A Curse of Krakens by Kevin Hearne

Author:Kevin Hearne [Hearne, Kevin]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Random House Worlds
Published: 2023-11-07T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

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“And that was all we learned from the island,” Fintan said, dispelling Gondel’s seeming. “It was a lot.”

I agreed. I remembered that Gondel Vedd’s earliest tales had been focused on the Rift and I’d thought it was kind of endearing, because becoming briefly obsessed with the Rift was a thing most history buffs did at one point or another, before running aground on a sharp reef of want—a want of primary sources. The records available were scant, and most everything one could read now summarized the same few scraps and then speculated endlessly. I mean, you could go visit the Glass Desert—that was an undeniable record that something absolutely heinous had happened a long time ago, with what had to be multiple furies and firelords—but the shining surface kept its secrets. To have the tiniest glimpse of an actual narrative of that time—from someone who had been there and yet was not exactly trustworthy—was maddening.

I expected that, after this, every history buff would revisit their Rift phase. We would be cross-referencing every detail of Gondel’s narrative with what we knew to determine what might be true and what couldn’t be confirmed. And I’d be asking Fintan to share any detail, however small, that he might have elided for the purposes of pacing in his storytelling.

Did I want to go the island and ask Sedam a few questions? Sure, sure. But it was a desire subordinate to the wish for his immediate destruction, because he was the reason so many of our friends, relatives, and fellow citizens had been murdered. I wanted a fury to raze the surface, the pelenaut himself to send a tidal wave after that to drown everything, and then a juggernaut to drop the whole island into the ocean. How’s that for a change of scenery, Sedam? Even as I thought this and a swell of rage was building in the city and on Survivor Field, I saw Fintan look back over his left shoulder. Following his gaze, I spied the pelenaut standing there. Fintan becokoned him forward and then he said, “Pelenaut Röllend would like a word.”

“Friends,” Rölly said, “I know what you just heard was immensely disturbing. It’s going to take a lot of time to evaluate and there will no doubt be some vigorous debate over how to respond. But I’d like to fish a few options out of the ocean right now. First, no one is going to Blight for any reason. Bryn and his sister have Sedam contained, and as you heard, he thinks events still might work out for him. One of those events is the second invasion, which we are going to prevent. And the other is finding the kraken in the north, which is going to prove more difficult than he hopes. The way for us to prevail, therefore, is to go forward with the plans we’ve made. That has to be our priority. After we stop the second invasion, then we can think about dealing with Sedam.

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