Death by drowning was much less exotic than death by kraken. It was almost an embarrassing way to go, as if your death was somehow your own fault. I’d fully expect the other dead people to say, “Drowned? Well, what did you go and do a thing like that for? Couldn’t ya find the valve? It says A-I-R on the side. Did you forget that apparatus under your eyeballs? It’s called your nose. You breathe through it.” Oh sure, I’d try to explain what happened, but I’d go through eternity being the butt of dead people’s jokes. My mother would think it was hilarious.
Fanindra swam in front of me, leading the way, but it didn’t matter. I started to see black spots in my vision. The surface was close, maybe only twenty feet away. I kicked harder and tried to suck another breath from my own tank, but it was no good. My lungs felt like they were being branded by a hot iron. The burning was intense as my body screamed at me to take a breath.
I would have liked to have thought my brain was dominant, that I could face the inevitable drowning serenely, calmly. But when facing death, the body reigns. A raging, wild need to survive took over, and I started clawing at my mask and gear like a berserker. A hand grabbed mine. It was Kishan. He was kicking hard and tugged me along with him.
We broke to the surface, and he held me close as I choked and gasped. Air rushed into my burning lungs, and I became a being wholly focused on respiration. For the next few seconds, nothing existed except the hurried rhythm of inhale and exhale. Ren surfaced a few seconds later and panted.
The weight of the disk must have made it doubly hard for him to reach and stay at the surface. When his head ducked underwater, Kishan swam to help, and I whispered for the Divine Scarf to make a double strap so Kishan could take half the disk’s weight.
The ocean was covered with fog again. The cold water had numbed my throbbing leg, but I could tell the injury was bad. It pounded like the thrum of distant cannons, muffled but dangerous. Kishan and Ren swam next to me as I turned in a circle looking for the Deschen.
Ren said, “Stay close. We shouldn’t be too far from where we anchored. We’ll follow Fanindra. Will you be okay?”
I nodded. He blew the water out of his snorkel and led me to the ship.
Finally at the yacht, Kishan threw his fins into the wet garage and scrambled up the ladder. Ren handed him the sky disk and then threw his own fins over. My limbs were shaking. I couldn’t put any weight on my injured leg. I threw an arm around Ren’s shoulder and slowly hopped up the ladder into the safety of our boat.
Grabbing a net, Kishan scooped Fanindra out of the water. She wriggled and gyrated on the deck. Her wide mouth opened and closed several times as if gasping for air. I sympathized, watching her body expand and shake violently. The skin around her head rippled and tore, creating a hood. Her jeweled eyes grew bigger, and the shape of her face changed. Soon the erratic fish-out-of-water movements ceased, and she was a golden cobra once more.
Nilima wrapped a large towel around me. Carefully, I leaned my head back against the wall and groaned. Ren helped her take off my equipment and set it aside. I gasped in pain when she touched my leg.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Kraken bite,” Ren replied. “I’m not sure how bad it is. She’s had it well wrapped since it happened.”
Nurse Nilima sent Ren for a first aid kit and Kishan to bring me a change of clothes.
While they were gone, she helped me out of my wet suit and wrapped me in a robe. She carefully undid the bandages to check my wounds.
“Your leg is the worst one. You’ll need stitches. What happened here?” She indicated the band around my waist.
“The kraken grabbed me with its tentacle.”
“Hmm … your wet suit probably protected you here. It’s mostly bruised, but there are circular cuts too, fairly shallow.”
“Suction cups.”
She shuddered.
A glob of green goo dripped from my nose onto my arm where I’d been cut, and I screeched in pain. It stung. She washed it off quickly, and the burn lessened. The boys returned. A blob of green slime oozed slowly down Kishan’s arm and plopped onto the deck. It didn’t burn him like it did me, probably due to his super-speed tiger healing.
Nilima stared at it. She said, “Both of you go shower now. The green stuff seems toxic. Probably some kind of acid. Get it off as quickly as possible. I can’t have you near Kelsey or touching her with it. It may not affect you, but it hurts her.”
The boys hesitated.
“Don’t worry,” Nilima assured. “She’ll be fine. The bleeding is under control. She’s safe.”
Nilima picked up the showerhead and cleaned the slime off of me quickly and thoroughly. She gently cleaned my wounds. When I was sufficiently scrubbed, she put antibacterial ointment over the cuts circling my ribs, had the Scarf wrap me in fabric bandages, and then helped me dress.
Next, she turned her attention to my leg. The skin was puckered and swollen, irritated from the salt water. I bit off a cry of pain. My leg throbbed sickeningly. It started bleeding again after Nilima cleaned it. I swallowed thickly when I saw my gaping flesh.
“Don’t look at it. I think it will heal fine but, like I said, it will need stitches. I need to get Grandfather for that.” She had the Scarf bandage me again. “Will you be alright for a minute?”
I nodded and leaned back on the wooden bench, closing my eyes. I imagined I could feel the venom of the kraken in my veins. My nerves prickled like I had little fire ants under my skin. I was tired. I nodded off then jerked awake at a noise. Fanindra approached me.
“Are you going to bite me? If so, I’m closing my eyes. Make it fast.”
I didn’t hear anything and cracked open one eye. Fanindra had curled up and rested near my foot.
“I must not be dying then, eh? Thanks for keeping me company. Still, what’s a bite of healing between friends? Don’t want to waste your golden venom, I see. Fine. Wake me if I die.”
Kishan returned a moment later, freshly showered, and sat next to me, taking my hand. Soon Ren, Nilima, and Mr. Kadam joined us. Mr. Kadam unzipped a bag and shook a pill into his palm, offering it to me with a bottle of water.
“What is it?”
“An antibiotic.” Mr. Kadam handed the bottle to Kishan. “Make sure she takes one in the morning and one at night for the next ten days.”
Kishan nodded.
“Now let’s see this wound.” Mr. Kadam told the Divine Scarf to remove the bandage and took a look at the cut. I kept my eyes closed this time. “You’re right, Nilima. She’ll need stitches. I didn’t think to bring sutures with us. All we can do at this point is keep it carefully wrapped, clean, keep her on antibiotics, and hope the kraken isn’t poisonous. Kishan, if you would carry her to her bed? She needs her rest.”
“Wait.” Ren stepped forward. “I have an idea.”
He explained what he wanted to do and Mr. Kadam looked at me. “Are you willing to try it, Miss Kelsey?”
I nodded, closed my eyes, and squeezed Kishan’s hand in a death grip as Ren commanded the Divine Scarf to stitch up my wound.
Everyone watched my leg curiously as the Scarf began to work. I gasped at first, feeling the strange pulling sensation on my skin. Kaleidoscope threads sharpened to a tiny point and slipped through the layers of my skin with barely a pinch, then pulled the edges of my skin together and tightened. In less than a minute, it was done. Tiny stitches ran down the side of my leg, making it look as if I was wearing a gothic pair of back-seam pantyhose slightly askew.
Nilima smeared antibiotic cream over the wound and asked the Scarf to bandage me up again. I gave Ren a smile, which probably looked more like a grimace, before Kishan picked me up, carried me to my room, and tucked me into bed. He brought me some aspirin and a glass of water. Obediently, I took my medicine and fell asleep.
Twelve hours later, I woke achy, bruised, and ravenous. Nobody was around, which was nice for a change. I sat up in bed and asked the Divine Scarf to remove my bandages. A ring of greenish-yellow brui
ses circled my torso and went down one hip, but the cuts had all nicely scabbed over. Hmm … the bruises should still be purple and the cuts more painful. It hurt but not like it had yesterday. My leg actually looks pretty good too, all things considered. It looked like I’d done a week’s worth of healing in one night. It wasn’t as fast as the boys healed, but it was still impressive.
I decided the first order of business was a shower. Clean, hair washed and conditioned, bandaged, and dressed, I emerged from the bathroom to find Kishan waiting for me. He carefully pulled me into his arms.
“How are you feeling?” he asked as he massaged my neck.
“Better. I think my wounds heal quickly here, just not as fast as yours do.”
Kishan brought me a tray with eggs, strawberries, a cinnamon roll, orange juice, aspirin, and an antibiotic. After handing me a fork he sat down next to me and waited for me to finish. Something was bothering him.
“Are you okay, Kishan?”
He looked at me and gave me a half smile. “Yes. I’m just—”
“Just what?” I scooped up a forkful of fluffy eggs and chewed, knowing he would take his time to answer.
“I’m just … worried.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll recover. In fact, I’m feeling pretty good now.” I smiled.
“No. Worried is perhaps the wrong word. Sometimes I think …” Kishan sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “It’s not important now. You need to heal. You don’t need to hear about my petty jealousies.”
“What petty jealousies?” I set the tray to the side and took his hand. “You can tell me.”
He leaned forward and studied my hands. “I think that maybe,” he said with a sigh, “that maybe you’re having regrets. About us, I mean.”
“Regrets?”
“I see how you and Ren look at each other sometimes, and it makes me feel like I’m an outsider. I feel like no matter what I do, I won’t be able to bridge the chasm between us or fix the rift in your heart and find a way to be with you.”
“Oh, I see.” I flashed back to when Ren and I fixed the star in the red dragon’s lair and bit my lip guiltily.
He continued, “I want you to feel the same way about me that I feel about you. But more than that, I want you to be whole and happy again, like you were in Oregon.” He leaned forward and brushed my cheek with his fingers. “I love you, Kelsey. I’m just not sure if you feel the same or if it’s even possible for us to be together.”
I quashed my guilty thoughts, brought his hand up to my mouth, and kissed his palm. “You know what the problem is? We’ve had very little alone time together on this ship and being in this realm of the Seven Pagodas doesn’t really give us much opportunity for romance. Why don’t we have a candlelight dinner tonight, just the two of us? You wear a tie, and I’ll wear a dress. What do you say?”
“What if we reach the third dragon by then?”
I shrugged. “We’ll improvise. We’ll play it by ear. Has Mr. Kadam figured out the sky disk thing yet?”
“No. He and Ren are working on it. We’re away from the fog of the blue dragon, but we’re at anchor until they figure out what to do next.”
“Okay. Then let’s tell Mr. Kadam we need the night off. It’ll give my leg a chance to heal more too.”
Kishan nodded. “If you’re sure.”
“I’m sure. If a girl can’t take a sick day after fighting a kraken, when can she?”
He laughed. “Truer words were never spoken.”
I was left on my own for the rest of the day, except for Nilima’s constant pillow fluffing. After a couple of hours of boredom, I did some research on the sky disk, which was similar in design to the German Nebra Sky Disk dated 1600 BCE that I’d read about in my art history class. The Nebra Sky Disk was a record of the stars and the summer and winter solstices, so farmers would know the right time to plant certain crops.
The blue dragon’s sky disk was obviously not used for farming. It had markings of stars and seven suns instead of the Nebra’s moon design. A path wound between the stars leading from one of the suns on the bottom to one of the suns at the top.
I flipped open a book to other famous disks and found the Aztec calendar showing the five ages of the world. Each day-sign of the calendar was assigned to a different deity. I thumbed through the pages but didn’t really find anything else that might apply to our situation.
Frustrated, I sighed and set the books and paperwork aside. My mind drifted to something I definitely didn’t want to think about.
It’s time. It’s time to really let Ren go and move on with Kishan. It’s not like I don’t love Kishan. I do. But I still love Ren too. I think a part of me always will. Kishan deserves my full attention. He’s probably sensing my inner wavering. I don’t want him to feel like that. I want him to know that I’m committed to him.
I had told Ren that once I committed to Kishan I’d stick by him, and I wasn’t the kind of person to play games with people’s feelings. I would stick by him. If I couldn’t forget Ren, then at least I could hide my feelings. I’d lock them away in a tiny part of my heart and never let them out. Drown them in the depths of the sea. Weight my heartache and drop it overboard, letting it sink into the dark abyss.
I wanted things to work out with Kishan, but I knew there was a part of me I’d been holding back. I hadn’t given him my full heart. I hadn’t loved him the way I loved Ren. He deserves more. He deserves better. It’s time for me to let myself love again.
I got out of bed and tested my leg. It seemed much better, and the cuts and bruises around my torso were virtually gone. After consulting with Nilima, we both agreed it was time for the stitches to come out.
She asked the Scarf to remove my stitches, and the threads gently pulled out of my skin. There was still a scar line running down my leg, but it was completely closed and I could walk on it comfortably now. I asked Nilima to help the Scarf make me a dress, and she whipped up a satin cocktail dress with capped sleeves and a scooped court neckline. It was gathered at the right side of the waist, shirred, and pinned with a black jeweled appliqué. The tight knee-length skirt was embellished by a ruffled length of material that curved over my right hip and draped dramatically to the hem.
My original thought was to make it blue, but I quickly realized that would send Kishan the wrong message. We decided to make it antique bronze instead, and the color turned out to be very flattering on me. It brought out my eyes and made my skin look nice. I had the Scarf make me some flat satin slippers to match, which featured the same appliqué as the dress. Thanking Nilima, I began to brush out my hair, and my thoughts turned to the evening ahead.
What could I do? How could I make Kishan realize he wasn’t an outsider? That I really did want this? Want him? I tried to tune in to the little voice in my head and ask my mom for advice. I expected something. She’d always been there before when I needed relationship help. Instead, I got nothing.
Thanks a lot, Mom. What? I’m trying my best here. It’s not like you’re around to help me with this stuff. Sometimes a girl needs her mother, you know. I paused in mid-thought and sent a mental reproof. You should be here.
I stared in the mirror while mechanically brushing my hair and then finally set the brush down. I looked thin. Pale. I had shadows under my eyes. Not exactly looking my best for a date, though I can blame my appearance on the kraken. I felt prickly … nervous. I had a knot in my stomach. Numbly, I applied my makeup.
Seeking inspiration from my now shoulder-length hair, I curled it and plucked one of the lotus blooms from Durga’s lei. I studied the flower and expressed a silent hope that she would guide me, that she’d help me get past my stubbornly strong feelings for Ren and give Kishan the love he needed. She was the one encouraging me to take the leap after all.
I swept back one side of my hair with a comb and pinned the white flower over my right ear. Its perfume did give me a sense of comfort. A feeling of peace washed over me, and I felt as if a soft arm had briefly draped ac
ross my shoulders, squeezing me in reassurance. Whether Durga or my mother, that feeling gave me a sense of conviction, a belief that everything would be alright. I slipped into my dress and had just put on my slippers when there was a knock on my door.
I was relieved Kishan hadn’t wasted any time. I’d been alone with my thoughts for too long. I slapped a determined smile on my face and opened the door. It turned into a genuine one when I saw how happy he was. He openly admired my dress and handed me a bouquet of silk flowers.
“Sorry they aren’t real. There aren’t any flower shops in the dragon realm it seems.”
“That’s okay. I don’t mind.”
“You look beautiful.”
“So do you.”
He did. Kishan was wearing a tie, though I didn’t really expect him to. He wore black slacks and a copper silk shirt with a striped black, copper, and gold tie to match. I stepped forward and smoothed his tie. He captured my hand, kissed it and smiled. His golden eyes twinkled, and he offered me an arm.
“How’s your leg?” he asked.
“Good. It’s almost healed. Another day and I should be ready to tackle another kraken.”
He frowned. “I hope we don’t have to.”
I nodded, and we made our way to the sundeck. The moon was out, and the sea was calm. It was beautiful. The dark sky was clear, and the stars were vivid. It was the perfect setting for a romantic dinner.
Instead of taking me to the dining area in the stern, Kishan guided me toward the bow of the ship.
“Aren’t we going to eat?”
“Yes. I set up a table over here. And don’t worry about us being observed from the wheelhouse. Mr. Kadam and Nilima are taking the night off. Everyone is below deck.”