by Blaine Hart
“His tender soul will comfort us.”
“For a small while,” Kell said. “I grieve for your lonely and painful doom, but you cannot have the lad. Leave us and seek your tranquility elsewhere as your bodies go to their natural fate. Now Go.” Kell bellowed, raising Ashrune above his head and muttering a holy chant underneath his breath.
“Nooooo,” they wailed.
For hours they followed the ship, rising from the waters and calling out their sorrowful pleas. Kell and Wendfala carried me below. I was still under her spell of holding and while I could no longer see the water spirits, their moans haunted my soul. Wendfala cradled and soothed me as a mother, all the while keeping me motionless.
“I pity you my friend,” Kell said, placing his hand on my heart. “You touched Selivanova, and so her sorrow will haunt you the rest of your days. I can see to your harms but I cannot mend your heart. You must be strong.”
His healing flowed through me like a wellspring of serenity. Wendfala let go her spell and I held her tight and cried like a child the whole time.
“Think of the Angel,” she said soothingly.
Chapter 3: Evil Waters
Our seventh day at sea we hailed a vessel and followed her to a port where the people were surprised to see such a small craft so far from home. But they were kind, and when Kell told them that he was Holy Paladin, they gave us all the fresh well water and food that we could carry in exchange for some of his healing. We lingered a day among these people to recuperate and dry our bones, and I relished standing on ground that did not rock and sway.
The people implored Kell to do something about the incessant rains, but he said that it was beyond his power. As we took back to sea with the next morning’s tide, I asked my master why we hadn’t told the people of Moanmalla’s curse. He shook his head.
“Demons are selfish,” he explained. “If they ask you to do something then it will always be for their own good. Were we to do as she bade us, then fear would spread in the world and she would draw strength from that. Better that people have some hope that the rains will end than be afraid for the end of days.”
The next day we sailed. Guided by our silver loadstone necklace, we kept a southerly course. The waters and the weather warmed, but the rains never ceased. The air itself became damp and breathing was sometimes a chore. The winds calmed and the waters rolled in long swells. Here the cloud cover was thinner and sunlight lit them up a dull grey, but always there was rain.
We found some amusement in those balmy waters. For a while we were chased by a family of sharkodils. They playfully swam and leapt and rolled all about us, sometimes calling to us with their high whiney yelps. After a time, they became bored with our little boat and vanished. We spotted a pod of huge crimson threshers schooling east. We watched two come full surface and blow their spume in tall geysers, much to my delight.
On the second morning from our landfall, we saw something curious in the far distance. There was light. To me it looked like the moon creeping up the horizon swathed by clouds. Kell smiled.
“The Island of the Tree of Life,” he said softly. “It has to be.”
Then Wendfala put words to all our secret fears.
“If it is not,” she said. “I believe that our quest is doomed. I count us twenty-two days since the wretched rains began and the demons curse will only grow stronger. If we have spent all this time chasing nothing, I cannot imagine what we will do.”
Kell said nothing.
The light seemed so far off. The air calmed and began to stifle us with the humidity. In time we had to rely on the witch’s spells. She conjured a fair wind, but doing so was a strain on the woman and so she rested often. We moved in starts and stops and so Kell and I took to the oars often. That was when I began to see the strangest creatures popping up from the water.
At first I was afraid for they seemed to have dark human hair and I thought them to be more murdered souls. Then one leapt full out of the water and I was amazed. At first I thought it was an otter. It was small like those cute little sea animals. It had four feet and a small flat face.
The thing jumped and landed on my oar, and then I saw it was no otter. It had beady dark eyes surrounded by red orbits. It had no fur but for the hair on its head draping down its skinny body. Its four legs were bent like a dog’s but it had paws, all with pointed claws like a lizard. It clutched the oar shaft and stared at me. Then it bared terrible pointed fangs and hissed at me. Instinctively I recoiled and snapped the oar and flung it off. Then I heard Wendfala scream from the wheel.
I leapt to my feet and saw Kell fling one of the things from her shoulders. I felt something land on my back, and then – and then strange things began to happen.
It was as though I was moving on thought. Quick as lightening I flung off my vest and the creature went sailing. Another leapt at me and I batted the thing away with my oar. One of them landed on the rigging. I heard its hiss and only managed to jump out of its way in the nick of time. It thumped on the deck and I kicked it overboard.
I backed quickly away from the edge but the creatures were suddenly everywhere. I heard Wendfala shriek out a war cry and a dozen of them burst into flame. The three of us were backing our way to the mast. Kell and I were using our oars like mace’s while Wendfala was casting her magic frantically.
“They’re like a swarm,” she cried.
They were all over the ship and coming at us from the water and from the rigging. We should have been overwhelmed but we three were fighting and slaying like warriors charged with lightning. My reflexes were instant and my aim was always true. Soon my swing was taking out two or three at a time, but always they came.”
“Is there no end to them?” I yelled.
“They’ll overpower us with sheer numbers,” Wendfala wailed between spells.
My master got angry. He gave a roar that seemed to shatter the sky and a dozen of the creatures were blasted from the lines and into the ocean. He gave another cry and Ashrune flew into his hands. Then he became like a madman, his war hammer blurring and blazing through the air so that I could only hear the sounds of their bones shattering. Then it was as if I had caught my master’s insanity and my oar slashed through the ugly creatures with blazing speed.
As we fought and slashed the vermin, the ship shuddered and suddenly it was as if the Chaos was lifted. The sails furled and billowed and we were propelled across the water faster than an eagle-fish. As we sped through the water the attacks slowed, but those that did assault us were still vicious. My master and I wiped them from sky, sea and deck.
In time they were gone. We could hear their frustrated leaping and splashing from far away. Kell and I stayed our weapons. We breathed. We looked about. The deck was littered with their corpses and slimed with their vile blood. I had several bites and claw marks on my body, but nothing too bad. The wind eased. Then I heard a groan and I just managed to catch Wendfala as she collapsed.
“She saved us,” Kell said. “She used her magic to conjure a mighty wind. But now she is paying the price. She is exhausted, drained.”
“Will she be alright?” I asked, not knowing if I should be afraid.
“I don’t know,” he said, gathering her limp frame in his arms. “It will take much for her to recover. Her harms are not so much physical as spiritual, and there my healing can reach only so far.”
“But . . . but she will be alright,” I said as if begging. “Please say that she will.”
“If she can last the night,” Kell said. “I will make her comfortable and do what I can. You, Longo, must see to these wicked corpses. This ship must be cleansed of their evil before night falls.”
“What are these things?”
“They are Dobhar-chu,” he said. “Creatures created by a dark sorcerer. He has long since passed but these things have bred and outlived his schemes. Be thorough in your work lad, Wendfala’s life will depend on it.”
I puzzled on his words as I tossed the creatures overboard. One still had
some life in it and snapped at me. I was again amazed at the speed with which I avoided those fangs and throttled the life out of him. Something had happened to me and I knew that I had to ask my master about it later.
Dark was growing and a cool seemed to be creeping in with it. I swabbed the deck, determined to wash away every speck of the Dobhar-chu’s stinking blood. There was a soft wind in the sail and I looked to the tiller now and again. As night came on, the glow before us in the south seemed somewhat brighter. There was no more need for the lodestone and so I kept the ship pointed true. As night gathered, Kell came topside with a tall cup of strong tea for me. He stood by my side and looked to the distant glow.
“There is dark magic in these waters,” he said. “And that magic wants Wendfala’s soul. There will be a battle tonight.”
“I am ready master,” I said. “Just tell me what to do.”
“You must not sleep,” he said. “You must look to the ship and keep our course. Other than that you can do nothing. I am going to stand watch. Do not speak to me, do not cry out and do not make a sound. No matter what you see and no matter what you hear, just look to the ship.”
“But master—“
He cut me off with his hand and walked to the prow where he sat as if in vigil. There was an eerie quiet about. There were no sounds of birds, no splashing of fish, no sloshing of waves and not even the sound of wind. Only the eternal rain pelting the sea and the occasional creek of the mast broke the silence. With the night cold came a fog and the glow from the island was obscured. I still had the mark on the binnacle with which to guide the Chaos, and so I obeyed my master and looked to the ship.
As the night crept on I began to be afraid. I didn’t know what I feared. In truth it must have been the fear of the unknown. Kell had said that there would be a battle, but I saw nothing in the night.
A few hours into that lonely watch the wind began to pick up. It was a cold wind. The sea beneath me began to pitch and roll and we were still enshrouded in the fog. I thought that I heard a low moaning in the wind.
Suddenly the hatch burst open and then just as suddenly it slammed closed. I stared in amazement as the hatch seemed to be wrestled back and forth by invisible forces. I thought to slam in the locking bar, but I didn’t know if it was better for it to be open or shut. Kell had said to do nothing, so I tended the wheel in the heavy wind. A few moments later the banging had ceased and the hatch lay closed and sat quiet.
I kept thinking that I saw things; things that when I looked at them weren’t there. They were like a small strike of blue or purple light that melted like the vapor trail of a falling star. They seemed to be all about, but always when I looked closely they were gone.
The wind began to swirl. The sails were flopping every which way and the ship began to yaw so I ran and trimmed the sheets. We steadied, but then we began to list a little to starboard. We had taken on no water, so I dashed back to the wheel and it had turned off course several points. I tried to right the thing, but it was like trying to shove the rudder through mud. I strained and finally managed to get the ship on course, but we were still leaning.
Then I saw that we were moving faster. The needle in the binnacle was going crazy, pointing more and more to port and way off our course. That was when I realized that were sailing in a sweeping arc, and despite all my efforts with the wheel, we were going around in a wide circle. The water was sliding fast beneath us and I knew that we had been caught in a strong current or eddy. All I could do was try and keep the ship upright. All the while Kell sat motionless in the prow.
The wind was howling and behind those howls I heard faint shrieks. There were bumps and thuds from below and I wanted to rush down there, but my master’s last words stayed me. We were moving faster and listing sharper. We were in a whirlpool and I thought that the evil assaulting us was dark enough to kill us all to get Wendfala’s soul. I could not see the eye of the whirlpool due to the dark and fog, but the ship was gaining speed.
Many times since I had left the peace and serenity of the Barnacle Atoll I had faced death and lived to tell the tale. But here I truly despaired. I was in the hands of evil forces powering the elements themselves and there was not a thing that I could do about it. No sword, no knife, no weapon that I could lay my hands on would have changed a thing. I was in the grip of the invisible and my fate lay in the strength of my master battling the spirits.
I was gripped by the thought of what it would be like to drown when I heard the strangest of noises. At first I thought that a flock of gulls had also been swept up in the elemental surges. I heard the flapping of a thousand wings and looked up – but there was nothing there other than the noise of shrieking and cawing –
Cawing!
I strained to see. A blitz of dark birds was flying against the wind and in the midst of the gaggle I saw a fleck of white. Round and round they flew and they seemed to calm the wind. A thousand birds were charging and flying against the unnatural force. Their cawing came from their little souls and it was music to my ears as they beat back the winds with their magic. I felt that the ship was slowing, ever so slightly. But it was slowing.
Then Kell suddenly burst to his feet. He was bathed in a glorious white light. He held his warhammer Ashrune high in the air, and the light that enveloped him flew upward and into storm. In the burst of blinding light I saw the myriad of black crows, and then I saw Byrinius, and my heart soared. I heard unnatural shrieking in the wind and Ashrune’s light ate away at the fog and the dark.
The ship’s wheel spun before me as the Chaos righted itself. I grappled with the thing and finally wrested control. The crows cawed repeatedly as if in celebration. When I looked up again, the brilliance of my master’s magic had eaten away the darkness as water will eat away at the walls of a castle made of sand. There was one last burst of white light and then it was dark once again.
The night had returned.
The water calmed. The air was still. Kell slowly lowered his war hammer. The giant white bird alit on the deck by the closed hatch, and in a twinkling Byrinius stood there. That was when I knew that it was over.
But there was something odd in the now silent night. It was not just quiet, it was too silent. There was no rain. I looked up and I saw the stars.
That quiet night my master and I slept on the deck while Byrinius went below to be with Wendfala. Kell and I woke the next morning to a real sunrise on placid water. We also woke to the smell of good tea and a delicious breakfast that Wendfala served to us. She kissed Kell and I both on the forehead and sang a small chant. I did not know what charm she had laid on us, but I do remember feeling invigorated.
“Thank you,” she said softly. “You saved my very soul. You called my rooks Kell, and you Longo stayed the ship. You saved me.”
“You saved our very lives,” Kell said. “That was no sailors wind that you raised. It was a true gale and it got us from those little devils fast.”
“I wonder,” I said as I munched, “why the Dobhar-chu didn’t follow. Surely those fish-like nasties could have caught up to us in time.”
“It’s because they are fish,” Kell said. “They are spawned from a horrible cross-breeding, but at heart they are fish, and fish have very small brains. They breached and dove in their rage and after a while forgot what their rage was about and so went on seeking other prey.”
“But what was the evil that sought Wendfala?”
“The same evil that spawned the Dobhar-chu,” the witch said. “Evil swims with evil. It lurks deep in the waters and sensed my weakened spirit.”
“There should be buoys,” I said, “to warn sailors.”
“No doubt there are,” Wendfala said. “We must have missed them in the darkness.”
“And now we are in light,” I said. “And while I don’t think that Moanmalla’s cursed has lifted, I do suspect that we are close to the Island of the Tree of Life.”
“Indeed,” Kell said, inhaling the fresh sea scented air. “And if nothing else, I a
m glad for the relief from that maddening rain.”
I too was glad. I let the sunshine warm me and thought about simple blessings. For indeed, as I looked about, it was as if we were in the eye of a hurricane, circled by dark churning clouds and storms that where just a few miles away. Those dark clouds reminded me of the true weight of our quest and how we had just barely begun. Kell too looked about.
“There’s no wind,” he said. “You know what that means Longo.”
“To the oars we go,” I said cheerily. “I feel as though I could row to – that reminds me master, I wanted to ask. When we were battling the little Dobies, it felt as if I was possessed by a spirit of strength and – and agility. I felt as if I were moving like a master elf swordsman; each of my blows was straight and true and it was as if I could anticipate their attacks.”
“I too sensed that,” Wendfala said. “Did you bless us Kell?”