Marrill peered down into the tangled tentacle abyss, searching not just for the Kraken, but for Fin. She didn’t find either. A chill passed over her. She could only hope he was okay.
The Sheshefesh was in full motion now. Its great body curled through the mass of coiled streams, chasing Ardent as the watery arms tossed him from one to the next. The whole world was a tangle of flying tendrils and twining rivers. It was hard to even know where up was.
“There!” cried a girl beside her, pointing. Far below, the Kraken skidded along like a water skier, tethered to the Sheshefesh’s trailing tentacle. Marrill searched for a way down to it, one eye on the deadly designs re-forming all around her.
From below, another big tentacle swept up toward them—or maybe they were sweeping toward it. Whatever was happening, the tattoos on it were spread out, far easier to avoid than the ones surrounding them.
“We have to jump!” she told Remy. Before the older girl could react, Marrill grabbed her hand and the arm of the unfamiliar girl next to her and cannonballed over. It’s not the craziest thing I’ve done recently, she reminded herself midair.
They landed with a huff on the lower tentacle, Coll a moment later beside them. His face was grim, his teeth gritted. The ink of his tattoo waved all across his skin, rippling his very flesh as it moved.
Above and around and beside them, Ardent and the Sheshefesh were locked in vicious battle. The massive creature struck at the wizard with ropes and tendrils; Ardent burned them back with fire and lightning. It was all Marrill could do to hold on and avoid the swirling tattoos. With Ardent occupied, there was nothing to keep the living ink at bay.
“Jump again!” Coll commanded. “Here!”
They leapt to another passing tentacle, then another, running from the oncoming tattoos, dodging the deadly Stream water twining through the air around them. Sailors sang as they whipped by, still tethered to the tentacles that held them.
Wouldn’t you like to sail with us forever?
Join the chorus, tell the tales of the sea!
Wouldn’t you like to taste the salt wind forever?
You’ll say you’re free, but you’ll never be free!
Marrill rolled out of the way as they passed mere feet beneath a spiraling loop of raw magic. Their tentacle swooped, turning as it went, forcing them to run in place. They leapt and rolled, struggling through the maze of tendrils and water. Around them, the bound mariners continued their song.
“What did she leave?” Ardent yelled, his voice a high counterpoint to the sailors’ refrain.
Join the chorus, tell the tales of the sea!
“Tell me!”
Wouldn’t you like to taste the salt wind forever?
“Tell me or I will burn you down to stumps!”
You’ll say you’re free, but you’ll never be free!
Marrill threw up her hands as they rose once again, away from the ship. Every time they jumped to a lower tentacle, it lifted them higher. “We can’t get down there,” she realized. “We have to get the Kraken up here!”
It was Remy who nodded. “That would do it! She’s fast enough to keep up with the Sheshefesh, for sure!”
Coll grinned wide, the first smile Marrill had seen from him since they’d set sail for the Knot of the Coiled Rope. “That’s good,” he said. “You know your ship like you know yourself. You’ll be a great captain before you know it.”
Marrill rolled her eyes. “Someone has to actually get to the ship,” she reminded them.
Just then, she saw Fin swooping past them. She let out a sigh of relief to know he was safe. His skysails cut through the air as he banked toward the ship, landing on the deck a moment later with a stutter. His eyes swept the tangle of tentacles, and when he found Marrill he held up the jar of ink so she could see that he still had his prize.
“Fin’s already on the ship, and he’s got the ink,” she announced excitedly. “He can help…” She trailed off. She could just make out Fin racing frantically around the deck, struggling to free the mooring lines. The Kraken wouldn’t respond to him. Of course it wouldn’t, she realized; like everyone else, the ship itself didn’t remember him.
“Never mind,” she finished. “One of us has to get the ship!”
A girl, maybe one of the sailors, piped up beside her. “What about the Naysayer?”
Marrill, Coll, and Remy looked at one another for a long moment.
“One of us has to get the ship,” Remy repeated. They all nodded in agreement.
Coll stood tall. The inky cords of his tattoo threatened to burst along his arms. “Well, she’s my ship,” he said. “Leave getting her to me.”
And then he jumped.
Marrill couldn’t believe what she saw next. As the battle between wizard and sea monster raged all around, as sailors sang their chorus and living designs inched toward them, Coll fell, reaching out his arms, and screamed in pain.
Wouldn’t you like to sail with us forever?
Ropes uncoiled from Coll’s skin, snaking out to anchor on nearby tentacles. One yanked him one way, the other another. He swung between them, pivoted, and pulled with all his might, wrenching one rope loose from its anchor, then the other.
Join the chorus, tell the tales of the sea!
They immediately shot for other swaying tentacles, clearly seeking to pull him in tight to the Sheshefesh’s embrace. But even as they did, he fell farther, swung, arrested his fall, controlled it. It was great and it was terrible; he was like a superhero and a captive prisoner, all at the same time.
Wouldn’t you like to taste the salt wind forever?
At last, with a final shout, Coll dropped to the deck of the Kraken. Instantly, the ship’s sails jumped to life.
Marrill was so focused on watching his descent that she didn’t even notice the tattoo coiling beside her. Not until a spine stabbed straight out. Time slowed, crawling toward a stop. In a heartbeat, she would be stuck at age twelve forever, doomed to one day spend eternity as the Sheshefesh’s living, breathing wall decoration.
She felt Remy grabbing her from behind, tossing her off the tentacle. Marrill landed on another with a thump that forced the air from her lungs. A second later, her babysitter dropped next to her, letting out a sharp cry as she hit the ground.
Marrill caught the older girl’s eye. “Too close,” she whispered. Remy nodded solemnly. “Thanks,” Marrill whispered again.
“I’m northern Arizona’s best babysitter,” Remy replied. “You think I’m going to let one of my kids spend all eternity stuck to a giant squid?”
“You dare taunt me?!?!?” Ardent shouted from somewhere above. Marrill looked up to see him spinning through the air, waves of bright lightning darting from his fingertips. Just out of his reach, a tendril no thicker than an arm waved a scrap of paper.
“This is what you’re looking for, wizard,” the creature chided. “The words of a love lost, and they can be yours. Just follow my rules. Leave something behind. Tell me who will bear my mark, and this letter will be yours.”
“Ardent, come on!” Marrill yelled. Her legs ached. Her ribs and back were sore from close calls and rough landings. It wouldn’t matter if she ever made it to the deck of the Enterprising Kraken if Ardent refused to join them. They couldn’t very well leave him behind.
Ardent lifted his arms wide. Arcs of lightning leapt from his body, searing against the flesh of the sea creature. The Sheshefesh roared and squirmed, writhing as Ardent pelted it with the full force of his rage. Marrill cringed; she couldn’t bear to see any creature in pain, not even a stubborn, greedy, angry one.
But just then, as the Kraken dodged through the tangle of tentacles beneath them, she saw it. The tentacle bearing Annalessa’s letter swooped between her and the deck of the ship still several stories below.
Marrill didn’t stop to think or second-guess or even plan. She simply jumped.
“Marrill, no!” Remy cried behind her.
She barely had time to realize her stomach was twisting. Barely had room to register the barbs of coiled ink lashing out as she tumbled past. Her whole being focused on the slip of paper, the whipping tentacle that held it.
Wind stung her eyes, bringing fresh tears that made everything blurry. Her fingers brushed against the letter and she grabbed it, hoping against hope it wouldn’t tear as she crushed the paper in her fist.
Something snagged around her ankle, whipping her out of the way. “Nooo!” she shrieked, sure a tentacle had her. But then, before she knew it, she found herself on the pitching deck of the Kraken, a length of familiar rope unwinding from her leg. Remy landed next to her, a young girl clinging to her back. Fin raced over to help untangle them.
“Thanks, Ropebone,” Marrill panted. She opened her hand and glanced down. The letter hadn’t ripped! She thrust it in the air. “Ardent! I’ve got it!”
The Sheshefesh roared with fury. Its vile breath washed over her.
“Thieves, thieves, and thieves again! You will never escape!”
Coll let out a growl and cupped his hands around his mouth. “Ardent, come! Now!”
A second later, Ardent’s disk spun to the deck. The wizard stepped off it, and the disk twirled, shrank, and became a single golden coin that he tucked into his robe. Blue lightning and green fire continued to crackle over his knuckles, and his face was still folded with fury.
“Full sails,” Coll cried at the top of his lungs. The knotted tattoo practically consumed him now, crossing his cheekbones, tangling down over his jaw and chin.
The Kraken gained speed, looping-the-loop down a Stream branch, in and out through the maze of tentacles. The Sheshefesh watched them. Its great eye was bloodshot, its surface scratched, tentacles drooping. It lashed out once, twice, but halfheartedly.
The sailors’ song faded as the great monster retreated back through the heart of the stream-tangle. The Knot of the Coiled Rope fell into the distance.
Ardent let out a deep sigh. He plucked the letter from Marrill’s fingers without a word and stared at it a moment before slipping it up his sleeve. “Well, then,” he said. “That was an adventure. And nothing left behind after all.” He brushed at his robes, tugged at his beard. “I suppose we now have everything we need. It’s time to put an end to the Lost Sun.”
The crew just stared at their wizard. Marrill wanted to say something to him, anything. About the Sheshefesh. About Annalessa. About how he had acted, how it had scared her. But she wasn’t sure what.
“Coll,” the wizard announced. “Set course for Meres.”
Coll looked down from the quarterdeck for a long moment. The inky ropes still swirled furiously across his skin. “I…” he started.
And then he flew backward, over the railing and out of sight.
Remy screamed. A young deckhand threw herself against the bulkhead as though she could still catch him. Marrill raced to the side of the Kraken, just in time to see a tentacle withdrawing, dragging Coll deep into the darkness below. The laughing voice of the Sheshefesh boomed up from the abyss.
“None leave but leave something precious entangled!”
Marrill’s mouth hung open. She looked to Fin, then Remy, then Ardent. All three wore the same expression she did.
Coll was gone.
You’ll say you’re free, but you’ll never be free!