The dark waters| ✓

30. DEEP SECRETS

It feels like I've landed into a movie.

A huge castle looms over us, with a globe in the centre and pointed towers that gives it the look of an eccentric crown. The globe is what facinates me the most. It is never of one colour, changing every once in a while. The walls are polished white marble that glistens. All around them are exotic multicoloured flowers that seem to dance in the water, negligent to what happens around them. Beautiful as it seems, it also has a dark vibe to it that makes me shiver.
There are no doors to enter it so I assume we are at the back of the castle

Suddenly,Dylan moves towards me and grabs my wrist. We dash towards the nearest rock. I look at him furiously. He points at the palace.
I look around the rock and I find a group of mermen marching across the wall. They look like Kai's soldiers, patrolling the palace grounds. They wear golden steel armours, that make soft clanging noise as they move swiftly in the water.

"How are we gonna get in?" I ask. "And where is everyone else?" I say as I looking around.

"I assume you had zoned out when I was explaining. There is a secret door that leads us into the castle. Let's go."

"Where?"

"I know where to go just-." He lifts his hand up. I look at him for some time before finally holding it. We reach the wall in a blur and run straight through it. I'm too surprised to even shout. By the time i realise what's going on, I'm already inside the castle. I leave his hand immediately and look around. This indeed looked like a castle outside, but inside it looks more like s a dungeon. The marble walls have faded to a dirty white colour and they also have some blood stains in some spots . There are tall portraits of creatures and grand underwater cities. The floor is made of black granite that contrasts greatly to the white walls. I look around and I find the others standing at the end of the long corridor. We quickly move towards them.

"How come there are no guards in this area?" I ask.

"This is the most secluded area of the castle. The castle is too big for Kai to send guards everywhere. And anyways he has become stupidly arrogant now. He doesn't care about anything. Let's go." Nerida answers. "Do you know where the prison is?"

"Yes. I've practically grown up here. Follow me." Dylan says.

We take right and Dylan leads us to a dark and dingy set of stairs going down. All of us move down, swift as a shark, avoiding any attention of the guards. The stairs lead to an empty dark corridor, which looks like it hasn't been cleant for a long time. It smells like stale water and has fungus near the corners. We slowly move towards the end of the corridor and stop. It splits on the both sides.

"There are prisoners on both the sides. Nerida, Alun, Tenise, Morgan and Leah, you go to the right and meet us right here in 15 minutes if you find him. Others follow me." Dylan says moving towards the left. Soon they disappear into the darkness and are nowhere to be seen. I turn around go into the other corridor. The corridor is narrow and as we walk further into it the darkness seems to be engulfing us. The corridor keeps getting darker until it's impossible to see anything.Nerida stops abruptly and removes a glowing vile of the luminous golden liquid. It lights up the entire corridor and I look away from it. We walk into another room that looks pretty empty. Then I see the bars. I move towards it and look at it closely. Llyr. He lies in one of the corner in torn dirty rags. His hair covers his face so that I cant see it and it is resting on his chin.

Odd there are no guards here.

"Llyr?" I say queitly.

He lifts his head up and looks at me with his sullen eyes. He looks weaker than I have ever seen him. There are bags under his eyes that make him look famished. His golden locks look like they have been cut abruptly  in an uneven way. I don't even want to ask what they did to him. I feel a sudden impulse of protecting him from kai.

"Lets go." I say.

"Whats the hurry." I hear someone say from behind me.I feel the hair at the back of my neck stand. I turn around slowly. A man in a silver armour stands at the door. The light of the liquid falls on his face making it look even ghastly. The light falls on his unnaturally sharp cheekbones and ears, his fluorescent skin on the face and lastly his deadly fangs. My heart skips a beat. My mind fuzzes with confusion at first. Then I know what do. I turn around and touch the cold metal of the bars. I imagine it breaking to my touch, releasing Llyr. The metal heats up under my touch. I open my eyes. the part that I had touched glows orange.

"Capture them!" I hear the merman behind me shout. Many more guards enter the room carrying weapons of all kind. Some carry long golden spears, some carry short daggers and some sharp glinting swords. I see nerida and others move in front of me and I hold up their own weapons. Nerida looks back at me, giving me a grin that has a glint to it. Just like her sword. In that moment she looked like a rebel, a warrior. They charge forward and I hear the sound metal clanging against each other. I turn back to face llyr. I close my eyes and try to open the cage again. It cracks open with a loud noise. I walk in and try to pull Llyr out. Being in water makes it easier for me to take him out.

I turn around. I see Nerida fighting with a guard who is at least a few feet taller than her. she moves he sword with lightening speed. she ducks a blow from the guard and thrusts her sword into his stomach and he doubles over. Red blood oozes out of him and spreads  around in the room. I look away and I realise this is the first time I have seen anyone die.  I look around and see that most of the dead. I pull Llyr towards the door, ducking occasionally from blows. I reach the door and swim out of the door. I hear the others coming behind and I sigh in relief. Everyone is alive. All the guards are dead. We reach the intersection of two corridors and see the other half of the group waiting for us their.

"Leah! are you fine?" Dylan says once we reach the stairs.

"Yes I am. lets leave. there must be more guards coming." I say panting.

We swim as fast as we can down the same corridor. At some time, I give Llyr to Dylan. we reach the wall that we entered through before. Everyone starts moving through it. Dylan stands near the wall and looks back at me.

"You can leave. I'll be able to come alone." I say. Nolani turns around me, gives me a thumbs and leaves. Dylan holds Llyr and together they leave next.

I close my eyes and prepare myself to swim through.

Suddenly,I feel a sharp pain at the back of my head.

And then my vision turns to darkness.