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Spires rose high in the water, seaweed dangled from the roofs, moving in the water's current like flags might have in the wind some long time ago.
"What is that?" I asked breathlessly.
"Attourna, the sunken city." He replied in a tone holding just as much veneration as I felt seeing the remains of the mystical city.
"I thought it was just a legend," I whispered.
Shadows moved between the decaying ruins of towers and houses and I stepped back, "Sirens," I hissed.
He laughed, "They like to live in the old places."
Fascinated I stared at the ruins, columns were slowly crumbling, but even now it was easy to see how impressive they must have once been.
"This is amazing. Did the Zuten really lived here?" I wanted to know, trying to come to terms with seeing a city everybody believed to only be a myth not even an hour from where Horn laid anchored.
"They did. Hundreds of thousands of rotations ago, before they angered the gods and were punished by being drowned with all their possessions and treasures, never to see daylight again," Myles remarked without any censor in his voice.
The city appeared endless as the submarine glided by. I wondered if Myles had ordered us to slow, because I was sure a ship like Myles's would have been able to go much faster.
Now and then I caught a glimpse of long orange or green hair, belonging to a siren, or a finned tail. "They're watching us."
"I like to let them know every once in a while that they're not the rulers of the undersea that they like to think themselves to be." Myles retorted.
"Why would they? You have submarines," I asked, honestly confused.
"Submarines are powerful and handy," Myles stated, "but not nearly as maneuverable as a single siren."
"Why don't send divers to remind them?" I was still confused.
"Divers?" Now he looked confused.
"You don't have divers?"
"Ney, Leandars can't hold their breaths long enough to make it down here."
His statement puzzled me even more. "But… if you use oxygen tanks."
"What tanks?" He took my elbow so I had to turn to face him instead of ogling the fascinating city that we still hadn't passed. "You better explain, seffy."
I could hardly believe that Leandars wouldn't use diving gear, they flew through space for crying out loud. Then again, they weren't that curious about their surroundings, war was what mostly drove them—defending against the Chrymphten and keeping their cities safe from Eulachs.
But Oceanus was a large, waterfilled planet, wouldn't the vissigroths before Myles have been curious enough to try and engineer diving equipment?
"It's a tank, filled with air, that allows the wearer to dive deep into the ocean and to explore it," I explained.
"Air bladders?" He nodded, seeming almost disappointed. "We've tried those, but the wearer has to carry many, many rocks to dive deep, the bladders want to pull him up. They're very cumbersome."
"Not air bladders, metallic air filled tanks, you can stay underwater with them for hours."
His eyebrows arched and his expression turned fierce. "You have those?"
"Not here, but on Horn."
"Turn the boat back," Myles barked into his palmtop.
We returned at once to a startled Nathan, whose happiness of seeing me quickly dissipated when Myles barked commands at him to bring him any diving gear Horn had in stock.
"Do you make your own?" He wanted to know when the first tanks were brought.
