My heart pounded in my chest. “Are whirlpools supposed to do that in this world?”
“Not natural ones. Get down and hold on.”
I dropped into the bottom and gripped the sides of the boat. Marc turned the boat sharply and quickened our speed. The ship’s worn bow couldn’t cut through the water, and it ended up flying into the air and slapping hard against the surface. The skeleton rattled, and one of the patches popped. Water poured into the boat, soaking me in a matter of seconds.
“Marc!” I shouted as I clambered back onto my seat.
“Just hold on!” he yelled back as the waters shoved the disintegrating boat along its surface.
The boards rattled and more patches popped off. Marc shot up and stared at something. I glanced over my shoulder and beheld the shadow of a ship around the bend of the island.
“We’re almost there!”
The excitement in his voice was dampened by the speed of our pursuer. The whirlpool closed the distance, and its wake rocked our boat. My breath caught in my throat when a huge shape broke through the surface in the middle and rose into the sky, towering over us like a three-mast ship.
It was an octopus, but this one had dozens of arms, and they were all reaching out for us. Its black, lifeless eyes stare hard at our boat. My blood ran cold when I saw myself reflected in those glassy surfaces.
One of its tendrils latched onto the stern, and its suckers stopped us dead in our tracks. Marc shot up and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me overboard with him. I instinctively let out a scream as we crashed into the ocean, and water raced into my open mouth. Marc’s magic abandoned the boat as we had and wrapped around us, drawing us to the surface and away from the dinghy. The boat was crushed by the thrashing creature, who then tossed aside its remains and made for us.
Marc swept us through the waters and lifted us high enough to deposit us on the deck. I hunched over and lost an ocean’s worth of water out of my mouth. Ramaro scurried up to me. “Are you alright?”
Marc clambered to his feet and hurried to the wheel deck as the ship sharply turned thanks to his magic. “Fidel! The sails!”
“Aye aye!” his first mate shouted before turning his attention to the crew who were holding on against the sharp turn. “Hoist the sails! All of them!”
The sailors scrambled to obey as the creature burst out of the water on the starboard side. Water poured onto the deck and crashed into many of the men. They were thrown across the boards and into the railing. Some of them disappeared over the side, their limbs flailing for something to grab. Only Marc’s magic saved them from a terrible end as they were drawn back onto the deck.
I lifted my head and gawked at the impressive creature. It towered a hundred feet above the deck, and twice that stretched below and into the depths. Dozens of limbs of various thickness and length latched onto the ship and slithered across the deck.
Marc turned the ship away, but the monster held tight. Its hideous, lifeless eyes scanned the deck as though searching. That search ended when it fell on me. I gave a startled cry and scurried back. Its eyes lit up, and its tendrils slithered across the deck toward me.
Ramaro leaped to my defense, landing atop the first limb and biting down hard. His sharp teeth cut clean through the tip, which flopped onto the deck. Black blood poured out of the wound and filled the air with a putrid odor. Another tendril lashed out and slapped him aside. He was thrown into the cabin wall, where he slumped to the deck.
Fury filled my whole being. I whipped my head around to face the monster and its horrible black eyes. My reflection stared back at me as I climbed to my feet and allowed my instincts to take hold.
And they were telling me to scream like a banshee.
Chapter 30
My voice came out in as high a pitch as I could manage. The air around me vibrated, and any crystals that tried to form from my song were shattered. Many of the gems appeared around the creature, and each burst caused a hailstorm of shards to rain down on the thing. Some of the fragments shot into its eyes. The thing screamed and stumbled back, pawing at its face with its tendrils.
Marc took advantage of its momentary distraction and broke the ship free. A few of the suckers stuck to the deck, but the sailors drew out a wide assortment of cutlasses, knives, swords, and Fidel even sported a machete, and together they hacked away at the creature, forcing it to lose its final grip. Several tendril tips remained stuck to the deck, bleeding out black blood onto the boards.
The creature wasn’t quite done with us. It let loose a terrible roar that made me clap my hands over my ears. Even the battle-worn men winced against the shrieking cry of the beast. It swam after us, darkness in its dark eyes.
“Ship, Captain!” the sailor in the crow’s nest shouted. He stabbed a finger at our bow port side, around the bend of the island, and everyone aboard followed his direction.
A huge, white vessel loomed on the horizon. The sails weren’t as numerous, nor the ship as impressive as the Dempewolf, but I couldn’t help but turn to Ramaro with my question. “Jaeger is aboard that, isn’t he?”
Ramaro’s scaly face had a grim expression on it. “It’s his smaller ship, the Hetzmann.”
Marc grasped his hands against the railing on the wheel deck and pressed his lips tightly together. “It looks like our friends at the port tattled on us.”
Fidel studied his leader with an equally tense gaze. “How are you, Captain?”
It was then that I noticed his hands that grasped the railing shook. He tightened his grip and stopped the quivering. “Never mind that! Man the sails! We go straight south through the threat of cannon and the jaws of the beast!” His gaze fell on me, and he nodded at the cabin door beneath him. “Get inside.”
I stiffened my jaw and shook my head. “I want to stay out here.”
