Free Ocean Of Fear (Book 6) by William King

would not let go. The screaming man twisted again and his shirt gave way. Kormak’s fingers found no purchase on his slick flesh and the man disappeared below the water.
    A few heartbeats later everything was still. There was no sign of the men who had vanished. Blood made the waters darker.
    “We were lucky,” said Frater Jonas. “They did not attack us as we crossed the main chamber. If we had all been in the water then...”
    He did not need to finish that thought. It was darker now. They had lost many of the torches and lanterns.  
    Zamara’s face looked ghastly in the dim light. Over half his command lay dead and he still had not caught sight of the man they hunted. The soldiers had a haggard desperate quality to them. They did not know what to do. They would have turned back except for the fact that no one wanted to get into the water.
    “Those were the children of the things we fought above,” said Jonas. “They were spawn!”
    “Yes,” Kormak said.
    “This is a birthing chamber then. No wonder they tried so hard to keep us away. They were trying to protect the place.”
    “Let’s hope the Kraken and his men suffered as much as we have on the way in.”
    “I suspect he was better prepared than we were. He had maps. He had old books. He had relics.”
    “He certainly spent a lot of time and effort to get here. We need to find out what for.”
    They fell silent. All of them were wondering what exactly could draw a man to a place like this.

CHAPTER NINE

    AHEAD THE RAMP led up through a great hexagonal archway, over which a green gem, the size of a human head, glowed faintly. The arch was perhaps three times the height of a man. Two grooves marked the floor. It looked as if two halves of a doorway had receded into the wall.
    Inside the chamber the floor curved downward into a bowl. A mosaic showing more images of Triturids glittered amid the stonework. Around the walls of the chamber, galleries looked down. This place might once have been an arena.
      In the centre a huge idol squatted atop an altar.   It looked like a Triturid: six-limbed, newt-like, with huge protruding eyes and a massive, neckless head. Its limbs were thicker and much more monstrous and each ended in huge claws. Even hunched, its head rose higher than Kormak’s though he stood on the ledge.
    Around its neck a balefully glowing gem hung on a copper chain. Blood splashed the statue. A dozen corpses in the motley garb of pirates sprawled around it. Something had shredded their flesh. In their midst a black-cowled figure lay. Something about the shape told Kormak it wasn’t human.
    “Looks like we found the Kraken’s crew,” said Frater Jonas.
    “Some of them,” said Zamara. “There’s only half a dozen corpses. He should have more like fifty men.”
    “If they didn’t die on the way in,” said Jonas.
    “That must be the Black Priest,” Kormak said. The black-cloaked figure lay nearest to the foot of the statue. A jelly-like substance soiled its clothing.
    There was no sign of anything that might have killed the pirates. If there was a trap, he had no clue as to its nature.
    “You think the Quan turned on its allies?” Zamara asked. “This looks like demon work.”
    Jonas snorted. “How would you know what demon work looked like?”
    “This was certainly not done by men, now, was it?” the captain replied.
    Kormak sought clues amid the carnage. The dead men lay in the depression in the stone floor below them. They were all on the mosaic, near the monstrous idol.
      “Where is the Kraken?” Zamara asked. “Where are the rest of the crew?”
    Kormak studied the galleries above them. No one was visible. There were no lights. Men might be crouching down behind the balustrades. If so, what were they waiting for?
      “That gem is probably what they came for?” Zamara said. He licked his lips.
    “And something stopped them from getting it. Something that killed those pirates and the Quan.” Jonas said.
    “There’s