Page 72 of Silver Slayer

“Far enough that a warrior who believes himself safe can be taken before he draws a sword.”

Her excitement dimmed slightly. “Has that happened before?”

"For generations, warriors have vanished along Valose's shorelines. Search parties found their tracks ending abruptly atthe water's edge, with deep grooves cut through the sand where something enormous had hauled them beneath the waves."

Quin’s gaze returned to the churning sea.

“One warrior witnessed it happen. A squidlin's tentacle erupted from the sea and wrapped around a hunter standing several fates inland. He was gone before the others could reach him.”

“I refuse to go near the shore.”

“I don’t blame you.”

The smooth peaks of the eastern island chain eventually rose from the horizon, outlined against the brightening sky. Three islands emerged from the dark water, the largest standing highest at the center. Its broad upper field crowned a steep rise pitted with openings to the many small caverns beneath. Sparse vegetation clung to the slopes, no dense jungle or towering trees breaking the bare shape of the land. One of the smaller islands lay close enough to the largest that a narrow strip of earth connected them, while the third sat apart, surrounded entirely by restless water.

Quin sat straighter. “Is that where we’re going?”

“Yes.” I smiled at the excitement brightening her face.“For a time, it sheltered the Huren exiles and the females rescued from beneath the palace, the ones lucky enough not to have been taken by the Gretolics.

“Vallon said for a short time. The islands were isolated and easier to defend while the clans fought the Gretolics. The largest has many caverns beneath it, though little grows on the surface beyond a few hardy bushes. One of the smaller islands is joined by a narrow land bridge.”

I lowered our altitude and circled the largest island. The Caspeen Sea battered the surrounding breakwater, sending mist upward without reaching the field above. Faint paths remained cut into the sparse growth where the exiles had once moved between the summit and the caves below.

Quin followed every detail through the transparent hull. “It looks deserted.”

“It is currently,” I said. “We have the island to ourselves.”

I glanced at the console, then at the level ground outside. Pride welled in my chest. Vallon would have found no fault with my landing.

“Come,” I said, retrieving my sword, then opened the hatch to the wind and the scent of the Caspeen Sea. “Your surprise awaits.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

QUIN

The hatch opened onto a rush of wind strong enough to lift my hair from my shoulders and scatter it across my face. I caught the loose strands with one hand as I followed Vennox out of the bubble craft and stepped onto the island.

Salt struck me first, sharp and clean in the back of my throat. Beneath it lingered the scent of stone baking under the rising twin suns and faintly green from the sparse vegetation clinging stubbornly to the exposed summit. The ground beneath my boots was hard blue earth broken by flat slabs of pale rock, coarse grass, and low bushes shaped by the constant wind into hunched, twisted forms.

For several moments, I forgot to breathe.

The largest island rose beneath us as a low, flat-topped mountain. From where we’d landed on the summit, the slopes fell away on every side, steep and rocky, dropping toward the sea in terraces of pale blue stone that the waves had carved and undercut over time. Caverns pocked the stone below us, some no larger than shadows, others wide enough to have swalloweda house. Beyond the summit, the Caspeen Sea stretched in every direction, dark blue water rolling beneath the twin suns in endless, churning folds.

Light fractured across the waves in broken silver paths. Far below, water slammed against the craggy shoreline and exploded upward in bursts of white spray before sliding back between the rocks. The second island sat close enough that a narrow strip of land connected it to the one beneath my feet, while the smallest rose farther out, completely surrounded by restless water.

It was beautiful in a wild, lonely way.

Then I remembered the tentacle.

The image returned with brutal clarity: dark flesh lifting from the sea, curling high above the waves, rows of pale gripping discs flashing before it crashed back into the water. My appreciation of the view ended abruptly.

I took one step backward, then another, until my shoulders met something cool and solid. The bubble craft's invisible hull pressed against my back, reassuring only because I could feel it.

"Can the squidlin reach us up here?"

Vennox had moved several feet away, scanning the field and the sky with the casual vigilance of someone who expected danger to announce itself from any direction. At my question, he turned toward me.

"No." His answer came without hesitation. "Vallon said the shoreline is too steep and crowded with rock. The squidlin cannot swim close enough to extend their tentacles onto the upper field."