Page 6 of Call of the Fathoms (Deep Waters #4)

Six

Fortis

T he hunt burned within him. It had been a long time since anyone had chased him. He knew how the other People of Water’s mating rituals went. The males hunted their much larger prizes, and then they would kidnap them. Trapping a massive female they enjoyed was hard enough, but then providing her with enough food and gifts for her to decide that they were worthy of a mate? That was no easy feat.

But the depthstriders were a little different. His people knew the future, and their mating rituals were easier because of it. He had long known his wife would come to their pod and that he would mate with her. And from the first moment he had seen her, love had bloomed deep in his chest.

She had been beautiful in a way that so few were. So pale white that she glowed in the darkness. It might have been a weakness to some—it was hard for her to hide, after all—but his stunning bride had never once been afraid of what might find her in the shadows. She’d fought tooth and claw against anything that attacked her. Until all the sea itself knew not to test her.

She’d chased him through the waves for weeks on end. Every time she had given up, he would chase her. Rushing through the waves to taunt her, tease her, get her to turn around in anger and chase him until the very end of the sea itself.

He missed those days. Terribly.

Perhaps that was why the achromo’s attack had caused him to remember these things. She wasn’t anything like his Astrum had been, but the way she chased him was oddly familiar.

Insane thoughts. And yet, he found himself unable to leave. He needed guidance, because he had been so certain that the sea had sent him to grab one of those reborns. If nothing else, he could have brought the body back to Anya to see what information could be found out about the strange, limp creature.

But then he could feel the whispers in his mind to taunt the big woman. She had worn a skeleton that clearly was made for battle, and his entire mind had told him to bring her deeper into the depths.

Almost as though the sea itself wanted to get a look at her.

It was strange. The sea wanted to know more about this woman, and he wanted nothing more than to kill her. As was right. It didn’t matter that her scent coated his gills. She’d smelled just as good in the water, if not better, than she did out of it. It made him want to bite all of her skin off, peel it away so that he wouldn’t have that scent in his lungs anymore.

And yet...

After she disappeared into the darkness, all he could do was stare into that abyss. The sea tried to speak to him again. He was certain of that. It wanted Fortis to come into the abyss because it had more for him to hear. More that it wanted him to know.

His lights flickered out, one by one, as he sank into the darkness. The voices grew louder as he got closer to the heart of the sea, although they were in a language he did not understand. The ancients spoke more in emotions and visions than they did in an actual language that could be understood. He had been communicating with them for years, though, and sometimes he caught snippets of what he believed them to be saying.

“Come to us,” they whispered. “Come to us and we will show you the future.”

He had never been one to deny the future. Not when he knew how helpful it was to know the next step of his journey.

Some part of him feared that he had annoyed them, or perhaps disappointed them. Their orders were never all that clear. They had wanted him to go to Tau. He knew that much. They had wanted him to be caught by the ship and to get inside the city. That was his job. Surely the creature they had laid out on the table, the one who had been tested on just as he was about to be tested on, was the answer.

But no, now he was seeing it wasn’t her. He was always meant to grab her, though, that much he was certain. But this entire situation wasn’t about that woman called the “reborn”.

“Come,” the voices said again, this time all merging together into one voice.

But the voice they merged into wasn’t the feminine call he was used to. This was a masculine rumble, a deeper sound like the very depths of the sea spoke to him. This one was harder, as though whoever spoke had seen far too much. And it called him into the depths farther than he had ever been before.

Not the goddess of the sea, then. She had not bid him to go to Tau. But who else could it be?

Fortis drifted for a little while, allowing the sea to guide him toward the voice. Because the sea did want him to seek whoever was talking to him, even though it felt strange to wander into the unknown.

Darkness coiled around him, deeply intertwining with his gills, all his fins, even tangling in his hair and giving him a little tug when the currents wanted him to focus.

The voice was coming from close to Tau. The moment he hit the bottom of the abyss, where it was difficult for even him to breathe, he understood why he had been summoned here.

There was a tomb at the bottom of this crevice. It was buried beneath years of silt, dirt, and debris from the ocean, but he could see it clear as the first day it had been built. A monolith of carvings that were clearly etched by clawed hands. It was a depiction of a creature not unlike himself. But this male was not the same as the People of Water who lived today. His fingers were longer, with an extra joint. His face was significantly more animalistic, with a wider mouth that stretched nearly ear to ear. His fins were larger, and he was more massive than any male Fortis had ever seen. Larger even than Fortis himself.

His hair was limp and lank in the carving, as though he was not in water at all. As though he was on land.

But that wasn’t possible. Their people had come from the sea and had always come from the sea. But this creature’s tomb suggested something different, and Fortis wasn’t sure what to do with that information.

Humming low under his breath, he flicked his tail to circle the strange tomb. It was enormous, like a long coffin that had been wedged into the muck. But even then, it was unusual in shape and size. Someone had taken a great deal of effort to ensure that not only was this tomb beautiful, but that it would remain sealed for centuries. Perhaps even longer.

“Fortis,” the voice boomed in his mind. “You have finally come.”

“How do you know my name?” Fortis asked, circling the tomb. “How do you exist at the bottom of this sea?”

“I have been alive for centuries.” Whoever it was paused to take a long, rattling breath. “I am only now beginning to wake. This world is not how I remember it.”

“Many things have changed in the recent years.” Fortis paused before the front of the tomb, wondering if he was imagining that the eyes of the statue were nearly... glowing. “When was the last time you were awake?”

“Long ago. Before the storms. Before the... humans.”

Strange that this creature used the human word for themselves. His people had always called them achromos, or at least, that’s what Fortis thought. He feared this creature would upend all that they knew about their own people.

“Why did you call me?”

“I was awoken by the sea. The cities of these humans are causing far too much damage. The battles beneath the waves must stop.” Again, that rattling inhalation, as though the creature’s gills weren’t properly functioning. “You will start with Tau. You need help to bring the city down and I am the help that you will receive.”

“What help can you provide? Unless you wish for me to open your tomb?” Fortis moved to do just that, freezing when the next order was barked.

“No!”

“No?” he repeated, his claws scraping the edge of the coffin. “Do you not wish to be released?”

“It is not yet time for me to enter the sea again.” Another wheeze, another gasp, and then the creature continued. “I will remain here until the time is right. Go back to Tau. The woman you saw before, she is the key.”

“I don’t believe they’ll let me anywhere near the reborn again. But I will try if that is the current I must follow.”

The voice turned harsh and sharp. “Not that woman. The limp creature you stole has no purpose in this plan. The other woman, that is the one you must convince to help us.”

The big woman who smelled like the sea? That was who he was supposed to convince to help them? He wasn’t sure it was possible. She had hunted him as only a true warrior would. She would not be easily convinced. She was clearly loyal to her city, and those who ran it. Which only made all of this an even more difficult task.

“How?” he asked. “If you wish for me to do this, then you must help me more than just an order.”

“You are a depthstrider. Do your people no longer remember how to ask the sea for help?”

“I have asked the sea for help many times in my life, but never has it been so direct as it gives me the answers I seek.”

Another long pause, and he wondered if the creature in the tomb had given up on him. But then there was another long, odd sigh. “Ah, I see. She has grown fickle in her old age. Or perhaps she desires not to meddle as much as she used to. That is fine. I will tell you one secret and one secret alone, depthstrider. Use the woman’s memories against her. That is the way you will get her to help you.”

Her memories?

The light seemed to fade away from the tomb, and he wasn’t sure if that was because it had all been in his head, or if the creature had returned to its slumber. Whatever it was, he now had an answer to his questions.

Find the woman again. He supposed that would be easy enough to do.

Finding the city certainly wasn’t hard as he headed out and back to the monolith of the hidden human city. Now that he knew where Tau was, he wasn’t sure how his people hadn’t found it before. With the lights off, perhaps that was how they had remained hidden for so long. Long, billowing shields hid the city. At a distance, he never would have thought it was anything more than the usual dark dust that spun up at this depth.

But now, he knew what lurked beneath that shield, and its weaknesses. He spent the better part of a day finding a small section not covered by their magic. A small section just beneath the crook of their metal structures had been forgotten, and then he weaved throughout the entirety of the city. There were not many windows. But he wasn’t all that interested in the people there. They reminded him of those who had lived in Alpha. Primped and glowing, they were the flashy fish in the sea. The ones who were so small, no large predator would ever attempt to eat them.

Pretty little fish, surrounded by much larger predators, and hadn’t realized they were edible yet.

Flicking his tail, he circled the building repeatedly. There were so many weaving tunnels that jutted in this place. He couldn’t imagine the achromos within were getting around all that easily. It looked like every few steps they were walking on an undulating floor system.

Every other city was built similar to each other. This one, though, looked like it had been built by a mad man.

Wriggling in between two of the strangely built tunnels, he realized there was a tighter area within. This one had small portholes, large enough that he could peer inside.

Achromos wandered throughout the rooms beyond. Some of these were training rooms. He could see warriors wrestling with each other, all of them grappling and throwing bodies with such force. He paused to wonder if they were actually fighting.

And then he saw her. The big woman who had captured his attention from the start. She was fighting with someone as well. The male was much larger than her, and that was saying something. She was already huge, but while they were of similar height, she lacked the weight of the man who threw her body across the room.

A sensation trailed down his spine, bristling at the sight of someone else attacking her. She rolled onto her side, fingers pressed where the man had wounded her. Blood trickled out of her nostrils when she looked up, and Fortis was shocked to find rage nearly glowing through his body. He didn’t like the sight of blood on her.

No, that wasn’t right. Fortis didn’t like to see blood drawn by another person when he was the only one who should do so. He didn’t like being wrong, either. He’d been thinking of her as a warrior, and she shouldn’t have put herself in this situation. The male was bigger, stronger. She shouldn’t try to fight someone like that. The male would tear her apart.

But then, even with her ribs wounded and blood streaming down her face, her face warped into an enraged battle cry as she launched herself across the room. The man’s back hit the wall where the window was, his head cracking hard against the glass before he slid down. Nearly unconscious.

Fortis was too far for her to see him through the darkness, but he swore she could. This woman, with her wild dark hair and blood streaked across her face, stared right into his soul.