“The sentries have surrounded the Starwater Canal from all sides,” Fiona mentioned. She looked straight ahead, her face devoid of any expression.
I, on the other hand, was panicking and searching for ways to avoid the sentries. I had failed to realize that there would be sentries at the Starwater Canal, although it was most normal for them to besiege the most important canal of the Kingdom of Water. But, I couldn't get caught — if I got caught, then everything I went through would have been for nothing. I was starting to regret my actions.
“Will we have to go back?” I asked Fiona. Maybe I could hide somewhere, maybe at The Obsidian, and come back some other time.
She turned to me. “No,” she said and holding my wrist took me to only she knew where. I breathed a sigh of relief.
Stopping in front of a stretch of seamount, Fiona surveyed our surroundings. My vision was fixed on the opening of the tunnel in front of us. “Come,” Fiona said brusquely and went inside the tunnel. “This tunnel will lead us out of the vicinity of the sentries,” she added.
I nodded and followed her into the tunnel. Darkness consumed me, and a sudden burst of cold. I felt like I was in a void where time had ceased. “Are there many such tunnels?” I asked.
“There are a few.”
“Why didn’t you directly bring me here?”
My question was left unanswered. I sighed and focused on swimming.
We manoeuvred the rest of the tunnel in silence, only the sound of us parting water, and the occasional hissing and swishing of the water surrounding us accompanying us. The tunnel was wide enough only for one creature to move at a time, and there were no bioluminescent to light our way through the blackness.
At a particular turn of the tunnel, I tumbled upon Fiona — it was a messy and awkward situation resulting in even more incoordination when both of us tried to take the turn at the same time. We were plastered to the walls of the tunnel and I did not need to be able to see through the dark to feel Fiona’s glare on me.
“Do you want to go first?” Fiona asked in her bored voice.
“No, you go,” I replied while trying to get out of the narrow passage — I ended up punching Fiona on the shoulder. A frown immediately found its way to my face.
Letting out a groan and with a lot of difficulties, Fiona wriggled out of the passage and swam forward. I released a shaky breath and followed her through the tunnel.
After another such turn, which we were both careful to wind about cautiously, I saw an opening. Brown kelp grew along the walls of the mouth of the tunnel, and faint white rays of the sun peeked out from the blades of kelp, illuminating our way. We had to be somewhere in the sunlight zone, maybe not too far from the surface itself.
I followed Fiona out of the tunnel. My legs hurt from swimming and I wished Kia or any other kind of transport was there. The heaviness in my feet from the boots I was wearing did not help either, still it was better than the first time I swam in these waters wearing my boots.
We emerged inside a kelp forest. The forest was not very deep; sunrays showed us our path and small shallow-water fishes passed by us. This kelp forest was nothing like the kelp forest I had stumbled upon the previous night — that was in the depths of the sea, enveloped in a shivering silence and an equally cruel, demonic darkness — while this looked angelic with the drumming of hundreds of fish creating rhythmic music around us, with the shimmering sunlight bouncing off the kelp blades and disappearing into the water surrounding us, but not before leaving a trail of light in its wake.
YOU ARE READING
A World Of Treason and Tides
FantasíaA few dreams and a note were all it took for Venus's life to change. A note telling Venus that her family was whisked away to a place unknown to her was all it took for Venus to decide that she is going to go to that place- to that world- to Odalis...
