Marina Dre's Arc

Chapter 5 of 14

Marina pulled Mia through the broken window and into the fog. They ran downhill until the trees thinned and the shore opened before them. Marina stopped cold. Between the cabin and the water lay bare ground and open sea. No cover. The moment they surfaced, the anchor men would spot them. She needed a distraction and a fast way across, and she had neither. A shape moved on the rocks below. An old man in a blue captain's coat, white beard, brass buttons dull with salt. Marina knew him. Years ago she had kept his name out of a harbor ledger that would have hanged him. Matthias Cordell owed her, and he knew it. "You," he said. His eyes went to Mia's tail, then away. "Cordell pays his debts. Tell me what you need." "A way past their eyes," Marina said. "And across the open water." He pointed a thick finger up the beach. A flock of gray-and-white seabirds huddled on the sand, packed close, dozing. "Loudest things on this shore. Wake them, and every watcher looks the wrong way." Marina grabbed a fistful of pebbles. She flung them low over the flock. The birds burst up screaming, a wall of noise and beating wings. On the ridge behind them, shouts rose. Boots pounded toward the racket, away from the water. "Now," Cordell said. "Go." Marina and Mia dove. The cold closed over them. Marina's purple tail drove her deep, and Mia swam beside her, quick and sure. Above, the birds still shrieked and the men still ran. Something large glided out of the murk. A manta ray, broad and gray, a worn leather harness strapped across its back. It slowed beside Mia and rolled one calm eye toward her. "He's tame," Mia said. "Bred for riders. He'll carry us." She caught the harness. Marina took hold behind her. The ray beat its wings once and shot forward, faster than either could swim. The shore fell away. The shouting faded. They were across. The ray carried them deep into open water, out of sight of any watcher. Marina let herself breathe. They had crossed. The men were behind them now, chasing empty ground. Mia twisted, searching the seafloor. "There." Below them, half-buried in sand, lay a wrecked ship. Cracked timbers, sagging rigging, a black hole torn in its hull. "We can rest inside. No one hunts a dead ship." The ray drifted them down to the wreck. Marina slipped through the broken hull into the dark hold. It was still. It was hidden. For the first time in days, no one was chasing them. Marina pulled Mia close in the quiet dark. Safe, for tonight. But the wreck was a stranger's grave, and she did not yet know what slept in its lower decks, or how far the men would follow once they learned the trick.