The Sea Rises by A.J. Smith

Author:A.J. Smith [Smith, A.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786696953
Publisher: Head of Zeus

PART SIX

Adeline Brand on Nowhere

16

We’d turned Nowhere into a fortress. But a fortress against Eastron. Thousands of warriors could throw themselves at our defences and thousands of warriors would be repelled. Even if the Winterlords were somehow able to get ashore without drowning, I liked our chances of cutting them to pieces on the beach and driving them off at the barricades. But there were things we didn’t know how to fight. We’d held our own against the Sunken Men, destroying the Temple of Dagon and driving off their depth barges at Hook Point. The frogspawn had been devastating, but fire had seen us victorious. We’d even killed the Gluttonous Whip at the Bay of Bliss. But Alexis Wind Claw had conjured something new for us to fight.

For a minute or two we just stood on the cliff and stared. Three troop ships had struck the beach and three things had come ashore. They folded outwards from the relative confines of the floating wooden boxes, and wriggled through the shallow water, righting themselves on the rocks of Duncan’s Fall. Each one was a mass of flesh and limbs, glistening with slime. Thousands of human bodies had been fused together and somehow animated. There was a vile craft to their assembly, with legs scuttling under each mass, and groping arms creating an undulating frill. Heads and torsos completed the abominations, forming a bulky midsection to the three huge monsters.

“They’re Sea Wolves,” said Daniel Doesn’t Die. “From the Bone Coast. Corpses from the refugee fleet we were too late to save.”

“How are they moving?” I replied. “How are they stuck together and how are they fucking moving?”

“We need to defend the barricades,” said Jessimion Death Spell, his pinched eyes focused on the three abominations.

Along the cliff top, dozens of void legionnaires looked down, bows hanging loosely in their hands. Opposite us, the warriors of Ice on the other cliff were similarly stationary. I couldn’t see the barricades, but I imagined the stunned reaction was shared by all the defenders of Nowhere. No one knew what these things were, nor how they were even possible. Like Daniel, the astute might have recognized the fused bodies as Sea Wolves, but everyone else just saw three rumbling mounds of flesh, heads and limbs. Their legs propelled them up the beach, but they were not coordinated and appeared to roll as much as walk, flopping from one side to the other, before scuttling forwards. The flopping and scuttling moved them at no great speed, and worked in our favour, as everyone needed a moment of silence to process what they were seeing.

When that moment was over, I started shouting. “Listen to me! It’s just another enemy. Death Spell, Xavyer, your archers will open fire when the things are in range. Give the order, then accompany me to the barricades. Daniel, go and get the black dust. Conjure that surprise for us.”

“Adeline, slow down,” said Tasha. “Your wound…”

I looked down at my side, where Bjorn Coldfire had sealed the puncture wound, and remembered that I couldn’t fight.

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