Get ready,Dianna, baby.
Suddenly, TheQueen jolted to the side and we all went tumbling to the floor. Ihopped to my feet as fast as I could and gripped the hilt of mysword, chest heaving with anxious breaths as I searched for thesource of the collision.
But there wasnothing.
My ears filledwith the cold silence once again, but I never let go of my sword.Something about the words that had whispered in my mind… like mymother’s.
“What theChrist was that?” Finn growled.
Henry ran tothe side and leaned over, searching below. “I’m not sure, but Ibelieve there’s something under the ship.”
“Themermaids?” I suggested.
Before hecould respond, a massive black tentacle rose from the water andreached over the side, dropping down on us like a giant treefalling in the forest. “Move!” I cried to my crew and thenhurled myself out of theway. The slick, black arm hit the deck with a loud crash and I feltthe floorboards bendunder the weight. Helpless, I stared at the otherworldly thing thatlay across my ship. Like looking at a beached whale only thiswasn’t the body of a creature.
It was just anarm.
Again, the shipjolted to the side, crashing against the jagged stone walls thatlined the cavern. My body slid across the wet deck and collidedwith Henry who then held me tight.
“That ismost definitely not a mermaid,” he said. “Are youalright?”
“Yes, I’mfine. But the ship–”
Anotherlong, dark tentacle rose from the other side and came crashing downmuch like the first. Smashing a stack of wooden crates to nothingmore than a pile of kindling. My mind raced for a solution. For away to save our vessel from being crushed by the beast. Without asecond thought, I jumped to my feet and drew my sword, raising ithigh above my head before bringing it down in one swift movement.
The bladepierced the thick skin of the beast and I heard a shrill roar eruptfrom the depths below. Both tentacles began to retract, nearlytaking me with the one I had stabbed. I pressed both feet againstthe skin as it dragged me across the floor and hauled my blade fromwhere it had lodged in its flesh. I breathed a sigh of quick reliefwhen it slid out just before the arm slung over the railing and back to thesea.
Again, the airfell silent and all that could be heard was the ragged breathing offive bodies and the creaks of our ship echoing off the stone. Westood frozen, waiting, hoping that it was over. But we weren’t thatlucky. The Queen rocked beneath my feet, threatening to topple overas a tangle of tar-like arms shot up from the water and poundeddown on us. Quickly, I counted eight. Eight long, thick and slimytentacles and knew then what was attacking the ship.
A giantoctopus. A real-life kraken.
“It mustbe guarding the realm!” I called to everyone. “We have to get pastit!”
I held up mysword and my friends followed suit. Lottie slipped two largedaggers from the garter around her leg and held one firmly in eachhand. Finn, Gus, and Henry withdrew their long blades and we thenspread out.
The mythicalbeast swatted at the new crow’s nest above and it came crashingdown. I dodged the flying debris and swung my sword at one of thearms, slicing even further than before. A chunk of its flesh felloff and blood oozed from the wound. Another harsh cry wailed, andit slammed the ship against the rocks again.
“At thisrate, there won’t be a ship left to save!” Lottie yelled as theknives in her hands swirled in circles before she brought them downtogether in one, hard gust. They stuck into the meat of the creature with a sickeningsound.
“We haveto move faster!” I told them and then pointed to the end of thecavern where it opened like a mouth to some sort of brightly litgrotto. “We just have to get to the end!”
Together weformed a circle, back to back to one another but weapons facing theflailing arms of the octopus. It was a task to maintain my footingwith the constant heaving of the ship, but I managed. We eachtackled as much as we could, slicing and hacking away at thepersistent creature. My arms grew tired, the muscles burning andprotesting to stop. But I dared not.
With a twirl, Ispun into the tip of one arm and chopped it clean off. Lottiehacked away with her knives and expertly avoided each whippingtentacle that came her way. Henry never strayed too far from myside, catching me before I toppled over, hauling me back to my feetwhile his other arm sliced at the black flesh.
“Youshould go inside!” he yelled at me. “This is too dangerous for thebaby!”
My achingarms swung the sword overhead and made massive slits in two tentacles,one after the other. “No! I’m fine,” I called back to him. The saltwater splashing about had now drenched the open deck and created aslick and dangerous surface. “You guys need me!”
He ducked toavoid a blow and grabbed the end of a rope, hauling it back towhere I stood. Hastily, he wrapped it around my torso, above mybelly, and tied it tight before looping the other end around themizzenmast. His desperate eyes looked into mine and he kissed mequick and hard. “I’m not losing you again.”
Isqueezed his hand and kissed him back, then took stock of how manyarms were left attacking us and counted four. The rest must havebeen too injured to continue. The cavern’s mouth was so close. Justanother few yards. The water below began to push harder, picking up speed and we boundfor the opening.
“We cando this!” I called to my friends.
Justthen, The Queen shifted to one side as something else, somethingbigger, demanded to share the limited space we occupied. My mouthgaped as I stood there, tethered to a mast, drenched in sweat andblood and seawater,as the body of the octopus rose up from the depths and let out apained wail.
“Shit…” Iwhispered to myself. It was
