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.Royston gave a shout as he fetched up against the port deck rail.A moment later I hit him and grabbed the rail.„Be still! Hold the rail or we will both go overboard!‟He gasped something I didn‟t hear.I didn‟t hear it because at that moment the ship righted itself and we were hurled back across the deck to fetch up with a shout against the starboard deck rail.A hatch cover broke loose and surged across the wet deck towards us.I grabbed Royston and threw him aside, then jumped as the hatch cover smashed into the deck rail.The rail snapped with a terrible screech of torn wood and then I was falling.I caught a glimpse of someone falling beside me.A moment later there was the sensation of being kicked hard by something very large and angry.And wet.I was in the water, with Royston.And the sharks.My breath went as I hit the water.I tasted salty blood and the wet stink of predators.For a moment I was back in my dream, suffocating under a mass of horda.Then the freezing water slapped me to my senses.I clamped my mouth shut and struck out for the surface.I surfaced only a few arms‟ lengths from Royston.A black fin made metal by the moonlight cut through the waves between Royston and myself.The water was constantly being churned into a terrible froth by the thrashing bodies of the nearby giants.The ship was nowhere in sight.I swam towards Royston, hoping the movement of my body would go unnoticed by the sharks as they concentrated their feeding frenzy on the whale and the squid.„Leela! Help!‟ Royston was thrashing in the water, gulping and spitting salt water in gobbets, trying to stay on the surface.„I can‟t ruddy well swim!‟I came alongside Royston.„Be still! Be calm! You are making more waves than those two together!‟„But I can‟t -‟„I have watched these sharks - they hunt movement and blood.‟ I dragged a breath from the wet air.„We are not bleeding so they cannot scent us.Be still or I will kill you myself.If they attack us we are dead!‟A huge wave smashed into us at that moment.I felt myself dragged under the surface.When I came up for air, Royston was gone.I dived again, found him splashing feebly a man‟s height beneath the surface.I grabbed him and towed him upward.We broke surface among a whirlpool of fins.I tried to think.This was dangerous.There was no way we could escape from the sharks now.Even as I thought this, one shark nosed closer and butted against my side.I struck out instinctively, smashing my fist against the front of its face.It turned away but another took its place.And another.I stopped moving.Would the sharks be glutted enough not to bother with us? Or were they like horda in that they would eat whether they were hungry or not?Their continued attention suggested they fed like horda - whenever and wherever they could.I drew my dagger.It wasn‟t much but it would stop at least one of these beasts.When the next shark approached it did so much faster than the others, and from below.I caught a glimpse of belly and the mouth opening wide, then I let go of Royston, who promptly sank, held my breath, turned in the water and dived to meet the monster.More by luck than judgement, I twisted aside as it bit down on the space where I had been.I grabbed the fin as the animal surged by, held on tightly and repeatedly stabbed it as deeply as I could.Blood pumped out into the water.I was running out of breath but I did not dare let go.Yet the animal did not seem to want to die.I could not reach the head.My chest burned with the need for air.I was close to unconsciousness.I thought I could see Cryuni, swimming patiently in the depths just beyond the limits of my vision, waiting.Waiting for me.I was on the point of letting go and striking out for the surface when the shark jack-knifed, turning almost double to try to get at me.Acting almost without thought, I struck out at the head and was lucky enough to feel my knife plunge into the creature‟s unblinking eye.The shark jerked immediately, thrashing, dying.I let go and struck out for the surface in a cloud of blood.Other sharks were arrowing downward, homing in on the wounded creature.I broke surface, looked around for Royston.I found him clinging feebly to the shattered remains of the deck rail.The rail was covered in a tangle of rope and life buoys, and the smashed remains of the hatch cover.I regained my breath quickly.My skin was freezing, my eyes stinging from the salt and blood in the water.The moon had moved further across the sky.How much time had passed? Where was the ship? Had anyone noticed we were missing?Then I saw a sail black against the horizon, moving intermittently between the thrashing waves churned up by the whale and the squid.Tweed was too far away to help us.We were on our own.If we stayed in the water the sharks would make a meal of us.We needed some way of getting out of the water.But how? The deck rail was awash and would not support our combined weight.The life buoys were a help but only so far.The rope might be useful, if we had anything to tie ourselves to.At that moment a wave larger than most hurled us through the air.A black wall rose nearby, cutting off my view of Tweed.A breath of stinking water shot into the air with a wet scream.Blood-caked tentacles rose like a writhing forest against the moon, to fall, slapping toothed suckers against the black wall that was the whale‟s flank.I slapped Royston.I needed him awake.„Leela - what -?‟„Shut up.Listen to me -‟ I spat out a mouthful of water -trying to speak in this sea was to risk drowning.„We have to swim to the whale.Can you do that?‟„I can‟t swim!‟„It‟s that or die.Now go!‟I pulled Royston away from the deck rail, looped a life buoy around his shoulders and pushed him towards the whale.Then I grabbed hold of two pieces of splintered wood - one of which still held a deck cleat - and as much rope as I could cut free from the wreckage, and swam after him I roped my salvage to Royston‟s life buoy then, leaving the man himself to survive as well as he could, I dived towards the head of the whale.The head - and the squid.If my plan was to work I would need to separate these giants.That meant that one of them would have to die.I needed the whale, so it was the squid that I planned to kill.I fought my way through the churning currents, felt my heart pounding against my lungs, squeezing the air in them with every hammer blow.I grabbed a tentacle, pulled my way along it towards the head.The squid must have felt me pulling myself closer.The tentacles writhed, thrashing the water.I tried to move faster [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]