Maren Goldweaver's Arc

Chapter 18 of 42

The big man shoved Maren up the stair ahead of Miller. Wind hit her face. The deck rolled under her boots. Two guards held Gisela and Kato near the mast, both bound at the wrists like her. Kato's lip was split. Gisela stood straight, eyes fixed on the cage set down beside Kazuki. The cage was iron, low, meant for a dog. Inside, the winged leopard cub lay on its side. Its ribs moved in shallow pulls. One wing twitched. Kazuki crouched beside the bars. "Wake up," he said. He rapped the metal with the flat of his knife. The cub's eyes opened. It saw Kazuki first and flinched back against the far bars. Then it saw Maren. A thin whine came out of it. Blood ran from the cut on Maren's forearm down her fingers and pattered on the deck. Miller stood beside her, his own wrist wound soaking his sleeve. He was pale. His shoulders had begun to sway. "Untie us," Maren said quietly, over her shoulder to Gisela. "Any way you can." "Working," Gisela said. Her fingers moved behind her back, small and quick. Inside the cage the cub gathered itself. Its head came up. It looked past Kazuki, past the mast, out to open water. Then it opened its mouth and roared. The sound was not a cub's sound. It hit the deck like a struck bell. Every guard flinched. Kazuki swore and slammed the flat of his hand against the cage. "Shut it up," he snapped. A guard turned toward the bars. Maren watched the horizon instead. A dark line was rising out of the flat sea. It grew as she looked. Not a wave yet. Something under the wave. A back, gray and long, breaking the surface far off and rolling under again. "Miller," she said. "Look east." Miller lifted his head. His eyes found the line. "Wave," he said. Kato saw it too. "That's coming here." The swell rose. It kept rising. It climbed above the mast height in the distance and rushed toward them, a wall of green water pushed by something enormous underneath. "Gisela," Maren said. "Now." "Almost." Kazuki turned from the cage and saw the wave. His face changed. He shouted for the helm. The guards let go of Gisela and Kato and ran for lines. Gisela's rope dropped from her wrists. She lunged for Maren, fingers already picking. "Hold still." The rope loosened. Maren pulled her hands free and tore at Miller's knots. Kato worked his own against a cleat. The wave was close enough now that Maren could see spray tearing off its crest. "Cage," Miller said through his teeth. "Get the cage." Maren dropped beside the bars. The cub pressed its nose to her hand. She yanked at the pin on the door. The wave hit.