Fire Heart (The Titans: Book One) (52 page)

Goro'krae'katet,
Borbos answered, though Will was unsure whether he was using the creature's name or simply speaking in a strange language.
It be good to see you again.

We are humbly at your service,
the nautilus replied, and it dipped forward, apparently in its version of a bow. Its fellows followed suit.
Have you come to rescue us, Father?

Indeed I have,
Borbos said with a laugh.
Now get moving—I'll not tolerate anymore of this lazing about.
He winked, and the lead nautilus' many tentacles almost seemed to curve upward in a smile.

You have brought two others with you,
it said, and Will felt its gaze center on him. Or rather,
all
of their gazes. He met the lead one's massive golden eye with his own until it looked away toward Clare.

Aye,
Borbos replied.
This be Will, the new Dragon King, and his companion Clare.

For a long moment, the nautilus simply stared at Clare and remained silent, and Will had the niggling impression that it was gauging her worth. Finally it murmured,
We understand. We are pleased to make your acquaintances, young humans.
It turned its gaze on Will.
And we are thrilled at the return of the Dragon King. You must bring the Phoenix Empress to see us when this is over. We have looked forward to meeting her for many years.

We...ah...we haven't found her yet,
Will answered. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Clare look away, hiding her face behind the curtain of her hair.

The nautilus hesitated for a moment before saying,
Indeed. We understand.
The whole group turned away as one and began to swim toward the front gate.
Please, Lord Borbos, we must make haste.

Aye,
the Titan replied.
I imagine the reinforcements will be here soon. We killed a fair amount of them back in the deep dark, but that can't have been all of them.

The lead nautilus paused for only a fraction of a moment to look back, and then continued on its way.
Only one hundred tamyat were sent to keep watch over us,
it said.
There are no more.

Borbos halted.
Well, then, we be in the free and clear, lad!
he exclaimed jovially.

No, Lord Borbos,
came the reply.
Only one hundred were sent because no more were needed. The Fallen sent the Behemoth as our jailer.

Behemoth. The word sent a chill down Will's spine; judging from his experiences with the Leviathan, he imagined that the Behemoth must somehow be its counterpart, and the necessity for such a powerful creature's existence became clear.

Impossible,
Borbos scoffed, and Will felt a short-lived river of relief flow through him. It was banished, naturally, in the next instant. 

We are afraid not,
the nautilus answered.
Somehow they managed to awaken it from its slumber and seize control of its mind. We do not know how they did this. We had thought our binding sufficient; it seems we were wrong.

What is the Behemoth?
Will asked, dreading the answer.

The Leviathan's equal,
Borbos replied shortly, confirming his fears.
Think of it as an evil sibling.

And we're supposed to fight this thing how, again?

We cannot. There be no way we could defeat it; only you or the Phoenix Empress in your full power could do such a thing. I might perhaps be able to, but it would surely kill me as well. And since I be unwilling to sacrifice myself just yet and you be unable to harness your power, we'll have to settle for finding the Leviathan—which be the reasoning behind our newfound sense of urgency.

I thought you said we were safe, though,
Will said.

Borbos shook his head.
Not anymore, lad. The Behemoth doesn't possess the inhibitions of the tamyat. It be difficult to say whether it would survive attacking this place, but to the Behemoth that makes no difference. It be hunger made flesh—the Great Devourer, one of the Dark One's first creations. The Behemoth be the reason Beros crafted the Leviathan in the first place.

Will cast a nervous glance at Clare, and was comforted to see that she was in a similar state of distress.
Will,
she said to him privately,
I hate to admit this, but...I'm scared. I mean, I was before, but now...I'm terrified.

He hesitated for a moment, and then said,
Me too.

I don't want to die from something I can't even fight,
she said, and her thoughts came as a whisper.

Will gave her a sad smile.
You don't have to. If it comes down to it, I'll unleash Koutoum so the rest of you can escape. I think I can get him to wake up again if I really need to.

She shook her head emphatically.
No, that's not what I meant. I—

You're not going to leave me—right, right.
He heaved a bubbling sigh.
Don't be stupid, please. There's no point in throwing your life away like that. Why bother dying for nothing? You can't protect me from this thing, so don't try to.

She looked away and said nothing, and Will realized that he had most likely just insulted her.
But it's for the best,
he thought inwardly.
If that's what it takes to make her stay alive, then...I can have that on my conscience.

To her, he said,
I'm not joking, Clare. If you won't leave, I'll have the Titans take you away by force.

She was silent for awhile as they neared the great coral gate. Another of the strange serpentine creatures swam lazily past them, eyeing Will with almost scholarly curiosity as it went. When they finally passed under the archway, Clare said,
If you die, and I do nothing to help you, I will have to live with that shame for the rest of my life.
Her voice in his head was tinny, meek, as though he had physically struck her and now she was cowering before him. He felt his stomach twist at the thought.

If you live,
he said as gently as he could,
you'll be doing more than if you die trying to protect me. That's my job—to protect life. It's time I actually started doing that.
He grinned at her.
But this is all hypothetical, of course. We've gotten out of some ludicrously dangerous situations before; we'll think of something.
She did not return his smile, though, and after a moment his own died on his lips. He said no more.

Soon they were within the coral castle's inner sanctum. It looked much the same inside its walls as it did outside, though there seemed to be an even greater number of creatures within. Everywhere Will looked some strange beast swam or slithered or crawled, and each of them paused to watch Borbos as he passed. The nautilus sentinels hovered in a delta in front of them, acting as an honor guard, and as he watched them Will suddenly realized that the merfolk had disappeared; somehow, they had managed to fade back into the sea without him noticing. He looked around but could see no sign of them. He imagined they had gone off to keep watch or something of the sort.

Borbos,
he asked suddenly, indicating the nautiluses,
are they guards?

Aye, the personal guardians of the Sea Spirit himself.

So, erm...they look like they would be rather...awkward in a fight.

Will felt a small burst of amusement from Borbos.
You would think so,
said the Titan.
But they've a few tricks up their sleeves. Ah, here we are.

They had come to a pair of massive doors. They were made entirely of solid slabs of coral, and their surfaces were rough and spiny, gnarled like the bark of some great white tree. They swung silently inward as they approached, and Will was momentarily blinded by a glaring yellow light that emanated from within.

God of the Five Seas,
a strange voice said in his head. It sounded soft, almost like a young man, but with an odd undertone of churning and bubbling.
Father. You have returned. I was beginning to worry that you would not.

There be no way in the Void I'd ever let you rot, lad,
Borbos answered reproachfully.
I thought you knew that.

As the light began to fade and Will blinked his vision back into clarity, a strange shape solidified in the center of the room. He had seen clams once before—tiny, shelled things that lived in the silt of the Great Lake in the Southlands—and this thing seemed to be some sort of seafaring cousin, though it was
larger. Much larger. It was so vast, in fact, that unhinged and wide open as it was, the thing sitting in its center was dwarfed by its immensity.

Will cocked an eyebrow as the figure itself came into focus; it had no distinct shape, and yet at the same time it did. It seemed to be a man, but the longer Will looked at it the more he became convinced that its shape was definitely not man-like. Regardless, its body was made entirely of kelp and bits of coral, and tiny, brightly-colored fish constantly swam around and through it, hiding occasionally within the thing's green folds.

It dissipated suddenly, unraveling as fast as Will could blink, and then the kelp soared through the water toward them, where it reformed a short distance away. Two shining yellow eyes flashed momentarily from where its face should have been.

I did not think you would abandon us,
the strange voice said.
I was simply worried that you would be unable to slip past the Behemoth.

Well,
said Borbos,
we did, but I think perhaps that may have been its plan all along. No doubt the great beast be on its way to gobble us up as we speak.

As if to punctuate his words, a tremendous groan suddenly shook the palace, stirring up trails of bubbles and little motes of detritus. The noise was similar to the Leviathan's only...angry. Will could not put his finger on it, but something in the groan sounded murderously enraged. He looked over at Clare, who stared back at him with wide eyes.

Now would be a good time to leave,
he said, forcing his thoughts to sound calm.
Something big and mean and hungry this way comes.

Agreed,
Borbos replied, and he clapped his hands. Much as before, a shockwave rippled out in a ring around him. This time, though, a low, vibrating hum accompanied it. It sounded almost like someone had blown an incredibly deep horn—and that horn was right next to Will's ear. He winced and shook his head to clear it.

The muffled tones receded into the distance, echoing for an unnaturally long time before finally dissipating into silence, and on the noise's heels came the merfolk, their strange bodies materializing out of the sky-blue haze like phantoms in a field of mist. Will realized then that the entire palace was lacking a roof; he wondered momentarily why they had bothered to go through the front gate at all, but put it out of his mind.

The merfolk swam down to Borbos and the Sea Spirit, enveloping them in a single massive protective sphere, and then rose as one along with the band of gods and warriors. The nautilus guardians remained on the inside of the living shield, close to Borbos and the Sea Spirit, and Will wondered once again how exactly it was the strange creatures were planning on doing battle.

Borbos,
he thought, realization suddenly dawning on him,
what about the rest of the...er...animals down here? We can't just leave them unprotected.
They had begun to rise swiftly from the sea floor, and soon the strange myriad creatures were lost among the blue haze.

They'll be fine, lad,
the Titan answered.
It be us the Behemoth hunts, not them.

Another deep groan thundered toward them. It seemed closer, though distance was admittedly difficult to judge with ears full of water.
But do you really think it isn't getting closer?
Will thought to himself, pushing away his hopeful subconscious. Now was not the time to be living in the land of faeries and rainbows and sunshine.

They left the palace at the bottom of the sea as quickly as they had arrived, and soon Will was enveloped once again in the stifling black, surrounded by the dull, shimmering golden outlines of his companions. He noticed that the Sea Spirit, however, looked different; rather than gold streamers of kelp, Will saw...he shook his head in confusion. It looked like an elongated cloud of golden dust. But that couldn't be right—he rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger and looked again.

Strange, no?
Borbos' voice said in his head. The Titan was staring at him with a sad smile.
The sea be a big place, Will, and I cannot be everywhere at once—or underwater all the time, for that matter. The Sea Spirit takes my place whenever I leave, but...he be part of my soul. It be a tremendous strain,
staying apart from something so vital, but it be a price I must pay.

But...that doesn't explain why it looks like a cloud of dust,
Will thought back.

“He,”
Borbos said sternly,
not “it.” And he looks that way because he be just shy of real.