Nyx foxglove's Arc

Chapter 4 of 6

Nyx left the pyramids with the star shard bound in wet kelp against her chest. The chart had shown her the ring where the star fell. Now she had to reach it. She swam along the shore until she found a tall black stone standing in the sand. An arrow pointed north. Below it, someone had carved a cave and a mermaid. This was the marker. The cave lay ahead, under the tide. She dove. Black water closed over her. Below, a mouth of glittering stone opened in the sea floor. Water rushed into it and out of it, pulling hard. Palm shapes of black rock leaned near the entrance. She kicked toward the dark opening. Then the deep tide caught her. The pull dragged her sideways, away from the cave. She fought it. Her tail slapped water that would not hold. The shard shifted in the kelp, and for a moment she nearly dropped it. She grabbed the wrapping with both hands and let the current take her, then twisted with it instead of against it. The tide slung her past a cluster of jagged black rocks. Sharp specks glittered along their edges. She caught one, held, and pulled herself into the cave mouth. Inside, the rushing water calmed. She surfaced in a still pool. Then a shape rose from the dark ahead. A dragon coiled at the far wall, black as the void, its body dusted with tiny stars. Blue eyes fixed on her. It filled the passage to the deeper chamber. Behind it, a faint light waited. Nyx did not move. She held the shard out on her open palms. "I am not here to dig," she said. "I brought back what fell." The dragon lowered its head. Its breath stirred the water. It did not strike. It watched the gold in her hands, then drew its long body aside, clearing the way. She swam past it into the inner chamber. The spirit waited there. A woman shaped from black sky, her hair drifting like smoke, stars scattered across her form. A crown sat on her head. Grief hung around her the way cold hangs in deep water. This was the thing that had almost drowned her. Nyx unwrapped the shard. "This is yours," she said. "You have carried too much. Take it back." The spirit reached out. Her dark hand closed over the gold. Light spread through her body, and her form settled, the sky in her going still. She bowed her head to Nyx once. Then the deep tide changed. Nyx felt it in the water, a pull no longer fighting her but drawing her down and inward, toward a passage behind the spirit. Fresh water, cold and clean, poured from it. The guardian had opened the way to the spring. But far below, in the drowned dark, Nyx heard the faint knocking of the trapped sailors, still alive, still held. The spirit had let her in. It had not yet let them go.