Chapter-VII

The air was heavy with moisture and filled with energy. Everything felt sultry with heat. It was silent. Too silent.

Twyll could feel the tension in the air as the crew gathered on the top deck. Cadence strolled onto the platform where she was standing and pulled out quartz. He made a first around it and took a deep breath in and exhaled. Soon enough the crystal begins to glow and the air around it started to distort. She could sense the waves that were released from the rock. After a few seconds, it stopped. Cadence opened his eyes. His skin had paled even more and his eyes were dilated with fear.

"Captain, get your harpoons and canons ready. It's the Sukra." He whispered.

Immediately the crew started running around shouting to each other in a hissing language that sounded vaguely familiar.

"What happened? What's the Sukra?" She asked Cadence he was still standing stock-still beside her?

"The Sukra is a legend come true. She is one of the seven sea serpents that roam the seven seas. She is an enormous creature with the body of an eel and the tentacles of an octopus. She distantly resembles a giant squid. Her poison can melt through the diamond and her scales can cut through rock. Her maw can unhinge to swallow humans whole and her razor-sharp teeth are covered with an acidic substance which mixed with her saliva creates the poison. She can only be injured and cannot be killed."

Twyll felt her body tremble. "Is there any way to kill her?"

"There is. But it is too dangerous. Her Achilles heel is her fin which is hidden under a forest of scales. You would have to get close enough to spear it or cut it out."

By this time the entire ship was lurching through the waves and shuddering as it slammed into something big. She caught a glimpse of pink flesh and pearlescent scales before another wave crashed onto the deck.

Twyll ran inside to her weapons bag. She could already feel the ship sinking. The harpoons weren't doing much and the attacks were taking a toll on the ship.

Twyll grabbed her throwing knives and strapped her scimitar to her back. Her knives were strapped to her forearms and a pair of twin swords similarly strapped to her waist. She ran out onto the deck taking in the scene in front of her. Cadence was struggling with ropes of the sails while the other crew members were grappling with the harpoons and canons. Some were also trying to lodge arrows into the chinks in the beast's armour without any success.

Twyll ran over to Cadence and helped him tie the ropes securely. Then she grabbed him and pushed him towards the prow where the ship was most damaged.

"I think I know how to get close enough" she yelled over the roaring waves.

"What? How?" He yelled back hanging onto a wooden rod for dear life.

"Your crew can distract it with their weapons. Aim for its gills that should slow it down. Meanwhile, I will swim under its scales and try to find the fin."

Cadence looked at her in disbelief. The ship shuddered as a hot, foul-smelling fluid splashed onto the top deck, burning the men around. That's when the creature burst put off the water showing it's the staggering length and a hideous maw filled with slime and slobber. The beast fell back into the water causing a high wave to crash onto the lower decks.

"There's no TIME Cadence for your protective bullshit. I need to go NOW!"

And before Cadence could give his assent, Twyll jumped into the water. She quickly propelled herself towards the beast, her lungs already burning with the need to breathe. She swam in between its scales dodging their sharp edges. She had managed to get halfway through when a loud wail made her lift her eyes to come face to face with gleaming red eyes.

Shit

The Sukra had found her.

She dived into his dense forest of scales evading its acid breath. She stabbed one of her swords into the beasts eye and one in its gills. Terror coated her throat making it even harder to stay conscious. Her lungs were in desperate need of air. She swam faster when a scale managed to nick her side and sent her slamming into another sharp edge. She felt the blood diffusing into the water and knew that the beast would find her with its flexible neck. She swam and swam never stopping ignoring the burning in her body and lungs. She suddenly stopped. There under the belly of the beast was a small fleshy fin. She kicked her way to it as fast as possible, the pain almost overwhelming. She managed to dislodge a few knives and her sword. She started sawing her way through the flesh. It was hard due to the leathery texture. She sawed and sawed until her hands started to get raw and more blood pooled around her. She felt light-headed and the amount of blood she was losing was not good. She sawed some more until she felt the piece of flesh cone off. The beast gave a guttural scream it's entire body vibrating with pain. The Sukra started sinking. Twyll sank against its leathery hide. She couldn't feel anything. She was dying.

A hand came out of nowhere and dragged her. Up, up, up to the surface of the water. Everything was stunning and bright. The sun was a brilliant white and warmed her cold face. She felt herself being propelled forward. The fire in her body was back, her lungs were inflating with the newfound air. But her side still burned with the contact with the saltwater. Twyll was slowly lifted onto the ship with a pulley as the crew looks upon her with awe. No one in a century at least had slain a sea serpent.

Cadence looked on with a sense of respect as he laid her down on the floor. A medic came and registered her with a sleeping ether to numb the pain.

Twyll felt the cool liquid soothing her burning throat and sighed in relief. Soon the heaviness of sleep crept over her and she conked out.

Cadence was transporting Twyll to her rooms when the image came in. Jenny. Jenny was dead.

He was confused as more information came at lightning speed into his mind.

Tem attack. Marketplace. Trystan overpowered. Funeral in a week. Shalom and Karsyn are destroyed. Come as fast as possible.

Cadence dropped to the ground. Jenny was dead. She was never going to meet Twyll. She would never hear about the sea serpent and how Twyll was the serpent slayer. She would never play cards with him again.

For the first time in years, Cadence allowed himself to cry. He cried for Jenny, himself, his friends and most of all Bren. Bren because no one knew how bad it was after her husband had disappeared, now destroyed and afraid she was of losing someone else that she loved. He knew that those memories were back now. He knew that She and Karsyn were going to teeter across that dark edge. He knew that he was close to it. He sat there staring into space, Twyll's unconscious form long forgotten in the face of his grief and anguish.

That's where the captain found him a few hours later his eyes dried out and his head bowed down.

...