The Call of Kerberos

by Jonathan Oliver

  "Apologise for your interruption!" Throot barked.

  The handler managed to mime apology, before expiring.

  "I can assure you, Throot, that that wasn't necessary." Belck said. "However, it does show that the creature is in a most agitated state. This is good. I presume that it knows not to harm Silus or his woman?"

  "Indeed, my Lord. They will be taken unharmed."

  "Excellent, perhaps we can see the ruroth?"

  "Of course, follow me."

  Together with the Chief Handler, Belck stepped through one of the portals.

  They stood at the bottom of a deep shaft, far above them a pin prick of sunlight filtered through the surface. In front of them, held in its stone pen by the will of the Chadassa that moved slowly across its hide, lay the vast form of a ruroth.

  Long before the Chadassa, the ruroth had been the rulers of the sea. Though they were not as populous as some of the other marine animals, their size meant that they had very few predators. The creatures had once been peaceful grazers, who spent most of their time trawling the seabed, but the Chadassa had turned them into weapons.

  Despite their gargantuan size, the ruroth possessed an almost child-like intelligence and, because of this, the Chadassa had found it easy enough - through psychic manipulation - to bring their aggression to the fore.

  The result was a devastating weapon that could break through the strongest of enemy defences.

  Belck swam up to one of the great eyes that peered from the creature's head. Looking at the dark pupil, he saw beyond his reflection to where the leviathan's rage boiled. He basked in the heat of its anger.

  The handlers swam away from the leviathan after removing its restraints, but Belck remained where he was. The calls of the other ruroth around him stopped then and a tense stillness pervaded the corral. Belck could see the creature's pulse increase as a great vein throbbed in its temple.

  And then, it raised its head and let loose a long, ululating cry. Around it, its brethren responded with their own calls and the leviathan rose quickly to the surface far above, buoyed by the song of its kin.

  Belck was caught up in its wake and he rode the current until the ruroth was lost from sight, marvelling all the while in its raw animal power and the fact that such a thing was in their control.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Emuel's fever finally broke, but without his song to empower it the magic of the gem waned and the stormy waters began to take hold of the Llothriall.

  Dunsany rushed to the main deck to cut the rope that still moored them to the tower, fearing that a sudden wave could dash them against the stone. Once he slashed the tether the ship drifted into the centre of the ring of towers and Dunsany watched as the jagged stone peaks swayed threateningly around them. But then the Llothriall was beyond the towers and caught up by a current that bore it quickly away.

  Dunsany staggered below before he was thrown from the deck by the next strong surge.

  In the galley Maylan was throwing up as he tried to steady himself against a wall. When he looked up Dunsany could see that his features were ashen.

  "Gods Dunsany, what are we going to do?" The priest managed to say, before another spasm gripped him and his shoulders heaved.

  "I don't know. Where are the others?"

  "Emuel is still in his bunk, but the rest of them are in the day room."

  As Dunsany made his way up the corridor the ship gave a sudden lurch and there was the sound of plates smashing in the galley, followed by Maylan's cries of pain and then retching as his sea-sickness gripped him once more.

  The lamps suspended from the day room ceiling were swaying wildly as Dunsany entered, throwing shadows spinning around the room. Waves crashed against the ship with a sound like the beating of a vast drum and spray exploded across the windows.

  "We're fucked." Ioannis said as Dunsany managed to hold down a chair long enough to sit on it.

  "Now, let's not panic quite yet." He said.

  "Well, what do you suggest we do?" Silus hissed. "Without Emuel we can't empower the stone and without the power of the stone this ship's no better than a ragged merchant barque trading out of Allantia."

  "Actually, that's not quite true." Kelos said. "As you know, the Llothriall has remarkable healing abilities. Despite the rough ride we are currently having, the hull is unlikely to be breached."

  "Yeah, but one of us is. How many days of being thrown around in here do you think we can cope with? Have you seen Maylan? He already looks not long for this world and I don't think that the rest of us are going to fair much better."

  As if to illustrate Silus's point one of the lamps suddenly snapped from the ceiling and caught Ignacio's head a glancing blow, before shattering on the boards. Dunsany rushed to stamp out the flames as Ignacio dabbed at the blood now trickling from his scalp.

  "Are you alright?" Kelos said.

  "I think so. I've suffered heavier blows to the head, believe it or not."

  "I believe." Dunsany muttered under his breath.

  "Look, Kelos," Katya said. "Is there really no way to restore Emuel's abilities?"

  "When the tattoo on Emuel's chest was burnt away it broke the flow of the songlines that cover his body. With the design broken his song will now have no effect on the gem and I'm afraid that I just don't know enough about elven runes to restore the design. "However, there may be another type of magic that can help us here."

  "Which is?" Silus said.

  "Silus, we were determined to get you on this voyage for a reason. Not only because we needed another man to help crew the ship, but also because of the extraordinary talents that you possess."

  Silus remembered his vision in the bone strewn chamber of the underwater citadel, and the feeling of pure joy as that distant battle had raged around him.

  "When I observed you in Nürn," Kelos continued, "I remember being taken aback by the way you handled that fishing boat of yours."

  "There's no secret to that. There have been fishermen in my family going back generations."

  "But there is more to it than that Silus. It's as though you have a sixth sense when it comes to the sea. Think for me here, has there ever been an occasion when you have surprised yourself with your abilities?"

  Silus thought back to the time when he had got his foot caught up in the anchor rope; how his vision underwater had been crystal clear and how it had taken a long time before he had struggled for breath.

  When Silus related this to Kelos he smiled and said: "There, you see. You have a deep-seated magical affinity with the ocean."

  Jacquinto laughed. "Fish man! Really Kelos, I've heard you spin some wild tales but this one really takes the bait."

  Kelos was pleased to see that none of the other crew members shared in Jacquinto's joke and, once the smuggler had composed himself, said: "Are you done? Good.

  "Silus, I believe that I can help you channel your power in order to get us out of this mess."

  "But I didn't even know that I had any of these powers before you pointed them out. What is it you expect me to do exactly?"

  "You are going to call for aid."

  "How?"

  "I want you to speak to one of the denizens of the sea. I believe that, with my help, you will be able to achieve this."

  Silus looked around the table at his companions' faces and hoped that the trust he saw there would not turn out to be misplaced. A great shudder passed through the Llothriall and several of the crew members cried out in panic, as though they were expecting the sea to rush in at any moment.

  Silus got to his feet and gestured to Kelos.

  "If we're going to do this, I think that now is the time."

  Kelos nodded and together they staggered to the stairs leading above.

  As Silus raised his head above the hatchway he was slapped in the face by a stinging blast of salt water.

  "I don't think that this is going to work." He shouted to the mage, but Kelos pushed him out onto the deck, before securing the hatch behind th
em.

  In the gaps when water wasn't being whipped into his eyes, Silus saw vast hills of sea rolling all around the Lothriall. He clung to the mainmast and his feet were tugged out from under him as a surge of water rolled across the deck. As the ship rose to the crest of a vast wave all he could see was sky, before the horizon tilted dramatically and they were hurtling down into a dark, roaring hollow.

  Silus turned to look behind him, convinced that Kelos would already have been dashed into the maelstrom, but the mage stood perfectly sure footed on the bucking deck. He face was creased in concentration as he tapped two emeralds together, while speaking words in a language that Silus didn't recognise.

  After a moment he put the stones away and looked up at Silus.

  "Take your hands away from the mast," he shouted.

  "Are you mad? It's the only thing keeping me on the ship!"

  "Trust me."

  Silus looked at the calm expression on Kelos's face and did as he had been told.

  Even as the ship was tossed from wave to wave, Silus stood firm. A motionless point in the chaos that surrounded them. He laughed and held out his palms to the mage.

  "No hands!"

  "No hands. And have you noticed that we no longer need to shout? The field that we're contained in means that we don't have to compete with the wind."

  "Okay, what now?"

  "Now we need to put you in the right state of mind. Hold my hand."

  Silus did so. When Silus looked at the mage's eyes there was a soft glow there, like the sky just after a summer sunset. He couldn't hear the angry ocean at all now and could barely feel the boards beneath his feet.

  "This power is within you Silus." Kelos said. "I want you to move away from the Llothriall. Hover out over the water like an albatross borne on a gentle wind. Just let your mind drift out."

  Silus felt himself moving away and he looked down, expecting to see his reflection moving across the water, but there was just the sea, and he followed its ever changing contours, accompanied by Kelos's voice.

  "Move into the sea now, Silus, and, as the water surrounds you, send your mind out and sense the touch of the many creatures that dwell there."

  Silus hadn't expected it to be so noisy beneath the waves. As soon as he let his consciousness into the water he was surrounded by the music of thousands upon thousands of voices.

  There was the blast of what sounded like a full church chorus as a shoal of shimmering gemfish exploded around him, their harmony changing with each turn of their glittering mass through the dark waters. Then there were the longer notes of the larger creatures; the passing of a ray sounding like a bow being slowly drawn across the strings of a cello; the flash and dart of a marlin like the hollow musical breaths played on a sailor's conch. And then further down - much further - the great bass notes of the vast creatures that moved along the sea bed.

  "There. Call to them Silus."

  For a second Silus seemed to expand until he was the ocean and he called out to the leviathans that moved through the depths. The voices that surrounded him fell silent as he waited for a response, as though those smaller creatures were waiting with Silus. And then there was a great bass rumble as a leviathan responded and began to move towards him.

  "Yes, yes. I have it!"

  "That's right Silus, now bring him towards the Llothriall."

  Silus couldn't see the creature yet, but he could certainly sense it moving in the darkness, building up momentum as it rose towards the surface. He retreated before it, feeling the pull of his body as he rushed back towards the ship.

  When he snapped back inside his head he turned to look at Kelos and there was triumph in his eyes.

  "It's coming."

  "Excellent. We can use the creature to guide us towards the nearest land."

  "What have we called?"

  "It's a distant relation to the whale. Quite peaceful I can assure you. You can sometimes see them from the northernmost tip of Sarcre. I was taking something of a gamble that they would graze this far out, but it seems to have paid off. Here he comes now."

  A huge ridge of bone broke the surface and cut swiftly through the water towards them. The wind screeched across the crest of the creature as two vast flippers - looking like barnacle encrusted oars - rose from the spray, followed by the grey bulk of the leviathan. Its long, ululating call shuddered the air as it neared the ship. Then it was gone, the sea closing in over the spot where it had dived.

  Silus closed his eyes and could sense the creature moving somewhere beneath them.

  "Should I try to call it again?"

  But, before Kelos could respond the ship lurched and - even with the field of magical energy containing them - the two men were knocked to the deck.

  Silus pulled himself to his hands and knees and looked down the vertiginously sloping deck, into the eyes of the leviathan as one of its huge flippers crashed into the side of the ship.

  "Why is it attacking? I thought I had control." He shouted.

  "I don't know. It doesn't make sense."

  Silus concentrated as hard as he could - despite the blast of foetid breath that wafted towards him as the creature opened its maw - and tried to send a wave of calm towards the leviathan.

  The creature responded by pushing its bulk against the ship, sending it slamming into the side of a wave that had just begun to rise above it.

  Silus lost his footing completely as a wall of water hit him. For a moment he feared that he had been swept overboard - then a hand grabbed his and he found himself dangling just below the ship's rail, looking up into the face of Jacquinto. Beyond him Silus could see Kelos. The mage's hands were wreathed in fire as he sent bolts of energy into the flank of the creature. Despite the howls that accompanied his strikes, Kelos's attacks seemed to be having little effect.

  Jacquinto pulled Silus back on board and handed him a sword. Ignacio and Ioannis charged up the stairs onto deck, their own weapons already drawn.

  "Where's Katya?" Silus said.

  "With Father Maylan. Don't worry, she's safe," Ioannis said. "Holy gods! Is that thing part of the plan to save us?"

  "Something went wrong."

  "Obviously. Hey, look out!"

  Ioannis barrelled into the side of Kelos, just as one of the creature's flippers came crashing down. The mage tumbled to safety but Ioannis didn't get out of the way in time and his legs were smashed into the planks. He screamed out as bones splintered and he tried to pull himself away as the creature loomed above him again.

  Jacquinto was already rushing to his comrade's aid and he pulled Ioannis free before the leviathan could strike. Silus tried not to look at the shapeless mess of Ioannis's legs or the blood that now stained the deck.

  "We're never going to be able to fight that thing. We're going to have to outrun it." Ignacio said, and before Silus could stop him he was climbing the rigging.

  The sails had been furled to prevent them being pulled from the ship by strong winds, but now Ignacio was hoping to use that wind to get them away from the creature.

  The mizzenmast sails unfurled with a great snap and the ropes that had held them in place whipped away from the ship, catching the creature across its flank with a noise like the cracking of a bull whip. The creature reared and the Llothriall began to move out of its shadow.

  "That's it." Jacquinto called to Ignacio. "It's working."

  The ship leaned hard to starboard as the first of the unfurled sails took the wind and Ignacio scuttled along the ropes and leapt nimbly to the mainmast. The ropes holding the sails here were thicker and Ignacio unsheathed his knife, hoping to save time by cutting through them. He looked nervously behind him as he worked and saw that the creature was already gaining on them.

  The first thing to catch up with the ship was the great bow wave that the creature pushed through the water before it. Ignacio was almost thrown from the mast as the crest hit and the ship's bow dipped sharply, the masthead disappearing into the water. There was the sound of splintering wood as
the creature's snout nudged the stern and, for one terrifying moment, it felt like the Llothriall was going to capsize.

  Ignacio redoubled his efforts and was almost pulled from his perch as the shimmering silks unfurled.

  The ship crashed down as the mainmast sales filled with wind. Ignacio saw part of the day room tearing free with the snout of the creature but was relieved that none of his comrades tumbled after the wreckage.

  The leviathan bellowed as they sped away from it, but the unpredictable currents of the Twilight seas were already begin to pull them in several directions at once. Ignacio realised that he had only brought them a few minutes at best and dropped back to the deck.

  Ioannis was sitting propped against a chest while Kelos crouched over him trying to stem the flow of blood, without much success. Ioannis looked like he was wearing a pair of scarlet breeches. Jacquinto and Silus were looking towards the stern, expressions of impotent panic on their faces.

  There was a thunderous splash and Ignacio turned to see that the creature had disappeared beneath the waves once more.

  "It's gone," he said, breathing a sigh of relief. "It's okay. It's gone."

  "No," Silus said. "It's going to come back and this time there will be nothing we can do to outrun it."

  "What are we going to do?"

  "Something is controlling that thing," Kelos said. "Silus, you'll have to break through its conditioning."

  Silus nodded, watched the wake of the creature and waited.

  There was a sound like the creaking of an ancient and wind blown tree as the stern of the Llothriall began to knit itself back together, the residual magic spending itself in repairing the vessel. Soon the hole where the day room had been was covered by an uneven patch of rough wood, but the ship hadn't resealed itself perfectly and one end of a table and the legs of several chairs now protruded from the stern. However they were no longer taking on water and while Silus awaited the creature's next attack he was very grateful for this.

  He looked down at the water as the wind fought with the ship. The silks above him were already showing signs of strain and a tear had appeared in one of them. Every so often the direction of the wind would change, pulling the ship violently onto a new course with Silus having to hang on to avoid being pitched over the side.