by T B Phillips
Sebastian stood on his feet, staring down at Suzette and the giant piece of wood sticking out of her still chest. That sweet little boy should not have been exposed to so much carnage. He should be running around a village and tossing snowballs like the one he had thrown at Braen and Eusari back in Estowen’s Landing. This image of his friend’s death would add to the boy’s own trauma, scarring him forever. Eusari was right and Braen should not have involved the children in his attack. His pride and ego had killed that sweet and defiant little girl.
The Crown Prince of Fjorik had never felt so defeated. Everything around him was hopeless as he prepared himself to die beneath the ocean. Surely another salvo will be incoming, he thought, but we are sinking regardless. Eusari and her teams were meant to take out the walls in the same manner as they had in Diaph but could only do so with the distraction of his arrival. If only he could find a way to help her disable the harbor defenses. She should be on the beachhead by now, he thought, unable to move under the alert eyes of the sentries. If they couldn’t get to the guns, then the entire operation was lost.
His thoughts in that moment also turned to Skander, and how he had chosen such a dark path. He loved his brother and desperately wished there was some way that he could restore his heart and soul. But the good was gone from that man, dead along with their father. Skander Braston’s soul had bled out with Krist Braston’s blood. He had to be stopped either by death or capture but Braen would die in these waters, unable to free Hester and Fjorik from their terrible tyrant.
Hester. Tears filled Braen’s eyes when his thoughts turned to Hester. She had been his fuel for so many years. When he had fled Fjorik his thoughts of her had kept him warm and alive, always hoping that she still loved and thought about him as well. When he was hunted as a rogue and outlaw, the dream of reconnecting with her had driven him to dig harder. Thinking of her brought the scent of lilac to his nose. How could I have forgotten that smell, he mused, how could I have forgotten her? Hester was a sweet memory and nothing more than a ghost from his past that would never be held for real. He had to let go of her and move on.
He would have liked to have moved on with Eusari. When he held her close, he felt a different kind of woman than any he had known. Despite her emotional and physical sufferings, she had grown stronger than any person alive. Her resiliency was a product of her pain and she would not be Eusari without having lived through the worst of times. She’s probably dead by now. Thoughts of her laying on the rocks above the beach filled him and he began to sob. If he survived to ever love a woman again, he hoped and prayed to the gods that it would be Eusari.
The gods. He truly did not know what to believe, especially after seeing and experiencing the events over the past months. If the gods existed as he had been taught as a boy, then one would think that they would have interfered to change his life’s course over the years. If Kernigan was to be believed, the gods didn’t exist at all, and had been replaced by people. People who manipulated and created this entire continent to supply their incessant desire to be like the gods who they destroyed with science.
Braen wept. The emotions of the past two years overwhelmed him as Ice Prince slipped deeper beneath the waves. He was no longer calming the seas, and those cold waves had grown dangerous as they tossed the vessel around. Cold. It had grown so cold that Braen could see his breath. Even the water on the deck had frozen and the wood around him frosted over as he cried over everything he had lost.
“Braen!” A voice snapped him back to reality. Sebastian stood pointing toward the harbor defenses. Yes, the bearded captain thought. Those reinforced gun mounts had destroyed our chances and dashed our hopes. That boy will never live to see fifteen summers because of me.
“Kraken!” Krill shouted as loudly as he had on the first morning the mythical creatures had saved them.
Braen looked in the direction that the boy pointed. Two large squid had climbed out of the water and were wrapped around the harbor fortifications. Their huge eyes loomed over The Cove and men fled along the tops of the walls and leaped into the water to escape the tentacles. With unimaginable strength, the creatures ripped the tops of the gun mounts and tossed them into the briny depths. The cannons were sent flying hundreds of feet as their huge tentacles swung back and forth, flinging men as well.
Very quickly, the entrance was free from threats and the harbor defenses had been neutralized. Braston marveled as the big squids slid back into the abyss, screams of dying men silenced by the water as the tentacles dragged them under. Only then did the prince understand what destiny demanded.
He truly was the Kraken. Like the beasts, he had powers that were mythical and unmatched. Though not a god, he was a rarity among men. He must continue to serve and help less fortunate through his privileged birth. His father had raised him to rule over Fjorik as a servant to all and he would find a way to do so.
Rising to his feet Braen Braston stood atop the deck of Ice Prince. He screamed into the air with rage at the series of injustices that afflicted his friends. It wasn’t too late. There was still time if he could reach The Cove and remove Nevra, and then no one would stand in his way as he made things right again. He had to continue the fight.
Emboldened and encouraged he connected with the water, not just immediately around his ship, but the entire ocean around The Cove. His aura of power was huge and extended several miles. Slowly the water in the harbor began to flow outward until only dry land littered with rocks and shells remained. All along the piers wooden tall ships littered the seabed, laying on their sides and clinging to their moorings by crisscrossing lines. These would have to be sacrificed, he thought, surely Sippen could rebuild the fleet.
In his mind he felt something split. He could now control the moisture in the air around him and what had been a clear sky darkened and stormed. Lightning struck the tallest buildings of The Cove and picked off men who ran atop the walls. Rain washed over the city, flooding endlessly as he poured more and more moisture into the atmosphere.
Another split in his mind and he could sense the animals in the sea. Connecting with a gam of swimming whales, he brought them closer and under his fledgling ship. Slowly they rose up to the surface, lifting Ice Prince up toward safety. They held him and his friends there, floating atop the choppy waters like a raft in a storm.
And then he released the part of the ocean before him. A tidal wave raced toward the city, washing over it and rinsing the filth from the streets that had now become rivers of seawater. The ships in the harbor were crushed by the wave, splintered by the force of the impact. The height of the wave had even reached the highest balcony of the palace and Braen silently wondered if he had drowned the Pirate King he had come to depose. He surely would not be that lucky to end the revolution so quickly. Braen Braston, confident that the passage to The Cove was now safe, guided the whales toward the city.
Behind him he could hear Sippen awaken. He turned and walked toward his friend, kneeling beside him.
“You okay, little buddy?”
“I thuh… think so.”
“Can you stand?” The little man nodded back an affirmative and Braen helped him to his feet. Convinced that the concussion would be slight, Braen ran to Krill, heaving the man up and over the rail onto the deck. “How about you? Are you good?”
The man grabbed his own crotch and took inventory. “Aye. The important parts are intact. Nothing lost this time.” Pointing up at the storm he added, “Can you turn off the storm, I gotta piss like you wouldn’t believe.”
Braen smiled. “You’re fine.” He then released his hold on the storm around them, ushering in an eerie silence broken only by the lapping of waves and the moans of the whales below the ship.
A few minutes later they had reached shallow water and the whales released Ice Prince. Braen made a current to push the ship the rest of the way, crashing what was left of the stern on the jagged rocks. The mismatched quartet scale
d down a cargo net and surveyed the beach. The city was still standing but the entire harbor had been destroyed. Where there had once been a pier Braen found rocky shoals and splintered wood.
He looked around at the bodies littering the beach. These had all been friends and comrades at one time, the faceless people of The Cove. Like him, they had sought safety and acceptance among outlaws, but he had destroyed that false security with a single crashing wave. That’s the way of life, he pondered, everything is fine until a single event washes the facade away, and you are left with nothing. He wondered if the survivors would see him as a conqueror to be feared or a hero they could admire.
No one challenged the three men and a boy as they climbed up the shoreline. They strode through the city unopposed, with only the occasional frightened face peering out at them. Every set of eyes that Braen glimpsed held awe for the Kraken, having seen the powerful destruction that he had brought. Reaching back to touch the pommel of his father’s sword he realized that men were more dangerous than the weapons that they carried.
Eventually they arrived at the palace and the bearded captain stopped his friends. A battle raged on the steps, but the fighting was not what he had expected.
Eusari stared at the archers formed on the wall. She felt bad for what she was about to order, since many of those men could have some day fought alongside her. She only had to kill a few to get the desired effect, but a few was too many when considering the coming wars. She worried about the range of the weapons, Sippen having told her that they would only be effective at close range if the enemy wore armor. Thankfully the archers were only clad in light chest plate.
Turning to Shon she gave the signal and then waited. A single shot rang out from behind. For such small weapons the report was deafening, and she jumped a little bit at the sound. Atop the wall one of the archers fell. The round had hit him in the forehead, and she prayed the other shots would fly as true.
Another of Shon’s men fired and a second archer fell. Men were running along the wall by then, investigating why their soldiers were suddenly dropping dead. And then Wembley signaled the volley. Four hundred rifles fired simultaneously along the line, some hitting steel plate while others found skin and bone. The walls were cleared in seconds after that, as officers called their men back to safety.
Eusari then turned her attention to the shield wall formation that had filled the gap in the fallen structure. Rifles would not be able to penetrate both shield and heavy plate at any distance, so she had to disrupt them some other way. Behind the formation she could see a mounted officer peering over, trying to find the source of the small cannon fire. Eusari turned to Wembley. “Shon, can you take out that officer on the white horse?”
“Aye dearie!” Shouting to one of his men he asked, “Marque, do you see a pumped-up egotistical shit-for-brains on a white horse?”
“Aye. Didn’t realize he was a lieutenant. Want me to put him out of his troops’ misery?”
“That I do, son! Take him when you have a shot.” After a pause he fired his own rifle in the air to give the lieutenant something to look for.
Eusari smiled at their banter and waited. It was good that the men were loose, they would fight better. At the sound of the random shot the officer had moved closer to the shield wall, standing up in his stirrups to get a better view. As he looked out his head exploded, and Shon’s men applauded Marque’s marksmanship. As she had hoped the shielded men faltered, turning to see why their officer had fallen off his horse. “Fire another volley! Quickly!” The line of troops broke as men fell on the front lines.
All at once a storm raged above. Lightning struck at men in their metal suits and rain poured down from a cloudless sky. Beyond the thunder Eusari’s ears perked as a deafening sound roared beyond the city fortifications. She watched as the foot soldiers froze in their retreat and then turned to run back toward the invading force. Puzzled, she called all men to the ready. “Reload fast! They’re charging!”
Then she saw why they had changed their minds and direction. Behind them a tidal wave as tall as the palace roared through Pirates Cove, cresting and breaking at the wall. The soldiers washed toward Eusari in a river of ocean, mud, people and debris. As the flow of water slowed, she could see that hundreds of people had been buried or trapped in the mud before her. The armor of the soldiers weighed them down and many looked as though they would drown as a result.
Demon’s ass, Eusari thought, we have to help them. Turning toward Shon she shouted orders, sending her men into action. With their rifle stocks they dug, pulling citizens and soldiers from the mud and muck. She somehow knew that Braen had made the wave, but she worried that he would not have a city to rule over if she did not first help the people.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Stefan Nevra sat on the rear balcony of his private chambers. He was taking his morning breakfast when he saw a thick fogbank roll in across the reefs. That’s strange, he thought, fog doesn’t normally form on the leeward side. He stared for several minutes, watching as it rolled toward the island. It’s rolling in fast, he thought, standing and walking to the railing.
He turned his gaze down to the rocks below the wall. That section had been largely ignored by Artema Horn when building the defenses, and Stefan had added a permanent gun mount. Not like anyone would approach from that direction, only a few people know the secret to safe passage. But Samani was one of those few people, and that caused him anxiety. He would sleep better at night knowing that Kernigan could not get at him undetected.
The fog continued to roll in, growing smaller as it did. A flash of something solid temporarily showed through the cloud and he strained his eyes. What was that in the fog? He quickly assumed he was mistaken but continued to stare. Abruptly the fog rapidly dissipated, and he could see a ship careen around a reef, dragging its keel along the rocks. Shock filled him as he recognized She Wolf. She appeared to be listing and taking on water.
Of course, Eusari knows the passage, he thought, remembering that she had used it frequently to enter and exit The Cove. He started to relax until he saw the other vessels and then spun around with fear pulsing through his body. Several Norse longboats skimmed over the reef following her approach to the beach. This is a raiding party, but how? Nevra was not a sea-going captain, he was a businessman, but even he knew that the longboats would not have survived the fierce winter seas north of The Cove.
A shot rang out from the battery and She Wolf sped forward with blinding speed sailing safely beneath the salvo. The burst of speed was unexpected from a sinking ship. And from the leeward side? Where did she find wind? He shook his head at the impossibility of what he had just witnessed. Even more impossible was the sight of Eusari leaping off the bow of her ship with a wolf landing in the sand beside her. He watched as she stood and casually walked toward the battery.
Hundreds of soldiers in light leather armor flooded out of the longboats as they beached one by one. A quick estimate revealed nearly four hundred men at her heels. Not a huge force, but a considerable one. The coming battle would be interesting to watch. Finally, as the last of the soldiers hit the beach, bells began to ring out in the city and somewhere horns blew, signaling the attack.
He was about to return to his chambers to change into a uniform when the ground began to shake. At first the rumble was low and nothing to fear. But after a while, the shaking became so violent that pieces of mortar fell from the ceiling. Stefan leaped in fright as a lamp fell off the bedside table, smashing into pieces and igniting the fuel as it hit the floor. Within seconds his bed was aflame, and he bolted from the shaking room.
As he entered the doorway, the pirate king ran headlong into Captain Pogue, who was on his way to report the imminent attack to his liege.
“Get out of the way!” Nevra screamed, but Pogue stood blocking the door. “Move, you idiot! We’ll both die in here!” Pogue casually looked from Stefan to the flaming bed and for a brief m
oment the king thought that the captain actually wanted him dead. But then the man pointed out the window.
“Look! A portion of the wall has fallen!”
Stefan turned and saw that both the battery and the wall had fallen during the quake. No longer caring about the fire which had pretty much burned itself out, Nevra froze from panic at the damage. After a few moments he blinked and turned to the Captain of the Guard. “Why are you still standing here? Go muster up the soldiers and fight them off!”
“I’ve already given my orders, your highness. See?” Pogue pointed and Nevra saw lines of archers atop the wall while a shield wall formed in the gap.
Nevra nodded. Another horn sounded. Something was spotted at the Windward entrance. Another force, perhaps? The two men looked at each other and sprinted to the main hall to look out upon the harbor. Out of breath, Nevra arrived after Pogue, who froze at the window. “Move aside! Let me see!” The Captain moved and Nevra saw that all was quiet in the bay. He could not see any attackers. Confused, he strained his eyes for any indication that something was amiss.
There, far out about a mile past the entrance was a single ship. The vessel fired a single shot that traveled several times farther than should be possible. The round hit its mark and several men were blown from atop the battery. Braston. Nevra shook his head. “That damned fool.” Pogue nodded his agreement but said nothing. Both men continued to watch as the city’s improved cannons fired a full salvo with their extended range. The blast struck Ice Prince and she began to list as her mast crashed to the deck.
Stefan let out a cackle at the quick work that his guns had made of the invader and turned to address Pogue. The captain appeared crestfallen at the sight and this confused Nevra. “What? What is this? Didn’t you want him to die?”