The Hollow: At The Edge Read Online Free PDF

don’t feel like getting
wet again today. Everyone knows what they should be doing, hop to
it, chaps.”
    Serrel made his way
below-deck, looking for something, anything to do that could take
his mind off the previous moments of his life.
     
    In the end, the
flotilla lost three ships, and many more were damaged. The exact
number of dead was still being determined. But the flotilla sailed
onwards.
    Dinner was a somber
affair. No one was in the mood for small talk. Even Brant was
silent.
    Serrel sat at the small
table and stared at the fish stew in front of him. He had no
appetite. In fact, he was off seafood for life.
    “That wasn’t natural,”
said one of the sailors.
    “Isn’t it your lot that
always goes on and on about how the sea is a cruel and malevolent
mistress?” said Brant.
    “Cruel and malevolent,
but that was bloody impossible. Kraken don’t attack like that,
‘cept in stories. They aren’t even suppose to live in these
waters.”
    “Maybe they’re on
holiday,” suggested Brant.
    “I’m sayin’ they
attacked us on purpose. Somethin’ made them do it.”
    There was silence.
    “They’re all staring at
me, aren’t they?” asked Serrel.
    “Not all of them,”
replied Brant.
    “We’re all thinkin’
it,” said the sailor. “Magic attracts things, like moths to a
flame.”
    “Things?”
    “Things,” the sailor
said ominously. “Bad things. Old things. Things that shouldn’t
be.”
    “Really?” said Serrel
sarcastically. “I didn’t know that. Did you know that?” he asked
Brant.
    “Might’ve heard it in
passing. Sounds a bit daft, really.”
    “You play around with
things you don’t understand, boy, bad things will find you,” the
sailor went on.
    “Oh, of course,” Serrel
turned in his seat. “How silly of me. This is all my fault. How
could I have forgotten...? Yes, I remember now. I summoned a load
of tentacled monsters from the depths with the express purpose of eating me . I distinctly remember now, writing in my journal:
“Today I shall be eaten by creepy, evil, squid-things ”. Sod
off!”
    “Not saying you did it
on purpose, boy,” said the sailor. “But-”
    “You,” came Caellix’s
voice. “Shut it.”
    The sailors all fell
silent, and turned back to their meals despondently.
    Caellix placed her food
on the table, and slid onto the bench opposite Serrel. He
suppressed a groan.
    “Eat up, Fresh Meat,”
Caellix told him. “When we get to the Faelands good meals will be
few and far between.”
    Serrel ignored her.
    She glanced at his
bowl. “I thought mages were eaters? Double rations and all.”
    “I’m not hungry.”
    “First time, was
it?”
    He looked up at
her.
    “That you’ve seen
someone die,” she said.
    Serrel shook his head.
“I was there when my grandfather died. That was bad. Today was the
first time I’d ever seen someone get eaten by a bloody sea
monster .”
    Just saying it made his
hands shake.
    “Me too,” said Caellix.
“But you know, Fresh Meat. Today was bad. But it is far from the
worst thing you are going to see.”
    “Thank you, Sergeant. I
am so glad you’re here to make me feel better.”
    “Was that what I was
doing? I doubt it. But for what it’s worth, Fresh Meat, you didn’t
do too bad out there.”
    Serrel wasn’t expecting
that. “You mean... when you tried to kill me, or with the
tentacles?”
    “Tentacles,” Caellix
clarified, chewing a mouthful of stew. “I could have stuck you like
a roast pig a dozen times this morning.”
    “Only a dozen? Look,
Sergeant,” Serrel said wearily. “I know you don’t like me-”
    “It isn’t a matter of like , Hawthorne. This is the Legion. We are warriors,
fighters. And if you aren’t, then you’re a liability. If you can’t
even defend yourself, then what good are you to us.”
    “I wasn’t sent here
to... to swing a bloody sword. I know how to weave. I am very good
at it. I can pull my weight, just not in the same way as you.”
    Caellix sniffed. She
picked