Page 94 of Whispers of the Deep

“I didn’t let her die,” Maketes whispered. “I waited to make sure they got her back into the city. I thought maybe she would reveal a secret way in. But she fought for a bit, pounding on the glass, and then they pulled her back into the building with one of those metal arms. They woke her up once she was inside and then I left.”

So she was still alive. His lights flickered back on, the slightest bloom of hope still in his chest.

If she was there, then he could go get her. He could find her, because that was what he did best. He had stalked her people for years. All it would take was a few moments in front of the glass and he would know exactly what room she was in. And maybe it would take a while for him to figure out how to get her out of there. But now they both knew they didn’t need her to wear that rebreather.

Her device would be good for others, if there were any other of his people who were kind enough to see that her kind were actually people like them. But she would never be so far from his side again. He wouldn’t let her get farther out of his reach, so he would breathe for her.

As if that future had already come to pass, he took a deep breath and felt the air sacs in his belly expand. Soon, he would breathe for both of them.

“Arges?” Maketes broke through his thoughts. “You can’t go get her.”

That made him turn his head. Finally, he glared at his brother. “What do you mean, I cannot get her? The moment I get out of these bindings, I will find her. I will save her.”

“Why are you so fixated on this creature? It has been weeks since you saw her. Weeks since you have been free of the effects of her poison.” Maketes laid on the sand, his webbed fingers gripping the fine white granules. His tail was flat to the ground as well, almost as though he didn’t want anyone to see him here. “It should have worn off by now.”

His eyes found and caught on the translation chip in Maketes’s ear. “You talked with her.”

His brother remained silent for a few moments, but he knew the truth when he saw it. So he waited, listening for the change in breathing before his brother blew out a long breath.

“I talked with her,” Maketes relented. “She is as fearsome as I always thought your mate would be. She attacked me first, to put the translation device behind my ear. The pain was immense, and I was certain that she had done something to permanently damage me. But then when she spoke, I realized she merely wanted to share her knowledge.”

“It is not that much knowledge,” Arges snorted.

“It is another world. Another language. She spoke to me like I wasn’t just some animal to her. She clearly sees us for who and what we are and it is... confusing.” Maketes shook his head as though trying to clear a fog from his mind. “I have not been able to stop thinking about it.”

“Did you return to the city to listen to them?”

“I did not return to the city they call Beta.”

It was not a denial of returning. Just not to the same city that he had been in before.

A sense of horror filled his chest. “Where did you go?”

“To all of them,” Maketes replied. “Alpha, Beta, and Gamma, they call themselves. Cities under the sea that are filled with so many achromos, it’s almost impossible to count them all. They are so different, though. Very different cities with very different people.”

Arges tugged against his bindings, trying to turn so he could see his brother better. “What do you mean?”

“Beta is the one that seems to do most of the work. The people like Mira do a very good job at working hard. They fix things. Create things. And then send them to the other cities. Alpha is a work of art. All the people there wear gemstones, jewelry, and the city isn’t like Beta. The entire area where they live is encased in a dome, like the small one you put your achromo in. Gamma is... dangerous. I do not know what kind of people they put in there, but the achromos seem to always be killing each other.” His expression appeared troubled. “Even the women. There are many women attacked there.”

Three very different cities. Three different problems that he would have to fix.

Blowing out a breath that sent bubbles out of his gills, he laid flat on his back again and stared up into the darkness. “It is strange to think of them as people and not just a school of fish that we haven’t been able to access.”

“I resent her for giving me this gift,” his brother murmured. “But I thank her for it as well. There is so much I have learned, and I feel as though I’ve only tapped the briefest hint of the surface of what we can learn about them.”

“You’ve been hidden?”

“Very hidden. It is easier than you’d think when there is only one of us. the achromos do not hush their voices inside of their cities. They think we cannot understand them, so they are safe in their glass cities.”

This was a terrible move. Mira should never have given more of his people the ability to understand her kind. This would only lead to more bloodshed, more violence, and nothing would get fixed. He didn’t know how to stop this, though. Not now that it had happened.

“Have you told Mitéra?” he asked.

His hearts thundered in his chest, drowning out even the sound of the current. He waited to hear the terrible news. That Maketes had taken his place and that Mitéra would unleash yet another warrior full of anger on Mira’s people.

But then his brother sighed. “Do you think I would be speaking so quietly if she knew, Arges?”

Jerking his head so quickly his neck cracked, he looked at his brother in shock. Maketes shrugged in response.

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