Zarah Voss's Arc

Chapter 8 of 16

Zarah stood at the shoreline with her fresh gill root in one hand and her woven satchel in the other. The plan was simple. Open many shells, draw many crabs, kill them where she stood safe. But she remembered the giant blue crab from the first dive. One shell had brought one monster. A dozen shells would bring a swarm, and the seabed gave her nowhere to fight. So she changed the plan. She would not fight below. She would gather down there and fight up here. She pressed a fern leaf to her mouth and breathed. Cool air filled her chest. Then she waded in and sank. The deep water was cold and gray. She found the pearl shells clustered in the mud. Their layered metal ridges caught the dim light. She pried one open. The luminous pearl inside glowed like a small moon. She dropped it in her satchel and pried the next, and the next. She counted eleven before the water changed. A shape stirred in the dark beyond the rocks. Then another. She did not wait to see them. She kicked upward, satchel heavy, and swallowed one last breath from the gill. The crabs came after her, sideways, claws snapping through the water. She broke the surface and dragged herself onto the sand. Her legs found solid ground.