Read Online Crystal Doors #2: Ocean Realm (No. 2) by Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta - Free Book Online Page A
Book: Crystal Doors #2: Ocean Realm (No. 2) by Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta
Read Free Book Online
Authors: Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta
Tags: JUV037000
Ads: Link
triangular fin cut through the water with barely a ripple. Vic cried out, “Shark!”
“Not funny, Taz,” Gwen said. “Anyway, we’re in a protected cove.”
A second shark fin surfaced closer to Gwen, out of her view. An intricate design was branded onto the side of the fin, some sort of magical symbol. Somehow the sharks had gotten inside the rocky breakwater barrier.
“Escape now, argue later,” Vic yelled.
Seeing the danger, Tiaret immediately thrashed toward the shallows.
Within a few moments six large aquatic predators circled the other four friends, who were too far from the beach. One shark streaked after Tiaret as she sloshed toward the beach where her teaching staff stood in the sand.
Gwen splashed furiously at the circling sharks, trying to get rid of them.
Sharif tried to break through the menacing circle. Two of the sharks shot toward him like underwater torpedoes, churning the water to a froth as they bumped him with their rounded snouts. Kicking out, he struck one, but as the shark spun away in pain, another one came to take its place.
Lyssandra called out for help, but no one was near the isolated area to hear them.
Tiaret reached the safety of shore, though the other four companions were trapped in the deeper water of the cove. She raced toward her teaching staff.
The predators weren’t in a feeding frenzy; they did not attack. Instead, the sharks seemed to be corralling the friends, preventing them from escaping to shore — as if they were being guided, somehow. That made Vic even more nervous.
With a wild yell, Tiaret bounded back into the water, swinging her staff. She struck one of the sharks with a mighty splash, smashing its snout with the round dragon’s-eye stone. She threw herself in among the circling predators, but fighting in the water was different from fighting on land. She couldn’t move as swiftly and smoothly as she expected; the water made swinging her staff sluggish.
Then something worse than the sharks arrived. Swimming forms approached like shadows, emerging to show hideous fishlike faces with smooth skin, large eyes, and spiny frills around their heads. They raised clawed, webbed hands.
“I should have known the merlons would arrive sooner or later.” Gwen glared at them.
Tiaret continued to thrash with her teaching staff. Using its pointed end like a spear, she injured another one of the sharks; but the angry merlons soon reached her. They overpowered Tiaret, seized the teaching staff, and wrenched it out of her hand.
One of the six merlons blurred his features, shifting until the face and body became recognizable as human: a handsome yet sneering face, dark hair, dusky skin, and cruel eyes. “Look at the little guppies our sharks caught,” said Orpheon, Rubicas’s treacherous former apprentice. He took Tiaret’s teaching staff from one of the merlons.
“It’s too bad you didn’t hit your head on a rock when you jumped off that cliff,” Gwen said in a cold voice. She and Sharif had chased the traitor from Rubicas’s lab to the edge of the island, where he had transformed into merlon form before leaping into the sea.
Sharif glared at him. “You were afraid to face us. You are a spy and a minion and a coward.”
As if responding to an implied threat, three of the sharks curved up to the surface like dolphins, splashing, showing their wide mouths filled with sharp teeth, then dove again. When the merlons hissed, their gill flaps opened like raw wounds on their necks, fluttering in the air. They extended their claws.
Orpheon said, “Take these two.” He pointed to Vic and Gwen, then smiled wickedly as an idea occurred to him. “In fact, take them all. That one with the copper hair, Lyssandra, can understand merlons. The other two” — he looked dismissively at Tiaret and Sharif — “may provide some sport. I don’t think the flying piranhas have fed recently.”
Merlons grabbed the friends with their slimy hands. Vic gagged at the strong
“Not funny, Taz,” Gwen said. “Anyway, we’re in a protected cove.”
A second shark fin surfaced closer to Gwen, out of her view. An intricate design was branded onto the side of the fin, some sort of magical symbol. Somehow the sharks had gotten inside the rocky breakwater barrier.
“Escape now, argue later,” Vic yelled.
Seeing the danger, Tiaret immediately thrashed toward the shallows.
Within a few moments six large aquatic predators circled the other four friends, who were too far from the beach. One shark streaked after Tiaret as she sloshed toward the beach where her teaching staff stood in the sand.
Gwen splashed furiously at the circling sharks, trying to get rid of them.
Sharif tried to break through the menacing circle. Two of the sharks shot toward him like underwater torpedoes, churning the water to a froth as they bumped him with their rounded snouts. Kicking out, he struck one, but as the shark spun away in pain, another one came to take its place.
Lyssandra called out for help, but no one was near the isolated area to hear them.
Tiaret reached the safety of shore, though the other four companions were trapped in the deeper water of the cove. She raced toward her teaching staff.
The predators weren’t in a feeding frenzy; they did not attack. Instead, the sharks seemed to be corralling the friends, preventing them from escaping to shore — as if they were being guided, somehow. That made Vic even more nervous.
With a wild yell, Tiaret bounded back into the water, swinging her staff. She struck one of the sharks with a mighty splash, smashing its snout with the round dragon’s-eye stone. She threw herself in among the circling predators, but fighting in the water was different from fighting on land. She couldn’t move as swiftly and smoothly as she expected; the water made swinging her staff sluggish.
Then something worse than the sharks arrived. Swimming forms approached like shadows, emerging to show hideous fishlike faces with smooth skin, large eyes, and spiny frills around their heads. They raised clawed, webbed hands.
“I should have known the merlons would arrive sooner or later.” Gwen glared at them.
Tiaret continued to thrash with her teaching staff. Using its pointed end like a spear, she injured another one of the sharks; but the angry merlons soon reached her. They overpowered Tiaret, seized the teaching staff, and wrenched it out of her hand.
One of the six merlons blurred his features, shifting until the face and body became recognizable as human: a handsome yet sneering face, dark hair, dusky skin, and cruel eyes. “Look at the little guppies our sharks caught,” said Orpheon, Rubicas’s treacherous former apprentice. He took Tiaret’s teaching staff from one of the merlons.
“It’s too bad you didn’t hit your head on a rock when you jumped off that cliff,” Gwen said in a cold voice. She and Sharif had chased the traitor from Rubicas’s lab to the edge of the island, where he had transformed into merlon form before leaping into the sea.
Sharif glared at him. “You were afraid to face us. You are a spy and a minion and a coward.”
As if responding to an implied threat, three of the sharks curved up to the surface like dolphins, splashing, showing their wide mouths filled with sharp teeth, then dove again. When the merlons hissed, their gill flaps opened like raw wounds on their necks, fluttering in the air. They extended their claws.
Orpheon said, “Take these two.” He pointed to Vic and Gwen, then smiled wickedly as an idea occurred to him. “In fact, take them all. That one with the copper hair, Lyssandra, can understand merlons. The other two” — he looked dismissively at Tiaret and Sharif — “may provide some sport. I don’t think the flying piranhas have fed recently.”
Merlons grabbed the friends with their slimy hands. Vic gagged at the strong
Similar Books
