Page 29 of Call of the Fathoms

The one he caught was so tiny in his hands, barely useful at all. He couldn’t imagine that this amount would do much to her. Still, he depressed the end and let whatever was within the small plastic container float into the sea. With a deep breath, he inhaled some of it into his gills and instantly knew this was a potent dose of whatever drug it was.

Within an instant, he could feel it working. It flowed through his body and made him almost numb. The medication seeped emotion from his being until he could only think without emotion and without an ounce of the heart that had guidedhim his entire life. His connection to the sea was severed immediately. No wonder the soldiers from Tau were so good at what they did, other than the fools who had brought him into the city itself.

Usually, they were tactful. They took their time seeking their opponents, and they fought with precision. Like she did, in a sense. But he could sense her anger that sometimes got the better of her, and also a need to be the best at what she was doing.

This drug was stronger than it should need to be, he realized. If he was feeling even an ounce of it at his size, at five times her weight, if not significantly more than that, then this should have knocked her out completely. But it hadn’t.

She’d been taking it a long time, he remembered. Since she was little more than a child. These people had been creating children, drugging them into oblivion, and then training them to be soldiers who did what they were told without asking why.

Horror made all of his fins flare wide. He hated that he was pitying this woman, but... Then he remembered the next part of his wife’s prophecy.

“From the silver beast, you will find your salvation.”

He wasn’t certain if he’d done that so far. But there were more of Alexia’s memories to tear into, more of her lived experiences to decipher. But first, he had to win her trust. Which meant he had to at least pretend to like her.

Sighing, he dropped the last needle into the abyss. Fortis didn’t want to pretend to like her. He already respected her, and that was far too much emotion for one of her kind. He should just kill her and be done with it.

But some part of him didn’t want her to die. Not unless she was fighting him to the bitter end.

The sea coiled around him, and he could feel the pressure of a vision sent by the goddess. It was the same one his wife had seen.The same one that he’d learned to live with. A cold metal table beneath his back. Dark eyes and dark hair leaning over him, and the numbing sensation of death curling around his body.

Was it her? Was she the one who was going to kill him?

Visions were rarely so clear, but as the sea gave him the same vision he’d seen throughout many years of his life, he realized... it was her. She was the one who was going to kill him, and he had finally reached the end of his story.

Breathing out, he allowed that knowledge to seep underneath his scales. Soon, he would die. She would be the one to wield whatever ended him, and with that came some sense of peace. He’d fought a long time to get here. And now? Now he knew the end was soon.

Flicking his tail, he darted through the water back to her ship. She would not kill him today, he didn’t think. There was still time for him to gather all the information he needed. Still, he hoped one of his people would find them soon so he could share what he’d learned thus far. Just in case.

The ship’s lights were dimmer than they were before. He’d placed her batteries not far from the wreckage, but somewhere she would never see they were hiding. At least he knew she wouldn’t get to them without his interference. Her power levels didn’t allow her to do much other than stay where he had put her.

But as he got closer this time, he could see the opening into her ship was still... open. She should have closed that when he left. But she didn’t. What game was she playing here? Did she want him to come back inside after he’d stolen all the medicine that she clung so desperately to?

Frowning, he circled the bottom of her ship. Small metal poles attached to the ship gave him just enough room to get underneath it, but this all felt like a trap.

She was too good of a warrior to leave an opening without a plan.

Narrowing his gaze, he listened for any movement within the ship. Nothing. Not even the faintest scrape of a foot on the metal. Had she been foolish enough to leave? He wouldn’t put it past her. She was determined to save herself, but she hadn’t done it in the many days that she’d been down here so far. Why now?

Or she was waiting within, expecting him to come look for her. And she would bludgeon him to death in the small space.

Picking up a rock, he tossed it up into the ship and waited to see if anything would move. Some part of him hoped he had hit her, and yet, no sound. Nothing to give away that she was inside or not.

“She wouldn’t be so stupid,” he muttered, but he also wasn’t certain that was right. She might be that stupid.

She was reckless about her own safety. That much he knew. He’d already seen her throw herself into the water after him.

Carefully, he poked his head through the hole and into the ship. He surveyed the room, but there wasn’t a lot to see. The crates were all neatly stacked from where she had knocked them over. The chair was still turned the way he had left it after grabbing her medication. But it was darker, like she’d turned more of the lights off to preserve even more energy.

No woman, though.

“Alexia?” he called out, coming farther out of the water. Bracing his elbows on the floor, he peered around the crates as though she might be hiding there. No woman. Maybe she had left.

Then he made the mistake of going just a bit more into the room. With his hips braced on the floor, Fortis realized that he hadn’t looked behind him. He didn’t have a reason to because the door had been closed to preserve heat, and had remained closed for the past week.

Or so he thought.

The weight of her struck his back so hard he struck his chin on the floor. Then a sting erupted in his right hip fin. When he tried to turn, he realized it wasn’t as easy as it should be. Looking down, he realized she’d fired a rivet through his fin and through the metal floor. That would puncture a leak in her ship. Didn’t she realize that?

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