The Dark Shore (Atlanteans) (36 page)

“T-shirt god,” I said. Seven raised an eyebrow at me . . . and then she laughed.

“I can’t believe that joke just worked,” said Leech.

“The patch looks good,” I said to him.

“Yar,” he replied.

Seven grabbed my arm. “Come on, boys. Time’s slipping into the infinite.”

We crossed the plaza. The sky was inked black, yet luminescent, with a general glow of the city in the humid air. There were smells of spicy food, the tang of crushed limes. Tables had been spread out across the cobblestones and people sat in amber light from torches and lamps, their conversation mingling with the clinking of glasses and plates. Behind them, entryways invited secret conversations. The din blended with the moisture, and you felt like you were in it, afloat.

“I was gonna ask Lilly to come,” Leech said, walking on one side of me while Seven was on the other, “but I couldn’t find her.”

“I saw her. She’s not coming tonight. And not when we leave, either.”

“She’s not?” Seven asked. She sounded genuinely surprised. “Ah, she’ll come around. I’ll talk to her.”

“I don’t think that’s going to work,” I said. I thought Seven would have been glad to not have Lilly along. Maybe she didn’t really mean it.

“What did she say?” Leech asked.

“That she wasn’t one of us. And she wanted to find her own way.”

“That sounds like her,” said Leech with a shrug.

“She hasn’t said anything to you, has she,” I asked, “about anything weird that’s been going on with her?”

“I don’t think so,” said Leech. “She’s asked me a lot of questions about what we’re up to, and about”—Leech indicated Seven—“but she didn’t really tell me anything else.”

“Here we are,” said Seven, stepping ahead of us.

We followed her through an area of tables to a low, rounded doorway. I saw eyes turning to us as we passed. This crowd was all quite a bit older than we were, old enough to be out at cafés among the bottles of wine and triangular glasses of neon-colored concoctions. There were dresses that matched Seven’s in shine and sheerness, and men with sun-darkened faces and hair swept back, wearing open-collared shirts. Leathery smells of cologne mixed with floral essences. Compared to them, I felt too young, like, what were we doing here? Even Seven looked too young for this, but she didn’t seem to feel it, or let on that she felt it.

Inside was dark. A trio of musicians made concussions of sound from the corner: a heavy hollow bass guitar, a small metal instrument with high-pitched, tinny strings, and some sort of electric console, making square, synthetic tones. The result was something both new and old, with the thump of wood and the buzz of electricity.

Seven led the way through a crowd and we reached a chipped wooden bar with a pink glass top.

“Hey, Stefan!” she called. The bartender turned around.

“Seven.” He smiled.

She flashed her most disarming grin. “Is tonight the night?”

Stefan, who was at least ten years older than us, laughed to himself. “I’m sure you could handle it,” he said, “but, no, this is not the night I get you a drink. The Good Mother would cut my throat.” As he said this, he leaned over the bar and his hands slid out to meet Seven’s. Their fingers intertwined for just a moment, and I saw something was passing between their hands. A little parcel. Seven slipped it into one of the claw slits in the side of her dress.

She shrugged. “You are not wrong about the Overprotective Mother. Have you seen my people?”

“Not yet,” said Stefan. “Have a good night, and be safe.”

“Not a chance,” said Seven. She turned to me. “You won’t make me be safe, will you?”

I tried to smile like I was carefree, easy. “We’ll see.”

“He won’t,” said Leech, punching my arm. “Will he? Now where are these friends of yours?” He scanned the crowd.

“I thought you had a girlfriend,” I said to him.

“Paige?” Leech asked. “That was another life. You know where we are now? Here.”

“There they are!” said Seven.

Three people our age arrived: a guy and two girls. Seven introduced us to Kellen: brown-skinned with solid muscles and a kind of goofy grin, his hair spiked and green. He had spiraling tattoos down his bare arms. Marina was beside him. She had shiny red hair and wore a black strappy dress.

“And this is Oro,” Seven said, specifically to Leech. “And this is the Atlantean L—”

“Carey,” said Leech, gazing at Oro. “How’s it going?”

“Hey.” Oro had dark features and a coating of shimmer similar to Seven. Her night-black hair was gathered in multiple ties and twisted like a serpent around in front of her neck and over her shoulder.

“What’s up?” said Kellen. We shook hands and then Oro leaned in and gave me a hug. Her cheek hit mine like I was supposed to kiss it and I managed to pull it off.

“So, Chaac’s Cove,” said Seven.

“Are we shining?” Kellen asked.

Seven nodded. She tapped the side of her dress. “Got a fresh batch.”

“Nice,” said Marina.

Seven turned to me. “Let’s do it.”

I smiled back, but inside I couldn’t help worrying how far in over my head I was about to get.

We left the club, crossed the plaza, then headed down side streets, our guards trailing behind us. Leech and Oro were talking, and he’d already made her laugh twice. Seven chatted with Kellen and Marina about friends and school. They all went to what sounded like a small academy, maybe for the kids of important people.

The air began to smell of salt. We turned down a narrow street, where alcoves to either side led to quieter, more anonymous looking cafés and bars, the kind of places where adults kept shadows as company.

Up ahead there were spinning white lights and the deep thump of drums. Bundles of torches framed a guarded entryway. A sign stretched overhead reading
CHAAC’S COVE
. There was a line of teens waiting to get in, but Seven marched us up to the front, where we were given wristbands and ushered through.

The sand-covered path was lined with flickering torches and twisted through thick trees. We emerged on a rocky bluff. The main pyramid was just up the coastline. A staircase made of logs zigzagged down the craggy black cliff to a half-moon of white beach tucked among rock overhangs. There were three bonfires raging, a band playing on a small stage at the far end, and teens everywhere, dancing to the band, around the fires sitting in clusters, and swimming in the white-capped waves, their bobbing heads looking disembodied.

“This is the only clean water in the whole area,” said Seven as we descended the steps. “Just a lucky break that a current wells up here and keeps the sludge line offshore. You’ll swim with me, right?”

“Yeah,” I said, feeling the vortex pull of her eyes again.

We reached the beach, submerging in the wash of the music and the wild dancing of firelight. Kellen and Marina headed immediately to a table of drinks. They came back with six cups, passing them around. I started to sip mine, a sweet, fruity punch with lime and papaya, when I noticed that the others weren’t drinking.

Seven fiddled into her dress, and produced the small square package. She flicked it open and dumped green pills into her palm.

“Time to take your vitamins!” she called over the pulsing music. She popped one in her mouth and slugged it down with her punch.

Leech was beside me. “You sure I won’t end up with someone cutting my heart out if I take this?” He was smiling as he said it.

“Relax,” said Seven. “We’re gods! We’re immortal! Besides, this is a small dose, not even close to what we use for liberation.”

“Right,” said Leech. I thought he sounded a little nervous. He caught me looking at him. “Yeah . . .” he said like he was reading my thoughts, “but you know where we’ll be in two days?”

“You mean on the journey?” I asked.

“Exactly,” he said, “Me neither.” He took the pill and washed it down. “Live bright!”

One pill remained in Seven’s hand, and her eyes were on me. I had a feeling of ropes pulling tighter inside me.

“You don’t really have to,” said Seven.

I nodded. “Right.”

“Here.” Seven held my pill up to her mouth and bit down on it. There was a crunch. She held half the pill out to me and swallowed the rest. “You’ll barely feel it, except in a good way.”

Everyone’s eyes were on me. “Sure.” I took the pill and tossed it in my mouth and washed it down.

“To the sacrificial ledges!” Kellen called, and he and Marina broke into a run away from us. I saw a line of people navigating a treacherous climb up the jagged rocks to an outcropping where they were flinging themselves off into the sea.

Seven took my arm. “Shall we?”

“Yeah.” Her eyes were already flickering, slightly similar to what I’d seen in the eyes of Aralene, the sacrificial girl.

We started toward the cliffs, trudging in the sand and after a few steps I felt it. My sense of where the world was around me had shifted. The ground seemed farther away, and like I wasn’t completely connected to it. When I looked around, the fringes of my vision blurred like billowing curtains. I felt like I was more floating than walking.

We reached the base of the cliff and Seven started peeling off her dress, firelight flickering off it. Beneath it she had on black skintight shorts and a straplike top. “Am I ready for action?” She struck a pose, fists on her hips.

“Definitely,” I replied.

Oro and Marina were wearing similar things beneath their dresses. Kellen had stripped off his shirt and shoes, down to just shorts. Leech did the same, and so did I.

We climbed up the black rock, its surface pocked with little scooped-out holes and ridged with sharp spines. Other kids were climbing up behind and ahead of us.

We reached the small ledge at the top. Kellen and Marina jumped almost immediately, Kellen pinwheeling his arms, Marina pulling off a graceful dive. They both disappeared into the abyss below, a swirl of black water and white foam. Oro jumped, followed by Leech. I watched as their heads popped up and they joined the others swimming around the rocks toward shore.

“Okay,” said Seven. “Ooh, you look worried.”

I gazed down at the turbulent sea. “I get these cramps,” I said, hating to admit it. “I drowned back at camp in less serious water than this.”

“But you never swam with a shark like me,” said Seven.

Lilly’s eyes were sharklike when we swam together, when we kissed
. “No,” I said. “Good point.”

“So don’t worry. You’re a god of the air, not the water. Let me take care of getting you to shore.”

I still felt like I wanted to say no but I also felt like my thoughts were slippery, like the channels in my brain had been greased by Shine. “Okay,” I said.

“Come on, we’ll jump together,” said Seven.

Tandem
. “Okay.”

She took my hand. I stared down into the dark sea, so much more wild than the lake.

“On three! One!” Seven’s eyes danced in the bonfire light. I was starting to see faint trails of light around movements. Sound seemed more distant, like I was in a wide room inside my head. I found a fleeting thought there.
Bye, Lilly . . .

“Two!”

Seven tugged and we leaped from the spiny lava cliff. We fell, speeding up, arms wheeling and I thought we were falling too far, the jump had been too high—

We slammed into the water. I pitched forward and water barreled up my nose, forced open my mouth, crushed against my chest; and there was foam, and salt, stinging, no sense of up and down in the dark with the waves rocking me around, the Shine making everything looser. I flailed, sure I’d be dashed on the rocks, bloodied and crushed.

Then Seven’s hand found my arm and she pulled me along, and I righted myself and kicked and we burst up through the surface.

Seven’s gills tucked away. “Woo! Nice!” Her face was joyous, an expression that, Shine or not, seemed so free, a pure version of her, no mask and no weight of her past or future. Just
now
.

I liked seeing that, and wanted to feel that way too. Like Leech had said, this was where we were, here and now. “That was great!” I shouted. We swam toward shore, and were gathered up by a swelling wave that tossed us to the beach. We tumbled forward and my feet hit sandy bottom and I lurched to my feet in waist-high water.

The bonfires seemed to have grown taller. Their flames like waving hands, the tips inexplicably green, leaving echoes in my vision. Above, the stars spun.

I saw Leech and Oro joking and laughing with each other. They climbed out of the surf and headed back over toward the cliff again. I looked around but didn’t see Seven.

Something slipped past my legs, and hands yanked me down. I dunked under and crashed against the sand. Ocean and light blurred and I lost track of my senses again. Seven slipped over me and our legs and arms intertwined, and then she grabbed my wrist and we staggered to shore.

“Gotcha,” she said, jumping up and smiling wickedly.

“No fair,” I said, getting to my feet.

“Oh yeah? Let’s make it fair.” Her hand flashed out of the water and a fistful of wet sand strafed my chest, stinging on impact.