“You will be rewarded for your efforts. Do this one thing for me, and I can offer you salvation.”
A trick. A trap. A game. There’s no salvation for any humans, not while the Protectorate has its claws in the planet.
I could scream. Why would he send his lackeys to tempt me with the same lie as last time?
“Liar!” I yell, wishing that I could glare at the dragon, wishing that even as I scream at him I didn’t have to keen my eyes averted with fear. “You really think I’m going to—”
The force of Ygdris’ gaze on my skin flares. It’s so intense I almost miss the change in the surge of swell beneath the kayak.
“Look out!”
Something smacks into my kayak from beneath. I fly backwards and get one glimpse of spiny grey teeth and black greasy scales before I hit the water head-first.
He’s trying to kill me.
I can’t see. Can’t breathe. Can’t tell which way is up or down or where my kayak ended up, and I need to get to my kayak I need to get my fucking harpoon because there’s a fucking sea monster in the harbour, and the water spins me around and—
Salt burns my eyes. I blink, and – oh God. The creature’s right in front of me, its body coiling over itself as it thrusts through a hole in the underwater base of the Dome.
Terror seizes my lungs. Half-thoughts flash like lightning through my head.
The dragon tried to warn me—
No, he can’t have, that’s the old you talking, the stupid you—
I’m going to die—
A monster, inside the Dome—
The water’s so thick with sand and muck that I can’t tell what’s water and what’s the creature’s scale-covered body. I aim at sliver of water that looks lighter than the rest and kick, hoping desperately that it’s the surface.
Forget the dragon. Forget my missing cray pots, and my pathetic past and the nightmares I know I’ll never escape. I have to get out of here.
I have to tell the others that the Dome isn’t safe anymore. It’s a piece of crap, useless against the storms, but the cracked and pitted base has at least kept us safe from the sea monsters that appeared after the Cataclysm. If one has made it through…
We’re all in danger.
My head breaks through the surface. I’m treading water at the top of a swell and have a split second to get my bearings before I’m swept into the trough between the waves.
A flash of red catches my eye. My kayak – it’s upturned. No sign of the paddle. I could reach it in a few strokes, but then what? I’d be a sitting duck. Stuck, unable to paddle away, on a bright-red kayak.
There must be another way out.
The Dome. Its drac-tech sides are solid, but the surface is pitted. Enough for me to get a h
andhold and climb out of reach before the creature catches sight of me?
God, I hope so.
I risk a glance down. I can’t even see my own feet through the murk thrown up by the sea monster.
It could be right beneath me and I’d never know.
My throat goes tight. I twist in the water and begin to swim for the side of the Dome. It might as well be miles away. Each stroke only seems to take me further away from it, and—
The dragon, Ygdris, is right in front of me, standing on a ledge only a few feet above the waves.
He’s beautiful. His skin is pale, the sort of pale that would make a human look sick, but it just makes him look more powerful. Like a marble statue come to life.