Page 18 of Heart of the Deep

She met Dracchus’s eyes, as though for confirmation.

He nodded. How had Arkon explained it? “Wehydrateby being in water. Seawater.”

Larkin pushed away from the bars and looked toward the barrel standing in a shadowed corner. She was already disobeying her father’s wishes by being in here; pushing her defiance a little further couldn’t make things any worse. Shecouldn’tstand for this.

She walked to the barrel and raised the lid. The briny scent of saltwater struck her as she glanced at the big kraken. “I can’t get into your cell to help you drink this.”

“Splash it on us,” the grey kraken said.

“Okay.” Setting the lid aside, she picked up one of the nearby buckets and dunked it into the barrel. She carried the filled container to the gray kraken’s cell, took hold of it in both hands, and splashed the water through the bars.

The tubular protrusions on the sides of his head flared with his deep breath.

She repeated the process for the crimson kraken, ignoring his insults and aggression. He couldn’t fulfill his threats.

At least not now.

After filling the bucket for the third time, she went to the black kraken’s cell. He’d watched her the entire time, silent and calm. He held Larkin’s gaze for a moment before she threw the water into his cell.

She returned the bucket, slid the lid back into place, and gripped the rim of the barrel with both hands. Leaning on her arms, she looked at the kraken with her brows drawn.

The red one had calmed, and his color was back to the brown she’d seen the night before, but he continued glaring at her. The gray kraken had closed his eyes and tilted his head back against the wall.

“It is too late to win us with kindness,” the black kraken said. Despite his imprisonment and his visible wounds, his strength and bearing seemed undiminished. Her father had inflicted pain on this creature, likely great pain, but had not broken him.

“I know,” she replied. The shame she felt for her part in all this wouldn’t provide these creatures any comfort.

“Then what do you seek to accomplish?”

“I’m not sure.” Larkin wanted answers, but that hadn’t been her sole motivation in coming here again. She couldn’t watch this suffering and remain inactive. “I’m sorry. I know it doesn’t mean anything to you, but I am. This…this is not how I thought it would be.”

What had she expected? Her father had been trying to capture kraken for months, growing increasingly desperate as the search for Randall and the lost rangers remained fruitless. Nicholas Laster hadn’t been in his right mind — perhaps for longer than she cared to admit — but the idea had appealed to Larkin, too. Randall was alivesomewhere, and the chance was as good as any that he had been taken by the kraken, like the two local women.

Capturing a kraken and squeezing information out of it was their way to find Randall.

But that had been before she knew anything about these people. Before she’d understood how intelligent they were, howhuman. Even after receiving Cyrus’s report, the kraken had remained a myth, something that any rational person couldn’t quite believe. But now that she’d seen them up close,spokento them…they were so much more than she could’ve imagined.

And they were being tortured. Why hadn’t her father told her this was his plan?

He knew I’d fight him.

She would have seen the wrongness of this immediately, even if the kraken weren’t thinking, talking creatures. Nothing deserved to be caged and tortured.

The black kraken frowned, his amber eyes surprisingly thoughtful despite the swollen flesh around them.

Larkin looked away and pinched the bridge of her nose. If she released the kraken — she didn’t have the key, but the locks, although sturdy, were simple — she’d be giving up her only chance of finding Randall. Though they’d yet to give up any information, these kraken knewsomething. She felt it in her bones.

But how can I condonethis?

She needed to speak to her father. There had to be another way, they just had to figure it out.

Larkin dropped her hand and barely contained a sardonic laugh. Commander Laster would likely take this opportunity to throw her bleeding heart in her face.

Pushing away from the barrel, Larkin approached the black kraken’s cell and bent down to retrieve the lantern. She felt his gaze on her back like it was a physical thing as she rose and walked to the door. She reached for the door.

“I am called Dracchus,” the black kraken said.

Larkin paused, fingertips on the handle.

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