Fierce Loyalty fk-5

by Toby Neighbors

  It roared out and set the sails ablaze with its fiery breath. The canvas burned quickly, sending flaming fragments floating down toward the deck as the dragon circled around for another pass. When Zollin finally lowered his soaked and shivering body to the deck, both masts were burning like torches and the crew was working feverishly to extinguish the fires on the decks. People were shouting and a few even jumped overboard.

  Zollin took a massive breath and then let his magic blast forth in a kinetic wave that rocked the ship as it snapped both masts near the deck and sent the sails, rigging, and masts hurling into the water. Steam flew up in a hot jet of air where the flaming wood landed in the seawater as Zollin sagged to the rough deck planks.

  Eustice appeared from nowhere with a blanket, which he wrapped around Zollin’s shoulders. Then he pushed a small metal cup into Zollin’s hands. The young wizard drank without thinking, not realizing how strong the grog mix of alcohol was. It burned all the way down his throat, as if he’d swallowed a live coal from a fire. He sputtered and coughed, but then he felt the alcohol spread soothing heat through his body. His eyes seemed to focus and he let Eustice help him back to his feet.

  “What’s the damage?” Zollin shouted to Mansel.

  “I think we’re okay for the moment,” his friend said as he hurried over to Zollin. “We lost a few men when the dragon hit the mast, but we’ve got the fires under control. Is it coming back?”

  “Yes,” Zollin said, “and it’s not alone.”

  The dragon was flying toward the front of the ship but angling to make a strafing pass. Zollin shrugged off the blanket and ran toward the far side of the ship, pushing out a hurried magical shield to protect the ship, but the dragon was moving too fast. He blocked part of the fiery bombardment, but another portion slipped past his defenses and boiled over the ship. The fire was so hot it ignited the wooden hull almost instantly. Zollin and the crew threw water onto the fire. Zollin used his magic, which was beginning to crack through his containment field. He could feel the heat growing painful to his body, but he sloshed ocean water against the burning ship anyway. He could kill himself if he pushed his magic too hard, but he also knew that everyone would die if the ship burned.

  They had just gotten the worst of the fire extinguished when the dragon appeared again. This time the beast was approaching from the rear, swerving back and forth so that Zollin couldn’t tell which side of the ship it would attack.

  “I can’t protect both sides of the ship,” he shouted to Mansel. “Keep the crew here and I’ll do what I can on the far side.”

  Mansel just nodded as Zollin ran for the far side of the ship. It wasn’t a long distance, but the deck was littered with bits of wood, rope, and even the bodies of some of the fallen sailors. It was also soaked with water, which made the crossing treacherous. Zollin was watching where he was going and didn’t see the massive tentacles that shot out of the water and snagged the dragon’s tail, but everyone on board heard the roar.

  Very few creatures could match Bartoom in size and strength, but the kraken was even larger. The dragon’s wings flapped uselessly as the sea monster’s tentacle held tight to its tail. Zollin cast a quick glance out at the dragon. It was difficult to see what was happening, but then the dragon craned its long neck down and blew a bright plume of fire down at the thick tentacle that was holding it. The sea monster recoiled from the fire, but before the dragon could escape another tentacle wrapped around its neck.

  Zollin ran for the smallest of the ship’s jolly boats. It wasn’t much larger than a skiff, easily manned by just one person.

  “Where are you going?” Mansel shouted at him.

  “I’ve got to lead that kraken away from the ship.”

  “Are you insane?”

  “You saw what it did in Lorye,” Zollin shouted.

  “Well then I’m going with you,” Mansel insisted.

  “No, I’ll have to levitate back, and I’m not sure I can carry us both. You help get the ship moving.”

  “What? How am I suppose to do that?”

  Zollin closed his eyes and focused on the fire inside him. He needed several moments to rebuild his personal defenses, but he didn’t have time for that. He reached out with his magic and took hold of the nearest mast, which was floating in the water nearby. It took Zollin a moment to remove the rigging, and in the meantime the dragon had sunk its razor sharp teeth into the kraken’s tentacle.

  Zollin lifted the mast out of the water, causing fiery pain to shoot into his stomach and chest, as if he were being stabbed by red-hot pokers. Still, even with the pain causing sweat to break out all over his body and his physical strength starting to lag, he set the mast on the wooden stump sticking up from the deck of the ship. Then he used his magic to fuse the wood together before he slumped into the jolly boat.

  “Eustice!” Mansel bellowed.

  The mute servant was almost as white as a sheet. He’d seen terrible things in the tower of the Torr. Offendorl was a cruel man who had no qualms about making people suffer, but seeing the dragon attacked by a sea monster was almost too much for the eunuch.

  “I need a bottle of wine right now,” Mansel snarled.

  Eustice bolted away and Mansel turned to the captain of the ship, who was staring up at the mast in disbelief. Two of the three crossbeams were still in place, but the top of the mast had been snapped off. Still, it would be enough to get the ship moving.

  “What are you staring at,” Mansel shouted. “Get your sails up and get this ship moving, you fool, or we’ll all be killed.”

  “What?” the captain sputtered angrily. Then he realized that Mansel was right.

  “Man the braces!” he shouted. “Get new sail on that mast, men, before we’re broken to bits by the kraken.”

  The sailors ran to their tasks, some shimmying up the mast to help with the rigging. Others disappeared below to carry up the heavy canvas replacement sails. Most ships carried extra sails and even spare masts in case of an emergency, but without Zollin’s help it would have taken hours to remove the butt of the old mast and install the new one. They didn’t have time for that-not if they were going to escape the kraken.

  The dragon seemed to have the same idea, but after freeing itself from the second tentacle it was swatted by a third. This time the sea monster seemed less inclined to pull the beast down under the water. Instead, it focused on knocking the dragon out of the sky. The first blow stunned the dragon, but the second cracked several of its ribs. The dragon roared hatefully and turned its attention on fighting rather than fleeing the monster.

  The dragon landed on the surface of the water, floating like a swan. Then it plunged its head under the surface, snapping its massive jaws at the tentacles that reached up for it. Its wings were useless in the water, but its tail moved like a sea snake and propelled the dragon out of the way of the larger tentacles that would have injured the beast. Finally, after several frantic moments, the dragon sensed a lull in the kraken’s attack. It flapped its massive wings and rose straight up into the night sky.

  When the dragon finally reached a height it felt safe at, it turned for the shore and flew slowly away. Zollin had felt the boat he was in swing out over the water. It had been attached to a small hoist that hadn’t been blown overboard by his magic. Then Mansel was towering over Zollin with his sword in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other. Mansel cut the ropes holding the boat with one mighty swing of his sword and the boat fell down to the water.

  “Here, drink this,” Mansel said, tossing Zollin the bottle of wine.

  Mansel sat down on the wooden bench and lay his sword beside him. Then he pulled out the boat’s oars and set them into the their cradles. He leaned forward, then pulled the oars hard, straining his back and propping his feet on the bench in front of him so he could push back with his legs. The small boat rocked with the waves, but moved quickly away from the ship. Zollin pulled himself up into a sitting position. He was relieved not to have to row the boat. His arms and legs wer
e shaking and it was taking all his strength not to curl up into a ball just to deal with the pain.

  He drank some of the wine, not tasting it, just hoping it would give him the strength he needed to get himself and Mansel back to the ship when the time came.

  “Any particular direction you want to go?” Mansel asked.

  “Out to sea,” Zollin said between gulps of wine. “Take us further out to sea.”

  “You got it,” Mansel said.

  The big warrior strained against the oars. It was too dark to see what was happening to the dragon, but he could see the sailors scurrying around the ship. He wondered briefly what it would be like to die at sea. He thought of Nycoll in her little house. She was waiting for Mansel to return, but he would probably be lost at sea, just like her husband. That thought made him sad, but Mansel knew he didn’t really have a choice. He couldn’t let Zollin go out to face the sea monster alone. If that meant he died, then so be it.

  Zollin couldn’t see the dragon either, and although he wanted to reach out with his magic to see what was happening, he knew he had to reserve his strength. He had to make sure his internal defenses didn’t break down completely-that would incapacitate him. The wine was helping, but he couldn’t seem to get enough of it. His body burned through the alcohol and calories faster than he could consume them.

  “Watch the ship,” Zollin told Mansel. “If you see it getting attacked by the sea monster, tell me.”

  “Why? What are you going to be doing?”

  “Getting ready to fight the beast,” Zollin admitted.

  Mansel shuddered at the thought, but kept rowing. Zollin knew he was too weak to fight off the giant sea monster, but it was attracted to his magic. That had been his fear after the attack in Lorye Harbor, and now that fear was confirmed. It had been the reason he’d shot his magic into the water. If the kraken was drawn to magic, he had hoped it would be drawn to the dragon as well. It had been a huge gamble, but there was simply no other way to drive the dragon off. Even with all his power, he could only weaken the dragon, not kill or even injure it. Brianna had been successful in wounding the beast with arrows of dwarfish steel, but he had none with him now. The harpoons might have broken through the beast’s scales after he weakened the dragon’s hide with his magical energy, but they had missed that chance when the dragon knocked Zollin off the crow’s nest.

  The ship was small in the distance after only a few minutes of rowing. Zollin hoped they were far enough from the big ship, but he couldn’t be sure. He only knew that if they moved much further away he wouldn’t have the strength to levitate Mansel and himself back to the ship.

  “This is far enough,” Zollin said.

  “Okay, what now?”

  “Now we get ready to run,” Zollin said.

  Mansel wasn’t sure what that meant, but he shipped the oars and took up his sword.

  Standing up in the boat wasn’t easy, but he couldn’t fight sitting down. Zollin was sitting on the bench in front of Mansel. He closed his eyes and let his magic flow down into the water beneath the boat. He could feel the schools of fish and even the current several feet below the surface. It only took a minute before the fish began to dart away, leaving the water under their small boat empty. It sent chills up Zollin’s spine. He was confident he could escape the kraken, but he needed to stay until the beast arrived. He needed to lure it further out to sea, but if the boat was attacked too soon he might not be able to save Mansel. That thought scared him almost as much as the giant sea monster itself. He thought of Todrek, his old friend in Tranaugh Shire. Todrek had not wanted any part of Zollin’s magic, and in the end it had been that magic that had killed him. Todrek had been struck down by a mercenary when the wizards of the Torr had come to take Zollin back to their master. Zollin had tried to save his friend, but hadn’t known enough magic at the time. The though made Zollin’s stomach lurch. Tears stung his eyes. He vowed not to let the same thing happen to Mansel.

  Then, suddenly, he felt the huge beast slide into the water underneath the boat, and there was no more time for thinking. Zollin could sense the pain the kraken felt. The dragon had burned the creature and bitten off the ends of several tentacles. Zollin waited, fighting his instinct to flee from the sea monster. The last thing he needed was for the beast to follow them back to the ship. If that happened, all was lost.

  Suddenly a tentacle rose up out of the water near the ship.

  “Zollin!” Mansel shouted, his voice laced with fear.

  “Not yet,” Zollin said.

  Mansel watched as the tentacle moved closer, and then, just before it reached the little boat, he swung his sword. Cutting through the tentacle was like chopping wood. His sword cut almost halfway through the thick appendage before sticking. The tentacle jerked back down into the water, almost pulling Mansel out of the boat. His heart dropped as he saw his beloved sword disappear beneath the waves.

  “Okay, don’t panic,” Zollin said. “It’ll only make my job harder.”

  Mansel wasn’t sure what to say, but then he started rising into the air. It was only natural to panic, but Mansel just froze, every muscle in his body going rigid with fear. He’d never been afraid of heights. He’d climbed trees as a boy, and being on top of the king’s castle in Orrock hadn’t bothered him, but whenever Zollin levitated him it filled Mansel with dread. He felt completely out of control and weak.

  Zollin ignored the fear that was pouring off Mansel like leaves from a tree in an autumn storm. He focused on holding them up, rising higher and higher, watching the little boat bobbing in the water in the darkness below them. He fully expected the kraken to attack the boat now, but when it shattered the little craft with a single blow from under the water, his heart sank a little. He raised them higher into the air, his magic so hot now it was beginning to break apart his inner defenses again. Then he sent a wave of his magic out into the water, moving further out to sea. He pushed it as far as he could, straining his mind and magic almost to the breaking point. Then he withdrew all of his power, containing it in the small bubble around himself and Mansel.

  He didn’t dare check to see if the kraken had taken the bait and followed the magic further out to sea. He waited for just a moment, straining his eyes in the darkness for any sign of the sea monster, but there was none. Then he turned and levitated back to the ship. He was seeing spots by the time they arrived, and when they got over the deck his control slipped and they fell the last few feet.

  Zollin and Mansel lay side-by-side, both panting from exhaustion. Zollin saw the ship’s white sail flutter for a moment, then fill with air. He felt the ship moving, and then he passed out.

  When Zollin woke up he was in his bunk. Light was shinning in through the porthole and Eustice was hovering nearby. At first, Zollin didn’t move. His stomach was rumbling with hunger and his muscles felt stiff. His mouth was so dry it was difficult to move his tongue. He checked his magical containment and was happy to find it still in place and working. He rolled over, stretching his aching muscles, and then sat up on the bed. Eustice hurried over with a cup of water. Zollin took it gratefully and sipped a little, letting the water swoosh around in his mouth and moisten his tongue. Then he turned up the cup and drank the rest greedily.

  “Ah, that may be the best water I’ve ever tasted,” he said. “Is there more?” Eustice poured more into the cup from a small pitcher.

  “How long was I asleep?”

  Eustice held his fingers close together, almost in a pinching motion. “Not long?” Eustice nodded.

  “That’s good. Is Mansel okay?”

  Eustice nodded again.

  “We’re sailing again, huh? Any sign of the sea monster?”

  This time Eustice shook his head to say no.

  “I want to go up and see the damage for myself,” Zollin said.

  Eustice helped Zollin to his feet and after a moment he felt strong enough to walk. He was tired, but it felt good to stretching his muscles. He drank some more water then went out on the
deck while Eustice stayed behind to fix his breakfast.

  Zollin was surprised to see that the deck had been cleared from all the debris and there were two large sails up on the mast he had repaired. There were several sailors lying out in the sunshine on makeshift pallets. Most had thick globs of what appeared to be grease on their wounds. Zollin went straight to the sailor who was checking on the wounded men.

  “What happened?” Zollin asked.

  “Burns mostly,” said the sailor, who was the ship surgeon’s helper. “A few broken bones. Lady Roleena got the worst of it, and those poor souls we lost overboard. I’ve never seen a dragon before. We’d all be dead if it weren’t for you.”

  “That dragon probably attacked because of me,” Zollin admitted. “It’s the not the first time we’ve run into each other. What do you mean Lady Roleena got the worst of it?”

  “Shattered her leg when one of the blocks fell from the rigging. It’s a shame, really. The surgeon had to amputate. Not sure if she’ll make it or not.”

  Zollin’s blood ran cold.

  “Where is she?” he demanded.

  “She’s below, in the sick bay. The healer didn’t want her moved.”

  “Show me,” Zollin said.

  “Alright,” the sailor said, “this way.”

  He led Zollin to the stairwell opposite the entrance to the passenger deck. Zollin looked up at the command deck as they passed it, noticing the captain’s unveiled look of disgust. He ignored it and followed the sailor down into the dark interior of the ship. They moved past several storerooms and finally came to a closed door that Zollin knew was the sick bay. The smell was horrid-a mixture of human waste and putrefied flesh that made Zollin want to vomit.

  “She’s inside,” the sailor said. “The surgeon should be with her.”

  It was hot on the cargo deck, which was below the water line and had very little ventilation. Zollin opened the door, breathing though his mouth to avoid the horrid stench of the sick bay. The room was quiet and dim, with only a single lantern giving any light to the room. The healer was asleep on a small bunk, and on a table stained with blood lay Lady Roleena. She was naked, with only a thin sheet covering her body. Zollin approached her side, feeling sick at the sight of her. Her skin was very white and covered with a thin sheen of sweat. Her lips were almost completely blue and the stump of her left leg, which ended right above the knee, was bleeding through the bandage and staining the sheet.