Chapter 16 #2
Then they saw Aurin, a glimmer of gold in the dark. He was suspended before her, so tiny in comparison. Incredibly brave or profoundly stupid, Tobin wasn’t sure.
Desperate, Fray murmured. If she had you, I’d be desperate enough to do something fucking stupid too.
Aurin glittered, shimmering like a diamond against the murky black. Lusca, Aurin said, his voice sounding distorted by the pressure. Let him go!
She let out a peal of surprised laughter that this tiny, dainty single cephamorph would dare confront her.
Then Marten, Arvid, and Lukas appeared out of the darkness behind Aurin, but Lusca laughed again, like a lion delighted that the lambs would come so willingly to slaughter.
Then a massive tentacle lashed upward, cutting through the dark like a scythe. Aurin twisted, just barely avoiding the strike, but the force of the displacement sent him and the Norwegians tumbling. Sediment and sand clouded the water just enough to give them cover.
Now, Tobin. We need to go now, Fray said, pulling Tobin along with him. They moved to the side, still aiming to attack from behind, careful to avoid the beak underneath her body, but poised to strike her mantle.
Tobin kept his protective shield around them as they moved through the murky disturbed water as one single unit as they snuck up behind her.
There would be no point in hitting her unless they had a harpoon handy.
All they had was Fray.
Give it all you’ve got, Tobin said.
He felt Fray gathering up a burst of energy—was charging the right term?—then Fray splayed his eight arms out, latched on to the base of her mantle, and released his electrical charge.
Lusca jerked away, but Fray managed to stay stuck to her back, still zapping her with shock after shock, and she screamed and flailed an arm or two, trying to swat him away.
Tobin aimed straight for her eye and was soon joined by Marten and Arvid. They bit and gouged, and Lusca bellowed, swiping and swatting, arms continuing to flail.
Tobin could see Aurin and Lukas trying to free Salem while hanging on as she thrashed in a rage. She reared up, trying to snap and bite at any of them who might fall off.
Then she stilled for a moment, and with a deep inhale, let out a shockwave that blasted outward, sending Aurin and Lukas flying. Tobin, Marten, and Arvid barely clung on, still gouging into her eye until she swatted them away, smacking them into the rocky cliff face.
The force of it rattled Tobin, stunning him for a few moments. He wasn’t even sure which way was up. Until he heard Fray...
Fray was still clinging on to Lusca’s mantle and sending volts through her.
She thrashed in all directions, her one arm that was holding Salem flailing in the wake of the whirlwind while trying to get to Fray.
She grappled with him, one long grotesque arm trying to coil around him, but he shocked her tentacle too.
Then she sent out a high-pitched sonic burst. It reverberated out of her, and Tobin watched, horrified, as Fray went limp and let go of her.
She unleashed a tentacle, punching him like a battering ram, and he spun out into the darkness.
Nooo!
Tobin flew at her, striking her eye again, and he drove his arms in around the giant orb inside the socket and pulled. Then Arvid was there helping, and Marten too. Lusca grabbed at them, but Tobin was latched on. If she pulled him, her eye was coming with him.
Then she paused and inhaled, and Tobin knew what was coming.
So he shot out his protective bubble, and instead of wrapping it around himself, or his friends, he pushed it over Lusca so it was just him and her.
And she froze.
He could see into her mind. An absolute horror show of blood and darkness, of yearning to spawn, desperation and hunger.
Eons of time and distance, of rifts in the fabric of earth, dimensions Tobin couldn’t begin to fathom.
The maw she was aiming for, the hellmouth she wanted to take Salem through, to lure them all into.
He saw it all. He saw such awful and terrible things.
He almost recoiled just to make it stop. ..
What have you done? she screamed, almost deafeningly loud. What have you done to me?!
You chose the wrong consortium, Tobin said.
The Norwegians all understood. This was their moment. Their one final chance to strike. While she was motionless, frozen, they had but one second to do this.
Marten and Arvid heaved in unison, and Lusca’s eye popped out with a macabre sucking sound. Lukas struck her other eye, and Lusca screamed an unholy roar.
Not a sound, not truly—but a vibration that tore through water and earth alike.
The Trench shook.
The vibrations, the sonic boom, felt like a sledgehammer to the head. Tobin fell away, his mental walls in tatters, and he tried to keep his eyes open, to stay awake.
He needed to find Fray, to make sure he was okay. He needed to keep him safe.
But sediment rose in choking clouds, turning the water into a storm of ash and sand, blinding and confusing, and his consciousness seemed such an unreachable thing...
He looked upward and saw Lusca, her might, her rage, and he wondered if this was how it ended.
But then he saw a bright red flash and heard another roar, something that sounded a lot like the fury of Ciaran. And a different boom, a shape that resembled Otis, Pania, Koa, and Te-Ariki.
Tobin wanted to watch. He wanted to see how this played out, but then Lusca’s scream cut off, the silence a negative sonic drop.
And everything stopped.
For a heartbeat—or something like it—the abyss held still.
A silence so loud, it rang in Tobin’s head.
Then the tension broke, and it felt like the ocean exhaled.
A glowing green circle came out of the sediment cloud, taking a shape that looked so familiar, that felt like love. And blue tentacles wrapped around him and began the impossible climb to the surface.