Nakten’s jaw dropped.

  “Why would you—”

  “You think that thing is going to drop unconscious in an overlay?” Ether shook her head as she interrupted the Anubis. “Best case scenario, it sinks outside of the overlay, then it’s going to wake up and attack us from outside the range. She looked at Justia. “That’s something that really only works in a room anyway.”

  “What about bringing it into my Mantle?” I offered. “I could grab its mind—”

  “Does it even have a mind?” Fray cleared her throat. “Can’t you only do that to sentient things?”

  “It knows what we are.” I braced as the ship shuddered again. “That feels pretty sentient to me.”

  “I don’t know.” Justia swallowed. “If we try this and it doesn’t work…” She looked at the rest of us. “You could end up unconscious and not do anything to it.”

  “We’ve got to try something.” I braced against the ship again. Now that there weren’t any lizards on the deck, the Sea Dragon was ramming into the side of the ship more often. “Because that thing isn’t coming up above water for us to fight it.”

  “So your plan is to what, jump into the water with your Priestess and hope that you can touch it long enough to pull its mind into your Mantle, which you don’t have a Bequeathal Chamber, by the way, crush its mind in there all before it swallows you?” Nakten scoffed. “That won’t work!”

  “Then what do you suggest?” I shot back. “Because standing out here in the rain isn’t doing anything!”

  Her answer was interrupted by the ship rocking again. Once the ship leveled out, Nakten took a deep breath. “Have Ether hit it with a taunt and try to bring it up here to us.” She swallowed. “That thing might be called a dragon, but it doesn’t have any arms or legs or it would have dragged us below the water already. If we can get it on the deck, then we can kill it.”

  “That’s…” I glanced over at Ether. “You think you can use your targeted taunt?”

  “Not with it underwater.” She took a deep breath. “Mom got me Pull the Room, but I used it already, so I’m not sure that I can reach it until it surfaces.”

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  “Then we have to make it surface.” I stumbled away from the icicle as the ship rocked again.

  Ether dropped to her knees and pinned me to the deck as the others tried to hold on to whatever they could reach.

  “How are you going to do that?” Nakten scooted on her bottom over to the icicle once the ship stopped rocking.

  “We just have to give it what it wants.” I sat up and motioned at my waist. “I use Bind to tie me to the side of the ship, then—”

  “No.” Ether shook her head. “There’s no way that I’m letting you be the bait.”

  “It has to be one of us and you have to taunt it, so…” I looked at everyone else to see if anyone else would try to argue. “It’s got to be me.”

  “But—”

  “Just make sure you taunt it in time and we’ll be fine.” I gave her a smile that I didn’t feel confident in. “I’ve played around with Bind enough to know how to use it as a slingshot.” I nodded. “Plus I have Dash. Which makes me the best person to get away from the monster out of the six of us.”

  “We need Rix.” Fray muttered.

  “The whole reason why we’re out here is because we’re going to get her.” I held up my hand to stop her response. “Yes, I know it’s Pixie’s fault, but that doesn’t matter. All that matters right now is that we kill this thing before it finds a way to sink the ship we’re on.”

  No one spoke as the rain hammered down on us in sheets. The six of us stood there in the pouring rain as we realized what was at stake if we failed here. It wasn’t just our lives or those of the people down below, but also everyone who Rix was with as well, because if we died here, the Primus would have no reason to honor their deal.

  “We’ve got this.” I broke the silence as the ship rocked again. “We survived worse than this in Gar, in Wurn, and even in Mive.” I felt a little better as I remembered what we’d been up against in each of those places.

  “Actually…” Justia swallowed. “That was mostly just you and me.”

  I thought back. Of the people here, Justia had been with me when we’d broken out of the bunker in Gar, none of them had been there to fight the ghost of a God in Wurn, and Justia and Ether had been there against the Demons in Mive.

  “You’re all here with me now.” I smiled at them. “And I know we can do this.” I looked at Ether. “Are you ready?”

  “No.” My wife shook her head. “But we’ve got to do this sooner.”

  “Alright then.” I looked at the others. “Find something to hang on to.” I took a deep breath. “I’m going to go get that thing to surface.”

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