Gabrian took the left branch in the corridor, using magic to speed his pursuit. He was no longer worried that Malgore would sense him coming. Somehow Malgore already knew. Gabrian frowned, remembering the presence he’d felt watching them in Lashyla’s room and feeling certain now that it had been Malgore.
* * *
Lashyla and Aurelius reached the Launch. They passed through the terminal station and went straight down the corridor leading to the submarine; then they emerged from the corridor to find two trident-bearing guards on either side of the entrance to the submarine. Lashyla walked straight up to them, while Aurelius lagged a few steps behind, worried what their reactions would be upon seeing him—
alive.
But these two men hadn’t been in the Ring to watch him die, so weren’t aware of any irregularities.
“Beauteous princess,” one guard said, bowing. “To what do we owe the honor of this visit?”
“I would like to take a trip to shore.”
The guard’s eyes flicked sideways to Aurelius. “Of course, princess. . . . you will be taking this . . .
man
with you?” It was not customary to take vestals or mates on such trips.
“Yes, and I need you to tell no one about it.”
The guard innocently raised his bushy black eyebrows. “Whom would we tell?”
Lashyla reached for his hand and placed the string of pearls in it. “No one.”
The guard stared at the glittering fortune in his hand and nodded mutely as she brushed by him. As she reached the other guard, she said, “Half of those pearls are yours, to guarantee your silence as well.” The other guard went to join his fellow in staring at their windfall, while Aurelius caught up to Lashyla and began climbing up the ladder to the top hatch of the submarine. At the hatch Aurelius turned and spoke down to the guards.
“We’re expecting someone. An old man. When you see him, let him aboard.”
The guards gave no acknowledgement, and just stared blankly up at Aurelius. Then Lashyla spoke, “You heard him. Do as he says.”
At this they nodded, and Aurelius frowned.
They descended the ladder into the submarine, and Lashyla made her way to the cockpit. Aurelius marveled at the interior of the ship. Though it was old, and no doubt barely maintained, the inner workings and design of the vessel were very familiar. Aurelius felt like he’d just stepped through a portal back into his time. Only Lashyla’s presence reminded him of where he really was. He watched her sit down in the captain’s chair and begin flicking switches, checking gauges and digital displays as they came to life. Again, Aurelius marveled at the ship. After thousands of years it was still working perfectly. The power source
had
to be nearing depletion.
Aurelius watched with a frown as Lashyla performed what amounted to a preflight check. He realized that with her knowledge of the submarine’s workings she wouldn’t be far off from being able to operate his own spacecraft. He filed that fact away as a reminder to be careful.
After about ten minutes, Lashyla turned to him, but her gaze quickly wandered over his shoulder, and her eyes abruptly widened.
“Let’s go,” came a gravelly voice just beside Aurelius’s ear. He jumped with fright and spun to face the intruder.
“Gabrian?” Aurelius asked in astonishment.
The old man smiled and produced a glowing orb in one hand. “I was successful.”
“That was fast,” Aurelius said.
“I managed to steal the relic while Malgore wasn’t looking, but I think he is close behind. We should go now, while we still can.”
Lashyla nodded. “Sit down. We will leave immediately.”
Gabrian sat down in one of the chairs behind the captain’s station, and Aurelius turned to watch Lashyla’s fingers fly over the controls. He marvelled again at how she knew to operate the submarine. Nothing about Lashyla suggested her seemingly impossible youth. As the submarine’s engines came on line with a rising hum and the ship began to sink, Aurelius turned to address Gabrian.
“How did you do it?”
“Hmmm?”
“Steal the relic. Did you have to fight him for it?”
“No, no, I found where he’d hidden it, took it, and ran.”
“Oh?”
“Yes,” Gabrian turned to him with a smile. “Quite simple, wasn’t it?” Aurelius nodded and Gabrian went on, “It would seem fate is with us for a change.”
“Seems like . . .” Aurelius agreed, turning back to the fore to watch their exit from the city. It was barely a moment later that he heard the old man shout out his name,
“Aurelius!” b
ut the word echoed strangely, and Lashyla didn’t react to it, so Aurelius turned back to Gabrian and whispered, “Did you
say
something?”
The old man cocked his head and his face took on a bemused look. “Say something?”
Then it came again:
“Aurelius, you are in great danger!”
“I heard you say my name, and now you said I’m in danger.”
Gabrian’s eyes widened fractionally, then narrowed to their regular aperture as understanding dawned. “Sorry . . .” He began whispering in his strange language, and now it was Aurelius’s turn to be confused.
“What was that?”
“What was what?” Gabrian asked innocently.
“That gibberish.”
“Oh nothing, just a spell to protect us from pursuit.”
“From Malgore . . .” Aurelius clarified.
Gabrian nodded. “Yes.”
“And the rest? Why did you say I’m in great danger?”
Gabrian opened his mouth to say something, then appeared to think better of it, and rather gestured to Lashyla. Again a voice echoed between Aurelius’s thoughts, but this time the tone was slightly different:
“She will try to stop you from returning to your time.”
Aurelius’s eyes widened, and he nodded slowly. When he looked back to the fore, he saw that they were now moving out beneath the city, cruising over a colorful band of glowing purple seaweed as they angled out into the dark, fathomless depths of the Misty Sea. Soon Aurelius would be home, back in his time at last. . . .
* * *
Gabrian arrived at the Launch just in time to see the conning tower of the submarine sink below the waterline. He ran for it. A pair of guards moved to stop him, their expressions clouding with confusion. One guard turned to look over his shoulder at the sinking submarine. He turned back with a bemused look. “Didn’t you just climb aboard?”
“That wasn’t me! Let me by!” Gabrian tried to push past them, but the other guard pushed him back with a frown. “It’s too late. Whatever business you had with them will have to wait for their return. Who are you?”
“I’m Gabrian! MOVE,” the old man thundered.
The two guards stepped aside as if forced apart by a giant pair of hands. They made no effort to stop him as he ran up to the water’s edge. Gabrian spent an anxious moment watching the submarine sink into the deep. He considered diving in after it, but he could see no way to climb aboard. Instead he whispered a spell to establish contact with Aurelius.
“Aurelius!”
he screamed telepathically. He felt the texture of the boy’s thoughts change in reaction to the intrusion.
“Aurelius! You are in great danger!”
Again the boy reacted, but he reacted with confusion.
“That is Malgore with you, not me!”
This time he felt his words hit a wall, and there was no reaction from Aurelius. Malgore was blocking him! He tried again, this time with a counter spell. . . . But he heard laughter echo back, followed by a reply:
“The boy is mine now, Gabrian.”
Gabrian grimaced. It was no use. Malgore was exerting every bit of his considerable power into shielding Aurelius from any contact. He would need to give chase . . . but how? There was just the one way in or out of Meria. To get in to Meria, he, Gabrian, had dropped from the sky and swum down, using magic to protect his body from the crushing weight of the water. Getting in was one thing, but he couldn’t very well swim out without half of the mermaids in Meria following him, and out-swimming a mermaid, even with the aid of magic, would be very difficult indeed.
But then how had Malgore and Aurelius arrived in Meria? Gabrian recalled Captain Dagrell and his crew, and he thought he had the answer, but if he was right, he'd need help.
Turning away from the Launch with an irritated sigh, Gabrian stalked past the guards. When he was halfway across the terminal and out of sight, he released the guards from his control.
Gabrian used magic to speed his steps as he hurried back through the winding corridors of the city. With luck, most of the city’s population would still be gathered in the Ring watching the challenges. That would make what he had to do easier.
Gabrian reached the prison level and whispered a spell to get past the lowly guardsman standing in for the warden. He used magic to guide his steps to the appropriate cell, and here he stopped.
“
Abrea!
” he said, no longer bothering to whisper. The cell door flew open with a
clang!
In the darkness of the cell a pair of wild emerald eyes snapped open.
“Reven, I need your help,” Gabrian said.
His only answer was a low growl.
“Show me to the vessel which brought you to Meria, help me to escape, and you will walk free.”
A giant black wolf seeped out of the shadows. His dark coat glistened in the dim coral light. In places that coat was dull and ruffled—matted with blood. The beast walked straight up to Gabrian and sniffed him suspiciously. He gave a sudden snort as if Gabrian’s scent offended him, but he padded out of his cell without complaint. A moment later he stood on hind legs and the air shimmered as he changed form. Now a large, hairy naked man, Reven turned to Gabrian, “The ship was badly damaged coming here. It may not take us back.”
“I will worry about that.”
“We will need trolls to drive it.”
Gabrian went to the cell beside Reven’s and spoke the word to open Esephalia’s cell. Once the elf was standing before him, she said, “The challenges are almost over; we don’t have long.”
Gabrian nodded and together they ran back the way he’d come. Halfway up the stairwell they filed out into a higher-ceilinged level. Here the cells were larger, and the smell of filth was much stronger. Gruff, barking voices and loud roaring filled the air. Over and above the hubbub they heard Gral shouting: “Shut mouth! Or Gral rip head off!”
Gabrian stopped in front of Gral’s cell. The giant troll had the cell bars gripped in his mighty fists; some of the bars were slightly bent where he’d tested his strength against them. When Gral noticed the puny humans standing just out of reach in the corridor beyond his cell he gave a feral grin and asked, “What little wolfy and elfy doing out of cage? Bad, bad wolfy and elfy. . . . Going to get punished.”
“Gral,” Gabrian said. “We need your help.”
The troll’s grin faded. “Gral not help you! Where you when Gral need help?” He rattled his cell door loudly for emphasis.
Gabrian sighed. “I couldn’t help you before. Now I can. Do you want help or not?” When dealing with trolls, simple logic was best. There was no use explaining to him that it had been Malgore not he, Gabrian, who had failed to help him.
The monster’s yellow eyes narrowed to slits. “You help Gral?”
“That’s what I said.”
“How?”
“We’re going to escape and take you with us.”
“Leave smelly fish caves?”
“That’s right.”
Gral nodded. “Then Gral help you.”
“Abrea!” Gabrian said, gesturing with his staff. The cell door flew open, and Gral jumped back, his eyes wide with shock.
“How you do that?” Gral asked in a quavering voice. He eyed the cell door as he crept out, half expecting it to shut itself on him.
“Magic.”
“Mahic. . .” Gral marveled, nodding slowly.
Once they were safely away from the prison levels, Gabrian stopped and deferred to Reven. “You know the way.” Reven took the lead, guiding them down one corridor after another. They had to stick to the broader passageways, so that Gral could follow.
On their way out they accidentally crossed the wide corridor leading to the entrance of the Ring. The challenges now over, and the whole population of Meria was slowly filing out of the stadium. A few caught sight of Gral and exclaimed. The exclamations rose and rippled back through the milling crowds.
“Hurry!” Gabrian said, pouring on a new burst of speed.
“Stop in the name of the queen!”
Gabrian saw the elf woman glance over her shoulder. She turned back with a grimace.
“How many?” Gabrian asked her.
“One maiden and a few dozen men.”
Just as she finished speaking, a trident whirred past Gabrian’s ear and went clattering across the deck between Gral and Reven. Gabrian whispered a protective spell, and the next trident slammed into an invisible wall with a bright flash of light, drawing gasps and exclamations from their pursuers.
“This way!” Reven called, suddenly changing course as the corridor branched. Between Gral’s long, leaping stride, Reven’s natural stamina and speed, and Gabrian’s and Esephalia’s own speed and stamina magically augmented, they managed to put some distance between themselves and their pursuers. They reached the late Captain Dagrell’s submersible with half a minute to spare.
Gabrian rushed for the top hatch and noticed that the troll was following him unthinkingly. “No, Gral! Go to the back! We need you to drive the ship.”
The troll’s only objection was to roar, but then he stomped off toward the aft of the vessel.
Gabrian was last to begin climbing down the narrow ladder into the submersible, and he saw their pursuers come running with shouts of, “There they are!” followed by the clang and clatter of tridents raining down on the hull in a hail all around him. Gabrian held out his staff to redirect those deadly spears, forcing them off target. When nearly all their weapons had been thrown, Gabrian disappeared into the conning tower, shutting and locking the hatch behind him.
A moment later they heard insistent banging on the hatch and muffled shouts for them to open up. Gabrian gestured for Reven to go aft. “Gral will need your help to turn the rotors.”
Reven went off without a word, being careful not to bump his head on the low ceilings. Gabrian and Esephalia went to the cockpit and Gabrian spent a moment studying the mechanical levers which would steer the ship. He frowned briefly at the cracked glass and the few inches of water on the floor, then turned to Esephalia. “I will need your help to hold this ship together.”