Do not teach me strategy, little knight, he says, amused instead of annoyed.
I can still feel traces of his pain from the blow.
“Be careful, won’t you, kraken?”
You could use my name, you know. I am Hafgúa. Though I am sometimes also called ‘Holy Gods, What is That, Oh Fuck, Ten Hells’ by human sailors.
“Cai. Caiteven.”
Yes, I do remember. I've known you your whole life, little knight.
The kraken’s tentacle squeezes a little tighter again. I think it’s supposed to be a hug.
It’s time. His tentacle shoots up, stretching over a hundred feet into the sky to deposit me on top of a Hellion for the first time in years.
I crash down in a wave of water, on one knee. Sailors scatter, sprinting for the other edge of the ship. Surprise and speed are the only chance I have to save the Enchanted, before the ship’s knight can channel too heavily and drain them. The only other way to save them would be to take out the ship’s spear to stop him from channeling altogether, but those are so heavily enchanted that there’s no way to do it while facing down the knight.
The ship’s knight has seen me. He’s over by the spear, but he turns and sprints towards me as the kraken removes his tentacle. I recognize him as Odiren, a man knighted a decade before me, from the blue braided metal around his shoulder pauldrons.
Odiren charges. As I rise, I draw my sword. I reach for the kraken’s power and find there’s nothing to key into. It’s justthere, an immense well of strength at my command. I pull the same way I used to channel a Hellion, and send a ring of fire like a blade slicing out around me. The fire washes harmlessly over Odiren’s armor, but he falters all the same. He’s recognized me.
And realized I didn’t die on the Bluff like Harfor must have said I did.
Once, I was the best of the knights. And now, I’m going to be their downfall.
Odiren regains his footing, sword drawn and held straight out in front of him. He charges like he’s going to impale me on it.
He’s strong and fast, but not very agile. That was always his weakness on the training mat. Pulling on the kraken’s power I haul myself to the side, leaping out of his path before turning and launching myself at his back. Odiren begins to spin, sword glinting as it slashes in an arc.
I leap with a roar and drive my sword into his eyeslit, my legs wrapping around his waist. Odiren’s sword clatters to the ground. As he collapses, I disentangle and roll on my good shoulder, glad Roiven secured my right arm so well. I rise and yank my sword out of his face. The ship’s squire sprints towards the spear, helmet and gauntlets missing. If he doesn’t key in fast enough, he won’t stand a chance against me.
I point my sword at him and charge across the deck, feet pounding as I leap, each step bigger than the last as the kraken’s power floods my veins.
The squire dies as I ram my blade through his neck.
“Push the ship aside so the dragons don’t go after it,” I scream to the kraken, as I sprint to the edge of the Hellion and hurl myself over. We’ll have to get the Enchanted out later.
I could ground it on that rock, he thinks, showing me the one he means in his mind, not big enough to be an island, but sticking up over the surface all the same.
The next ship we attack, the kraken grabs one side with his tentacles, slowly tilting the ship towards his head as the sailors scream and dive for the water.
Another of his tentacles pops me up over the ship’s other side, to take out the knight before he can even turn to see me. The squire manages to block a strike from me, but goes up in flames. Two ships of Enchanted saved.
The green dragon rises away from a flaming ship, climbing straight up into the sky as the ship plunges beneath.
Above us, Sava dives in toward Triumph. She swoops along its length, setting a blaze of fire. Each beat of her wings fans theflames. By the time her whole length has passed over the ship, the deck crawls with fire. I clench my teeth and wish I could scream loud enough to make the dragons stop.
There’s a reason Rancor was the War-Father’s pride and home for so many years. She’s vicious, and powerful, and the Hellion doesn’t need to turn around to angle herself back on Sava. With the ship’s prow pointed the other way, she fires a spear of blue light at Sava as the dragon flies away from Triumph.
“Sava!”I scream, as if she can hear me to see it coming, as if I can reach Roiven in time. It’s the same powerful blast that obliterated the Governor’s ship and sank it in a flash.
And now, it tears through Sava’s left wing.
43
Sava’spain nearly crushes me through the kin bond. With a roar the dragon drops from the sky. Roiven falls more slowly, the wind buffeting him up but unable to slow his familiar. She’s too big.
The terror pounding through him turns my stomach to stone. The fear is for Sava, not himself. There’s nothing like a familiar bond. I understand now what Torain said when he told me the familiar is like your split self. He doesn’t just love Sava; she’s literally part of him. As the kraken, strange though it may still feel, is part of me.
