Of Sea and Song by Chanda Hahn

Author:Chanda Hahn [Hahn, Chanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781950440054
Publisher: Neverwood Press
Published: 2020-06-29T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

My first impression of the Undersea was that it was cold and dark and lacked the expected seaweed smell. I shivered, and Vasili ran his hands up and down my arms. I waited to let my eyes adjust to the lack of light.

“Careful.” He held my hand, and we moved out of the water.

After a few seconds, I could tell we were in another fountain. I would have thought it was the same one, except instead of the king with the trident being the center feature, the Undersea fountain featured a woman holding the trident while the male sat by her feet.

“Why is it so dark?” I asked.

“Because it’s night here.”

“Really?”

He laughed. “Really. It’s daylight in the Overkingdom, but night here. Our kingdoms live in symbiosis of one another, except for a few exceptions, one of them being the passage of time.”

“Overkingdom?”

“That’s what the people of the Undersea call the Kingdom of Isla.”

“Ah, I see.”

Vasili dropped my hand and pointed to the sky, or what would have been the sky in our world. The ceiling was a black wall of ocean, and instead of stars, it was lit with floating jellyfish and bioluminescent fish.

“How is it we…?” I pointed at the wall of water.

“Aren’t drowning? Magic.” Vasili ran his finger over his ring, and it glowed and lit up. He held it up, and I could see it reflect against the magical barrier that held the water back.

An ominous shadow passed overhead, and I stared. My mouth hung open as a whale swam just feet outside the sphere of magic. Surely, it would crash through the watery ceiling, but it continued to swim and ignored the underwater city.

“This is amazing,” I breathed.

“Come, I promised you food.” Vasili led the way through the dark streets. At first, I thought it was gloomy. But that was because the city was asleep. When he walked past a coral formation, the coral woke up to his presence and began to glow, lighting the path in front of him. With each step we took, more rocks and even underwater plants came to life, reaching out to touch him and then going back to sleep once we made our way safely past.

Undersea guards stopped us in front of the red coral palace gates. Black shale and dark-green algae uniforms decorated their bodies that were accented by their muted purple-and-gray hair.

“Who goes there?” the white-haired guard challenged.

“It’s me, Warren,” Vasili drawled out lazily.

“Sorry, Captain.” Warren quickly opened the gate. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

Vasili’s shoulders dropped. “No.”

The coral gate swung inward as more troops lined the inner courtyard. Lanterns filled with colorful orbs of green magic lit the path. Where Isla’s palace shimmered with light, the Undersea’s dark stone palace glowed like a burning ember lit from within. The upper floors glowed purple, while the lower floors shimmered in colors of green. A very calming effect for the night.

Vasili came to the main doors, and he pulled out his flute and played a tune.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.