The sea monster attacked them in the mists of dawn. Gray-green tentacles rose out of the water, each one tapered to a barbed tip, like the stinger on a desert scorpion. Stubby brown suckers like flabby lips covered the pale undersides. The serpentine arms coiled and uncoiled in a menacing abomination reminiscent of the Unfurling Fern.
Sen Sherufa was the first to spot the creature as the sun shimmered through the morning fog. She had gone astern for quiet pondering while she munched on her hard breakfast biscuit, dipped in a bit of honey from a honeycomb she had hoarded throughout the journey.
The mass of tentacles twisted out of the calm water on both sides of the ship, questing for something. Sherufa yelled a warning, then dashed out of the way as a tentacle splintered the stern rail. A second one clasped a rigging rope tied to a stanchion and strained until the spar snapped in half; another slapped the deck, scattering the crew.
Ystya emerged from the cabin she shared with the Saedran woman. Her large eyes grew even rounder. “The Kraken! My mother summoned the Kraken!”
Saan called to her, “If your mother sent it, the monster will want to capture you, and I don’t intend to let it succeed.” Shouting for all crewmen to arm themselves, he picked up a harpoon himself. “Chartsman, get Ystya back in your cabin and bar the door so that she’s safe!”
Grigovar picked up a scimitar and with a bellow put himself between the tentacles and Sen Sherufa, slashing so that she could escape. He pricked the tough flesh with the point of his scimitar. At first the rubbery appendage recoiled as if it had been burned, then it lashed back with its stinger. Although the reef diver jumped out of the way, the suckered appendage dealt him a grazing blow that sent him sprawling. Grigovar got to his feet again, wheezing but ready to fight.
Saan was close enough to the side of the Al-Orizin that he could see a shapeless mass just below the water’s surface—the creature’s main body, like a pus-filled bag that sprouted a nest of thrashing appendages. A tentacle curled toward him, and Saan chopped off the curved barb tip with the harpoon blade. Greenish slime spurted out, and Saan rolled out of the way as the tentacle stump still tried to find him. He got up and threw his harpoon into the shapeless body sac in the water. The sharpened tip penetrated deep into the bloated mass, but did no obvious damage.
An appendage seized one crewman and flung him like a stone far out to sea. Another tentacle wrapped itself around a second sailor’s chest and lifted him up; though the man kicked, flailed, and stabbed with his dagger, the tentacle crushed his ribs and spine.
Sikara Fyiri charged out of her cabin, brandishing her staff and shouting defiant prayers. The Kraken released the crushed crewman, dropping his mangled body at her feet, dousing Fyiri with blood. The sucker-embossed arm smashed toward her, but she scrambled for shelter between two supply crates.
Yal Dolicar climbed out of a hatch from belowdecks, tugging on the leather laces that secured the artificial dagger hand to his wrist stump. “I’m ready to defend the ship, Captain Saan!” He slashed at the air with his dagger.
Grigovar crouched with his scimitar and gave the other man a snort. “With a puny blade like that? You’ll have to get close enough to make love to the Kraken!”
“Hah, I’ll kiss the thing with my steel.” Together, Dolicar and the reef diver battled the nearest tentacle, jabbing and slicing as it tried to grab them.
Another tentacle rose from the opposite side of the deck, and Dolicar spun just in time to see the lashing appendage. He thrust his dagger attachment toward it, but the narrow end of the tentacle wrapped around his wrist and yanked him into the air. He dangled by his arm, kicking his feet and yelling.
Grigovar slashed at the line of suckers with the scimitar, but the Kraken refused to release its grip on his friend.
As the tentacle lifted him higher, Dolicar plucked at the leather laces that held his artificial hand in place. When he undid the bindings, his wrist stump popped free of the knife attachment, and he tumbled to the deck, while the tentacle snapped back, suddenly released from the weight it carried. Dolicar landed, rolled, and sprang to his feet, staying close to the big reef diver. “Now we have much in common, Grigovar! We’ve both survived being captured by a sea monster.”
Grigovar wasn’t impressed. “I killed mine from the inside. You just dropped to the deck.”
Saan secured a second harpoon and went on the attack. The tentacles smashed another spar, and the hooked stinger-tip ripped a long gash through the silken sail.
From her cabin door, he heard Sen Sherufa’s voice yelling for Ystya, but the ivory-haired young woman sprang back out of her cabin. “Kraken, I am here! You’ve found me.” She ran to the port side, where the tentacles were writhing. “Though you were once an innocent beast, my mother has corrupted you.”
Ystya seemed unafraid of the tentacles in front of her. She held up her hands in a warding gesture, and once again Saan saw the building of cold, bright power within and around her. Ystya spread her fingers, and her skin gave off an unearthly shimmer. “Ondun created you, but now that can no longer be.”
She squeezed her hands into fists as if to concentrate her power. The tentacles towered over the fragile-looking girl, but did not move, as if the beast were intimidated by her. Ystya spoke with the force of an executioner’s blade. “I choose to uncreate you.”
The thick tentacles drooped and darkened with splotches of decay. The Kraken’s rubbery hide sloughed off into gobbets of rotting flesh, and the cartilaginous bones collapsed like a jumble of reeds. The shapeless sac beneath the water burst and spread a stain of foul-smelling entrails. Chunks of the rotted monster dropped onto the deck, while the rest simply oozed down the Al-Orizin’s hull boards.
The crew were struck to silence by the monster’s demise, as well as the strange power contained within the young woman. Ystya opened her clenched fists again. A moment later she reeled, disoriented and weak.
Saan ran to catch her before she could collapse. He hugged her close.
Sen Sherufa stared in amazement. Sikara Fyiri climbed out of her hiding place between the supply crates, and fear showed clearly on her face. Several sailors backed away from the girl.
Saan continued to hold Ystya, wanting to comfort her. He realized, though, that he needed some answers.