Page 3 of Song of the Abyss
Rolling his head to peer in Daios’s direction, Maketes replied, “Yes.”
“You are hard to do this with. Now, if you could focus your attention on finding the pattern between these pillars, then we can get somewhere. Otherwise, go back and report to Arges that I am here.”
“I’m not supposed to leave you alone.”
Of course not. Because everyone was afraid he would suddenly believe he was more powerful than he was and try to attack Alpha on his own. As if he was that foolish. He was a warrior with too much bravery, that much he would admit, but he wasn’t about to do something that would get him killed.
“Just go,” he growled.
“Are you sure you aren’t going to?—”
A low, rumbling growl erupted out of his chest. Gills flattened to his form, he glared at his friend until Maketes held up his webbed hands for peace.
“Right,” Maketes said. “I’ll leave you alone. Just don’t go blasting into that city without anyone knowing where you’re going or how you got in there, yeah? I’ll let the others know that we’re here and that we’re figuring it out.”
His brother disappeared in a swirl of bright gold, nearly matching the city itself before he swam off into the distance. But then Daios could focus on the task at hand.
For all that they didn’t trust him, Daios was a seasoned warrior. He knew how to wait. How to have patience. Such things were impossible for Maketes to even consider, because his brother had ever been the trickster. He found joy in every part of life, and never once thought about how difficult it could be if he was wrong.
Daios laid in the sands, unmoving, for days. It took a while for any other fish to test the pillars, but when they did, he could see how long it took to charge up the weapons. There was a pathway through it. He knew there was. He just had to be patient enough to see it.
No true warrior would count days or even think about worrying about how long he had been there. He grabbed a few of the fish that swam past him for food, even an eel that slithered close enough. Slurping down the electric eel had given him a charge of electricity that played down his sides and ran through the crimson gills at the sides of his neck.
Then he saw it.
It all clicked into place. The pattern that would lead him to the destruction of this city and all who lived within it.
With a sudden burst of movement, he shoved himself out of the sand and blasted toward the pillars. There were only seconds while the pillars charged up, but by the time they had, he’d already moved past them. Darting from left to right, he moved through the meager blind spots and the small opportunities where he was allowed a few moments without fear of blistering pain.
A few of the sharp light weapons grazed his shoulder, his spine. One went right through his fluke. But still, he pushed forward. He was the only one crazy enough to do this and the only one they could actually spare if something went wrong.
But he wanted to prove that even if he was broken, he was still worth something. He could still do...
This.
There was a small tube he’d noticed from his great distance. It seemed that some water went in and out of it, a filtration system, perhaps. He’d seen them before in Beta and had destroyed quite a few of them in his time. If he could fit through it—which was a big if—then maybe he could get into the city.
Swimming past the last set of lasers, he shoved himself against the end of the tube. There was a metal grate over it, but that was easy enough to wrench open as a laser struck him. Baring his sharp teeth in a snarl, he wriggled his way into the tunnel and disappeared from the sight of the lasers.
And just like that, he was in.
Turning to look back where he’d come from one last time, Daios tried not to hear the screams of all those he’d left behind following him into the pipes.
2
Anya
“Ace, I’m a little busy.”
“Message received. Information has been acquired.”
“Negative,” Anya replied as her droid relayed the message through the lens currently on the table. “Not until I finish the new upload. You can provide the information later.”
Another message came through, this one underlined in red. “Urgent.”
“Of course it’s urgent,” Anya muttered. Using the pliers in her hands, she peeled open the small panel on the bottom of her droid. It was a very old model, not one that was even made these days. Her father liked that it was almost impossible to reprogram the damn things, though, so this was the one she was given.
But Anya had figured out how to reprogram it, even after the technicians continued to fiddle with the electrical panels. The poor thing was little more than legs. Sometimes she thought it looked like one of those deep sea squids. Just a bulbous head, about the size of a clementine, with a screen on the front that projected adorable blinking eyes. But the four legs were meant to wrap around someone’s head.
