Anastasia knew that once she promised, she wouldn't be able to come out of it. "I promise," she replied to allay his fears.
"Good," he said with relief in his voice and squeezed her hand.
Once they were all aboard the boats and riding the waves of the ocean, everyone fell silent. Tension was tangible. Every now and then Anastasia would let out a heavy exhale. Ileus held her hand and said, "If we don't return in two days, you will go back to the inn and wait."
She whipped her gaze at him. "What do you mean, Ileus?" she almost spat her words. "And what if you don't return in three days, four days or a week? Should I continue to stay or should I go back to Vilinski?" She felt her heart ache at his words.
He stared in her eyes with his warm golden ones. "I didn't mean it like that…"
"Then what do you mean?" she was extremely angry as her face hardened with the unknown that he was pointing out.
He looked away in the distance at the waves that were rising and falling. He knew that the moon was waning into a silver crescent tonight, so the tides would be low. However, Madox said that tides would be high. Did he scent a storm or was it because he sensed something untoward. A while later, he said, "Just stay safe Anastasia. I am going to leave you here with Darla. Though she is going to protect you with her life, stay low, okay?"
Anastasia curled her hands around his waist and leaned her head on his arm. He moved his arm up around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him. "I will…" she replied in a low voice. "But come back soon. And I hope that you find Iona."
"I hope so too," he said.
They reached Abra Heights by mid-afternoon as promised by Madox. Abra Heights was… heights. They were a congregation of steep cliffs that were so high that their peaks kissed the low hanging clouds in the sky. Waves crashed and broke around bare rocks, their foam cresting into chaotic noise and white tattered ribbon over the blue. They swirled wildly around the cliffs as if matching the thoughts of those sitting in the boats.
The boats were parked where the waves were gentler and the water led into a cave. Madox and his assistant threw the rope over a pole that jutted out from the shallow bottom in the cave. When Ileus and Anastasia stepped out of the boat, he said, "This is where I leave." With his chin movement, he gestured to the boy with him to come and sit on the boat. When the boy was with him, he said, "Be careful and try not to die. The steps to Zmjia are right over there," he pointed to the left of the cave. They looked over there and found steps cut from rocks beneath the water's surface spiraling down into the depths of the ocean. Anastasia shuddered and tried to mask her fear. "This place becomes active during the night, so better stay clear from here as soon as the sun sets."
They all watched Madox leave.
As soon as Madox was out of sight, Ileus gathered all the wizards into a group in the shallow waters. They were up till their knees in it. They chanted spells together. Soon they were covered with crimson and chartreuse shimmery lights. It was like each of them was surrounded by a protective bubble… like a wall…
Anastasia watched them all as hair on her nape rose. A bead of sweat trickled down her spine and she gulped. When Ileus looked at her from his bubble, he pressed his hand to the wall and mouthed, "I love you."
She blew a kiss to him and from the corner of eye saw Kaizan rolling his eyes. She smiled at him.
Darla was standing beside her with her arms crossed against her chest and watching Aidan with a clenched jaw. Aidan also looked at her and gave him a tight smile. She swallowed saliva down her throat as her chest tightened with fear.
The men walked to the stairs and Ileus led the group inside the depths. Left alone with Darla, Anastasia fell into silence. She watched the last one of them going down till she could only see water rippling and rocking the boat with their movement.
---
Ileus, Kaizan, Tadgh, Guarhal and Aidan walked down till they could. The lights around them shimmered and lit the way. It was easy to see the steps. But they wanted to swim rather than walk down the steps. That would take them fast. Ileus communicated mentally to all of them and they dove into the water and then with a speed like that of a missile they charged inside. They followed the steps till the last but once the last step was gone, they all stopped, not knowing where to go now. The ocean was dark around them and the visibility was less. Ileus pointed them to go further down. Their only option was to go straight down to the ocean's bed.
Even at the speed with which they traveled down, it took them several hours to reach the ocean's bed. They were tired and Ileus assembled them all in a group. As they walked together on the floor, they got frustrated for not seeing any sign of the kingdom of Zmjia.
Aidan said mentally, 'Let us split and check this area.'
'No,' Ileus replied through their mental connection. 'We are going to stay together.'
They must have walked for no more than half an hour when they were met with a school of fish. It was a large cluster of red and grey colored eel-like fish that swum and formed kind of a wall.
'This is Zmjia," Ileus said, as relief flooded his body. Their efforts hadn't gone in vain.
'How do we enter?' asked Kaizan. The lights around him were dimming just like Ileus'. Being werewolves, they needed more air to breathe as compared to the Mozias. The shimmery lights, each one of them trapped air bubbles, which they used for breathing.
The Mozias surrounded both Ileus and Kaizan and chanted the spells again to reconstruct the wall around them. They used every particle of air trapped in that depth to build it. Their spell seemed to spark interest in the fish. Some of them paused as if inspecting the disturbance.
'We have to break this wall,' said Ileus.
'Won't it alert them if we break their perimeter?' asked Aidan.
'We will take our chance. I am going to stun them. Kaizan, you will tear the wall where I have stunned them and we will enter there. It will be a short window of time because other fish will soon fill the gap within seconds.'
'Okay!' said Kaizan and positioned himself near the wall.
Ileus stunned the fish using his magic and Kaizan tore them apart. Before other fish could sense the disturbance, the five were inside Zmjia.
'Now what?' asked Kaizan.
'The prisons must be on the periphery,' said Ileus.
'But would they keep Iona in a prison?' Kaizan countered. 'She must be well protected.'