Kendra Kandlestar and the Shard From Greeve (17 page)

TIME MARCHES SLOWLY when one is in discomfort, and this was certainly now the case with Kendra. Stuffed inside the parrot cage, her neck ached with a never-ceasing crick, and her legs continually cramped and fell asleep. She could find no relief, no matter how much she tried to shift and fidget inside her cage. She begged Pugglemud to free her, for even just a few moments, so that she might stretch her legs—but the pirate turned a deaf ear to her pleas.

The peryton was faring far worse. As the days rolled onward, the great stag sank further and further into ill health. He began to molt feather and fur, and anything he tried to eat only caused him to retch. Gradually, his eyes lost their noble luster.

“He’s dying,” Kendra told Pugglemud. “You need to bring him up to the deck.”

“So he’ll just fly away on me, eh?” the dirty Dwarf said with a scowl.

“I doubt he’s strong enough to fly,” Kendra rejoined. “And there’s the silver thread anyway. But he needs to feel the breeze and the light of the sun. He needs fresh air!”

It took some convincing, but Kendra knew that the greedy captain didn’t want to risk the peryton dying; he was worth his weight in gold to Pugglemud. And so at last the pirate captain had Prince’s wings and legs bound with the silver thread, and Squaggle and the rest of the crew hauled the great stag to the ship deck. The peryton somehow seemed even more massive to Kendra, for now his white wings sparkled in the sunlight and his antlers knocked against the ship’s mast.

Prince remained there for the next two days, hardly stirring. Squaggle left Kendra’s cage hanging on the mast next to the beast, even through the night. She spent hours just staring at the peryton. Finally, one bright morning, just as the sun was rising, Prince lifted his head and Kendra saw a familiar twinkle in his dark eyes.

“I may live yet, Arinotta,” he announced.

Oki scampered up the rigging to sit next to Kendra’s cage. “Is . . . is he friendly?” the little mouse asked.

Kendra turned to answer him, but then a cry came from high above. It was one of the pirates, up in the crow’s nest. “Land ahoy!” the Gnome shouted. “Thar she be, mates—Krake Castle!”

Kendra could hear a scuttle of feet as the pirate crew rushed to the edge of the ship to gaze at the shore. Kendra herself had to twist around in her cage in order to gain a view, but when she did, her mouth went dry and her stomach felt as if it was trying to digest a stone.

It was still many leagues away, but even from a distance Krake Castle was a foreboding sight. A clutter of dark towers and ramparts, it looked like a giant stone king, the crags serving as its throne, the waves below as its minions.

“Somewhere in all o’ that is the accursed Rumble Pit,” Squaggle muttered grimly.

“Take cheers, me hearties!” Pugglemud declared gleefully. “We’ll be rich soon, don’t ya know! Don’t be thinkin’ o’ the pit! Think o’ the gold! Tee hee!”

“K-K-Kendra,” Oki sputtered, still sitting next to her cage. “What is that thing?”

“What are you talking about?” Kendra said irritably. “It’s Krake Castle!”

“N-n-no, not that!” Oki cried, now pointing a tiny paw towards the sea. “I mean
that
—EEK!”

His squeal caught everyone’s attention; the whole crew followed the mouse’s gesture to the sea—and there they saw an enormous creature plowing through the waves like a torpedo, straight towards the
Golden Loot
.

If you have ever visited an aquarium, then you have most likely seen a squid or an octopus, and if this creature resembled anything, it was one of these, except it was far bigger and seemed to have more of everything—especially tentacles. Indeed, to Kendra it seemed as if there were dozens of these long feelers, curling in and out of the water like a writhing nest of serpents, each one poised to strike and destroy. It had a cluster of bulbous black eyes scattered across its head, reminding Kendra of a spider.

“What in the name of Een is that?” Jinx asked.

“A scoptacus!” Squaggle uttered, all the color draining from his face. “Our bleedin’ doom!”

“Stop yer blabberin’, ya yeller-bellied scalawags!” Pugglemud yelled, even as he retreated up the stairs to the poop deck. “Get yer harpoons! Get yer spears and swords! Don’t let that slimy slurper hurt me!”

The pirates began scrambling about the deck, grabbing hold of every weapon available. Even Jinx found a sword and raised it with all four arms. No one stopped her; they would need every hand available if they were to survive the sea creature’s attack.

Oki hugged Kendra’s cage. “Don’t think of pickles! Don’t think of pickles!” he murmured. “Oh, Kendra—what are we going to do?”

Kendra could feel the shard inflame in ravenous fury. Now! the voice inside her head wailed.
It’s time to destr—

The scoptacus walloped the ship with such force that Kendra’s cage shook loose of its hook and crashed to the deck. As the vessel lurched in a wash of waves, the cage rattled across the tilting floor, slamming into barrels and legs until at last it struck the far railing so hard that it burst open in an explosion of rusty wire. Kendra leapt to her feet—and immediately fell down. She hadn’t used her legs in days, and it didn’t help that the
Golden Loot
was now entangled in the lashing tentacles of the scoptacus. It was like the ship was a mere toy, the creature an angry fist.

A chaotic battle had erupted on the deck of the
Golden Loot
. Everywhere Kendra looked there seemed to be another tentacle, thrashing out from the foam and spray to clutch at hapless victims. Now Kendra could see just how deadly these tentacles were, for each one was lined with a deadly row of pincers that snapped and clawed at the pirate crew. Some of the Gnomes had already been gashed by these pincers, but those were the lucky ones; many more had been trapped in the coils of the great scoptacus, only to disappear over the sides of the ship, though whether into the sea or the creature’s waiting jaws, Kendra never knew. Amidst the frantic din of screams, Squaggle and Jinx led the assault on the scoptacus. Harpoon, sword, and dagger were all thrust at the monster, but nothing seemed to impede its attack.

“Kendra!”

She blinked and collected her thoughts. It was Oki—he had been ensnared by one of the great tentacles and was kicking furiously as the long green limb pulled him towards the edge of the vessel.

Quickly, Kendra reached into her robe and grabbed the shard from Greeve. At once the black rock flamed to life in delightful and long-awaited fury. Kendra could feel her hand burn, but she ignored the pain. Holding the stone like a knife, she charged forward and sliced at the tentacle holding Oki. It instantly exploded into fragments of charred flesh, and the mouse fell to the wooden deck with a thud, his eyes wide with terror and confusion at the sight of the shard.

Across the deck, the peryton was struggling to get to his feet, but he was still bound by the silver thread. In a flash, Kendra crossed the deck and cut him free, first his legs, then his wings. Prince stared at her in wonder; then he leapt to the air, creating a rush of wind with his enormous wings. At first, his flight was unsteady, but then he seemed to find a hidden reserve of strength. Quickly and gracefully, he circled upward into the sky, free and truly beautiful.

When she lowered her head, Kendra found herself staring at Agent Lurk. He was but a few Eenlengths away, and even though she couldn’t see his face beneath his cowl, she could feel his eyes boring into her. He lunged towards her, only to find himself snatched by one of the scoptacus’s giant feelers. Lurk yelped in horror, but his cry was drowned out by a truly ear-piercing shriek. Kendra whirled around to find herself confronted by a giant wall of bumpy green scales as the massive scoptacus reared its great misshapen head alongside the ship. It gnashed its teeth, and its knot of black eyes flared with pain and anger. Kendra knew she had wounded the scoptacus with the first slash of the shard—but she did not care. She wanted to hurt it even more.

Raising her arms, she held the shard above her head and let the rage gush from her heart. The wind whipped about her, blowing her hood over her head to shadow her angry face. Black lightning roared, snapped, and clawed from the shard. Wood splintered and cracked as the ship was ripped to pieces; the scoptacus flailed in agony, its tentacles bursting into flames and evaporating in a stomach-sickening stench of burning blubber. The pirates ran helter-skelter in every direction, desperate for cover. Oki squealed, Jinx yelled, and Pugglemud screamed above it all: “The ship! Not me ship!”

Everything after that was a blur for Kendra. One minute she was standing on the deck, the next she was in the sea, lying on a broken plank of wood that was just wide enough to support her. Her right hand was scorched and limp, still hanging onto the shard and its cord. Painfully, she managed to loop it back around her neck. The waves were wild and washed over her, as if purposely trying to drown her. All around were flaming pieces of flotsam, and though it was morning, the sky was dark—she couldn’t explain why. In the distance, Kendra could see the Golden Loot bobbing in the sea like a wounded animal.

“Kendra, what have you done?”

It was Jinx. The tiny grasshopper was clinging to a piece of wreckage and floating an arm’s length away. Oki was with her. He was completely drenched, but even so Kendra could see that his whiskers and fur were singed.

“I saved us!” Kendra bellowed.

“I don’t feel very safe!” Jinx balked. “You had the shard all along, didn’t you? You betrayed us.”

“If it wasn’t for me, you’d be dead!” Kendra growled.

“Kendra,” little Oki moaned, “you’re eyes . . . they’re . . . they’re red.”

“So what?” Kendra snapped as she bobbed up and down on the crests of the waves.

“That rock has gotten the better of you!” Jinx shouted over the crash of the water.

“Shut up!” Kendra snarled. “You’re just jealous fools!”

And then they were separated by waves; Kendra lost sight of them, first for a moment, and then completely. She rested her head against the board that was keeping her afloat. She felt exhausted.

“Ingrates,” she muttered as her mind slipped into unconsciousness. “At least Prince will thank me.” And her last thoughts before blacking out were of the bold and beautiful peryton, soaring to freedom.