Call of Kerberos: Twilight of Kerberos, The - Jonathan Oliver Page 0,45

water he was surrounded by the music of thousands upon thousands of voices.

There was the blast of what sounded like a full church chorus as a shoal of shimmering gemfish exploded around him, their harmony changing with each turn of their glittering mass through the dark waters. Then there were the longer notes of the larger creatures; the passing of a ray sounding like a bow being slowly drawn across the strings of a cello; the flash and dart of a marlin like the hollow musical breaths played on a sailor's conch. And then further down - much further - the great bass notes of the vast creatures that moved along the sea bed.

"There. Call to them Silus."

For a second Silus seemed to expand until he was the ocean and he called out to the leviathans that moved through the depths. The voices that surrounded him fell silent as he waited for a response, as though those smaller creatures were waiting with Silus. And then there was a great bass rumble as a leviathan responded and began to move towards him.

"Yes, yes. I have it!"

"That's right Silus, now bring him towards the Llothriall."

Silus couldn't see the creature yet, but he could certainly sense it moving in the darkness, building up momentum as it rose towards the surface. He retreated before it, feeling the pull of his body as he rushed back towards the ship.

When he snapped back inside his head he turned to look at Kelos and there was triumph in his eyes.

"It's coming."

"Excellent. We can use the creature to guide us towards the nearest land."

"What have we called?"

"It's a distant relation to the whale. Quite peaceful I can assure you. You can sometimes see them from the northernmost tip of Sarcre. I was taking something of a gamble that they would graze this far out, but it seems to have paid off. Here he comes now."

A huge ridge of bone broke the surface and cut swiftly through the water towards them. The wind screeched across the crest of the creature as two vast flippers - looking like barnacle encrusted oars - rose from the spray, followed by the grey bulk of the leviathan. Its long, ululating call shuddered the air as it neared the ship. Then it was gone, the sea closing in over the spot where it had dived.

Silus closed his eyes and could sense the creature moving somewhere beneath them.

"Should I try to call it again?"

But, before Kelos could respond the ship lurched and - even with the field of magical energy containing them - the two men were knocked to the deck.

Silus pulled himself to his hands and knees and looked down the vertiginously sloping deck, into the eyes of the leviathan as one of its huge flippers crashed into the side of the ship.

"Why is it attacking? I thought I had control." He shouted.

"I don't know. It doesn't make sense."

Silus concentrated as hard as he could - despite the blast of foetid breath that wafted towards him as the creature opened its maw - and tried to send a wave of calm towards the leviathan.

The creature responded by pushing its bulk against the ship, sending it slamming into the side of a wave that had just begun to rise above it.

Silus lost his footing completely as a wall of water hit him. For a moment he feared that he had been swept overboard - then a hand grabbed his and he found himself dangling just below the ship's rail, looking up into the face of Jacquinto. Beyond him Silus could see Kelos. The mage's hands were wreathed in fire as he sent bolts of energy into the flank of the creature. Despite the howls that accompanied his strikes, Kelos's attacks seemed to be having little effect.

Jacquinto pulled Silus back on board and handed him a sword. Ignacio and Ioannis charged up the stairs onto deck, their own weapons already drawn.

"Where's Katya?" Silus said.

"With Father Maylan. Don't worry, she's safe," Ioannis said. "Holy gods! Is that thing part of the plan to save us?"

"Something went wrong."

"Obviously. Hey, look out!"

Ioannis barrelled into the side of Kelos, just as one of the creature's flippers came crashing down. The mage tumbled to safety but Ioannis didn't get out of the way in time and his legs were smashed into the planks. He screamed out as bones splintered and he tried to pull himself away as the creature loomed above him again.

Jacquinto was already rushing to his comrade's aid and