CHAPTER SIX #2
Jun’s head dramatically turned to his friend. “The man that planted it was named Lumbis. It’s only named after him.”
Calvin pulled a silver coin from his front tunic pocket, meticulously flipping it around each finger from his pointer to the pinky and back again.
“Heads says Noctis will shit himself when he sees them,” he chirped and tossed the coin upward. It rotated in the air, nearly blending into the azureous sky and fell back to the deck with a slight ring that died quickly.
Heads.
Zahara huffed in enjoyment, a grin spreading maliciously across her lips, and I joined in, allowing the smile to flaunt.
“Depends on what they have to say,” Noctis replied, catching the smiles and reaching for the coin himself. “Tails says Calvin has to be the first one to speak to them.”
Calvin’s face blanched. “Is that really necessary?”
Noctis flipped the coin, plucking it from the air atop his hand and revealing it to the awaiting crew.
Heads.
“Dammit,” Noctis grumbled, and Zahara and Calvin cackled, caught between enjoyment and watching the god lose. A grin slowly spread across Noctis’s lips, so I yanked the silver coin from his hand.
“Heads says Noctis has to show us a trick with his wings.” I wanted to see him soar through the sky—wanted to be entranced in his powers, but as the coin flew through the air, his own hand caught it.
“We near the waters of the Marrowtwists,” Noctis warned as if sensing the beasts, picking himself up from the floor and looking out across the waves.
We fell silent, slowly collecting ourselves and preparing for an attack. For an hour, the realm quieted, a nice consolation to the wreaking havoc of the attack on Gringham City. We all dispersed, finding stability at the railing of the main deck and inspecting any changes in the water’s currents.
Zahara nearly reached the ship’s wheel when waves surged, violently spraying overboard.
The ship rocked, nearly flattening on its side, and we flew across, crashing into the railing on the opposite end.
A warm arm wrapped around my waist right before I plummeted, my hit instead softened beneath the body of another.
Noctis. What the—
Jun shattered the wooden banister, toppling over the side, his feet flailing for purchase. Calvin dove for Jun’s hands, clobbering his face into the floor with an abhorrent skid. Zahara gained her bearings and crawled frantically toward the helm to secure the wheel.
An elongated, scaled creature burst through the waves, sending me backwards again, this time into solid wood. A giant serpent the color of faded bile assessed its wanted prey. Its green slitted eyes devoured me as I stumbled, sticking its forked tongue in and out of its thin scaly mouth.
This…this is what I should have asked Jun to describe.
I palmed my gifted dagger, crouching for an attack, but the Marrowtwist hissed and dove back through the water, the waves sending the ship nearly on its side again.
“Stay ready!” Zahara ordered from the helm, steering us straight through to the land beyond, toward the forested island of Plumsu—toward the Threnai oracle spiders.
The creature would have to be killed since we awakened it, or else it would take out every villager across the lands of the isle.
Calvin pulled Jun back aboard, the assassin hunched over holding his ribs.
Noctis glided over the water, his wings motionless, but he hovered and searched for the beast in circles above the waves.
The serpent erupted from the water furthest from the god, taking chunks out of the stern of the ship.
Splintered wood shards soared violently, narrowly missing me as I shuffled before the beast, aiming to strike.
It fell back with a crash that sent deadly waves, and I slid across the deck, scurrying to stop myself.
If I could just catch my bearings.
Zahara barely held the wheel steady. Jun collapsed flat on the deck, gripping the rope Calvin threw around him to keep him on board, his breaths labored.
For the first time that I’ve seen, the hood fell from his head, revealing patches of exposed scalp, a scar that cut through him from ear to ear.
My heart clenched at the gruesome injury, making sense of the hood he used to hide beneath in shame.
A booming eruption split the air, ringing in my ears like a fractured stricken bell.
Calvin blasted a cannon toward the Marrowtwist, narrowly missing.
It dove headfirst back into the ocean, playing a twisted game.
Its razor-spiked tail shot water across the main deck, slickening it, as it disappeared back beneath the surface.
“Shit!” Calvin screamed, loading another cannon ball into the waiting barrel like feeding a storm.
The serpent lurked around the ship just below the water’s surface, slow at first, then gaining momentum.
The ocean churned with unnatural fury, spiraling in wide, violent circles as if something colossal moved just beneath the surface.
The Marrowtwist did. The wheel spiraled out of control.
Noctis trailed behind, waiting to pounce, but the waves churned too violently, blurring everything beneath the surface.
“Kill it fast!” Zahara screamed from the helm, no longer able to steer the ship. We rocked violently against the waves, barely keeping upright. Jun crashed into the helm’s siding below Zahara, bellowing in agony.
I gripped the railing until my knuckles screamed back in pain, waiting for the Marrowtwist to peek its head above the surface again.
I patiently stalked the uprisings in the sea where the water rippled above the beast. It splintered the surface and hurled itself into Calvin’s chest, spiraling them through the air.
My lips split to release the roar, and I lunged, ramming the dagger into the scaly serpent’s hole of an ear, a sickening gurgle through the havoc of the sea.
It flailed violently, its fangs glinting off the sun’s rays as it hissed.
Green ooze dripped from the socket, pooling on the surface of the water.
The serpent turned its massive elongated head and narrowed its glare on me.
Then, it pounced. Its cruel game ended. The Marrowtwist prepared to finish its kill.
It battered into me with unyielding might, sending me flying to the other side of the deck alone.
The breath in my lungs rushed out, the bones beneath its strike bending and threatening to snap.
It spiraled forward, its mouth agape, ready to sink its fangs into me and course its crimson-dripping venom into my bloodstream.
Weaponless, I threw my hands before me and pushed with my feet against the wooden deck backward before the beast struck.
The serpent's fangs approached inches from my face, and then its head fell limp on my chest, breath rushing out of my lungs under its weight. Lifeless eyes stared back, each one the size of my head, the auburn-hilted dagger sticking out from its oozing ear. I shoved into its head, attempting to slide from beneath it, but the creature didn’t budge.
The serpent's fangs wept poison, each drop a whisper of death sliding across my flesh.
I couldn’t move—couldn’t breathe.
I wrestled under the beast, begging the gods for respite or even a single breath, but I knew my own goddess would never bless the blood she’d marked for sacrifice.
Noctis poked his head above the serpent’s, a grin stretching his smug face. He lifted a finger, and the Marrowtwist’s severed head hovered above us in a gust of wind, mutilated, as if torn from its body by hand.
The memory of me nearly drowning in the sea flashed in my mind as I pulled air back into my lungs. When I begged for death instead.
“Do you trust me now?” The lilt of Noctis’s words shook me from my thoughts.
“I didn’t shove the dagger into your ear, did I? That’s trust enough.”
“I’ll take that as improvement,” the god said with a slight smirk before tossing the decapitated head back into the sea. It flew and splashed into the ocean, leaving the viridescent sludge dripping behind.