It was long and narrow, like a snake. But it seemed larger and longer than any snake he’d seen. Dimensions were difficult to judge, but he guessed its head was a good foot wide, with a body maybe five feet long—one that was more plated than scaled. It swam with a sinuous motion, swinging in wide curves, its body lined with faint lights. Odd, he thought. That was how he’d always imagined shadows, the beasts that prowled the seas near the Pantheon Islands. He’d seen artist drawings all his life depicting them as serpentine like this—extensions of the Dakwara, the great god of snakes, who had
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