Princess Araxa's Arc

Chapter 4 of 14

Araxa stays in the kelp long after the serpent leaves. Her muscles ache from holding still but she doesn't move. Tide presses against her ribs, his light still dark. Eventually she has to breathe differently or her chest will cramp. She loosens her grip on the kelp stalk. The forest around them is quiet, just the soft sway of fronds in the current. Then Tide flickers once, pale silver, and pulls toward the surface. Araxa follows, slow, checking the water above them between each stroke. She's almost to the top of the kelp when she sees it. A creature trapped in the dense fronds below, its body twisted in the stalks. Blue and white with yellow spots across its back, sleek like a seal but with a shell on its shoulders like a turtle. Its mouth hangs open, showing rows of jagged teeth. The teeth catch the dim light and she sees blood in the water around it. Around its neck is a metal collar, black as obsidian, and set in the front is a red gemstone that pulses with heat. The water shimmers around the gem. The creature's eyes are half-closed but it's breathing, gills flaring weak and slow. Araxa notices the kelp around it is shredded, and beyond the creature she sees broken rocks scattered in a spiral pattern on the seafloor, their edges sharp and glowing faintly. The serpent hunted here before. This creature tried to run and got caught instead. Tide pulls at her arm, away from the trapped animal. She knows what he's telling her. The serpent could come back. Freeing something this big will shake the kelp, send vibrations through the water. But the creature's gills are slowing. If she leaves it, it dies. If she frees it and the serpent returns, they might all die. Her hand moves to the bone blade at her hip before she decides. She swims down and wedges the blade between the kelp and the creature's body. The stalks are thick and she has to saw through them. The creature's eye opens, yellow and afraid, watching her. The gem at its throat pulses faster, hotter, and she has to pull her hand back twice when the heat gets too close. The last stalk parts and the creature surges free, its flippers scattering the kelp. Araxa grabs Tide and kicks backward as the animal rights itself. It's bigger than she thought, longer than her by half. It could bite her in two with those teeth. But it just hovers there, breathing hard, staring at her. Then it dips its head once, a deliberate motion, and swims up and away through the kelp canopy. The water around them settles. Tide's glow shifts from silver to a faint blue, calmer than before, and presses against her palm. Araxa watches the space where the creature disappeared and realizes her hands aren't shaking anymore. She freed something instead of just hiding from what hunts it. That feels like a direction, even if she doesn't know where it leads.