A Malazan Book of the Fallen Collection 1

Religious wars are no fun. The faculty of reasoning that permitted surrender did not apply in such instances. Still, the squad was all he'd known for years. He felt bereft out of its shadows. Just Kalam for old company, and he calk that land ahead home. And he smiles before he kills. And what's he and Quick Ben got planned they ain't told me about yet?
    'There's more of those flying fish,' Apsalar said, her voice identifying the soft hand that had found its way to his shoulder. 'Hundreds of them!'
    'Something big from the deep is chasing them,' Kalam said.
    Groaning, Fiddler pushed himself upright. Moby took the opportunity to reveal its motivation behind the day's cooing and crawled into the sapper's lap, curling up and closing its yellow eyes. Fiddler gripped the gunnel and joined his three companions in studying the school of flying fish a hundred yards off the starboard side. The length of a man's arm, the milky white fish were clearing the waves, sailing thirty feet or so, then slipping back under the surface. In the Kansu Sea flying fish hunted like sharks, the schools capable of shredding a bull whale down to bones in minutes. They used their ability to fly to launch themselves onto the back of a whale when it broke for air. 'What in Mael's name is hunting them?'
    Kalam was frowning. 'Shouldn't be anything here in the Kansu. Out in Seeker's Deep there's dhenrabi, of course.'
    'Dhenrabi! Oh, that comforts me, Kalam. Oh yes indeed!'
    'Some kind of sea serpent?' Crokus asked.
    'Think of a centipede eighty paces long,' Fiddler answered. 'Wraps up whales and ships alike, blows out all the air under its armoured skin and sinks like a stone, taking its prey with it.'
    'They're rare,' Kalam said, 'and never seen in shallow water.'
    'Until now,' Crokus said, his voice rising in alarm.
    The dhenrabi broke the surface in the midst of the flying fish, thrashing its head side to side, a wide razorlike mouth flensing prey by the score. The width of the creature's head was immense, as many as ten arm-spans. Its segmented armour was deep green under the encrusted barnacles, each segment revealing long chitinous limbs.
    'Eighty paces long?' Fiddler hissed. 'Not unless it's been cut in half!'
    Kalam rose at the tiller. 'Ready with the sail, Crokus. We're going to run. Westerly.'
    Fiddler pushed a squawking Moby from his lap and opened his backpack, fumbling to unwrap his crossbow. 'If it decides we look tasty, Kalam ...'
    'I know,' the assassin rumbled.
    Quickly assembling the huge iron weapon, Fiddler glanced up and met Apsalar's wide eyes. Her face was white. The sapper winked. 'Got a surprise if it comes for us, girl.'
    She nodded. 'I remember...'
    The dhenrabi had seen them. Veering from the school of flying fish, it was now cutting sinuously through the waves towards them.
    'That's no ordinary beast,' Kalam muttered. 'You smelling what I'm smelling, Fiddler?'
    Spicy, bitter. 'Hood's breath, that's a Soletaken!'
    'A what?' Crokus asked.
    'Shapeshifter,' Kalam said.
    A rasping voice filled Fiddler's mind – and the expressions on his companions' faces told him they heard as well – Mortals, unfortunate for you to witness my passage.
    The sapper grunted. The creature did not sound at all regretful.
    It continued, For this you must all die, though I shall not dishonour your flesh by eating you.
    'Kind of you,' Fiddler muttered, setting a solid quarrel in the crossbow's slot. The iron head had been replaced with a grapefruit-sized clay ball.
    Another fisherboat mysteriously lost, the Soletaken mused ironically. Alas.
    Fiddler scrambled to the stern, crouching down beside Kalam. The assassin straightened to face the dhenrabi, one hand on the tiller. 'Soletaken! Be on your way – we care nothing for your passage!'
    I shall be merciful when killing you. The creature rushed the barque from directly astern, cutting through the water like a sharp-hulled ship. Its jaws opened wide.
    'You were warned,' Fiddler said as he raised the crossbow, aimed and fired. The quarrel sped for the beast's open mouth. Lightning fast, the dhenrabi snapped at the shaft, its thin, sawedged teeth slicing through the quarrel and shattering the clay ball, releasing to the air the powdery mixture within the ball. The contact resulted in an instantaneous explosion that blew the Soletaken's head apart.
    Fragments of skull and grey flesh raked the water on all sides. The incendiary powder continued to burn fiercely all it clung to, sending up hissing steam.