“Do I get to use it now?” Maldynado asked.
“Uh, sure.” Amaranthe rubbed her face. She hoped the kraken could not track the viewer back to the ship.
“Wait, it’s broken.” Maldynado frowned at her.
“Yes, and it’s possible we shouldn’t stick around. Just in case what broke it wants to visit.”
Amaranthe jogged for the ladder.
“I can’t believe you broke it before I got to play—scout—with it,” Maldynado muttered as he followed her.
She almost gagged when she returned to the death stench of the corridor above. She glanced toward the storage area where she had left Books and Akstyr, but it was dark, so she headed outside.
“Over here,” Books called as soon as she trotted onto the main deck. “We hauled four suits out, and we can go down tonight. This gear is brilliant. There’s no tubing except to these packs, which can be filled with compressed air. They must be magic of some sort. I can’t imagine we have the technology to—”
“Not now, Books,” Amaranthe said. They had laid everything out on the side opposite from the dock. “It’s defended. We’re going to have to—”
The deck heaved, throwing Amaranthe into Akstyr. She bounced off him and almost tumbled over the railing. It caught her in the belly, forcing an “Oomph!” out of her lungs. The far side of the ship rose, slanting the deck further, and she wrapped her arms around the railing, clinging like a tick lest she be hurled into the water.
The men cursed, but the sound of wood cracking drowned their words. Everyone else had tumbled to the deck as well, and they were bracing themselves against the railing.
“The suits!” Books cried, wrapping an arm around one helmet and his legs around another.
“Blazing ancestors,” Maldynado yelled. “What’s going on?”
As abruptly as the far side of the ship had lifted, it crashed down. Amaranthe flew from her perch and landed with a painful thump on the deck. The ship rocked, and water surged over the railings. A suit threatened to float away, and she grabbed it.
“Get the gear and run to the dock!” she ordered.
A tentacle thicker than a man’s body reared out of the water ten feet away. It stretched high, towering over the tugboat. The tentacle waved menacingly against the starry backdrop, then plummeted. It slammed onto the deck at the front of the ship.
Metal groaned under the assault. A wooden ship might have been destroyed right there. As it was, the tentacle wrapped around the base of the crane and snapped the metal support, as if it were breaking a pencil.
Amaranthe ripped her gaze away. The men were already scrambling across the rocking deck, slipping and flailing in the water streaming past. She grabbed the lone remaining helmet to go with the suit, groaning at the combined weight of the two items. On hands and knees, she clawed her away across the heaving deck after the men.
The tentacle lifted the crane into the air and flung it with an irritable flick.
The forty-foot metal arm flew out of sight, though Amaranthe heard it land. Wood smashed and cracked, and she feared another docked ship had been turned into a victim.
The tentacle reared for another attack.
She hustled faster. Fifteen feet to the railing and the dock beyond. Maldynado and Akstyr were already there, hurling their suits off the ship.
The tentacle smashed into the main cabin this time. Wood shattered, and shards flew everywhere, pelting Amaranthe’s back as she continued to drag the heavy suit toward the rail. The tentacle thrashed. The roof caved in, and more waves rocked the ship. Beneath Amaranthe’s hands, the deck trembled under the stress, and the hull quaked.
In seconds, the cabin was destroyed. The tentacle lifted from the wreckage and swept sideways across the deck.
Amaranthe flattened. It came so close, the breeze ruffled her hair and cold water droplets rained onto the back of her neck. As soon as it passed over her, she sprang to her feet and sprinted the last couple of paces.
Akstyr grabbed her helmet and tossed it onto the dock. “What is that thing?”
She winced when the helmet nearly bounced off and into the water on the other side. “I’ll tell you about it when we’re safe.” She heaved the suit over the railing and gestured for Books and Akstyr to follow.
“Whatever it is,” Maldynado said to Akstyr, voice muffled, “I’ll pay you a thousand ranmyas if you can incinerate it with your mind.” He was wearing his helmet.
Akstyr paused, his foot on the railing. “Really?”
“No.” Amaranthe shoved him from the boat and nodded toward Books. “You next.”
The tentacle grabbed the rail on the opposite side of the ship and pulled. The deck tilted thirty degrees, lifting Amaranthe’s side high in the air.
She hooked her elbow over the railing, even as her feet skidded out from beneath her. Books was not as quick to grab hold. He hit the deck and started to slide away. Amaranthe thrust a foot out, and he caught it.
The jolt popped something in her hip, but she gritted her teeth and hung on to the rail. She caught it with her other hand and anchored herself, so Books could crawl up her leg and find purchase again.
The dock, previously ten feet below the deck, lay twenty feet down now.
“Go,” Amaranthe told Books.
Without pause, he flung himself over the side. The deck rocked. The kraken seemed to know Amaranthe and Maldynado were still on board, and it was trying to shake them free. They pushed the last of the gear over the side.
“You go first,” Maldynado said.
A new tentacle shot up between the dock and the ship, the gleaming purple skin not five feet from Amaranthe and Maldynado. Water sprayed everywhere and spattered her in the eye.
“Both of us,” she said. The tentacle swept down toward them. “Now!”
They leaped over the railing just as the kraken smashed through it. A chunk of wood hammered Amaranthe on the back as she fell. Air whistled past her ears.
In the dim lighting, she struggled to judge the distance to the dock. Through luck more than skill she landed with a roll that kept her from breaking legs, but her momentum threatened to send her tumbling into the water on the far side.
A hand clamped about her collar, hauling her back before she flew over the edge.
“Thanks,” she said.
“You’re welcome,” Maldynado said, head still ensconced in the helmet.
“I caught her, you dolt,” Books said. “You’re lucky you didn’t land headfirst wearing that thing.”
Amaranthe hustled to her feet and grabbed one of the sets of gear. “Let’s chat later.”
The dock lacked any sort of comforting sturdiness, and she ran for the street as quickly as she could while dragging the suit and helmet. The men raced after her. Wood cracked behind them, and the dock shuddered. She did not look back. Only when they reached land and the solid cobblestone of the waterfront street did Amaranthe feel safe enough to check.
“Emperor’s warts,” she breathed at the sight. Or the lack of a sight.
The Tuggle was missing, along with half of the dock. A ship that had been moored opposite the tugboat was tilted on its side, its wooden masts broken, with water flowing through a hole in its hull. Tangled sails smothered the deck. In the water, boards, rope, and other jetsam floated, the only remains of the salvage ship.
The tentacles were gone.
“That was a kraken?” Books shook his head. “That cannot be here. The Aracknis Kraken is a deep-sea-dwelling relative of the giant squid that’s native to the Trechara Trench, two thousand miles away. It feeds on large fish, squids, and other species found only in that environment. It’s physiologically adapted to a saltwater habitat, and it cannot be here.”
“Thank you, professor.” Maldynado removed his helmet, and his damp curls stuck out, creating a silhouette reminiscent of a dandelion gone to seed. “Perhaps you should swim into the lake and tell that to Lord Tentacles out there.”
“That was brilliant,” Akstyr said. “My first sea monster.”
“Sea monsters can’t be in freshwater lakes,” Books muttered.
“They can if they’re guarding a submerged magical fortress full of kidnappers,” Amaranthe said.
“A fortress?” Books frowned.
“That’s what I’d call it, yes.”
He groaned.
“Does this mean we’re not going diving tonight?” Akstyr asked.
Books groaned again.