Page 47 of Elemental Hall: Nautica
Darius gets the implication of that. “You want us to hunt kraken?”
“Notjustyou,” Elemental Mistress Halan says. “All the trained elementalists here will take part in the hunt, as will any elementalist near Nautica. It is vital that these creatures are culled when they rise. If too many of them survive, no ship will be safe. They are intelligent, they are cruel, and they can manipulate water. They must be stopped.”
Orion doesn’t look happy about any of this. “So you’re going to throw a class of partly trained elementalists against them?”
Elemental Mistress Halan’s expression is like stone. “This is what it means to be an elementalist, Orion. To take on the challenges that those without our skills cannot, for the good of Lumina. This is your final test in Nautica. I will not force you to take it, though. All here will pass through to the next stage, at Skyhold, but this must be done.”
I think of the kraken I faced before. I can still feel the fear I felt then, the certainty that I was going to die.
“Can we even kill them?” I ask.
Elemental Mistress Halan nods. “I know that you are afraid, Seraphina, but the one that attacked you was particularly old and powerful. It was also in a place where you had no aid. Working together, we can kill them. I need to know now, are you all prepared to do this? Those who will play their part, stay here. Those who will not, return to your dormitories. Once this is done, you will be free to return home.”
Everyone stays where they are. I didn’t expect that. I expected at least a few to walk away. Ash still hasn’t reappeared, and I wonder yet again if he died during the tsunami. And if he didn’t, then where is he?
“What’s our plan?” Cara asks, interrupting my ruminating.
Elemental Mistress looks around at the assembled students. “We will take boats out to the spawning grounds. You will be armed with spears, tridents, harpoons, and bows. We will divide you up into different roles. Some of you will seek to use the control you have gained over water to force the kraken to the surface. Others will be responsible for killing them once they are in range, using a combination of your weapons and whatever elemental skills you have. Those with healing skills will try to deal with any wounded.” She pauses and then looks my way. “It may also be necessary to send a party into the depths to deal with any hiding among the ruins.”
“You want me to be a part of that,” I say. After what happened to me in the Green Tower Pool, it’s the last thing I want to do. I have seen what the kraken can do and I have no wish to fight them on their own terms.
“It may not prove necessary,” Elemental Mistress Halan says. “If we can drive enough of them to the surface with our magic, that may be sufficient to protect the kingdom. But we have to be prepared for any eventuality. Your skills will also be of use on the boats, obviously.”
My instinct is to tell her that I will stay on the boats. That I will help to drive the kraken to the surface. Let the elementalists handle the work of diving in to face the kraken head-on. I cannot think about the possibility of it without shuddering in fear.
Except that Darius takes that moment to speak up.
“I will help with the diving,” he says. “My lightning will be a more formidable weapon beneath the water.”
Does he think that he’s sparing me by volunteering? Does he think that if he takes a spot, I won’t have to? Because if there’s one thing I’m more afraid of than the kraken, it’s the idea of leaving Darius to face them alone.
“All right,” I say. “I’ll do it. I’ll be a part of the dive team.”
“So will I,” Orion says.
Another half dozen of the students volunteer, including, to my surprise, a couple of the new contingent from Umbrae. Are they planning to find a way to sabotage us under the water? Maybe they think that it will provide them with a moment to kill Darius in the chaos of the hunt. I won’t allow that. I won’t letanythinghurt him.
I hope that none of us will have to go into the water. I hope that Elemental Mistress Halan is right and that the boats will be enough. But I also know the way things have gone here at Nautica so far. I have to be ready for a fight—against a foe that is huge, hungry, and deadly.
I have to be ready to face the kraken down in the sunken city.
Chapter TWENTY SIX
We do not set off right away. We train together first, dividing up into crews and picking out boats from Nautica’s collection. I find myself on a boat with Orion, Darius, Aria, and Cara, along with Elemental Mistress Halan and an older elementalist named Jacques who seems to have come to Nautica just for this hunt. He is dressed for the hunt in armored leathers and carries a harpoon, notched to represent the kills he’s made before. It is a reminder, if we need any, of just how important this task is to the wider kingdom.
There are other hunters among the crews of the small flotilla of boats Nautica puts out, along with guards and elemental masters. They are the ones who make us drill running to one side of the boat or another, those of us with the talent for it lifting a target to the surface while the hunters strike down at it.
I keep close to Darius throughout the drills. I want him to be safe.
The students from Umbrae get a boat of their own, captained by one of the elemental masters and with a couple of hunters aboard who give them wary looks, as if expecting betrayal at any moment. Sybil is in a boat with several of the guards and a couple of other students from our class. She seems disappointed that she doesn’t get to join Orion and shoots several jealous glares my way.
We don’t have much time to train, though. If the kraken are out there in their spawning grounds already, we have to act now. The truth is that there isn’t much that more training can do to prepare us for what’s about to happen. We have been building our skills ever since we arrived. This is the moment when we find out whether it will be enough.
“It’s time,” Elemental Mistress Halan declares. There are no grand speeches from her, no attempts to rouse us for the task. Perhaps that’s because she understands how grim and potentially dangerous what we’re about to do is. Instead, our small flotilla starts to make its way out from Nautica, into the open sea beyond.
We move smoothly, keeping close enough together to help one another, but not so close that we’ll limit each other’s ability to maneuver on the open ocean. For now, I take charge of piloting our boat, aiding it with flickers of power to have the currents carry it along. The boat is not large, none of them are, but that means that it is at least responsive.
Aria is up in the rigging, serving as a lookout as we head toward the spot where the sunken city is located. It means that she’s the first to see them.
