Crystal Doors #1 (26 page)

The huge body rose, like some kind of plump sea spider, accompanied by more and more tentacles. In addition to the sharp weapons covering the monster’s tentacles, heavy plates protected parts of the bulbous head. Vic did not want to imagine who might have the job of strapping battle armor on a giant squid. He yelled, “What is that thing?”

“It is a weapon of the merlons,” Vir Helassa said. “We do not need to name it in order to fight it.”

“You’ve got a point.”

Helassa shouted, “All soldiers, arm yourselves!” A neosage, also dressed in red robes, rushed forward with an armful of scrolls. Elantyan guards grabbed wicked-looking spears.

The other two fishing boats tacked sideways to stay beyond the reach of the tentacled creature. The trapped fishermen on the first ship ran around the deck. They seized harpoons designed for spearing giant fish and cast them into the roiling water toward the body of the submerged beast.

One harpoon clattered off the armor plate, then disappeared into the sea; another pierced the thick appendage like a sewing needle stabbing a worm. The pain triggered a frenzy in the monster. The thrashing creature lifted three more tentacles, each as thick and menacing as the first.

Helassa’s xyridium-reinforced galley raced into the deep harbor. Sailors dipped long oars into the water, pulling in well
practiced unison, making the craft cut through the water like an axe blade. Two more guardian galleys converged toward the sea monster.

Tentacles whipped around the first fishing boat. One slashed sideways, using the metal hooks of its armor plate to rip through the main sail as easily as a chef might gut a fish. Another tentacle wrapped in a stranglehold around the middle mast, clenching until the thick pillar snapped.

Water cascaded from the monster’s long bulbous back, which was ridged with rough spines and lumps, as if a coral reef had grown on its body. Its two front tentacles were much longer than the others, giant grasping limbs that ended in broad, flat sucker pads. Between the two longer tentacles, a mass of smaller, equally deadly limbs writhed. In the middle, a clacking beak chomped the water into a froth. On each side of the tentacle cluster, two dead-yellow eyes showed no intelligence whatsoever.

Most frightening of all, though, was an artificial pavilion mounted on top of its conical body core. Two merlon generals stood under a curved shell awning wearing undersea armor and carrying shell-tipped spears and spiny clubs. They rode the giant squid as if it were an elephant.

Using sharp staffs and aquatic magic, the merlon generals tapped hard against the fleshy head of the monster, goading it. The thing responded with renewed frenzy, ripping the first fishing boat out of the water. Crewmen fell into the water like fleas shaken from the fur of a mangy dog. With incredible strength, the beast raised the vessel high. Water poured in
wide streams from its entire length. The sturdy hull groaned, creaked, and finally shattered.

Lyssandra clutched Vic’s hand. “Never in my worst nightmares did I think I would see a battle kraken. Never did I believe the merlons would unleash such a thing against Elantya!”

Helassa unrolled her defensive spell scrolls. “I underestimated the evil of the merlons.” She was clearly frustrated that the galley was still too far away from the kraken to mount an effective attack. Even at top speed, they seemed to move in slow motion.

After destroying the first fishing boat, the kraken jetted forward like an armored submarine. The second boat couldn’t get out of the way in time. The merlon generals prodded the kraken’s sensitive head, driving the beast faster.

Raising its two longer tentacles, the monster squid slapped the second fishing boat. The kraken’s heavy wake tipped the vessel halfway over in the water. The merlon generals clutched their control pavilion and bellowed orders in their strange language. Vic didn’t ask Lyssandra what they were saying.

By now, Helassa’s galley was close, the soldiers rowing furiously, building momentum to the point of ramming speed. “Hang on!” Vic yelled. Sleek and fast, the knifepoint prow of the patrol craft rammed into the squid’s soft body with a great crash.

The impact knocked Vic and most of the Elantyan soldiers to the deck. Lyssandra was thrown to the side, almost over the railing, but Vic caught her ankle and dragged the girl back.
Some men were cast overboard, and they swam desperately back to the armor-plated galley.

Vic scrambled to his knees and threw a rope over the side. “Come on, we have to help them!” He reached down to grab a soldier’s outstretched hands. He and Lyssandra hauled two of the gasping Elantyans back aboard.

Other disoriented soldiers scrambled to their feet and threw a barrage of jagged spears into the monster’s hide. Many of the weapons bounced off the studded armor plates, but the Elantyan defenders were well muscled, and some spearheads sank deep into the meat.

Somehow, Vir Helassa had kept her balance at the prow, which was dripping with slime and ichor from the monster. Impatiently, she yanked her neosage to his feet, and both of them unfurled spell scrolls, chanting in the ancient language. As her red robe flapped around her from a rising magical wind, three white-hot fireballs burst against the kraken’s soft, cool flesh. The third explosion struck one of its huge yellow eyes, blinding it. The neosage finished his spell as well, and a fiery blast crisped one of the sucker-studded tentacles. Without pausing, Helassa opened another scroll.

A second patrol galley came in at full speed from behind the battle kraken, and its jagged, reinforced hull ground against the barnacled back. Elantyan archers shot fiery volleys of suntip arrows at the two merlon generals guiding the beast, but the shell walls of the pavilion protected them.

Squirming in reflex, even as the merlon generals pounded its sensitive flesh, the kraken writhed out of the way, then ripped a tentacle sideways. One spike-armored blow split the
second galley through the deck and snapped its keel. The wreckage sank so swiftly that the Elantyans barely had time to jump clear.

In pain from its numerous injuries, the battle kraken went into a full destructive rage. The merlon generals could no longer control the monster. It surged toward all the boats still tied up to the docks.

WITH VIC AND LYSSANDRA gripping the rails, the guardian galley streaked after the battle kraken. Though the merlon generals could not control their beast, they seemed pleased with the destruction the kraken was causing. With a flurry of spiked tentacles, the sea creature sank smaller boats trying to race away.

“Row!” Helassa shouted. “Faster!”

Though the war galley had been damaged from ramming the monster, the impact had also torn an angry-looking gouge in the creature’s hide, knocking off one of the wide armor plates. Slime and blood oozed into the water. In pain, the kraken thrashed at anything that moved.

Finally, it reached the wharf. As people fled the docks, the armor-plated tentacles smashed down. Hooked metal scythes
splintered the wood. Thick appendages crushed unmanned boats and knocked pilings aside like toothpicks.

Heavily loaded cargo ships wallowed helplessly and sank to the muck on the bottom of the harbor. Their masts stuck out above the surface like the tips of dead trees in a drowned forest.

From behind, the galley rammed the kraken’s fleshy body again, and tentacles whipped backward, slamming into the deck and prow. The red-robed neosage was hurled like a pebble into the roiling water. Vir Helassa tumbled down the slanted deck, dropping her spell scrolls.

A tentacle seized a soldier who rushed forward with a long harpoon. “Look out!” Vic shouted, too late, as the crushing appendage lifted the soldier into the air. The soldier lost his grip on his weapon before the kraken tossed him aside like a gnawed chicken bone.

Lyssandra rescued one of the rolled spell scrolls that Helassa had dropped. Vic saw a tentacle coming toward the petite girl, and moved faster than he could think. With a flash of his surprisingly fast reflexes, he grabbed the hooked harpoon dropped by the doomed soldier, twirled it around, and speared the descending tentacle with all his strength.

The kraken reacted as if it had touched a hot match, jerking back from Lyssandra. Smelly ichor splashed all over Vic, and he smeared it away from his face. “Eww!”

Picking herself up, Lyssandra flashed him a grateful smile for just an instant, then unrolled her scroll and read aloud as fast as she could. Stumbling a bit on the ancient language, she created a fireball, weaker than the ones Helassa had made.
Even so, the blazing sphere sizzled outward and struck the pavilion protecting the two merlon generals. In a flash, one of the supports and side walls disintegrated, leaving the enemy commanders exposed.

The bright light stunned the nearest merlon general. His scales smoking from the heat, he flailed his goad and grabbed for support, but tumbled off the head of the battle kraken. Down in the frothing water, the tentacles thrashed, and the fallen merlon was himself drawn into the creature’s sharp clacking mouth.

Furious, the surviving enemy general prodded the kraken. In a reflexive twitch the huge sea beast shoved Helassa’s galley aside, driving it up against the docks. Pilings splintered, the armored hull cracked, and the galley came to ground halfway out of the water.

“We’re stuck!” Vic grabbed Lyssandra’s hand. “Time to abandon ship.”

They stumbled and ran down the slick deck, jumped over the rail, and landed on what was left of the dock. As soon as they caught their balance and got back to their feet, Vic and Lyssandra ran at full speed up the dock to the rocky shore. Vir Helassa and the soldiers evacuated from the galley right behind them.

A hammering tentacle crushed the abandoned galley, and another one shattered the dock. Then the battle kraken turned to the other vessels tied up to the wharf.

Rushing to relative safety, Vic scanned the milling defenders on the shore for any sign of Sharif and Tiaret, shouting their names. By now the dawn had brightened, and he could
see. Finally he spotted the bobbing light of Piri in Sharif’s hand as he and the warrior girl ran toward them. They were all glad to find each other still alive.

“Sharif, you’ve got to go fetch Master Rubicas. He’s up at the laboratory working with Gwen and Orpheon. We need his help! Maybe he has a kraken-withering spell, or something.”

“The master sage will certainly have some magical weapons,” Lyssandra said, “though I have never heard of a kraken withering spell.”

“He will know which spells can help us.” The boy from Irrakesh unrolled his carpet onto the paving stones. “I am on my way!”

“And bring my cousin, too!” Vic called as the embroidered carpet rose into the air. “If it’s not too much trouble. She’d hate to miss this.”

Sharif waved back at them as the flying carpet streaked off toward the high, vine-covered tower above the sage’s laboratory. “You three stay here and save the harbor.”

“Oh, sure,
we
get the easy part.” Vic wiped slime from his hands and face. Then he saw scaly hordes of merlons emerge from the water — a whole invading army. Undersea foot soldiers climbed onto the remains of the docks and engaged the fighters on dry land. “As if we didn’t have enough problems!”

“I see work to do here,” Tiaret said.

Before Vic could stop her, Tiaret charged in among the aquatic attackers, swinging her teaching staff to bash heads with the dragon’s-eye stone.

Vic grabbed a harpoon that had been thrown from the shipwrecked war galley. “Here we go again.”

GWEN WASN’T SURE HOW long she remained unconscious. She found herself sprawled on the stone floor, her arm twisted awkwardly under her. When she stirred, scattered scrolls rustled around her, and her sleeve brushed against tinkling shards of broken crystal.

Then, as her eyes focused, she saw Orpheon across the room gathering scrolls and scrap parchments. Satisfied, he turned to stand over Master Rubicas with what looked like a small scimitar made of glass. Apparently he didn’t think his stunning spell would be sufficient against them.

“You leave him alone!” She tried to shout, but her voice came out as a faint gurgle. The aftereffects of the strange stun spell made her queasy, and when she lurched herself into a sitting position, Gwen fought back waves of nausea.

The apprentice looked up, his dark eyes flashing, and she
saw that they were now slits, not round
human
pupils at all. “I intend to kill you both. It does not matter in which order you die.” He stalked toward her with the long dagger while Rubicas groaned, still far from consciousness.

Gwen struggled to stand up, but sickening dizziness crippled her. Orpheon looked as if he might laugh. He came closer with his curved knife.

Behind him, a strong voice called out. “I see I have arrived just in time!” Orpheon whirled, and a sudden flash of light dazzled him. While the apprentice was blinded, Sharif ran forward and slammed into him. The unexpected impact knocked his curved glass dagger to the floor, where it shattered. Inside her still-glowing eggsphere, Piri twirled, waving her hands in a little victory dance.

Orpheon hissed, writhed like a sea serpent, and ducked away. The illumination from Piri’s globe finally caused Rubicas to stir. The bearded sage made a miserable sound and lifted his head as if it had become a heavy weight. He blinked, propped himself up on his elbows, and looked around. “What? What is happening?”