Chapter 24 #2
“That’s a whole lot of warrior crammed in that seat.” Quin chuckled. “Comfortable?”
“Extremely.”
“That grimace says otherwise.”
“This is my expression of complete contentment.”
“Right.”
I settled my palm over the sphere and pinged the comm. Zikkar, the tech on duty, answered from the control center inside the palace, granting me clearance through the dome.
Above us, the translucent shielding shimmered. The distortion moved outward in widening circles until a small portal appeared near the top of the dome, no more than a dark opening against the pale morning sky.
“You do know how to fly this, correct?” Quin’s excitement sharpened into nervousness as I increased the craft’s power.
I looked down at her.
Her eyes narrowed. “That hesitation did not inspire confidence.”
“I was deciding how offended I should be.”
“Vennox.”
“It is safe.” I curled my fingers slightly against the control sphere. “Vallon and I spent the whole of the dark hurs flying across Valose while he taught me.”
“You just learned to fly this thing last night?”
“Yes. During the previous suns-fall,” I said, guiding the sphere upward, and the craft lifted without sound.
Quin’s hands shot forward and flattened against the transparent hull as the ground dropped away beneath us.
Rows of rovers and Gretolic craft diminished below, followed by the pale pathways and clustered huts of Huren.
The palace rose at the city’s center, its towers catching the first full light of the twin suns while the translucent dome cast a faint wave over everything beneath it.
“Oh my God,” she whispered.
The open portal widened as we approached. I kept the craft steady and guided us through the center. For a single breath, the shimmer of the shielding slid over the hull like a ripple of heat. Then we were outside.
Quin looked down through the floor as the portal sealed. The dome became whole again, its curved surface barely visible except where the suns-rise shone across the shielding.
“That was amazing.” Her hands remained planted against the hull as if she feared the transparent surface might disappear beneath her palms. “Terrifying, but amazing.”
“I told you it was safe.”
“You told me you learned to fly it a few hours ago.”
“I’m a fast learner.” I laughed at her wry expression and angled the craft east.
The jungle stretched beneath us in an endless expanse of silver trunks and luminous blue foliage.
From above, the canopy appeared almost solid, broken only by the occasional rise of an enormous yulin tree or a wetlock sweeping over the treetops in the distance.
The new light of the twin suns moved across the leaves in broad waves, dulling the last of their nighttime glow while deep shadows remained trapped between the layers of vegetation.
Quin leaned forward until her face was inches from the hull. Her earlier nervousness vanished beneath pure fascination.
The trees gradually thinned as the land sloped toward the eastern coast. Dense jungle gave way to lower growth clinging to pale cliffs, and then the Caspeen Sea opened before us.
Dark blue water stretched to the horizon. Beneath the twin suns, light broke across the churning surface in fractured silver paths, each wave catching brightness before collapsing back into deep blue. Far below, the sea hammered against the coast in rolling lines of white spray.
“So beautiful.” Quin drew in a sharp breath. “Where are we going?”
“You will have to wait and see.”
“Ugh.” She released a long, dramatic groan. “I hate surprises. Can’t you give me a hint?”
“You do not appear displeased.”
“I’m reserving judgment until I know whether your surprise involves something trying to eat me.”
“Nothing will eat you while I am present except for me.”
Heat crept into her cheeks. A slow, lopsided grin tugged at one corner of her mouth, and she regarded me beneath hooded lids.
"Well..." She cleared her throat. "As long as it's you, I suppose I can live with that."
The bubble craft dipped slightly before the guidance sphere compensated beneath my palm.
"Eyes forward, pilot." Quin laughed.
I returned my gaze to the flight path, unable to suppress my grin. "Yes, my female."
She shifted on the cushion to get a better view of the water beneath us, one hand still pressed against the hull while the other rested near my leg.
We flew farther from shore. The Caspeen Sea darkened beneath us until its depths became impossible to judge. Swells rolled in broad, powerful lines, rising and collapsing without any land to break them.
“Squidlin live in these waters,” I told her.
She looked up. “What are squidlin?”
“They are carnivorous and possess many tentacles. Some are long enough to seize a male from the shoreline.”
“You’re kidding.”
“I am not.”
As though summoned by the conversation, the sea erupted several hundred fates to our right.
A massive tentacle breached the surface, dark and glistening as it rose above the waves.
The appendage curled through the air, exposing rows of pale gripping discs along its underside before crashing back into the water with enough force to send spray high into the sky.
Quin scrambled onto her knees for a better look. “Holy shit.”
The sea boiled where the creature had disappeared. A second tentacle surfaced briefly, farther away, then vanished beneath the dark water.
“That looked like every sailor’s nightmare rolled into one creature,” she said. “On Earth, there are old stories about enormous sea monsters called krakens. They were supposed to wrap their tentacles around ships and drag them beneath the ocean.”
“A kraken?”
“People believed they lived in deep water and attacked sailors. Most of the legends probably came from sightings of giant squid.”
“Your people have squidlin as well?”
“Nothing like that.” She stared at the water with equal parts terror and fascination. “At least, not that we know of.”
I guided the craft higher as another disturbance moved beneath the surface. A shadow longer than several huts passed beneath us before fading into the deeper blue.
“You must never wander too close to any shoreline,” I warned. “A squidlin can reach several fates inland. The coast may appear empty, but the creatures wait beneath the surface.”
“How several are we talking?”
“Far enough that a warrior who believes himself safe can be taken before he draws a sword.”
Her excitement dimmed slightly. “Has that happened before?”
"For generations, warriors have vanished along Valose's shorelines. Search parties found their tracks ending abruptly at the water's edge, with deep grooves cut through the sand where something enormous had hauled them beneath the waves."
Quin’s gaze returned to the churning sea.
“One warrior witnessed it happen. A squidlin's tentacle erupted from the sea and wrapped around a hunter standing several fates inland. He was gone before the others could reach him.”
“I refuse to go near the shore.”
“I don’t blame you.”
The smooth peaks of the eastern island chain eventually rose from the horizon, outlined against the brightening sky.
Three islands emerged from the dark water, the largest standing highest at the center.
Its broad upper field crowned a steep rise pitted with openings to the many small caverns beneath.
Sparse vegetation clung to the slopes, no dense jungle or towering trees breaking the bare shape of the land.
One of the smaller islands lay close enough to the largest that a narrow strip of earth connected them, while the third sat apart, surrounded entirely by restless water.
Quin sat straighter. “Is that where we’re going?”
“Yes.” I smiled at the excitement brightening her face. “For a time, it sheltered the Huren exiles and the females rescued from beneath the palace, the ones lucky enough not to have been taken by the Gretolics.
“Vallon said for a short time. The islands were isolated and easier to defend while the clans fought the Gretolics. The largest has many caverns beneath it, though little grows on the surface beyond a few hardy bushes. One of the smaller islands is joined by a narrow land bridge.”
I lowered our altitude and circled the largest island. The Caspeen Sea battered the surrounding breakwater, sending mist upward without reaching the field above. Faint paths remained cut into the sparse growth where the exiles had once moved between the summit and the caves below.
Quin followed every detail through the transparent hull. “It looks deserted.”
“It is currently,” I said. “We have the island to ourselves.”
I glanced at the console, then at the level ground outside. Pride welled in my chest. Vallon would have found no fault with my landing.
“Come,” I said, retrieving my sword, then opened the hatch to the wind and the scent of the Caspeen Sea. “Your surprise awaits.”