Even in the blur of rage that subsumed him, Alexei thought it was probably unreasonable to demand a man focus while his livelihood was burning up around him. He redoubled his efforts to attack the pirate while his attention was distracted.
At the same time, Beka dived for the amulet and scooped it up triumphantly. She had prepared a spell ahead of time that she thought would negate the ancient talisman’s ability to control the beast. But before she could recite it, a huge bulbous head rose above the side of the ship, followed by two massive tentacles that spattered sea water on the ship below.
One of the pirate’s men shrieked as the tip of a tentacle wound around him and plucked him off the deck. The other thug took one look and fainted dead away, rolling slightly as the ship tilted from the waves caused by the kraken’s movement.
“Command it, ye swarthy bastard!” Red yelled at his remaining henchman. “Focus and command it to kill our enemies!”
Another tentacle dropped a rotting bag on deck, where it split open to spill out dozens of gold coins. Len glanced wildly from the coins to the fire and back again.
“Focus!” Red screamed, his face suffused with fury.
Beka held up the amulet and recited the spell, but nothing happened. A sucker-tipped tentacle waved through the air dangerously close to her head and she cast a wild-eyed look in Alexei’s direction.
Then he heard the sweetest sound in the world - Bethany’s voice, shaky but most definitely alive, saying, “Blood, Beka! You have to activate it with blood!”
He glanced over to where he’d seen what he thought was her dead body, and caught a glimpse of her propped up on bound hands, gazing in his direction. Then he had to duck out of the way of another flash from Red’s sword. He heard Beka reciting the spell again. This time anointing the bizarre talisman with some of the blood from the cut on her arm.
“Monster risen from the deep
Return now to your watery sleep
I free you from enslavement vile
And send you back to your exile
So mote it be!”
As soon as Beka spoke the last words, there was a shuddering vibration that could be felt across the entire boat. It almost knocked Alexei off his feet, it was so strong, and even Red staggered. The amulet dropped to the ground, inert, and the kraken sank below the waves without a sound, disappearing from sight as suddenly as it had appeared.
“You cursed witch!” Red screamed. “Now I’ll never find the rest of my treasure!” His eyes gleamed with an unearthly light and his form shimmered, expanding and growing until in his place there stood a gigantic black and yellow creature with leathery wings and smoke coming out of its nostrils.
“Holy shit!” Len said, gaping. “You’re a dragon.”
The dragon turned its head toward Beka and shot a great gout of fire in her direction. She ducked and rolled, barely getting out of the way in time, and another section of the hull went up in flames.
“MY BOAT!” Len shouted, practically crying.
“Oh, shut up,” the dragon said, and casually knocked him into the sea with one huge clawed rear foot. “Now, about the rest of you,” he said turning back toward Beka, Alexei, and Bethany. “Who wants to die first?”
Chapter 19
Bethany stared up at the dragon groggily. Hayreddin had hit her pretty hard, but she was pretty sure she wasn’t hallucinating. In which case there was a huge dragon standing over her and she was about to be eaten…or maybe fried. On the whole, she thought she preferred the concussion option. That would explain why she could swear she heard Alexei say he loved her. Either way, she wasn’t going down without a fight. She staggered to her feet, the hooked end of the broken gaff clenched in between her hands.
“How about me? I set your boat on fire. I’m pretty sure that means I’ve pissed you off the worst,” she shouted. “You big, overgrown lizard.”
Alexei gave a huge, bellowing laugh, whirling his sword in the air. “No, no, that won’t do at all. I insist on going first. I’m the largest. And the oldest, come to think of it. Kill me first.”
The dragon’s massive head swung back and forth between the two of them as if confused.
“I’m the blondest - kill me first!” Beka yelled. When Bethany and Alexei stared at her, she shrugged. “Hey, that should count for something, right?” She did a fancy figure eight move in the air with her own, narrower sword, and then bowed gallantly in the dragon’s direction.
“Or you could try fighting someone a little closer to your own size,” a deep, melodious voice said from above as a shadow fell over the ship. “Why don’t you try and kill me first and see how that goes for you?”
Bethany looked up and had to suppress a squeak as another dragon swooped down, so close to her head she could feel the breeze from its passage ruffle her hair.
The second dragon was smaller than the first, but still impressively large. His wedge-shaped head was a vivid royal blue that shaded down his body into an iridescent aqua and then deep green. It dove at the dragon that had been masquerading as Human, causing it to take to the sky in evasive maneuvers. Bethany held her breath as the blue and green shape ducked and wove through the clouds, shooting flames at its black and yellow adversary. It was though some primal battle raged for possession of the earth itself.
“Bethany!” Alexei said as he ran over and grabbed her up in a huge bear hug. “You’re alive.”
“OW,” she said as his welcome but over-exuberant embrace practically crushed her. “I’m happy to see you too, you big oaf, but you’re bruising my bruises.”
“Oh, sorry,” he said, dropping her.
“Ow again,” she said with a sigh from the wooden deck. “How about you help me up - gently - and untie my hands? We can congratulate each other for being alive later, you know, if we still are.”
Alexei glanced around at the flaming ship and at the conflict being waged overhead and gave her a crooked smile as he eased her to her feet. “You have a point. It’s just I thought, well, I’m glad you’re okay. When I saw you lying there…”
“Yeah, well, Hayreddin hit me pretty hard. I nearly passed out. I thought he was going to kill me, but then you and Beka arrived and started poking at him with pointy swords. Nice timing.” She rubbed her wrists.
Beka came running up. “Not to ruin the party, but I think we’d better get out of here. I’m not sure how long Chewie can hold Hayreddin off.”
Bethany peered up at the sky. “Chewie? Like your dog, Chewie?”