61 The Dyscovera

“Monster! Monster off the port bow!”

High in the lookout nest, Javian yelled with such alarm that Criston bolted out of his cabin. The Dyscovera crew scrambled to their stations or crowded the port rails, shading their eyes to see.

Far off in the distance, a knot of dark clouds hovered in an angry localized weather pattern that moved like a shadow, a sudden squall that could easily bear down on an unsuspecting ship. Criston surprised the men with his odd request. “Pull up the fish nets! Pull them up, now!”

Running faster than the others, Mia was the first to turn the crank at the ship's stern, and a couple of other men joined her to haul up the nets that trolled in the Dyscovera's wake. Instead of the usual day's catch of flopping fish, the nets came up empty except for a few strands of seaweed.

Criston paled, knowing what that meant. “It's the Leviathan.” He began to breathe faster with excitement, and he scrambled up the rope ladder to join Javian in the lookout nest. The boy pointed. “It's huge, Captain. And horrible. I've never seen such a thing.”

Criston extended his brass spyglass and placed the lens to his eye, scanning the knotted storm. In the murky grayness of choppy water, he spotted the enormous creature that had given him so many nightmares over the years.

“You've never seen such a thing because there is only one.”

Leviathan. The terrifying lord of the seas.

The monster's blunt, mountainous head rose out of the water, glaring at the world with its single milky eye. Its maw opened so wide it looked like a cave filled with mammoth tusks. Masses of serpent-headed tentacles thrashed about as the creature moved along.

On the deck below, Kjelnar glared at the distant storms. “This ship can withstand any sea-monster attack, Captain.”

Criston was not convinced. The horrific beast continued to swim away, accompanied by storms that manifested from its own anger and loneliness. But the Leviathan was not coming to attack them. Miles ahead, off the port bow, the monster dove to prowl the depths, moving toward the horizon. It had not seen the Dyscovera.

Javian laughed with giddy relief. “We're safe!”

“Not safe.” Criston handed the spyglass to the young man, who took a last look. “No sailor will ever be safe so long as that thing remains in the oceans of the world.”

Before dawn the next day, when the cook lit the breakfast fires in the galley, Criston knocked on the prester's cabin. “You have your anchor to carry, Hannes, your own tragedies in life. That monster is mine. Would you preach the story today? The crewmen cannot be allowed to forget what we face out here.”

In the lantern light, Hannes's burn scars were quite visible. “Each man has his own Leviathan to face, Captain. Yours happens to be the real one. I will remind the men of the evil that still lurks out in this world.”

When dawn broke on calm seas, the crew gathered to hear Prester Hannes. Criston stood close to Javian, who squirmed with the thrill of fear. Hannes had so much angry passion within him that he painted a story of terror and fury as he spoke, fascinating his listeners.

“The Leviathan is a creature of destruction, a manifestation of all the evil that Ondun was unable to eradicate from mankind. We can defeat the Leviathan and all it stands for by keeping our true faith. The enemies of Aiden are monsters as terrible as that one, but we can overcome.” He paused for effect. “Our captain has already encountered the Leviathan—and lived.”

As Criston listened, one hard and stubborn part of him wanted to face that beast again, to throw a sharp-ended harpoon into the center of that hateful eye, as Captain Shay had tried to do. The Leviathan had destroyed his life, killed his friends and crewmates. Though he had survived the wreck of the Luminara, the monster had ultimately taken away what should have been his perfect and happy life with Adrea.

But for the monster's senseless attack on the ship, Criston would have returned home to fight the Urecari raiders. He would have defended Adrea and their unborn baby, or he would have died at their sides. Either way, it would have been better. Now he was left without them. It was too late.

But he could look forward to another encounter with the Leviathan, a chance to repay the pain that the creature so richly deserved….

Hannes raised his voice. “If we must face the Leviathan, the spirit of Aiden will help our fight.” He grasped his pendant, squeezed it in his fist. “The most terrible creature of the seas can be killed by something as small as a fishhook!”

The Dyscovera's crewmen cheered, bolstering their confidence. The prester wrapped the men in his spell, inspiring passion and dedication. But Criston knew that no one could match his passion to kill the Leviathan.