Velar Tidemark's Arc

Chapter 14 of 6

The leviathan lay half on the shore, half in the black water. Velar grabbed its tail fin and pulled. His soft soles slid on the ice. The beast did not move a hair's width. It was longer than his barge and heavier than ten frost elk. If it stayed in the water, the cold would not save the meat. The flesh would sour before the village could carry a single basket home. He had killed the thing. Now he could not land it. Veska stepped off the barge and crouched by the carcass. She pressed her palm against a charcoal plate, then looked at the water lapping its belly. "Too heavy for two," she said. "The channel will rot it from below." "Then we need more hands," Velar said. "We don't have more hands. We have the tide." She pointed at the water line, higher now against the stones. "It's still rising. Wait for the peak. Then we only drag the last of it." Velar understood. The frost tide would lift the beast for them. He fetched his coiled rope and looped it twice around the leviathan's tail. Veska threaded her spear shaft through the loop for a brace. They waited while the water climbed the carcass. The crimson channels along its flank had gone dark and cold. When the tide touched its highest mark, the beast floated a hand's breadth free of the stones. "Now," Veska said. They hauled together. Velar leaned his whole weight back. The low gravity lightened the lifted bulk, and the carcass slid. It scraped up the shore a body's length, then two. The water released it with a sucking pull. They dragged it clear of the channel onto dry, frost-crusted rock. The meat was saved. Velar dropped the rope and breathed hard. The beast lay whole on dry ground, enough food for the whole settlement through the famine. He had chased this creature across broken boats and lost gear and twelve cold cycles. Now it was done. He turned to Veska. Her chest heaved. Her skin flickered pale green with effort, the muted color of a fisher who did not often let her glow show. Something broke loose in him. Velar stepped forward and kissed her on the lips. He felt her stiffen, then her shoulders dropped and loosened under his hands. She did not pull away. He went down on one knee on the cold stone. "Marry me, Veska." She looked at him a long moment. Her filaments rippled. "I have wanted this for many cycles," she said. "Yes." Velar stood and held her. Behind them the leviathan waited on the rock, dark and still. The meat was secure, but the beast was far too large to butcher and carry alone. The village would need to be called, and the carcass cut down before the next tide rose to claim it back.