The thought of his own death didn't move Silus in any way. In fact, he was so exhausted, so drained by grief and worn down by fear that he found it difficult to feel anything.
"Gods, what am I?"
"Let me show you."
Belck ushered Silus into a wide corridor. Stone arches covered with molluscs stretched away into the gloom, while the floor was slick with rotting seaweed. The walls were decorated with murals depicting, for the most part, the Chadassa battling the Calma. Whatever artist had carved these reliefs clearly delighted in cruelty, for the most intricately worked parts of the stone were the scenes depicting slaughter.
Other reliefs were more simple, portraying nothing more complicated than a vast black disk.
"Is that...?"
"The Great Ocean, yes. The father of the Chadassa. It is to His infinite waters that we shall soon return, when the time of the Great Flood is finally brought about and all reality is changed."
"What exactly is the Great Ocean?"
"I have told you, it is our creator, our god."
"And what is the Great Flood?"
"It is the time when the Great Ocean will change all reality so that it will be as the Great Ocean. Then we will swim together, forever in His infinite waters."
"You don't actually know what that really means though, do you Belck?" Silus said. "You sound like a member of the Faith, blindly following their god wherever they are told, even if they don't understand why."
Another Chadassa passed them and raised a hand to Belck in greeting. "The Great Flood be upon us," the creature said.
"I... I... yes, the Flood," Belck stammered, clearly thrown by Silus's interrogation.
Recovering himself, Belck gripped Silus by the shoulder and marched him into a room that was bathed in the diffuse light of the sea. Only a thin, translucent membrane separated them from the water beyond.
"Now, Silus, behold your natural habitat. We drained the rooms you passed through so that the shock of the water would be lessened, but you, like us, can breathe water. I will show you how."
With his hand on the small of Silus's back, Belck pushed him through the membrane and out into the sea.
As the chill water gripped him, Silus instinctively closed his eyes and started to struggle for the surface.
Belck, however, held him firm.
Be still
, his voice came.
Open your eyes.
Silus had expected the sting of salt water, but he could see clearly and without pain.
Now, breathe
.
Silus shook his head and tried to kick away from the Chadassa again, but he couldn't move.
Breathe, Silus
.
Silus looked up and realised that he couldn't see the surface. Even if Belck let him go, he would drown before he could reach air.
After a moment it became clear that he had no option but to take a breath. As water filled his lungs, he fought panic. Even though he had prepared himself for death, when he was faced with its inevitability he still railed against it. He struggled against Belck as his chest tightened with the coldness of the water that was now inside him, but the Chadassa's grip remained firm.
This is what you are, Silus. This is what the Chadassa have made you.
Why had this creature gone to so much trouble to capture him only to bring him out here to drown? But then Silus was startled to realise that the water wasn't choking him, that the cold sensation of the sea moving in and out of his lungs was easing, that, in fact, he was breathing the sea as easily as if it were air.
What is this?
This is what we have been trying to tell you all this time,
Belck said, releasing his hold.
You are no ordinary human
.
He truly was the son of the Chadassa. With the despair this brought, however, there was still a rush of excitement at the abilities that had been revealed to him.
Come
, Belck said, swimming away from him,
let us experience the joys of the ocean together
.
Belck was rapidly dwindling from view now and Silus didn't think that he'd be able to catch him up, but then he sprang from the seabed. The weight of the water between him and the surface was vast, but he cut through it rapidly, revelling in the sensation of it rushing against his body, taking great lungfuls of the sea, feeling its invigorating power as it filled him.
As he spiralled up through the depths a school of dolphins surrounded him, calling to him with clicks and whistles. Beneath their chattering language, Silus could hear their true song. The song that was at the core of their existence, all existence. The song that Kelos had taught him to hear. Above him, Silus could even hear the song of Belck. It was a discordant and jagged tune, one that didn't belong in the great symphony that played here beneath the waves.
Silus began to close on the Chadassa. The soft glow of Kerberos was beginning to penetrate the water and life was more abundant this close to the surface. A great, roiling mass of glittering gemfish shattered as he powered through them.
Silus broke the surface and spray surrounded him like a multitude of glistening jewels. Contained within each individual droplet he could see the azure glow of Kerberos. Ahead of him Belck re-entered the water and Silus followed in his wake. He overtook the Chadassa, swimming down amongst the shafts of sunlight. One of these caught the edge of an arch of stone and, his curiosity piqued, Silus swam towards it.
The great bow of volcanic rock rose from the seabed far below and Silus followed its curve down. Belck caught up with him and swam alongside.
Let me show you what it is to know the Great Ocean, Silus
.
Belck overtook him and Silus followed.
They swam for a long time. Finally, as the pressures of the deep began to make Silus's bones ache they arrived at the base of the arch. Even here, however, they didn't rest. Instead, Belck led Silus over the lip of a canyon and into a darkness more absolute than anything he had experienced before.
Belck reached out and took his hand. Silus didn't resist, even though he found the touch of the creature repellent. He was too afraid of being lost in the infinite darkness to let go.
He is the Great Ocean. He will come again
, Belck began to chant.
As the Chadassa's mantra filled Silus's mind he sensed the walls of the canyon fall completely away.
Nothing surrounded them now. Silus couldn't even feel the water against his skin.
Now,
Belck said.
Witness his coming
.
The Chadassa sent out his consciousness into the darkness, yet there was no response. Silus could feel Belck straining to make contact with his God.
He is the Great Ocean. He will come again
.
The chant sounded more urgent this time, as though Belck was pleading.
After what seemed like a long time, it became obvious that the Chadassa's god was not going to grace them with its presence.
The doubt and anxiety that Silus had sensed in Belck earlier began to boil over into anger. The Chadassa's grip on his hand suddenly became painful and the canyon walls rushed past them as he was dragged up through the depths.
Soon they came into sight of the Chadassa city and Silus only had a moment to take in the enormity of the terrible architecture before Belck shoved him out of the sea.
He fell to the floor of the chamber and began to cough up the water that filled his lungs. It burned as it flowed out of him and Silus found himself shivering uncontrollably as an intense weakness overtook him.
He looked up to see Belck standing over him, his dark eyes regarding him dispassionately.
"Get up."
But Silus couldn't stand and, with another great shudder, he coughed up more saltwater. He cried out as Belck wrapped his claws in his hair, dragged him to his feet and threw him across the room to land in a heap before another Chadassa.
"Take this one to be prepared for the Queen," Belck said. "It is time."
After Katya had been ejected from the belly of the Chadassa craft she had fallen through the depths - cradling Zac to her as he screamed and screamed - convinced that they were going to die. For a moment the sphere they were in stabilised, gently swaying, rather than spinning in all directions, and Katya looked up at the bizarre vessel they had left behind.
There was a flash of intense light and then they were tumbling again like some circus act from Miramas, as the shockwave from the explosion caught up with the sphere.
The water around them boiled with clouds of debris and within them Katya could see the broken corpses of dozens of Chadassa. For a moment she thought that she could make out a human face in the morass but then, with a violent shudder, the sphere was snatched away from the scene as they hurtled down along some unseen current.
Katya closed her eyes as her stomach somersaulted. Zac, however, had begun to enjoy himself and his cries turned to squeals of laughter.
There wasn't much to see outside of the sphere now, other than the occasional pulse of fluorescence from the delicate creatures who grazed on the plankton fields that seeded the depths. Katya gently shifted Zac into her lap before leaning over and pulling on the fleshy protuberances that grew from the sphere floor. She had hoped to be able to take control of the strange craft in this way, but her ministrations did nothing to alter their course.
Something caught Katya's attention then. A pale shape moving just at the edge of her vision.
It emerged from the darkness, its long body stretching far behind it, seeming as though it would never end. Its eyes were a blind milky white, yet the pits of its angular nostrils seemed more than sufficient to smell out any prey that entered its territory. It scooped up the creatures grazing on the plankton in its great jaws, but this didn't seem enough to sate its hunger because it headed straight for the sphere.
Katya closed her eyes and braced herself, with Zac held tight to her breast. There was a flash of light and an intense smell of ozone filled the sphere. When she opened her eyes, the creature was falling away from them, its vast length entangling around itself as streams of bubbles rushed from its slack jaws.
Katya saw the creature crash into the side of a jagged peak of stone that appeared to be part of a building of some kind, before it impacted with the seabed in a cloud of silt.
The sphere followed the creature down into the city, descending at a much more sedate pace. As the towers and strange mound-like structures rose around them, Katya breathed a sigh of relief. She had thought that they would fall forever, to die in some lightless, airless abyss. Instead the sphere rotated on its axis before heading towards a hole that had opened up in the side of one of the buildings.
Absolute darkness enfolded them then, the bottom of the sphere rising up slightly beneath them as it settled onto a solid surface.
All that Katya could hear was her and Zac's breathing and the soft drip of moisture falling from the ceiling. The drip became a trickle and then a torrent as the sphere melted around them.
Katya rose to her feet, holding Zac, shivering as the thick film of slime that covered them rapidly cooled. From somewhere there was a deep rumble and hiss before a shaft of light broke the darkness, making Katya throw up a hand to shield her eyes.
Silhouetted in a doorway stood the form of a Chadassa, though it seemed taller than any Katya had seen before, the crest of spines that ran from the small of its back to the top of its skull more prominent than that found on most Chadassa. As it stepped into the light Katya saw that it was a female, heavy breasts swaying as it strode towards them, flapping against a distended belly that could only be swollen by the presence of a child.
When the creature saw Zac in her arms it made a strange crooning sound and its crest shivered with a dry rattle.
Katya backed away, only to come up against a wall.
In her arms Zac made no sound. He held her eyes with his own and in them she could see no awareness of the danger they were in.
Before Katya could do anything, the Chadassa snatched Zac from her arms and retreated back through the doorway.
The shaft of light was extinguished as the door closed behind them and Katya dropped to her knees, howling as she was left in the darkness without her child.
The Chadassa's name was Snil. She had mothered twenty-five younglings and her belly was taut with three more. Her fertility was legendry and her spawn were highly valued for both their martial and leadership skills. When Belck had told her that they had come into possession of the half-breed's son she had fervently hoped that she would be picked to nurse the child. And Belck had not disappointed her, picking Snil, out of all the potential Chadassa mothers, to hold the extraordinary being in her arms.
She only wished she could have nursed him in the sea, but Belck had said that though the child may well have inherited his father's abilities, it was best not to risk drowning the wee one.
And so, Snil sat in a drained but damp chamber, as the infant struggled against her scaled hide, kicking against her belly with his tiny feet. She held him up before her and crooned a sing-song sound. What was this creature's name? What was it that his mother had screamed as Snil had spirited the child away?
Ah yes, Zac.
"Zac," she said, just about managing to vocalise the word. Snil hadn't the proficiency with the human language that some of the older, more learned, Chadassa had, but she eventually got the hang of the infant's name. "I like you Zac," she giggled and shivered the spines of her crest. The sudden rattling sound made Zac pause in his protestations and stare at her with wide, deep eyes.
Such eyes and such colour! The dark pits of his pupils were surrounded by a vivid blue. It reminded Snil of the play of light through the shallows, reminded her of the time she had stood right on the edge of the human lands, just beneath the waves, and marvelled at the warmth of the sun on her face.
Snil rattled her crest again. Zac responded with a bemused smile and brought up his hands as though to grasp at the quivering quills. But she didn't want him to cut his delicate hands on her spines. "No, no." She chided, holding the child against her chest.