He let his tentacles drop away and watched as his dead brethren sank out of sight.
He had killed four of his own kind but it wasn't enough.
The anger still boiled within him -
— and he lashed out.
There was a scream and someone called his name. But that wasn't his name, was it?
"Silus, help!"
A tight band encircled his waist and he struggled against it before realising where he was.
The creature maintained its hold on Silus as it lifted Katya from the deck of the Llothriall. Ignacio and Jacquinto, leaning hard against the rail, tried to make a grab for her, but succeeded only in snatching the shoe from her right foot.
"Katya, try not to struggle." Silus shouted.
As the creature drew her close, Katya reached out and — for just a second — their fingertips touched.
"Silus, what's happening?" Katya called.
"This creature is being controlled by the Chadassa. They sent it after us. If I can — "
Out of the corner of his eye Silus noticed Ignacio knocking an arrow to a bow.
"No, don't hurt it, otherwise you'll get us both killed!"
It seemed that the wind was strong enough to carry his voice, as Ignacio lowered his weapon.
The creature brought Katya closer then, more tentacles coming to bear as it examined her. One explored the mound of her belly and Silus prayed for the leviathan to be gentle.
"I'm going to try to break through the Chadassa's control, Katya. Stay as calm as you can."
Silus looked into the creature's eyes again and he could sense the taint that lay over its will, like a diseased caul. He moved beyond this and called to the creature in friendship and in peace. He spoke to it of the lightless depths, the abundance of life that moved through the canyons and of the comfort and companionship of its brethren. Silus could feel how the creature yearned for these things and he focused this desire through his will, until it was keen and strong. Then he broke through the mental restrains that the Chadassa had put in place.
There was a rumbling sound from the leviathan and its grip on Silus suddenly relaxed.
He landed on damp grey flesh and grabbed hold of the ridge of bone that rose from the creature's back. Then, as the creature rose up in preparation to dive, Silus's feet went out from under him. Only his urgent mental calls prevented both he and Katya from being drowned.
The creature settled back down, expelling a jet of water from its spout along with a great sigh.
Silus stroked its flank as he spoke and soon Katya was lowered to stand beside him.
Holding his wife close, Silus spoke again and the leviathan slowly carried them back to the Llothriall, all the time filling Silus with waves of joy in thanks for its newfound freedom.
Chapter Fourteen
After the creature had guided he and Katya back to the Llothriall, Silus spent some time communicating with it. The creature responded to him with peace and gratitude, thankful that it was finally free of the Chadassa yoke. But, before it could go and join its brethren in the depths of the deep-sea trenches, Silus requested a favour.
They needed to find land, and soon. Without Emuel, without the full power of the stone that was the heart of the Llothriall, they were stranded. It would only be a matter of time before the Chadassa launched another attack and Katya was getting dangerously close to her full term. And so, Silus, asked the leviathan to guide them to land.
For a while the creature hadn't responded and Silus contemplated the possibility that there just wasn't any land nearby; that they'd ride the seas until they died of thirst or starvation. Years from now, they'd wash up on some Allantian shore, an unusual ship manned by a crew of skeletons. Perhaps somebody would even write a sea shanty about the mystery of the sepulchral travellers.
But then the creature replied and Silus breathed a sigh of relief.
The crew's enthusiasm and gratitude, however, were tempered by their friend's recent death and when Silus tried to persuade the two remaining smugglers to help harness the creature to the ship, Ignacio refused. After all, this thing had killed his friend. But Silus reminded him that it was the Chadassa, and not the leviathan who had been responsible for his loss.
"Ignacio, this is probably our only shot at survival," Kelos said, coming to Silus's defence. "Don't let this voyage have been for nothing."
"The mage is right," said Jacquinto. "How do you think Ioannis would have wanted to die, Ignacio? Deep in the Citadel at Turnitia, tortured to death by the City Guard for running Sarcrean spice to low-life users? Or out on the open waters, battling with his friends and using his sword for something worth fighting for? This was where he wanted to be."
Ignacio looked at Silus, then at Katya cradling the curve of her belly and his features softened.
"Throw me a knife." He said to Jacquinto before scrambled into the rigging.
Soon they were moving at the creature's full pace and Silus communicated his thanks to the leviathan. It responded with a great, booming call that vibrated the planks of the deck.
Brother Incera polished the telescope's eyepiece before bringing his right eye to bear on it once again. He found that he hadn't been mistaken after all. The thing that looked like a small black dot moving across the face of Kerberos was not a flaw in the lens.
The astronomer noted the position of the dark spec on his charts before increasing the magnification and looking again.
The dot now resolved itself into a sphere, about an eighth the size of Kerberos, its surface a pure featureless black. He tracked its progress for a couple of hours before satisfying himself that it was not on a collision course with Twilight. Then he cranked the handle that lowered the telescope's cradle, stepped down from the seat and stretched to work out the kinks in his back.
In all his years as the Final Faith's head astronomer, he had done little more of note than track the movement of the stars and record the phases of eclipses. He had studied what few ancient astronomical texts there were, but they told him nothing he couldn't have found out for himself just by looking at the sky. It would seem that to the Old Races the heavens were just as much a mystery as they currently were to the humans. Yet the Final Faith still maintained an interest in the astronomical arts and this was why Brother Incera had occupied his position for the last three decades, tucked away in his dusty observatory in one of the highest towers of Scholten cathedral.
He had to admit that he was a touch alarmed at the appearance of the new moon. Katherine Makennon would have to be informed. No doubt she would be just as surprised at his continued existence as she would be at the news of the astronomical phenomena.
Brother Incera felt a little trepidation at the prospect of an audience with the Anointed Lord. It had been quite some time since he had last spoken to the leader of the Final Faith. In fact it had been quite some time since he had last spoken to anybody.
Carefully, he descended the spiral staircase that led from his garret down to the main levels, his arthritis burning deep in his bones. By the entrance to a bell tower he paused to catch his breath and managed to startle a passing Eminence who hadn't expected to see so pale or so elderly a figure leaning against a wall in this part of the cathedral. The Eminence hurried on, throwing glances behind him as though he wasn't sure that Brother Incera wasn't a ghost.
The astronomer muttered a benediction at the priest's back before descending into the main body of the cathedral.
Here he briefly basked in the warm, heavily incensed air that wafted through the decorated arches and aisles. In their stalls beyond the transept, the Eternal Choir's song heralded the approach of dusk, the last few rays of the sun pouring through the stained-glass windows painting the robed singers with vivid splashes of colour.