Page 48 of Heart of the Deep

“I got it,” she said. After hours in the water, her body felt as heavy as lead but as unstable as jelly, while her head felt like it floated in an unseen current.

With a frown, Dracchus lowered his arms and backed away, keeping his amber eyes upon her.

Larkin took a deep breath. She’d been carried back into Fort Culver only once, despite dozens of injuries over her time as a ranger, and the circumstances of that occasion had been far worse than this. Dracchus had already carried her enough. Gritting her teeth, she straightened, grateful for the waist-high handrail along the wall.

“Then come, female,” he said, not unkindly, and ducked through the interior doorway.

She forced her legs to move and followed him into a long corridor, which looked to be in excellent condition despite the bits of seaweed, sand, and other debris along the floor. Though this space was larger than the walkway between the brig’s cages, Dracchus seemed to fill it completely.

“So, you really live here?” she asked, peering into dark rooms through open doorways. “A place made by humans?”

He glanced at her over his shoulder. “It is fitting that we live in the place where our kind was created.”

Larkin’s steps faltered. “What? What do you meancreated?”

Dracchus turned to face her, hands at the ready, but he didn’t reach for her. “My kind were created by humans long ago. Arkon can explain more, in terms beyond my understanding. But we should not delay here long.”

She frowned; her mind was still mulling over what he’d just said, but the warning in his tone couldn’t be ignored. “Why shouldn’t we delay?”

“Because some of my kind are not friendly to humans. Neo is especially hostile, after his time on your ship.”

Larkin scowled. “The one that tried to drown me.”

Dracchus nodded. “I will break him if he lays hands upon you again,” he said, and Larkin’s heart gave a funny little leap, “but I would rather avoid him altogether. You and I are in need of rest, and you’ll want to see Randall.”

“You’re taking me to him now?”

“Is that not what I told you I would do?”

“Yes! Let’s go then.” She flicked her hands, urging him onward.

He tilted his head, eyes dipping to her gesture, but he turned and continued on without comment.

Reinvigorated by the thought of seeing her brother, Larkin walked beside Dracchus. Her aches were temporarily relegated to the far reaches of her awareness, each step a bit easier than the one before it. They turned down a few intersecting corridors.

Even in her excitement, she picked out visual inconsistencies to use as markers in her mental map — a spot where something claw-like had scraped away the paint; a dim light in a hallway, third from the end; a missing section of grating in the floor grooves.

One of the turns lead them into a tunnel that was glass on all sides, allowing her to stare out into the ocean; all she could see were the other buildings, bathed in their artificial light, but her mind summoned images of cerulean water lit from overhead by the midday sun.

“This place is amazing,” she said, trailing her fingertips over the glass.

The entryway at the far end of the tunnel was markedCABINS; they passed through it and into another long hallway. Its contours were smoother, softer, and more comforting than the hallways before the tunnel. Doors lined both sides, identical to one another save for the numbers on their faces — odds on the left and evens on the right.

Dracchus led her through two similar hallways before finally stopping in front of a door. Anticipation and anxiousness filled her. He raised a hand, but Larkin caught his arm before he could knock. Frowning, he looked down at her.

“Do you think he’ll be happy to see me?” she asked quietly.

What if her coming here changed things for him? Dracchus had said Randall was happy here, and what if she disrupted the new life he’d made?

“He will be happy to see you.” The confidence with which he spoke eased her nerves.

After so long apart, after traveling so far and going through so much hardship just to learn if he were alive or dead, how could she be nervous to see her brother? Randall was her only true friend. The only family she had left, besides her father.

She released Dracchus’s wrist and stepped back.

Dracchus banged his fist on the door three times in quick succession, producing three dullthunks; there were doors in Fort Culver that made a similar sound when struck. Her father sometimes called them blast doors.

Were these strong enough to keep kraken out, or could Dracchus force his way through if he wanted to?

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