A long shadow dropped straight downward.

It missed Little Sword by an inch or two.

And the gaping, long-toothed jaws of an immense barracouta closed upon the head of the Inkmaker, biting him clean in halves.

The blind body curled backwards spasmodically; and the tentacles, shorn off at the roots, fell aimlessly and helplessly apart.

Little Sword flashed away, trailing his limp captors behind him till they dropped off.