Sea of Dekatos

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

“Are gods creations of our minds, or are we drops that spilled from the minds of gods?”

-- Sento of Yang

Fangshao brooded. It was during these moments that his mind achieved its greatest clarity and was most receptive to new thoughts. The soft skins were assembling a collection of ships. Fangshao himself had swam into the new river between the seas and seen their tall masts over the horizon, looming like a coming storm. Swimming back to the upper sea, his mind turned the problem over, mentally handling it and examining the possibilities. It was exciting, like a game suddenly becoming real, the stakes life or death. The soft skins were becoming hunters.

Earlier he had left his silver Arkhaios unchained since it needed to be free to hunt fish. For a while it had nosed through a kelp patch, feeding on crustaceans and brine snails, until the death throes had come. In its pain it had taken to the air without him, but it weakened, unable to climb, its tail limp and dragging through the water. It relaxed its wings and glided through the air, graceful for the last few seconds of its life before impacting the water and sinking, never to rise again.

As Fangshao swam back to the pyramid he noticed that the upper seas were unusually empty of Benthics. A small fishing ship drifted over the sea, and he swam to it, pulling himself aboard. There was no one aboard. He leaped over the side, not wanting to waste time. The torrent of bubbles around him cleared and he saw no Benthics undersea. 

He grew tired from swimming in armor and so settled onto the bottom and began walking. The new river had been the opening move in the great game he had started, allowing the Tante to reach the soft beasts. The Benthics had been ordered to guard the river, but there were none present, a violation of Fangshao’s orders. He had intended for the Benthics to form a trap, laying in wait, surfacing in the night and clambering aboard any soft skin ship that lingered over them. Now, however, as he walked along the bottom surface of the river bed, with fish swimming past him, he saw no signs of the Benthics. It was one of the rare occasions that the Nobles had been disobeyed. Fangshao himself had learned that the best way to discipline the Benthics was to kill half of them. The remaining ones usually worked more efficiently.

Soon Fangshao was back in his home waters, the sparkling blue sea warming his heart. Underwater, two armed Nobles stood guard, long pikes in their hands, warm sea currents drifting around them carrying bits of kelp and tiny fish. Against the resistance of the sea, slashing weapons were all but useless while thrusting weapons were extremely effective.

Fangshao removed his helmet before them and they managed to stand even straighter, only their gills working.

“Where are the Benthics?” he asked.

“Gone, master.”

Fangshao moved on, not bothering to berate them for their lack of insight. He did not want to walk the entire way underwater, as his brooding mind was alarmed by the sudden change in Benthic behavior, so he angled to the right, moving toward the more shallow areas. Glancing around, he saw another small fishing vessel farther toward the center of the sea, only a few minutes swim from his location. He swam toward it. 

Once beneath the fishing ship he swam upwards, scissoring hard with his legs. He reached the side of the ship and pulled himself aboard. It was deserted. There should have been Benthics working on the ship – since fishing was clearly beneath a Noble – but it was empty. The nets were missing, the hold was empty of stocks, and the boat was adrift. The penalty for abandoning a ship was death.

Fangshao hauled on the ropes and spread the sail, catching a light wind. He watched the sea, looking for signs of workers, but there was nothing except a glint on a nearby island. Sailing to it, Fangshao saw a battle between two armored Nobles.