Chapter Twenty-Eight King of the Deep
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
KING OF THE DEEP
Another tentacle shot out of the water on the other side of the ship. Then another. And another. Seawater sprayed into Reya’s open mouth and eyes, leaving her temporarily blind and lost for breath. When she could see again, she gaped.
“All-Gods help us,” she said.
The Kraken’s limbs were longer than the masts.
The ocean ran in rivulets down the orange membrane that was almost fluorescent in the moonslight and rained onto the deck.
One tentacle slithered up the mainmast, leaving a trail of clear mucus in its wake as it reached for the crow’s nest—like it had done this many times before.
“Cannons!” Kalúe roared.
The command echoed down the length of the ship, Zantae screaming the call to fire at will. Cannons boomed in every direction, and all across the deck, men hurled spears and blades at the tentacles that seemed to be toying with them.
Omira screamed as she hurled her spear for the tentacle curling around the crow’s nest. The blade missed its mark by a hair, embedding in the mast instead.
She used compulsion to retract the spear and threw again.
This time it struck, but then it rebounded.
Like it couldn’t penetrate the skin. Omira met Reya’s stare as she compelled the weapon back, and Reya saw fear there for the first time.
Dread pooled in the pit of Reya’s stomach. If they couldn’t cut it, how could they collect its blood?
Her heart kicked into a gallop as she whirled. Where the rotting hell is Caelan? She slid the chain over her neck and tucked the Earth Star ring into her shirt. It hummed against her skin as if it sensed the many mortal wounds awaiting her.
“REYA!” Kalúe’s shout broke through the chaos, and Reya heard the command in her name: Don’t wait. Kill it now.
But she wouldn’t. Not while there was still a chance.
The Kraken threw down one of its tentacles with a smack, sending a surge of water over the portside.
Then Reya was underwater, rolling across the deck and grasping for something, anything to hold on to as the Acadia rocked violently.
The wave washed back out, and Reya gasped for air as she collided with the ship railing with a bark of pain.
She found Caelan tangled in one of the loose cargo nets not far away.
Another wave crested toward them, but Kalúe sent it splashing back into the Deep, a breathtaking whirlwind of water and green light as she steadied the seas. Had death not been imminent, Reya might have stopped to admire the skill, the control.
A tentacle wove around two men and dragged them over the side. Reya sprinted to the rail, light flaring at her fingertips, but she was too late. The men plunged beneath the surface.
It was like trying to fight the sea itself.
“Abandon ship!” a man screamed, and leapt over the side.
“HOLD YOUR POSITIONS!” Kalúe shouted.
Plait whipping behind her, Omira leapt again for one of the tentacles, dragging the Alethian spear down in an arc, and Reya could have sworn she actually flew.
Another tentacle slithered over the railing to her left, slime and seafoam leaking from the massive tawny suction cups as it curled toward her.
Alethian steel couldn’t slice through its skin—but maybe Etellinian steel could.
Reya drew her father’s sword and threw it down with a bellow, but the beast was too fast. The sword cut straight through the deck—and stayed there. Reya yanked on the blade, but it wouldn’t budge.
She looked up in time to see the tentacle heading straight for Caelan where he leaned against the capstan, catching this breath.
He seemed to reach for his flame before he remembered he no longer had it to call upon and lifted Hellfire instead, defiant and glorious against death.
But he was in agony, weak as she had never seen him before.
Reya didn’t think. Faster than she’d ever moved, she let go of the sword and threw herself in front of Caelan.
And just like that—she shielded.
Light curved in front of them, and the tentacle recoiled, slithering back over the railing.
She stared at her glowing palms, so shocked that she didn’t notice the second orange mass curling toward her from the side.
Caelan shouted a warning too late. The tentacle slid around her ankle, yanking her feet out from under her, and her tailbone hit the deck hard.
It began to drag her, and she tried and failed to grab Caelan’s outstretched hand.
Even as the sea roiled and people screamed, Reya could hear only her heartbeat and breath as she held out her palms, said a prayer, and aimed. Light bloomed across her vision.
Reya knew she’d hit her mark when she stopped moving. Then, the entire ship shook with the force of the roar that rumbled the Deep in answer to her challenge.
Black dust clumped in the water that pooled on the deck around her. The Kraken began to retreat, the remaining half of its limb slinking back overboard.
Around her, several men had stopped to gape.
She could hear the water trickling into the cracks in the hull of the ship, but the Acadia remained buoyant. Reya knew Thance was deep inside the hull, compelling the ship to stay afloat while teams worked to repair the damage.
Everything grew strangely quiet, and she feared the worst. Had the beast given up? She’d moved too soon. The wood beneath her began to groan.
Reya followed the renewed screams of the crew to the starboard side, where the sea swirled and turned white with foam. They all gaped at the three layers of jagged teeth that opened in an oval just below the surface. Water trickled down into the Kraken’s maw like a maelstrom.
Holy Mother above.
They had been fools to come here. Now they would never leave.
A tentacle speared out of the water, aiming right for Kalúe.
“NO!” Reya screamed. Kalúe’s men quickly formed a human shield around her, but the Kraken cut through them like stalks of wheat.
The light hummed beneath Reya’s skin, but she knew the shot was too risky.
There were too many people in the way. The captain pulled more water from the Deep and threw it up in a desperate shield that Reya knew would do no good.
Zantae knew it, too. He launched himself into the tentacle’s path.
Kalúe’s heart-shattering scream echoed across the Deep as the tentacle twisted around Zantae’s middle and plucked him up. Higher and higher, he rose above the deck, like the Kraken knew it had caught a prize and wanted them all to watch him die.
A thousand plans formed and failed before Reya’s eyes. If she used the God Power to kill the Kraken before capturing its blood, she’d kill Caelan. But if she didn’t stop this, they’d all die anyway. Men were drowning around her with every second she wasted deciding.
Reya heard Lennox in her head. There is no honor among thieves, kiddo.
Her father’s sword was still embedded in the deck, the Etellinian steel glowing star bright even in the darkest corner of the Fifth Sea.
Guardian. Crimson Dagger. There was only one name that mattered to her, and it was Connery.
Never run. Never bow. Never die.
She had not raged against fate and death her entire life only to yield to them here at the end of the world. Reya gripped the hilt of the sword with both hands and yanked on the blade with every ounce of immortal strength she possessed.
The sword came free.
Kalúe, still screaming in defiance, sent wave after wave at the Kraken tentacle, trying to free Zantae from its grip. But she was waning after hours of propelling them across a windless sea. And water wasn’t any use here.
The Kraken was the Deep.
Reya began climbing the shroud up the mainmast. She knew every inch of this ship.
She knew which ropes came free, which ones were long, which ones were short, and which pulley systems were most essential.
When she was below the crow’s nest, she grabbed the longest rope she could find and tied it around her waist, removing the slack.
Then she climbed, hoisting herself up onto the yard.
The Kraken pulled Zantae over the railing, toward its mouth. Reya calculated the angle.
“CAELAN!” They found each other even in the chaos. “SWORD!”
He didn’t hesitate. With an agonized roar, he hurled Hellfire toward her like a javelin. She moved, gaining her swing, and caught the blade by the hilt as she leapt over the side of the ship.
Reya screamed as the rope went taut and pain shot up her spine. That scream turned into a battle cry as she swung through sea spray and dripping slime. She held the swords over her head in an X as she neared where Zantae thrashed in the Kraken’s grip.
The two blades converged on the tentacle with a scrape of Etellinian steel, and the strange orange membrane ripped open. Reya closed her eyes against the shower of silver blood as she cut the Kraken’s tentacle in half.
Zantae and the detached tentacle plunged into the water. The Kraken let out a roar of its own so loud Reya was sure every creature in the Deep opened an eye.
Still swinging, she hit ropes and pulleys, bracing herself for the impact she knew was coming. Reya rammed into the sail and the mast behind it hard enough to rattle her teeth. Then she hung there, helplessly dangling from the rigging.
She dropped Hellfire, raised her father’s sword, and began to cut herself free, fingers slipping on the hilt thanks to the blood she was now painted in. When the ropes finally snapped, she grabbed for something—anything—as she dropped.
Reya knew the shape and feel of the arms that tried and failed to catch her. She slammed into Caelan’s chest, and both of them crashed to the deck.
Off the starboard side of the ship, the Kraken was flailing wildly while Kalúe pulled Zantae and the tentacle up through the water on a phantom current. The crew rushed to help him on board, throwing ropes and nets.