The Hollow: At The Edge Read Online Free PDF Page A

upright, and weaved fire again. The tentacle jerked away,
and retreated quickly back into the water.
    He looked to his left
in time to see Caellix hacking at the second tentacle with an axe
until it fell in half and lay coiling on itself on the deck. Then
he heard the ship’s captain screaming, and spun around.
    A second kraken was
attacking from the port side. Gigantic tentacles were rising from
the water, straight up into the air. They were almost as tall as
the ship’s mast. Then they dropped, landing on the deck hard enough
to break several planks, and causing the ship to bob up and
down.
    As they slid backwards
to the sea, one brushed against the Captain, and sensing him,
quickly wrapped itself around his body and pulled him along with
it. He screamed in terror as the Hounds and his crew hacked
frantically at it, but he was soon lifted from the deck, and
carried away.
    Serrel ran across the
deck, and reignited the flame from his staff. He weaved the fire
into a form hotter and fiercer than before, and turned it on the
next tentacle. Its flesh blackened and burned in seconds, causing
it to lash out in pain. The Hounds hacked and slashed at it, filled
it with arrows, until it slid from the deck and disappeared.
    When they turned back
to the sinking ship, it was gone. On a few pieces of flotsam
drifting on the surface and just over a dozen survivors flailing
frantically in the water. The Hounds and the crew pulled them out
as fast as they could, but could only watch as a red shadow rose
beneath the final man and dragged him under.
    Serrel looked out
across the flotilla, and saw that they were not alone in their
battle. Kraken had attacked half the ships, damaging several.
Before his eyes, the largest tentacles yet wrapped themselves
around one ship and crushed it in half.
    Slowly the fight wound
down, as the Legion fought off the attacking monsters, and the rest
of the creatures set off after the fleeing whales or settled for a
meal of their injured or dying brethren. Eventually, the sea was
calm again, disturbed only by the wreckage of broken ships.
Anything remotely edible was taken.
    “Gods,” Holly breathed.
She was deathly pale.
    Caellix shook her head
rapidly, and drenched Serrel for the third time. “I. Hate. The
sea.”
    “Yes,” said Serrel.
“You mentioned.”
    Snow was barking
orders, “Get those men someplace warm and dry. You,” he pointed at
one sailor who blanched. “You’re the captain now, correct?”
    “I... I don’t
know...”
    “No? Fine. You,” he
pointed to the next man. “I hereby dub thee captain of the good
ship Dragonfly . Congratulations.”
    “Yes, Sir,” the man
could only stutter.
    “Good man. I know
nothing about boats and ship building, so perhaps you would like to
take a gander below and make sure we’re still water tight and so
forth. See about patching whatever damage you can. And take a look
at this deck, it would be rather embarrassing if it were to
collapse on us now, wouldn’t it? Make us look like a right bunch of
ninnies.”
    “Yes, Sir.”
    “Off you go. You lot.
Might as well make ourselves useful. Set course for that vessel
there. See if we can’t drag any other poor souls from the sea. The
rest of you, try to look busy.”
    “Sir, I can help with
the repairs,” Serrel said.
    “Ship builder, were
you?”
    “Carpenter.”
    “Works for me. Good
lad, down you go.”
    “What’s that?” said a
voice.
    Everyone turned to look
at Holly, who was staring at the sky. They followed her gaze.
    The sun was dazzling,
but Serrel thought he could just make out something in the sky,
flying high above them.
    “It’s just a bird,”
said Brant.
    “It’s... big...” said a
sailor.
    “Is that a tail?”
    It didn’t look like a
bird, at least not like any bird Serrel had ever seen. It circled
overhead, around and around, then suddenly broke away and flew off,
heading east.
    To the Faelands.
    “I love bird watching
as much as the next man,” said Snow. “But I