Screams, not all of them human, and the sound of crashing rocks chased them up the stairs. The tunnel shook with impacts from below. The temperature fluctuated, one moment hot on their backs, then an icy gale pushing them upwards. A wave of energy hit them just as they reached the top of the stairs, shoving them hard. Elisabeth and Cressia stumbled into the pandemonium of the “hall,” at the crest of the magical explosion. Elisabeth felt liquid running from her ears in the aftermath of the onslaught. She shook her head to clear it.
The cavern was a chaotic scene, skeletons and reanimated servants in constant movement. Invisible hands pulled bones from the walls, and that same force pushed the bodies of the walking corpses together. An abomination formed as the two pirates dodged between the shambling carcasses. Under different circumstances, watching the process would have fascinated Elisabeth. But they kept running as dust and water rained down on them. They were almost at the tunnel that led back to the beach, when a ghost flashed into being, blocking their way.
“Elisabeth,” her mother’s spirit hissed. “Go back right now and help your sisters!”
“Begone, wraith. They don’t need me to save them.” Elisabeth used a push of necromancy to displace the spectre from their path. Passing through a ghost was possible, of course. They were immaterial, after all, but when they were in a mood the experience was unpleasant akin to a thousand ant-bites along raw skin. Elisabeth didn’t have the patience for it—never had—and she was glad when the nudge of magic moved the spirit aside. The two pirates passed without incident.
“COWARD!” The spirit screeched behind them, a rush of cold air on the back of Elisabeth’s neck. She ignored the insult and kept moving. Protecting Hag’s Rock was not her responsibility. Emilia agreed with the decision, encouraging her to leave. Not even a sliver of guilt sat in her heart about her flight. She only knew that she was leaving her former home, again. The fight below wasn’t hers to join. The sound of her breath was the only thing she heard, seeming to reverberate in the small tunnels, and her lungs ached, unaccustomed to running for more than a few hundred meters. Neither woman paid attention to the bone-adorned walls this time. All of Elisabeth’s focus was on reaching the beach and then her ship. They rounded the last corner, sunlight visible at the end of this final passage, when the boom of cannon fire reached their ears.
“Do you hear that?” Cressia asked, pulling Elisabeth to an abrupt stop, her hand on her arm clutching so tight it would bruise.
The captain gulped a few deep breaths, straining to hear more. She caught the faint sound of the surf, and a shout or two, but it was all distant and indistinct. Until the cannon boomed again. “The Silence is firing her guns.”
“If there’s a fight ahead, we need to approach with caution. Not rush into it without knowing what we’re facing.”
“Aye,” it hurt her to admit, but it was common sense. What Elisabeth wanted to do was to sprint towards her ship, but she knew that caution was a better strategy to ensure the safety of the Silence and its crew.
“I’ll take the lead, now, captain.” Cressia’s tone left no room for argument—she was acting as bodyguard. Elisabeth knew that protecting her charge was the only thing on the other woman’s mind, nothing would deter her from that goal. The threat behind them wasn’t in pursuit, so they focused on whatever new danger lay ahead of them. They crept toward the entrance, using rock formations in the cave to shield them from view. When they finally snuck onto the beach, ducking behind boulders to remain unseen, they realized it was wasted effort. The Silence was engaged with a kraken. Two tentacles wrapped around the ship, and the beast was attempting to drag it back to the open sea, and its doom. The crew fought hard, shooting and slicing at tentacles. The wind witches calling on the air to anchor them in the bay.
“Is that a…kraken?!” Cressia sounded like she didn’t believe her own eyes.
“It is.” Elisabeth stood from behind the boulder and walked closer to the shoreline. They had to get back to the ship. “Looks like we’re swimming home.” She stepped into the surf, pushing power into a trinket that allowed her to breathe under water, and that allowed her to navigate the sea’s currents more easily—a token so precious for a life at sea that it was sown into her skin. The captain of the Silence didn’t hesitate, and she didn’t wait for Cressia to follow. She simply went towards her ship.
The ground shook beneath her feet as she waded deeper, and she knew that the battle below continued. The thrum of magic in the water told her that the kraken and whatever fought her sisters in the ritual chamber were connected. They walked into a trap when they scried out the Atlas Stone. It made sense now, that Emilia had sent her above—her sisters would have wards set around Hag’s Rock, alerting them to breaches, and presumably acting in defense of their home. But little was able to stand against a kraken. As Elisabeth dove under the waves, the creature wrapped a tentacle around the main mast of the Silence. The groan of the wood was like a splinter in her flesh, the parts of herself she’d poured into the vessel alert to the danger. She needed to get aboard her ship.
Without the trinket, she wouldn’t have been able to cut through the current. Even with the magic helping her, it tugged her in the wrong direction more than once. But she pushed through, determined to join her crew in the battle against the sea monster. Ahead, she saw the mass of the creature, its body still submerged, only its gigantic tentacles above the surface, attempting to drag the vessel into deeper seas and then the depths. The eye was huge and yellow, the head as large as the Silence. It was the biggest kraken Elisabeth had seen in her time at sea. Her legs and arms burned, muscles straining as she swam. She dodged around a tentacle as the cannon boomed again. Bits of flesh fell into the water around her. She was nearly at the ship.
Elisabeth pushed to the surface and paused to assess the best way to get onboard the Silence. Two tentacles wrapped around the vessel—sailors hacking at them. Moira’s voice cut through the tumult, but the wind swallowed her words. With a feral grin, the She-Wolf swam toward the nearest tentacle. It was the easiest route to the deck. She pulled two sharp, curved knives from their sheaths, angled them downward. When she reached the writhing appendage, she stabbed the first knife as far above her head as she could reach, and then used it to pull herself up. Hand-over-hand, blood sloshing over her arms and into her face, she climbed the tentacle, clinging to the hilts of the knives when the creature squirmed beneath her. When she reached the rail, she rolled over it and onto the heaving deck. With her back to the wall, she surveyed the chaos of the ongoing fight for the Silence’s survival.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
The wind witches were at the helm with Helen, strain showing on their faces as they forced air into what few sails remained in an attempt to hold the vessel in place. Moira was on the foredeck, sword in hand, blood running from a headwound, voice hoarse from bellowing orders.
“Aim that cannon higher!” She screamed, hooked hand pointing at a partially severed tentacle. Elsewhere, sailors were hacking away at the thick blubber of kraken flesh, while trying to avoid the suction cups. The ship was damaged, rigging trailing down from broken masts. They were losing the fight. The Silence was slowly being dragged to deeper waters where the kraken could sink her completely. Elisabeth’s thoughts raced. The last time she’d faced one of these thrice-cursed creatures, she was prepared. This time, she didn’t have the right talismans with her to use the same strategy: brute magical force. The cannon boomed, again, and flesh rained onto the deck. A large portion of tentacle fell, crushing one of the sailors beneath its weight. A scream cut through the tumult. The woman’s shipmates moved to cut her free.
Elisabeth knew she needed to act quickly. She pushed away from the rail, dodging through scurrying pirates towards the foredeck, and the embattled quartermaster. She felt Cressia at her back, and caught the flash of her blades as the bodyguard slashed at a third tentacle that was slithering onto the deck as they passed. Moira’s face flickered into a momentary expression of relief when Elisabeth clasped her shoulder.
“Thank the seas you’re back, captain,” the quartermaster rasped. “We’re in a bad way with this creature.”
“Aye. Have them fetch that mage we took from the prize out of the hold. He’ll earn his keep right now. Nothing these things hate more than fire.”
“You heard the captain! Bring the prisoner up!” Moira relayed the orders with her habitual brusqueness, and two sailors peeled from slashing at a tentacle to obey the directive.
“Good, now make room so I can work.” Elisabeth stepped away from the quartermaster and Cressia. She faced the kraken and called up her power. Cold spread around her as the magic rose. Elisabeth allowed it to build, and then wrapped its tendrils around and through one of the injured tentacles, spreading necrosis through the exposed flesh. The limb began to blacken. The kraken thrashed, sending the ship sideways. Elisabeth lost her footing, and her hold on the spell, when she crashed into one of the cannons. She felt the crack more than she heard it, and knew she’d broken at least one rib by the pain that spread through the right side of her chest with each breath.
“Curse it,” she hissed, cradling her arm against the injury. Through a haze of pain, she saw the prisoner stumble onto the deck. She watched his face as he saw the kraken, and the struggling pirates. His two escorts pushed him forward, nudging him toward Elisabeth. She spat, ignoring the tinge of red in the spittle and walked to meet them.
“You’re going to conjure up a few of those little fireballs you slung at us back when we took your ship, and you’re going to do it now. Or I’ll throw you overboard to make your peace with the beast myself,” she growled the demand at him. He grew pale as she spoke, and quickly nodded. “Aim for that big tentacle near the main mast first—but don’t set my ship on fire!” She yelled over her shoulder, as she made her way back to the opposite rail. She wasn’t done with her own spell yet, and was determined to take another piece off this beast before the battle was done. The pain in her chest was fuel to keep her in the fight. She watched for a moment as the prisoner conjured a large ball of fire and hurled the flames at the tentacle. It exploded into a shower of sparks, and the creature pulled its appendage back with a shriek. The smell of charred fish covered the ship.
Satisfied that the boy was doing as she commanded, she turned her attention back to her own work. Conjuring another vortex of necromancy and aiming it at the submerged portion of the kraken. Leeching away its vitality and funneling it into the charm that kept her upright and breathing. Between the siren and now this feast, the talisman brimmed with power—Elisabeth was glad it was a bottomless well. Another ball of flame shot through the air. The pirates cheered as the kraken withdrew its tentacle completely. Experience told her that another attack would follow.
“Bring the boy over here!”
They needed to end this now, while the kraken wasn’t draped over the Silence. She pulled a couple of charms from the cuffs of her coat, using her teeth to bite through the threads that held them to her clothing.
“Take these,” she thrust them at the prisoner. “You need to conjure the largest bit of flame of your life, and aim it right at its head. I’ll do what I can to give you a clear shot. Do you understand?”
“Aye.” The boy gasped, and crushed the charms to activate them. Power bloomed in him, and she saw him grit his teeth against the sensation. His entire focus shifted to calling up enough fire to kill a kraken. Elisabeth left him to it, her gaze sweeping the deck for the wind-witches.
“Lotte! Lena!” She called them to her and they came running, Lotte supporting Lena, who was moving with a slight limp.
“Keep the tentacles away from him, and get ‘em out of the way of the maw, if you can!” The captain commanded. “And ALL OF THE REST OF YOU!” She bellowed. “KEEP THE BEAST OFF US!” Sailors ran to the rail holding swords and spears, ready to defend the witches while they did their work. Elisabeth renewed her spell, drawing as much lifeforce out of the kraken as she could. The creature was weakening, but it wasn’t enough to kill it. It thrashed against the hull, tipping the ship again, but the wind witches held them in place with a gust of air.
Brightness caught Elisabeth’s attention, and she watched in awe as the prisoner wielded a conflagration, its intensity carefully fanned by Lena, sweat dripping from the woman’s face. The boy released the spell and flung it at the bulk of the kraken. The inferno exploded in a hiss of water and flesh, rocking the ship again. Elisabeth drew on a talisman and threw up a shield, scalding liquid and charred pieces of kraken hit the shield and were diverted from hitting the crew. The dying monster’s heaving threw the wind witches, the boy, and Elisabeth to the deck. Her broken ribs protested the rough treatment, and she coughed up a mouthful of blood. With one last lurch, and a primal shriek, the dead kraken sank beneath the waves. Elisabeth rolled onto her back and stared at the blue sky above, breath hitching against her broken ribs, blood bubbling with every exhale. Darkness spread across her vision, and she allowed it to claim her.
The fight was over.
