Heart of the Kraken (Tales from Darjee) (21 page)

"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 he 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."

"Just as I thought." Nancy winked and then chortled. "And of course I am going to tell you where he is hiding. There's a cave on the western side of the island. You need to swim back through the tunnel you followed to come here and half way along is a branch, take that. It's the one that runs under my office and out the other side." He reached into the battered pouch at his side and drew out a stick. He gave it a sharp shake and it emitted a soft green glow, then he handed it to Ailin. "You'll need this, it will light the way so you don't miss the other tunnel. Plus you can wave it at Fenton to get a good gander at him because he'll be hiding in the dark, no doubt."

"Thank you." She blew him a kiss.

He caught the kiss and held it over his heart. "I do love happy endings."

With the glow stick in her hand, she dived under the water and headed to the bottom of the pool. The wide entrance beckoned now she knew it would lead to Fenton. On and on she swam until the little light picked out the tunnel off to one side. Nancy was right, she would have missed it in the pitch black. This tunnel was narrower and would never take the strange vessel Sahara, but did a half kraken half landwalker fit?

The Isle of Illusions lived up to its name. The landwalkers were unaware of the passages and caverns running underneath that Nancy bent and curved to his command. Ailin avoided the ships moored in the harbour by swimming through the middle of the island. She emerged on the west side where the volcano ran almost vertical down to the ocean.

She surfaced among the white peaks of a rough ocean and the waves buffeted her back and forth as she took stock of her position. Mist shrouded the top of the mountain, lush black vegetation tumbled down the side and clung to the sheer face. There was no beach here, only cliffs where the sea slammed against the rock. No people lingered or explored as the rough terrain was only suited to birds, goats or fish. This side of the island was primal and given over completely to aquatic and flying creatures.

With a flick of her tail she dived under the frosted tips, deeper and closer to the rocks, careful to avoid swimming too close least the rip and pull of the ocean dash her against the side. Then she sighted the opening, dark and cavernous like a demon creature. Jagged edges of rock hung like enormous canine teeth ready to rip apart those who ventured too near. She had to find Fenton and so pushing down her fear of what she would face, she journeyed into the cave.

She held the small stick close to her heart but even it could cast only a tiny circle of green light. The temperature of the water dropped and chilled her body as darkness claimed her. She called his name as she moved, peering into the gloom, waving the light to keep from dashing against the rough walls.

"Stop, Ailin," his voice called, deeper than she remembered but still Fenton. "Put away the light, I do not want you to see me."

There within the ink stain darkness came a movement, the shadow of tentacles drifting through the water. A shiver ran down her spine as she remembered Nancy's words. He is both and neither at the same time. But she loved him. Fenton. Whatever shape he inhabited.

"All right, if you will talk to me." She looked around and found a crevice. She wedged the light into the gap and then turned to swim away from its comforting glow. The shadow appeared before her and her eyes adjusted to the dull light.

Both yet neither.

"You shouldn't have come here," he said and then turned his face away.

"I needed to know you were safe," she said, peering into the haze.

His top half still resembled Fenton but a larger and more powerful version. His sandy hair flowed free of its strap and curled around his face. His strong features were still the landwalker she knew, the same square jaw and high cheekbones. The tattoo had vanished from his skin but his arms and chest rippled with muscle. Her gaze drifted downward. Across his side lay a jagged gash with tiny neat stitches holding the edges together. Was that where Reis' sword plunged into the kraken?

Relief washed through her body on seeing the wound sewn shut and it appeared Nancy had a fine hand with a needle. "I thought they would kill you."

"Kraken hide makes me hard to kill." He still kept his face averted and would not meet her gaze.

Ailin continued her inspection. Her gaze swept past the injury, down to where his torso split into tentacles that undulated on the movement of the ocean. They were covered in tiny scales like eel skin. The grey broken by a pattern of swirls and knots that reminded her of the tattoo he once bore. The underside of each bore pale pinkish-grey suckers and the appendage ended in a razor sharp nail.

She moved closer but he swam backwards until he butted the wall. He turned his face away from her and spoke to the rock. "I am a monster. You have seen I am alive, now you should leave. Go back to your merfolk."

She laughed and inched toward him again. "I am not leaving. You are Fenton and I love you." She closed the gap and laid a hand on his arm.

"You deserve better. One of your own kind." His voice dropped to a whisper, floating on the current past her ears.

She smiled. "I want you. If I went back in time, I would jump into that net again, knowing it would lead me to you."

He laid one large hand over hers and stroked the back of her hand with his thumb. "I never desired anyone until I laid eyes on you."

She let the ebb of water push her body closer to his new form. "Nancy has given us a way to be together. This is the real Fenton before me, the being who I would give myself to."