Page 28 of Hijack the Seas: Seismic

It could have been anybody, or everybody, because they all had reason, didn’t they? This whole poisonous court was at each other’s throats, which went doubly for me. I’d probably have more of them targeting me if they could see worth a damn.

Wouldn’t it be nice if I died in this, and they could blame it on the monster?

Or if Pritkin did, I realized.

And fuck that!

I started hacking with renewed interest at the severed limb, trying to cut a wedge with my knife that might free up the rest of my body or at least give me some wiggle room. Pritkin threw another fiery spear and dove underwater to avoid an attack by half a dozen of those great arms. And Silver-Hair got in a few spear thrusts that the creature didn’t even feel.

Or maybe it did, as one of the wildly whipping arms snatched up a member of his entourage, and this one wasn’t wearing dragonscale. The man’s scream cut off with a wet-sounding crunch, and blood splattered down like rain, hot and sticky against my face. I spat it out, Silver-Hair’s entourage broke and swam, and Alphonse reappeared and grabbed the tentacle still holding me.

Finally!

He seized it by the wound I’d made and ripped out a large enough chunk that I could slither out of its grip. It was still thrashing around, trying to find me, but it had no vision anymore, being just a severed arm. We left it curling and frothing up the water behind us as we swam away.

“You okay?” Alphonse screamed, which still wasn’t enough for me to hear him. But I read his lips and nodded, the concern on his face unexpectedly endearing.

And then Pritkin surfaced, gasping and looking around for me.

Just in time to get hit in the face by a massive spray of black.

Chapter Nine

I screamed, fear clawing at my chest, and desperately searched the churning waves for Pritkin but couldn’t see him. Just an oil slick of that hideous black stuff, puddling and steaming in the water. But then he surfaced again, and I noticed that the stain stopped a foot away from his face and started dripping down something I couldn’t see.

Because he was shielded; of course, he was!

I felt my heart start up again as he sent a spear of fire at the great head, aiming for the remaining good eye. But the creature moved with liquid speed and the bolt missed, flung aside by one of the larger tentacles and hitting the ceiling instead. It took out some of the roaming lights, causing an uptick in the panicked screaming from the crowd, but other than for a burn on the arm that had hit it, the creature suffered no damage.

So, on top of everything else, it was spell-resistant.

Great.

And Pritkin couldn’t risk firing again until he cleared his vision because too many people were around. Including more guards, a few dozen of whom ran onto the landing above us. And stopped dead right before a line of acid ink was flung at them.

They got shields up but did not advance, maybe because they were used to having a demigoddess fight their battles for them. Which might be why they were looking at me. And Alphonse seemed to agree with them.

“If you’re gonna do anything, now would be the time,” he rasped, staring around with an expression that that unfortunate face wasn’t used to.

Alphonse was a lot of things, but a coward wasn’t among them, as he’d already proven. But he didn’t know what to do about this. Which, two of us, Alphonse!

But I knew one thing. “That’s not going to be enough!” I yelled up at the guards, who were holding the standard issue spears, swords, and a couple of tridents. “Get some decent weapons! Now!” And when they just stood there, I flung out a hand, which was a total bluff as I couldn’t do a damned thing at the moment. “Go!”

To my surprise, they went. Of course, whether they intended to return was anybody’s guess, but we couldn’t depend on it. Which Alphonse seemed to agree with.

“God . . . damn it!” he yelled, being interrupted by a wave splatting him in the face. “You’re . . . a goddess!”

Which was not strictly true and completely unhelpful. But that was, I thought, as my power returned, like a glittering hand reaching out to engulf me. And for once, it was right on time.

Okay, I thought, let’s see what all that training was worth.

I sent a bolt flowing at the hulking bastard towering above us, and I didn’t miss. The remaining great milky eye had been staring around, searching the bobbing crowd, and had finally spotted me. But I spotted it, too, and the next second, one of the biggest tentacles aged out of existence, poofing away in a storm of ashes.

And I do mean a storm. That thing must have weighed a thousand pounds because it ate a spell strong enough to take down ten men. Unfortunately, I’d been aiming for the head but couldn’t get near it since those thousand thrashing arms served as their own kind of shield.

I sent a few more rapid-fire spells, but the same thing happened. The creature was smart enough to have learned from the initial attack, which it had ignored until a guard took out its eye. It wasn’t going to risk that again, meaning that I couldn’t get to the head until I took down those damned arms, which were moving so fast I could barely see them!

But it could see us and came rushing through the ash cloud with telescoping tentacles punching all around us and a great leg slapping the waves where we’d just been.

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