Page 21 of The Scattered Bones

Something seizes my ankle, and I jerk to a halt so violently that it throws my oblivion off. It disappears into the shadows with the school of fish, leaving me alone in the sudden cold. Panic floods my limbs as I realize just how deep I’ve fallen, just how loud The Stranger is screaming for me to wake up, but before I can angle for the surface, a second grip ensnares my wrist, a third wraps around my waist, and a fourth captures my thigh.

My vision snags on the writhing seaweed choking my skin, and pain blisters over my body as it constricts. I thrash against its hold, but its organic chains do not yield.

“Stop!” The Stranger’s voice registers in my head. “Stop moving!”

I freeze, my lungs screaming for air. My suffocating brain cannot comprehend why he’s begging me to surrender, but then I see it, and my veins flood with ice. A ripped sliver of seaweed floats past my vision, and my heart stills. I harmed one of Udens’ children.

A massive shadow moves to my right, and I strain against my bonds. I can’t control the fear rippling through me. I need to scream, to release what little air I hold into the darkness. But somehow, I manage to keep my lips clenched shut.

Tentacles thicker than my torso snake around a sunken building, and an enormous mass pulls itself from the shadows. Before the monster enters the dim light, movement below captures my attention. Crustaceans as large as rowboats crawl in hoards over one another, and this time, I do scream before I remember to clamp my mouth shut. My sight is burning, my body suffocating. I should open my mouth and swallow. I should drown before the massive tentacles suction my flesh from my bones because that monstrous beast moving closer is not one I want to face. It’s the stuff of nightmares, and my heart feels like it’ll explode from the fear pumping through my veins.

Neon colors fill my vision, and the school of fish that led me to my watery death swarm before my face. They’ve changed, though. Their faces are no longer the sweet creatures that flirted with me, but gaping mouths filled to the brim with needle-sharp fangs. There are hundreds of them. Thousands surround me, tasting the water as if to sample the flavor of my flesh. I twist against the seaweed as another arm of green wraps around my throat, and the sickly-colored fish close in. It was a trap. It was all so Udens’ children could feast on human flesh. I hate myself. He deserves a better rescue, for I am a fool. I say his name even though it releases the last of my air into the darkness. I say it so that I die with him on my lips.

The scene before me blurs, and my thought from earlier pricks my memory. Lovec and I are the same. That’s why he blessed me, claimed me, protected me. We’re both intimately acquainted with loss. But so is Udens. His children, his creations, were slaughtered so that mankind could rule the seas. He and I are not so different, and I force my limbs to go limp, my struggle to evaporate.

“Please,” I say in my mind because if I speak, the last of my oxygen will vacate my lungs. I stare at the hideously colored fish, the encroaching crustaceans, the behemoths with more tentacles than I can count. “Please,” I silently beg Udens as I surrender wholly to these monsters. “I just want him back.”

Nothing happens, and I hang my head, death closing in thick and oppressive. I won’t kill his children. I won’t harm the beasts Udens’ fought so hard to save. I understand him in that respect, and this is a battle I cannot win. Any harm I cause will do nothing to save my life.

I can no longer hold my breath, and I convulse, inhaling a lungful of water. I cough and choke, trying to expel the salt, but I only swallow more. Fear consumes me. Mine and The Stranger’s, and an odd emotion bleeds from him into my mind. The Stranger is afraid. He’s afraid to lose someone he cares for, and I silently extend my apology to him and to Kaid.I tried, my love, my heart, my husband. I’m sorry I failed you.

As my vision dulls, the colorful fish before me morph, my dying brain playing tricks on me. They pulse and vibrate, losing their color, and slowly they collide with one another, their flesh tearing open. The water churns bloody, slabs of carnage ripping free in a violent display of death, but as they shred apart, their bared muscles fuse together. It’s a terrifying sight to die to as they shed and mutilate, as their exposed sinews graft into fleshy, oozing strips. The water frenzies, air bubbles exploding in the chaos until a large one collides with my lips.

Oxygen floods my lungs as I swallow the bubble, a second slamming into me a moment later, followed by a third, a fourth, a fifth, until I am no longer filled with water but air. Glorious, beautiful air.

My vision clears, and the surrounding horde of monsters should frighten me, but they pale in comparison to what hovers inches from my face. It’s terrifying, but not the kind of terror that makes you scream. It’s an all-consuming fear that locks you within your body, and its power is deadly enough to still even the strongest heart.

The colorful fish have vanished, leaving the water bloody in their deformed wake, and in their place is the largest creature I’ve ever laid eyes upon. It resembles a shark, but it’s too massive to be one. His razor-sharp teeth are as long as my arms. Scars the length of my torso score his leathery face, and his eyes? They are almost completely white like The Strangers, but his irises have the faintest hint of green, much like Lovec’s were tinted blue, and I know who looms before me.

“Udens,” I say, out loud this time, and a bubble of air floats toward me to replace what I expelled. The hideous god stares at me, his mouth wide enough to capture me whole, and I’m not sure if he means to devour me or speak to me. None of the creatures move, but my heart pounds viciously.

After an eternity, Udens looks over my bare body to where the seaweed restrains me. He sees no weapons. He registers my position of surrender, my refusal to harm his children even though it almost cost me my life, and then with an unexpected speed that rips a scream from my mouth, he unhinges his bloodied jaw and lunges.

I brace for a pain that never comes. Feather-light caresses consume my body instead. I part my clenched eyelids and watch in wonder as Udens explodes back into the colorful fish, their fangs gone, their beauty returned with almost blinding perfection. The seaweed retracts, leaving purple bruises and red welts where it strangled me. The crustaceans crawl back beneath the silt as the tentacles return to the shadows, and the gorgeous fish swarm and dance and play around me. My body aching in more places than I can count, I angle for the center of the sunken city, and resume my swim.

The school accompanies me as I dive, no longer possessing me, but eager to help. Their tiny fins beat the water, and pockets of air float into my mouth so that I don’t drown. These aren’t fish. They are Udens. They are him when he’s at peace. When those he loves aren’t threatened, and I can’t resist touching him as I swim. My fingertips brush every fish I can, and they revel in the attention. He saves his monstrous form for his enemies, and I understand why Valka sunk his bones in the Vesi. Most wouldn’t surrender. Most would fight and slay and butcher. The water would run red with blood, but I know what it means to lose what you love most. Udens and I are alike. Perhaps I’m not godless because Kaid was right. Selfishness warped those in Szent, but these wild gods that few remember? The ones no one taught me about? They only want true devotion. The kind you give freely.

The pink fish twirls before my face, fins brushing my cheek in a kiss, and then I see it. A calf, foot to knee. What was once the city square before it sank now lies at the deepest part of the Vesi, and the ancient cobblestones are void of silt where his limb rests. I wouldn’t have survived this dive. It’s too deep and cold. My lungs would have burst, and as if reading my fear, the pink fish slaps his tail against my cheek, forcing an air bubble into my nose.

I smile as I run my fingers over his small body, and then I plunge. The depths are icy, the lack of light oppressive, but Udens swarms me, keeping me warm, and after a swim that has turned my muscles useless with exhaustion, I seize hold of his calf.

A soft cry of relief escapes me, and then I choke before Udens forces more air into my lungs. My lips clench shut as I throw the pink fish a thankful glance, and I hug his calf, kissing his dead skin in spite of the magic’s burn. Udens hovers protectively, his body heat keeping me warm, but the school falls still, granting me a private moment to process my emotions. I hold him against my chest until I can’t bear the sting, and then I nod to signal my readiness. In a tornado of color, the god of the sea whips into a frenzy and delivers me to the distant surface, the sun warming my cold skin as I crawl onto the steeple protruding from the waves. It’s a long swim back to shore, but I can’t find the will to care. Another piece of him is in my arms, and despite the colorful bruises on my body, I’m alive.

The school swirls around me while I catch my breath, and when my heart rate normalizes, they dive toward oblivion.

“Wait!” I yell, but they ignore me. They disappear into the depths, and it takes a moment for me to realize the pink fish still hovers in sight.

“Thank you,” I say, and I can tell by his eyes, he understands. “When my quest is complete, if I succeed, may we come back here?” I ask. “I want him to see you, to see this.”

The fish stares at me and then dives with no indication he heard my question. I sigh, disappointed until I hear that same voice as before. The one that urged me to chase the swarm.

“Yes.”

The Kiss

SEASON OF GROWTH, CYCLE 78920

Kaid did not return, and unlike his last absence, his fear of losing me wasn’t to blame. I sensed it in my bones. Something was wrong, and as each night passed without him appearing in my window, my dread grew until cold sweat coated my skin and uneasiness greased my stomach.

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