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Back The Abyss Surrounds Us Save as PDF
Chapters (37)
  1. Dedication
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. 8
  10. 9
  11. 10
  12. 11
  13. 12
  14. 13
  15. 14
  16. 15
  17. 16
  18. 17
  19. 18
  20. 19
  21. 20
  22. 21
  23. 22
  24. 23
  25. 24
  26. 25
  27. 26
  28. 27
  29. 28
  30. 29
  31. 30
  32. 31
  33. 32
  34. 33
  35. 34
  36. Acknowledgments
  37. About the Author

He doesn’t know what it means. He doesn’t need to. Something clicks, something falls into place, and his fury unlocks. Bao hits the tug with a roar, but instead of glancing off, he keeps going. His forearm crashes down on the deck as he locks his beak around the cockpit, and the shriek of tearing metal echoes across the waves.

I stagger back a few steps.

Bao’s neck muscles snap taut as he wrenches his head back, ripping the cockpit from the ship. His weight crashes down on the tug’s deck, and the boat’s hull warps. With a high-pitched keen, he thrusts his head back down, and when his jaws snap shut, it’s like a thunderclap. The tug cracks cleanly in two, the pieces bobbing up on either side of him as he sinks between them. Bao chases one of them, locks it in his beak, and starts swatting at it with his foreleg. His massive claws shred the hull like tissue as both he and the fragment of the ship sink into the depths beneath us.

My work here is done. A pup’s training ends when they devastate their first tug. From here on out, it’s instinct. It takes months to properly train a Reckoner.

But I did it improperly, and I did it in a day.

There’s a sudden roar from the decks above me, and I realize that we had an audience all along. Somewhere up there, Santa Elena must be watching. Somewhere up there, she’s seeing exactly the kind of beast she has on her side.

I hope she’s impressed.

As for me, I’m terrified and just a little bit proud. A Reckoner’s strength comes from careful practice, from routine and comfort and precision. What I just saw Bao do was nothing like that. Proper training is tai chi; this was a backstreet knife fight. Now not only does our beast have a taste for blood, but he’s also got a knack for savaging ships that’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

Bao is, without a doubt, the most dangerous thing in the NeoPacific.

And he answers to me.

27

27

Chuck escorts me back to my “cell” minutes later. I guess now that there are people out there looking for a prisoner, Santa Elena’s decided it’s time to start actually treating me like one. I settle into my nest of mops and sprays, wondering if anyone actually uses any of this stuff. I’ve seen some of the younger kids in the crew on deck duty, I suppose, but everything in here always seems like it’s exactly where I left it.