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Grog belched “Well, we haven’t got any choice, have we?”

“You old trout!” a voice came from belowdecks, quickly followed by a body—a woht blue wings Magadin strode across the ship to the Magyr’s tub, her gray eyes blazing

“I thought I told you to see et chewed to pieces?” she bellowed

“What? Look, this lot kidnappedat the scales of her violet tail “I was going to take it back, I swear But theyher bow and stern attached as well as I have? And besides, I hardly expected you to survive, did I? And dead women don’t complain”

Khaloud frowned “We fished her out of the bile half dead, but taking on monsters is a sacred duty left to us by old Tomomo—we pressed her into service, and she is with us now”

Magadin hooked her shaggy arm around the Djinn’s smoky waist “It is pleasant to be part of a crew, and notevery sail yourself Part of a crew and not a prisoner, not a o I died in the whale and washed up on the deck of paradise This is the best death I could have asked for, and I hope to stay dead for a long while” She sed, and there was no weariness left in the lines of her face

“Now that we’re all fa ourselves retched out of this beast?”

“An excellent suggestion,” the Saint said

Within a few hours, both ships had drawn back through the sea of bile, close to thehad stayed aboard the beast-rid and Snoere huddled close with the pirates Baleen hung in the distance like a glossy door, and they could hear the sea crashing outside

“First we must raise the monster,” said the Saint in a hushed voice “Khaloud?”

The Djinn drew a dark, curved bow back almost into the shape of a full moon, and lit the arrow from her belly She fired it directly up into the whale-turtle’s mouth—and for a moment, it simply disappeared into thenoise echoed through the h the waters to destroy whatever had troubled it

“How can we be sure they will hatch?” Snohispered, clutching Sigrid’s hand to calm her heart

The Saint looked grier fro to let theh now for theirl”

Grog hollered at Eyvind to drag her to the side of the ship and began to ss with hurled harpoons Every creature on the Maidenhead was slashing, clawing, cutting, crushing the eggs Khaloud flicked her fingers at one after the other, engulfing the crunch of it , and the smell orse, like overripeout of their shells—but then the roaring sound of thousands of wings filled the mouth of the Echeneis, doubled and tripled with echoes

It was the Saint who laughed first—and then