One massive claw slams into a row of boats and splinters them like dry twigs. Another strikes a platform squarely, and the wood shatters. Huts tilt, then slide, then vanish into the Deep, with screaming men clinging to them.
Callie!
My first instinct is to reach for her, to drag her away, to put my body between her and this thing. The instinct is useless. There is no safe place. The monster is everywhere, its reach measured in platforms, its weight measured in destruction. And this is as good a place as any.
“Stay!” I shout again, more fiercely. “Don’t move!”
I don’t wait for her answer, because there’s no time, and if I stop to think about this, then I won’t do it. I leap onto the krai.
The Deep surges beneath me as I hit the creature’s shell, feet skidding on slime-slick armor. The impact jars my bones, but I keep my footing. I thank the Deep itself that my spear is already in my hands. My impulse to show Callie my mighty weapon had a strange reward.
Or punishment, as the case may be.
I grasp the shaft with both hands and drive it down.
The spearhead bites into a seam between plates, and the shock runs up my arms. The monster shrieks, a sound like metal torn, and snaps a claw toward me.
I jump back as it closes right in the spot where I was standing, spraying me with cold drops of water. The hardsnicktells me that it would have cut me in half.
I move. I must keep moving.
I dance along the ridges of its shell, planting my feet, wrenching the spear free, driving it down again and again. The plates resist, but they are not seamless. Cracks spread beneath the blows. Dark fluid leaks out, steaming where it hits the sun-warmed wood of the village.
Another claw slashes past me. One clean strike would cut me in half. I feel the wind of it brush my back.
The monster rears, legs thrashing, and I am thrown sideways. I roll, catch myself on one knee, and thrust again, aiming for the softer joint where shell meets limb.
It howls.
Then one claw reaches past me.
Right toward Callie.
I see her frozen on the platform, eyes wide, hands clenched at her chest. The claw stretches, inexorable, its sharp shadow swallowing her whole.
Something cold settles in me.
I leap back and land on the claw itself as it rises, feet sliding on wet armor, cut up by the endless hard growths that cover the Big. I drive the spearhead into a crack between two plates and jam it in with my full weight. The monster convulses, its claw jerking violently. I cling, muscles screaming, and wrench the spear sideways.
The crack splits.
The monster recoils with a shrill, furious cry. I jump clear, hit the platform hard, and roll to my feet as the creature pulls back. Its legs fold up, and its bulk sinks as far as it can, which is not far right here.
The water churns as its immense shape retreats from the bay, escaping to the ocean, leaving broken platforms, floating debris, and stunned silence behind.
For a heartbeat, there is nothing but my own breathing.
Then Callie is against me.
Her arms are around my neck, her body pressed fully to mine, trembling. She makes a sound that is half laugh, half sob, and then her mouth is on mine.
The contact shocks me more than the battle.
Her lips are warm and soft and unmistakably deliberate. The taste of fruit and salt floods my senses. I freeze for a breath toolong, then my hands rise of their own will, settling at her waist, holding her as if the Deep itself might pull her away.
She pulls back first, eyes wide, just as startled as I am.
“I—” she begins, then stops.
