"Something is wrong here!" Kamu said in a serious voice and stopped in the middle of the sea road, when the group of them had finally reached the gate leading to the northern sea. Or rather, they were within sight of the gate.
"What's wrong now?" Tele Tete rolled his eyes.
"They shouldn't be there." Ajtony also noted with narrowed eyes.
"What's wrong with the guards?" Physalis Alkekengi grimaced.
"They shouldn't even be here." The leader of the Immortal Mist said seriously.
"Well, we don't have much choice, we have to go down." Razvan shrugged, then simply continued on the road, with the Athamanas following behind. So their companions had no choice but to follow them.
In front of the gate leading to the sea, several men stood, seemingly without weapons, their clothing was completely identical and even their hair was combed the same. If their bodies had not differed from each other, the hegins would have thought that they saw five completely identical people in front of them. Although the hegins did not find the same color of clothes strange, since they also distinguish tribes by color. However, in Madüjawr, it is not prescribed that all tribe members have to wear the same style of clothes, not even the hegins. So the sight of the guards made them think a little.
"Stop! Identificate yourself!" One of the five guards present stepped forward. He held his right hand slightly to the side, as if he was signaling his companions to stay back, or waiting for a sword to appear in his hand.
"I am Tele Teveli, this is Physalis Alkekengi, my partner, and they are my students. We were sent from Floating Air Barracks. The young people are on a mission, I am their supervisor." Tele Tete took the lead and pulled a piece of paper from somewhere in his clothes, which he immediately handed to the undersea-walker standing opposite him. The guard immediately read the permission, then handed it back to Tele Tete.
"I understand. However, I must inform you with regret that the reason for your visit is not indicated. The empire is currently under partial lockdown, as such I cannot let you in without a proper reason." The guard announced, making the Athamanas look at each other.
"Are you sure we can't come to an agreement?" Citar suddenly spoke, making the guard glance at him, then his eyes widened and he looked at all the Athamanas, seeing that certain metal butterfly on each of them. For a few moments it seemed as if he couldn't believe his eyes, but finally he just grimaced.
"Ah, even the Amphibian Mullen gave you passports." The guard sighed. "Otherwise I would let you in,no matter that you came from him." He grimaced again. "Agreements are agreements, but as I said, considering the situation of the empire, I have to deny you entry without a good reason. That's the rule." The guard pulled himself together.
"I understand. Thank you for the information and Onegod bless you." Tele Tete nodded, then turned to the Athamanas and nodded, which the group repeated and they started back on the sea route.
"You?" At the guard's sudden voice, the Athamanas stopped and looked curiously at the guard, who was just eyeing Kamu. The ghost-man, however, just smiled and tilted his head to the side a little.
"Mukei Vietryk." He introduced himself.
"Szotradoki Ajtony." The sword ghost standing next to Kamu said indifferently. Hearing the introductions, the color literally drained from the man's face and the Athamanas were just thinking that he was going to faint when he took a deep, trembling breath before speaking.
"The reason for your visit, sir?" The guard groaned with great difficulty, but it was clear that he was trying to avoid the eyes of both assassins.
"Nothing!" Kamu announced with a grin, then turned on his heel. "Come on Ajtony!" He waved to his friend. "So what, you're not coming?" He asked the Athamanas, but without waiting for them to answer, he marched on.
"Why did it look like you were allowed in?" Tev asked his ghost-man relative when the group was far enough from the gate.
"Because if I had told him 'It's none of your business!' he would have let me in." Kamu sighed, then narrowed his eyes at the gate that looked like a small dot in the distance. "I knew they shouldn't be there." He shook his head.
"If you could have gone in, why didn't you?" The danovus lady grimaced.
"Because there's no point if they can't come." Kamu nodded towards the Athamanas. "I don't feel like writing off their garrison." He folded his arms in front of him.
"So what do we do now?" Ajtony asked.
"We'll go back and tell Weruh that the northern undersea-walker empire is closed." Tele Tete shrugged.
"Or we can find another entrance." Rahul said, making everyone look at him in surprise. "They sent us to find out what's wrong with them. It's strange enough for me that they're closed. We just have to figure out why." The boy explained.
"There's no other entrance." Kamu shook his head, as if it were such an obvious thing.
"How do you know?" Rahul demanded.
"I have diplomatic relations with them, I know the borders of their empire." The ghost-man folded his arms in front of him.
"Every place has other entrances." Rahul objected. "We just have to find it!" He said confidently.
"Do you seriously want to scan the entire sea now? We still have to go back to the Floating Barracks. We have to get a ship from somewhere." Kamu shook his head.
"That's too much of a waste of time." Razvan spoke seriously too.
"Don't tell me you don't want to go back either. We have no other option." Kamu scratched his neck and sighed heavily.
"Maybe there is." Razvan pondered aloud, then turned to the Motumisz boy. "Achilleus, you said you saw the undersea-walker empire on your map, right?" The Athamana leader asked.
"Yes." Achilleus nodded as he pulled out his map.
"Can you see if there is another exit?" Razvan asked, and Achilleus looked down thoughtfully at the roll of paper in his hand.
"It's worth a try." The Motumisz boy finally sighed, crossed his shoulders and legs, sat down on the sea road, then spread out the moon map in front of him, which to those present looked like a simple blank sheet. Long minutes passed in silence. Achilleus, here and there, ran his finger along the sheet. He shook his head, smiled, then grimaced. Then finally, with a wide grin on his face, he pointed to a spot in the lower left corner of the page.
"Did you find anything, mudbrain?" Benkó asked.
"Here! There's a cave here that will take you down. Southeast of here, probably on a small island, it's drawn like mountains when I look at the Zaukán cave systems." Achilleus explained.
"You say island?" Kamu pondered, then suddenly looked at Ajtonny.
"Cannibal Island!" The two assassins said at the same time, making the team look at them with worried looks.