“I can pay you,” Turesobei said. “Handsomely.”
“We’re already laden with cargo,” the captain said. “We can’t —” The captain’s eyes widened, and he stammered unintelligible words.
“Yomon!” the sailor in the crow’s nest shouted, having spotted them too. He must’ve been distracted by Motekeru to not have noticed the yomon sooner.
One man dropped to his knees and began praying to the Crimson Sun. Another cursed his fate. Most of them clutched to their weapons and trembled, murmuring amongst themselves. Tears rolled from the corners of a few sailors’ eyes.
“We need to get out of here fast,” Turesobei said.
“You — you have angered the yomon,” Captain Boki stammered.
“Please. We must get to the Forbidden Library.”
“If we help you, the yomon will hunt us as well,” the captain said.
“Your ship could easily outpace them,” Narbenu said.
The captain barked orders, and his men finished lowering the sails. “The Forbidden Library won’t allow you in.”
“You know how to reach it though, right?” Iniru said.
“Of course I do.”
Turesobei pulled out a large bag filled with ivory, copper, jade, and pearls. He had three more bags like it, hidden. He opened the bag. “This is yours — all of it — if you take us.”
Eyes narrowing, Captain Boki rubbed his hands together. “You understand I’m not responsible for the library taking you in?”
“I understand.” Turesobei glanced back to see the yomon closing to within half a league. “We don’t have much time.”
The captain gestured toward Motekeru. “That thing safe?”
“He’s my servant,” Turesobei responded.
Boki closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. “Lower the gangplank! Make ready to sail!”
Moments later, the gangplank thumped onto the ice, and they rode their sonoke, one at a time, up the gangplank. The yomon were now a quarter-league away. Awasa rode on the shoulders of one. About a dozen of the yomon, who were faster than their brethren, raced ahead of the pack. The yomon carrying Awasa was not one of those.
“Who in Torment is that girl?” Boki said.
“Oh, that’s my betrothed,” Turesobei replied. “It’s a long story.”
“I should think so. Don’t try to double-cross me, boy, or you’ll regret it.”
“I won’t,” Turesobei replied.
Narbenu whispered in Turesobei’s ear. “Be on your guard. They’ll try to rob us as soon as they get a chance. The only difference between a pirate and a trader out here is that a trader already has his hull full of goods to sell.”
Once Turesobei and Narbenu rode onboard, Motekeru raised the gangplank by himself, a feat which greatly impressed the five sailors who were standing nearby, probably having intended to do that themselves.
The yomon charged down the beach. The sails puffed with a strong breeze. The sailors raised the anchors. The ship lurched forward on the ice … and stopped. Then it jerked forward again … and continued inching along.
"Sobei!" Iniru shouted, readying a spear. "The yomon!"
Snarling and brandishing their onyx-bladed weapons, the dozen yomon running ahead of the others neared the ship. Some were closer than others.
"Battle stations!" Boki cried.
All the sailors not working the sails gathered their javelins or drew out hand-axes. Boki gripped the wheel and bowed his head. “My greed’s killed me. The winds are too weak, the ship’s weighed down, and there’s no time to dump the lot of you. It’s over for me.”
“Captain,” Turesobei said. “Keep your hands on the wheel. You’re about to get a big boost of speed. Be ready.”
Turesobei began to chant a low-powered version of the spell of spring’s first gust, a medium-level wind spell he’d had no need for since he’d learned more powerful ones at age twelve. Good thing he still remembered it.
Narbenu thumped the puzzled captain on the shoulder. “He’s not kidding about being ready. He’s a wizard. He’s casting a wind spell.”
“Sobei!” Awasa screeched, her voice shrill like fingernails scraped against a writing board. “Sobei, you’re mine!”
While casting the spell, Turesobei watched as the first yomon came within range. Three sailors attacked it — two javelins struck one of the vermillion-skinned savages in the chest. The points barely punctured the skin, and the yomon swatted them away. The other eleven closed within range. The sailors unleashed a barrage of javelins, and it did almost nothing but annoy the yomon. Their skin was too thick for a normal weapon to damage them. One yomon got struck in the eye by a javelin, and the point went deep. It fell to its knees, howling mad, and ripped the javelin out. Then it picked itself up and staggered forward as if drunk.
Motekeru shoved sailors aside and stepped to the edge.
A yomon leapt toward the ship. Motekeru opened his mouth and spewed searing flames that engulfed the yomon but didn’t stop its momentum. The scorched yomon crashed into him, its brush-like mustache on fire, its eyes melting. The two fell onto the deck. Motekeru raked the yomon with his claws, hit it with another burst of fire, and tossed it aside. The yomon turned into a pile of ash. A second yomon jumped on board, and with his axe, chopped the head off a sailor. Motekeru belched a sustained burst of flames and melted the yomon into oblivion. But then a third yomon barreled into Motekeru and pinned him.
Iniru stabbed a fourth yomon with her spear. The point slid in between its ribs ineffectively. She darted back as it swiped at her with a spiked club. A sailor then struck it in the back with an iron sword. The yomon spun, and smashed the sailor’s head into a red mist. Narbenu charged in and chopped hard with his hafted axe, the blade slicing deep into the yomon’s neck. It didn’t kill the yomon, but the brute sagged to its knees, dropped its club, and grasped at its neck.
A fifth yomon climbed onboard, ignored three javelin strikes, and a sword-strike, and shouldered into Narbenu, knocking him across the ship. Kemsu stabbed it in the stomach, but the yomon grabbed the spear, ripped it from Kemsu’s hand, and clubbed him with it, knocking him flat. It raised its club to attack Kemsu, but Iniru darted in and struck it with her spear, nicking it on the chin, which was just enough to distract it into turning away from Kemsu and toward her.
Motekeru incinerated the yomon who had tackled him. He turned toward the fifth yomon and burned it to ashes before it could hit Iniru. But this time, the flame spluttered a bit at the end. Motekeru was using the most heat he could manage. Turesobei could feel it all the way across the ship. It was fortunate the ship wasn’t on fire. He feared Motekeru wasn’t going to be able to manage many more bursts like that.
Six more yomon were only paces away from the ship, and the other seventy-six yomon and Awasa weren’t all that far behind. A sixth yomon jumped up and tore into three sailors, wounding them and knocking them back. As soon as they were clear, Motekeru hit the yomon with a weakened spurt of fire and shouldered into it, knocking it back onto the ice, where it writhed in agony, grasping at its face.
At last, Turesobei completed the spell.
Blasted directly by the wind, the sails popped taut. The masts creaked under the strain.
A seventh yomon leapt toward the ship as it rocketed forward, skates screaming on the ice. Everyone onboard staggered backward. The savage demon missed the ship, and fell belly-first onto the ice.
Chapter Forty-Two
The keening skates sliced across the ice as the ship zoomed along, powered by Turesobei’s wind spell. In the distance, Awasa howled with rage, but her voice soon faded away.
“We’ve got two dead, Captain!” a sailor shouted. “Three injured, one’s in bad shape.”
Captain Boki shut his eyes and sighed. “Patch up the wounded, first mate. Patch them up. It’s all we can do.”
“And the dead, sir?”
“We can’t stop now. Store the bodies for later burial. Mop the deck.”
“Yes, Captain.�
��
Bile rose into Turesobei’s throat as he stared trancelike at the two headless bodies. Sticky crimson droplets were freezing onto the deck as the lifeless eyes from one severed head stared accusatorily at him. The other head was nothing but a splatter of crimson gore and white matter splattered across the deck and many of the sailors. Motekeru was wiping the mess off his body.
Enashoma buried her head in Zaiporo’s chest, turning away from the dead men. Turesobei wished he could turn away, but he couldn’t. He choked back a sob, and then nearly vomited. Those two men were dead because of him. Men who probably had families who loved them and depended on them. This was his fault. If he hadn’t come to this ship, those two sailors would still be alive. This wasn’t their fight. He should never have endangered these innocent people. Kemsu was right. Everyone he encountered was in danger; everyone one around him suffered.
Iniru knelt beside Kemsu and put her fingers on his neck to check his pulse, while Motekeru helped Narbenu to his feet.
The goronku scout groaned miserably. “I’ll be okay. Just feel like I’ve been run over by a sonoke … or three. I’ve never been hit that hard in my life. Surprised it didn’t just punch right through me. Kemsu? How is he?”
“Knocked out,” Iniru said. “His pulse is good. I think he’s going to be all right.” She looked up at Turesobei. “You okay?”
He didn’t respond. He merely stared, blankly, as the healthy sailors bandaged their wounded brethren and pulled the two bodies together, side-by-side.
“Sobei?” Zaiporo said. “Something wrong?”
The ship began to slow.
Captain Boki slapped Turesobei on the shoulder. “Hey, is the wind supposed to be giving out on us already?”
Turesobei snapped out of his trance. “What? No. Sorry. I let my focus go. My mind was too far from the spell.” This wasn’t a spell he could cast and let work on its own. Like most spells of its nature, it had to be maintained. The only way for it to be otherwise would be to let the surrounding air kenja rush into it uncontrolled, which wasn’t an option in the Ancient Cold and Deep. As he restored a bit of focus to the magic, the winds picked up again and the ship’s speed increased.
Captain Boki followed Turesobei’s stare. “Never seen a dead man before, eh?”
“I have. My father and our bodyguards, as well as bandits and others … I’ve even killed three men myself.” He thought of the charred Gawo scouts he’d blasted with the spell of heaven’s wrath. “But I did that in self-defense. These men … their deaths are on me. I got you involved in my troubles. This wasn’t their fight. It was mine alone. They had nothing to do with it, and now —”
“Let it go,” Captain Boki said. “Just let it go.”
“But if I hadn’t asked you for help …”
“You would’ve died on that beach. That’s life. You took a risk, and so did I. Don’t forget the part my greed played in this. My greed cost me two men — two good men. And I’ll toast their names when I get to port and mourn them as I should. But this is a violent world. People die. There’s no preventing that. You move on. And this ain’t the first two men the yomon have ever killed, you know.” He nodded toward Motekeru. “Your beast there killed several yomon. I didn’t even know they could be killed. Any fight that rids this world of a few yomon is a good fight, no matter the cost. I’d have been okay myself, dying in a fight where a few yomon got what’s owed them. Don’t mourn the dead, just worry about the living.”
Turesobei nodded and said dully, “I can heal the three wounded men with magic, though I won’t be able to do it until I take a break from the wind spell.”
Motekeru stomped over to join them. “They died nobly. Honor their deaths. That is all we can do.”
“I’ll try.” He’d try not to let it affect him, though like with Awasa, what happened here would continue to haunt him. But he had to control his emotions; the others needed him. “You did well, Motekeru. I noticed your fire sputtering there at the end, though. All used up?”
“Not entirely, master. I can do maybe a few dozen more short bursts that could hurt a yomon, but not any strong enough to kill one.”
Once the wounded sailors were bandaged, Turesobei dropped the wind spell and healed each of them, as well as Kemsu, who was concussed, and Narbenu, who had suffered several cracked ribs and had a dark bruise expanding beneath the fur on his belly. The ship had slowed to a crawl, so once he was done healing the injured, he cast the wind spell again.
Enashoma, Zaiporo, and Iniru sat in the prow. Shoma didn’t want to see the bodies or the blood being swept from the deck. Motekeru helped the sailors lead the sonoke below deck into the cargo hold.
The Glass Sea proved smooth with few obstacles to impede their path. From time to time, the captain steered to avoid tall rocks or large snowdrifts, but that seemed easy enough and uncommon.
“That spell, can you teach me to do that?” Captain Boki asked.
“Sorry.” Exhausted from lack of sleep, running, and casting too many spells, Turesobei plopped, groaning, onto a nearby canvas sack full of what he guessed were furs. “You have to be of the same descent that I am and have studied for years.”
“That’s too bad. Sure would be useful. How long can you keep this up?”
“It’s a simple spell, and on your world there’s plenty of energy to draw on. Normally, I could keep it going all day, but I had a rough night.”
“I can see that,” the captain said. “You all look terrible.”
“Will I need to keep the ship going with the spell the whole time?”
“When the winds are at normal strength for this season, we will move,” said Captain Boki, “but slowly. Not much faster than your mounts could go. The ship really is overburdened now. The winds are usually stronger than this, though. They’ll pick up soon.”
“In that case, I’ll try to keep the spell active for three more hours to give us a lead over the yomon, then I’ll get some rest. After that, I’ll keep doing the spell as much as I can to keep us well ahead of the yomon.”
“What’s wrong with the goronku girl?” Captain Boki asked, peering at Kurine, whom they had lain out on top of some blankets alongside Narbenu and Kemsu. During the battle, she and the still-recovering hounds had remained strapped into the saddles.
“An orugukagi bit her,” Turesobei replied, “day before yesterday.”
Boki shook his head and tut-tutted. “Poor thing. You know she’s going to die, right? Honestly, I can’t believe she’s still alive.”
“I cast a healing spell on her to slow the advance of the poison.”
“But there’s no cure,” Captain Boki responded.
“There is on my world,” Turesobei said.
“You think she’ll last long enough for you to make it back there?”
“I’m not sure we can get back,” Turesobei replied. “I’m hoping I can find a cure at the Forbidden Library. I think I’ve slowed it enough that she’ll live for a week. That should give us time to get there, right?”
“We can reach the Forbidden Library in four days, maybe less with that wind spell of yours. But I don’t see any way they’ll let you in. They don’t let anyone in. It’s … well … forbidden.”
“I’m hoping that since we’re so unusual they’ll let us in.”
The captain nodded, but said nothing else about it. “First Mate, the deck’s too crowded. Make room in the cargo hold to fit these people and their gear. The mounts too, if you can manage.”
“How, captain?”
“I don’t know. Cram everything in, stack it high as it’ll go. Throw the cheap hides overboard. Whatever it takes.”
While Turesobei focused on maintaining the spell, letting himself drift off into a state that was almost meditative, the sailors cleared space and tossed some of the hides overboard. Then they escorted his companions and their sonoke below, except Motekeru who stayed above.
“You’re going to have clean up after your beasts,” Boki said. “I’m not scooping sonoke
crap. I want it spotless down there.”
Iniru returned to the deck and tapped Turesobei on the shoulder. “Scoot over and give me some of that sack. The deck’s wet and cold.”
“We just scraped it this morning,” Boki said. “Ices over, you know.”
Turesobei shifted to share the canvas bag with her. “Is it warm down below?”
“Relatively. There’s no wind. We stretched out the furs, and we’re fit snugly in there. But it’s not as nice as a snow house.”
Turesobei chuckled. “Never thought I’d think of a house made of blocks of ice as a luxury.”
“Kurine’s fever’s down for now. Kemsu’s watching her. He’s still pretty upset. I told Shoma and Zaiporo to get some rest.”
“Do you think Kemsu’s in love with Kurine?” Turesobei asked.
Iniru shrugged. “They were best friends as children, and then they couldn’t be together anymore. I think maybe they were both in love, or close to it, at one time. Given their ages and history, they probably thought they’d end up together when they were growing up. But then Kemsu —”
“Became a slave,” Turesobei said. “I’m going to make sure Narbenu gives Kemsu his freedom when we’re done.”
Iniru laughed. “You’re funny, you know. Always fighting battles to help other people.”
“I don’t see what’s funny about it. He should be free.”
“I agree completely, but you don’t even like Kemsu.”
“He’s … he’s … okay.”
“I bet Kemsu does still love her. No wonder you two don’t get along.”
“Maybe, and he’s also jealous of me because he likes you, too.”
Iniru nodded. “You have everything he doesn’t. Freedom, Kurine, me … well, maybe me.”
“If I don’t screw it up some more. Why don’t you get some rest, Niru?”
“I’ll stay up with you,” she said. “You had a rough night. And besides, we really haven’t gotten to spend much time alone together.”
“I know! I braved unimaginable dangers to rescue you. And now, I hardly get to see you. It really isn’t fair.”
Storm Phase Series: Books 1-3 Page 87