reminded them.
“If we meet them, we must offer a truce,” Vixa decided. “It would be folly to fight each other in a situation like this.”
The younger warriors drew swords and made for the slippery slope. The others trailed, picking footholds with care. The air grew moister and warmer as they descended the passage. Out front, Harmanutis murmured, “I don’t fancy this.” His and Vanthanoris’s faces seemed bloodied by the lambent red glow from the walls. “I feel like a worm in a bird’s gullet.”
Vixa followed close on their heels. She found herself growing curious about the kraken-for a kraken it must be-in spite of her fears. “How would you classify this creature, Captain?” she asked. “Among other sea beasts, I mean?”
“Hard to say, lady,” replied Esquelamar, ducking his head under a flap of leathery flesh hanging from the ceiling. “It vented like a whale.”
“That would be fortunate. Whales breathe air as we do. When next this one surfaces to breathe, we could escape.”
“Even if that’s so, we’ve no way of knowing how often it needs to breathe,” Esquelamar said. “It could be hours or-considering this beast’s size-even days.”
The gently sloped passage leveled off and ended at what looked like a pair of doors, each half-round.
They scrutinized the barrier. Vixa poked one of the doors with her fingers. The surface was soft and rubbery. At her touch, the doors parted slightly, and a foul, fishy smell assaulted them.
“Phew! That must lead to the monster’s gut!” Esquelamar gasped.
They certainly didn’t want to investigate that chamber. As there was no other way to go, they turned and retraced their steps, stopping just inside the closed nostril.
“The only way out is the way we came in,” Vixa stated, gesturing at the sealed entrance.
Vanthanoris ran a hand through his silvery hair. “I wonder what happened to those two spearmen? The ones who led us in here.”
“Maybe they fell into the kraken’s stomach,” Harmanutis said flatly. “Good riddance, I say.”
“It’s all very odd,” Armantaro mused. “They didn’t appear to be shipwrecked mariners. Yet, if they were not, then how did they get on the island-er, on the kraken?”
The princess had her mind on more practical matters. “We’ve no way of knowing when this creature will next draw breath,” she announced. “We cannot hope to survive for long without food or water, so we must devise a way to escape. Suggestions?”
The warriors were out of their element. With charging armies, they could cope. With a monstrous sea beast, they were at a loss. A long minute passed, and no one spoke.
“Captain?” Vixa said, turning to that elf. “Any notions?”
The mariner folded his hard, tawny arms and replied, “I can’t tell if we’re moving or not. We might be lolling back on the surface, or lying on the bottom forty fathoms deep. As you said, lady, we have no option but to try to escape. As to the how-” Esquelamar smiled. “Kraken or no, if an animal gets something up its nose, it usually sneezes it out.”
Vixa’s own smile brightened her grimy face. “It does indeed. A splendid idea, Captain.”
They resolved to get as close as possible to the opening through which they’d entered, then jab the kraken with their swords. With luck and the gods’ intercession, the monster would expel them on the surface, or at a depth from which they could swim to the surface.
Armantaro, Harmanutis, and Vanthanoris shed their mail and heavy boots. Esquelamar pulled off his own footwear-beautiful, hand-tooled boots that reached to his knees. Vixa stripped to her smallclothes, which caused the old colonel some embarrassment.
“My lady, this is-this isn’t seemly,” he said haltingly.
“I won’t risk drowning for the sake of modesty, Colonel. My clothes will weigh me down if we must swim,” she pointed out.
The younger soldiers followed her example, stripping to their breechcloths. Armantaro stubbornly refused to remove his shirt and trousers, and the captain retained his emerald green corduroys as well.
“They’re new,” he said simply.
The elves drew their weapons. On Vixa’s signal, they began to jab the leathery walls of their prison. The kraken’s hide was tough. None of their thrusts drew blood or seemed to discommode the creature in the least.
Frustrated, Vixa raised her silver blade and stabbed it into the ceiling. This proved more tender than the walls. A twitching shudder rippled through the tunnel.
“Everyone! Concentrate on the ceiling!” Armantaro ordered.
All four elven blades were driven deeply into the ceiling, over and over. A violent quaking knocked them down. Two swords fell out of the ceiling. The other two-belonging to Vixa and Vanthanoris-hung quivering, embedded in the soft flesh.
The arched opening parted slightly. Water spewed in. “We must be underwater!” Esquelamar cried.
The beast shook itself again, rattling them helplessly.
Vixa was determined to reclaim her treasured sword. With the floor lurching and the ceiling swaying, this was not a simple task. She made two fruitless attempts, her hand missing completely. She finally grabbed the hilt on her third try.
At that moment, the nostril opened fully, and a wall of water smashed in. They were blasted back down the passage.
Vixa struggled frantically for a handhold. She knew they could be washed to destruction in the kraken’s gullet. Water dark as ink roared over her. She couldn’t see a thing.
The torrent slammed them against a barrier that buckled under the impact. This must be the “door,” to the monster’s gullet. They squirmed against the membrane, but the rush of water held them pinned in place.
Suddenly, they were rocketing in the opposite direction, back up the passage. The mad torrent of seawater had reversed itself as the kraken exhaled. Vixa hurtled on, battered by the water, debris, and the bodies of her friends. A stunning blow landed across her back as she shot through the nostril opening, then all was darkness and cold, swirling water. She was spinning free, weightless.
Her lungs were burning. Frantically, she began to swim. Was she heading for the surface? She couldn’t tell. The buffeting of the water had knocked nearly all the air out of her. She had to breathe! Vixa put out her hands, groping for her comrades. Nothing.
Something streaked past her, brushing her outstretched arm. The kraken? There was a face staring at her. A strange, un-elven face. Smiling.
It was a dolphin. She’d never seen a dolphin this close before, and now that she had, she was nearly dead. She simply had to breathe. Her lips parted. Before the water could fill her mouth, something hard was shoved against her lips.
Air! Not cold seawater, but air flowed into her starving lungs. The dolphin had pushed a hard, white object against her face. With both hands, she pressed it to her mouth. It looked like a big seashell, but it held air-sweet, delicious air!
The dolphin bumped her right arm with its dorsal fin. On its second pass, she grabbed the dark gray fin and held on tight. The dolphin’s powerful flukes propelled her through the inky depths.
Water rushed over her face, and she gripped the precious airshell even more tightly. Casting a look behind, she saw other undulating forms that were probably more dolphins. Had her friends been rescued as well? She sent up a silent prayer to Astra to keep them safe.
They swam for many minutes; then Vixa noticed a faint yellowish glow ahead and below. The dolphin changed direction, swimming toward the yellow light. They entered a zone of warmer water. A cherry-red glimmer beneath them told Vixa there were volcanic vents here. Columns of water warmed by the vents streamed upward.
The dolphin took her between two spires of stone. One, she noticed, passing just a foot away, was carved with geometric shapes and strange glyphs. Between the bases of the spires ran a long, white ribbon. It looked astonishingly like a road. A road on the bottom of the sea!
The dolphin slowed, fell in with a school of other dolphins. To Vixa they all looked very much alike-nine feet long, gray backs and flanks, lighter bellies. The school swam above the surface of the white road.
