Once again, the waters boomed, chimeric patterns scattered in the waves, but there was no direct path toward the breach or the upcoming Dreadwall. Rain was rare in the Silence, making dehydration a very real concern, and I read the warm waters. They told sad stories of ships and seamages, wyrmaids and whales caught in the breach when magik was used to reshape a world.
The chimeric was changing me.
We all knew that. It was obvious. I felt alive, but the chimeric was killing me, and I was as terrified as the crew regarding the manner of my imminent death. The dread rising within me was worse than the one that lay before.
We had mere days left to play out this “great game,” but honestly, I wasn’t sure I had the time.
A voice cried out from the rigging and jolted me from my dark thoughts. I could hear the crew scramble to the rail, and I blinked as I scanned the horizon. There was no drum, no beat to quarters, so clearly no enemy ship.
Something tickled my fingers.
I glanced down. An eye was rising out of the waters. A tiny eye on a long, thin, feathery stalk. I’d never seen anything like it. It rose up out of the sea, holding my gaze, and I couldn’t tear my eyes away.
Aro’el, said the ship.Be wary. Beware.
“No,” I said. “Good. It’s good.”
In fact, it was wonderful. I knew this in my bones. It was my friend. My strange, tame, watery friend. Waves of calm washed over me, and I felt an urge to reach out and pat it, this funny little eye on a stalk.
Suddenly, the line at my waist yanked up as rows of dagger teeth rushed straight out of the water toward me. I grasped the rope and tucked my legs, crying out as teeth grazed the linen along my back. A harpoon flashed downward, and the creature arched away, splashing back into the sea. I was hauled over the bulwark, and I hit the deck in a tangle of arms and legs and shredded linen. But I pushed to my feet and rushed to the rail with the rest of the crew as Buck braced himself against the gunwale to draw the creature in.
I watched in awe of its massive, undulating curves, and it rolled and thrashed, rocking the ship as though we were a jolly. A second harpoon flashed, and then a third, and blood turned thewater the color of ambergris ink. The men threw all their weight into it, and soon they hauled the creature over the rail, thudding it onto the deck with a splash. Huge and barbed, it was almost as long as theTouchstoneand narrow like a snake. I bent close, seeing the strange wiry stalk coming out of its head, positioned strategically above its harrowing jaws. It was looking at me still.
“Leviathaur,” said Smoke. “Dragon eel.”
“It’s said they hypnotize their prey,” said Echo.
I swallowed, knowing it to be true.
“Good eating,” said Buck.
“Our chaser was almost good eating,” said Smoke. “One gulp and she’d have been a cheesy snack.”
The crew laughed at that, and I tried to join in, enjoying the fleeting moment of good humor in this desolate place on the sea. That night, we dined like kings on dragon eel steaks, and the galley was filled with contented swabs as they washed the oily meat down with rum and beer. But after that, I must admit I was unnerved each time I went over the side, and I watched these waters with new eyes for other eyes watching me.
Five more hours in, the chimeric went strange, and I called up for the captain.
He leaned over the side, as ragged as the rest of us, dark hair pulled off his face in a queue, and my heart ached at the sight of the ebony pendant against his gold-laced chest. Our relationship was strained since the ironmages had come aboard, and it felt like I’d been gutted like a dead fish. Actually, everything was strained now, and I hated how life had turned.
“It’s the chimeric, sir,” I called up to him. “It’s split.”
“Split?”
“Aye, sir. Two streams, see?” And I waved over the water with my hand. “Due east, aye, but also, look…”
Bubbles and bursts of chimeric channeling sou’east.
He frowned, and Fahr stepped to the rail to look. My hearttwisted inside me. Somehow, in Port Corvallan, I’d lost him, too. That made four, with Kit and Worley gone. Damnations if life wasn’t so much easier alone.
“What the hels is sou’east?” asked Fahr.
Thanavar said nothing, and the mate stared at him a long moment.
“Forge, you know…”
“Have the spinners bring us southerly, Mr. Fahr.”
“Forge, Gav. You’re going to kill us all.”
