Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 144411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Sedge just tilts his head as if to say, the ship can’t sink.
Gods, I hope he’s right. Nightwind might be able to handle some roundshots and grenades and the fiercest storms, but if that sea beast decides to tear apart the ship plank from plank I don’t see how it would be able to put itself back together. It’s not like it’s part of the Brethren itself.
“Will you do that, get the boys for me and keep them safe?”
Sedge nods emphatically.
I let out a breath of relief and then I start running through the rest of the decks, calling out her name. The only people I find are Remi and Horse in position at the cannons, one on either side of the deck. They give me a terrified look.
“I heard it was the Kraken,” Horse says. “Is it the Kraken, truly? We’re waiting for the command to fire.”
“Maybe we’ll get it right in the mouth,” Remi adds with put-on bravado.
“You wait for Thane’s command,” I tell them. “You’ll be alright.” I pause. “Have you seen Nerissa?”
They shake their head in unison. “No, milady,” Horse says clumsily. “Haven’t seen her since…since…”
He trails off, his mouth going slack, eyes locked in terror on something behind me. I whip around to see the open gun port on the other side of Remi. Instead of looking at the blue horizon, all I see is a giant yellow eye peering at me.
“Kraken!” I scream. “Fire! Fire the cannons!”
I don’t care that I’m not Thane and neither do the gunners. They strike a match and light the back of the vent and the shot is fired with a deafening BANG, smoke filling the air.
The cannon recoils with great violence, pulling back at the ropes that hold it in place and the roundshot fires straight into the Kraken’s eye.
It lets out an otherworldly bellow that shakes the whole ship, that sounds like it’s come right from the bowels of hell and the ruined eye starts to fall from view but now the tentacles are slamming into the side of the hull, shaking the ship.
Screams and cries come from the deck above and I know I need to help them. I look at Remi and Horse, at the fear on their faces. They don’t look like this when they’re battling the Royal Navy, but the Kraken is an entirely different fight altogether, one that could spell death for them all.
“Did Thane come by here with the bottle earlier? No, he didn’t have time,” I answer myself, hoping that bottle is still getting passed around up top.
I take hold of my arm and rip off the bandage, the motion opening up the wound from earlier. My blood starts to flow and I quickly jam my arm up into Remi’s face. “Suck!” I yell at him, aware of how it sounds, also aware that Ramsay has been very adamant I don’t share my body with others. But when it comes to a life-or-death situation and not a hypothetical one, I don’t give a whit what he thinks.
Remi delicately sucks back the blood, giving Horse an unsure look, and then I see his pupils turn red and he’s biting me.
“Ow, damn it!” I cry out, “you didn’t have to bite me.”
“Remi,” Horse chides him, pushing him off my arm, droplets of my blood gathered in his thin mustache, then Horse begins to feed. He shows a little more restraint and doesn’t bite me, but Remi already made it easier for him.
Then Horse’s pupils go crimson and I know he’s starting to get carried away so I kick him in the shin until he stops.
“You feel it now?” I ask them and they nod vigorously, their eyes growing large with verve. “Then fire again!”
They jump to it, moving so fast now that they’re a blur.
I turn and run out of the gun deck and to the stairs until I’m face-to-face with the carnage up top. The Kraken’s tentacles are wildly thrashing the ship, one pulling down the foremast, another slamming through the railing until the shards go flying across the deck, another pounding the deck like a fist.
“Help!” Crazy Eyes screams as a tentacle grabs hold of him, squeezing him like it means to cut him in two, and then Cruz is there, slicing through the tentacle with a broadsword, wielding the giant weapon like it’s a toy.
The more I look at everyone, the more that I see they’ve all had my blood. They’re moving faster, they’re stronger, they’re thinking two steps ahead. I don’t know how long a shot of it will last in their systems, but it might be enough to destroy the Kraken.
And what about Edonia? I can’t help but think. If she’s here, where is she? Why doesn’t she show her face? And where did Nerissa go? Has she abandoned us already?