23 The Kraken

MORE SALTED BODIES stood guarding the wooden entrance to the throne room. As they stepped through into the vast chamber, Threadfin couldn’t help but notice the array of machinery, all a variety of metals scattered about as though a gigantic child had abandoned its toys.

Within the centre of the collection, on a raised circular dais stood a throne made of bones. In shape, it resembled a sea monster from the depths of the Adalcis. Whether such a creature existed, the mage didn’t know though the effect of the skeleton’s form was intimidating. He thought perhaps magic had forced it into its shape rather than being a natural creature.

It also appeared the throne had devoured its occupant. He assumed it was Dessa’s father inside from the way she approached it. Her steps became laboured, face sorrowful.

The figure of King Haven Tone was difficult to make out through a miasma of swirling light. It seemed to Threadfin, spectralic magic had formed a prison of bone tentacles encasing a swirling cauldron with the prisoner at its heart.

‘So,’ whispered Threadfin to his Darken, as they followed her to the dais, ‘this is how he survived. If he’s alive in there.’

‘Dess,’ Pole said aloud, ‘how did this happen?’ The Atlantian princess halted ten feet from the dais, staring at her father. She held her hands stiffly at her sides. They’d left Grudge outside the doors, with Vilt and her bow further down the corridor by a window where she could see the canals.

‘It was me,’ said Dessa in a small voice. Her eyes were red, her face contorted in agony. ‘You don’t understand. He left me no choice. I built this. I built the kraken.’

‘You did what?’ asked Pole, seeming disturbed. He pointed at the throne. ‘Are you saying you built this thing?’

A warning rose within Threadfin, a swirling sensation within his rotten guts. He felt a fetid burp rising too, although it might’ve been unrelated. Something about this situation wasn’t right though he couldn’t explain it.

As Dessa continued to stare at her father, Pole edged closer to Threadfin and hastily whispered, ‘We can’t trust her, lad. This thing is what I got sentenced to death over all them years ago, and what ruined our marriage. We had an imperial spy try and steal it but, in the end, she made it disappear. Until now.’

‘Steal it?’ Threadfin whispered back. ‘It’s huge.’

‘Not the whole bloody thing, just the control device. You know, whatever it is what powers it.’

‘I was heir to the throne,’ said Dessa seemingly oblivious to their whispering, ‘but in the end I built my own.’ She gave a humourless laugh. ‘A throne to give healing and long life to its occupant. A gift for my father. I had long ago decided I did not want to rule. I wanted him to live, to rule Atlantis for centuries to come. When everything went wrong, I had to make ... adjustments.’

Threadfin moved closer to the kraken, reaching out with skeletal fingers, before recoiling. ‘You turned it into a prison.’ He saw the unchecked emotions in Podral’s face and knew another fight was brewing. He shook his head in warning for his Darken. This wasn’t the time. They had to get Haven Tone out.

‘I know you have magic,’ said Threadfin. ‘The astrolabe and now this. You possess spectralic power or how could you have created or used such devices? I am correct in saying only a spectral mage can use them, yes?’

Dessa stared at her father as though she hadn’t heard a word. ‘He’s still alive. If I release him, he will be as he was the day I ... did this.’

‘Well, what are you waiting for?’ Pole demanded. ‘Get him out or tell us how.’

She rounded on him, fury filling her reddened eyes, but in the end said nothing. Her face said everything it needed to.

‘Pod,’ said Threadfin, ‘she imprisoned him for a reason.’

‘If she doesn’t release him,’ his Darken argued, ‘you don’t find the Tower and the Grim descends on us all. I got that bit right, didn’t I? End of the world sort of scenario, yeah? Not to mention, the Grim hunts down and kills the girl, you know, the all-powerful nutty one you promised to keep safe. So,’ he added with a gesture at the kraken, ‘we get the old bugger out and go.’

Threadfin ignored Pole, knowing any type of magic sent the poor fellow into a frenzy. How did he ever become an undead mage’s Darken in the first place? I’ll have to ask him sometime, when he’s drunk and in a good mood, and there’s no magic about. He touched Dessa’s arm, turning her about to face him. He saw the pain writ deep on her soul and felt for her. What she’d done to her father had torn something from her. A piece of her humanity perhaps. ‘Why are we here, Dess? Is it really to release your father? I can see you don’t want to. I can see you’re afraid to. Yet you came all the same knowing that’s what we would do.’

She sighed. ‘Podral is right.’ She was wringing her hands. ‘Something I both loved and hated about him. He was always right.’

‘Never thought I’d hear those words from you,’ said the Darken.

‘Which words?’ asked Threadfin.

‘Well, I thought I heard her mention she loved me, or something. She did, didn’t she?’

Dessa ignored him. ‘Without my father you won’t find the Tower. I was never in Zalanthya but he was. I must go through with this.’

Threadfin paused for a moment. Something in the way she said that last bit concerned him. ‘What was he doing in Zalanthya and why did you imprison him at all? The two are related, aren’t they? Dess, what happened?’

She pulled away from him and reached out to touch a bone tentacle. ‘Put simply, we Atlantians learned how to create devices, which made our lives easier. Devices powered by magic were best of all and those were a secret we protected with our lives. What we are known for throughout the world are trinkets, pale comparisons. We could never sell our true inventions lest the world get greedy and destroy us. Our true creations, therefore, we kept hidden. We used those devices to protect the island and this city.’

‘Are any of them still here?’ Podral asked as he circled the kraken examining the metallic objects littering the chamber. All the while, he kept a hand near the hilt of his sword. ‘Do they still work?’

Threadfin understood what concerned him. If those creations had destroyed the city, were they in danger now? After all, the kraken appeared to be working.

‘I don’t know,’ said the princess. ‘I don’t think so. I mean, everything was destroyed and without Atlantians to maintain and provide magic, they cannot function. No ordinary spectral mage could do what we do. It takes decades of practice with serious consequences for mistakes.

‘Atlantians have died studying our craft. We are not mages in the sense you understand. Our magic is tied to our inventions. We cannot use one without the other. In fact, there are no Atlantian mages as you would understand the term, just inventors.’

‘Dess,’ Threadfin said, his tone stern. ‘You suggested before that your father destroyed Atlantis.’

‘I didn’t suggest.’

‘We’re here to get him out.’

‘This journey was your idea, not mine. You came to me.’

The viral nodded, feeling more apprehensive than before. ‘True, but because I need to find the Tower, not to release a psychotic king who might destroy the world. Isn’t there a better way of going about this? Did he not draw a map or something?’

She grimaced. ‘All Atlantians are descended from Zalanthians. We’ve kept our bloodlines pure. Our legends speak of an ancient power. With it, we would come to rule the world. My father thought he could find it and bring the prophecy to pass. He believed the rest of the world could be just like Atlantis, with him at its heart, ruling it all. King of the world, I guess. Can you imagine such a thing? Yes, madness.’

‘Instead,’ said Pole, ‘he went and discovered the Tower of Babel, didn’t he?’ The Darken’s temple vein appeared to be throbbing again. He didn’t look happy, as he kept one eye on Dessa, the kraken, and a spare one for the strange metallic machines.

Keeps that up, thought Threadfin, and he’ll go cross-eyed, but he knew his friend was feeling what he did. Something was wrong and the kraken was the source of the wrongness.

‘He found exactly what he’d been looking for,’ said Dessa. ‘He found the doorway to Hell’s Teeth and the Grim waiting behind it.’

‘Oh,’ said Threadfin tapping a horn on his chin. ‘So just a regular old power-hungry king, who got a bit over ambitious, and almost let the Grim loose.’

‘Seriously,’ said Pole, ‘can we just let him out and get going?’

‘You didn’t know him,’ Dessa snapped at the mage. She caressed the stone, staring into the light at her father. ‘He was a good man, who wanted to bring peace and happiness to the world. If he had been successful, why shouldn’t he have ruled it? There could be worse outcomes.’

‘I can think of lots of reasons,’ said Threadfin. ‘For one, good intentions are never enough.’

‘Well, what happened then?’ asked Pole, with a warning looking for the mage that they needed to hurry.

‘The Grim gained control of my father’s mind,’ said the princess. ‘He tried to use him to raise Babel. Not in Zalanthya but here, in Atlantis.’

‘The Grim planned to take the throne of Atlantis?’ asked Threadfin. ‘Of course, an island cut off from the rest of the world. No one would have noticed his return. Until it was too late.’

Dessa’s cheeks were wet, her eyes red. ‘My father went insane, and used his magic to destroy the entire island and to murder everyone. Some escaped, millions perished. At first, it began in simple ways with imprisonments and executions for no reason, but it escalated fast. He became a tyrant, and the only one who could get close to him was me. I was the one he trusted. Once I learned what was happening and why ...’ She let out a sob.

Pole was holding her and she laid her head on his shoulder. ‘You didn’t have a choice,’ he whispered. ‘If you hadn’t done something, more than just Atlantis would’ve been destroyed.’

‘He’s right,’ Threadfin said. ‘You did what you had to. It’s all any of us can do.’

She lifted her head and shoved Pole away, wiping at her eyes. ‘Don’t you two get it? I acted too late. By the time I had imprisoned him within the kraken, everyone was dead. I fled like a coward. I don’t care about the rest of the world. Atlantis was my home.’

‘What will happen if you release him?’ asked Pole.

She began to pace rubbing her forehead. ‘I don’t know, but I was hoping ...’ she stopped and glanced at Threadfin.

Ah, I see, he thought. She thinks I can control him, stop him from doing anything dangerous. Keep him unconscious maybe. He’s a spectral mage after all, no matter what she says about their magic, and insane to boot. Piece of cake.

‘Alright,’ he said, as he stepped up to the kraken and placed both hands on it. ‘How do we switch this bloody thing off then?’