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

chain. Did Fenton speak true? The screaming fear in her brain abated to a murmur as time flowed past and nothing happened. She ran through her options; she could drift all day on the tide, waiting to see if it lunged at her or embrace the limited freedom available to her and swim.
    She picked up the chain and gave a tug. The kraken yielded to her and floated a tiny bit closer. She swam away until the line stretched tight between them. Again she tugged and again it drifted a fraction nearer. The whole time its eye remained locked on her, unblinking, but it curled its tentacles away so they didn't brush near her as they drifted. Her terror diminished as she experimented with her new captor.
    She gave a slow flick to her tail and propelled herself sideways. The enormous kraken allowed itself to be towed by the fragile connection. Little by little, she grew bolder and swam harder. She headed down, toward a reef that beckoned with its myriad of life and activity. She grabbed up a handful of chain seaweed, broke apart the bobbles and popped them into her mouth like a landwalker would chew grapes. A shoal of rainbow coloured fish darted and spun away from her. Eel slid over rock and turned into circlets as they dived back into their holes.
    Tension eased from her body, the kinks worked their way out of her tail as after weeks of confinement, she could finally flick and toss her fins without banging into hard surfaces. There remained an emptiness deep in her heart. She was thousands of miles from her family and a gruesome fate hung over her head as corporeal as the shadow of the kraken.
    She tried to relish the unexpected freedom Fenton gifted her and explored the reef. Amongst the rock, clumps of coral flowered in a dizzying array of hues; a pink that glowed, a luminescent blue, yellows in hundreds of shades to rival the sun. She skimmed over the top, her fingers caressing here and there. Bright colours caught her attention and she picked up shells and the occasional coin that had tumbled overboard, or perhaps came loose from a drowning sailor's pocket.
    Then the flash of a different colour caught her eye. She spied a deep blue of a subtle hue that shimmered in the diluted shaft of light from above. She swam closer to investigate; blue and green bounced up the rock and lit up the crevice. A shallow gouge contained an embedded object. She reached in and wrapped her fingers around it. No fish or shell but much larger and it felt cool to her touch and unyielding. She tugged but it was stuck, jammed on an outcrop. She pulled harder and it flew free, sending her tumbling backward.
    She caught the object and turned it over in her hands. The changing colour fascinated her the way blue ebbed into green. It reminded her of her own scales but magnified. On impulse, she held it up to the kraken. In slow motion, one tentacle flowed toward her. She held her breath and the smile froze on her face, had she done the wrong thing in attracting its attention? She just wanted to share what she had found.
    The suckers licked over the surface in a gentle motion. Then it pulled back and tapped on the plate with the claw the size of her arm. Kraken and mermaid gazed at each other as a faint ding reverberated through the water. Whatever she held, it was made of metal.
    The kraken's head swivelled upward and its mouth opened, exposing its beak and teeth as though it answered an unseen call. Then it turned back to her and waved a tentacle up to the shadow of the ship. It swam a short way and stopped when the chain pulled taunt on its limb. The round eye peered at her and it waited.
    Her heart dropped in her chest. Freedom wasn't freedom at all, her limited time was up. As they neared the surface, the kraken raised the tentacle holding her chain. Through the distortion of the water, she saw hands reach down and unwrap the cord. The creature looked to her, the lid came down over the eye and it blinked. Although they had no language between them, she couldn't