Chapter 10, The Spy:
Nothing required him to charge off the ship and into battle, but he was certainly glad he did. From a distance, the wheeled ship was a marvel to behold. The way the craft rolled over the sand, it put all other mechanical devices he’d witnessed to shame. Felspar would have gone for a closer look, with or without the crew. When the ship altered course towards the Phoenix, Kanika stepped in and ordered a party to the beach.
She claimed it was a precautionary measure, but Felspar assumed the strange craft intrigued her as much as it did him. The longboat had beached when the tentacles sprung from the sand and stopped the craft facing against the wind.
Near the water, the shore party waded through the flailing limbs. Most were smaller than a man’s wrist, and a sharp blad
