Page 46 of Enchantment of Silver and Sea
It was rising now. The waves were climbing to meet me.
Maybe I was physically weaker than the Strangers, but my mind was sharp. I could convince them to come back. I could find another way to get them what they needed. After all, I had the entire Library at my disposal, not just the basement. Once I got back to Cyllene, I would make it my mission tofind an alternative to the Leviathan’s scales. No one needed to die today.
Now my feet were slapping against the line where the sand became slick and spotted with foam. And then they were splashing through the water itself, until I was knee-deep.
I stopped cold.
Ahead of the Strangers, water was erupting as if from a massive geyser, showering their faces. The waves were no longer just climbing back toward the shore. They were wild, directionless. Several people lost their footing and disappeared under the surf.
Then, through the spray, it emerged.
Towering over the Strangers was something like the head of a snake. Three stories tall. Maybe more. Fins protruded from the sides of its massive jaw and the top of its head. The surface area of each of them was larger than the canopy back on shore. The beast’s eyes were an opaque black. Its scales—those impermeable scales—were iridescent even in the fading light.
It dropped its jaw. The fangs it revealed could’ve pierced through an entire person, head to toe, and still kept going.
Then it roared. And it was the first time a sound caused me physical pain.
My knees buckled under me. My ears were ringing so loudly, I couldn’t hear the splash as I fell, could only feel the water close over my legs as they sank into the sand. Once down, I could feel a release. Although I was sitting waist-deep in water, I was certain I had wet myself.
I had just enough awareness to note that Nya and Kieran were still standing.
And then it was chaos.
A wave knocked me over, and at the same time knocked me out of my stupor. Another wave was right behind, and I braced against it. Out of my left peripheral, I saw a giant curving shape arcing through the air.
The Leviathan’s tail. It was churning the water. In part because of how close it had come to shore, beaching itself. But maybe on purpose, too.
It was effective. In the distance, more heads dipped beneath the surface.
Cecil’s face contorted as though he were shouting something down the line, but even his voice wasn’t loud enough for me to make out over the commotion. Somehow, the rest of the group must have heard him, because they jumped into action. Cecil and Kieran charged straight at the Leviathan, while Nya, Xiomara, and the others seemingly rushed away from it. They were flanking it, as planned.
Kieran leapt into the air, using the force behind the Springing Spell to bring him even with the Leviathan’s face. He thrust the javelin straight at one of its obsidian eyes—an attack, and also a distraction.
The Leviathan tossed its head like it was shaking off a gnat, the scales of its cheek connecting with Kieran’s body with a sickening smack that sent him careening through the air.
Only moments after he landed, he was resurfacing and using the Springing Spell to bring him to stand near Cecil once again. The two of them aimed their spears at the sea monster’s neck, in that bend just below its jaw.
At the same time, the Leviathan lunged. I held my breath.
Then a wave knocked me off my feet again, dropping me straight down on my tailbone. Pain rocketed up my spine, and for a second, my vision became dark at the edges.
I staggered to my feet again. But I couldn’t make sense of the chaos before me—flailing arms and legs and the blunt ends of spears. Where was Kieran? Where was Cecil? Had they dodged the attack?
The Leviathan’s head was still above water, but it was moving faster than my eyes could track. Waterfalls of spray crashed down in every direction.
The monster roared again, and the sound mixed with the screams and shouts of the Strangers as they struggled. Then I spotted Xiomara and noticed she was braced against something, the butt of her spear sticking straight up as though it were embedded in something.
Please, please let that roar have been a roar of pain. Please tell me she had managed to wedge her spear between its scales.
What happened next, I couldn’t process.
I watched dumbly, motionless, as something shot up in the air. Spinning, turning, twisting.
A person.
The Leviathan had tossed one of the Strangers in the air. I watched numbly as it caught the body in its mouth, clamping its jaws shut with a clack that echoed across the beach.
A person.
