Page 100 of Whispers of the Deep

Turning with a snarl, he grabbed Daios by the neck and dragged his brother so close he could see the filaments of the gills on his neck flaring for breath. “Listen to me very closely. You will kill whoever you want. You will get your blood. But I am the one getting you into the city and I am the one who can understand them. Do not test me now, Daios.”

Another hand settled on his back, trying to stop the anger that surged in his veins. “We are with you, Arges. Despite what your brother says.”

“Watch him closely, Maketes.” Arges released his blood brother and turned his attention to the first open moon pool. “Whatever mess he causes is your responsibility as well.”

As for him, it was time to hunt. Arges would find that achromo who had laid his hands on Mira and he would destroy him.

As one, his pod turned toward the first open moon pool. He was the first to launch himself out of the water and drag himself into the home of the achromos. Even having been here before, it was difficult for him once inside. The colors were so bleak. White walls, lights that were far too bright, and two technicians who stared at him with wide, horrified eyes. Before they could reach for the weapons at their hips, he batted them aside.

One of the men hit their head against the edge of a console and blood splattered on the floor. The other tripped and fell into the water where Arges did not watch to see what happened. He did not say his people couldn’t kill, and they needed this. They deserved to have blood underneath their claws after all they had endured.

Dragging himself out of the door, pushing it open with his shoulders and barely fitting through it, he expelled all the water from his gills and started forward. The halls were still tight. He couldn’t quite touch either side with outstretched arms, but it was close.

Achromos scattered. Screams filled the hall, and he knew soon enough there would be soldiers with powerful weapons. His pod would never see the soldiers, because he was the bait.

His warriors turned a corner behind him, and then another. They all slithered down the halls, dragging themselves on their bellies and ignoring everything but what they sought. Soon they would have weapons. They would be able to fight back.

Arges was focused only on one achromo. And that man had been deeper in the city.

He crawled quickly, his tail lashing out behind him and catching any achromos stupid enough to get close. They fired their weapons at him, the sound of them pinging against his scales and digging into his flesh. He didn’t stop. Not even when his black blood left streaks behind him.

Because he had seen the man. He watched as the achromo ran from him, but there was no terror in the man’s eyes. Only a realization that he was being hunted. And perhaps a thrill in that.

He tracked him through the city. Past massive rooms with glass ceilings, beyond rooms that were filled with so much shit, he couldn’t guess what it all was. Deeper and deeper into the heart of the city. Perhaps this was a trap, but he highly doubted it.

Then he saw the plan. He realized the man had gone to another room with a moon pool they hadn’t seen before. He was already opening the door, standing above a ship with a glass top that he sank into. The man didn’t even look at him as he fired all the sides of the ship and dropped it into the water.

“No you don’t,” he snarled, launching himself into the sea with the ship.

He had seen this in his future, he realized. The achromos fleeing their cities in these small glass bubbles that would take them deeper into the sea. They were fast, but he was faster.

He surged after the ship, following as the man dodged around rock pillars and deeper into the depths. He thought he could get away from Arges. This man thought he was a better swimmer than someone who had been born in the sea.

It took him a while, but eventually he caught up with the man. He grabbed onto the back of the ship and swung. It careened off course, spinning wildly in the dark with its lights flickering on and off as the entire ship struggled to maintain its direction. Arges attached himself to the front of it, ripping pieces off and flinging them into the depths. He didn’t care what pieces he tore off. One of them had to be important.

And then, finally, there was nothing but silence.

He stared into the light at the center of the ship, glaring down at the man inside who must think he was staring at a monster. Perhaps he was. Arges bared his teeth, snapping them in the man’s direction.

But he could see the achromo had a weapon in his hand, and it was pointed right at Arges. “Do it,” the achromo snarled. “I’ll kill you, just like I killed your little whore. A soldier of Tau never stops, no matter how long it takes for us to win.”

“That’s the difference between my kind and yours,” Arges replied, even though he knew the man couldn’t understand. the achromo’s eyes widened, though, and he wondered if it was the first time this soldier had realized the People of Water could speak. “You never know when to stop, and we always have to be the ones to end things.”

He dug his claws into the edges of glass and ripped the shield off of his ship.

Water rushed in long before the man could fire his weapon. Arges was faster than him, anyway. He batted the hand that held the weapon and watched as it joined the sinking ship. But the man he held onto. the achromo dangled in his grip, so small that it was hard to imagine they were so deadly. The man was already drowning, sucking water in like air with his mouth gaping open. He was trying to live, but he hadn’t realized he was already dead.

Arges squeezed his throat a little harder. “You touched her, and that will never happen again. I wish I could rip you apart, limb by limb, and that you would be awake for all that pain. But you will not, because you are weak.” He grabbed one of the man’s arms, then the other. And he knew the moment the achromo realized what he was going to do. “So I will end this quickly, not because you deserve it, but because she needs me more than I need my vengeance.”

Arges ripped.

Both of the arms came off far too easily, and he let the man and his parts return to the sea. Some crab or other creature would snap up the rest of him. Blood filled the water, and he dragged it into his gills so he could taste the metal on his tongue.

Then he turned in the direction of the dome and returned to his mate. The woman who needed him.

The woman he could only hope was still alive.

Thirty-Nine

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