Page 20 of Scourge of the Shores
Then just as she foretold, a loud shriek came from the sea.
Danna jolted from bed and shouted, “Look alive!” at the top of her lungs as she grabbed her gear—three flintlocks, a dagger, her grandfather’s horn, and a quiver of arrows.
Ma’s scream split the air: “Danna!”
But Danna flew out the door.
“Light the torches!” Danna ordered Jim, who emerged from his hut nearby, in his sleeping shorts.
The night watch was already forming along the rock barrier shoreline. The moonlight shimmered across his scales as another shriek pierced the night veil.
“Shoot him on sight!” Danna yelled as men and women burst from their huts, ready for battle, and raced to their positions.
Musket fire thundered from the first watch, and smoke drifted before the pale half-moon’s light and dissipated over the waves.
“Switch and reload!” came Danna’s order. A new wave of fighters replaced the original watch as they retreated to reload.
“Load the harpoons!”
The clank of harpoons loaded into modified beached cannons. The hush of chatter and the small remnant of hope coursed through the island village.
“Did they gut Cain?”
“Where’s the beast?”
“Did he retreat again?”
“Is he gone?”
Danna strained to hear Cain’s rapid advance in the waves or see the glistening scales.
“Silence!” Her voice boomed over the rest. The horn bounced on her belt, not needed. Her eyes scanned the dark waves. A tumble of rocks to her right grabbed her attention.
“There!” she yelled and pointed with her flintlock.
Cain smashed through two of the beached canons, which pointed out to sea. His body slithered on the rocky barrier, and he ran over fighters as the lucky ones scrambled away from his massive weight. His roar penetrated through the screams.
“Archers!” Danna yelled as she grabbed a nearby torch off of a hut. Her feet pounded the hard sand until she found a good vantage point. She drove the torch stake into the sand and drew an arrow from her quiver. Setting the arrow’s tip aflame, she released a slow breath to calm her heartbeat and focus. “Rapid fire,” she mumbled and released the arrow toward Cain’s wriggling neck as it swallowed a goat that had somehow escaped the island’s inner pen. Firelight replaced the moonlight on its scales as it moved inland. Its sleek body skimmed low over the sand. Again, she released another arrow, this time hitting it in its snout before it dived on an injured harpooner.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a wave of scales rush toward her. The ground rumbled beneath her feet. A sudden rush of glistening scales tore through the sand. Danna ran and leaped, twisting midair—but Cain’s massive tail slammed into her side. Pain exploded through her leg. She hit the hut wall with bone-rattling force, the wood splintering around her like a shattered mast. Smoke and dust choked her lungs as she tumbled onto her back, staring up at the black-stained sky. A whimper took the ringing out of her ears. She peered to see a young mother named Isabelle with an infant and a young child wrapped in her arms.
“Hide near the graves,” Danna whispered before she rolled up and out. Danna’s leg gave way under her as Isabelle fled behind her.
“You’re hurt,” Isabelle said.
“Go,” Danna told her, and Isabelle obeyed after they both watched Cain throw another body in the air and chomp it between his spiked teeth. Danna scanned the beach. Some limped, some lay unmoving. Arms were missing bodies. Crimson-crested waves spilled on the beach before fleeing into the sea. The traps were too far inland for the beast, but they had to be to hold him. She glanced at the two palm trees that straddled her trajectory toward Cain. If only she could get the sea dragon to come to her.
Lucas caught her attention as Cain dived toward him as he limped away. Danna’s heart stopped. “Not Lucas,” she whispered. Out of instinct, she pulled the horn and blew as loud as she could, hoping it saved his life.
The low bellow of the horn blast paused Cain’s dive. His head twisted and centered his eye on her. Steam rose from his nostrils.
The sea demon remembered her.
His lips seemed to curl up while revealing his blood-tipped spiked teeth. Cain threw his head back and released an ear-splitting roar before barreling straight toward her.
She cocked one of her flintlocks and as soon as Cain’s head passed the threshold, she shot the release. Chains popped up from the ground and snapped from the air, capturing its head in an iron grip. Cain’s body coiled back as its roars turned sour, but the chains were locked into the palm trees with roots grown deep. Steam burst from its nostrils and Danna leaped and rolled out of the way before the hot steam blasted from its mouth, browning the wooden hut’s frame.
Danna groaned, unmoving, on her back. Every bone felt broken, every muscle ripped. She blinked to steady her vision while pulling out her last two flintlock pistols. She cocked each against her chin in rapid succession as she stared at Cain struggling against the trap.
