The Ark of Humanity

  ***

  Sunrise was brighter now as Maanta advanced on Archa’s back toward the dark cave before him. Archa shivered beneath him as if she sensed something in the cave he did not.

  But do I really not sense it? he asked himself. Something was drawing him in. It was as if a magnetic force in the cave was pulling him into its grasp. And he knew what it was too, who it was. Why have I come here? Why did I not just stay with the others? Maanta dipped into the darkness of the cave. He felt himself pulled to a force close by.

  Blinding light stunned his eyes and then darkness resumed in the cave, leaving a glistening figure in its wake. The shimmering thing was a man draped in a shining white cloak. Fig leaves were sewn into the man’s garment and the stitched-in form of an apple tree stretched across the man’s chest. The handsome man’s soft blond hair flowed in the currents of the cave. “Welcome, my son,” the man greeted Maanta and stretched out his arms to offer an embrace. “Come to me. Come and be adorned.”

  Maanta halted on Archa’s back, examining the glowing man before him. “I am not your son,” Maanta spoke in a steady tone.

  The glowing man approached Maanta. “You are my son. All people of the water are my sons and daughters. Do you know what I am?” the man spoke in a warming tone.

  Maanta held his place. “How could I not know what you are? You have haunted my dreams again and again. But you are not my father. Gelu is my father.”

  The glowing figure chuckled lightly. “God? Your father? Would a father drown all but one family of his sons and daughters, just because they did not please him? No. He is not your father. But I am, because when God decided he did not like the people of the world and tried to drown them, I rescued them and helped them to adapt to breathe water. He would murder his children when I would save them.”

  Inside Maanta’s heart hatred brewed, but he shut it down and replaced it with love for his friends and Anna. He knew that to hate Lucifer would give Lucifer strength. “Gelu drowned the sons and daughters of the world because their souls had become corrupt beyond repair. They had become lustful, greedy, gluttonous and murderous. And you are the one who showed them and convinced them to be that way. You may be the father of Sangfoul, but you are no father of mine.

  “And because the people of Meridia and Baneal have replaced sin with love and caring in their souls, Gelu has given us the chance to live our lives once more in the world of air. We will be safe from you there.”

  The heavenly-looking man’s eyes and body contorted and twisted until he took the shape of a crimson-red serpent man in a tattered black cloak. Horns protruded like vines from his forehead. His fingers twisted and curled as he spoke. “You will never be rid of me,” he hissed. “If you do reach the world of air, there will always be sin in the souls of man, and I thrive where sin survives.” A scaly trident formed from the tip of his arm and he swam toward Maanta with great speed.

  Maanta clutched his own trident tightly in his hands. He shivered in fear. He then remembered the second voice that had spoken to him in last night’s dream and let his trident sink from his grasp to the cavern floor below.

  The serpent man struck his trident upon Maanta’s chest and then evaporated into a smoke of aquatic dust.

  The cavern was dark as coal once more. Maanta stroked Archa’s smooth head as she bobbed gently in the currents.

  The exact words he had heard the night before resonated in his ears and he spoke them aloud in remembrance. “To best the Devil, one must be above its tricks and sins. If you do not hate, do not lust, are not gluttonous, have no greed and do not kill then the Devil cannot exist.” Maanta smiled. “Sin cannot overcome sin. To kill the devil, all you need do is exist without him.”

  “What?” Anna’s worried voice called from outside the cave.

  “Anna!” Maanta swam quickly to her. “I didn’t expect you would follow me here.”

  She gave him a look as he exited the cave, a ‘You should have woken me so that I could come with you.’ look. But she said something different. “What are you doing? Are you alright?”

  Maanta leaned over from Archa’s back and kissed her. “I wasn’t, but I am now. Thank you for looking out for me.”

  Anna looked warily back on Sangfoul behind them. “We should be returning to the others. Surely Sangfoul will awaken soon and it would not be wise to be discovered before we have freed the Banealian slaves. There is also something I wish to do before we return.”

  “What is there to be done?” Maanta skimmed Sangfoul with his eyes for tailfinned people stirring. In the center of the city, close to the seafloor, he noted nets with dark hued arms and legs protruding from their holes. “Those must be the slaves we have come to free.” He extended his pale arm and pointed down to a dozen or so nets.

  “We’ll have to tell Sift of their location when we return.” Anna also looked to the nets. “There is something I need to tell you. When I was following you, I made a discovery in a room high up in one of the dark horn towers. Barely lit by the rising sun, Illala was cradling a baby in her arms.”

  “Illala?” Maanta had not expected that Illala was still alive, let alone here. “Are you certain it was her?”

  “It’s been a long time since she’s been with us, but it could have been no other but her. We must go and free her before the city wakes.”

  Still no one stirred outside the structures of Sangfoul, and the sun became brighter in the water as the day began. Anna and Maanta rode their riding-companions quickly to the window where Anna had spied Illala.

  They peered above the windowsill and looked upon Illala as she cradled the child, cooing at it softly. The room she was in was encased in carved red stone.

  “Illala?” Anna called inward. “Is that you?”

  Illala turned and was surprised to see Anna at her windowsill. “Anna?” she asked. “What are you doing here? They’ll kill you if they find you. Come into my room quickly.”

  Without hesitation Anna and Maanta swam into the room. Anna hugged Illala around the baby, whose bottom half was covered by a kelp blanket.

  Illala rocked the baby gently. “Meet my son, Equilious.”

  “Your son?” Anna asked in shock. “Who’s the father? Is he still alive?” Anna then noticed a dark figure crouched in a corner of the room. Its lowered head rose to look at her slowly as she spoke. “Evanshade!” Her heart jumped as she recognized her enemy only feet away.

  Maanta swam before her in a protective stance.

  “I am Equilious’s father,” Evanshade said in a deep, sad voice. “Please, stay and say what you have come to say to Illala. I give my word I will not harm you.”

  “Illala,” Anna stuttered. “How could you? He murdered our people and your own family.”

  Evanshade ground his teeth as his tailfin seemed to shiver beneath him.

  “I love him,” Illala spoke. “I do not need to explain our love to you.” Equilious began to cry and Illala calmed him by rocking him. “Why have you come here?”

  Anna looked leeringly to Evanshade and then back to Illala once more. “Is it safe to speak in front of him?”

  “Yes.” Illala looked in pain. “You have my word.”

  Anna and Maanta swam out of the way of the window’s view. “I’ll trust your word,” Anna spoke. “We have come to Sangfoul to rescue the enslaved Banealians here. After the slaves are freed, we will travel to Orion’s Birth where we have found a way that will take us to the world of air. Maanta has discovered that our bodies can adapt to breathe the forbidden fluid.” She flashed another worried look toward Evanshade, but was sure that since he had not yet attacked her, she must be safe. “Once we live in the world above water, we will be safe from the people of Sangfoul. They have no legs and could never survive there.”

  Illala kissed Equilious’s forehead. “Then why have you come to me?”

  “Because we saw you through your windowsill and wish to convince you to come with us.”

  “I can’t.” Illala looked to the weary lookin
g Evanshade. “I could never leave him.”

  Evanshade looked up quickly and locked eyes with Illala. “No,” he said with determination in his voice. “You have to go.”

  “But our family?” She gave him a questioning look.

  Evanshade rose and thrust his tailfin in the water until he was side-by-side with the woman he loved. “You do not know the things I know, Illala. Malistour wishes you and our son dead. He’d have me kill you myself, but when I will not do it, he will no doubt send someone else for his murderous task. You must go with them.”

  “But our son, his tailfin,” Illala uncovered Equilious’s swirling appendage, “he could never live in the world of air. You’ve heard them.”

  “They will find a way for him to survive and he would not survive much longer here.” Evanshade hugged Illala and their new son warmly. “I will discover where you are and rejoin you in time.”

  Illala looked deep in thought.

  Evanshade turned his eyes to Anna and Maanta. “You must leave with urgency. There will be no time to free the slaves.”

  Maanta swam closer to Evanshade now. “Our group will not leave without them. Our plan is to rescue them tonight while your people sleep and then we will be on our way.”

  Evanshade swam to the windowsill and looked out over the city below. “Tonight will be too late. Malistour has discovered both Tao’s group and what I’m assuming is your own. He will attack by midday and slaughter all in his way.”

  Turning back to Maanta and Anna, Evanshade realized by the look in their eyes that they would not abandon the slaves. “If you have to free them, then sneak around the city and free them as we attack Tao. You may have just enough time to free them and get away. I’ll do whatever I can do to keep my people from catching up to you.”

  “Why are you doing this?” Anna asked. “Why destroy our world and then turn on your own to save what is left of us?”

  Evanshade turned to look out the window once more. “I am a different man than I was when we first met. I have fallen in love with one of you. I have realized the wrongs of my soul.” He swam back to Illala and then gave her a deep kiss. His eyes remained dark and forlorn looking. “Now you should go, before Sangfoul awakes and you cannot flee the city. Our army will surely begin to gather within the hour.”

  For a short while more Illala fought with him to stay, but eventually Evanshade convinced her that this would be the only way for their family to survive. He would find her again, he reassured her.

  They both cried as Maanta cradled Equilious for Illala, and Evanshade pulled her close. “I love you,” Evanshade whispered in her ear.

  The only thing Illala brought with her, as she and Equilious left with Maanta and Anna, was a rope bag filled with kelp and whale-leather diapers.

  Maanta slipped out the windowsill first and was relieved to see that the people of Sangfoul were not out and about yet.

  Anna, Illala and Equilious were soon to follow. Illala rode the backside of Anna’s riding-fish with her and cradled Equilious close in her arms.

  They moved swiftly in the currents out of Sangfoul.

  Evanshade watched them from his crimson room in the black spiked tower. He had told Illala he would be with her again one day. He doubted that was the truth.

  Currents and minute particles of sand whipped past Maanta as he clutched close to Archa’s torso and they dove above and below the mountain’s tip near Sangfoul. He was once again not visible to the people of Sangfoul and this brought a feeling of safety to him, even if he now understood that the tailfinned people knew of his group’s presence there.

  He glanced below him to Tao’s group at the mountain’s base, as Archa swam past above them. A few members of the group pointed their arms up at him, Anna, Illala and Equilious as they jetted past on their riding companions, but Tao seemed to pay them no notice. He either hadn’t seen them, or was too fixated with his obsession of revenge on the people of Sangfoul to care.

  Maanta refocused his sight to where Sift and the others were camped close to the ocean floor. Once again, they had embedded themselves into coral and kelp and were barely visible.

  With a swoop, Archa and Maanta dove until he was just above Sift and the others.

  Sift darted up on Lola’s back to meet him. “Where have you been?” he questioned Maanta harshly. “When we awoke neither you nor Anna was anywhere to be found. What did you think we would imagine?”

  Maanta squeezed his legs against Archa’s side and halted her before Sift. “It’s hard to explain why we left without saying anything, but we have returned with information and someone I think you’ll be happy to see.” Anna, Illala and the young baby quickly joined Maanta’s side.

  Sift rode Lola closer to them. “Illala?” he asked in surprise. “Could it be you? Where did you find her?”

  Anna spoke now. “We discovered her in a room in one of the towering spikes of Sangfoul, and encouraged her to come with us to the world of air. She has also brought her child with her.”

  Illala had covered Equilious’s head with the kelp blanket he was wrapped in, while they had ridden away from Sangfoul, but she now pulled the blanket down to reveal Equilious’s adorable eyes and smile. He squirmed and curled against her.

  “And a baby?” Sift dismounted Lola and swam directly to their side. “Can I cradle him? It has been so long since I held one so young.”

  Illala passed the adorable baby into Sift’s strong arms where he gently held it to his chest.

  “He’s so light,” Sift said as Equilious sucked his thumb in the man’s arms.

  Maanta dismounted Archa and float in the waters just behind Sift. He watched the baby as it smiled. What a beautiful sight, he thought. “We come with news also, and I wish it could wait but it can’t. By mid-day the people of Sangfoul will pursue an attack upon Tao. They know of our presence and will surely come for us when they are done with him and his makeshift army.”

  Sift passed Equilious back to his mother. “Then we must prepare ourselves quickly to free our enslaved people. But how will we succeed? This will be suicide in the daylight. No doubt we’ll have to approach with only a small group to stand a prayer of not being noticed. The fact that they are preparing for battle will be in our favor because the slaves will still be in their nets instead of out working the lava mines.”

  Maanta decided he would not tell Sift that the idea he was about to share with him, and the information, had come from Evanshade, because Sift might view Evanshade’s words as treacherous and untrustable. “I have an idea,” he said. “If we send a small group around to the backside of Sangfoul, we can free the slaves when the people of Sangfoul attack Tao. Their attention will be distracted. We will have to free the slaves quickly and return to our group before Tao is defeated.”

  Sift rubbed his fingers across his chin as he thought. “Your plan sounds like the best we could have,” he said. “We must leave with quickness and hide behind the city of Sangfoul. But who do we take in this mission?”

  Maanta looked at his companions and then to the people in the group of Meridians and Banealians below them. “Three people would be harder to notice than five or ten. What if me, you and Anna went?”

  “Three seems a solid number, but I am not sure of the three you have chosen.” Sift looked to Anna. “Surely Anna would be needed by her people if we do not return. She could rule if we are discovered and killed. She should remain behind.”

  Anna didn’t like the idea of remaining behind or the idea of being separated from Maanta but she had to admit Sift had a point. “Agreed,” she simply said. “And we are Illala’s only friends here now. It would not be right of us all to leave her just as she arrives.”

  Sift eyed the people below. “But who should be our third?”

  “Millay,” Anna said instantly. “She is swift and well trained for fighting should you face a confrontation. She is also silent in her movements.”

  “I have no objections.” Sift looked to Maanta. “And you?”

&n
bsp; Maanta looked below where the curly haired Millay was trident practicing with another member of their group. She seemed to have the upper hand. “I know little of her, Sift, but if Anna recommends her, then I’d say she’s our best choice. She seems talented with her trident.”

  “Then the three of us it is.” Sift remounted Lola and began to descend to the rest of the group once more. “We must speak as a group and then quickly be on our way.”

  It didn’t take long for Sift and Maanta to explain their plan to Millay and she was excited that she had been chosen as the third person for the mission.

  “It will be dangerous,” Sift said to her.

  “We have been through much as a people.” Millay looked at him as she spoke. “I no longer have fear of danger.”

  Maanta and Millay rode Archa and Millay’s riding-companion off to find food for them before their mission, as Sift explained to the remainder of the group what was going on.

  He didn’t spend long talking, only giving them the basic idea of what he, Maanta and Millay would be doing.

  “Swim a short distance away from here as we free the slaves,” he told them. “And if we do not return before the people of Sangfoul defeat Tao’s warrior, then you must flee for Orion’s Birth by Anna’s lead. Do not fear, we will catch up to you.” Shortly after he had finished speaking, Sift rode Lola off to where Maanta and Millay were feeding their riding-companions.

  Anna instructed the rest of the group to begin preparing their riding-companions for the journey to Orion’s Birth.

  Within moments, Sift, Millay and Maanta swept on their riding-companions toward the mountain that separated them from Sangfoul. They skimmed the sandy ocean floor, churning sediment in puffs in their wake.

  Sift led Maanta and Millay.

  “How will we avoid being seen?” Maanta called up to Sift as they went. “Surely the people of Sangfoul will be amassing at the other side of the mountain’s base by now! If we come down on the other side of the mountain we will be seen!”

  “There is another way!” Sift called back to Maanta and Millay from Lola’s back as they swept along in the waters. “Follow me and I will show you!”

  Sift curled swiftly to their left as they neared the mountain’s base. Tao’s group of warriors was far to their right and had not seen them.

  As they moved closer and closer to the mountain’s base, they still hugged the ocean floor and were now surrounded by fields of coral and shimmering fish which swam about it. The ocean floor beneath them slowly became an open cavern of darkness where an earthquake had once split open its sides. The light blue of the sunlit ocean faded to pitch black in its depths.

  “Here we have found our way of stealth traveling!” Sift called back to them before dipping Lola quickly down into the darkness. “Make fish noises as we traverse through the darkness, so that we know where each other are!”

  Maanta dipped Archa swiftly down in the darkness next. She followed Sift and Lola with no hesitation.

  Millay’s riding-fish on the other hand balked as she attempted to get it to follow the others, but she was eventually able to get the fish to go the way she desired.

  At first Maanta was apprehensive about where he had followed Sift. They had no source of light and if one of them were to get separated from the others here, there would be no way of finding their way out of the cavern beneath the ocean floor. The darkness closed in on his sight, giving him a feeling of claustrophobia. He closed his eyes and saw no more darkness than he did with his eyes open. Something warm and slimy brushed past his face and was quickly gone. Where was he going?

  “oooooo” Sift’s fishy note caught in Maanta’s ear and he felt a little more comfortable understanding better how they would keep track of where each other were.

  If they were to speak to each other, it was possible that the people of Sangfoul would hear them and know something was amiss.

  “oooooo” Maanta sang back as he followed Sift’s voice.

  “oooooo” Millay also sang behind him. Her sweet female voice carried a soothing tone.

  “oooooo” they sang back and forth through the darkness as they followed each other’s fish calls.

  The darkness which had caused Maanta to shiver with unknowing when they had first dipped within its depths now became a sort of exciting music-box for him. The notes they called back and forth to each other seemed to dance in the darkness before his eyes.

  “oooooo” Sift sang in his hopping low tone and Maanta swept Archa after him.

  “oooooo” Maanta sang purely.

  “oooooo” Millay soothingly replied as she swept quickly behind.

  They swerved and turned many times and were never discovered by anyone else in the aquatic cavern tunnels. They didn’t know if anyone else was actually there with them at all.

  They spent no more than twenty minutes in the darkness before a shimmer of light shone down upon them from above their heads. They could see each other, glowing as they swam.

  “Upwards,” Sift whispered back to Maanta and Millay. They barely heard his hushed voice.

  He swept up into the light above and Maanta and Millay followed closely. They halted just below the open mouth of another crevice in the ocean floor.

  Sift held his finger to his lips to instruct the other two to remain silent and he cautiously raised his eyes out of the crevice to inspect the water around its mouth for people of Sangfoul. “There’s no one close by,” he spoke softly to Maanta and Millay.

  They each raised their heads out of the mouth of the crevice and looked around. Black spires of the towers rose above them. In the distance they could see a massive army preparing themselves for battle along the base of a mountain. Tailfins wiggled beneath their torsos.

  “We’ve reached the other side,” Maanta spoke softly. “How did you know the crevice of darkness would lead us here?”

  Sift’s eyes remained on the amassing army. “Before I was released from slavery here, this cavernous tunnel was used for enslavement. My father died when his heart was pierced by a trident on this crevice’s walls.”

  Maanta felt sad for Sift but did not reply. Some things are so hard to find the words for, he thought. He almost wished he hadn’t asked.

  “Do not feel sadness for me,” Sift lowly spoke. “It was a long time ago.”

  “Who’s that?” Millay softly asked as she pointed to a massive figure in the group of Sangfoul warriors. His body was twice as large as the others, his muscles bulging and clearly visable at a distance.

  “His name is Malistour,” Sift said as he watched the massive man in the distance. He seemed to shiver as he spoke. “And he rules Sangfoul with Evanshade as his right hand man and the Darkness Master ruling above him. He can best any warrior in combat. Some say he slaughter’s their very souls.”

  “Then Tao and the others?” Maanta asked.

  “They should bury their bodies in the sand now,” Sift said with a blank look in his eyes. “They do not stand a prayer.” Sift turned his sight now from the congregating warriors to the black buildings that rose above them in another area in the distance. He extended his arm to point across the crevice toward the rising black towers. “It will not be long now. We will find the netted slaves in the center of those towers. As battle begins between the people of Sangfoul and Tao, we shall move swiftly to free the slaves.”

  They sat on their riding-companions for what seemed like an hour in the dark crevice of ocean floor.

  The sun shimmered at its peak of heat through the ocean depths and Maanta found himself tapping his fingertips nervously in a swift rhythm on Archa’s backside. He stared at the group of Sangfoul warriors and wondered when they would make their move.

  Suddenly Malistour bolted across the length of the group and then back again. His tailfin seemed to Maanta to have the girth of a whale and his voice bellowed across the waters.

  Maanta couldn’t make out his words but a loud tone of anger carried through the currents from Malistour’s lips.

&
nbsp; Malistour’s colossal form then burst through the middle of the army and charged up the mountainside. His tailfinned warriors swam vigorously behind him.

  Maanta squinted, barely able to make out Evanshade’s form just behind Malistour as they dove over the mountain’s peak toward Tao’s camp. If Evanshade truly despises his people and Malistour then why is he still fighting by their side? Maanta wondered. Can I trust his advice? He wondered if he could trust anything Evanshade had said.

  “Now!” Sift’s voice quickly directed him before he jetted up from the crevice on Lola’s back and rocketed toward the base of the rising black spike towers. “We do not have much time!”

  Maanta and Millay followed him quickly on their riding-companions, currents whipping about their forms. Millay sped before Maanta. Her curly hair whipped behind her as she moved.

  As Maanta met up with Sift and Millay in the center of the rising black towers he scoped out his surroundings. A dozen thick braided nets were strung from hooks on the inner sides of the towers, hanging the nets midfloat between the structures. They looked as if they were meant to hold maybe three or four people but there were at least ten slaves tightly strapped in each net. Their limbs dangled from the net holes like legs of a dead spider.

  Their faces squeezed tight against the nets in places.

  “My People!” Sift called out to them. “We have come to free you!”

  The limbs in the nets began to stir, flapping wildly from the net holes. The people’s eyes opened and their bloodshot stares sent shivers through Maanta’s body.

  One man whose neck was twisted bizarrely away from his body recognized Sift. “Friend?” he called to Sift. “You have come for us, but surely they will capture you.”

  “We will see.” Sift rode Lola to his side, unsheathed a bone knife and began sawing at the thick rope. “Help me with this net!” he called to Maanta and Millay. “Once some are freed we can give knifes to them and free others quicker!”

  Maanta rode Archa to the same net and began sawing with his own shark tooth knife on the rope.

  Millay did the same.

  The rope was stiff because the net was so packed with slaves, and it hummed in Maanta’s fingertips as he sawed. At first it would not fray, but after long moments of work that made his arms extremely sore, hairs of rope cut free. “It’s breaking!” Maanta called to Sift.

  “It is here too!” Millay called out as she sawed with all her might. The muscles in her forearms tensed as she moved.

  “Good! Keep working!” Sift replied.

  Strand by strand the rope broke beneath Maanta’s knife. The slaves in the net barely moved. They must pack them so closely together so that they cannot attempt escape, Maanta thought. It seems as if they can barely breathe. More and more of the rope broke beneath his blade until all at once the three places where they were sawing burst open and eleven Banealian slaves burst out from the net cage.

  They curled as their bodies cramped and they attempted to catch their water-breath.

  Maanta, Sift and Millay were also sent tumbling as the force of the breaking net flung against them.

  One slave, who had apparently died since he had been strung up in the net, lay limp on the ocean floor.

  “Quick! Work another net!” Sift called to Maanta and Millay as he swam to the freed slaves who were working out their cramps.

  Maanta and Millay rode their riding-fish to the closest net and began to saw on its own taut, thick braids.

  Sift unsheathed the seven extra knives he had brought with him and handed them out to the freed slaves who seemed to have the most mental and physical strength in their bodies. “All that are free join us!” He spoke to them. “We need to the others before the warriors of Sangfoul return!”

  Several of the freed slaves swam to Maanta and Millay’s side and began working on the net they were slowly sawing apart. The others followed Sift’s direction and began swift work on two of the other tightly drawn nets.

  WHOOSH! With another gust of water and broken net, another net Maanta and Millay had been sawing burst open and more anguished slaves burst from its clutches.

  The newly-freed group also clutched their sides from cramps and Maanta, Millay and the other slaves with knives who had been helping them went on to the next net.

  WHOOSH!

  WHOOSH! The two other nets Sift and the others had been working on burst free.

  There were eight nets left now, and with four nets worth of freed slaves to assist them their work went quicker than before. Some of the slaves without knifes retrieved sharp stones and shells from the ocean floor and began sawing away at the thick braids, while others simply pulled as hard as they could at the ropes while the others sawed.

  The pastel blue light of aquatic day played across their faces. Somewhere far above them toward the ocean’s births a school of sharks swam. Their shadows would have been barely seeable above, had anybody looked.

  WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! Seven of the remaining eight nets burst open.

  Maanta’s arms burned in pain from the exhausting work.

  “Move quickly to the final net!” Sift bellowed out.

  In a rush Sift, Maanta, Millay and the entire mass of already freed slaves swam to the final net. They sawed on its ropes and tugged at its sides. Not a single net hole was unmanned and it took no more than three minutes to open. WHOOSH! It flushed open into the currents and they all now floated freely, some still clutching their sides.

  For a second, Maanta took a breath of water and looked at the slaves about him. They were scarred and bruised and some were missing limbs. All of their eyes were bloodshot and their ribcages pressed through their dark flesh. The imprint from where the nets had encaged them was also still on their skin.

  “Where do we go from here?” one of them asked Sift urgently. “The people of Sangfoul will surely be back shortly.”

  “We have to get as far away from them as possible,” another freed slave said.

  Sift rode Lola to Maanta and Millay’s side. “Which route should we take in returning to the others?” he asked them.

  Millay spoke first. “If we go over the mountain, then the people of Sangfoul will surely see us with the freed slaves and send a group to deal with us and recapture them.”

  “True.” Maanta looked past the upward-stretching black spiked towers and back to the dark crevice in the ground they had come from. “And if we travel through the dark crevice beneath the city and mountain then we risk some of our group getting lost in the darkness. Either way we will have trouble.”

  Sift thought about this for a few moments. The broken nets wafted in the currents and hung from the rising towers about them. “We will take the crevice and tunnels. It is true that some could become lost there, but if we were seen while swimming over the mountain, we would surely fail. And I have thought of something else. If after being free from this place for years I still remember the way through the crevice’s depths, then surely those who have worked it more recently will know the way. We will have to move slower because these freed slaves have no riding companions.”

  Sift rode Lola quickly away from the towers towards the crevice they had come from. “Follow me!” He waved back to the others as Maanta and Millay followed close behind. “We will lead the way to freedom!”

  The freed slaves followed quickly after them.

  Sift spoke to Maanta as they both dove on their riding-companions into the dark crevice and tunnels. He spoke lowly so that the freed slaves could not hear as they swam into the mouth of the tunnel. “You may notice something about these freed Banealian slaves that is different from the freed slaves of Meridia. When the Meridian slaves were freed, revenge implanted itself upon their souls. This is because the people of Sangfoul stripped them of their freedom and life and they yearned to have it back. They were bitter because of what they had lost.

  “These Banealian slaves, however, were birthed into slavery and have never known another thing. They know
nothing of freedom or peace. They do not know what they have missed and will not wish to return to the people of Sangfoul for any reason, be it revenge or any other. I know this to be true because I was one of them.”

  The two men skimmed in the darkness now upon Lola and Archa’s backs, followed closely by Millay and the released slaves.

  “Then why has Tao become the way he is?” The cool cavern currents skimmed along Maanta’s face. “Wasn’t he also born and brought up as a slave here in Sangfoul?”

  “That is true,” Sift’s voice came from paces before Maanta’s. “But once released he learned the breath of freedom, and it was the killing of his sons which consumed his now darkened soul with the scent of revenge.”

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