Bash
“Accounts of the Leviathan are rare not due to uncertainty but because nearly all encounters preclude survival.
Its length is immeasurable; its awakening catastrophic.
It should not exist.
And yet—every tide remembers it.”
— From The Mysterious Deep: A Comprehensive UnderstandingI reached out my hand for Morwenna’sas she crested the top of the Wraith, averting my eyes as she picked up her gown and placed it over her soaking wet body. She’d warned me that it would only be her who came aboard the Wraith first. That whatever they were going to do would be so that Rose would be able to travel to a place long abandoned by the living.
Iwished I felt relief knowing that it worked. That the moon above us was dark and the sea was an inky black. That my wife was one step closer to fulfilling the bargain that would claim her life if she didn’t see this through. Yet all I could feel was a building dread in my gut that Billy used to call instinct.
“Now we see if the sea chooses her once more,” Morwenna said, pulling her dark hair over her shoulder and turning to watch the midnight sea stretched out before us.
I didn’t ask what happened next or how long it would take. Such questions only created disappointment. What happened next would be one way or another.
“Emille,” I said.
He didn’t hesitate as he came up to stand next to me. The deck was silent except for occasional whispers. Most of these people were here for the large sum I’d promised them. Very few would risk life and limb for anything less. Those of us who were here for Rose–we barely breathed because where she was now, none of us could follow.
This growing gnawing in my belly was insistent, though. Billy often told me not to second-guess the gifts the gods gave us, and he always said that my intuition was one of those. So even though I wasn’t sure it would do anything in the end, I turned my head slightly to Emille and spoke quietly.
“Ready downstairs with everything you need for an attack.”
Emille met my eyes, and for a minute neither of us spoke. We’d done this dance many a time, but the last time we did it, the consequences had been grave. A lost arm and Billy. What would the cost be this time?
Emille nodded, pressing his hand to my arm as he passed by.
I was becoming tired of this, and Seas knew Emille was. The last year weighed heavily on him, and while he once found purpose in the life we lived, it was beginning to take its toll. When this was through, I would bring up the subject of retirement with him. Wherever he wanted, whatever would bring him peace, I would see it done.
Oscar slid up beside me, wringing his hands together. He rarely showed such tells, but that wasn’t just my wife in that water, but also his sister. The other half of his coin. The two of them weren’t meant to be separated.
“You sent Emille below,” he said, quietly.
“I did,” I answered.
“How do we fight something like this?” he questioned.
The air was silent except for the sound of creaking wood and a breeze that passed through each of us, assessing our worth.
Only the lantern’s light gave any hint of the life we carried on board. I was glad Val was downstairs making sure Kit was locked up tight. He had a tendency to seek out danger, but tonight it would cost him his life. Fuck, it might just cost us all our lives tonight.
“You don’t,” Morwenna said, not turning around. “If it wakes, you die.”
“Fucking delightful she is,” Val said, coming up to my other side.
“Is Kit secure?” I asked.
She snorted. “Yeah, but according to her, that isn’t going to help.”
The sound of whispering grew, and I knew we were being too loud. Our unease would only breed theirs.
“Hold!” I said, my voice soaring above the nothingness around us.
The deck silenced, and the world shook.
It shook like it was a giant waking from a centuries-long sleep. Every bone inside me is quivering with the weight of what shouldn’t be. Just as soon as it came, it stopped, and we all let out a breath that felt like our last.
