The Sea Is Ours by Jaymee Goh Read Free Book Online Page A

Caliso let go of the tubes. She searched the water.
    The ground had fallen away from Mixa, and Caliso found her struggling to remain afloat in her magma suit within boiling, turbulent waters. Another
pop pop pop
, and Mixa yelped again, pushed further away out toward the open waters.
    Strange
, Caliso thought. The magma suits had been a light design, easy enough for anyone to swim back onto the shore, even in heated temperatures. Caliso began yelling for Mixa to swim back, directing her to the rocks, but found something wrong with the way Mixa flailed. It took a few moments to realize why she found this strange, and why she began to stare at the horizon in horror.
    The New Manila princess didn’t know how to swim.
    ~*~
    The waters buffeted Mixa further out into the sea, away from what continued to be an erupting volcano. The ground and arching rocks continued to shake, like carabao shedding the excess water from their skins. Besides Caliso, the siphon sucked in the water and gases, dispelling the water back onto the volcanic top whilst taking the gases up onto the airship.
    Captains did not have room for doubt. Yet Caliso stood there, staring at the horizon, at the struggling form of the young monarch, at the open sea filled with creatures poisonous enough to kill with a single, solitary brush of their skins. She stood, unable to make the decision to save or abandon. Mixa would not survive once she reached deep waters. If she didn’t sink by then, she’d be taken in by the jellyfish poison. Getting her back was a measure of risk no skeleton crew should have to take.
    Caliso remembered her fall only minutes ago, and the saving hand that guided her back onto the rocks. She saw in her mind the image of a young woman and the way she soothed a crowd of worried passengers. She recalled the conversation that passed between them, the young woman’s voice filling with passion and brilliance, of ideas that could very well change the way volcano chasers worked their equipment.
    â€œShe’s worth that great risk,” Dato would say, his reverence of the royal family clear.
    And perhaps he is right
, Caliso thought.
    It was a thought that brought her to a decision, so final and absolute that she had to stop herself from shaking, both with fright and anger. Fright for her life, and anger for being careless once again. She should not have brought Mixa down with her.
    She leapt into the water, her magma suit altering its temperature to neutralize the heat of the volcanized water. She kicked forward and swam, stroke for stroke, her helmet swiveling from side to side as she continued toward Mixa’s course.
    The underwater volcano eased her swim, yet it was still difficult to move. The magma suit would only last so long before the heat would sink in. Caliso did not have much time before the real temperatures would hit her, but she pushed that thought out of her mind, swimming further and further, toward the woman who was beginning to sink.
    She reached the fatigued princess and grabbed her by the waist, pulling her torso up so that her helmet was no longer half-submerged in water. Caliso heard the hard breathing and the panicked whimpers beneath the helmet, felt most of the fight leave Mixa.
    â€œKeep awake,” Caliso ordered, pulling at the waist and swimming with her other hand. “And
kick
the water back, you fool! Don’t make this any harder for me than it is.” It had been a stroke of luck that the captain made it to where Mixa had been. The New Manila princess was wading on dangerous deep waters.
    Mixa did as she was instructed, kicking the water in silence as Caliso continued to swim with one hand. Several times, Caliso heard the young woman let out a sob, then a prayer, and finally, a series of thanks for saving her life.
    Caliso winced, arm tingling from her sidestroke. “We’re not there just yet. Save your thanks for later.”
    She headed toward Esta’s team. The older engineer