Eventually, she gave up hope of struggling and just hung there. Allowing him to rub the mashed up eels all over her body before he nodded. "Good enough."
And then he dropped her.
She tried to swim. She really did. She kicked her feet and her arms desperately, trying to do the same movements she had seen countless people do in her life, but none of it got her anywhere. Maybe, for a few moments, she floated. She could feel that something had changed, but then there was a tug of the current against her body and she was sinking once more.
At least, until a new arm wrapped around her waist and hauled her through the water.
With a shocked sound, she looked down to see a yellow arm around her this time. She looked at the undine with wide eyes, trying to understand what was happening to her and why she was being passed off to yet another captor.
"The scent will make it harder for him to track you," he said. This one grinned as if this entire situation was one big adventure that he was just happy to be part of. "And now Arges will head off to lead him in the other direction. Do you know how hard it was to get him to agree to be the bait? He likes to control everything, but he's the third biggest after Fortis and Daios. And obviously they had to be the ones to get Proteus put down in the sea."
She made a choked sound at the last bit. Put down? Had they killed him?
This undine looked her over and rolled his eyes. "Not like he's dead. He's a god. I don't think anything can kill him, and if it can, it's not going to be a little pufferfish poison. Or a lot, as it was. Took us weeks to get that much, you know."
The breath she'd sucked in all came rushing out as one. At least this one seemed a little more inclined to speak with her.
"Where are we going?"
"Home," he replied. "You're going to meet the girls, and I'm just going to drop you off. Don't worry, not much longer now."
Not much longer felt like ages passed. There was nothing in the sea he dragged her through. No creatures, no light, just the never ending darkness that he apparently knew how to get through. Until the water turned lighter blue, and then a city appeared in front of her.
It wasn't much of a city, she'd admit. But there were many domed buildings. She counted at least thirty as they swam by. Not to mention the homes of the undines that were... well, more than she'd expected.
At first, all Ellie noticed were the spiraling stones that marked the sand far below them. But then there were things thatlooked like corals, dead corals now that she had seen live ones, but they were definitely coral built upon each other. Making it so that the homes were twisting tunnels. Now that she'd seen one, it was easier to pick them out. Some of them even had undine in them.
One she could see a huge tail hanging out of it, and a plume of dust then erupted around the tail as though they were digging something out inside. From another, a small child darted out while his mother rushed after him.
There was a riot of color here. All the undine turned the blue and yellow sea into rainbows. It was beautiful, remarkable, and, honestly, like something out of a fairytale. She might have been more impressed if she hadn't been kidnapped.
The yellow undine brought her to a central location and deposited her outside. Then he gestured for her to go up into what was very clearly a moon pool above their heads. "Go on."
Ellie sank down onto the sand and stared up. With a kick of her legs, she tried. But the water didn't work with her and no matter how hard she propelled herself, she sank right back to where she started.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, trying again. "I'm sorry, I'm really trying."
Clawed hands grabbed onto her waist. And instead of the judgement she had expected, his expression remained soft. "I didn't know you couldn't swim. You could have asked, you know."
With a gentle push, he brought her up to the surface and held onto her waist until she'd grabbed onto the edge. Only then did she feel his hands leave her sides and then the water movement of him darting off somewhere else. Likely to keep Proteus off the scent of this place.
More hands grabbed onto her. This time, though, they were hands that were decidedly more human.
"Finally," the grunted words were angry as she was pulled out of the water and left on the floor unceremoniously. "Took them long enough. Now the clock starts ticking."
"Alexia." The scolding tones were from another person, but Ellie was so caught up trying to get the damn rebreather off her face, she couldn't hazard a guess at who spoke. "Really. You could be a little more delicate about it."
"I have never been accused of being delicate."
"You could give it a try. You catch more bees with honey."
"Bees have been extinct for years, Anya."
Finally, Ellie got the rebreather off and then ripped off her fogging goggles as well. She tore a good chunk of her hair out with the movement, and that left her wincing until she could finally see who surrounded her. The people who were revealed surprised her though.
It was just two women. Two women she definitely recognized.
"You?" she said, confused. "But... but you were the ones who sent people to the facility to work with us."
