realising that the same blood that ran through our ancestors’ veins, the same genes that enabled us to do amazing and wonderful things, still is within us. The legend…your legend…has weakened our species to the point of extinction and then you come along and instead of inspiring them to greatness you encourage their peaceful weakness.”
Rage sparkled in his eyes as he spoke, each word meant to be venomous and hurtful.
“I want to return our species to their rightful place, Alexandra, a place where we are a great and mighty species once again. We didn’t just exist, we lived, we ruled, we thrived. We had the pick of the ocean and of the land. Humans worshipped us as the gods we should be, they built altars to our kind, offering food, and even their young to us in exchange for a kind word, or a touch from one of our hands. And why not, we are infinitely more talented than they are, infinitely more advanced. You see, Alexandra, we chose the ocean. It was the more beautiful of environments, and humans, well they have forgotten their place…and so have we.”
He shook his head, his face growing hard as he spoke. “Now look at us, weak, pathetic, and willing to give up the true treasure of this globe, the sea, to return to the dry dusts of earth because humans have been allowed to pillage our home, allowed to run rampant.” He turned from me and addressed the crowd of Oceanids below us.
“Well, I say let us remind them of who we are! I say it is time to turn the tables on those who kill indiscriminately and rid the earth of the plague of humans, I say it is our time to rule!”
A resounding and single boom of noise erupted from the Oceanids below us.
“You would be useful in furthering our cause. The war on humanity would be quick, painless really, like ripping a scab off the face of the earth.” Neith turned back to me.
I shook my head angrily at him. “This is not a cause, it’s tyranny. You want to rule, Neith, no matter what the cost to Oceanids or humans and I will not be a part of that.”
“I understand your hesitation, you have been raised to believe you are a human, yet here you are breathing and swimming like a fish. You can’t tell me that the land is better than the sea, I can see it in your eyes, you are in love with the ocean.”
I couldn’t deny his observation but I was also determined to give him nothing to hold me with.
He smiled knowingly, swimming behind me and whispering into my ear sending chills racing up and down my spine. “Think carefully, little girl. If you choose to join us I will make you second in command after me. Together we could rule and do great things for our people. We could heal them and provide safe haven for them, we could ensure a wonderful prosperous future for them.” His voice grew hard. “You could be a pivotal part of their future.”
“I will never join you, Neith,” I hissed. A bubble of rage exploded in my chest, solidifying the course of action I’d been skirting around ever since I’d worked out how helpless I was in the net.
Neith may have been able to stop my talents, he may even kill me if I didn’t co-operate with him, but he couldn’t force me to join him. My resolve congealed into a curl of hatred that swirled through me as I watched his mouth twist into an angry smile.
He nodded and as he did so the Oceanids parted and revealed a sight that made my stomach flip-flop suddenly in terror.
He had been chained by the wrists and feet to great iron rings imbedded in the rock. His face and body were covered in bruises which were magnified by the unnatural blue light of the plankton that lit the hall.
His eyes were frantic, worry creasing his face as he pulled angrily at the chains.
“Merrick!” His name exploded from my lips as I pulled uselessly at the netting.
“I’m all right, Alex.” My heart leapt at the sound of his voice, a sound I’d missed so much it was almost a physical relief to hear it again.
“Neith, leave her out of this.” Merrick’s voice was hard but edged in a little too much panic for me not to dread Neith’s next move.
Neith laughed. “Oh I intend to,” he replied, an evil grin crawling across his face. “After all, what good will she be to me if she’s injured? You on the other hand are a wonderful motivating factor, because even if she continues in her decision not to join me, I very much doubt she will oppose me knowing what I’ll do to you.”
A bubble of terror formed in my belly as his plan became all too clear. He had never intended to use any form of physical force on me. He knew that he could do anything to me and I would probably still refuse to help him. But Merrick…
Neith turned and motioned to the group of Oceanids I’d been instantly afraid of, the most inhuman of any Oceanids I’d seen.
They surrounded Merrick, the ones with mouthfuls of sharp teeth clacking them together, the others with the claw-like fingernails raking them across the rock producing a haze of fine powder that drifted in the current. The others, the ones covered in sharp barbs, spun and leapt excitedly, each twist revealing their horrifying armour.
“You see, Alexandra, I am a compassionate Oceanid, truly I am. I am allowing you to make a choice. If you join me Merrick will be spared the agonising torture you are about to witness.”
“No…” I sobbed, glimpsing the fear in Merrick’s eyes before they hardened in determination.
“It is not my choice, it is yours,” Neith replied as he slid in front of me, his face a mask of false compassion.
“Alex, look at me,” Merrick commanded. I looked past Neith to his face.
“Be strong,” he told me, his face set in determination.
“Last chance, Alexandra.” Neith turned to me, raising his arm as he did so.
“Don’t do it, Ale—” Merrick’s shout was cut short in a gurgle of pain as they rushed at him.
The attack only lasted a few short minutes before Neith called them off. When they parted a tattered ghost of a person floated to the ocean floor, revealing large chunks of hair missing from a raw and oozing scalp. His back was completely devoid of skin, the white of several ribs showing through the lacerated flesh, strands of muscle wavering in the water.
Pain like I’d never felt before stabbed through my heart. He must be dead. No one could survive that much trauma. But he moved his arm, placing obviously broken fingers against the rock and heaving with an agonised wrench of sound, which was cut painfully short as the chains that still held him yanked on his limbs.
As he did so he lifted his once beautiful, but now broken face to look at me, his ruined mouth curling into a grimace of a smile.
I lifted my wide horrified eyes from the mouth that had shared breath with me and kissed me with such passion and tenderness, to look deeply into the eyes of the man I loved.
My vision tipped and spun as vomit forced its way violently out of my mouth to spool around me in strands of revulsion and horror.
How he was still alive I wasn’t sure. There wasn’t any part of him that wasn’t injured in some way. He drifted in the current, straining against the chains, the strength it had taken to lift himself off the sand telling in his eyes as they dulled a little.
I leapt to help him, swimming against the netting that surrounded me and trying with all my strength to break free from the Miengu who calmly held each corner of the net, while I threw myself at it.
Neith nodded and two beautiful women swirled from where they’d been watching the little drama play out.
“No,” he groaned, the sound cracked through with the pain he tried so bravely to hide from me.
Their faces were full of compassion as they placed gentle hands on his arms, closing their eyes as they did so.
Within