by Exley, A. W.
His brow furrowed at her question and he huffed. "Of course I do. Only her outward form changed, never her heart."
The words so similar to the ones Ailin spoke not so long ago. She loved Fenton whatever form he took, landwalker or kraken. It made no difference to her.
"I love a kraken," she said, needing to say the words aloud.
Weston's eyebrows shot up. "A kraken? Don't see many of those around."
"He is also a landwalker." And quite possibly dead by now although she hushed herself and held on to her trust in Nancy.
"Well that's handy if you need something from the shops." Weston laughed and Sahara vibrated in the water as though she joined in.
It would be wonderful, except her last image of Fenton was him in his kraken form with Reis plunging a sword into his thick hide. If he died as a kraken, would he keep that form or turn back into a landwalker? Tears burned in her eyes even as she kept repeating Nancy's promise to save Fenton. She had lost him and never told him she guessed at his other half. The side he tried to shield her from even as the creature protected her. The ocean ran in his veins and called to her, just as he chased her through the water in her dreams.
"I love him whatever shape he holds," she whispered.
Sahara bumped against her and Ailin laid her face on the ship's scales. Under her cheek came the faint thud of a heart pulsing through the ore-mancer created curiosity.
Weston nodded. "I shall tell you a secret about men, Ailin. We are vain creatures. I'm sure if my fate and Sahara's were switched, she would have let the ore-mancers turn me into a toast rack and moved on with her life."
Ailin took comfort from her strange new friend and then giggled. "You would have made a fine toast rack."
Ripples shook the surface around Sahara as the ship joined in the merriment.
Weston tugged on the collar of his tunic and puffed out his chest. "I would like to think so."
Ailin liked this strange couple and the way they bantered back and forth despite the obvious physical differences. Only one thing bothered her. "How did Sahara's landwalker form inhabit the ship?"
Weston sat down on the timbers and dropped his bare feet over the side. "Ore-mancers have a gift, but Sahara worked a miracle on the shell I created for her. I think she and the ship were so in sync, they fused together and became one. I intended it to replace her broken body but like a woman, she took what her man handed her and turned it into something fantastical."
The ship rolled against his feet and tickled the soles. The affection clear in how each reacted to the other. The tears returned to Ailin's eyes, would she ever have that with Fenton? Her kind only ever took one partner and her soul cried out for him just as her form longed for the press of his flesh against her.
"Nancy will be here soon once he is sure the storm has served its purpose."
She reached out and gripped the side of the pier, her fingernails biting into the timber. "He must save Fenton, Captain Reis will kill him."
Weston reached down and patted her hand. "I know it is difficult not knowing what is going on beyond this cavern, but Nancy has everything in hand. He will explain."
Chapter Twenty
Inside, Fenton laughed. Dragut Reis thought he won by unmasking him and driving Ailin away in terror. When actually he worked to Fenton's plan. Nancy was right, you needed to play a long game and think several moves ahead. He had known being caught trying to free Ailin would bring the captain's wrath down on his head. He had hoped Reis would flick the switch and release the kraken as punishment.
He could never have taken away the horror he saw in Ailin's eyes, but he could save her. The pain ripped through his body as his skin tore, muscle shattered and the aquatic beast emerged from his wreckage. But he had kept possession of the small part of his mind that remained Fenton. Reis had thought to reveal his true form and then put him back into his flesh cage. Except had he kept the monstrous shape long enough to reach the creature who possessed his heart, wrap a tentacle around her, and release the mermaid back to her natural environment.
Too late Reis realised the betrayal. Too late he flicked the switch back again. With his sole focus on Ailin, Fenton never saw the blow, but the white hot pain seared through his body as the sword plunged into his hide. Damage done while the kraken was transferred to his human form. Then he withered and shrank as the beast dissolved back into ink lines etched in his skin. Fenton curled up on the deck, naked and covered in sweat. Reis' sword jutted from between his ribs and blood pooled around his body, but he smiled. As the thunder boomed and the rain pelted his body, the grin took over his face. Loving Ailin enabled him to search deep inside and find the courage he needed.
"End it," he whispered to Reis. "Kill me."
Then they would both be free.
The captain roared and turned to the closest crewman. He grasped at Maynard and pulled the other man's sword free. Fenton gazed up at the black sky, high above, only the top of Timmy's head was visible where he cowered in the crow's nest. Then, a discordant note cut through the thunder. High pitched, it screamed a challenge at the sky. As one, the crew turned from the spectacle of dying Fenton to watch a new actor in their drama emerge from the turbulent ocean. The shadow loomed over the deck and the crew shrank away. The lightning lit it from behind and silver ran along its hide. In size, it rivalled the kraken, as large as the pirate vessel but this creature was made of steel and brass.
The wyrm.
Razor sharp teeth as long as a man's arm snapped at the pirates. Red eyes glowed in the unnatural night as it swung back and forth. The enormous head bowed toward the deck and there, riding behind the ruffle, sat Nancy. He jumped to the timbers and the metal monstrosity half slithered onto the Razor's Edge. Its tail lashed out and caught Reis. It bowled him over and then pinned him to the floor. Men ran to his assistance but the wyrm turned and hissed, driving them back to the rail.
The ore-mancer stood over Fenton. "Sorry I'm late, lad, but it looks like all is going to plan." With two hands on the sword, he pulled it free and then tossed it overboard.
Fenton doubled over in pain as fire lanced his body. The blade left a vacuum that blood rushed to fill.
Nancy un-looped a scarf from around his neck and pressed it to the gash. Then he took Fenton's hands and laid them over the top. "Keep the pressure on and I'll fix you up once I deal with Captain Reis. Lenny!" he yelled over his shoulder. "Protect Fenton."
Lenny, the wyrm, wriggled closer along the deck and men jumped out of the way as whiskers made of thin wires swept past and gouged soft timber. All the time, it kept the captain squashed under its tail. One flipper extended from the side of its sleek form and it scooped up Fenton and cradled him close to its cold metal body. Safe in the wyrm's embrace, he could only watch proceedings.
Nancy looked upward at the storm clouds and drew a hand over the horizon. In that instance, the rain stopped and two clouds parted as though the ore-mancer opened a curtain a fraction. Light spilled from above and lit the wizard. Then he waggled a finger at Reis as though he admonished a schoolboy. "You have broken the covenant of Lusions. You have spilled blood within my harbour."
Reis laughed. "I made no move against another ship, he is part of my crew and it is my right to maintain discipline. You have no authority on the Edge."
Nancy tapped the side of his chin. "Ah, slight problem there. Your idea of discipline involves using ore-mancer technology, which is most definitely within my realm. I will agree to a compromise though. I shall remove the item and you can continue without ore-mancer assistance."
He knelt down and examined the gauntlet. One fingertip skipped over the dials and switches as the ore-mancer muttered under his breath.
Reis struggled against his captor. "You cannot touch that, I paid good gold for it."
"Hold him still, Lenny," Nancy said to the wyrm.
Lenny yodelled at the dark sky and sat a little heavier on the pirate. With the majority of his body pinned, only the captain's head and arm jutted free.
Meanwhile, Lenny spat at any crewman who thought to approach and help their fallen leader.
"We should never stifle other creatures. Ore-mancers were created to use their power to help, not to create puppets." His exploratory fingertip circled the large brass switch. "You have tormented Fenton for years, now it's time to set him free." Nancy muttered under his breath in a strange language and his fingertips dissolved into the gauntlet. The metal became fluid under his touch, as though the particles pulled back to allow him access. Nancy turned his hand and grasped something under the switch.
Reis writhed and cried out as the other man dug deep in his arm.
"Ah," Nancy murmured. "Found it." He jerked back and up, ripping away the switch. Below it dangled wires and a cable. Reis screamed as the device was torn from his nerves and tendon. Connections were severed and cauterised in one swift yank. Another pass of his hand and Nancy sealed the wound. The metal stretched and reformed to cover the gap where once sat the switch that controlled Fenton's physical form.
Reis shuddered under Lenny's constant pressure. For once he, was the one unable to escape. His black gaze found Fenton. "I will hunt down you and your mermaid and tear out her heart before you, right before I rip out yours."
"I don't think so," Nancy said. "You will remove yourself from my harbour, the Razor's Edge is no longer welcome at Lusions. Lenny will ensure you don't return. He's quite an efficient guard wyrm although prone to being overzealous."
The wyrm turned its head and screamed, apparently that was its answer to everything. Then it lunged across the deck, spitting sparks and the crew scattered to shelter wherever possible.
Nancy dropped the switch to the deck and then crushed the metal under his heel. More ore-mancer magic flowed from his body as, given he went barefoot, there was insufficient weight to damage the device. When he lifted his foot, the metal danced and of its own accord, scrunched up into a tiny ball with one wire dangling, like a loose thread on a ball of wool.
Fenton curled into a larger ball as fire washed over his body and licked at his limbs. Without the device controlling his form, his body undulated as though unsure what to do. To sprout tentacles or keep legs? The ink on his back scoured deep into his flesh, tearing him apart only to reform again.
"Let's get you out of here, lad." Nancy patted Lenny and climbed back to his spot behind the head.
The flipper curled around Fenton and cut off the sky just as the storm vanished and the clouds dissolved to reveal clear blue. Lenny dived over the side and under the water. In his cocoon, Fenton could only guess at where they headed. Did the wyrm have a lair? Pain continued to rack his body like the tide it flowed over him and then drew back. Each time it struck higher and harder. The contents of his stomach couldn't take the constant upheaval and he vomited all over the wyrm and he was sure it growled as he fouled its hide.
Lenny uncurled his limb and between waves of pain, Fenton noted muted light from above bounced off metal walls. With a gentle wave, the wyrm slid his flipper from under Fenton's body and deposited him on a cool floor. Then Lenny spiralled in upon himself, his body fitting into massive grooves worn into the sides of the space. He now lay curled, like a child's toy packed away for another day.
Water lapped at the edge of a large room that appeared to be Nancy's laboratory. Long steel tables made Fenton shudder with suppressed memories. Shelves were crammed with bottles, vials, boxes and equipment as far as Fenton could see.
Nancy grabbed a tool box and knelt on the floor next to him.
"What is happening to me?" he managed to ask between gritted teeth.
"The device is destroyed, you are no longer forced into a particular form. Your body is free to be as the goddess intended." The ore-mancer opened the box and rummaged through the contents.
"What is that? Man or kraken?" He ground his teeth together as another fire brand torched his limbs.
Nancy shrugged and pulled out a sewing kit. "I need to stitch this, can you hold long enough?"
"Yes." White hot needles already tore at his flesh, what was one more? Fenton screwed his eyes shut and concentrated on the simple act of breathing.
Nancy worked fast with needle and thread and soon stood back to regard his work. "You'll do."
Fenton drew a deep breath as the pain ebbed and this time, it stayed away. He rolled his neck and it gave a crick as his muscles stretched. Strength pulsed through his form. His hands opened and closed as though he used them for the first time. The world seemed clearer, louder and a thousand new scents assaulted his nose.
He levered himself to a sitting position and then stopped. His mind recoiled at the sight and a cry was stifled in his throat as he gazed at his new form. "I am a monster," he bit out. To his ears, his voice sounded deeper, rougher.
Nancy stood and cocked his head, regarding Fenton. "You are what you always were."
"No!" Fenton struck out and sent the box flying into a shelf. "Your kind made me like this and you can turn me back."
Nancy's eyes softened. "Oh Fenton. Some things cannot be undone. What those ore-mancers did to you, they did in the womb. This is what you always were, the way you entered this world. The device moulded your form but now you are free."
"No." He shook his head, it could not be. "Ailin—" her name choked off in his throat. Her face flashed before him, her eyes wide with horror as she realised he was the kraken. He could never see her again. Not now.
Thinking of her reminded him of someone else, equally as vulnerable and trapped. "If you cannot help me, then help Timmy, the lookout on the Edge. Promise me you will free him from Reis."
The ore-mancer huffed. "I saw the poor mite hiding, I'll have Lenny fetch him from the ship before it leaves the harbour."
Fenton's thoughts ricocheted around his mind. He closed his eyes to avoid the reality of his new self. Or was it the old self he simply never knew? With the gauntlet gone he was now trapped, stuck between both forms. At once both and yet neither. Then the tiniest voice in the back of his head whispered, no, this is how I was born. The other form was an illusion, this is the truth.
"I need to think," Fenton said. He glanced at the still water of the pool that washed around the sleeping Lenny.
Nancy walked to the shelf and began straightening the bottles. "On the west side of the island is a large cave. Take time to think, Ailin will want to know you are safe."
"Do not tell Ailin. She cannot see me like this, no one can." He dived off the edge of the platform into the water. For a moment, he fought the old panic of drowning with the sensation of the ocean clawing at the oxygen in his lungs. Then he relaxed, this was his world now. He could never go back and Reis would hunt him to the ends of the earth. Better to embrace his new mistress and let her either accept him or end it all.
He bobbed within the coiled frame of Lenny as the ocean explored his form and caressed his limbs. Then he opened his eyes and plummeted down, before striking off through a westward tunnel.
Chapter Twenty One
Ailin tried to distract herself by bombarding Weston with questions about Sahara and examining the living ship from every possible angle. When she grew weary of swimming around and around the pool, she climbed up on a rock formation and stretched out under the artificial lights. Sleep eluded her and worry ate at her.
Weston calling her name made her sit up. He waved at her from the end of the pier and he pointed back toward the trees. The greenery bowed apart to reveal the formidable ore-mancer walking barefoot across the ground. The trees snapped back together as he passed. Ailin's heart jumped into her throat as she leapt off the rock and plunged back into the water.
She swam close to the shore, until the sand rasped at her belly and tail. Only then did she sit in the shallows and wait. Nancy waded in up to his knees, his teal tunic bunched up in his hands, and held aloft so the hem didn't become sodden.
"Did they kill Fenton?" Her last vision of him as the monster, surrounded by pirates.
Nancy stroked her hair. "No, he will heal, but h
e is no longer as you remember him."
"He transformed into the kraken." Words jumbled in her chest and she couldn't grab them slow enough to articulate a question. She wiped at the tears mingling with the sea.
"I know, that is what my kind did when he was a mere seedling. Men who thought themselves gods to tamper with the nature of man and beast by fusing them into one." He clenched his fist and turned to stare at Weston. Something passed between the two ore-mancers who had escaped their masters. "But he is safe now."
"How?" Relief flooded through her torso to hear the simple words that Fenton was safe.
He smiled at her and tapped his nose. "I've been here for fifty years, I have many inventions and devices at my disposal. One such behemoth plucked Fenton from the Razor's Edge and kept him safe while I destroyed the connection Captain Reis had over Fenton. Your young man is free from the device's control."
She frowned and inside her emotions rioted from joy to confusion. "Is he man or kraken?"
The lines around his eyes softened as he gazed at her. "He is no longer forced into either form by the gauntlet. He is neither and yet both."
She should have expected that any answer from an ore-mancer would be no answer at all. There was only one certainty, only one piece of drift wood to cling to on this turbulent ocean. "I must find him."
He nodded and wiggled his toes where a crab tried to march over his foot. "Be warned Ailin, people will still label him a monster. Are you prepared for that?"
She picked up the inquisitive crab and set it down further away. "I see his heart, not his outer form. I love him for his mind and actions, not his appearance."
The smile broke over Nancy's face. "I stitched up Fenton and he has gone to recover and come to terms with his new form. He has sworn me to keep his location secret as he thinks you are terrified of him after what you witnessed."
She snorted. Silly man. "I was terrified he would be killed, I was never afraid of him."