Chapter Thirty-Four: Pain and Betrayal

Kyosti must have been in the House of Wizards for hours at that point, but the snowstorm was still raging on as Kayla led him out into the main courtyard. Wind shrieked in his ears, and he stumbled. Kayla pulled him upright again. He could hear, faintly, people yelling, horses protesting, swords and spears clanging.

Someone rushed to Kayla’s side. From his voice, it was Sahyb. “There’s something attacking the docks!”

The ground shuddered again, a rumbling shock similar to a battering ram.

“Something?” Kayla quoted. “Be specific!”

Sahyb sputtered. “Like, I dunno, like a monster!”

“Are we talking HitherBlissery monster here, or something else monster?”

“Most of it is underwater, but it looks like a whale, or maybe a giant shark.”

A sea creature, like a whale or a shark? A quiet thrill seared through Kyosti’s heart. Kayla’s hand tightened on his arm. These were the kinds of sea monsters they were familiar with.

Galeon must have realized this, for he joined them only a moment later, saying curtly, “Follow me.” Kyosti stumbled on the icy ground across the courtyard to what he could only assume was the gate to the House of Wizards. “Have you any advice for stopping a sea monster of this size?” Galeon asked. “It’s longer than any boat we have and has already destroyed most of the docks on the eastern side.”

Both Kyosti and Kayla understood the significance of that statement. Although neither of them had been allowed to join the navy, most of the military fleet was stationed at the eastern docks. If they had been destroyed, that meant they would be left only with the army, which had little experience fighting on water.

“Can you tell me what this creature is?” Kayla asked.

“Reports vary, but nothing we’ve seen before. HitherBlissery we know. Sharks we know. Even the Queen of the Fairies we would recognize, but this---”

Out on the street, Galeon, Kayla, Kyosti, and Sahyb entered a covered wagon, along with a few other people Kyosti assumed were other Wizards. “From descriptions, I think it might be a kind of fish,” Galeon continued. “But I’ve never heard of a fish getting this big.”

Kyosti’s mind flashed back to the fish carcass he and Anglorae had found in the abandoned fort. That had been massive, but not bigger than a warship. Besides, it was dead, probably had been dead for a few thousand years. So, he didn’t contradict Kayla when she said thoughtfully, “I’ve never heard of such a fish either.”

About midway in their journey, a report came that the sea monster had switched targets. Having smashed most of the navy, it had entered the bay north of the Chithoobra and was harrying the fishing port in that area. The army was to meet them down there, but it was hard to marshall everyone in that cold.

This was bad news indeed. The fishing port was Chithoobra’s main source of food, and if the monster destroyed it, there would be a crisis in the city, especially now, in winter, when they couldn’t get much food from the outlying farmlands. The northern bay was fairly shallow, and also mostly freshwater, since a river from the west flowed into it, and a good portion of Chithoobra’s population had simply built their houses out on the water, on floats, all the houses connected to each other with a complex network of ropes, boards, and boats. Even a storm like this always sunk a few of those flimsy houses, let alone an angry sea monster forcing its way into the bay.

Kyosti’s apartment was also very close to that harbor. “My plants,” he muttered pathetically.

Kayla elbowed him impatiently. “And will the queen be there? Perhaps we should leave this one in the wagon.”

“What does it matter if the queen sees him?” Galeon said, his voice returning to its normally silky smooth quality. He’d calmed down, then. “If he won’t tell us where the knife is, very well. The queen can have him.”

When they finally pulled to a stop and exited the wagon, Kyosti was surprised to find he knew exactly where they were. Even in the storm and wind, the particular combination smells---fish, sewage, and saltwater---told him they were very close to the dumping grounds where everyone threw their trash. He lived close enough to here that he had grown intimately familiar with the smell.

“Can we drop by my house to make sure Rodriguez hasn’t killed my plants?” he whispered to Kayla. She didn’t even deign to hear him.

A commotion arose around them. Soldiers marching onto boats to meet the sea monster had noticed the arrival of the Wizards. At first Kyosti heard only the normal mutterings, but then---well, then someone must have recognized him.

After that, it took only a couple moments before Galveston found them. Anglorae was with her, and she rushed to Kyosti’s side with a cry. The Wizards made no attempt to prevent her, but Kyosti felt them close in on all sides of him as the queen stalked forward.

“I see you’ve caught him.” Galveston’s voice was cold and impersonal. “Hand him over to our soldiers.”

“And lose our only chance of stopping this monster?” Galeon countered. “You know as well as I do that Innis know more about sea monsters and fighting in a storm like this than we ever will.”

Kyosti ignored them. “Are you alright?” he muttered to Anglorae.

“The queen questioned me for hours about where some knife was, but I never heard of such a thing!” she whimpered. “They sent Sanji and John away, and I don’t know where they are.”

“Anglorae...Sanji and John were working with the House of Wizards. They’re both spies.”

She drew away from him. “No, that’s not possible! John would never betray me! And Sanji---you---”

He grasped her upper arms. “The House must have sent Sanji to wait for me around the Seer’s Camp. It’s possible blinding me was always part of the plan. And John...I don’t know how long he’s been working for them, but he was the one who told them I still had the knife.”

Galveston and Galeon sparred verbally with each other in the background, but Anglorae said nothing for a long time. “Kyosti,” she finally muttered, moving closer again. “I saw what’s attacking the city.”

He blinked at the change in subject. Kayla, who still grasped his arm, perked up. “What was it?” she asked. “Galeon thought it might be a giant fish, but I have never heard of such a thing.”

Anglorae hesitated, then leaned even closer and said in a voice Kyosti could barely hear over the wind, “It was that fish we saw in the fort. Or something very like it. It’s bigger, or perhaps expanded. But it’s definitely the same species.”

“You’ve seen this thing before?” Kayla asked. Curiously, she also pitched her voice so no one else could hear.

“Up in the mountains, at that fort that looks out on Tusu Nasala.”

“But nobody has been to that fort in hundreds of years!”

“It’s a long story, but Kyosti, what is it doing here?” Anglorae’s tone was loaded with significance. Kyosti understood what she was trying to say: at the time, the knife had held no importance to her. But now, everyone was looking for the knife, and the same creature Kyosti stowed the knife inside was here, at the city?

He reached out and patted the top of her head. “I’ll explain it to you later.”

“Do you know what this thing is?” Kayla asked.

“I don’t know a single thing,” he denied. “But surely even you remember how to banish a sea monster.”

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Photo by Riccardo Chiarini on Unsplash