‘Hey! That taffrail was handcrafted by a Lassairian carpenter!’ I shout, clinging to the deck for all I’m worth.
‘I don’t think it cares, Fin!’ Ris shouts, ducking behind a crate.
I unsheathe my sword and take aim at the undulating tentacles, wrapping themselves around the mast. I step forward and come down with a hard overhead strike. An unholy shriek from below and the kraken begins to uncoil. Then another scream, this time from above. Isagani is on the rigging, entangled and frozen in fear.
‘Stay still, Isagani!’ I insist, running over and scaling the ropes. It’s only when I’m halfway up I realise I’ve dropped my sword.
Isagani is within reach now. I cling to their shirt, and we slowly make our way back down to the deck.
‘Birdy fell, I couldn’t stop it!’ Isagani sobs.
I look around at the chaos on the deck. The undead don’t have the reactions for this, trying to continue their duties with no preservation instinct. The deck roils and some of them lose their footing and go over, Knuckles unable to grab anything with their gnarled fingers.
The kraken has retreated from its wounds, but it approaches again, moving swiftly. Its tentacles crash against the hull andwe’re all thrown off balance. I scramble away from the exposed side of the deck, which now ends in a treacherous drop into the water. The ship tries to right itself and we go flying, living and dead crew alike. Biba screams and I see her small face as she slips from the deck.
I lunge, but she’s out of reach. There’s a circle of bubbles on the surface of the water where she fell.
‘Biba!’ Ris yells, rushing to my side. She’s peeling off layers, preparing to dive, when something breaks the surface of the water. A crown, the kraken’s round head floats near us. And atop it is Biba. She’s wet and gasping, but she’s alive. She lies down on the kraken, her fingers gently stroking above its eyes. He looks up at her and another deep moan erupts from its body.Saltsweptvibrates with it, and I feel the resonance in my bones.
‘Go now,’ Biba commands, with the precocious authority only she could muster.
The kraken’s eyes begin to close, and he gives a groan.
I wait for my moment, and then I reach for Biba, grabbing her bodily before the kraken sinks back below the waterline. She yells as I lift her up onto the deck, bruised and scratched, but otherwise unharmed.
‘She’s trying to protect her babies,’ Biba protests as I try to wrap a blanket around her.
‘Babies?’ I ask. Guess my old pal was an old gal after all. ‘But don’t they die after they—’
Ris wraps me in a hug, cutting me off. ‘Thank you,’ she says, giving me a pointed look and shaking her head.
The mothers die after they lay their eggs, giving their final days to protecting their young. Biba will have to learn that sometime, but not now.
Isagani’s lips are bloody and I take the kid’s face in my hands. I tip their head back, inspecting the gummy gap where their front tooth used to be. ‘What happened?’
They garble something, tongue flopping around. I release their head. ‘Gone with the taffrail.’
There’s a slight lisp on the ‘th’ and ‘eff’ sounds, and I pull them close. They squirm, unsure, and I let them go.
‘Does it hurt?’
‘I’ve had worse,’ they tell me, tugging their shirt collar up and feigning nonchalance.
‘I’m sorry about Birdy. And Knuckles. We’ll check on all of them, all right?’
‘I know they’re already dead, but they’re part of our crew, you know? He was my rotten boy.’
I nod and clap them on the shoulder.
‘There she goes,’ Biba points, and we all look across the water.
The kraken has re-emerged by the other ship. They are desperately shooting arrows at her. Fuck, why didn’t we think of that? I suppose staying afloat and not having the kids fall to their death was a priority. The kraken cries out when they hit her, blood in the water, deep midnight blue. She thrashes, coiling around the ship. She is immense, pulling the ship off balance. The crew’s screams can be heard from here. It takes a sickeningly long time for the ship to finally sink. It disappears beneath the waterline, the kraken’s wails still ringing in my ears.
‘Holy Aistra, that’s awful,’ Ris whispers, when we finally break the silence.
‘We should patch up the damage we took,’ I say, assessing the casualties.
‘That entire crew is dead, Fin,’ Ris says, staring at me.
