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The three ships are coming close together. This is the moment that counts.
I swim back towards the prow of the left ship. I poke my head up out of the water.
“I’m over here!” I call. “Try and get me!”
I duck under the water again as two arrows and a ball of fire fly at me. They’ll know it’s a trick, but that shouldn’t matter. Elves refuse to believe that humans could really be smart enough to fool them. Even if they don’t know what a human is doing, they’ll race right towards it, simply because they think that they have to be stronger and smarter than we are. I’ve seen it time and time again.
I pop up again, still as close to the stern as I dare. “Let’s go! Try it!”
I can feel the heat of the fire as I duck back under the water. I dive down until I’m sure I’m out of sight.
But I am going to need to try it at least one more time. They’ve moved to the back of the ship, but the ship itself isn’t quite in position yet.
This time, before I reach the surface, I stretch my arm out and make a quick splash as far from me as I can. As they’re shooting at that, I pop up.
“Almost!” I cry and dive down again.
Elves can’t stand being teased, especially by humans. Most of them will make practically any mistake you need them to, as long as you tease them enough first to distract their reasoning. It’s even worse when they’re in groups.
This is it. All the elves on the third ship are at the back of it, scanning for me. The ship is just a few feet from both the sinking middle ship and the one on the right that’s coming to its aid.
At that moment, Laiken bursts up at the ship’s front. With all of his tentacles at once, he grabs the hull of the ship and turns it to the side.
I rise above the surface to watch. There’s no time to correct the course. The third ship plows straight into the side of the middle ship and grinds along it, tearing both apart. It then crashes into the ship on the right as well.
The elves aren’t watching for us anymore. They’re desperately scrambling to launch their life rafts, or just to try and find some piece of jetsam to grab onto. It’s total chaos, and all of them are screaming in terror or fury.
I dive back down and swim to Laiken.
“So, what did you think?” I ask. “Did I do a good job?”
“You nearly got killed several times,” he tells me. “I had no idea you had such courage in you.”
“You would have risked yourself if it weren’t for me,” I remind him. “You don’t get to be the only one who puts themselves in danger.”
He seems surprised by that, but he smiles. “You’re right. I hadn’t thought about it that way, but you’re right. I don’t get to be the only one who makes that choice.”
“But I did do a good job?” I press. “You never told me that I did a good job.”
“You did a wonderful job,” he tells me. “And I hope you never have to do anything like it ever again.”
We begin to swim together, back towards the temple. He wraps a tentacle around my waist and pulls me along beneath him.
“You know that I was doing it for you, right?” I tell him. “Not just because of what the elves have done to me, or because they were chasing us. I wanted to show you I could be a good fighter.”
He stares at me. “You never cease to surprise me.”
He has been fighting for me,I realize. When he pulled that entire ship into the path of the others, that was for me.
As we swim away from the fight behind us, a sudden sense of peace falls over me. We’re safe.
I’m safe.
24
LAIKEN
The temple is an impenetrable fortress.
