Page 36 of Call of the Fathoms (Deep Waters #4)
Thirty-Six
Fortis
F ortis would have luxuriated in that cave for the rest of his life. Having her draped over his chest, pressed against his hearts that now thundered for her, it was an experience he wasn’t likely to forget. Unfortunately, they both knew this was the only chance they would get.
Their time was limited, not just because of his death, but because of what they had to do. Soon enough, they would find themselves in the depths of a war, and they were both integral parts.
So he woke her when she drifted off to sleep with quiet words and even more quiet touches. He pressed lingering kisses to her shoulders, breathing in the scent of her skin before he helped her put on the suit. Not that she needed it, but Mira would want it back now that they all knew it worked.
As he swam back toward their village, he felt a pit in his stomach open. He didn’t want this to end. That was the hardest part of all of this. Fortis wanted to stay with her and live for a little while longer.
He’d known about his death for such a long time, but nothing had prepared him for a moment when he didn’t want to go. He’d been so ready for such a long time, and now? Now he wasn’t even remotely ready. All he wanted was to stay just a few more days.
What if the depthstriders changed their mind? They were only fighting for revenge. Once he died, would they change their mind? It wasn’t entirely out of the question. They were a fickle bunch, and they preferred to help their own rather than anyone else. They could decide that they would not fight, and there would be no one left to argue with them.
The other part of himself, the less anxious side that floated through the sea with her in his arms, wanted to see what happened with the sea. The humans and People of Water working together, after all this time. He wanted to swim through the cities they would build, and he knew they would be great. He wanted to see Anya and Ace lead a group of humans toward fixing the land above. He wanted to see all the beauty that would come from the partnership between so many who had hated each other for so long.
Just before they reached the village, Alexia reached up and cupped his jaw. He stopped swimming instantly, and looked down at the strong, capable woman he somehow was lucky enough to have in his arms.
“Fortis?” she asked.
“What is it, virago?”
“I just want you to know that my time with you has been the best part of my life. I don’t think I ever even knew how to live before you showed me, and I want you to know how grateful I am for it. No matter what happens.”
He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to drag her back to the facility with all that glass, and watch as she arched her back as she came. There were so many more things he wanted to try with her, but time was not on their side.
Sighing, he ran his hand down her back and looked at her instead. “I will never forget you, virago. Not in this life, or the next. You have changed the way I see this world, and for that, I am also grateful. I am lucky that you were kind enough to not kill me the first moment you saw me.”
She snorted. “You’re lucky you’re a fast bastard, or I would have.”
They grinned at each other, the threats of the past long forgiven. And he would have stayed forever, smiling at her with all the hope he could feel in his hearts, but they did not have the luxury of time.
“Father!” Aulax’s voice called out. “We’re ready.”
What did he mean they were ready? They couldn’t be ready, not yet. There were still many things for them to do, and figure out, and they needed to plan. But by the time he coasted them into the village, he could see there were plenty who had already planned without them.
“How much did you tell them before we left?” he asked, heading to the main meeting area of the village.
“Everything,” she said. “I gave them all the access codes I had, and every single map I could remember. I gave them access to Tau’s inner workings and changed the codes in one of those droids to make it look like it was coming from my ship.”
He blinked down at her. “You did all that in such a short amount of time?”
Again, she looked at him like he had lost his mind. “I am very efficient, Fortis.”
And so she was. He just hadn’t realized how efficient and how difficult that would make things for him.
Exhaling, he brought them both into the main room for them to be accosted by a hundred people trying to talk all at once. Perhaps a hundred was an exaggeration, but it felt that way.
Alexia was yanked out of the water by multiple hands, all of them grabbing at her and dragging her into the fray. There were so many humans wandering around in the room, each of them trying to talk over another as they moved in small groups toward their own goal. He didn’t know what that goal was; it was hard to hear any of them speak over the massive noise they were making.
A red hand grabbed his arm, urging him back under the water so he could speak with the others. But his eyes were only on her.
She pulled the diving helmet off her head, her long braid swinging free like a whip as she approached the crowd without fear. She was easily a head taller than even the tallest man in that room. Alexia took over any space that she was in and commanded attention wherever she went.
Daios again tugged on his arm, this time forcing him to dip underneath the water.
“What is wrong with you?” Daios muttered.
Everything.
Nothing.
He had lost his mind because a warrior woman had barged into his life and now she seemed to believe he could exist without her. She was able to shake off all that they had experienced together, and he wasn’t sure he liked that. He wanted her to be consumed by thoughts of him, incapable of thinking of anything else. Especially this close to their encounter.
Daios smacked him in the throat. Hard. “Get your head back on straight, Fortis. Listen to me. There are plans and you have to follow them, and you can’t do that if you’re mooning over some woman who you already know is going to kill you.”
Fortis glared at him. “How do you know that?”
“I know a lot of things. You forget, I have worked with the depthstriders most of my life. You’re not the only one I know, and many of your people are talking about how you are siding with the woman who is going to kill you.” Daios frowned. “Why you are doing that, I will never understand. But it is not my job to understand you. It is my job to ensure you have your head on straight enough that we all get this done the way it has to be done.”
Fortis understood the meaning behind his words. They were on borrowed time.
“Why are we rushing?” he asked as they swam to another section of the village. “I assumed we would return and have to make as many plans as we could before all of this was happening.”
A depthstrider swam past them with his arms laden with weapons. Three droids followed him, each of them already equipped with more weaponry that would likely be used in the upcoming battle.
Daios shook his head. “Before Alexia left, she gave them all the idea of what the plan should be, and it was a good plan. She’ll return in the ship, pretending to lick her wounds after she lost you. It’ll be a two month long story that they’ll need to get out of her, and she knows enough about them to lie well. Her Original will believe her, because Alexia has always been a soft spot in Harlow’s armor. It gives her a chance to reestablish connection and then let us in.”
“This is a terrible plan. You’re all leaving it up to fate that they trust she hasn’t been compromised, or that they wouldn’t decommission her at first sight.”
“This is the plan she suggested, and we are trusting that she knows what to do with her own people.”
But she didn’t. They’d already established that truth. She had fought her entire life to get out of from under the rule of Tau, and now they were all trusting that they wouldn’t kill her for it?
Daios’s brow furrowed. “Unless you fear they will get her back under their thumb?”
“No, I fear that she will do something foolish and get herself killed.” And therein laid the problem. Alexia was so angry at all of those people, and he knew it might not be reasonable to expect her to withhold that anger.
With a slow exhalation of bubbles through his gills, Daios nodded. “I believe the only thing we can do now is to trust her, Fortis. We have shown Alexia what it is like to be with us, to support us, to do all the things that we have been doing for countless months on end. We have to believe that she will do the right thing, even if it is hard.”
“Like kill me,” he muttered, before shaking his head. “Understood. What is the plan?”
“We have manufactured another battery for her to attach to her ship. The maintenance droids we stole from Beta also went to the location she revealed to ensure the ship was still viable, and the system is ready to go online as soon as you place her in it. She will return to the city in the same ship, with the knowledge that she will need to undergo vigorous testing to ensure she is still the woman they believe her to be. Once that is completed, she will open the locks on the city one by one. We will enter that way and kill as many people as we can.”
“And if they retaliate?”
“We leave through the same vents that she is opening. But we will also have many warriors taking down their exterior ships with the droid enhancements Alexia provided us with. Between our people and the weapons on these droids, we should be able to be safe outside and in. Inside, we kill a few people at a time, continually attacking through the new vents she is opening and then leaving before they are closed.”
They made it to Mira’s workshop, where he had assumed the battery would be. “They will realize it is her. No one else would make the mistakes like that. They have had hundreds of years to perfect the protection of their city.”
“That’s where the depthstriders come in. Alexia is dropping the shield around the city as soon as she can, and the depthstriders will work on dismantling the city’s exterior. Apparently, there are glass structures that stand between the water just outside of Tau. Once those are removed, the entrances into the city are vast and many.” Daios shrugged. “The depthstriders will puncture through the windows of the city. One by one.”
As far as plans went, it wasn’t that bad. Tau had never been attacked outright. Which meant although they had prepared for years, their protections had never been tested before.
They approached Mira’s workshop and were greeted by a wall of droids. The flashing lights and bleeping sound of their language filled the water with red hues and strange echoes. Droids always made him uncomfortable.
Mira was already out of her workshop in a silver wetsuit. She had her rebreather over her face, swimming around a familiar battery. She barely acknowledged them, but did at least look over her shoulder at their approach.
“It looks good to go,” she muttered, but there was a pinch to her expression that Fortis found familiar at this point. “I don’t know. It’s not the same battery the ship used before, and I’m afraid that will make it pretty fucking obvious that it’s been tampered with.”
“Just tell Alexia. She’ll make up a reason for it. Perhaps she had to dock at an old facility to make her return.”
“Not a bad idea. But you’ll have to be the one to tell her.” Mira shrugged. “She’s already coming this way, anyway. They should have briefed her by now.”
Already? Surely not. There were countless reasons they needed to take their time, and yet... He turned and there she was. Swimming over to them in that graceful way she always managed. Flippers on her feet, a mask securely around her face, and her hair braided into a higher, slicker ponytail.
Damn it, this was really happening. No matter what he did to slow it down.
Determination turned Alexia’s expression almost into something unrecognizable. “Oh good, you already have the battery ready.”
Mira nodded. “I’m concerned about the look, though. They’ll know this isn’t the same battery you were sent out with.”
“I’m sure they’ll expect that. I have been gone for two months. They know I didn’t have enough power to sustain me that long. I’ll think up something.” Alexia waved a hand, then looked at him. “Think you can carry both of us, big guy?”
This was his moment to say no. He couldn’t, actually, carry both of them. It was a valid reason to not be able to bring her anywhere. He’d need someone else to go on this suicide mission with him. Clearly.
But his stupid mouth said, “I can carry both things just fine, virago.”
Daios and Mira shared a look before his red finned brother cleared his throat. “Once she’s in the ship, you are supposed to head back to the other depthstriders. They have a plan for you to fight with them, and considering your fate, I’m sure Mitera knows where you are supposed to be and at what time.”
He hoped she did, because he sure didn’t. Fortis knew that these were the last moments of his life, though, and he would not linger in the worry and fear of what might happen next.
“Tell Aulax that he was the son I always dreamt of,” he murmured. “And if my boy can find me near her ship, we will have our final moments together.”
He gathered Alexia in his arms, grabbed onto the handle of the battery, and headed out.
They said nothing on the journey. But there weren’t many things left to say. She knew how he felt. She knew that his life had been forever broadened by her actions. The only fear he had was what would happen next, and how soon it would occur.
It didn’t take them nearly long enough to get back to her ship, or perhaps it took the same amount of time and he had just been lost in thought. But far too soon, he saw the ship on the ledge right where they had left it. A fine layer of dust now covered it, but there were marks where the droids had landed.
“The droids made quick work of fixing your ship,” he murmured as he brought them to the ground in front of her ship.
“Mira told me. She said they made sure it would start once the battery is in place.”
They both were far too hesitant to let each other go. Neither of them wanted to say what was going to happen next, and he didn’t want to leave. Not yet. He wanted to make sure she was safely inside. Then he would let her go.
“Just make sure they don’t catch you—” he said, at the same time as she spoke.
“Don’t take any unnecessary risks.”
They both chuckled, and he cupped the side of her neck, drawing her in close to him. “Be safe, virago.”
“Same to you, Fortis. We’ll see each other again.”
He knew they would. But, as she headed into the underbelly of the ship and left him alone in the sea, he feared the next time he would see her would be the end. As he plugged the battery into the top of her dusty ship and watched the lights all turn on, he told himself he had been preparing for this moment for years.
He still wasn’t ready.