Four djinn stepped forward—two women with beautiful sea-green eyes and pale blue hair and two men with pale green eyes and emerald-colored hair. They were the fishermen of the Isle. Siblings with the strongest affinity for water. They’d been assigned to keep me safe.
“Cyleena will shield you,” Ramashi said. “She will keep you within a bubble of air. Uliana will protect Cyleena so that she can hold the bubble.” One of the guys inclined his head. Uliana, no doubt. “Reesha and Olin will lead the team that causes a distraction to lure Ilyapani away from the portway. They will keep the creature diverted for as long as they can but be prepared to retreat if she turns toward you.”
“There is a coral forest to the east of the structure,” Cyleena said, her voice soft and melodious. “It will shield our approach, and we can watch from there until Ilyapani leaves.”
“You’ll stay there until I’ve examined the portway and figured out how to activate it,” C’ael said to me.
“I know.” His ability to use transference made it safer for him to venture out from cover and activate the doorway.
Ramashi pulled me into a hug. “Good luck on the other side. I wish we could come with you.”
I hugged him back. “Me too.”
Gods I wished I could take them with me. To have backup as we exited the portway, because who knows where it would spit us out. Yeah, backup would have been nice, but this was our only way into the Aakash Sansaar. We’d have to hope we didn’t end up walking right into the primordial evil’s clutches.
“Let’s do this,” C’ael said.
I climbed onto the edge of the hull and dove into the water.
It waspeaceful under the sea. The silvery bubble around me kept me dry, allowing me to breathe and enjoy the wonders of the ocean thanks to the soft glow emanating from the ward around.
C’ael swam abreast of me, outside the bubble because he was unaffected by the water or lack of oxygen, and Cyleena and her brother Uliana swam on the other side of me.
The other water djinn would be to the west of us, making enough noise to draw the eel and her offspring toward them. Let’s hope Ilyapani took the bait.
Small colorful fish darted by, the undersea filled with sunlight. But the deeper we went, the darker it got, and soon only the light from my bubble cast any illumination at all. The radius was enough to stay oriented, but after a while, the darkness began to press in. The air getting heavier even though I was in the dome.
The silvery light pulsed, dimmed, then brightened.
I glanced over at Cyleena, and she smiled and nodded, letting me know it was okay. We stopped diving and leveled off, moving forward. The silvery light expanded to reveal a network of coral ahead of us, pink and purple bony branches rising up out of the gloom.
Water rushed past my air cocoon as Cyleena drove the pocket forward, her lithe body swimming beside me. I was a strong swimmer, and I could hold my breath for several minutes, but there was no denying that being in an air pocket like this was much more pleasant.
What if the artifact wasn’t a portway? What if it was and we couldn’t activate it? Then why hide it here? Why have it guarded? The Authority had asked the people of Shantivan to leave it alone. It must be active, and it had to be a portway.
We slipped into the network of coral, the structure large enough to shield and swallow us as we wove between the gaps in the skeletal structure. What was the coral here made from? Was it the same as in my world?
A soft glow lit up the spaces between the bony branches of coral. There was something up ahead. It had to be the portway, and if it was lit up, then it meant it was live, right?
Uliana pushed forward, his long body cutting past me like a sword to take the lead, then vanish into the gloom beyond the circle of light cast by my air pocket. We slowed in his wake, then waited, suspended in gloom, surrounded by colorful fingers of coral.
Cyleena swam forward a little, a frown marring her forehead, and my stomach dipped. C’ael bumped my ward to get my attention, nodding to reassure me. But I kept going back to Cyleena and her frown. The shadows ahead moved. I tensed, then exhaled as Uliana’s face appeared in the ward light. He waved his hand to usher us forward.
Cyleena reached for me, her hand out in command, and I was pushed forward, my bubble picking up speed. The strange glow ahead of us expanded as the coral thinned. A massive circular stone structure came into view. At least thirty feet in diameter, it burned with blue light spilling from large crystals embedded in its surface. But there were several yellow crystals pressed between the blue. Unlit and dull.
There was no sign of Ilyapani the eel, which meant the distraction team had done their job.
C’ael pressed a hand to my air pocket, his gaze meeting mine in silent communication, then he vanished.
My gaze shot to the portway. He appeared there a moment later, tiny against such a monolith structure.
We drifted forward to the edge of the coral forest as C’ael swam along the circumference of the portway, his hands gliding over the surface. What was he seeing up close? What was he sensing?
Long moments passed, and a fist curled around my lungs, squeezing gently. How much time did we have before Ilyapanitired of her distraction and doubled back here? The water djinn couldn’t keep her engaged forever, not without risking their lives.
Something moved in the murky depths far to the west of us. A flash of something silver.
My breath snagged on a warning as a creature of scales and ivory teeth slid out of the darkness and into the light cast by the portway.
