Page 9 of Heart of the Deep

They needed toknowthe humans’ purpose.

The thickening darkness on the surface would pair well with the kraken’s natural camouflage. With patience and luck, there was a chance they’d be able to return home before the next sunrise.

Dracchus directed Vasil and Neo to the rightmost boat, Brexes and Garon to the left, and looked up at the central vessel — the humans’ wooden behemoth. It seemed somehow fitting for Dracchus to take it on himself.

He altered his skin to match the dark water and swam upward. His tentacles brushed along the underside of the boat. Though the wood was smooth, his tentacles sensed every tiny imperfection in the material. He was used to the sleek metal and plastic of the Facility, to the soft sand and rough stone of the seafloor. Wood seemed unnatural to him, though he knew it came from land vegetation.

He drew himself along the curved wood until his head finally emerged from the water. Vasil and Neo surfaced alongside the smaller boat to the right, which sailed several body-lengths away from Dracchus, and signaled they were okay.

Only thin, weak moonlight provided any illumination from overhead, diluted by dark clouds. When Vasil and Neo matched their skin to the boat at their backs, even Dracchus had difficulty discerning their forms; this was enough light for a kraken to see by, but Randall had explained that human sight was comparatively poor in the dark.

They would be almost invisible to the humans.

Dracchus latched onto the side of the boat with tentacles and claws, pressing himself against it, and altered his camouflage to match the wood.

The sea sounded different from above; the wind filled his ears, but couldn’t drown out the hissing and sighing of the ever-moving water, or the constant rush of boats traveling over its surface. Several humans stood on the right boat, bathed in the glow of a cylindrical light which hung from a post near the front of the craft. The light’s reflection shimmered atop the water but barely penetrated the surrounding darkness.

Something about it raised Dracchus’s suspicions; weren’t there predatory sea creatures that used natural emissions of light — Arkon called itbioluminescence— to lure in prey?

One of the humans reached up and rang a bell hanging from the ship’s central pole. Another bell on the largest ship answered with two measured rings, a pause, and two more rings. Dracchus knew it was some sort of signal but couldn’t guess its meaning.

Dracchus tilted his head. Human voices drifted to him from somewhere above him, but they were nearly swallowed by the noise of wind and sea, and he couldn’t make out the words.

The kraken’s current positions were risky enough, but they’d be facing danger for nothing if they couldn’t hear the humans’ conversations.

He lifted his gaze, examining the hull. The weak moonlight cast the smooth planks along this side of the ship in shadow. They were designed to break water, not to be climbed, but he had to get closer.

Dracchus granted himself no time to second-guess his decision. He turned to face the hull, lifted his arms out of the water, and sank his claws into the wood. The wind chilled his exposed skin as he pulled himself out of the water. Spreading his tentacles wide, he climbed higher, creeping up a handspan at a time.

The human voices grew clearer with each beat of his hearts.

He glanced down. The water speeding by below him was disorienting, but the boat rocked to the familiar rhythm of the waves, easing the strangeness.

He pulled himself closer to the top, closed his eyes, and shifted all his focus to listening.

“…do this now, sir,” someone said.

“Probably more. Just let them come,” said another. Both were male.

“We have a chance at five, sir. Do we want to pass that up?”

A chance at fivewhat?

Realization struck Dracchus a heartbeat later.

“Fine. Sound it,” commanded the second human.

The bell on the largest ship sounded again, forgoing the measured beats of a few moments before in favor of a rapid, bone-rattling alarm.

Dracchus signed toward Neo and Vasil —below, to the deep!— but the humans were already in motion.

Footsteps thudded hurriedly on the deck of the large ship, and the humans in the smaller boat were at the siderail with strange guns in their hands.

“Below!” Dracchus roared.

Two of the humans on the small boat put feet up on the rail and leaned over the side, swinging their weapons toward Vasil and Neo, hampered by the length of their guns and the awkward angle. Two more men from the same vessel aimed at Dracchus.

There was a boom from overhead. Vasil jerked against the side of the smaller boat, something small jutting from his neck.

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