Page 105 of The Princesses of Ruin
“We need to get it belly-up and disoriented,” she says.
Vek’ihr bobs his head. “We will try.”
I don’t have the kind of fluid dexterity I would like in this form. I need something faster and bigger. Meaner. Something that can take that monster teeth on teeth.
I need the sha’kara.
I’m not as well-fed as I’d like, but I know I can manage it. I focus on the power of my magic and allow the shift to overtake me. My tentacles roll into me and my body elongates. The beak hidden between my limbs transforms into a mouth full of teeth. A tail sprouts from my backside, and fins poke out of my sides.
Reina wraps her arm around my dorsal fin and squeezes her thighs against my sides. With two powerful swipes of my tail, we jet forward. I twist my fins instinctively and turn us about until we’re facing down the serpent.
It doesn’t seem to know what to make of this change. Its thrashing has slowed. It’s assessing the situation.
The ga’hanoi take advantage of its stillness and resume their harvesting. The serpent opens its lower mouth wide, sucking in a massive gulp of water. I dart to the left and come about, flanking it. The serpent can’t keep up.
It spits a stream of bile where we once were. The liquid quickly spreads out, drifting down to cover several of the wires that are holding the serpent back. I hope they’re made of something strong enough to withstand the acid.
I make another quick dart over the creature and shimmy my body side to side, shaking Reina off me. She’s got this. She’ll know what I’m doing.
With her free, I swim back over the serpent’s side and then under it. I start my attack, taking a bite out of its fin. Hidden spines deploy into my mouth. I open my jaw wide from the pain. Screaming is such a lovely outlet for this kind of thing. Instead, I have to let the agony live with me silently as I take another bite and push.
The ga’hanoi see what I’m doing and start removing their hooks from the right side of the beast. The serpent writhes and twists, but the angle I’m at is like a blind spot for its mouth. I took careful note of how the fucker twisted. Up, down, and side to side, no problem. But slightly down or up and to the side, not on its life.
The fins deploy another round of painful spikes that spear into the side of my mouth and down the right side of my body to my gills. My tongue is already getting kind of tingly. Some kind of toxin in the spines, then. I suppose that’s what that defense is for, since the mouths can’t reach.
I keep beating my tail, twisting the beast and pushing it up toward Reina. When it’s fully upside-down, the serpent goes still. The ga’hanoi rush in to hook it with their spears. Even all the poking and prodding they give do nothing. The beast’s two massive eyes are open and moving, but it’s completely immobilized.
“I’ve got it!” Reina screams from its stomach as she holds up a corked vial full of yellow bile. “One more, just in case!”
She goes back in for another squeeze, but things are getting woozy for me. My jaw slackens against my will. My body twists and bubbles as I transform back into a selkie. I try to beat my tail, move my arms, anything, but I can’t.
I’m twirling down into the darkness and none of the ga’hanoi are coming to help me.
Fuck.
I shouldn’t have killed all their delegates.
I drift to a stop and then see two large eyes looming over me.
“Serpent venom. It makes the body lose itself,” Vek’ihr says.
I can’t swallow. I can’t even close my mouth. It’s just hanging agape like I’m a fucking moron.
“You’re scared? Interesting. You think I would harm you after all you’ve done? Selkies claim to be the wisest, but you are quite…silly.”
Silly.
Like I’m a child.
I suppose it’s better than moronic.
He swims up toward the others and sets me on the shelf. Reina is so caught up with her bile it takes her a moment to notice I’m gone. She looks around wildly and when she sees me sitting near the shit hole, she beams, holding up the glass bottles.
I can do nothing in response, and so her smile quickly morphs into terror. She surges over to me, touching my chest and neck. She feels my pulse as she calls my name again and again.
“What’s wrong with him?” she asks Vek’ihr.
“Hit with poisoned spines. One of the many things we collect from the Serpent.” He holds up a glowing bead and passes it to her. “Make him eat this.”
