TANGLED, genya safin

chapter six.

"Go on," he said. "We need to get moving. The Darkling's ship is disabled, but it won't stay that way." The blade in Sturmhond's hand gleamed dully in the sun. Grisha steel. Somehow I wasn't surprised.

Still, I hesitated. "I just lost thirteen good men," Sturmhond said quietly. "Don't tell me it was all for nothing." I looked at the sea whip. It lay twitching on the deck, air fluttering through its gills, its red eyes cloudy, but still full of rage.

I remembered the stag's dark, steady gaze, the quiet panic of its final moments. The stag had lived so long in my imagination that, when it had finally stepped from the trees and into the snowy glade, it had been almost familiar to me, known. The sea whip was a stranger, more myth than reality, despite the sad and solid truth of its broken body.

"Either way, it won't survive." the privateer said. I grasped the knife's hilt. It felt heavy in my hand. Is this mercy? It certainly wasn't the same mercy as Alina had shown Morozova's stag.

Rusalye. The cursed prince, guardian of the Bone Road. The story of the maidens flew into my mind, how he had lured lonely maidens onto his back and carried them, laughing, over the waves, until they were too far from shore to cry for help. Then he dove down, dragging them beneath the surface to his underwater palace. The girls wasted away, for there was nothing to eat there but coral and pearls. Rusalye wept and sang his mournful song over their bodies, then returned to the surface to claim another queen.

Just stories, I told myself. It's not a prince, just an animal in pain. The sea whip's side heaved. It snapped its jaws uselessly in the air. Two harpoons extended from its back, watery blood trickling from the wound. I held up the knife, unsure of what to do, where to put the blade. My arms shook. The sea whip gave a wheezing, pitiful sigh, a weak echo of that magical choir.

Alina strode forward. "You have to kill it," she said softly. "It's yours to kill." I shook my head and closed my eyes, "I—"

The knife was pulled from my hand and dropped to the deck. Mal took hold of my hand and closed them over the shaft of the harpoons. I tried pulling away but Mal gave a jerk of my hand and in one clean thrust, we drove it home.

The sea whip shuddered and then went still, its blood pooling on the deck. Mal released his grip on me and Alina pulled him up and slapped him, hissing. "Seriously!? Did you have to do that? She's never killed—"

Their voices suddenly became an echo. My hands shook and were now covered in blood. Tolya and Tamar came forward. My stomach churned. I knew what had to come next. That isn't true, said a voice in my head. You can walk away. Leave it be. Again, I had the sense that things were moving too fast.

But I couldn't just throw an amplifier like this back into the sea. The dragon had already given up its life. And taking the amplifier didn't necessarily mean that I would use it.

The sea whips scales were an iridescent black that shimmered with soft rainbows, except for a single strip that began between its large eyes and ran over the ridge of its skull into its soft mane— those were edged in gold. Tamar slid a dagger from her belt and, with Tolya's help, worked the scales free. I didn't let myself look away as much as I wanted to. When they were done, they handed me seven perfect scales, still wet with blood.

"Let us bow our heads for the men lost today," Sturmhond said. "Good sailors. Let the sea carry them to safe harbor, and may the Saints receive them on a brighter shore." He repeated the Sailor's Prayer in Kerch, then Tamar murmured the words in Shu.