When he snapped back inside his head he turned to look at Kelos and there was triumph in his eyes.
'It's coming.'
'Excellent. We can use the creature to guide us towards the nearest land.'
'What have we called?'
'It's a distant relation to the whale. Quite peaceful I can assure you. You can sometimes see them from the northernmost tip of Sarcre. I was taking something of a gamble that they would graze this far out, but it seems to have paid off. Here he comes now.'
A huge ridge of bone broke the surface and cut swiftly through the water towards them. The wind screeched across the crest of the creature as two vast flippers — looking like barnacle encrusted oars — rose from the spray, followed by the grey bulk of the leviathan. Its long, ululating call shuddered the air as it neared the ship. Then it was gone, the sea closing in over the spot where it had dived.
Silus closed his eyes and could sense the creature moving somewhere beneath them.
'Should I try to call it again?'
But, before Kelos could respond the ship lurched and — even with the field of magical energy containing them — the two men were knocked to the deck.
Silus pulled himself to his hands and knees and looked down the vertiginously sloping deck, into the eyes of the leviathan as one of its huge flippers crashed into the side of the ship.
'Why is it attacking? I thought I had control.' He shouted.
'I don't know. It doesn't make sense.'
Silus concentrated as hard as he could — despite the blast of foetid breath that wafted towards him as the creature opened its maw — and tried to send a wave of calm towards the leviathan.
The creature responded by pushing its bulk against the ship, sending it slamming into the side of a wave that had just begun to rise above it.
Silus lost his footing completely as a wall of water hit him. For a moment he feared that he had been swept overboard — then a hand grabbed his and he found himself dangling just below the ship's rail, looking up into the face of Jacquinto. Beyond him Silus could see Kelos. The mage's hands were wreathed in fire as he sent bolts of energy into the flank of the creature. Despite the howls that accompanied his strikes, Kelos's attacks seemed to be having little effect.
Jacquinto pulled Silus back on board and handed him a sword. Ignacio and Ioannis charged up the stairs onto deck, their own weapons already drawn.
'Where's Katya?' Silus said.
'With Father Maylan. Don't worry, she's safe,' Ioannis said. 'Holy gods! Is that thing part of the plan to save us?'
'Something went wrong.'
'Obviously. Hey, look out!'
Ioannis barrelled into the side of Kelos, just as one of the creature's flippers came crashing down. The mage tumbled to safety but Ioannis didn't get out of the way in time and his legs were smashed into the planks. He screamed out as bones splintered and he tried to pull himself away as the creature loomed above him again.
Jacquinto was already rushing to his comrade's aid and he pulled Ioannis free before the leviathan could strike. Silus tried not to look at the shapeless mess of Ioannis's legs or the blood that now stained the deck.
'We're never going to be able to fight that thing. We're going to have to outrun it.' Ignacio said, and before Silus could stop him he was climbing the rigging.
The sails had been furled to prevent them being pulled from the ship by strong winds, but now Ignacio was hoping to use that wind to get them away from the creature.
The mizzenmast sails unfurled with a great snap and the ropes that had held them in place whipped away from the ship, catching the creature across its flank with a noise like the cracking of a bull whip. The creature reared and the Llothriall began to move out of its shadow.
'That's it.' Jacquinto called to Ignacio. 'It's working.'
The ship leaned hard to starboard as the first of the unfurled sails took the wind and Ignacio scuttled along the ropes and leapt nimbly to the mainmast. The ropes holding the sails here were thicker and Ignacio unsheathed his knife, hoping to save time by cutting through them. He looked nervously behind him as he worked and saw that the creature was already gaining on them.
The first thing to catch up with the ship was the great bow wave that the creature pushed through the water before it. Ignacio was almost thrown from the mast as the crest hit and the ship's bow dipped sharply, the masthead disappearing into the water. There was the sound of splintering wood as the creature's snout nudged the stern and, for one terrifying moment, it felt like the Llothriall was going to capsize.
Ignacio redoubled his efforts and was almost pulled from his perch as the shimmering silks unfurled.
The ship crashed down as the mainmast sales filled with wind. Ignacio saw part of the day room tearing free with the snout of the creature but was relieved that none of his comrades tumbled after the wreckage.
The leviathan bellowed as they sped away from it, but the unpredictable currents of the Twilight seas were already begin to pull them in several directions at once. Ignacio realised that he had only brought them a few minutes at best and dropped back to the deck.
Ioannis was sitting propped against a chest while Kelos crouched over him trying to stem the flow of blood, without much success. Ioannis looked like he was wearing a pair of scarlet breeches. Jacquinto and Silus were looking towards the stern, expressions of impotent panic on their faces.
There was a thunderous splash and Ignacio turned to see that the creature had disappeared beneath the waves once more.
'It's gone,' he said, breathing a sigh of relief. 'It's okay. It's gone.'
'No,' Silus said. 'It's going to come back and this time there will be nothing we can do to outrun it.'
'What are we going to do?'
'Something is controlling that thing,' Kelos said. 'Silus, you'll have to break through its conditioning.'
Silus nodded, watched the wake of the creature and waited.
There was a sound like the creaking of an ancient and wind blown tree as the stern of the Llothriall began to knit itself back together, the residual magic spending itself in repairing the vessel. Soon the hole where the day room had been was covered by an uneven patch of rough wood, but the ship hadn't resealed itself perfectly and one end of a table and the legs of several chairs now protruded from the stern. However they were no longer taking on water and while Silus awaited the creature's next attack he was very grateful for this.
He looked down at the water as the wind fought with the ship. The silks above him were already showing signs of strain and a tear had appeared in one of them. Every so often the direction of the wind would change, pulling the ship violently onto a new course with Silus having to hang on to avoid being pitched over the side.
The crew had retreated below. Both Ignacio and Jacquinto had wanted to stay and fight, but Silus had convinced them that he needed to be on his own for what he was about to attempt.
Kelos had agreed. 'Anything that interferes with his concentration could lose us this fight.'
Gulls had begun to congregate on the water not far from the Llothriall, picking through the detritus that had been scattered by the creature's attack. As they took to the air with a cacophony of shrieks, Silus drew his sword.
There was a moment of quiet then before the sea erupted.
The leviathan's body left the water, arcing high — its jaws opening to catch the gulls that were too slow to escape — and Kerberos itself was eclipsed by its bulk, a vast shadow falling over the deck of the ship.
Silus shielded his eyes and could see a mass of tentacles lining the creature's underside, just before it crashed back down, throwing up a wave that pushed the ship rapidly to starboard.
Silus lost his footing and his sword skittered out of reach.
He stumbled twice before he managed to regain his feet and he snatched up his weapon just in time to sever the tentacle that slithered towards him. Dark purple ichor sprayed into his eyes and Silus didn't have time to clear his vision before another tentacle snaked in behind and lifted him from the deck.
A deep lowing sound came from the creature as it drew him near and the pupils of several of the vast eyes that dotted its head dilated as they studied him. Silus saw his image repeated in those dark pools and he willed himself to relax as he saw beyond them.
There were Chadassa crawling all over him, their thoughts an incessant buzzing chatter as they
