The Emperor's Edge 3: Deadly Games

The Emperor's Edge 3: Chapter 13 Part 3

“Do I get to use it now?” Maldynado asked.

“Uh, sure.” Amaranthe rubbed her face. She hoped the kraken could not track the viewer back to the ship.

“Wait, it’s broken.” Maldynado frowned at her.

“Yes, and it’s possible we shouldn’t stick around. Just in case what broke it wants to visit.”

Amaranthe jogged for the ladder.

“I can’t believe you broke it before I got to play—scout—with it,” Maldynado muttered as he followed her.

She almost gagged when she returned to the death stench of the corridor above. She glanced toward the storage area where she had left Books and Akstyr, but it was dark, so she headed outside.

“Over here,” Books called as soon as she trotted onto the main deck. “We hauled four suits out, and we can go down tonight. This gear is brilliant. There’s no tubing except to these packs, which can be filled with compressed air. They must be magic of some sort. I can’t imagine we have the technology to—”

“Not now, Books,” Amaranthe said. They had laid everything out on the side opposite from the dock. “It’s defended. We’re going to have to—”

The deck heaved, throwing Amaranthe into Akstyr. She bounced off him and almost tumbled over the railing. It caught her in the belly, forcing an “Oomph!” out of her lungs. The far side of the ship rose, slanting the deck further, and she wrapped her arms around the railing, clinging like a tick lest she be hurled into the water.

The men cursed, but the sound of wood cracking drowned their words. Everyone else had tumbled to the deck as well, and they were bracing themselves against the railing.

“The suits!” Books cried, wrapping an arm around one helmet and his legs around another.

“Blazing ancestors,” Maldynado yelled. “What’s going on?”

As abruptly as the far side of the ship had lifted, it crashed down. Amaranthe flew from her perch and landed with a painful thump on the deck. The ship rocked, and water surged over the railings. A suit threatened to float away, and she grabbed it.

“Get the gear and run to the dock!” she ordered.

A tentacle thicker than a man’s body reared out of the water ten feet away. It stretched high, towering over the tugboat. The tentacle waved menacingly against the starry backdrop, then plummeted. It slammed onto the deck at the front of the ship.

Metal groaned under the assault. A wooden ship might have been destroyed right there. As it was, the tentacle wrapped around the base of the crane and snapped the metal support, as if it were breaking a pencil.

Amaranthe ripped her gaze away. The men were already scrambling across the rocking deck, slipping and flailing in the water streaming past. She grabbed the lone remaining helmet to go with the suit, groaning at the combined weight of the two items. On hands and knees, she clawed her away across the heaving deck after the men.

The tentacle lifted the crane into the air and flung it with an irritable flick.

The forty-foot metal arm flew out of sight, though Amaranthe heard it land. Wood smashed and cracked, and she feared another docked ship had been turned into a victim.

The tentacle reared for another attack.

She hustled faster. Fifteen feet to the railing and the dock beyond. Maldynado and Akstyr were already there, hurling their suits off the ship.

The tentacle smashed into the main cabin this time. Wood shattered, and shards flew everywhere, pelting Amaranthe’s back as she continued to drag the heavy suit toward the rail. The tentacle thrashed. The roof caved in, and more waves rocked the ship. Beneath Amaranthe’s hands, the deck trembled under the stress, and the hull quaked.