"What in the trenches do you mean 'you don't know where the Kingdom of the Depths is?'" Ariel demanded when at last, panting, they reached the edge of the city limits. "I thought you'd been there before!"
It had been a very long night. Both Joe and Ariel knew more about the inner and outer citadel of the city of Atlantis than the king's guards, and disappearing into the winding streets and seaweed beds had been a matter of course. Towering pillars of coral buildings and estates spanned out in a spiderweb of the blended classes of Atlantis, making it nearly impossible to navigate without years of memorization. The confusing city plan combined with Joe's unparalleled speed had gotten the chief's contingent off their tails in the first few minutes; however, not half an hour later, the waters of the whole kingdom stirred in the precursors to an unnatural storm.
There was no doubt the guards had reported her alleged kidnapping to the high king. Ariel could feel her father's anger in the riptides that hunted them through the city, bending signs, and snapping seaweed strands around the path of their escape. Without Joe's strength to pull her through the currents, or his uncanny ability to see through the churning waters, she would have been dragged back to the palace as easily as a piece of driftwood caught in a whirlpool before they'd even made it to the city's outer rings.
The ripping of the magical tides summoned by her father's trident slowed their progress, and although they still managed to span the miles of the kingdom's three rings in just that night, Ariel had no doubt that Joe could have had them a good portion of the way across the Pacific if he hadn't been so encumbered.
"Didn't you wonder why your father was having such a hard time getting a hold of King Cetus' fins when he sent courtship messengers?" Joe replied, face flushed purple with exertion once they'd finally exited the reach of Triton' storm.
Picturing what her geography instructors had taught them about the other kingdoms, Ariel couldn't recall much at all about the Depths. All they'd really learned were the types of creatures that were down there—and usually those creatures were used to fuel the nightmares of mer-children and keep them in bed at night. Realizing she'd never really learned what was really true or false about the seventh of her father's fief kingdoms, Ariel couldn't help feeling stupid.
"No," she said simply.
Joe grunted, unsurprised. "It's not exactly a shock that what Triton would let you learn about it would be different than what the sea-witches say…"
Ariel winced. Joe was usually so careful never to mention Ariel's father, all things considering. Ariel knew her father's laws made things difficult for Joe and the other cecaelia, but it was very rare moments like these that gave her glimpses into just how much—let alone why. The reasons for the Mer-Cecaelian war were rarely discussed in the palace, and Joe wouldn't tell her anything either, always claiming that what he'd heard from Ursula couldn't be trusted. Though her curiosity burned within her, it didn't escape Ariel that Joe hadn't exactly answered her question.
"If you don't know where it is, and if most of the mer in the palace don't know where it is, then how do we find it in three days?" she asked more bluntly.
Joe was unperturbed, and her concern only made him more determined. Though he must have been tired from the exertion, he pulled them steadily forward over the edge reefs. "I know the general way, and I know that it starts beyond the dropoff."
Ariel's brow knitted together in confusion. Even if she didn't remember its exact location, it wasn't exactly easy to hide an entire kingdom. One either knew where it was, or didn't, right?
"Starts?" she moaned, pulling his fingers from his grasp. "You mean, all we have is—This smacks of doom, Joe. In fact, there are all the precursors of doom. We have a curse, an impossible time limit, half the ocean is after us, and I can't imagine Ursula is too happy with your disappearance either, so add one annoyed sea witch into the mix."
"What, is that all? Where's my cheery princess?" asked Joe, taking her hand again in an imitation of the royal ballroom invitations and changing their direction. Though she was still breathing hard from their swim across the long-way of the kingdom, Joe's breathing had already returned to its normal rhythm, and once her hand was back in his, she knew their break was over. As Joe pulled her further along the border, the dropoff loomed into view, and both were careful to keep even a fin from crossing the border-lines back into Atlantis where Triton' currents would sense them.
"Don't call me that," she grumped at the back of Joe's head, following as best she could. "What about Ursula, Joe? You don't think she'd help the guards track us?"
"Ursula has other things to deal with for the next few days—at least, she had better," Joe said darkly enough that Ariel didn't pry further. "The depths have been more private and guarded since…for the last couple of decades I can get us most of the way there, and the rest, we'll have to find on our own."
Ariel didn't have the breath to question him further as they sped toward the open emptiness of the dropoff.
The entrance to the trenches was a dramatic transition from the shelf of lively reefs to the abyssal plain, forming a steep, nearly vertical slope that plunged deep into the ocean floor. The familiar light blue hues of the waters she was familiar with deepend into rich shades of indigo and navy as any light left from the setting moon struggled to penetrate beyond the friendly ocean floor that she knew. Past a sandy shelf, the ocean floor suddenly descended into darkness, and far too soon, they were swimming over an endless walls of which would dwarf even the tallest mountains on land.
Something about this place made her feel small and weak, and desperate not to be spotted. A cold shiver rippled down her spine and tail when they reached the edge, as the first tendrils of icy waters reached her scales,and instinctively, she shrunk closer to Joe's warm torso, wondering how he could be so unaffected, when a dark thought occurred to her.
"Joe, I'm a mermaid," she said, quieter than she needed to.
Joe barked a surprised laugh that echoed oddly over the empty water. "Yes, I'd noticed. Something about the tail gives it away. The tail, the fins, the talent for cheek." He flicked her nose with one of his tentacles.
Ariel found herself rolling her eyes at him in a very un-princessly fashion. "No, I mean, I'm a mermaid. I can't deep-dive like you can. Even if we knew where to go, the pressure would kill me. The ambassador from the depths had to drink a potion just to come up so far from the surface—and," she recalled aloud, "he had to keep drinking it throughout the party. There's no way we could find ingredients to brew something for three days…" Suddenly, her gills were finding it harder to take in the water as she looked into the black abyss, and if Joe hadn't pulled her back to his side, she might have stopped breathing altogether.
"Oh, do calm down, Ariel. That's the least of our problems." Joe didn't hold himself back from an eyeroll. Joe was never biting or sarcastic with her, and it showed just how much exerted to get them out of Atlantis. "Yes, there is a way for you to get to the depths. It'd be pretty hard for Triton to marry off his daughter to its king if there wasn't a way for her to live there."
"And….and the monsters?"
There, Joe really did laugh. "Monsters? What have they been teaching you in the palace?"
Ariel huffed, forgetting some of her fears, though something in her chest pulled a little when Joe released her the moment he saw she was feeling better. "Okay, o great master of magic. How shall I follow thee to the depths and back?"
Joe raised one lofty silver brow. "I'll have you know, it wasn't a potion the ambassador was drinking, although he certainly didn't have to drink it all night, as you say. He'd have been fine with a taste or a breath of it, and that should have lasted him the whole next day. I suspect he was doing that to be dramatic."
"You think he wanted everyone to think his journey was much harder than it was."
"Quite possibly," said Joe, looking impressed. "And, don't worry, any cecaelia can get to the depths. It's really the last safe haven for us."
Ariel's heart twinged a bit at that. "I will change that someday," she promised without thinking, but even she didn't know if that promise really held water. Of her sisters she held the least power in the palace, and the thought that she would someday be able to change anything for real would have been laughable to anyone else, but Joe only accepted her claim with a solemn:
"I'll hold you to that."
"If I'm not in love with a sodding eel," she amended.
"And I will change that," he vowed with equal conviction.
She hemmed behind him. "Right, well, I'm still not cecalean," she said, swimming closer again and nudging him with her elbow, "so if you want to get rid of me, there are easier ways. How are we getting down there?"
Joe made an odd puckering expression, and then blew a stream of black ink into the water from his mouth. Ariel coughed when the dark cloud hit her face, swatting at him annoyedly, but Joe dodged and fixed her with a mischievous grin.
"Cecalean ink will let your body adapt to any pressure, and as long as you have me near you, it's in relatively infinite supply. You should react to the pressures with as much natural protection as I do."
"And here I thought it was only good for binding dubious magical contracts," she cleared her throat, her gills struggling a moment with the black water, but as she breathed it in, her body warmed, and she grew more comfortable, and even without entering the pressured water, she already felt warmer, lighter, and breathing became easier.
"I'll have you know it's good for all sorts of dubious things," said Joe, observing her progress with some satisfaction.
At last, she smiled.
"Well then, we're just going to…swim down there?" She leaned over the edge of the dropoff. Even with the new warmth surging through her veins, the looming darkness was intimidating, and she found herself leaning closer to Joe. He was the only other thing besides her in the vast, open expanse, and something about the gaping trench wall reminded her of a gaping jawbone, ready to swallow her up.
"I thought I'd find you two here," growled a voice from the last pieces of reef behind them.
Joe rounded on Adin much more calmly that Ariel did.
"Adin, how did you follow us so fast?" Ariel gasped, taking in Adin's irritable scowl, and official regalia. Adin was in the full uniform of her father's guard, complete with the greed tunic of the Atlantean palace, a helmet and visor, protective breastplate and pauldrons, and a narrow spear the length of one of Joe's tentacles. He wasn't pointing the weapon at them—but only just. Adin's eyes were red-rimmed from too much salt exposure, and exertion. "We barely made it through the citadel, and I had Joe to—"
"Why didn't you just come back, Ariel?" Adin snarled so viciously that Ariel jumped back in confusion. She'd never seen Adin this angry. "And for that matter," Adin continued, picking up speed in his rant. "Why didn't you just call for the guards? I would have come? Do you know how easy it would have been to keep anyone you didn't want around from approaching you? We could have come! I could have come. All you had to do is shout. You didn't have to go and get kidnapped!"
"I wasn't kidnapped, Adin," Ariel scoffed. "You think that Joe would kidnap me?"
"I think Joe would do a lot of things," Adin said dangerously.
"I'm swimming here telling you that he didn't! He's helping me, Adin!" Ariel cried.
"There you go, you've heard it from the princess, herself," said Joe, holding his hands up.
"I also heard from the princess just hours ago that she was excited for her engagement! What's this change of heart? So soon? It's suspicious." Adin growled. "Ariel, just come with me, and I'll return you to the palace. You can explain to the others what happened, and they'll call off the hunt. If we both vouch, then maybe Joe can get off easy."
With that, Adin made a grab for Ariel's arm and tried to pull her away, but Joe quickly moved in front of her.
"I'm not being kidnapped," Ariel repeated from behind Joes' shoulder. "And, I can't go with you! Joe's helping me break a curse the prince put on me! We don't have time for this!"
"You know what I think?" Adin said, "I think Joe is a Mage, and Prince Ellian is from royal blood. If anyone potioned you to change your mind like this, Ariel, who do you think is more likely to have done it?"
"You're accusing Joe?" Ariel gasped.
"Adin," Joe growled in front of her, and there was something wild in his tone that made Adin and Ariel both flinch back. "Be careful what you say. I've been patient, but Ariel really doesn't have time for this. Sunrise comes any minute, and the prince's spell takes hold again. We have to go."
Ariel was sure that Adin would be more understanding. Afterall, he'd known Joe nearly as long as she had, even if they hadn't spent as much time together, but she saw something steely and unfamiliar flash in Adin's expression, and the only warning for his actions was the grip he tightened on his spear.
Adin lunged for Joe, who neatly dodged.
Adin let out a scream of frustration and swam for him again, faster this time, and Ariel gasped when Adin lowered his spear toward Joe. Joe caught the weapon and swatted Adin away as easily as though he were swatting away a carp.
"Adin," Joe said again. This time, it was a warning—one that Adin ignored.
He lunged for Joe again, Spear leveled at his middle, and Ariel stifled a scream. Joe, however, hardly had to move. One of his tentacles shot out to grip the spear, inches before it could graze his skin, and another caught Adin around the waist. With a sleek flick that hardly seemed to cost him any effort, Joe flung Adin over the edge of the dropoff into an unseen current.
"Aaagh!"
Before Ariel had the time to breathe again, Adin was being dragged down into the murky darkness below.
She stared after him, dumbstruck.
"We do have to follow him down there…" she said at last, the situation at last sinking in. Adin's attack, and Joe's reaction felt as surreal as the betrothal, and Ellian's suit, and the curse.
"He is your guard. I'm sure he doesn't mind scouting ahead," Joe responded dryly.
"How did you know that current was there?" Ariel said quietly, still staring at the spot where Adin had disappeared.
"I didn't," said Joe.
He chuckled at her blank stare.
"I guessed," he amended. "I did say I knew where to start, yes?"
When enough time had passed, Joe held a hand out to her, and though the invitation held no threat, she trembled as she reached for him.
"Ready, Ariel? The sun rises soon. Once it does…" He didn't have to tell her.
"Right," she said with a shaky laugh. "Let's go find Adin, then?"
"Let's find you a cure," he rebutted.
Joe fastened her to him with a tentacle before the current could take them, gentlemanly enough to protect her face and eyes from the pounding waters. Together, they entered the current, and let it spin them downward, sucking them down into the blackness.