by BJ Hanlon
Placisus stepped through disappearing for a moment before returning. “He’s right, there’s a pool below, the water looks pure. And there seems to be an exit ahead of us.”
Before he went through, Edin turned to Dorset. “Are you okay?”
Dorset offered a weak smile and went through first.
On the far side, Edin noticed he was dry. The shredded clothes looked to have almost been laundered. Though still shredded.
He was in a giant cylinder with a skylight up top and a bright, clean pool down below being fed by the sewage turned fresh water falling in. And there was a bridge to a tunnel on the other side.
He followed the stone bridge; it was one large piece that must’ve been hewn from something much bigger, then they continued on down the opposite tunnel toward a pinpoint of light that slowly grew.
There were a pair of doors to the right and left about ten feet past the cleansing tunnel, but they didn’t turn. They continued forward.
As the light grew, it seemed that they were ascending. Very slightly but he felt the strain in his calves. Water lapping sounded ahead of them.
“The sea,” Placisus called back.
They emerged in the morning sun. The warmth from the rays felt heavenly. They were on a small stone platform, barely large enough for all of them to fit.
The dampness and seaweed at their feet seemed to say it spent a part of its time submerged. More seaweed along with barnacles were attached to the sides. Off to the right, he saw the cliffs. Then it hit him.
This was where they threw the body… where Edin saw that dark shape...
“We’re on the north side of the main isle…” Placisus said. “The water here is uncontrollable. We have to go back.”
“Why?” Arianne asked. “You have the talent… I’m sure you can–”
Dorset interrupted, shaking his head. “These are ancient waters, like ancient stone we have no power over them. They were created before man and will be here long after we’re all dead. These waters do not move with currents, they stay here. They only rise with the tide. It is the same with most waters of the Anderiania Sea.” He waived his hand out as if to present it.
“The Corrinbomon owns these waters,” Placisus croaked.
“Corrinbomon?” Edin asked. “That’s real?”
“Oh yes. An ancient sea beast that sinks ships and eats them and their crew.”
“Ships do not sail on the north side of the island,” Le Fie muttered. He was sitting on a stone off to the side and staring out to sea.
Arianne had healed him slightly; Dorset was been too weak.
Edin looked back into the tunnels… the maze. If they went back in, would they find their way out? And if they did, what would they be up against.
The sun was shining down as he stepped to the edge of the pier. He dipped a toeless boot into the water. It was cold.
Edin sat down, letting his legs dangle and slowly took off the boot.
“What are you doing?” Arianne asked.
“I’m going to swim it. Or try to.”
Bells rang out from somewhere off to the south. “That’s the signal,” Placisus said solemnly, “the battle is over.”
“Even if we get across, we have nowhere to go… Pharont clearly wasn’t as receptive as we thought,” Arianne added.
“The Reaches,” Dorset said.
Edin was sick of waiting, discussing plans. The bell ringing told him the battle was lost, Edin couldn’t give up though. They all stuck their necks out for him, believed him to be some sort of man of prophecy, and seemed to destroy their lives for it. Especially Mersett. If he could get them out of this. All these people who seemed to care about him…
Edin pushed off and slipped into the water, his body reacted as he knew it would, shivers, muscles clenching. For a moment, he tried to do what they said was impossible. Use the waters… He remembered turning himself into a fish… nearly.
He felt naught but the eeriness of being out on in the open water with nothing underneath. Edin put his legs to a rock and pushed off putting his head below and swimming.
The thought of the sea beast somewhere below was a good motivator to hurry.
Edin lifted his head after a dozen or so strokes to make sure he was on the right track. He wasn’t.
He made a course correction and then he was aimed for it. The stone was a hundred or so yards away. He kept swimming.
The next time he looked up, he noticed he’d somehow been taken off course again. Not just that, he was further out to sea. He heard people screaming behind him but didn’t stop. He stuck his head back under and tried to spy anything.
An odd thought came to him, there were no fish. None anywhere. And not just that, he remembered at one point seeing small specs of life that floated in oceans. None of those were here either.
It was as if this area was complete devoid of life.
Everything but me.
This realization caused him to try and swim faster, he pumped his legs and drove his arms forward.
He popped his head up, he was closer to the huge rock wall, but further to the north. Glancing back, he tried to spy the pier but could see nothing over the white crests of the waves beating around him.
Edin pumped his arms and legs faster. His heart raced and he got the feeling of something trailing him. He’d heard of sharks before and their much larger cousins, giasharks, thirty footers, that could swallow a man in a single bite.
He felt a wave pulling him up. Edin glanced up to see the rock formation about five yards away. He flowed back down and felt the water trying to recede. Edin pulled and kicked, hopefully moving forward.
In front of him, a black shape appeared just below the surface. There were eyes and a huge prominent nose. A giant beast, staring at him. His body froze like he’d just been thrown in ice and slowly, Edin began to sink. His mind worked like bears in winter.
The water washed over him, he felt like he was being pulled down.
The voices, screams, far distant were like drizzle during a thunder boom.
A screen of white bubbles filled his vision for a moment before they ran back to the surface. And he could see the eyes, the nose… the rock with a jagged piece of wood sticking from beneath it like a pipe.
He was able to think again, barely. His lungs were gasping for air, they’d stopped working, everything had. Edin shot out an arm and grabbed the soft, spongy wood and pulled. He shot upward, five feet then his head burst onto the surface as a wave drove him forward.
Edin threw out his hands but they slipped on the stone. His chest struck the face and all the air he’d just gulped blew out.
He was sinking again, then his feet touched something, he breathed and then nearly screamed. It was slimy and it moved. Edin reached out, for something. Anything.
The unknown thing reached up and began curling around his ankle.
A hand hold, he prayed.
Then he found something, Edin pulled, his ankle slipped through the closing coil and he nearly threw himself up onto the rock. He turned, waiting to see the beast leap from the water and grab him.
Nothing appeared.
He glanced back toward the slab and saw only men in dark cloaks. His friends were gone.
14
The Beast of Northeast
Edin pressed himself deeper into a crevasse between two rocks. Their pursuers were looking in all directions, hands over their eyes in a Resholtian-esque salute.
He laid still and watched. After a few moments, one of the men climbed up onto the rock to the near side of the pier.
Edin saw a head peeking out from behind a large granite boulder twenty yards away. Long blond hair, either Dorset or Arianne.
They were climbing on fallen rocks that were dipping in and out of the shallows around the base of the volcano.
Le Fie was in front, somehow the man was strong enough to lead. Placisus was at the rear, his body half submerged in water.
They were taking a very treacherous route around tow
ard the tall and narrower straights that separated Delrot from Brackland. The water rushed in and out of there with force. Swimming across would be almost impossible.
One of the suspension bridges was hanging high above them, but couldn’t see anyone crossing it. There were no more bells ringing and he wasn’t sure if the city was just silent or the distance was too great.
In a moment, the man would see the group and they’d be trapped. Magi or archers could pick them off from the cliffs. They’d be caught and killed unless Pharont was doing this for some other reason. One Edin could not guess at.
Edin closed his eyes and felt his talent. The connection to the world surged. Despite the fatigue that pushed him down, Edin needed to help.
The air was flowing, the waves were lapping, and small bits of electricity burst around his body. Edin let the air swarm like bees around a keeper and sent a gust toward the man climbing the stone. As it got further though, he could feel it dissipating. The broson dropped to his chest and clung to the rock.
Too weak. Edin thought for a moment. He could erect an ethereal wall or send his blades flying across like crossbow bolts.
This however, would give him away if he missed. Edin stared, lying on his stomach for only a few more moments. He had to feel the waves… the water. He remembered feeling someone else wrestling with the water in Pharont’s chambers.
What if that was what it was? Could he control the waves here? Heck if he could withstand the wan stones, maybe he could use the talent.
Edin closed his eyes and concentrated. He needed a large wave to knock the man off and sweep him into the sea.
As he tried, he began to feel something different. A rumbling feeling. He felt the waves… just a bit but there was a much deeper, more pronounced churning in his gut.
It wasn’t new, but it was stronger, as if something were pulling at him. Fighting him.
Edin felt the wave rolling in his mind and his stomach was doing the same. If he’d had a breakfast, it would probably have come out one of the two ends at this point.
Then, the feeling passed, he held out his hand and tried to feel it grow. He heard a shout from somewhere across the channel. Then he heard the crash of a giant wave striking the side of the cliff.
Edin snapped his eyes open and looked. The guard that was climbing the rocks was gone. In its place a dark black tentacle.
It slipped back into the water in a blink. A second broson was standing on the pier, staring at the water, then glancing back at where Edin knew the door to be. It was as if he were waiting for someone or something to come help.
Another shout, a name that Edin couldn’t quite make out. Then there was movement in the water. A broson splashed around, his head popping out and looking around. He saw his friend and called something back.
Edin carefully climbed a higher rock a few feet to his left. It was like a giant nub of a finger cut off at the first knuckle.
The black thing appeared in the water again, closer to the man. Edin felt the hairs on his neck stand. It was a sleek, dark black color. It reminded him of the tunnels he and Arianne had travelled through.
It was about five feet from the bobbing man.
Then the broson started trying to swim, his friend bent over, on his knees, and reached a hand out.
Edin stood. He wasn’t sure why, but from this angle, the sun reflected off the sheen of the black object like a mirror. Edin could make out the reflection of the mountain peak on its skin. White capped and pointed like an arrow to the heavens.
There was a second, when the broson was only a half yard or so from the outstretched hand of his partner and it seemed to give them hope.
Then,
a terrifying, bone-chilling, yelp echoed across the expanse and the swimming broson disappeared. The other man leapt back like a recoiling serpent and tumbled back onto the stone pier further from the water’s edge.
The Corrinbomon. The remaining broson stood and began creeping toward the edge again. This time, he had a sword in his hand. He called out a name, but the sea was silent as if the man had never existed… like the body Edin had seen thrown in.
Then he spotted it. It was long, fifty yards at least, he thought for a moment, but at this distance it was hard to tell. It was coming from the far side of the pier. The opposite side of where the broson was looking for his friend.
The human part of Edin wanted to call out, to warn the broson, but the words were caught in his throat as if he’d just swallowed a sticky unripe tuber.
It exploded out of the water so fast and so powerfully that Edin flinched. His foot slipped on something wet and soft, trying to compensate for his backward fall, he threw his weight forward and began to stumble the other way. Toward the sea.
A terrifying howl came from the direction of the broson, but Edin was trying to drop his hands and prevent himself from falling back in the dark water.
He groped at anything to arrest this fall but nothing seemed to be there. After a thousand years of water lapping these rocks, they were as smooth as a well-polished gem. Edin felt his body tumbling, sliding off a stone.
Head first, the cold water hit him quickly. It was a shock, much more than the initial dip and swim. All the air left his lungs and he sucked in a gurgle of cold salty water. His legs continued and he flipped, his back crashing hard into the sea.
He wrenched and coughed out the seawater that sent him into uncontrollable spasms. It went on for what felt like minutes. Hours. The burning in his lungs and throat made his eyes well.
Then, Edin was finally able to move, to see... At least as clearly as he could beneath the waves of the dark blue ocean.
He was on his back, looking toward the sky. He waived his arms down like a bird trying to take flight and broke the surface. Edin spun and faced the cliff, then the sky, then the mountain… and the empty pier below.
He froze because he saw the black shine coming toward him. His chest thumped.
It was far away but gaining rapidly. Edin’s eyes somehow glanced toward his friends. They were still on the rocks and looking in his direction. There were muffled screams coming from them, screams that could barely be heard over the waves pounding the boulders.
Edin turned back around, he fumbled at the smooth stone boulders in front of him. The stone he’d fallen from was easily ten feet above him. Edin used the side-stroke toward the strait, the water grew choppier quickly.
He stuck his head underwater and under there, he heard a high-pitch cry that took over any sort of cognitive function in his mind.
Edin nearly forgot to breath and the shock of this woke him.
The water was carrying him toward the strait. The rocks were feet from him. He saw an outcropping of rock with a short almost pier-like stone. He reached for it and pulled himself back out onto the small stone. Edin climbed another until he was free of the waves. Then
he spun back to see his companions.
They were staring at him, waving their hands like he was about to win the joust.
Edin was confused. For a moment. Then the brief glimpse of them was interrupted by a large black tentacle bursting forth from the dark sea.
The slick appendage was easily twice as wide as he and towered nearly to the top of the cliff.
Edin jumped to the side as the tree like arm slammed into the cliff face.
Large and small chunks of rock crashed all around him chipping and shattering into shrapnel that pecked at his skin.
Pushing back to his knees he drew his sword and watched as the tentacle slipped back into the water like a loose noodle being sucked down to a giant’s gullet.
Edin crouched and pressed his back into the cliff. His heart thundered as he slid into a small crevasse. It gave some protection, but no room to move.
The boulder he stood on was fraught with gaps where he could trap a foot.
In his mind, he heard Dephina, the beautiful bard, the brilliant assassin. ‘Be conscious of your surroundings.’ That day, in the rock-strewn mouth of the cavern
, she taught him. It was so long ago he’d almost forgotten… I’ll never forget.
He waited, though he didn’t have to wait long. The thick black tentacle burst up again, it rose higher into the air, above the cliffs behind him and hung there for a moment. There were large bowl-like suckers the size of his skull rising up the underside of the monstrous arm. It swayed briefly and he felt a burst of wind that nearly knocked him over. Then out of the corner of his eye a great flash and brilliant explosion.
Edin glanced over to see his friends. They were yelling frantically trying to get the beast’s attention. The attack did nothing but distract Edin.
Suddenly, it dropped, like someone had cut a marionette’s string, the loose, boneless arm fell atop him.
He summoned a culrian as it slammed down. Loud, pounding concussive waves ran through his body as he dropped to a knee. There was power. Deep and impeding power pushing down. Then the tentacle slid to the side and then began retracting back to the sea.
He collapsed.
Edin’s ears rang as he pushed himself up. He had a chance. Steadying his barefoot on a large stone, he swung the blade.
It bit into the hard flesh of the beast.
Edin thought the weapon would slice completely through it, but no. The blade dug in and got stuck. To his right, water began to bubble as if someone was boiling it. A moment later, another tentacle burst forth.
Edin used all his strength to hold onto the grip of the blade as the beast tried to pull back the first tentacle.
Somehow, it jarred loose and Edin fell back, landing into a V between two large boulders. The fall was a few feet but it caused him to feel… stuck.
Another tentacle rose. Edin wrestled to get unstuck.
In the sea, he noticed a black orb surrounded by white. It was twice maybe three times the diameter of a standard shield. Then it blinked, an eye, and it was looking directly at Edin.
He felt the rumbling, stones fell, then a moment later he heard a crack. Edin glanced up waiting for the fall of the arm or some huge boulder to slam down into him.
