Page 8 of Call of the Fathoms (Deep Waters #4)

Eight

Fortis

A nd so the hunt began.

His wife’s prophecy had been correct. She had been the first to see it, and then spread the news among many who had confirmed her suspicions. Fortis remembered her words as though she were floating right beside him.

“You will be chased by a silver beast. You will lead it into the depths and from there, you will win a battle of flesh without blood.”

He never understood the last part until the god beneath the sea had clarified. He needed her memories. And now, as he watched as this achromo prepared herself to hunt him, all he could think was that she must be mad. They must all be afflicted by insanity, because there was no reason an achromo should ever believe they could hunt one of his people. Not in these waters.

Perhaps achromos were more capable in shallow waters. The People of Water were unused to the sun, and they used shadows to their benefit. Fortis himself had been raised in the depths. He knew all the parts of the abyss that could hide him, and all the areas that would help him. He would lead her ship into the deepest part of the ocean and then sink it until she would never see the light again.

The thought had merit. Perhaps it would teach this little warrior that she should never have fought against him.

He could only see so much from his position attached to one of the longer arms of the city. The tangled nest was frustrating to get around, but he managed well enough. Other achromos were ushering her into a ship, it appeared. Plenty of weapons and boxes were shuttled into it by droids that were lumbering along beside every single person in that room.

Soon enough, the door to the sea would open and it would release her into his world. He would lead her on a merry chase, just as the sea wished for him to do. He would destroy every ounce of her bravery, but first, he had to fulfill his own prophecy.

A chase. Just like he had been promised.

A silver beast that would test his own mettle and every ability he had spent years developing. Already his tail vibrated with the need to show her the kind of monster she hunted.

Had she been training to fight against him better? No training on land would ever prepare her to face a depthstrider like him, no matter how big she was compared to all the other achromos.

His mind wandered as he watched the ship get filled with even more supplies. If he had given her the time, she likely could have been an impressive fighter. The metal skeleton she’d worn had helped that. With the right training, she could likely use it even better to her advantage. The problem had been how she was fighting against the currents. He knew she could feel them. Mira and Anya both had gotten very good at feeling them. So this warrior could also learn how to find the currents and use them as she fought.

It was foolhardy to even think she could learn, though. Their kind were incapable of such things. Only the select few were worth his time, and honestly, even then, he wasn’t all that certain her kind had the capacity to learn.

Then the achromos were ready to leave the safety of their home. The ship came to life, all the lights turning on brightly and filling the moon pool with a blinding ray. He covered his eyes, hissing out a sound as all his gills flared wide. But he had to drop his arm. He had to see what their plan was.

They wouldn’t be so foolish as to send their best warrior after one of his kind alone, would they?

There she was. Stunning in her tall and powerful stance. She’d twisted her hair into a braid, and it swung nearly to her hips as she strode through the crowd of people to the ship. Armor covered her body, but he’d expected that. After all, she would need everything they could give her to keep her alive fighting him.

She entered the ship, and then... yes. They were so foolish. They were going to send her to her death hunting him.

A series of complicated panels opened in the floor. The first would send her down onto the loading dock area where they had kept him for a while and injected him with their useless drugs. Then she would descend into a second area with mostly glass panels, a waiting area, he supposed. He knew there must be devices to watch what happened in that room as well, because they hadn’t opened their last defense until he’d stopped struggling. Perhaps assuming he had tired himself out in the net.

Then finally, she was released.

He moved his tail from where it was wrapped around one of the looping antennae and darted out into the open ocean. He didn’t have to hide himself. Not from her. She was hunting him, after all, and he wanted to make it easy for her.

The metal beast of her ship rose out of the darkness and stirred the silt into a gray haze that was broken only by the twin beams of light in front of it. She was in a much smaller ship. It was clearly made for only one person, and that much he appreciated. It would be easier for her to move it around and to dart after him when he proved to be much faster.

Fortis positioned himself in front of the beams, waiting for her to notice him.

Of course she did quickly. He could see the determination in her expression through the glass. That glare on her face should have peeled his scales right back from his tail. Ah, he so enjoyed the hatred that burned in her features.

“Come, warrior,” he snarled. “Let’s see how fast your ship is.”

And off he went. He could hear the engines of her ship roar to life, and then she was speeding after him. Impressive. He hadn’t known their ships could go that fast, but the longer she chased him, the faster he got. But she’d known that from the beginning. He knew deep in his gut that she hadn’t taken this mission lightly, because she’d seen what he could do already. She’d only wanted to do this to get her revenge.

He wouldn’t give her that.

Flexing all the muscles in his tail, he curved down toward the abyss and knew the shield would part for him. Perhaps she would think that he was bringing her to the same spot where they had originally fought. But then he twisted around a rocky outcropping, waiting to hear the crunch of metal on the stone.

Instead, he swore he could hear her curse before she managed to not hit the stones. Interesting. She was a better pilot than he’d thought she was, but then again, she was good at surprising him.

“All right,” he muttered, “Then let’s try this.”

Off he went to the right. This time curved her towards volcanic vents that opened up and blasted hot water. He wasn’t certain if her ship could withstand that, but he was surprised to see that it could. The heat was blistering to him, but her ship didn’t slow in the slightest.

Curious. Then he brought her out into the open ocean. The darkness there was easier for him to slip away. Her beams of light could only hold on to him for so long before he just... disappeared.

All he had to do was flick his tail and roll beneath her ship that was rapidly gaining on him. He let her, of course. He wanted her to think that perhaps she could catch him. Surely she had weapons that were all pointed right at him. All she’d have to do was hit a button in this darkness, but he realized she didn’t want to do that.

If she shot him here, then his body would disappear just as easily as he had fled from her now. If she wasn’t careful, she’d lose her prize.

The damned woman wanted her trophy. He only knew this because he would want the same thing if he were her.

Gills opening wide and filtering through as much air as he could stuff into his lungs. He hovered above her ship as she slowed it. The whole thing pivoted, moving in a circle with a single engine still going as though she was listening for him.

“Achromo,” he called out, the word long and low. He knew she could hear his whale song.

The ship turned, but he needed her to get out of her ship. Out of that protection that would only give her a barrier between him and all the memories that he knew he needed to gather from her.

Swimming slightly closer, he sang his taunts louder, knowing she wouldn’t be able to deny him.

“The little achromo arrives in a ship. Terrified of what the massive undine could do to her. You are afraid.”

Again the shipped turned, but he did not hear her speaking within that metal contraption. Not yet.

So he swam even closer to the top of it, knowing she would not look above her until the last second. “If you’re not careful, I will believe your people are even less capable than expected. You don’t want to get into the water because you know I will kill you if you do.”

Then he heard her small scoff. “I have no fear of you, undine.”

“You are deeply afraid. But you don’t want me to smell it on you again.” Then he was close enough to her ship to trail his nails down the glass on top of it. All she had to do was look up.

And then she did.

Those jet-black eyes, as deep and endless as his own, looked up at him. He knew the lights from below illuminated his face. He must look terrifying to her, all flared gills and floating hair. Slowly, he grinned. Spreading his lips so all she could see were the sharp points of his teeth and a mouth that was a little too wide.

Her nostrils flared. He wondered if that was fear or anger, but that was the best part of all this. Perhaps, if he was lucky, he would get her out into the water so he could tell.

They were so disgusting to him. Fortis had never looked at achromos overly much, because they were stomach churning. Except he wanted to look at this one. He wanted to know every single feature of her face that moved and changed when he taunted her, because his hatred ran so deep that he needed to know these details about her.

Her hand slowly stretched forward, fingers steady as a rock, he noted, and then she hit a button.

There it was again. That exoskeleton. Stretching down from somewhere above her in the ship and wrapping around her body like a second skin. She held his gaze the entire time, her body jerking with the movements to get it settled in the right places that should have protected her from him.

But the suit hadn’t the last time, and it wouldn’t this time.

“I have thought long and hard about our last fight,” she snarled. “I know where I went wrong, and I know how to fight you better.”

“Is that so?”

“This time, I won’t hesitate to shoot.” Her fist slammed into a button next to her at the same time, she dragged a face mask over her mouth.

He could so easily rip her air away from her and kill her. Surely she knew that. These threats weren’t scary to him in the slightest.

Maybe she had always wanted to fight him again in the sea. Maybe some prideful part of her believed that she could fix her own honor by winning this time. She wouldn’t, but he could respect the desire to do so.

She landed in the water and he sucked her scent into his lungs. It was fresh and light, but acrid this time.

So she was afraid. Good. She wasn’t an idiot.

Fortis breathed her into his gills, coating them with the exquisite taste of her fear as much as he could before darting forward. She yanked a gun out just as fast, and he wasn’t surprised to feel the pulse of pressure as her gun fired right through his side. Black blood bloomed in the water like ink, but he was already upon her. There was nothing she could do to stop it.

Perhaps she thought she could take him with her. If she was going to die, then at least she could kill a depthstrider on her way out of this realm.

He had no plans to kill her, though. The sea had given her to him. He was going to rip through her memories and use them all to his advantage. He would tear her apart, memory by memory, until she was nothing but a drowning mess.

As he wrapped his arm around her waist, he couldn’t help but notice how tight the muscles were there. Yes, the metal skeleton wrapping around her was bitterly hot and searingly distracting, but he could feel her beneath all of it. Strong, wiry muscles, a body made from years of fighting. Her abs flexed against his palm as he reeled her back against his chest, pinning her there.

Leaning down, he pressed his lips against her throat just to feel her swallow against his teeth. “If I wanted to kill you, virago , I would have done it the first time I had you trapped in these waters.”

Her ship floated just below her feet. She kicked them, clearly trying to get purchase so she could shove back against him. As it was, he had her tangled up in him. She couldn’t kick. Couldn’t fight back. She had to stay in his arms, struggling in slow motion as he coiled his tail around her.

“You bastard,” she hissed, hitting a button that made her suit even hotter. It singed his scales, but he’d suffered worse pain.

Fortis turned her in his arms, feeling his gaze turning from the usual black to swirling colors that would allow him to peer through her resistance and straight into her soul. She struggled, those strong arms coming down on his tail and trying to thrust him away from her. She wanted to flee, to run, to get away from her own past that soon he would walk through without her permission.

Some part of him felt like a god when he did this. Fortis was one of the few depthstriders who could. Most of them only saw the future, but he could see the past as well. All he had to do was reach for it.

“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice already sounding drugged.

“Seeking the truth.” And then he dove into her memories.