Maquesta fought back a wave of pain and groped out with her free hand. She felt the tentacle about her sword arm, and she fumbled frantically until she felt her captured hand and the pommel still held tightly within it. Grabbing the sword, she started sawing through the tentacle with it, trying to free her captured arm. The tentacle tugged more strongly, nearly wrenching her shoulder out of the socket, but she persisted. The tentacle tugged again, and Maq screamed, though no sound came out, only a stream of bubbles. She cut faster, and at last she was rewarded when the tentacle about her arm writhed away. Doubling over, she felt about her calf, at the tentacle still firmly holding her there. Again she started cutting. This tentacle released her quickly to avoid being severed, and she kicked her legs to propel herself away from the creature.
She felt herself rising, and she kicked harder. Maquesta knew that if this giant octopus was like its smaller cousins, it would be able to regenerate its rubbery limbs. But it would take several weeks, and she and the Perechon would be long gone. Her heart hammered wildly in her chest, the thundering sound filling her ears and increasing her terror. Her feet churned, and she felt out of breath, dizzy, but at last her head broke through the surface of the water and she started breathing air. She coughed, spewing out the saltwater that had been in her lungs. Blinking furiously as the light of the morning sun hit her full in the face, she turned about in the water, looking for the Perechon.
The anchor dangled from the ship, which was a little better than a hundred yards from her. As she watched, the sails reached the top of the masts and began to billow with air. Sheathing her sword, Maq started swimming toward the ship. No use trying to fight the giant octopus when she couldn't see it for all the inky water, she decided.
"There's Maq!" It was Fritzen's voice. "Wait for her!"
Don't wait for me! Maq's mind scolded, hoping Ilyatha was still reading her thoughts. If I reach the ship on my own, all right. But get out of here before… Her last thought trailed off as she saw a giant tentacle rise above the water and drape itself over the bow of the Perechon.
Panicking, Maquesta swam faster, taking great gulps of air into her lungs and watching as the sailors ran toward the rubbery mass that threatened to capsize the ship. As she closed the distance, the water began churning in front of her, bubbling like Lendle's soup caldron. An enormous, bulbous head broke the surface of the waves. The leviathan had risen, seeking to add another ship to its trophy collection on the sea floor.
"You'll not take the Perechon!" Maquesta seethed. "You can't have my ship."
The great beast seemed not to notice Maq, it was so intent on the ship. Waving another two tentacles in the air, it dropped them across the deck, one between the mizzenmast and the mainmast, and the other over the aft section. The giant octopus began to rock the ship wildly, and Maq saw Vartan and Hvel get pitched into the water.
On the deck of the ship, Koraf gave up trying to steer the Perechon. He drew his sword, grabbed a belaying pin, and rushed at the tentacle that lay between the masts. The rubbery tentacle had broken the railings on both sides of the deck and, like a snake, had begun to constrict about the center of the ship. The minotaur grimaced as he heard the wood groan in protest. Motioning wildly, he directed the bulk of the sailors to join him. Gathering on both sides of the thing, they began hacking on the leviathan's tentacle, cleaving into the thick tissue and trying to dislodge it.
Fritzen had grabbed hold of the tentacle on the aft section of the ship and was trying to pry it loose. His muscles bulged, and the veins stood out on the side of his neck. Wrapping his left arm about the tentacle where it tapered on the port side, he reached to his waist and his fingers closed about the hilt of his dagger. Drawing the weapon, he pulled it back behind his head, and then let it fall, stabbing deep into the beast's flesh. Dark red blood spurted out, making the deck slippery. It was all the half-ogre could do to keep his balance. Then the tentacle turned on him.
Releasing the deck, where it had splintered the wood, and leaving a gaping hole open to the galley, the tentacle rose up into the air. Like a snake, it came down and coiled about Fritzen. It picked him up from the deck and shook him as a baby would a rattle. The halfogre concentrated to keep from dropping the dagger. As the thing flailed him about, he stabbed into the tentacle repeatedly.
A great cry erupted from the leviathan's wide mouth. Fritzen and the others were hurting it! In anger, the giant octopus hurled Fritzen at the mizzenmast. The half-ogre flew through the air until his back soundly struck the mast halfway up. The wind knocked out of him, he plummeted to the deck, near where Koraf and the others had just managed to sever the tentacle that had been wrapped about the ship's middle.
The half-ogre groaned and shook his head. For a moment it looked as though there were two minotaurs, two of everyone. He shook his head again, and his vision began to clear. Stumbling forward, he fell against the tentacle and began pushing the severed part into the water. The stump that remained started thrashing about maddeningly. Koraf ordered the sailors to back away, lest they be beaten by the thing. As they complied, the flailing stump hit the mizzenmast, cracking it. The tall beam teetered for a moment, then the top half of it snapped off and crashed to the deck, pinning two fleeing crewmen, and covering the rest with the collapsed sail.
Tailonna and Ilyatha struggled against the tentacle at the bow of the ship. The sea elf hummed and concentrated, while the shadowperson struck at the rubbery mass with his barbed staff. Violet darts flew from Tailonna's fingertips, striking the tentacle and causing it to rear back in pain. As the tentacle pulled back, it struck Ilyatha, knocking him into the water.
Maquesta saw the shadowperson fall. Tangled in his voluminous cloak, he flung his arms about, but couldn't stay afloat. Maq swam toward him, noticing out of the corner of her eye that Hvel and Vartan had grabbed on to a section of the railing that was floating in the water. Panting, Maquesta finally reached the shadowperson and started pulling the sodden cape from him.
"I know the sun will hurt you," Maquesta gasped. "But you'll drown with all these clothes on." Letting the cloak and hood float away, she grabbed Ilyatha about the shoulders and swam with him toward Hvel and Vartan. Shouts from her crewmen on deck, and the cacophonous screeching of the octopus, filled her senses.
"Maq!" Vartan called. "We thought you were dead."
Maquesta pushed the shadowperson into Hvel's arms. "Hold him," she huffed. "I'm going after the octopus. If we can't beat this thing back, we'll all be dead."
She dived beneath the surface, breathing deeply of the water again, thankful that Tailonna's potion was still working. Maquesta angled herself away from the ship and under the octopus. From beneath its body, she saw its limbs waving wildly and noticed that two had been cut in half. Dark blood poured from the frayed edges. The creature's mouth was open, and its long, pointed tongue, covered with two rows of jagged teeth, wriggled back and forth.
As Maq swam toward its underside, short sword raised in front of her, one of the unharmed tentacles brought a struggling sailor to its mouth. She kicked her legs faster to close the distance, but the octopus stuffed the hapless sailor inside its beak, using its tongue to cut the man into bits before Maq could even discern his identity.
Maquesta closed her eyes for but a moment, not wanting to see the sailor's grisly end. Opening them slowly, she saw the octopus's beak open and close, chewing its meal. She thrust herself forward, slipping between a pair of tentacles and jabbing at the bulbous body from underneath. Again the octopus screamed, but this time the cry was louder than before. The leviathan pulled its tentacles away from the Perechon and started swirling them about its body in the water, looking for its attacker.