For Wreck and Remnant

by Kate Avery Ellison

  But Lyssia. Annah. Merelus. Nol. Even my sister.

  What of them?

  “What do you want, Angelfish?” he asked.

  I gave him a look, and he spread his hands as if to defend himself. “Knowing that will give you clarity when you are making choices.”

  “Freedom. I thought I was a thrall before. I was wrong. This is the worst kind of thralldom, the kind where the chains come from your heart.”

  Valus laughed bitterly, his handsome face distorting into something cold. “Freedom is an illusion. Everyone is in chains, Aemi, be it chains of duty, loneliness, or selfishness, or need. You only get to pick what you serve, not if. Everyone is a pawn.”

  “I don’t believe that has to be true. It can’t. And when did you become a philosopher?”

  He sobered. “Being imprisoned gives you time to think.”

  “And what do you want?” I asked.

  “I want to live. I want to survive this. And I’m going to, wait and see.”

  Would I survive it?

  He hesitated, then reached out and gripped my hand.

  The ship shuddered, throwing us together. I jumped up.

  “What was that?”

  A metallic scream cut through the air, and somewhere, an alarm began to blare. My legs shook and my mind numbed, but I forced myself to breathe. “Are we being attacked?”

  Valus ran to a port and peered out. He staggered back with an exclamation of surprise. “What the—?”

  I joined him, and what I saw made my stomach drop.

  Black shapes flitted through the water, lit by glowing streaks. They moved like fish, but they were big. As we watched, one turned sharply and headed straight for the port we stared through. Valus and I fell back as something collided with the glass.

  “Come on,” Valus shouted, helping me up.

  Thuds echoed across the hull as we went into the hall and headed for the nearest common room.

  The common room was in a panic.

  “The Dron betrayed us!” Jak snarled above the fray.

  Tallyn stood at the glass, gazing at the dark shapes. “This isn’t from the Dron. Look.”

  One of shadows swooped close enough to be seen clearly. It was a shark, massive and black, with glowing stripes on its sides. I caught my breath.

  The giant squid. The thing I’d seen when I’d gone to the Village of the Rocks with Myo. Giant, glowing monsters, all of them.

  And now, we were surrounded by a swarm of such creatures, and they seemed hellbent on ramming us.

  “What are they?” Someone asked. “Is it Nautilus’s army?”

  Tallyn’s voice was hard. “It’s Azure. I’m sure of it.”

  I crossed to his side. “Azure Institutes?”

  “There have been rumors of their experiments, their plans to create weapons from engineered hybrid sea animals...” Tallyn stared at the beasts shooting past us. “I don’t know what they can do.”

  An explosion rocked the ship. We staggered.

  “Perhaps that,” I said.

  Alarms blared as thick black smoke began to fill the room. In the hall, several figures in orange and gray bodysuits rushed past.

  “Why would Azure be doing this? Are they trying to kill us?” A terrible thought entered my mind. “Does this have to do with me, with Perilous?”

  Tallyn shook his head. “I don’t know.”

  A man stopped in the doorway, wheezing. “We need help,” he called out. “Anyone who is able-bodied. Please.”

  Tallyn and I scrambled after him, followed by several of the diplomats and every Dron present. Nol was at my back, and I felt safer with him there.

  Valus didn’t join us.

  The smoke grew thicker as we followed the man down one of the smaller service corridors.

  Searing heat blistered my face as we rounded the final corner. Ahead, the doors to one of the surfacing bays hung half-open, the edges of the metal charred and blackened. Fire licked at the right side of the room and across a sheen of oil on the floor. Bodies lay littered like debris. In the square of water designed for ships and people to exit and enter, something with black fins thrashed and fought in a churn of white foam

  A few workers fought the flames while others struggled to lift the fallen. Tallyn and Nol ran to the side of one of the injured and hoisted him by his shoulders and ankles. The man moaned, his hands dangling limply as they rushed him through the doors and down the corridor to a safer location. Garren and Jak lifted another body in a similar fashion, nodding at each other to signal when to lift. Beside them, Olis bent over an unconscious woman and checked her breathing.

  As they headed for the doors, a tentacle snaked from the water like a whip.

  “Look out!” I shouted.

  The tentacle wrapped around Garren’s leg and yanked, throwing him to the ground. The wounded man screamed as Jak struggled to drag him. Garren rolled, fighting at the fleshy manacle around his leg.

  I grabbed a chunk of jagged metal, groaning as the heat of it burned me, and hacked at the tentacle until it released Garren. Flecks of blood splattered me. The appendage disappeared into the water again, and I dropped the metal and hurried to help Garren and Jak lift the wounded man once more. Tallyn and Nol were returning. My hands throbbed from the burn of the metal. My face stung from the heat of the flames.

  The water was still a moment, and then the entire creature shot out of it, maw open wide.

  Nol yelled a warning and yanked me to the side as a tentacle twice the size of the last one shot past my face. The thing was huge—black and dripping, with glowing streaks down its sides. It was not quite a squid, not quite an octopus, not quite anything I’d ever seen before. I heard Nol say “kracken,” but there wasn’t time to think. I scanned the ground for something long and slender, and spotted a jagged pole that had snapped off in the struggle. I snatched it up and hefted it in my hand as Garren, Tallyn, and the Itlantean senators dragged away the rest of the wounded. I took aim at the unblinking eye of the monster, let my breath release, and threw.

  The scream of the creature make me shudder. It jerked back, blood pouring from the eye socket where my makeshift spear had found its mark.

  “Aemi,” Tallyn shouted behind me. “Come on. We’ve got the wounded out. They’re going to seal off this chamber and flood it.”

  I backed away, unable to tear my eyes from the monster. Nol grabbed one of my arms, and Tallyn the other, and together, we ran.

  ~ ~ ~

  Bodies lay strewn across the floor of the common room, covered in blankets. Garren slumped on a bench, his pant leg rolled up to reveal a set of bloody circles where the tentacle had latched. Blood dripped down Tallyn’s face from a wound in his head. Around us, the more severely wounded groaned as they were tended to.

  Valus lurked in a corner, refusing to meet our eyes. I ignored him, furious at his cowardice.

  Nol applied salve to the burns on my hands without saying anything. I stared at the sea outside the glass, where the bodies of the dead creatures floated, shot to pieces by the ship’s weaponry.

  Jak and Garren nodded at each other with weary respect. Olis pressed a wet cloth to the face of one of the senators. Dron and Itlanteans, tending each other.

  Tallyn tried to catch my eye, but I turned my head. I could no longer trust him, not anymore. Not now that I knew I was a pawn in his game. We would work together to find Perilous, no doubt, but I would not do so happily.

  The weight of what we were up against pressed on me like a coat of stones.

  Nautilus.

  Tempest.

  Azure.

  Too many enemies, not enough information.

  Nol seemed to sense my thoughts. He finished tending to my hands and then took a place beside me, his shoulder pressing against mine in a way that comforted me.

  We sat in silence as the ship carrying us drew closer to Verdus, to war, to a destiny fraught with uncertainty.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Kate Avery Ellison lives in Atlanta, Geo
rgia, with her husband and two spoiled (but extremely lovable) cats. She loves dark chocolate, fairy tale retellings, and love stories with witty banter and sizzling, unspoken feelings. When she isn’t working on her next writing project, she can be found reading, watching one of her favorite TV shows, dancing as a form of exercise, and hanging out with friends. She also loves hearing from readers!

  You can find more information about Kate Avery Ellison’s books and other upcoming writing projects online at http://thesouthernscrawl.blogspot.com/.

  To be notified of new releases by Kate Avery Ellison, as well as to get more information about sales and other great deals, you can sign up for the New Releases Newsletter at http://thesouthernscrawl.blogspot.com/p/new-releases-newsletter.html, find her on Twitter, or “like” her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/kateaveryellison.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Scott, for providing a listening ear, ready advice, and wise insight with my career, my books, and my life. For encouraging me, believing in me, and being so proud of me. I love you.

  My family, for your enthusiastic and energetic support. You are all wonderful.

  My mom, for telling just about every person you meet about my books.

  H. Danielle Crabtree, for being an amazing editor, as always, and for calmly accommodating my crazy and frantic schedule changes.

  My readers, for being dedicated, enthusiastic, and thoroughly lovely. Thank you for reading my books and writing me letters. I appreciate every single one of you.