Chapter 18 Kaspar
Kaspar
Oh, goddesses. Tentacles could mean only one thing.
A sand kraken.
Holy phoenix tails—no, holy freaking shit! There was a kraken coming to kill and eat us all.
Shit, shit, shit.
“Arm the cannons!” Max yelled, and people started scrambling, trying to get to their rightful station.
We needed to kill this monster, and I needed to get to the cannons on the lower deck to help load the weapons. Now.
I changed course and tried to head for the ladder, holding my side to apply pressure to my minor injury.
“Incoming!” Hawk-Eyes yelled, although she was halfway down the mainmast shroud now instead of up in the crow’s nest. Good grief, she moved fast.
“Fire at will!” Max yelled.
As cannons went off, I turned to watch, hissing in pain at the sharp movement, and got my first look at a real, live sand monster. It wasn’t something I’d ever wanted to see in person, and the second I laid eyes on it, I wished I could unsee it.
About a hundred yards away, a monster bigger than I ever could’ve imagined emerged from the sand, climbing out of a now-gaping hole. There were so many tentacles moving through the air I wasn’t sure if they all belonged to the same creature or if there was more than one of them coming to attack us.
But then I saw its body.
It used its bazillion legs to pull itself up and out of the sand, then crawled in a way that reminded me of a creepy spider.
Its hundred-foot-long body was shaped like a giant squid, except it had hard plates on its back like an armadillo, probably to help dig through the sand and rock.
Its arms were three times as long as its body, and they were digging into the rock and sand with such ease, I had no trouble picturing it tearing apart our ship.
The very sight of it brought on a visceral fear I could feel in every inch of my body.
We were going to die.
Everyone on this ship was going to die because of me.
Because I was too much of a coward to fix the problem before now. Because I’d deemed my freedom more worthy than the lives of this crew.
Because there was no way in hellfire I was getting down to the engine room, charging the fluxstones, and getting this ship in the air before that monster reached us.
We were going to die, and it was all my fault.
Max… Max was going to be killed.
Willy, Ariella, Hawk-Eyes, and all the others were going to be eaten.
Sweat broke out on my body, my heart racing uncontrollably as it fractured in my chest, making my ribs even more sore.
Several cannonballs hit the beast, but it didn’t even stumble from the impact. It kept on coming at us as if our measly cannonballs were nothing but annoying gnats flying around its face.
Maybe we couldn’t get out of here before it reached our ship, but maybe I could save some of the crew. Maybe we could still escape before… before it got too bad.
With that thought in mind, I headed for the ladder again, only I wasn’t planning on going to the lower deck. I was going into the hold where the engine room was. I needed to charge those fluxstones and save everyone on this ship—if I wasn’t too late already.
I’d deal with the consequences as they came.
“Look out!” someone yelled.
I glanced up just in time to see a huge tentacle arm, brown scales shining in the sunlight, breaking through the clouds. It rose up at least two hundred feet in the air, swinging wildly as if it couldn’t decide which part of the ship it wanted to break.
Holy unicorn horns, that thing was fast. How had it reached the ship already?
“Shoot it! Chop it off!” Max yelled. “KILL IT!”
Everyone was already firing everything they had at it, so I doubted most of the crew even heard him over the commotion. From the looks of it, every gun on the ship was in use, and all of the cannons on our port side were firing at the monster to no avail.
Screams lit up in the air, and I watched in horror as a tentacled arm wrapped around Two-Toed Roch’s ankle and dragged her toward the side of the ship.
Toothless Jimmy grabbed for her, clinging to her wrists and trying to pull her loose as she kicked and screamed.
But the sand kraken was just too strong.
Two-Toed Roch was ripped out of his arms and dragged across the rest of the deck.
Her screams were cut off when she banged her head against the quarterdeck’s staircase, leaving a trail of blood in her wake as she was pulled overboard and straight into the mouth of the sand kraken.
Jimmy wailed in agony at the loss of his friend, and Butcher screamed something about making the monster suffer.
And Max… when I checked on him, he looked as sickened as I felt.
Maybe we didn’t like Two-Toed Roch—she’d never had a kind word to say to anyone—but she’d still been our crewmate.
I couldn’t let anyone else die.
Pulling out my sword, I headed for the ladder again, ignoring the pain in my ribs.
The ship abruptly lurched to the side, making me lose my balance.
I was confused about what was happening for about half a second until I saw several kraken legs holding on to the railing on the port side and yanking our poor ship sideways.
Several of the crew chopped at the legs until they let go, and the ship shifted back a little, making a horribly loud groaning noise, sounding as if The Black Wraith couldn’t take even one more hit.
It was still crooked and difficult to walk on, but at least we weren’t sliding across the deck and directly into that thing’s maw.
Like poor Two-Toed Roch.
As I continued on my way, I saw Viper rush down the quarterdeck stairs and slip into his office. I thought he was going for a weapon, but the jerk didn’t reappear.
What was he doing? Hiding and hoping he’d survive?
The lily-livered scoundrel.
Max was still up on the quarterdeck, fighting with the rest of us and trying to give orders at the same time, and the captain was, what? Hiding in his cabin? What in the hellfire kind of leader did that?
I wasn’t even surprised he fled when things took a wrong turn. Viper was an awful, horrible person, and he didn’t care at all who lived or died as long as he got to keep on kicking… and was able to take home his precious trophies and that ridiculous hat of his.
Goddesses, I truly hated the man.
Since I didn’t have time or energy to waste on that piece of garbage, I ignored him and went ahead, moving toward the ladder while holding my side. Dragon balls, it really hurt.
More sand kraken legs found their way onto the ship, wrapping around anything and everything, ripping up wood, trying to grab the pirates, pulling on our sails.
It was absolute chaos.
A tentacle went slithering by, quickly disappearing over the side, and I gasped when I saw who it was dragging across the deck.
Hawk-Eyes.
Without thought for my own safety—or my sore ribs—I rushed after her as quickly as my feet could take me.
Hawk-Eyes managed to hook an arm around some rigging at the base of the mainmast, stopping her progress.
It gave me just enough time to jump over another kraken arm, raise my sword above my head, and bring it down as hard as I could.
The tentacle was too thick to make a clean cut, so all I did was leave an open wound.
The thing let out a massive roar that shook the wood beneath my feet, and instead of letting go like I’d hoped, it wrapped its grip tighter around my friend, actively trying to pull her free from the rigging.
Hawk-Eyes yelled, “Hurry! I can’t hold on much longer!”
I lifted my sword again and swung it down with a yell, hitting it in the same spot and making the cut deeper.
It tightened its grip so much on Hawk-Eyes that she couldn’t speak and her lips started turning blue.
I lifted my sword again and brought it down.
Again. And again. And again. Screaming at the top of my lungs as tears threatened to stream down my face.
I would not let this thing, this monster, take my friend.
No fucking way.
“Ahhhhhhh!” I screamed with one last swing.
My sword sliced through the last part of the arm, chopping a piece of it off, and the kraken roared loudly as its injured arm slithered back into the sand.
Kneeling beside Hawk-Eyes, I kept one hand on my sword and used the other to peel the unattached tentacle off of her. She was breathing heavily and was covered in blood, grime, and sand, but I couldn’t tell where she was injured.
When I reached a hand down to her, she took it and let me pull her to her feet.
“You okay?”
She nodded, looking a little dazed. “Fine. I… thank you, Ghost. You saved me.” She leaned in, kissed my cheek, then drew a sword as she turned away from me. With a yell, she dove back into the fray, clearly unconcerned for her own injuries.
I wanted to follow her, I wanted to insist she go below deck and wait this fight out, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to pull her away. And I had a different mission in mind, so I rushed for the ladder again.
I raised my sword, aiming for the kraken’s arm that came crashing down on the deck right in front of me. Ropes and sails were torn apart, and part of the railing splintered and broke away.
The massive tentacle was blocking my path, so I chopped at it, but my sword didn’t do nearly enough damage. The thing was so quick, its arm was gone before I could try again.
How something so big moved so quickly, I’d never understand.
It must’ve learned its lesson.
Another arm came down, just barely missing the mainmast. Yet another tentacle crept up the side of the ship and wrapped itself around the railing. Another one curled around the mizzenmast.
Something slinked around my waist, startling me, and I screamed as I was yanked backward. Another tentacle dropped heavily onto the deck right where I’d been a second before.
Pain shot up my side from the pressure on my wound, making me cry out again. I was afraid a tentacle had gotten me, but then Moonie yelled into my ear, “It’s just me!”
I sagged against them for half a beat, then stood and yelled, “Thanks!”