Page 73 of Leviathan's Song
It was difficult to ignore my personal feelings about it, though, when I was staring at the toothy maw of a four-ton skull. I grimaced and eyed one large razor-sharp tooth with a chip near the top. I felt myself slip into a full-blown frown as my gaze lifted to the gaping orbital sockets and I thought about how we were going to need to find a way to access the braincase without damaging its structural integrity.
I pushed that thought away for now and went back to the scraps of paper I’d assembled on a desk in a nearby corner, an “office” for myself, as it were, somewhere I could lay out my maps of The Deep and its surrounding areas, the anatomical layouts of several species of Leviathan, and a roster of everyone working on the project and their roles. I still needed to catalog all the materials I would need to begin magically linking the pieces of the skeleton together.Maybe Sidney would know where to source this much iolite...
Around midday the council leader, Côvon, stopped by to hover over my shoulder and ask questions about my plans and thoughts on the project. He introduced his nephew, Doldir, who I assumed was the one originally pegged to lead the project since the boy had some small artificer magic in him, and a lorelei named Khonlos, who was the project foreman and the man I’d be working most closely with to complete the golem. There was clearly no love lost between Côvon and Khonlos, and Côvon stormed out after a short exchange between the two of them. I’d have to ask Levi about that one later.
Khonlos, like the other lorelei I’d noticed in the shipyard, had magic with a murky feeling of water movement and increased strength—at least in short bursts—which was probably already impressive without the ability to boost it, considering how heavily muscled he was. I didn’t even come up to his chest, and I had to focus on keeping my composure so as not to flinch away from him.
Lorelei didn’t appear to have the ability to shift forms like the mer did, or at least not as much. They had a little bit of a water form and a little bit of a land form, so it just kind of seemed to meet in the middle. Khonlos had long, dark hair like an orc, gathered into clumps with tiny metal cuffs, similar to the ones my father wore in his own hair. His dark, mottled skin looked scaly in places, probably perfect for protection and camouflage under water. Like his mer cousins he had short spines projecting from the backs of his arms, but though his teeth were sharp and pointed, he had small, orcish tusks jutting slightly from his bottom jaw.
When he gave me a polite smile as he was introduced, I noticed his orange eyes had slitted pupils. His people were probably adapted as ambush predators. I suppressed a shiver and took a small step closer to Levi, who rested a reassuring hand on my back. It was silly, but ‘instincts are instincts’ as Sidney would say. I forced a smile and shook the foreman’s hand, which he accepted briefly.
I wasn’t sure what Côvon’s nephew Doldir’s job was on the project, but as soon as Côvon left, Doldir started sniping at Levi. Khonlos was knee deep in an explanation about which techniques he thought we might use to inlay amulets in bones of this size when we became aware of the conflict behind us.
“I’m here because I have every right to be,” Levi said dryly, looking up at the mer from the notepad of music he’d been working on. I stiffened and turned to find Doldir posturing over Levi, who was giving him a droll look from his seat. Were they going to try to make Levi leave? The thought sent a shock of dread through me. He needed me because of his bond, and I realized I’d felt completely safe in this new environment because I’d trusted Levi to help me navigate.
Plus, I needed him for this project even if he didn’t know it yet.
Doldir looked young, maybe just on the cusp of adulthood. He was lean and lanky, but his stance was cocky and his response to Levi sounded condescending, though it was spoken in Maréesan, so I couldn’t be sure.
“Because the Law of Bonds says so. Now get out of my face,” Levi responded, more forcefully this time. His enchantment snapped out, a telling sign that he wasn’t playing around.
Doldir hissed at him and took a small step back to turn and look at me, his expression morphing into a mocking grin. “Bonded to a landwalker? Tough luck, man.”
“Iama landwalker, you piss-breathing, Ken-doll-looking ass of a bottom-feeder.” His magic gave a firm shove.
Doldir hissed at Levi again, baring dagger-like teeth, and this time Levi stood to his full height, towering over Doldir by head and shoulders. Levi hissed back, soundingexactlylike a snake, making my skin prickle at the primal sound.
Fast as lightning, Khonlos darted between them, hissing and adding a deep thrumming growl—calling to mind some terrifying combination of a lion and a crocodile—at Doldir, who darted off into the stacks of bones on the far side of the warehouse.
I stood rooted to my spot while the guys returned to what they were doing, Khonlos muttering under his breath as he went.
“Do not worry, little one. He cannot make your mate leave,” he said quietly when he reached my desk. Levi huffed in response but didn’t look at him. “I will toss him into the harbor if he tries, and he can swim home to his daddy,” Khonlos grumbled.
I frowned in the direction Doldir had run, then tried to remember what I’d been doing. “What does he do here?” I asked.Did he really have some kind of job helping with the construct?
Khonlos grunted. “Annoys everyone. Spies on us and reports back to the boss. Distracts my workers with his chatter.” Sounded pretty harmless, if not actually productive.
“What’s a Ken doll?” I asked.
“He’s got no genitals,” Levi muttered. “No offense.” He shot a glance at Khonlos before returning to his sheet music.
Khonlos barked a loud laugh. “He has genitals.” He paused for a beat and chuckled. “Who wants their male parts to be swinging free on the outside, where anything can come along and snatch them off? So strange. Even landwalkers’ male parts look like they belong on the inside. Don’t you think they look like they belong inside?” He turned to see Levi’s response, but Levi only smirked at his sheet music.
Khonlos shook his head, then bent to circle something on the drawing of the Leviathan’s spine. “This would probably be the most structurally sound place to inlay the linking amulets,” he said, returning us to our previous conversation.
I truly hoped this place wasn’t the tinderbox it felt like.
Chapter 28
Over the next few weeks,I sketched out where metal and amulets would be inlaid in the bones, and the mer, lorelei, and dozens of sprites worked to install them. It was an odd project for me, the first time I’d been directing others to do the physical work of building the construct instead of personally having my hands on the work myself.
The sprites worked tenaciously, bringing me each precious stone to modify, checking my drawings meticulously, and embedding every amulet with careful precision. It was clear they were working for the protection of their people, that this project was where they placed their hope for a future. Every day a few more would trickle in to join the fray, though more of the newer ones had scars and disfiguring injuries. An elder sprite named Rith mentioned they were kelpie injuries, and many more wanted to come help but were too wounded.
The mer spent most of their time in the shipyard, directing the lorelei on skeleton reconstruction and occasionally getting into scuffles with one another, though some of the larger men also helped haul bone. They spent the majority of their time in the water, and I was shocked by how long their tails and fins were. I’d learned to keep my distance after Levi carefully explained one day that, if one were to bond to me, he and they would instinctively fight to the death without hesitation.
Lorelei didn’t bond like the mer did, so after getting to know them a little better, Levi seemed more at ease with me working around them. I was constantly in awe of the sheer strength they showed, both men and women, hauling massive bones around and twisting metal into shape with their bare hands.
The skeleton was so long now that, while most of the construct was built in the shipyard, the skull and neck were in the warehouse, with the two sections coming together on the dry-dock outside.
