I stepped through—and was underwater.
Or rather, given my continued ability to breathe,underwater. I could vaguely make out a dome far above, holding an unimaginable weight of water at bay. In the distance, the transparent barrier curved behind the rise of ancient buildings. We stood, I realized with growing disbelief, in an entirely submerged city.
Expensive, coveted glass glittered in excess. Signs protruded from every surface, marked with forbidden languages, pointing arrows, and smiling faces. Rippling blue light fell across everything, distorted by the movement ofthe water above. The main source of illumination, however, came from lampposts that shone an eye-burning white. At first, I misunderstood, thinking they must contain witch-light; then, as I heard an odd buzzing, I recalled the sorcerer’s teachings.Electricity.
“It’s a relic,” I breathed. “This entire place.”
Merulo nodded grimly, then stumbled forward, making for a bench at the edge of a tiled plaza. In his wake, red smeared the tiles like a gruesome slug trail. “God’s infection thins out beneath sea level. Technologies work down here that would be useless trash anywhere else in the world.”
I followed Merulo, and sat gratefully beside him. The arms of the bench flared in a static swirl of sculpted waves and pinching crabs. I traced these with a finger.
“I have to warn you . . .” The sorcerer looked too weary to do more than talk, sinking completely into the bench. “On the day of the Descent, this did not serve as a sanctuary for unblemished humanity. It was a tomb for all who dwelled within it. There are places that Hydna and I have cleared of bodies, but elsewhere . . . explore at your own risk.”
Goosebumps prickled, my arm hairs standing on end. “They couldn’t live down here? They couldn’t escape?”
“Food ran out, eventually. And look.” Merulo raised a weary arm as a shadow passed overhead. A leviathan, gliding feet from the glass, the iridescent ribbons of its fins drifting behind it like wartime banners. “This place is not truly of the old world. It’s transitory. We’ve found automated carriages here, and the base of a transport system that once led to the surface.” He gestured loosely, in a different direction. “However, technologies cease to work mere feet above thedome. The exits are all blocked in a hasty, ugly manner, and thoroughly chewed where they pass through water.” Merulo looked affected, despite the depth of time that separated us from them. “Humans of the old world died here, trapped, under the eyes of monsters that should not exist.”
The leviathan above seemed playful, and not particularly monstrous. It skimmed along the glass, rolling on its side to fix an enormous yellow eye on us. I’d only ever seen them from a distance, breaching water in a flash of scale. Never with such intimacy.
“We must be so frustrating to it,” I commiserated, but the creature didn’t look upset, skimming over us again with a sweep of fins. Its colours were mesmerizing, seeming to change and ripple. Something occurred to me. “Does magic still work down here? Can we get out?”
“Yes.” Merulo sounded disappointed. “The deeper seas may have been spared transformation, but nowhere on this planet is truly clean.”
We sat watching the dance of the leviathan far above us, until the sorcerer regained enough energy to speak. “I grew up here. Before my mother was . . . Anyway, she sent us through a portal, myself and Hydna. It’s a mystery to us, how she discovered this place and restored its mechanisms, but it’s always been safe.”
A childhood spent underwater in a dead city. That explained a lot. “Are there other dragons in hiding?” I asked, testing how much intrusion he would allow by scooting closer on the bench. “In refuges like this?”
“We’re the last, Hydna and I.” The sorcerer let his head rest on my shoulder, and I tried not to react. I felt renewedappreciation for my man’s body, which had the breadth of shoulder to support multiple sorcerer heads if necessary. “My mother . . . she was alone a long time before stealing our eggs. She found us in a church vault. They must not have thought we were alive, else we would not have been allowed to remain in our shells. A grown dragon makes for a far more bountiful harvest than an egg.”
Seeing that this was a serious moment, I made myself stop grinning like a fool.
Merulo exhaled slowly through his teeth. “They burned her heart, Cameron, to make your prophecy.”
Burning the heart of a mother to destroy her son. “I’m sorry.”
Above, the leviathan tired of the novelty, drifting away into the sea that stretched endlessly in all directions.
“I lied, just now,” Merulo said, startling me. “Hydna and I, we are not the last.”
He withdrew his head, sitting straighter on the bench. “One other remains, a half-elf. Not a foundling like myself or Hydna, but the last remaining flesh of our mother. She is lost, though.” The rippling light softened the sorcerer’s jagged features.
I wasn’t sure how to respond to this confession. “Lost?”
“Raised by elves, a follower of the Church. Every year, I trade for information, but it never changes. Domitia remains theirs.”
“And she can’t be reasoned with?” The benefits of having multiple muscular dragon women on our side seemed obvious.
Merulo tipped his head back to watch the silver flashes of passing fish. “Hydna and I are in agreement: Domitia istoo dangerous to make contact with. Dragons cannot war with other dragons. That level of clashing power would end in disaster for more than just ourselves. No,” he concluded firmly. “Secrecy has kept us safe down here.”
“Except you’re not anymore,” I said, in growing panic. “Secret, or safe. A field of knights watched a black dragon carry me away. And if the Church has somebody of your po—” I stopped and cursed myself. “Of your former power, they will find us. Even under all this water.”
The sorcerer looked far less concerned than the situation warranted. “I think not. This location has never been found. And I have never been defeated.”
I shuffled, unnerved. Had it been too much to hope that in draining his power, he had also lost his ambition? “You said—”
“A moment of weakness that will not be repeated,” he said briskly. “I am not defeated. This world will be restored, and God will be slain.” A pleading note entered the sorcerer’s voice, which hurt to hear from such a proud man. He fixed his single black eye on me. “Do you believe me, Cameron?”
Never had I been more grateful to be free from the truth spell. “I do.”
