Fenturi Fate (Spacestalker Saga Book 1) (30 page)

“Welcome, welcome,” Aranthe said in a surprisingly deep tone at odds with his slight frame.
His voice seemed almost garbled, as if they heard him speaking under water.
As one, they stared at him in fascination while he stared back.

Aranthe looked first at the twins, nodding to himself.
Then he turned his black eyes on Dare and smiled.
She smiled back, and the Ocaian beamed brighter.
When he t
urned his head to see Ren, the male’s limp white hair parted to show the slits in his neck. Gills for  breathing underwater.

Aranthe cackled. “You’re all Fenturi.
Hate the water, eh?”

Ren didn’t know what to say when Aranthe suddenly pounced on him with the speed of a stalker cat.

Unable to do react in time, Ren found himself caught in the Ocaian’s steely grip as Aranthe plunged them both into a dark blue pool of water to Ren’s immediate left.

Ren heard the startled voices of the twins and Dare above him, but then the water rushed over him,
through
him.
He tried to hold his breath, but his struggles with Aranthe only furthered his need for breathable air.
Soon his resistance ceased, and he found himself staring helplessly at Aranthe as the man dragged him through the water with preternatural speed.

Then Aranthe changed in front of his eyes.

By the Dark World, I am in so much trouble…

“What is this place?” Ren asked.
His words flew through the water, sounding strangely garbled but easily understood.
The lack of air didn’t bother him, and Ren didn’t understand how he could still be alive without air for so long.

After the odd man had nearly drowned him, Ren floated in suspension and stared in fascination as the peculiar Ocaian who’d changed into something even stranger.

The man now had long black hair that floated about his head like waterweed.
His skin had turned a dark blue and seemed almost scaly.
Gills flared at his neck, absorbing the air Ren should have needed, but somehow didn’t.

“You’re alive and well,
Marithynos
.”
Aranthe grinned, exposing sharp white teeth.
“As are the others.”

“
Marithynos
?”
Ren remembered what Myla had said.
“You think I can tell you where the Thrax is?
Look, Aranthe, Myla and Methan both said you were the only one who knew where it was.
And damn it, why aren’t my words bubbling?
How am I breathing?” This unnatural state of was a source of distraction, for sure.

Even worse, Ren felt Dare’s worry for him.
Yet h
er fears for his safety made him feel better, as did Aranthe’s amusement.
The black-eyed stare of the Ocaian reminded him of Jace’s eyes, and Ren felt less concerned about his welfare.

“Relax,
Marithynos
.
Naught can harm you here.” Aranthe swam further down, motioning Ren to follow him.

Not understanding how he could see in the black waters around him, let alone understand Aranthe, Ren swam after him awkwardly, seeking answers.

They swam several more feet until they rounded a bend, and the water became a large pool once more. Ren broke through the surface to breathe in cool air, but Aranthe continued on, gliding through the water.
Gracefully undulating, Aranthe moved with real swiftness.

Though he still possessed a human-like form, his hands and feet now appeared webbed, easing his movements.
Ren struggled to keep up and felt himself straining until he finally reached Aranthe’s side.

“Here we are.” Aranthe pointed to the mouth of a cave large enough to accommodate Ren but not so large as to house anything larger than a full-grown Fenturi.

“You are supposed to be here.
The water welcomes you.”
Aranthe nodded.
“Because you are meant to find it, you are not bothered by the conditions around you.
Your friends, I fear, would not fare too well down here.
I’m sorry I jumped you when I did, but I feared you would not have believed me otherwise.
Fenturi hate the water,” Aranthe whispered, as if he didn’t want the water to hear.

“The water accepts me?
You speak as if it’s alive.” He still had trouble believing he was this
Marithynos
person. Now he knew how Dare felt about being the Mari.

Aranthe chuckled.
“The water is not alive; the Thrax is.
It’s the Thrax that wants you to find it.
I don’t know why or how it works, but only the
Marithynos
has the ability to withstand anything in his quest to find the weapon.”

“And I’m the
Marithynos.
” Ren still didn’t fully comprehend this new twist.

“Apparently, yes.
I was told eight hundred fifty years ago, exactly to this day, to guard the Thrax.
I would not be allowed to show its location to anyone save the being accompanied by the mirror men and the blue woman.”

“Mirror men?
Blue woman?
What are you talking about?”

“Look up.” Aranthe murmured under his breath, and Ren suddenly saw his three companions looking down at him through a hole of water in the rock ceiling above.
How this could be so considering the distance and turns they’d traveled, Ren didn’t know.
Nesh and Ned looked exactly alike, so “mirror men” fit.

“Dare?”
She stared down at the water in concern, her body encased in a blue glow he’d never noticed before.

  “That is how I see you,” Aranthe said, a flash of a glimmer in his otherwise flat black eyes.
“I’m Wyrn, one of the Ocaian water folk.”
He waved at the image above them, and it disappeared.

“Long ago, in the time before the Horde, a Nexian, an Ocaian and a Fentran met to design something that would shape our destinies.
The Motherworld at that time was small, just three planets.
There were few Nearworlds, no System and no Legion patrolling anything.

“Well, the three creators for some odd reason designed the Thrax.
A Nexian gave the machine its structure. The Ocaian gave it water’s breath, and the Fenturi gave it life.
The Thrax, when all is said and done, is alive,” Aranthe whispered with reverence.

“
Alive?
”

“Yes.
I’ve thought about it throughout the years, and I suppose it was always meant to be.
But it came from our hearts. Methan actually designed it.
He’s a genius, but the design of the Thrax, once completed, baffled him.
In the time since, he’s never been able to recreate it.

“My grandfather Nerine bathed the Thrax in the eye of Necre, and so the Thrax got a taste for water’s breath.
I’ve heard the Thrax moves through space like it glides through water, gracefully and with ease.

“It’s funny, but as grandfather bathed the ship in the storm’s waters, he said it felt as if the Motherworlds had given birth.
Perhaps not so odd once the Fentran had her way with it.
The little Fenturi that powered the great machine looked on it with awe.
I swear on the hold of Isus that her heart filled the energy hold and powered the great beast.”

Aranthe’s words painted a vivid picture in Ren’s mind, and as he thought about the Thrax, a sudden humming filled his ears with song.

He looked into the cave and saw the Thrax with startling clarity. He turned to his companion. “Do you see that?”

Aranthe shook his head. “It is not for me to see, but I feel it
in there.
You have found it, but y
ou need the Mari to power it.
This is the hard part, Garen.”
Aranthe shrugged his apology, then explained what needed to be done.

***

Nesh cursed in Fenturi and Bylaran.

“What can we do?”
Ned frowned.
They both turned to Dare, as if she had the answers.

She looked around her but felt lost to do anything.
As if Aranthe and Ren had never been in the room, the corner pool didn’t so much as ripple.
She leaned over the dark blue water and looked down but could see nothing, not even with her keen eyesight.

Then she heard something.

“Listen,” she ordered and motioned them closer.
“I can’t see anything, but I hear noise.”

“It sounds garbled.” Nesh leaned closer.

Ned hesitantly put his hand in the water.
Like Dare, he didn’t seem to like the feel of water on his skin.
The Fenturi disdained water.
Limber and strong on land, when it came to water they could barely manage to float.

“It sounds like Ren,” Dare said in amazement.
Her startled blue eyes met Nesham’s as they all stilled and listened.

“He’s been down there a long time.
Are we sure—” Nesh began.

“—he’s still alive?” Ned finished.

Dare nodded.
“I can feel it.
Besides, I don’t think Aranthe would let anything happen to him.
Remember, Methan and Myla both sent us here to him.”

Just then Ren’s head broke the surface, followed by a very different Aranthe.
Ren laughed and shook his hair out of his eyes.
Water flew everywhere, and the twins cursed.
Dare frowned, yet she loved hearing him laugh. From what she could see he appeared uninjured, but that laugh eased her tension away.

“Dare.” Ren paused and glanced at Aranthe.

“The
Marithynos
has found the Thrax,” Aranthe said.
“But only you can power it.”

Dare looked back at them blankly, not understanding.

Ren blew out a breath. “Dare, I need to take you down with me to power it up.”

“Okay, I think.” Dare looked down at the dark blue water.
It reminded her of the inky blackness of the Dark World voids, and she shivered as she stared into it.
“So who’s the
Marithynos
?” she asked, still trying to figure out a way to avoid traveling through the water without appearing deathly afraid of drowning.

“I am.” Ren grinned, and Dare wondered what he found so amusing.
Even Ren disliked water, or so the twins had told her.
“We can do this. It’s you and me. Remember what your mother did to you to protect you from harm all those years past?
Remember Myla’s vision?”

Her mother had given her the protection of a blue aura around her body.
“Of course, Blue Starfire.”

“Starfire works both as a protection and as a weapon for the one who wields it,” he explained to both Aranthe and the twins.
“Do it, Dare.
Nesh, Ned, you need to take the ship back to Bylar.
We have only a few more days left, and the more I think on it, the more help I believe you’ll be to Zebram and his dealings with the Fenturi.”

Half-blood Fenturi warriors would help bridge the Bylaran/Fenturi gap easier than a contingent of Bylaran Legionnaires would.
And the Goddess knew, Stalkers would surely be a help against the Ragil Horde.

Nesh nodded. “We will do—”

“—what we can,” Nesh finished. “Luck of the Goddess to you—”

“—both.” Then the twins left without looking back.

“Aranthe?” Dare asked once they’d left.
“What exactly
are
the Horde?
Are they more man than beast, like the legends say?”

“I don’t rightly know.
The Horde War occurred while I was working in an alternate universe.
But I do
recall a passage from an old text I once read.
The Horde
were thought to be escapees from Dark World, due to their demon-like appearance.
But they can be killed, this we know. They were killed a thousand years ago.

“Without the Thrax though, we’re doomed. A few blasts from their main battle vessel can destroy whole planets.
It ravaged Bylar’s homeworld and destroyed Xon, once a peaceful planet in the Outworlds.
Now, Mari, complete your journey.
I’ll guide you both to the ship, but then I must leave you.”

He gestured her to join them in the water. To Dare’s embarrassment, she couldn’t make herself move any closer to the pool.
She focused on her breathing. She’d never before submerged in water.
On Kre, Dare had bathed in the shallow ends of the green lakes, forced to deal with the slimy feeling of water over her skin.
But to go under…

“Dare?” Ren said quietly.
He seemed to float without Aranthe’s assistance, which she found astonishing.
“I’ll protect you.
Use the Starfire.”

His assuredness buoyed her courage.
She
recalled her mother’s words and encased her body in Starfire.
Then she bent and seated herself at the ledge of the pool.
She put her legs in the water, and to her amazement she didn’t feel the cold water against her skin.
Though she could see it plastering her trousers to her legs, she felt nothing but warmth.

Ren tugged the rest of the way in, and she moved to him willingly.
But when he hugged her to him and submerged, she tensed.
Aranthe handed a short cord to Ren and said something to him.
But underwater, Dare couldn’t make out his words.
Like before, she heard murmurings but could not understand.

Ren seemed to have no problem. He nodded to Aranthe, and soon they glided after him through the water like a piece of silk through air.