To Be Victorious: The Maestro Chronicles Book 6

by John Buttrick

  It was rare when the worst of imaginings actually came to pass, yet Roy had hoped for better and was deeply saddened by the fact that one of his worst case scenarios turned out to be true. The Quetzal was trained to fly back to the ship if anything happened to her rider. He blinked back tears and hardened his resolve. “Please, let me take the leviathans and search for Scout Shareen. Whoever is responsible for this will learn what it feels like to be eaten.”

  The Chief shook his head and his facial expression hardened, as unmoving as stone. “Not now, the Healers are working on Rosebud and when she is able, she and a pair of scouts will fly to wherever she lost her rider. When they return the Captain will decided what to do. Once orders are given, I believe your services as a leviathan wrangler will be put to use. Until then you will remain here.”

  Roy hated that answer, but there was little he could do about that, except obey the order. He could feel the warm blood flushing his face and knew it was from the anger he was attempting to contain rather than embarrassment. After a brief wrestling match with his emotions, he realized the Chief was right about the services of a leviathan wrangler not being needed yet. “It will be as you say, Chief. Thank you for coming down here and keeping me informed.”

  Gunferd nodded and seemed pleased by the respectful tone in which he had been addressed. “I will come back when the scouts return,” he said and then exited through the hatchway.

  Another two hours sitting at the console, powering the port wheel, drinking another twenty cups of water, and worrying about Sarah went by. Roy was ready to punch something by the time the Chief came through the hatchway again. His brow was tight with tension as he stepped between the two consoles and announced, “A scout has returned. They found a beach that had been the site of a spell-battle. Smoldering timbers of what must have been a dwelling were discovered near a half clamshell structure that was surrounded by a large area where sand had been superheated into glass,” he sighed and took a breath before continuing, “In the bushes below a steep cliff was found the upper half of a palm with four fingers and five rings of power still attached. The healers have confirmed that it is part of Scout Shareen’s right hand. The slice was clean and consistent with the wounds inflicted on the Quetzal”

  It took every bit of self-control Roy could muster to keep from shouting. He wanted to put a whole lot of hurting on whoever was responsible. He took a deep breath and asked, “Has the Captain decided what is to be done?”

  He could see the anger burning in the orbs of the Chief. “Yes, we will be increasing the speed to seventy nautical miles per hour and when we get to the beach, a base will be set up. In half an hour you will be relieved of driver-duty so you can prepare the leviathans for battle. One of the scouts remained at the beach while the other came back with Rosebud and the latest report. Your mission will be to secure the area until the Lucia arrives, but if the scouts have not found the remains of Sarah Shareen by the time you arrive, it will not be taken amiss if you spend time searching for her.”

  Roy sat up straight. “If I run into any resistance, am I authorized to use lethal force?”

  “You will be issued an aqua-pellet launcher. Strap that onto your forearm and anything struck by one single harden drop will be blown to pieces. So, yes, lethal force has been authorized.”

  The device was a miniature version of the Aqua-tubes and had enough explosive power to blast a hole in a stone wall three feet thick. It was an honor to be issued, even temporarily, one of those weapons and Roy was fully aware of how little he deserved such an honor. “I am truly grateful for the opportunity that has been granted me,” he said without having to feign the gratitude. The emotion was genuine and surprised even him. “Why have I been given the honor?”

  Gunferd’s lips twitched as if he was about to smile and then thought better of it, preferring to keep his face blank. “I recommended you. Sylin, you are one of the sloppiest sailors I have had to deal with, but you are a wonder when it comes to wrangling leviathans, and I know you will not allow whoever attacked Scout Shareen to go unpunished.”

  Since his sailing career could be numbered in weeks, Roy did not doubt the criticism was legitimate. He appreciated the acknowledgment of his skill as a wrangler and also knew launches could have been sent to secure the area. The leviathans could have been used for backup or patrolling after the fact. The Captain definitely did not have to issue him an aqua-pellet launcher. “Chief, I owe you for this.”

  The red-headed Nephilim nodded his head. “Obey orders promptly, be at your postings on time, cut down on the complaining, and I will consider the debt paid. You are being given the opportunity to show us what you are truly made of. Do not blow it.”

  Roy did not fully understand why, but it was the first time he actually felt like he was part of the crew and not an outsider tagging along on the cruise. “It is agreed. I will do all that you require and will make those sun-blighted foreigners rue the day they attacked one of our scouts.”

  -----

  Royan stood on the beach between the burned out remnants of a wooden structure and a thick dirt-colored sheet of glass. A Quetzal with Scout Willering on its back circled above and the two leviathans were swimming a few hundred yards off shore. Roy’s anxiety only increased when he arrived half an hour earlier and Whachit Willering had not found so much as a trace of Sarah.

  What could have happened to her? Was she wounded and taken prisoner or had she died and been dragged off by scavengers?

  Strapped to Roy’s forearm was the aqua-pellet launcher and he was tempted to shoot something, but around him were birds, typical ocean-side wildlife, and vegetation, nothing worthy of his wrath. Blasting a hole in a tree would not help him find Sarah.

  He made is way over to the spot where part of her hand was found and then looked up at the cliff. Both scouts had flown over the place where Rosebud had perched earlier, but neither of them had set their Quetzals down to take a closer look. Just because they did not see her from the sky did not mean she had not crawled into the woods. She could be lying under a tree.

  He expected the Lucia to arrive sometime within the next hour and it seemed best to him to have some answers before that happened. The search for Sarah held his top priority, but he was also eager to prove himself, and not blow the opportunity that had been given to him.

  Burkos came ashore, evidently deciding to sun on the beach. Bermos was still somewhere off shore. He shot up out of the water and trapped sideways in his jaws was a hammerhead shark. The leviathan splashed down and then flipped the twenty foot long fish snack into the air. The air-born shark dropped head first into the wide open jaws of the much, much larger predator. When the tail disappeared down his gullet, the huge mouth snapped shut.

  “Enjoy your snack,” Roy shouted. The male leviathan splashed his tail in acknowledgement.

  It took ten minutes to reach the place on the cliff Rosebud had perched. The path through the trees had not been so bad; it was the steep climb up the hillside that had been challenging. After a few moments spent catching his breath, he found dried blood on a leaf near the edge and on the leaf next to it. No sign of a body or anything of that size being dragged off, but he did see where blades had shredded some of the trees and bushes. There was enough damage to the foliage to account for possibly a hundred throwing blades, yet he could find not a single one. Could the blades have been spell-formed?

  The more he thought about it, given the scene below, the more the idea made sense. She must have been captured by the Nephilim of this land, he concluded, rather than accept the possibility she might be dead.

  The piercing caw of a Quetzal caught his attention. He ran to the edge of the cliff and to the south, out on the water, two warships were approaching. Each was about three hundred feet long, made of wood, with sails catching the wind on seven masts. Rows of bolt launchers, twenty on the side, and likely twenty more on the other side, were manned and ready to go into action. Another rack of bolt launchers were at the bows of the ships. One of
them began launching narrow projectiles at the air-steed. Whachit angled his mount to the right and upward. The darts barely missed Carny’s left wing.

  It was clear the people of this land had the habit of attacking first and without provocation. Burkos was still sunning on the beach, but Bermos was swimming lazily on the surface of the water, and too far away to hear a vocal command. Roy aimed his ring at the leviathan, which was as big as the ships that were both sending bolts into the sky. Bermos, ship, attack, and smash.

  The giant saltwater croc submerged and then resurfaced right beside the vessel closest to the shore. His massive tail slammed into the port bow, changing the course of the ship, and splitting the planking at the point of impact. Men went scrambling to the rail to see what they had run into, but Burkos had already submerged, and they had not a clue what the ship might have hit.

  The leviathan had his orders and would not stop until the ship was smashed, for the time being he needed no further instructions. Roy used his ring to create a solidified rope of air, lashed that tightly to a nearby tree limb, and then descended hand under hand to the beach. He ceased sending life-force energy into the ring and the rope vanished.

  Fire appeared in the mainsail of the ship that was the first to launch an attack on the scout. Whachit was using his ring. The spell in his gemstone could light a lamp or a campfire and also was capable of setting the rigging of a sailing ship on fire.

  Roy glanced at his arm, decided he could do better than that, and aimed his forearm at the ship that had a number of small fires burning in each of its seven sails. At that moment, Bermos resurfaced and gave the bow of his object of wrath another whack, this time breaking through the boards. The vessel with the flaming sails and rigging began launching bolts at the leviathans, even Burkos who had not left the beach. She did now.

  The fury building in Royan at the loss of his friend and the audacity of the people, who had started the flight, could be contained no longer. He willed an aqua-pellet to shoot out, the tiny projectile flew in the air above the waves, and straight toward the ship Burkos was approaching. “Sorry girl, this one is mine,” he said as the drop-shaped pellet struck the vessel amid-ship at the waterline. The released energy ripped through planking as if it was parchment, splashing water yards away from the place of impact, and created a hole in the side so big, the ship was nearly split in half.

  He could hear men screaming as they dived into the water, those that had not been ripped apart in the initial blast. About a third of the lifeboats had been filled and launched by the time the warship sank beneath the waves. No doubt the abandoning of the ship started earlier when they could not extinguish the flaming sails. A pair of wide-opened jaws came up from under the second boat of rowing men on the left and then snapped shut, crushing and swallowing the wooden vessel and the twenty or so sailors who had been on it. “Good girl, you needed a little more fiber in your diet,” Roy called out.

  He decided to allow the leviathan to dine on a few more lifeboats, but would stop her soon enough, if only because he wanted some of the sailors alive to answer questions. The other ship was half under with its stern in the air. Bermos shot up out of the water and then brought all of his considerable weight down, smashing the back end of the ship into pieces. Roy let Burkos take two more lifeboats and then aimed the ring of power. Eat fish. The command was the quickest way to divert the leviathan. She ignored the rest of the boats and vanished under the water. It would take about ten fully grown groupers to fill her belly and so Roy figured he might not see her for a while.

  A crossbow bolt landed in the sand beside him and he noticed the unthankful men in the lifeboats were armed and aiming their weapons at him. Thirteen boats had survived and about two hundred eighty-some odd men. “I don’t really need so many people to ask questions of,” he said and then sent an aqua pellet at the lead boat. The seemingly innocent drop of water hit the man holding the crossbow in the chest and the resulting explosion left no sign there had been a boat with twenty-three men aboard, only splinters and fragments of human remains that were far too small for identification. Vaporized blood and bits and pieces were scattered and blown in every direction, including on the other lifeboats.

  When he directed his forearm at boat number twelve, everyone holding a crossbow suddenly chose to toss it into the ocean. The fact that he restrained from destroying that boat caused the occupants of the other boats to follow the example, once they knew their lives would be spared.

  More than a few boats began rowing away from the beach, but Bermos herded them back by blocking each of their attempts to go in any direction that did not take them to where Royan was standing. Good boy, he communicated through the ring. The acknowledging swipe of his tail caused several nearby life-boats to rock violently in the resulting wave but none of the occupants fell into the water.

  As the lifeboats ran aground and the men stepped off, Roy noticed that not a single one of them was less than nine feet tall. He estimated the tallest to be nine and a half. All of them had light brown skin and dark hair. Their uniforms were white with dark blue trim and their hats seemed to be made of nothing more than white cloth of some sort, with the exception of a dozen or so men wearing helmets and with knives strapped to their legs. Marines, Roy would recognize one of them no matter what culture they came from. It had something to do with the attitude and the fact that he had never seen one who was not perfectly fit and ready to do serious harm.

  At his height, he was by far the shortest man on the beach, but apparently these were all Anakim, and he a Nephi with rings of power and an aqua-pellet launcher. “I am Leviathan Wrangler Royan Sylin of the Grand Imperial Ship, Lucia, and you are all my prisoners. The two crocodilians in the water answer to me and one of them is still hungry. Sit down where you are and do not move without my permission or some truly unpleasant things are going to happen to you. Good, now I want the three highest ranking men among you to come to me. I will ask some questions which I expect to be answered. The launches from the Lucia will probably arrive shortly after the first round of questioning. After that, the ranking officer who comes to shore will take command and will settle the issue of what to do with you all.”

  His announcement not only resulted in three men coming to stand a few feet away from him in the at-ease stance, it also produced grumbling from the crowd of nearly two hundred fifty men seated on the ground. “It is death to launch an unprovoked attack on an imperial scout,” he informed them while pointing at Carny circling in the air. “However, since this is our first encounter with each other, I am sure whichever officer comes ashore will allow any of you who cooperate to survive unharmed. You are sailors and so are we; this means we can have an understanding.”

  The statement brought the murmuring to a minimal and Roy was content with that. He focused on the man in the middle of the three who had come forward. “Who are you and what is the name of this land?”

  The fellow stood nine feet four inches tall and his two comrades were not much shorter. Roy felt like a child in their presence, but dared not let on the fact that he did. “I am Lieutenant KuKleem, this land is the island kingdom of Serinia, and you are a trespasser, which is why that thing in the air was fired upon. King Keljun Soon will no longer tolerate violations of our territorial waters.”

  The unapologetic tone of the officer did nothing to diminish Roy’s frustration and anger over being unable to find Sarah. She was probably caught and taken as a trespasser. “How many of our scouts have been taken as trespassers?” He knew the answer but wanted to assess their responses.

  The man on the left grunted, drawing attention to him. “I am Chief SeTallis and I will tell you this is the first time we have ever laid eyes on that thing in the air. If your scout was flying on one of those things in the sky above Serinia, well, someone may have taken her down, but it wasn’t us.” His tone implied he regretted missing the opportunity. He was no doubt upset over the loss of his ship and captain. Even so, his attitude was irritating.

 
; “But you would have shot at her if you had,” Roy responded without sending a spell from one of his rings of power, even though he was sorely tempted to do so. Tie him up, burn him, or maybe levitate the fool high in the air and let him drop.

  “Yes,” said the man on the right. “I am Ensign DuPolver,” he added when Roy frowned at him.

  These men were not giving the answers Roy wanted to hear, so he used his ring to silently summon a leviathan, hoping to make an impression. At that moment Burkos came ashore and placed all three hundred feet of her gargantuan body in the sand between the lifeboats and the sailors. Fortunately, nobody moved, for not a single head had failed to turn toward the leviathan, and no one wanted to die in her jaws.

  “One of our scouts was taken from here and is missing. The consequences of us not getting her back will be quite severe. The evidence suggests one of your Nephilim was involved, hence the sand superheated to glass and the burnt-out ruin over there,” Roy told them while pointing at the evidence.

  Going by the raised eyebrows and the wrinkling of foreheads, they did not seem to know what he was talking about. “I don’t know what a Nephilim is, but that is the beach house of Byron DuRitter and his wife Ryta. It is clear to me to me you blighted spell-casters burnt down their dwelling, possibly with them and their son in it,” DuPolver said, and he seemed on the verge of attacking even if it meant certain death. “Byron and I grew up together.”

  “Whoever is responsible for this destruction also took our scout,” Roy informed them, not caring if they believed him or not.

  “So you say,” KuKleem dared to say.

  A deep base rumble reverberated from the leviathan sunning on the beach and it amused Roy to watch the faces of all those pompous men growing pale. “Oh, she is not the hungry one,” he informed them and pointed his finger, “that one is,” he added as Bermos came ashore. The huge male smashed the half clamshell into small pieces and settled down on the sand.