As much as I’m hoping the new proximity between us and the creature will make it easier for me to communicate with it, the tumultuous water is making sticking my hands in a darn sight harder.
I twist around to look at Kyor. ‘I need you to hold me steady. Make sure I don’t fall in.’
‘Don’t worry. I’ve got you.’
His shifting in the boat barely adds to the rocking as he places his hands on my hips, my whole body at his mercy as I lean overboard and plunge my hands into the water.
The kraken’s emotions smack me hard. Yup, I was right about the frustration. It’s suffocating in it.
Not this way! Swim down the channel. You’re free! Swim awaydownthe channel.
I scream at it with all my mental power, but even with the shorter distance, I’m only getting the same level of recognition as before. It’s not that it can’t hear or understand. It’s that it’s too consumed by its own torment to focus on me.
Moving the boats here has made no difference other than putting us in dangerously close proximity to its tentacles. Fuck.
‘Still nothing?’ Kyor asks as he pulls me out.
‘No,’ I say. ‘But I’ve got another idea. I don’t think you’re going to like it though.’
‘Does it get us past this kraken?’ Jonas asks.
‘It should do.’
‘Then we like it,’ he says.
I’m pretty sure he’s only saying that because he doesn’t know what my idea is. Still, I don’t need his permission. Bracing myself against the waves and what’s about to come, I twist back and look at Kyor. The moment I press my lips together, his face hardens.
‘No. Rose, just no.’
‘I need to be there with it. In the water. This’ll work.’
‘And if it doesn’t?’
‘Then I drown.’ I shrug as nonchalantly as I can, like I haven’t feared this very moment since coating my fingers in ash and submitting my name for the Retterheld months ago. ‘But that’s not going to happen. This will work, Kyor.’
‘Fuck no,’ Jonas snaps, having finally twigged onto my plan. ‘You’re not going into the water, Rose. You’re not a good enough swimmer.’
Kyor rounds on him. ‘Stop telling her what she can’t do. I can’t deal with you dragging her down right now.’
‘If she gets in the water, it’ll be the kraken that drags her down,’ Jonas fires back.
Another tentacle comes down, creating a wave strong enough to lift the bow of the other boat out of the water entirely. When it smashes back down, Benny is left without an oar. Fuck.
‘Stop bickering! If we carry on like this, all four of us are going to die out here!’ I shout above the constant crashing. ‘At least this way, there’s a good chance the three of you will get out.’
‘No,’ Jonas repeats. ‘We’ll do something. I’ll … I’ll …’
‘If you say “blind it,” I swear I will push you out of this boat myself.’ My response surprises me, but it’s justified. Jonas’s power has made the situation worse before and we can’t risk that now.
Ignoring Benny and Jonas, I turn to Kyor. ‘You asked me to trust you. Now I’m asking you to do the same.’
I see the conflict on his face. The hesitation. Finally, his chin dips in a nod. ‘What do you need from me?’ he asks simply.
‘The moment you see a chance, get past it. If you can get me out fast, go for it. But if I go under, you need to leaveme?—’
‘Rose that’s not?—’
‘I’m not risking anyone else.’ I leave him with that statement and try to look at Benny while simultaneously throwing off my furs and shoes. But with all the rocking, it’s not exactly easy. So I choose to shout instead. ‘Benny! Remember what Llin said. One of us has to make it.’
