The Blue Divide

Chapter 1

They were the strangest creatures Eko had ever seen. He watched as five of them scanned the seafloor with bulbous eyes linked together by a clear membrane. As a child, his father forced him to memorize every sea creature that came into the boundaries of Atlys. These were not on the list. Black seal-like skin, pale faces, yellow fins split down the middle to form two slender tails; and was that a tentacle branching out of their mouths?

One of them shone a light in his direction. He ducked into the saltweed and closed his eyes to a slit so their green glow wouldn't betray him. The creatures didn't appear to have any teeth, but that didn't mean they weren't dangerous. What was the purpose of the tubular shells on their backs?

Their minds were silent. Perhaps like fish, they were too stupid to form thoughts into words, or maybe they didn't want anyone to hear them. Still, it was clear they were looking for something. Whatever it was, they wouldn't find it in the fish fields. They'd picked the most boring place in the ocean to search.

They combed the bottom for a long time, and then regrouped and swam toward the light that came from the Upperworld. They became tiny silhouettes and then disappeared into the golden halo beyond merrow borders.

Eko pushed his fins against the seafloor and swam after them. The circle of light grew bigger the higher he went, and the ocean turned wonderfully warm. Could he make it all the way this time? He gulped in water, but it was so thin he couldn't get enough for a proper breath. He reached out his hand, hoping to feel it break the fabled surface, and then recoiled when pain stabbed his ears. He looked around for the creatures, but there was no sign of them. Like spirits of the dead, they had swum into the light and vanished.

He fell back and his hand drifted to his side as the circle of light shrank to the size of a crab shell. He filled his lungs with water and let himself sink to the seafloor. The light was barely a flicker now, and the fathoms of ocean overhead stripped the water of its delicious warmth. Whatever those creatures were, they were gone now, and it was time to get back to work.

He should have filled his quota hours ago, but every minute he spent calling fish was more unbearable than the last; every hour plagued him with the knowledge that nothing would ever change. Fish herders were fish herders for life.

He picked up his net from where he had left it secured under a stone. A stray lanternfish was entangled inside, flapping uselessly against the seafiber web.

"Hello friend," he projected his thoughts into the creature's pebble-sized mind. "Trapped?"

The light of its body pulsed rapidly.

Eko clenched the net and held it at eye level. "Some fat noble would pay me in pearls for a bite of you." He gripped it in both hands. A twist of his wrist and its spine would snap. He tensed his fingers and then paused when something flickered in its eye. He brought the fish closer and glimpsed his own face reflected there.

The lanternfish wriggled from his grip, but didn't get very far in the net. Eko watched it dart in every direction, searching for a way out. "I suppose I'm no better off than you are now, but at least you've known what freedom is." He took hold of the fish again. "There. You can die knowing you've made a merrowman jealous."

A scream stabbed his mind before he could make the kill. His muscles jerked and he dropped the net. The fibers fell open and the lanternfish fluttered into the forbidden plains beyond the borders of Atlys.

Eko didn't have time to curse. He gripped either side of his head as the scream slashed across his brain again. His eyes swept the plains, illuminating barnacled rocks and fingers of red algae.