In The Dark Of Dreams Part 33

Sajeev shot at some invisible target in the water, another and another-and then ducked as something sharp whistled through the air where his head had been.

Perrin pushed Jenny to the deck as a slender bone spear skittered toward his feet. He glanced at the engravings: a twist of narrow lines that flowed like the stingers of a jellyfish. Familiar marks, and they made him sick and angry.

Another spear flew from the water, followed by several more that came dangerously close to hitting him. One skimmed his arm, leaving a welt. He heard chattering clicks, and several shrieking wails that made the hairs rise on his neck. The boat rocked violently sideways-again, again-all of them sliding, staggering. Perrin feared they would capsize.

Rik crouched, digging his fingers into the deck. Golden light s.h.i.+mmered over his body, burning bright in his eyes. Eddie knelt near him, radiating waves of heat. Smoke drifted from charred holes in his s.h.i.+rt.

"Do something," Rik said to him. "Fry their f.u.c.king a.s.ses."

"I need to see them," Eddie snapped, but Perrin thought that might be a lie. There was a look on the young man's face that reminded him of times he'd been on the edge of doing something he knew was wrong-all that conflict and doubt, and fear. Fear that would become self-hatred later, if anything bad happened now that could have been prevented.

But the self-hatred would come anyway, from hurting others. Even the enemy.

"Eddie," Perrin said in a low, urgent voice. When the young man looked at him, he said, "There's no escaping regret when you're fighting to survive. You will always have to do something distasteful."

Eddie's gaze darkened. Jenny tensed beneath his hands, and A'lesander let out a bitter, rasping laugh.

"But you still condemn me," he said. "Oh, G.o.d, Perrin. What happened to us?"

Sanjeev loaded more bullets into his rifle, bracing his feet against a bolted-down equipment box. Perrin held Jenny tight and stared over her head at A'lesander. "What happened is that you fell in with a cult of fanatics. No wonder you killed Pelena. You wanted the Kraken to wake."

A'lesander hunched over his broken hand. "It's not like that. I needed something, and they had answers. Let me talk to them. They can taste my blood in the water. They know you've hurt me."

"I'm surprised they care. All they need to do is look at you to know you've got human blood in your veins."

"They need me. And they feel sorry for my . . . impurities." No mistaking the sarcasm in his voice. A'lesander backed up to the rail and looked at Jenny. "I know I've made . . . mistakes. But don't trust him. If you've got the kra'a, don't trust anyone."

"If you care," Jenny said tightly, "if our friends.h.i.+p ever meant a d.a.m.n thing, you'll lead whatever is down there away from here . . . and never come back."

A'lesander stilled. "Jenny-"

"Get the f.u.c.k away from me!" she screamed at him, and for one moment Perrin felt her inside his head: raging, raging, cut with heartache.

Hurt flashed in A'lesander's eyes, then anger. "We're bonded, Jenny. You just don't realize it yet. You don't even understand what it means."

Perrin glanced at Sajeev, who had stopped firing at the water and was watching them. "Shoot him."

A grin touched his mouth. He raised his rifle, fast-but A'lesander was faster, and threw himself over the rail.

Perrin didn't follow to watch. He crouched over Jenny, s.h.i.+elding her from the bone-spear needles whistling onto the s.h.i.+p. Her small hand gripped his wrist, and he met her haunted gaze. Hit, again, with the knowledge that she had been betrayed before.

A'lesander hadn't just hurt her body. He'd made her relive the past. He'd taken friends.h.i.+p-trust that came so dear to Jenny-and ripped it away.

Perrin curled over her, heart in his throat, and kissed her brow. He wanted to say something to make it better, but words died in his throat.

I'm here, he wanted to tell her. I'm here.

"They're slowing down," Eddie said, behind them.

Perrin did not relax. He had always been outnumbered in the sea. When his kind chose to fight and kill, very little could be done to stop them. Escape was the best defense, but there were few human vessels that could travel fast enough to elude the Krackeni. This was not one of them.

He heard a wet slurping sound, and turned in time to see webbed, iridescent hands grip the edge of the vessel, at the stern. Enormous pale eyes appeared, blinking wildly, silver hair pressed wet against narrow skulls.

They stared at him. Then Jenny.

There and gone. The Krackeni disappeared so quickly, they might never have been present at all-except for the wet hand marks left on the rail.

But Perrin's heart thundered, his vision contracting to dizzying p.r.i.c.ks of light. He had to force himself to breathe, stunned by the fear coursing through him. He had never been afraid of his own kind before his exile. He hadn't even been afraid of his father. Wary, perhaps. But not afraid.

You are not one of them anymore, whispered a familiar, dry voice. Perrin realized he was gripping the back of Jenny's head, his palm pressed against the kra'a. He tried to let go, but couldn't.

They cut your heart from them, the kra'a continued. You share their flesh, but not their soul.

But you are still ours.

And you do not fear for yourself, alone.

Perrin yanked his hand away, burned-mentally and physically. His palm was hot, and red. Jenny gave him a startled look.

"I heard all that," she said.

He grunted. "Stay down."

Jenny frowned at him but kept low to the deck as they shuffled to where Rik and Eddie were crouched with Sajeev. No more spears flew from the water, and the vessel's rocking motion was subsiding.

Perrin didn't relax. There was a certain irony to the possibility that he wouldn't be able to rest easy until he returned to land. If there was any land to return to.

If the kra'a has bonded to Jenny, you'll take it from her, A'lesander had said.

You'll let her die when you're done.

And if he didn't take the kra'a, the Kraken would wake.

You would kill all but one, murmured the sea witch's memory. And for that one, you would let the world die.

Screwed, he thought.

"Screwed," Jenny murmured, surprising him. "So screwed."

He stared. "Are you reading my mind? "

She blinked, as though startled, and looked away from him. Rik held one of the spears in his hands and studied it with distaste. "Makes sense now, what's happening."

"Yes," Perrin said, still looking at Jenny. "We have no name for the clan that spear comes from because it's not a real clan. Just a group of individuals with a common philosophy."

"Humans suck," Rik said.

"In large numbers, anyway. Some advocate for . . . population control."

Eddie's gaze filled with shadows. "So this . . . man . . . who was just here . . . he's working with those who want to cause a natural catastrophe that will wipe out humans."

"It's more complicated than that," he replied, wis.h.i.+ng he could be alone with Jenny, to speak to her about what had just happened with A'lesander. "The sleep of the Kraken, the waking of the beast, are living myths amongst my kind. The Kraken are not . . . monsters . . . to my people. They're not G.o.ds, either. But if there is a middle ground . . ." Perrin stopped, trying to find the right words. "Death and rebirth are part of the Kraken, and some pray for its waking as a time of profound change."

"Destruction," Eddie said.

"Remaking the world," Perrin replied. "The world, when magic walked. When men like you, who could make fire with their minds, or read minds, were more common. When shape-s.h.i.+fter clans were powerful and wors.h.i.+pped by humans as G.o.ds, or when the old winged kind, the gargoyles, ruled the mountains. A world where no one had to hide-except the bad kind, who always mask true natures."

Eddie sighed, rubbing his face. Sajeev was humming to himself, as though he hadn't heard a word. Rik turned to face the sea. Only Jenny looked at Perrin, and her gaze was unreadable.

"But it ended," she said finally. "You mentioned a war, once."

"There's always war. Some more desperate than others." Perrin's head ached, and he was suddenly aware, keenly so, of the hole in the base of his skull. "That's not the case here. Conspiring to wake a Kraken is one of the worst crimes my kind can commit."

"Not much worse than what you did," Rik muttered. "Or so I was told by the local dolphin pod that found me."

Perrin stilled. Sajeev said, "They're gone."

A'lesander will be back, he thought, not sufficiently distracted from his desire to throttle Rik. Though he got the diversion he needed when Jenny shook her head, gaze turning inward. "Someone is watching. From a distance."

She closed her eyes and rolled her shoulders, like something cold and dirty had touched her. "That's a strange sensation."

Perrin buried a dull ache of envy. "Hosting a kra'a requires years of preparation and training. You're doing very well, considering."

"What would be the alternative?"

He hesitated. "That depends on the kra'a. Some are more . . . forceful . . . than others."

Jenny frowned. "This one is pretty s.p.u.n.ky, let me tell you."

Perrin grunted. "So were its prior hosts."

"It's too bad Ms. Jameson can't control this . . . Kraken." Eddie peered over the side of the boat. His posture was more relaxed than his voice, which was sharp, quiet, and thoughtful.

Startled, Perrin stared at the young man, then looked at Jenny. Really looked, thinking hard about their bond, and why the kra'a, of all those in the sea it could have chosen, would have linked to her. A human.

"Huh," he said.

Chapter Seventeen.

Sajeev knew of a small, uninhabited atoll located a little over three hours west of their location. Nothing but an island of coral encircling a lagoon, with little vegetation and no freshwater. But it would help prevent anyone from ambus.h.i.+ng Perrin and Jenny while they were in the sea. Training.

As in, Learn How to Control a Sea Monster 101.

"You're nuts," she told Perrin, while Sajeev blasted Aerosmith over his stereo system. "Just . . . remove this thing from my head. Please. I don't want it."

"No," Perrin said.

"I don't care what Les said. He's full of s.h.i.+t. I know you don't want to hurt me."

They were seated on two plastic chairs. Perrin was busting out of his, one of the legs sporting a new crack that flexed wider every time he s.h.i.+fted. Jenny nursed a bottle of water and held the satellite cell phone in her lap. Ready to call home. Putting it off, despite how stupid that made her. Although, if Eddie had already contacted Roland Dirk, chances were good her family knew what was going on.

And, apparently, there was a helicopter full of mercenaries in the region that would be at her disposal if she needed them.

"Results matter," said Perrin, with more than a little bitterness. "I don't want to hurt you. If I remove the kra'a, I most certainly will. I think I might kill you."

"You lived."

"Barely. I was found naked on a beach in Singapore, bleeding from the back of my head, with my spine partially exposed. Disoriented. Sobbing my guts out. I couldn't speak a single human language. I didn't even know how to walk because I'd never used my human legs. Everything was bright and loud. Dirty. Heavy."

Perrin rubbed the back of his neck. "A man found me. Dragged me to a cab and took me to the Swedish emba.s.sy. I don't know why, maybe because I had the right coloring. Officials there took me in and gave me medical treatment. Sent me to Sweden, finally. I lived there for a year, just learning how to be human, before I went to the United States."

There was so much he wasn't saying. It would take a lifetime to pry out the details. Jenny wet her lips and tried to speak in a normal voice. "You could have stayed in Sweden. Why America?"

Perrin smiled to himself. "I once knew a girl who lived in that part of the world."

"Oh," she said.

"Yes," he replied.

"It's still stupid," she said, then clarified: "You can't possibly trust me with this. I don't trust me."

"I trust you," he told her, then, very quietly, "The kra'a didn't have to choose you, Jenny. It didn't choose A'lesander, after all."

"Well, he's a d.i.c.k," she muttered.

Perrin's mouth twitched. "He always was, though it was more tolerable when we were children."

"This has hurt you, too," she said. "Seeing him like this. Because you friends."

"I wondered what happened to him." Perrin's gaze turned inward. "I always questioned whether there was anything I could have done to change what happened between us. But except for giving him my life . . ." He closed his eyes. "It wouldn't have made him happy. My life was hard. Like being a human monk. Isolation, discipline. But there were rewards. Power over the sea. A . . . wider awareness of the world." He shrugged, shaking his head. "You seem to be displaying some of those gifts."

Jenny swallowed, pressing a hand over her stomach-struggling to settle her nerves. "Those flulike symptoms I had. I think . . . I think the parasite was making changes to me, then. Maybe it introduced a virus. I don't know."

"I didn't make the connection," Perrin said. "I was also sick right after the initial bonding. I wasn't . . . born . . . with certain abilities, which only came to me after the kra'a and I were made one."

"Was it frightening? When you were bonded?"

"Was it for you?"

"I didn't even know it was there."