A Kingdom Beneath the Waves by Bowles David;

Author:Bowles, David; [Bowles, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: Juvenile Fiction, fantasy, Action & Adventure, Aztec
ISBN: 9781925496000
Publisher: IFWG Publishing International
Published: 2016-04-18T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

As much as Johnny loved his sister, she was still recovering from a major beating and a spiritual visit from the Lord of Chaos. Better to leave her behind. Besides, he had no intention of actually facing off against the stupid water elementals if he could help it. His plan was to use stealth and shifting to sneak past them and get Ana free. A huge army at his back would just screw things up.

The tlaloqueh left a pretty clear trail of energy—all Johnny had to do was give his tonal free rein, and he was off like a shot, deeper into the trench. Of course, without the glow of the Archmage’s staff, he was plunged into utter darkness. Here, nearly one kilometer beneath the ocean’s surface, the light of the sun could never penetrate. Other than the occasional blue flash of luminescence from specially adapted creatures, the black of the Deep was absolute. Johnny’s triton form adjusted magically to the massive pressures and near-freezing temperature, but even his highly sensitive eyes were of no use in the trench.

His tonal, however, had no trouble navigating, even as a light flurry of what seemed snow began to drift across the elementals’ trail. Johnny experimentally stuck his tongue out and found it to be a gritty, slightly sweet substance. He knew instinctively that he could feed off it in an emergency, but he tried not to think too hard about where it came from or what it was made up of.

With no one to speak to and nothing to look at, Johnny began to reflect on his hot-headedness. When he and Carol had escaped Mictlan with their mother six months ago, he had dreamed of using his shapeshifting in the real world to balance the injustice he saw day in and day out. Then he had jokingly told his parents about his idea to become the Hispanic Captain America—Capitán de las Américas, he had quipped—and, well, they hadn’t been too receptive.

“Sorry, m’ijo,” his dad had said. “These powers are just too dangerous and too important for you to use that way. Plus, think about all the media and government scrutiny that would fall on the Valley.”

His mom had made him store Huitzilopochtli’s robe. “Olvídalo. What if Tezcatlipoca’s servants can sense you using it? Too risky.”

There had also been a stern lecture from Pingo late one night when he had snuck out to track down a particularly nasty trafficker who had recruited kids from Veterans as drug mules. “Twin naguales,” he had whispered after escorting Johnny back to his house, “are too valuable to the cause of Order to engage in petty human misdeeds. Can’t keep exposing yourself, partner!”

So for six months, his need to right wrongs had been building and building, the pressure becoming harder and harder to contain. His little prank on Cody Smith, that idiotic bully, had helped some, but his guts still roiled with outrage.

Now here was this really nice mermaid—intelligent, kind, brave, beautiful—getting caught up in the

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