Page 82 of Wanted: Rogues and Bards

The bulk of the creature remained under the churning froth and crashing waves, but thick, long tentacles covered in grey-and-red flesh surged toward them, the underside of each covered in suckers nearly big enough to cover a full-grown man. Here and there, the beastie’s body would poke above the water, flashing glimpses of a set of huge yellow eyes and a beaked maw that would let out an ear-splitting screech.

Maxie darted below deck, supposedly to locate Hapi. Lirion swallowed down the swell of fear and rushed to the bow of the ship, where Fen was helping Bel load a harpoon into the giant mounted crossbow. Feelings of terror and a hardened determination not to die rose up from his companions. Unlike the anger and bloodlust Lirion had encountered from the barfight in Björnkill that had driven him to need release, fear only clouded his mind and made his hands shake.

“How can I help?” Lirion demanded, shouting above the ominous sound of creaking wood.

“Know any musical magic that can hurt that thing?” Fen asked as he helped Bel lock the enormous arrow with the iron tip into place.

Lirion lifted his gaze to the kraken as two more massive tentacles broke through the water and thrust into the air. He didn’t need to review his repertoire mentally before shaking his head. “No. My magic isn’t meant for things this big.” Besides, with all the shouting, crashing, and creaking, he doubted the monster could hear anything he played or sang.

“Then try to keep an eye on Puppy for me. Don’t let him fall overboard or…” Fenric shot a somewhat helpless expression in his direction and Lirion got it. Maxie was a magnet for trouble, and this was the perfect chance for the kid to find more than he could handle.

“Got it.”

Just as Lirion was about to dart across the deck, Fen’s hand shot out and grabbed him hard on the elbow. He pulled Lirion in, their chests slamming together a second before Fen’s mouth claimed his lips in a bruising kiss. There was no time to melt into him like his body demanded. Fen ended the kiss as suddenly as it started.

“Don’t you fall overboard either,” Fen ordered, his face a hard mask of fierce lines, and Lirion’s heart skipped. Yeah, he didn’t need to be reminded, but he enjoyed the sentiment all the same.

Fen released him and Lirion ran across the wet deck. Another wave slammed against the side of the ship, spraying water across them all and causing Lirion’s pants to stick uncomfortably to his legs. Salt water dripped into his eyes, leaving them stinging and blurry. As he rushed toward the stairs leading below deck, Malfas zoomed past him, shouting, “Let me curse the harpoon!”

Lirion also passed Hapi, who stood off to the side, dark miasma swirling around him while all his focus remained on the skeletons as they hurried about their work. As curious as Lirion was about how a necromancer performed their craft, now wasn’t the time to investigate.

His feet half slid down the stairs, and he had to jam his hands against the walls to catch himself. His heart felt like it was lodged permanently in his throat. The ship pitched and groaned around him as the kraken’s tentacles pummeled it.

Don’t break. Don’t break. Don’t break.

He whispered that desperate prayer to himself repeatedly as he regained his footing and started down the corridor. His shoulder slammed into the wall and Lirion winced as pain shot through his body. The ship that had felt so big when he boarded now was like a slender branch bobbing in the sea, one sickening step away from being completely snapped in half by a monster. Gritting his teeth, Lirion shoved the thought aside and stumbled to the galley to find⁠—

—Maxie cooking?

“What are you doing?!” Lirion shrieked, his brain shutting down at the bewildering sight.

Maxie’s head popped up as he pulled a pan out of the stone oven. A wide grin spread across his adorable face. “I’m making a late lunch!” he exclaimed, as if they weren’t in the middle of a life-ending battle that could see them all in the gullet of a kraken.

“What?” Lirion shrieked again, not feeling all that proud of how his voice cracked.

“Lunch. I’m making the kraken lunch. You and Malfas said all I needed to do was add fire to something to make it poisonous. I thought I could cook and poison the kraken to death.”

That actually wasn’t a terrible idea. It was just a matter of whether Maxie’s poison was powerful enough to kill such an enormous beast and how they were going to get the monster to eat it.

Lirion pushed off the doorway he’d been clutching for stability and moved to the counter closest to the oven. “What did you make?”

“I cooked the fish we caught that Rain said tasted nasty. No point in ruining good food if this doesn’t work. Thankfully, Hapi was already boiling water for tea when the kraken struck, so I didn’t need to worry about starting the fire. But how do we get the kraken to eat it? I couldn’t figure out that part.”

Lirion opened his mouth to say the same when a wicked idea crossed his mind. He searched the cabinets until he found a soft woven basket. He dumped the oranges inside onto the floor, sending them rolling about the room.

“Here. Put the fish in here,” he said, thrusting the open basket at Maxie. His young companion looked at him strangely for only a heartbeat but followed directions without a word. He stabbed each of the six fish with a fork and plopped them inside.

“Now what?”

“We’re going to see how good Bel’s aim is.”

Maxie giggled, a strangely wicked sound coming from such a sweet face, and they raced up onto the main deck, where chaos continued to reign. Several of the skelebabies lay in shattered pieces and Hapi was standing over them, soaked to the bone, shouting for them to pull themselves together again. Rain bellowed orders from where he clung to the wheel with one hand and chopped at a tentacle reaching for him with a sword in the other hand. Two more tentacles slithered over the railing and across the deck, moving toward Malfas.

Fen slid across the waterlogged deck and stabbed both tentacles before either could reach the warlock. The kraken’s pained cry split the air, and Lirion cringed at the sound threatening to destroy his eardrums, but at least the tentacles retreated again.

Holding tight to Maxie’s arm, they ran across the deck to where Malfas was casting spells on the harpoons before Belstrom fired them with the crossbow at the kraken.

“Cast Straight and True!” Malfas shouted, pointing his club at the harpoon. The wood and metal glowed bright gold for a moment and faded again. The moment the glow disappeared, Bel adjusted his aim with the sway of the ship in the turbulent waters. He pulled the lever, and the harpoon sliced through the air with almost a howl. Everything about it looked perfect. Lirion’s breath lodged in his throat, and he froze, his hand tight on Maxie’s arm as they watched. It was there. It was going to hit. Pierce the kraken right in the eye.