Free Heart of the Kraken (Tales from Darjee) by A. W. Exley

the nature of Fenton's trap.
    So dry. The beat of the sun tightened her skin over her form as it contracted in the heat. When the tension became too much to bear would she rip apart like the way the kraken cracked open her kin? Movement hurt as her scales rasped over her tail. Tears formed in the corner of her eyes as hands grabbed at her body. The pain increased as they pushed on bruises formed by lying in one spot for weeks on end, the abuse the crew of the Endeavour inflicted and her attempts to break free.
    And then… nothing.
    Until she slammed into something solid. The cry burst from her lips as agony ripped through her limbs, her delicate fins almost torn from her tail. Just as fast, a cooling balm wrapped around her and soothed the jagged pain. Cool water embraced her. With eyes closed, she sighed, her form caressed by a gentle familiar hand as she dropped through the ocean. Her body automatically switched from air to water and her gills pulsed in her neck, culling oxygen from the water. She stretched her arms and wiggled her tail.
    Home. The water spoke to her in a myriad of silent ways. The taste told her where in the ocean she was, the minute tug of the tide told her the phase of the moon, the pull told her depth. Like coral blooming at night, she revived.
    She opened her eyes and swam a short distance before an invisible force pulled her to a stop. It seemed to surround her and no matter how hard she swung her tail, she couldn't advance. She dived down instead, straight to the bottom until the same thing happened. At a certain point, her stomach lurched and she bobbed backward. Looking down, she found a silver chain wrapped around her waist. Her fingers could find no clasp or method to release it. It seemed delicate, only a hair's width wide. She grasped it in her hands and jerked and wrenched but she couldn't break the links. She wound it around her hand and tugged on the end trailing in the water but it did not offer any slack.
    Am I anchored to the Razor's Edge?
    She glanced around. The sun's rays penetrated the ocean and made drifting patterns that rippled. A large shadow hovered above and yet it didn't look right to be the ship. She frowned and swam toward it before she stopped. This shadow was as large as a ship but it undulated and like an echo, drifted beneath and away from the pirate vessel.
    Kraken.
    Her throat constricted and her heart pounded. She tore off in the opposite direction, swimming away. Panic lent her extra speed, but again she hit the end of her lead and could go no further. Tears formed and became part of the sea as she sobbed and tore at the circlet of metal around her waist, desperate to free herself before the monster struck.
    The creature formed as it neared, as though the shadow became substance. An elongated head tapered to a point with a small stabilising fin. The feeding suckers drifted on the tide, floating beneath its mammoth body. The head split off into eight arms of mottled grey, each as thick as a keg but twenty feet long, the point of each ended in a hooked claw. Pinkish suckers the size of dinner plate covered the tentacles. One held the end of her chain, the tiny links almost invisible against the nail, like a scattering of neon krill. The black eye rotated and fixed on her. It waved the end of the leash.
    Panic rose in her throat. A nail broke as she scrabbled at the chain but could not pull it apart. Fenton's words repeated in her head, I swear he will not hurt you .
    Could she trust a landwalker? How did Fenton control the fiend? Could he communicate with it somehow and tell the kraken the difference between friend from foe? She bit her lip trying to rein in her natural instinct to flee from the predator. She dared a glance and then looked away, although it seemed the beast held its position and did not advance any closer.
    She took one panicked breath and then another as she waited for it to attack. Another stolen glance and still it hovered above her at the end of her