Page 99 of Song of the Abyss

This undine was awake. It bared its sharp teeth at her, those black eyes flashing with hatred. A deep purple color went up from its tail and onto its belly. It was significantly paler than the other undines she had seen thus far, and didn’t have the same kind of fins.

She could only guess this was a depthstrider. This was one of the creatures that everyone was so afraid of and yet it was trapped just like the other.

Anya lifted her hand and pressed it flat to the glass of the tube. She knew Daios was likely growling and raging wherever he was because she was taking a risk. But the depthstrider calmed. Its eyes swirled with a hundred colors as it pressed its hand opposite to hers, and she knew, somehow, it understood she wanted to help them.

In a blink, she saw where it came from. The deep dark sea with all the flashing lights of rainbow creatures that lived with them. She saw a small child, held in the arms of a female undine, who looked at her with a soft smile on her face. And she knew... she knew she couldn’t leave them here.

Swallowing hard, she shook her head to clear it of the vision the depthstrider had given her and sighed out a ragged breath.

“Bitsy?”

A flash of light illuminated her droid’s lens.

Her throat was thick with emotion, and she wasn’t sure her words were anything other than a garbled mess. “Tell the others there’s been a change of plan. We’re moving now. Get Maketes and Ace ready. The moment they can get here, get them here. There’s about to be a lot of alarms going off.”

“What are you doing?” Bitsy asked, but she could see the messages were sent off into the ether where the others would get them.

“Daios? I know you can hear me.” Anya walked over to the shoot near the dead body. Her father was always efficient. She knew there was a tunnel for them to dump these bodies out into the sea. Hitting the button for release, she grabbed the tray of tools beside it and jammed it into the shoot to keep it open. “I love you. Try not to be mad at me for too long.”

She knew where the explosives were. She knew where everything was because they hadn’t moved them since her accident. Everyone here was so arrogant. They didn’t believe for a second that their little golden princess would be the one to destroy everything from the inside out.

Bubbles appeared on the lens, and she knew Bitsy had let him through the channel to send one last message to her.

“Kalon, what are you going to do?”

Stalking out of the room, she reached for the axe that hung in a glass box in case of emergencies. It was so much heavier than she thought, and she had to drag it across the floor after her into the room of ammunitions.

The explosives were small silver balls, just like the ones that had damaged her hearing. But she knew these were meant to be lobbed into the sea where they would set off an explosive that was powerful enough to clear a field of at least one hundred undine.

That was the plan, at least. Her father had never had to use them, but he liked having weapons just in case. She ran her finger over the top of one and it lit up with numbers along the top. Bitsy helped, showing her exactly where to press to give her enough time to save the undines and get out.

Setting a timer for thirty minutes, she assumed that would be plenty of time. Besides, she only had to set one off. There were at least fifteen of them sitting next to each other. A single explosive would set off all the others until it became a massive bomb.

Heaving the axe up onto her shoulder, she stalked back into the room where the two living undines remained. “I’m getting them out. No matter what.”

36

Daios

Daios watched the life-sized projection with horror turning his blood ice cold.

Fortis hadn’t lied. The achromos had their hands on undines, and they were ripping them apart. Why? He had no idea. They likely would get no answers out of these monsters who thought nothing of killing just to discover answers about his people.

If anyone else was in that room, he would have told them to search more. He would have wanted an answer for why the bodies were just lying there like garbage. But it was Anya who stood looking at them. It was his woman who risked her life just being in that room with the others.

He shifted where he leaned against the moon pool, doing his best to not bump into Maketes, who was holding onto another ear piece that Mira had rigged up so he could contact Ace. His low murmur was distracting, but not enough for him to change what his real worry was.

“Byte,” he ground out. “Make a connection with Bitsy. I need to talk with Anya.”

Byte chirped out a disgruntled sound. “I cannot just do that. It is a great breach of privacy and considered to be highly rude amongst droids.”

“I do not care. Connect with her and force her to let me talk to Anya, or I will smash you into a hundred pieces that even Mira cannot fix.”

Mira gave him a dirty look at the threat, but it worked. Byte allowed a connection to go through.

“Kalon,” he said, his voice low and sharp. “What are you going to do?”

Arges shifted where he had braced himself inside the room. Already Arges’s scales were drying out, but he didn’t move from his place, staring at the projection alongside Daios. Anya was dragging something behind her, and her breathing was labored. What was she doing? She was going to hurt herself if she didn’t stop.

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