by William King
Kormak thought about the implications of her words. Did she seriously believe they might have to pursue the Kraken down into the depths of the World Ocean?
Judging by the grim set of her jaw, she did.
Two hours later, the harbour of Port Blood fell away astern. A dolphin followed in their wake, leaping out of the water and then splashing back. Sailors and marines shouted encouragement at it. They considered such creatures lucky.
Kormak, Jonas and Rhiana stood on the forecastle, beside the catapult, and scanned the horizon. Behind them, on the sterncastle Zamara shouted orders to the crew. He seemed once more to be in his element.
“Our captain surprised me,” said Jonas. “I would not have expected him to be so bold as to come into the harbour like that.”
“He has nothing left to lose,” Kormak said. “If he goes home now he can report only failure.”
“Perhaps,” said Jonas. “Perhaps he had something else in mind, like becoming permanently resident in Port Blood.”
“He would not be the first,” said Rhiana.
“You would know about such things,” said Jonas.
“I am not a corsair,” she said. “I am a diver.”
“But you choose to live among corsairs,” said Jonas.
“It’s as good a place as any for one like me. It is close to the Sunken Kingdoms and there is a ready market for what I find. And it is refreshingly free from taxmen and other thieves.”
Jonas laughed. “The pirates of Port Blood impose their own taxes on everyone else.”
“Not on me,” she said.
“Why is that exactly?” Jonas asked.
“Unlike most seamen, they consider it lucky to have my folk about. They do not slay the Sea Children. Only the Kraken has ever done that.”
Red anger blazed in her voice. Kormak recognised the underlying rage. He had felt it himself at times.
“He is certainly a man who needs to be stopped,” said Jonas. “I would give a lot to know what he is up to.”
“Nothing good, that is certain,” said Rhiana.
“Perhaps you should get back to those coded journals,” Kormak said. “They might help you find out.”
Jonas nodded and strode below.
“What journals are these?” Rhiana asked.
“You’ll find out soon enough I suspect,” said Kormak.
An island rose from the sea, glittering in the sunlight. What looked at first like a hillock was an enormous head. The sharp sail-like piece of stone near it was not a towering rock but a hand. He gazed upon a gigantic statue emerging from the sea.
“The waters cannot be too deep here,” Kormak said.
“You think,” Rhiana replied. “Wait a few moments and you’ll see.”
The ship moved into the shadow of the stone colossus. The waters were clear as glass. A long way below the ruins of a great city covered the ocean floor. They were passing over an enormous palace, rising, floor upon floor, storey upon storey upwards. On its roof stood the great statue whose head they could see.
Not a sailor cursed. Not a soldier spoke. Even Zamara said nothing. Looking down Kormak could see that the roofs of the palace had all tumbled. Shoals of fish swam through the rubble. Long stalks of seaweed drifted above the fallen towers.
“Once there was a city bigger than Trefal down there,” Jonas said. He had emerged from his cabin below to take a closer look at the prodigy.
“Bigger than Vandemar,” said Kormak. “All gone now.”
“The Angels spoke. The mountains burned. The sky rained fire. The earth shook. The kingdoms sank,” Jonas quoted from scripture. “The sons of the Sun fled across the sea in their tall ships seeking sanctuary from the wrath of their god.”
“A whole land drowned,” said Kormak.
“More than one,” said Rhiana.
“You have hunted among the ruins down there,” Jonas said.
“Little point. A thousand divers have been doing it for twice a thousand years.”
“They say the Sunken Lands were once as great as the Kingdoms of the Sun, the Kingdoms of Shadow and Ash and the Kingdoms of Snow and Ice combined. I am starting to believe that,” said Jonas.
“They were certainly populous. Do you think your god really cursed them?”
Kormak could not help but notice the way she placed the emphasis on your. Jonas appeared to give the matter serious consideration.
“That’s what the Scriptures claim,” he said. “It is what the Church believes.”
“Is that what you believe?” Rhiana asked.
“There are other documents and other sources,” said Jonas, keeping his voice low, as if he spoke of matters he did not want anybody else to overhear. “The Seleneans claim that it was war between the Old Ones and their foes triggered the catastrophe.”
“I spoke to an Old One who claimed they used weapons so terrible that the continents themselves were shattered,” Kormak said.
“Do you think it true?” Jonas asked.
Kormak shrugged. “Another said it was the Children of the Sun themselves who were responsible. They used too much magic, disrupted the leylines that kept the continent above the waves. It could have been any of these explanations or none. We are unlikely to ever find out.”
“And you don’t care?” Jonas said. There was an accusing note in his voice, as if he could not understand how anyone could feel that way.
“I am interested,” said Kormak. “But I am not going to lose any sleep over the fact that I don’t know.”
“I have had nightmares about it sometimes,” the priest said. “They say when the Islands of the Sun sank, waves as high as mountains battered the land, that Leviathan rose from the deep, that millions upon millions died.”
“I have had similar dreams,” said Rhiana. She sounded thoughtful. “I wonder if they are memories of reality.”
Jonas said, “We know the Solari emerged from the Sea on the wings of the storm to conquer the lands the Old Ones ruled. We know that their cities sank. We have just seen evidence of it. It was some part of reality.”
They fell silent. The waters darkened again and the drowned city faded from view. Kormak suspected they were all glad of it.
Days later, Jonas came flying out onto the deck waving the sheaf of papers he had found back in Triturek. “I have cracked it,” he said. There was excitement and terror in his voice. “I have broken the code.”
“Are you sure?” Kormak asked.
“It was simple once I puzzled it out. The cypher is an ancient Selenean numerological one. It was the language confused me. I was expecting either modern Sunlander, Solari or the Old Tongue. One of those is what any civilised man ought to have used.”
“I take it the Kraken did not.”
Jonas shook his head. “He cyphered it in the Low Dialect of Skorpean.”
“The slaver’s tongue.”
“Indeed. The Kraken spent time there as a youth, dealing in flesh. I would have seen it sooner but the spelling of the words is to, say the least, non-standard and the grammar, well... it was execrable.”
“What did you find?” It was then that Kormak noticed how pale the priest looked and how dilated his pupils were. He looked either exalted or terrified.
“I think we should talk with the captain and Rhiana,” he said. “It will save me having to repeat myself.”
“Well?” Zamara said. His cabin looked even smaller with all four of them squeezed in. Rhiana perched beside Kormak on a drop-down bed that hung from chains on the wall. Zamara sat on his sea chest. Jonas leaned against the closed door, too excited to sit. “What is this important news you have?”
“I have decoded the Kraken’s journal,” Jonas said. “I know what it is he seeks. I know why he wanted the Teardrop of Leviathan.”
“Why?” Kormak asked.
Jonas closed his eyes for a moment, put his hands together as if in prayer and then looked at the ceiling. He gulped in air before he spoke. “The journals go back a long way. To before the Kraken e
ver began his hunt for the Quan artefacts. They started with stories his mother told him of Dhagoth. The witch belonged to one of the cults that worshipped him and still offered sacrifice.”
“Dhagoth is dead,” said Kormak.
“So are many other Old Ones. It does not stop their cults worshipping them. Their followers believe they will return some day.”
“An interesting theological point,” said Zamara, “but what has this to do with the Kraken?”
“The witch taught her son more than spells. She told him about the Quan, Dhagoth’s greatest servants, and about Leviathan, Dhagoth’s steed. She believed that Leviathan was the mother of the Quan, not a mere monster but a living vessel who gave birth to countless children. This knowledge passed down from priestess to priestess for a hundred generations.”
“My folk have similar stories,” said Rhiana. “When I spoke of them to the Kraken he nodded as if he was agreeing with something he had heard before.”
“I was taught the Quan were Dhagoth’s children,” Kormak said.
Jonas’s head bobbed in brisk agreement. “So was I. But the Kraken’s journal tells a different tale. Leviathan was more than a simple monster, she, for I think I need to start calling her that, was a vessel and a womb. She spawned the Quan in the thousands as fish spawn eggs. If the Kraken is to be believed Leviathan was home to them, a ship the size of a city that could swim through the deepest seas and cross the seas between the stars.”
Zamara grunted. “It sounds like exactly the sort of tale to tell a child. Ships that swim between the stars—who would credit that?”
“The Kraken, for one. Dhagoth for another.”
“What?”
“Dhagoth bound Leviathan when first she fell from the sky into the ocean. While she was stunned from her great fall, he drove aetherial crystals into her flesh. He siphoned her life force into the gems. The Teardrop, the master crystal, allowed him to control the great beast and all her children. He could inflict agony on her or destroy her at his whim.”
“It sounds like something that one of the great Old Ones would do,” said Kormak.
“Leviathan was vast, a citadel that roamed the seas and unleashed Dhagoth’s armies. Its tentacles destroyed city walls. Its movement generated waves that swamped cities.”
“How then was Dhagoth defeated and where is the monster now?” Zamara asked. He tried to make the words sound like a sneer but there was an undercurrent of fear in his voice.
“Now we come to the crux of the matter,” said Jonas. “War erupted between the Old Ones. They had destroyed or conquered all of the other Elder Races. They had no one left to fight for dominance but each other. Tritureon and Dhagoth battled for control of the seas. Tritureon forged a harpoon made from the swords of slaughtered Angels and used it to slay Dhagoth. He ripped the master crystal from the heart of Leviathan and sent the corpse to the bottom of the Ocean.”
“That’s all very well,” said Zamara. “But it must have happened millennia ago and has nothing to do with us.”
“The Kraken believes Tritureon erred.”
“And he would know better than a false god, I suppose,’ Zamara said.
“He believes that Leviathan was wounded almost unto death. She sank to the ocean’s bottom and lies there dormant, healing in her vast slow way. A few of the Quan remain awake in the depths, watching over her, tending her wounds, preserving her flesh.”
Kormak could see the way this was going. “The Kraken believes that he can waken Leviathan with the Teardrop and bind the monster using Dhagoth’s spells.”
Jonas nodded. “He talked with the Quan using the ancient spells his mother had taught him. He located the beast in the Quaneth Deeps. He will rouse Leviathan and this time there will be no Tritureon to stop her.”
“Is it possible?” Rhiana asked. She sounded appalled.
“Who knows? But he has spent his lifetime planning this and no one knows more about Leviathan than he. If he succeeds he will be all but invincible. Leviathan could swallow fleets, smash cities, birth armies. There is nothing in this age of the world that can oppose her.”
“There are other potential outcomes, that are even worse than the Kraken enslaving her,” Kormak said. “He might rouse Leviathan and be unable to bind her. Think of such a beast rampaging uncontrolled along the coasts of the Sunlands. Think of armies of Quan unleashed.”
“I knew I could trust you to see things at their darkest, Guardian,” said Jonas. His teeth were brilliant white when he smiled but there was no mirth in his eyes.
Zamara’s gaze flickered between the two of them. He was a Siderean. His nation’s great cities lay on its long coastline. Its wealth came from the sea. Its empire throve on maritime trade. He had witnessed what a single Quan could do with his own eyes. “We need to stop him,” he said.
“We need to kill him,” said Rhiana. “And we need to make sure that his dark knowledge dies with him.”
All of them nodded agreement.
Zamara laid out his charts on the desk. They were far less complete than the ones Kormak had seen back in the Kraken’s palace. They showed open ocean with a scattering of islands along with warnings of whirlpools and sea monsters and other things. The fancies of the cartographers had got the better of them. They had spent more time embellishing the cartouches than making the chart.
Even the Sidereans, the greatest seafarers among the Sunlanders, had very little knowledge of this part of the ocean. The borders of the maps were so elaborate because the map-makers knew so little about the area they were illustrating.
How had the Kraken come by his charts? He doubted he would ever get the chance to find out.
“If your memory is correct, milady,” Zamara said. “We should arrive over the Quaneth Deeps in less than a day. If we don’t overhaul the Kraken before then.”
“Or he does not summon another of his giant pets to be rid of us,” said Jonas. His tone was dark. Kormak could not blame him for that. The thought of encountering another such beast so far out in the ocean was not a reassuring one.
“If we encounter the monster we will be better prepared this time.” Zamara said. “We have pots of alchemical fire ready and you can bet the men in the crow’s nest are keeping their eyes peeled for any disturbances. There are men beside the war-engines day and night ready to spring into action as soon as the warning is given.”
Zamara was saying this as much for his own benefit as theirs. He seemed to need reassurance that all would go well.
Rhiana said, “He can only summon the monsters if there is one in the waters nearby.”
“How can you be certain of that?” Zamara asked.
“When you last encountered him, he did not summon a deep dweller straight away, did he? He did not bring one in to shatter your fleet when it waited in the river mouth.”
“True,” Zamara said. “But there must be plenty of monsters out there now.”
“No. And I will tell you when there are,” Rhiana said.
“And how will you know?”
“It is a gift of mine. It has kept me alive for a long time now.”
“Let’s hope you stay that way,” said Jonas. Rhiana gave him her ravishing smile. Clearly she was less worried about the ship going down out here than they were. That too was understandable. If worst came to worst she could swim home. The rest of them would not be so lucky.
“If we do overtake the Kraken, he has two ships to our one,” Kormak said looking at the captain. “How do you intend to deal with those odds?”
“If we can we will board and retake the Ocean’s Blade,” Zamara said. “And then we will sink the Kraken’s Reach.”
“That’s your plan?”
“He has no more than a skeleton crew on the galley, and we have a double compliment of warriors thanks to Captain Rhiana. My men know how to sail that galley. If we seize it, we can use it.”
He sounded like what he was, a desperate man trying to convince others they had a chance.
“There is at
least one Quan on the Kraken’s Reach,” Kormak said.
“Then we shall rely on you to kill it, Sir Kormak,” said Zamara. “And the sorcerer as well.”
“Does anybody have anything to add? Anything you would like to share? Now is not the time to be keeping secrets. All our lives are going to be at risk before sunset tomorrow...”
No one said anything. “Very well then,” said Zamara. “You can get some sleep.”
It was clear he was going to be spending the night on deck, wrapped in his cloak. He was a diligent ship’s master.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
KORMAK STOOD ON the forecastle, looking out into the night. Something slid through the water ahead of them, riding the bow wave. He sensed the presence of Rhiana behind him, caught her faint salty scent.
“The dolphin has been with us since we left Port Blood,” he said.
“How can you be sure it’s the same one?”
“It is, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“It is your familiar?”
She laughed. “You think I am some sort of witch.”
“I have heard it said that the Sea Folk bonded with dolphins and seals and other aquatic creatures, even whales.”
“Your education covered that did it?”
“My education covered many things.”
“I’ll bet.”
“Is it your familiar?”
“You don’t give up do you?”
“It’s not in my nature.”
“Yes. It is my familiar. What are you going to do now? Ask the priest to burn me?”
“No.”
“I thought that is what your Order did, when it wasn’t bribed to leave well alone.”
“My Order hunts Old Ones who break the Law. Men too, mostly wizards.”
“I have heard otherwise.”
“Perhaps because it sometimes is otherwise.”
She came round to stand beside him. He was very aware of her nearness. Her strange eyes caught the light. At that moment she did not look very human. “My Order consists of men. Some men are weak. Some men take bribes. It does not mean that all men do.”
