider with broad fleshy wings. It dove among the merlons, scattering the sharks.

“My jhanta!” Sharif cried. The intelligent ray came in like a jet fighter, swooping around, butting the sharks, slapping them with its tail, driving directly toward the nearest fanged sea serpent. It flapped its wide fin-wings in the sea serpent’s face like a matador taunting a maddened bull with his red cape. The enraged serpent lunged, snapping uncontrollably with its jaws even though the merlon riding it yanked at the reins, trying to hold it back. The jhanta circled out of the way, luring the merlons farther from the friends.

Gwen couldn’t tell if the helpful creature wanted them all to grab onto its back and fly away, or if they should try to escape back into the doolya forest. Even the large jhanta could not carry all four of them away fast enough.

Blackfrill raised Tiaret’s stolen teaching staff and angrily snarled orders. The jhanta careened in again, and Sharif shouted a warning, but too late. Several merlons threw their nets. The heavy meshes spread out like spiderwebs, and the plunging jhanta unwittingly dove right into the trap. The nets tangled its flapping fin-wings, weighing it down.

With no concern for his own safety, Sharif swam toward the creature, swinging his makeshift weapon at the warriors. Gwen, Vic, and Tiaret gave up caution and joined the wild fight.

This time the merlons were ready for them. The sharks drove in, forcefully separating the four companions. When the jhanta was captured, Vic let out a groan and wasn’t even looking when a merlon guard yanked the spiked club out of his hand.

“Way to focus, Dr. Distracto,” Gwen muttered as she parried spear thrusts with her sharp iron pin. A merlon came up behind her, as well, and grabbed both of her elbows while a second wrested her weapon away.

Tiaret and Sharif continued to inflict minor injuries, but a pair of nets snared them, pinning their arms and legs. Blackfrill caught the nets with his curved hook and pulled them tight. Gwen and Vic struggled against their captors. The jhanta flailed helplessly in its restraints.

But it was clear to everyone that their escape attempt was finished. Their plan had failed, and they were once again prisoners of the merlons.

24

LYSSANDRA’S UNDERWATER JOURNEY WAS long and dangerous. Curtains of daylight and then murky night shimmered down through the depths. She counted four days as they progressed warily from one hiding place to the next — tall coral trees, dense and shadowy doolya thickets, knobby boulders.

The situation reminded her of Warrior Sage Therya fleeing from the dark sages. And, like Therya, Lyssandra and her band had help. Krill, crabs, and other creatures friendly to anemonites and kraegas kept watch for prowling sharks and sea serpents. They saw several of the merlon-branded creatures along the way, but each time, Lyssandra and her friends managed to hide. Although Lyssandra felt an urgent need to race back to Elantya to warn everyone, she knew her recapture wouldn’t help anyone but the merlons, so she remained cautious.

She hoped that her other four friends had succeeded in their plan, met at the wreck of the Golden Walrus, and then moved on without her. But Lyssandra knew she might be the only person to have escaped the merlons. Somebody had to get back to the sages — especially the anemonites, who could help in the defense of the island.

After a seemingly interminable journey, led by the fastest kraega steeds, who would not abandon their anemonite partners, she finally saw the land rising ahead. The sea floor tilted upward with steep rocky slopes, like a singular mountain towering up out of the deep ocean.

Elantya!

She had been born on the island, and since their escape, Elantya had drawn her as steadily as a magnet drew iron filings. Even if the anemonites, with their knowledge of the sea and the world’s geography, had not been with her, Lyssandra would probably still have found her way home.

Relief, guilt, and anxiety mingled in her brain, swirling from her head to her stomach and back again: relief that she could finally see the solid mass of Elantya ahead of her, within reach; guilt at possibly being the only person who escaped from Azric and Orpheon and the deluded merlons they led; and the urgent need to share the news of what was happening. Once she got back to Ven Sage Rubicas and the Pentumvirate, she could help them mount a rescue if her friends hadn’t made it back. She and the anemonites could provide vital information about the merlon cities and their underwater projects.

Yet the danger was only just beginning. Murky memories of dark, prophetic dreams echoed in her mind, dreams of a possible future in which things did not go well for her friends. Was it possible that the merlons had already recaptured and killed them as punishment for trying to escape? No, she could not allow herself to think that way. She had to assume they were all alive and needed her help. She had to hope they had gotten away, too.

She now understood some of her earlier nightmare visions — the earthquakes, a xyridium medallion like the ones Vic and Gwen wore sinking to the bottom of the ocean, the flashes of sharks and menacing tridents, the feeling of drowning. Other dreams, still unclear, had shown her spectacular battles against undersea armies with the fate of Elantya at stake, poor Piri blazing brightly at the center of a colossal whirlwind, massive waves crashing into the island and leaving the sea foam red with blood, the faces of Vic and Gwen as still and white as death, Azric looming as tall as fifty men above the Citadel. . . .

Worry spurred her to greater speed.

As the island rose steeply in front of her, she felt like a mountain climber, moving from ledge to ledge, pushing herself upward, swimming when she had to, using her feet on the sloped seabed when she could. Clumps of dark green seaweed poked out of crevices; sea anemones fluttered their colorful tentacles at her as she passed.