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So within seconds Gavin was standing on the deck of a new ski the scoops as he tried to assess what had happened

The flagship was still floating, one railing knocked off, huge scrapes across the wood of the port side So the sea delanced off the boat It had slapped its tail down again as it turned, though, because a few of the shies nearby had been swa into the water, other ships already heading toward them to pluck them from the sea’s jaws

And where the hell was the sea de on the decks--not shouts of adulation, but alar luxin down the reeds as fast as possible But the ski red-hot ha fast Gavin was accelerating and he caught the shockwave caused by such a h the seas The front of the head was a wall, a knobby, spiky wall

But with the swell of the shockwave helping hian to pull away

And then the crucifor that entire front haan sucking water in rather than pushing it in front of it, the shockwave disappeared abruptly And Gavin’s skimmer lurched back into the mouth

Fully into the mouth The open mouth was easily two or three times as wide as Gavin was tall Sea demons sed the seas entire The body convulsed in rhythhter and then opened wider, jetting water past gills and out the back almost the sa, shoulders burning fro his entire body, his entire boat across the seas Harder Dammit, harder!

The sea demon arched upward just as Gavin’s skimmer shot out of its mouth Its tetraform jaws snapped shut, and it launched itself into the air He shut his eyes and screa as hard as he could

He shot a look over his shoulder and saw the impossible: the sea demon had breached Completely Its massive body crashed back down into the water like all seven towers of the Chro into the sea at once

But Gavin was faster, up to full speed Filling with the fierce freedohed Laughed

The sea de even faster than before But with the skier He circled out to sea as the distant shapes of men cheered on the decks of every ship of the fleet, and the creature followed hi wide in case it headed blindly in the last direction it had seen hio, he left it far behind

As the sun set, exhausted and wrung out, he returned to his fleet They’d lost two sailing dinghies, but not a single life His people--for if they hadn’t been his before, he owned theod

Gavin accepted their adulation with a wan smile, but the freedom had faded He wished he, too, could rejoice He wished he could get drunk and dance and bed the finest-looking girl he could find He wished he could find Karris soht or fuck or one and then the other He wished he could tell the tale and hear it retold froh at the death that had come so close to them all Instead, as his people celebrated, he went belowdecks Alone Waved Corvan away Shook his head at his wide-eyed son