VESKA SILMARA's Arc

Chapter 14 of 4

Veska had her harpoon now, but the serpent hid in open deep water. There it could grab the line, dive, and drag her under before she ever set a hook. She needed to fight it on her terms, not its own. She needed a way to make it come to her. So she went to find Velar, who owed her a hand after all they had hauled off the ice. Velar had a flat-bottomed barge now, traded for moving a beekeeper's hives. He brought it to the edge of Veska's channel without a word of welcome. Veska climbed aboard. "I helped you land your leviathan," she said. "Now you help me." Velar coiled a rope and nodded. "Trout line," he said. "We run it across the dark water. Bait each leader. The serpent comes to the easy meal." Veska saw it at once. The line would hold the fish still. The serpent would feed where she could reach. They strung a long braided line across the channel. Small leaders branched from it, each tied with a curved hook. Veska baited every hook with silkfin, the best eating on the moon. Velar held the barge steady while she worked. When the last hook dropped, they waited. The water lay black and quiet under the twilight. The serpent wasted no time. Veska watched the first silkfin vanish in a silver flash. The metallic body slid below the line and bit beneath the hook, gutting the fish clean. It took the second the same way. Then the third. Each time it fed below the barb and left the hook empty. Veska gripped her harpoon. "It knows the hook," she said. "It won't bite high." "Wait," Velar said. He did not move. The fourth fish jerked. The serpent struck fast and struck high. The hook found its mark deep in the glass-toothed jaw. The line snapped tight and thrashed. The barge rocked hard. The serpent twisted, trying to dive, but the hook held it near the surface where the line pinned it. Veska did not wait for it to drag her under. She rose, braced her feet on the deck, and drove the five-pronged harpoon down through the azure spine. The bone head split the scales. The serpent shuddered once, then went still in the black water. Veska held the shaft until the last ripple faded. The beast was dead. The channel was hers. Velar hauled the long body across the deck. He pressed a thumb to the scales, reading the flesh. "Good kill," he said. Veska pulled the silkfin from the remaining hooks and reset the line. Nothing guarded the deep run now. The legendary fish was landed before the rise with the tide, and no serpent would gut them before her nets closed. She had cleared the water. All that remained was the tide, and the great amount of fish it carried.