The Dragonrider Heritage Second Series, page 23
Pitching wildly through the water, I flailed for a second or two before I finally managed to flip over onto my stomach and curl my body inward. I wrapped my legs around the beast’s back and dragged myself in against the rush of the water until I was sitting in the saddle. Then I grabbed the other rein-strap and pulled, willing the creature to a stop.
Holy gods. It … it really was like some kind of horse. Suspended underwater, the beast tossed its head and gave a high-pitched shriek like the call of a dolphin or whale, then turned to look back at me with one big, panicked yellow eye.
Whew. Okay. I could do this. I’d ridden faundra and horses more times than I could count. How hard could this be? It was bound to be similar, right? Right. I totally had this.
Fates, what was I doing?
I gave a stern kick and leaned down, bracing myself for the alarming burst of underwater speed as we surged upward to where the sunlight rippled beyond the surface.
We broke into the sky with a leap, and I tossed my soggy hair out of my eyes as we charged forward. With my dagger still clenched between my teeth, I leaned into the beast’s impressive speed as we bounded over waves and zoomed across the surface of the water straight for the opposite side of the enemy sloop. All their focus was on us as they came broadside and began hurling grappling hooks across our deck, attempting to lash us together so we couldn’t escape.
Only… that wasn’t going to work for long. Not if I had anything to say about it, anyway.
I had a plan—and it was so utterly insane, even Jaevid might have been nervous.
Hah. Yeah, right.
I brought the sea-horse-thing around to the side and cut my gaze upward, noting that no one seemed to even be watching this side of the boat. They weren’t expecting any surprised attackers with all the focus on the other side. Excellent.
I climbed off the beast’s back and started upward, using my dagger to give me extra leverage on the steep climb up the side. The sharp edges of the barnacles encrusting the first five or six feet cut up my palms, but I didn’t let go. I made it to the top and peered just over the edge. There, enemy pirates scrambled around in the same sort of chaos I’d just left on our boat. Some lay dead from our crossbow fire. Others were working on readying boarding lines and flinging more grappling hooks. Up at the helm, the sight of a young man with deep ebony skin and pointed ears holding the ship’s wheel made my heart jolt for a moment. A Lunostri elf? I’d never seen another one except for Isandri. And the instant thought of her put a sting in my heart.
I shut my eyes tightly and looked away, down toward the middle of the deck to the hatch that led into the ship’s underbelly. That’s where they kept the cannons and all their black powder. And that’s exactly where I had to go.
I waited, coiling my legs beneath me, and preparing to spring at the first instant I saw a clear path. With any luck, no one would notice me thanks to all the ambient chaos on deck.
Wait for it … wait for it …
NOW!
My pulse kicked in rhythm with the cannon fire as I sprang up onto the deck, over the railing, and ran headlong for that open hatch. I stayed low, moving like a blur across the deck and skidding to a halt at the top of the stairs that plunged down into the belly of the ship. Darkness and the smell of burning powder made my stomach turn.
And something else. A sound. Not the normal, expected shouts of men giving orders or working at the cannons to load and fire. No—this was something else.
Wait a second was that … panicked screaming? Um. Yeah. That definitely sounded like the desperate dying screams of sailors coming from below deck.
What the heck was going on down there?
Well, now wasn’t the time to hesitate. I had a mission and a very short time before that big galleon, the Squall Queen, was upon us. Then there would be no escape.
Drawing my kafki, I descended the stairs into the gloom below deck. The smell of blood and powder hung thick in the air, and I nearly stepped on a few fallen sailors that lay in bloody heaps on the floor—almost like they’d been trying to flee back up to the deck. A cold chill spread through my chest as I prowled forward, every nerve drawn as tight as bowstrings. Ready to snap and react at any moment. I followed the trail of bodies and blood deeper into the ship, growing closer to the sound of the cannon fire. Dead ahead, a broad opening led to a long room where that sound and the acrid smell of burning black powder was the strongest. That must be the gun deck, where the rows of cannons were lashed down next to rows of portholes, and could easily be loaded again and again by the crew within the protection of the ship’s hull.
Flashes of flame lit up the near dark as some of the cannons fired, making the floor beneath my boots flinch and the ship rock slightly. Then everything went still. Quiet. No screams of men. No rustling of reloading. No more cannon fire.
Sucking in a deep breath, I prepared myself for the worst. Something had obviously gone wrong down here. Now, I had to face it in order to continue with my plan of, well, basically simultaneously igniting all the powder left on the ship to blow it all the way to the gods’ doorstep. One hit, one solution.
My sweaty palms squeaked on the leather grips of my blades as I gave them a preparatory spin over my hands and stepped into the doorway. Whatever was in there, man or beast, I’d send it back to the gods right along with the ship. My pulse throbbed in my fingertips as I stood there, scanning the shadows of the gun deck for any thing—any movement, reflection, or something that seemed even remotely out of place.
Something cold and sharp pricked at the side of my neck suddenly.
I froze, every muscle locking up solid at once. I knew that feeling.
The point of a dagger.
“I wouldn’t move if I were you,” a female voice hissed in the dark. “Now, be a good boy, and drop those blades.”
I licked my teeth behind my lips. Curse it all straight to the deepest pit of the abyss. How?! How had someone gotten the slip on me?
“I don’t surrender,” I growled back. “You’ll have to kill me.”
The blade slid, lightly scraping my skin as a small, feminine figure stepped out from where she had been hiding just inside the doorway. The light from above the deck spilled over her face, and our gazes locked.
My heart stopped. My mouth fell open. My blades nearly slid right out of my grasp.
Oh. My. Gods.
She stared up at me with a similar expression of utter shock all over her beautiful, albeit extremely young face. A face I knew all too well.
“MAYLEA?!” I yelled, half in fury—half in total horror. What, by all the Gods, Fates, and anything divine, was she doing here?!
“H-Hi … Uncle Reigh. Guess we … had the same idea. Pretty neat, huh? What are the odds of that, I wonder?” Her nervous little chuckle cracked and seemed to die in her throat as she withdrew her blade from my neck and gave me a cringing little smile.
No.
This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be. I was hallucinating. Or dead. Or this was some cruel trick one of the gods was playing on me. I could not be here, hundreds of miles away from Maldobar, in the throes of a pirate battle in the middle of the ocean, staring at the Broadfeathers’ oldest daughter. The very one I had helped train practically since she was able to walk.
H-How …? When …? And for the love of all things divine … WHY?!
Then it hit me. The worst part of all.
My blood ran as cold as arctic water as I stared past her, into the dark, and found my doom somewhere in the yawning maw of the truth:
“Oh. Oh, gods. Jaevid is going to kill me.”
For a few seconds, all I could do was make frantic, disapproving choking sounds. Then it all burst out of me at once. “YOU! Gods and Fates, girl, do you have any idea how close to death you just came? What are you doing here? Why would you—no. No, it doesn’t matter. Get yourself back on the other ship right now! I mean it! Your father is going to rip me in half with his bare hands when he figures out you snuck onboard!” I thundered as I pointed one of my blades back behind me, to the hatch.
She scowled and did that excellent, although distinctly much more feminine impression of her father’s challenging glare. “Through the frenzied crowd of enemies? Sure. Sounds like an excellent plan. I got here first. I killed all the men firing the cannons. This is my plan, so let me finish it!”
Uggggghhh. Teenagers.
She did have a point, though. I couldn’t very well send her up there on her own. If anything happened to her, Jaevid would beat me to death. Then he’d probably negotiate a deal with some god to bring me back to life so he could kill me again.
“You know what—forget it. You stay right here where I can watch you and make sure no one comes through that door. This isn’t a negotiation!” I fumed as I stormed past her.
“Just so you know, you have to intertwine all the fuse lines,” she chimed proudly at my back, a sly little grin playing over her lips. “Oh, and the powder kegs are over there.”
Unbelievable. That attitude—now that had to have come from Beckah. Jaevid was a lot of things, but he’d never been smug. Not about something like this, anyway.
I clenched my teeth, tasting blood and every angry word I wanted to shout as I sheathed my blades and got to work. It didn’t take long for me to tie up every last barrel in their stores to a long fuse line and unwind it all the way to the doorway where Maylea still waited, arms crossed and hips cocked to one side.
“See?” She grinned wolfishly as I stormed past. That grin faded, though, when I grabbed the back of her tunic and dragged her out with me like a naughty puppy.
“Once it’s lit, we’ve got about three minutes to get as far away from here as possible. Got me? So you run. No hesitating. No coming back for me if I’m not behind you. RUN. Understand?” I growled through my teeth as I bent down. Pulling my flint stone from my belt, I used the edge of one of my blades to strike a shower of sparks right over the fuse line. It caught and lit, beginning to burn steadily toward my makeshift death charge. If that didn’t sink this ship, nothing would.
“GO!” I bellowed and ran for the stairs that led up to the hatch.
Maylea dashed ahead of me, as fast as a shadow with her dagger still in hand. We rounded the base of the steps and started up, me right behind her. I looked up, able to see open sky beyond the sails and rigging of the ship. Almost there. Almost out. Just had to make it over the side of the ship and then swim for dear life. We could do it. We would make it.
We had to.
SLAM!
A solid iron grate fell over the top of the steps, blocking the entire passage out of the ship’s hold. A few leering faces of pirates laughed and jeered down at us, spitting and taunting as they brandished a single heavy lock that clamped down to keep the hatch closed tight.
“NO!” Maylea shouted as she gripped the iron bars and tried shaking them.
It was no use. They’d trapped us below deck … with only minutes, maybe seconds, before my death charge exploded.
My mind raced, blurring between options. There wasn’t one. Not a good one. Either I ran back in and tried to cut the fuse before it went off, and then we would be taken captive, tortured, and killed slowly by a bunch of pirates, or we went down with the ship.
No. There had to be something else, something I could—
An idea struck me so suddenly, I flinched back. It was stupid. Reckless. Unlikely to succeed.
But it was the best I had.
Grabbing Maylea by the arm, I dragged her after me, back down the stairs, and ran headlong for the other end of the ship. Behind the forward bulkhead, I ducked down and pulled her in against my chest, wrapping my arms around her to try and shield her. This ship was going down because I’d set it up to blow a massive hole right in the keel. It would fill quickly and sink.
But the massive hole that would be left behind might be our only way out now.
I shut my eyes tightly and braced, listening and holding my breath.
Then it came like the pounding fist of a vengeful god.
BOOOM!
27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The whole ship shuddered hard. Wood cracked, splintered, and flew. The hull gave an ominous groan as the ground beneath us began to shift. Barrels, boxes, and crates slid as the ship began to go down by the stern. Above us, footsteps scrambled over the deck. Men shouted and cried out in panic. Horns blared.
We were sinking—fast.
“Come on,” I shouted as I skidded and stumbled over the steeply angled floor. Opening the door to the main hold, the rush of water greeted us in a roaring swell.
“Uncle Reigh?” Maylea whimpered as she gripped my hand. Her teal green eyes had gone wide and teary in panic. I guess this little plan of hers wasn’t going the way she’d hoped.
That made two of us.
“There’s only one way out now. Hold your breath and follow me!” I jumped in feet first and immediately took in a deep breath, swimming with all my strength through the collapsing debris and drifting bodies of dead pirates, crates, ropes, and fragments of wood all the way to the gun deck. The doorway had been blown apart, and I had to squirm through what was only a narrow opening between a few cracked wooden planks. Maylea was smaller, so she made it through much more easily.
We swam down, deeper into the remains of the ship as the water churned and whirled around us. The light gave way to a growing dark, and panic gripped me like a fist to the throat. Oh, gods, what if we didn’t find a way out before we sank too far? What if the pressure killed us? What if we drowned?
Then I saw it—light from the surface pouring through the massive hole in the keel of the ship. I swam for it with all my strength, only pausing to look back and make sure Maylea was right behind me. With her cheeks puffed full of air and her eyes wide and frantic, she paddled for it right alongside me.
Against the rush of the water surging into the ship, I managed to drag myself out from its demolished interior. I immediately clung to the opening and reached back in to seize Maylea’s hand, helping her scramble out.
Free. Gods and Fates, we had made it out! And in one piece!
I dared to hope as we swam like mad back up toward the surface, dodging a shower of more debris and sailors diving off to make a break for it before their ship went all the way down.
VOOOOOM …
A sound, deep and concussive, sent out a shockwave through the water around us and made my heartbeat stall and stop for a moment. What the heck was that? Something about it made my skin tingle strangely. It felt like … well, sort of like standing too close to one of Arlan’s magical spell circle when he’d shrunken Vexi.
But surely there wasn’t an Avoran elf or anything that powerful onboard that galleon. No. It couldn’t be. Malina would have mentioned that. She would have warned us … right?
Maylea and I broke the surface with a gasp, looking around as nothing but the very tip of the enemy schooner’s mainmast was left above water now. Beyond it, though, that galleon was encroaching fast. It lurked so near, I could see the figures moving around on its massive deck.
One individual stood separate from all the others, positioned on the grand ship’s raised platform that held the helm. It was hard to tell from that distance, but it looked like a man. A tall man with dark hair.
Was that the captain Malina had mentioned?
He moved, grasping onto something right next to the ship’s wheel. A lever or … some sort of handle. I couldn’t tell. But when he raised it and slammed it down, it sent out another shockwave just like the first.
VOOOOM!
“What is that?” Maylea cried out as she treaded water next to me.
I didn’t now. Not at first. I wasn’t acquainted with most of the things pirates used on their ships—not beyond a purely hypothetical or academic sense. But somehow, this felt different. Ominous.
Dangerous.
As the rush of that shockwave spread out over the ship, it sent a strange ripple along the big galleon’s hull. A shimmer of light like an aurora that rippled over the wood with an eerie blue-green glow.
It was magic. But what kind? What did it mean?
Then, I got my answer.
Or, rather, the ship did.
From somewhere far below, an answering wave of energy boiled upward and made the surface of the sea vibrate and ripple like someone bumping a table underneath a cup of water. It was much louder. Bigger. Stronger.
Taking in a breath, I plunged under the surface to try and figure out what had caused that—just in time to see a massive eye open directly below us. The eye alone must have been seven feet across, with a round pupil focusing right on us. A gargantuan scaly head turned, the eye blinking and focusing past us to the ships bobbing in the water. There was something broad and distinctly snakelike about its head, with long jaws and an upturned mouth covered in long whiskers like catfish. Only, this was no catfish.
I couldn’t gauge the true size of the monster—only that it was bigger than anything I’d ever seen. The head alone was the size of a ship, and I caught a glimmer of something like scales in rich colors of blue and yellow as it turned away to disappear back into the dark endless ocean beneath us.
As best I could tell, its body was long and serpentine in the water, with a ridge of red and yellow fins that grew longer toward its tail like an arapaima—only far longer. Gods, it must have been four hundred feet at least.
And whatever it was, it was answering the Squall Queen with a similar burst of that magic.
Run. We had to run—no—swim. Swim away quickly.
Right now.
“Ship! Go back to the ship!” I shouted at Maylea. “NOW!”
She didn’t hesitate and took off swimming for the Fog Dancer. I followed, paddling like mad with my heart in my throat. I wasn’t afraid of being eaten outright. No, that creature probably considered me a tiny appetizer, like a pumpkin seed. But if it decided to gnaw on our ship? Well, we couldn’t do much to stop it. Sure, we could try cannons or maybe even harpoons. I had a feeling nothing would pierce the scales I’d seen, though. Nothing manmade, anyway. We had no choice. No backup plan.
