Astrid and Viggo finished off the last two guards.
“Come on, Mage,” Viggo said as he cleaned his knives. “Finish off this cuttlefish-sorcerer and let’s get out of here, ’cause I’m hungry and I want my plate of seafood.”
Suddenly, behind his back, they heard something coming out of the waters in the part of the cave where there was no floor. They spun round in surprise, and to their horror they saw a monstrous sea-creature emerging, splashing everything around it with great waves of water. A gigantic tentacle emerged from the water and wrapped itself around Viggo’s waist. He turned his head when he felt something grasping him and saw a giant octopus emerging from the sea to defend the sorcerer who had summoned it.
“You’ve got to be kidding …” Viggo said a moment before the monster lifted him into the air.
Astrid wanted to run to help him, but another of the beast’s tentacles seized her and lifted her in the air as well.
“Eicewald! Help!” Lasgol yelled.
The Mage abandoned his conjuring against Olagar, turned to the monster of the seas and conjured a bolt of ice which hit it on the head. The giant octopus did its best to crush the Mage with another of its tentacles, but he dodged to one side. The whole floor shook from the impact. Lasgol released repeatedly against the monster, while Astrid and Viggo used their knives to stab at the tentacles which imprisoned them.
Olagar gave a series of orders, which the monster followed. One brutal tentacle fell on Lasgol, seeking to crush him, but he slipped to one side to avoid it. The huge limb struck the floor, and once again everything shook. Lasgol realized that he would not be able to kill it. They had to kill Olagar, who was the one controlling it.
Camu, Ona, attack the Sorcerer! he told them as he dodged another blow from a tentacle, rolling to one side and releasing again, hitting it in one enormous eye which was staring at him with a murderous brilliance.
Astrid managed to wriggle free from the octopus’ grasp, and fell into the water. Viggo stabbed again and again frantically, trying to cut the tentacle that imprisoned him and was preventing him from breathing. He was choking.
As Camu and Ona reached Olagar, the Sorcerer’s barriers fell. Taken aback, he tried to cast a spell on them.
Attack, Camu told Ona, sure that his power would deny the Sorcerer’s magic. And Olagar’s spell failed.
Olagar’s eyes opened wide as he stared back at Camu. He understood that something had been set in motion, and that it was something very bad for him.
Ona launched herself at the Sorcerer, and with a powerful bite of her feline jaws, killed him. The sea monster stopped and let go of Viggo, who fell into the water. A moment later it vanished in the deep sea as suddenly as it had appeared.
Lasgol saw that his friend was sinking with the monster. “Astrid, get Viggo out!”
Astrid dived at once, and they all ran to the water’s edge. For a moment nothing happened, and Lasgol was deeply worried.
Suddenly Astrid reappeared. A moment later she pulled Viggo out of the water by his hair.
They pulled him out, and Lasgol gave him the kiss of life, because he was not breathing.
Astrid clambered out of the water with Eicewald’s help. “Is he alive?”
Lasgol blew air into Viggo’s mouth and pinched his nose. “I don’t know, he’s not breathing!”
“Keep trying!”
Lasgol kept breathing air into his friend’s lungs, but there was no reaction,
Viggo … Camu said mournfully.
Ona gave a high, loud moan.
Suddenly Viggo began to cough. Lasgol put him on his side to drain the water he had swallowed from his lungs. Viggo coughed and expelled all the water, then breathed in with all his strength and collapsed on to his back.
“I’m… not hungry… any longer…” he muttered.
“Because of all the water you’ve swallowed?” Lasgol asked.
“No, because you’ve been kissing me.”
Lasgol rolled his eyes, and Astrid burst out laughing. “He’s perfectly all right,” was her diagnosis.
“Let’s get out of here,” Lasgol said with a smile,
Chapter 32
The team followed the same route out of the fortress as they had used to get in. Because of the fire in the ships, everybody inside it was concentrating on what was happening in the bay rather than where they were. The plan, as it turned out, worked perfectly, and they went to join Ingrid, Nilsa and Gerd at the meeting-point.
“Everything all right?” Ingrid asked when she saw them approaching at a run.
“No trouble at all,” Viggo said with and ironic smile.
“I can imagine.”
“No, you can’t,” Astrid replied. She waved her hand in a gesture that implied it had been terrible.
“That bad?”
Lasgol raised his eyebrows. “A lot worse,” he assured her.
“I warned you it wouldn’t be at all easy,” Eicewald said.
“Yeah,” Viggo protested, “that business at the end with the sea-monster struck me as a touch of genius.”
“Sea-monster?” Gerd repeated, with eyes like saucers.
“Viggo nearly didn’t make it,” Astrid explained. She gave him a slap on the back for support and smiled. “Luckily weeds are impossible to kill.”
“What?” Ingrid asked shakily. She was looking at Viggo with worry in her eyes.
Viggo shrugged. “The little monster took a shine to me and nearly tore me in two, then tried to drown me. It’s because of this charisma of mine. I’m just lovable.”
“Yeah, that’s right,” Lasgol said.
“But are you all right?” Ingrid asked. She was looking him up and down, trying to see if anything
