Page 63 of Stormbinder King
It had an enormous hoary head, crusted over with something filmy and skeletal over a wicked face, and its long body was still unrolling to stretch to its full height in front of the Stormbinder boats.
“Silence!” the King ordered harshly. “Do not move or speak. It can sense movement and hear sounds better than it can see.”
The boat fell uneasily silent then, and all eyes were on the ancient head of the sea serpent, now nosing curiously around to find its prey.
Sea serpents could kill either by spitting poison at their victims or capsizing whole ships to send everyone aboard to a watery grave. The only sounds were the waves lapping against the side of the boat and the terrifying searching snuffling of the serpent.
Symeon stepped carefully up to balance on the front of the boat, his legs spread apart for stability. His eyes did not leave the serpent’s as he slowly drew his dagger. Then he waited.
He did not move a muscle as the serpent snapped cunningly closer, darting its hoary head back and forth around the king.
I tensed, slipping my dagger too from the pocket of my skirts and holding it tight in my sweaty palm.
Jack had one hand back in an impatient gesture for silence and I waited as my heartbeat thudded through my chest.
I could see that Symeon was tensed to spring, but he was waiting until the serpent presented a vulnerable angle to attack him at.
“Stay back,” he warned his brother.
He did not look at me.
“Shift,” Jack bit out at him, but the King shook his head.
I could sense Jack starting to shift anyway, the long claws protruding from his fingers as his white-gold beauty began to flick between man and deadly monster.
Then the serpent’s tongue swept out to send a stream of poisonous acid against our outrigger, sizzling at the bow.
Symeon darted one glance back and then, with a move of sudden and savage violence, he brought his dagger down and severed the serpent’s head from its body.
“Archers!” Symeon bit out, and both Jack and Solomon quickly notched their bows and began to let arrows fly at the serpent’s scaly body.
The serpent’s headless body flailed violently around, the water boiling and frothing with its death throes.
Everyone’s eyes were on the death throes of the monster’s huge, ponderous body and they did not see the serpent’s wicked tail flick out and scythe through the water.
Heading directly for Solomon, in a last primeval urge to knock him out of the boat from behind.
Shit, Solomon was going to get knocked in the chest and catapulted into the fetid water.
With sudden, panicked urgency, I clutched my short dagger and launched myself at the tail as it swept by the boat.
I stuck it with my blade, but the tail was so massive that before I could duck or move, it flicked back and knocked me hard into the back of the boat.
“Andromeda!” Symeon called, and as I slammed on the back bench, Iknew.
He couldn’t hide it from me.
He leaped heavily into our outrigger and hewed the monster’s tail in two, sending the rest of it slithering across the deck and back into the sea.
“What happened?” Jack exclaimed sharply as Symeon helped me up.
“Is anything wrong? Anything broken?”
“What happened?” Jack snapped, trying to shove his brother away to get closer to me.
“Its tail was heading for the outriggers, so she stabbed it.”
The King’s hands were on me, checking to make sure I hadn’t broken anything, his body blocking his brother.
