The Way of Ancient Power

by Ben Wolf

  Magnus followed her line of sight. “They are approaching fast. Does this vessel have any oars?”

  “Now you think you’re gonna row us outta here?” Axel scoffed from behind the wheel.

  “That must be how they are catching up to us,” Magnus said. “The wind is too light to account for their speed.”

  Lilly shook her head. “What do you need me to do to help?”

  Magnus pointed toward the top of the mast. “Fly up and unfurl the sails. You can get up there faster than we can, and even a little wind is better than none.”

  She zipped into the air and loosed the sails in seconds, and Calum continued to work beneath her. The modest wind caught the broad fabric, and within a minute, the boat began to carve through the water away from the pirates.

  “Turn starboard,” Magnus called to Axel. “Hard starboard. Away from their ship.”

  Axel tilted his head and held out one of his arms. “What?

  “To the right. Do it now.”

  “Why didn’t you just say that?” Axel cranked the wheel.

  Though the Baroness of Destiny began to pick up speed, the pirate ship still gained on them. Lilly landed next to Magnus and watched as the pirate ship loomed ever larger.

  “We are not going to make it.” Magnus shook his head. “They are too fast.”

  “What do we do?” Lilly asked.

  Magnus stared down at her. “You should fly away. Get to safety. There is no reason you should have to endure the forthcoming bloodshed.”

  “Not a chance. You three saved my life. I’m fighting with you.” Lilly slung her quiver and bow over her shoulder and unsheathed her new sword.

  “I suspected you would say that.” He turned to face Axel. “It looks like your wish is granted, Axel. Ready your weapons. You too, Calum.”

  Axel smirked and drew his sword. “Alright. Let’s do this.”

  In minutes, the pirate ship closed within several hundred yards of their boat. That’s when the attack began. Six Windgales with sabers flew ahead of the pirate ship and swooped toward the Baroness of Destiny.

  Lilly shot straight up into the sky to try to draw them away, but only two of them followed her. The other four continued toward the Baroness of Destiny.

  The two Windgales were quick and lithe, but she was quicker. She darted around the air and ducked under their saber slashes, all while wielding her own blade. Finally, she could properly test the bit of sword training she’d done since the fight with the bandits.

  After awhile, the two Windgales stopped attacking and just circled her in the sky. Then, in a coordinated effort, they closed in on her and swung their swords. With a smirk she plunged toward the waters below, and the Windgales chased her.

  As before, she pulled up at the last instant, only this time the tip of her left boot caressed the water in the process. Behind her a splash sounded. She stole a glance and saw a cape and some flailing limbs in the water. Impacting the water at that speed would be almost as bone-shattering as hitting solid ground.

  A saber lashed at her from the right. Had she not already had her sword out to block the blow, it could have killed her or knocked her into the water, which was almost equally as dangerous.

  She traded sloppy blows with the remaining Windgale, who seemed to have even less experience with a blade than she. Lilly adjusted her trajectory as she dueled with the Windgale, mostly dodging or avoiding his swings but parrying a few as best as she could manage for not knowing how to sword-fight.

  The actual fight didn’t matter, though. If she could keep his focus on her and not where they were headed—

  The Windgale swiped at Lilly’s head.

  Perfect. She ducked under it then blasted upward in time to avoid colliding with the Baroness of Destiny’s hull. The Windgale didn’t.

  A sickening thud reached Lilly’s ears from below, followed by a faint splash. He wouldn’t recover from that.

  Together with Axel and Magnus, Calum handled the other four Windgales, but not without difficulty.

  The Windgales weren’t more capable fighters—they were just quicker. A lot quicker, which made them hard to hit. Calum regretted not taking the opportunity to spar with Lilly more often.

  Even so, he found success in baiting them to come after him, and once they did, he’d dodge the blow and Axel, positioned behind him, would take a swing at the Windgale. They downed two of them that way.

  Magnus, on the other hand, didn’t employ any such trickery. He simply waited for them to attack, and then he let them. Their puny swords deflected off his scales or off his breastplate, and on their follow-up swing, he would grab one of their limbs and slam them against the deck. Even though he didn’t need to, Magnus followed each slam with a final blow from his sword.

  Calum had to smile—until he realized what was coming next.

  By the time the trio defeated the four Windgales, the pirate ship had pulled alongside the boat. Humans clad in dark clothing swung on ropes from the pirate ship’s towering masts and landed on the Baroness of Destiny’s deck. More Windgales dropped aboard the boat from the sky, and even a handful of Saurians extended long wooden planks from the pirate ship to the side of the Baroness of Destiny.

  Magnus, Calum, and Axel stood back-to-back, their swords ready, as the pirates swarmed aboard the boat. Within moments, the pirates had them totally surrounded.

  “Give up yar weapons,” a voice growled from behind the half-dozen Saurians who’d stepped across the planks.

  From among them, a hulking, muscular form emerged, covered with dark-brown fur. A Wolf of some sort, but he walked upright and wore a burgundy wide-brimmed hat. A big white feather stuck out from the black ribbon that wrapped around the hat above its brim. He also wore a long black cape that billowed behind him in the wind.

  “I said to give up yar weapons.” The Wolf’s vibrant amber eyes glistened under the brim of his hat. “Or we’ll be takin’ them from ye, along with yar lives.”

  Magnus stepped forward, his colossal broadsword still in-hand. “I do not fear you or any Werewolf. You may be faster than me, but neither you nor your crew can penetrate my skin or out-muscle me. Now get off our ship.”

  The Werewolf shook his head. “So’s it may be, none of us can individually overpower ye or do ye much harm, but ye also be outnumbered three fives to one.”

  Something thunked above their heads.

  The Werewolf jerked his hand upright and clamped his fist shut. A thin wooden shaft vibrated in his hand for an instant, then it stopped moving altogether, its arrowhead lingering about three inches from his head.

  Calum chanced a look up. Lilly hovered above them, her mouth open and eyes wide. She still held her bow in front of her body as if taking aim again, but she hadn’t nocked a new arrow.

  The Werewolf tossed the arrow aside and shook his finger at her. “Ye be havin’ to do better’an that to best the likes o’ me, m’dear.”

  Magnus lunged forward and lashed his sword at the Werewolf, and the surrounding pirates converged on Calum and Axel while a few Windgales flew up to engage Lilly.

  Calum swung his weapon with fervor and felled a few of the pirates, but it didn’t take long for their numbers to overwhelm him. He took a few punches to his face and gut, then someone batted his sword from his hands.

  Two burly human pirates wrapped up his arms and pinned him to the deck. Since leaving the quarry, Calum had gotten somewhat stronger, but not nearly enough to pull free of their grasp.

  Axel fared a little better, but not by much. He broke free from the human pirates who initially held onto him and leveled one of them with a haymaker, but two of the Saurians grabbed him from behind. Though they’d anchored his arms in place, even they struggled to hang onto him.

  Magnus’s first three swings failed to connect with the Werewolf who, when moving to avoid Magnus’s attacks, resembled a dark blur to Calum. Three Saurians came at Magnus from behind and tried to restrain him, but he threw them off as if they weighed nothing.

&n
bsp; When he turned back, Magnus caught a swipe to his face from the Werewolf’s claws, which left four shallow cuts on the side of his snout. Magnus recoiled a half step then retaliated with a swat of his own, but the Werewolf easily ducked under it. One of the Saurians recovered and grabbed Magnus from behind again.

  “I don’t have to kill ye to beat ye,” the Werewolf said. “I’ve other fine options to attain victory at me disposal.”

  Magnus reached over his shoulder, grabbed the Saurian’s arm, and slammed him down in front of him. He raised his sword to finish the Saurian off, but the other two Saurians grabbed his arms again, stalling him just long enough.

  Calum’s heart seized in his chest as the Werewolf charged forward and drove his shoulder into Magnus’s gut.

  Magnus’s footing faltered, and he tipped backward over the edge of the boat. Along with the two Saurians, he fell into the water below.

  Lake water smothered Magnus’s senses. It filled his mouth, his nostrils, and his lungs. His eyes opened and he saw sunlight above him.

  Sword in-hand, he kicked and clawed toward it, desperate for air. His armor weighed on him more than usual, and instead of being his ally, it continued to try to pull him down to the dark depths of the lake.

  Had he taken a solid breath before he’d hit the water, he could have stayed under for at least ten minutes, and that was from when he’d tried it as a Saurian. As a Sobek, it probably would’ve been longer.

  Despite his armor, his head finally surfaced, and he coughed out the excess water. Sweet air took its place and his ears opened.

  “—agnus!” Calum’s voice sounded from above. “Magnus! Look out!”

  A hand grabbed his shoulder and pushed him underwater again. One of the Saurians.

  Magnus flailed and broke free, then he resurfaced. A hard whip of his tail propelled him away from the Saurian, but also away from the boat. He glanced back.

  The Saurian swam after him, but an arrow plunged into the top of his shoulder, and he stopped with a snarl.

  Above Magnus, Lilly floated thirty feet above the water and twenty feet out from the boat. She nocked another arrow.

  “After her!” The Werewolf pointed at Lilly, and three Windgale pirates darted into the sky.

  Lilly twisted in the air and loosed her next arrow. It lodged in the forehead of one of the Windgale pirates, and he crashed down into the water about thirty feet from Magnus’s position.

  “Get away, Lilly!” Magnus hollered. “Fly away!”

  She gave him a nod and shot into the clouds overhead.

  The Saurian in the water ripped the arrow from his shoulder and started toward Magnus again. Blood pulsed from the wound, and along with the dead Windgale, the otherwise clear blue water around Magnus had accumulated a cloudy reddish tint.

  Another set of hands latched onto Magnus’s right arm and tried to wrest the sword from his iron grip. The second Saurian.

  Magnus wrenched his arm away, launched himself up out of the water with a forceful thrust of his arms, legs, and tail, and he swung his sword down at the second Saurian.

  The second Saurian dodged the blow and swam a few feet away from Magnus, and the Saurian behind Magnus grabbed his left arm. The second Saurian clamped onto Magnus’s right arm as he raised his sword to finish off the first Saurian.

  He sucked in a sharp but deep breath as they pulled him underwater. Combined with the weight of his armor, their combined strength managed to subdue him, even if only temporarily.

  These pirates were no doubt accustomed to swimming in the deep waters of the Central Lake and had proven far more adept at it than Magnus was, but they wouldn’t drown him. He refused to die here, in this way. He had too much unfinished business to resolve.

  As Magnus strained against them, one of them released his arm, but not from anything Magnus did to twist free. When Magnus looked, the Saurian was gone, replaced by a large cloud of red.

  Oh, no…

  Magnus broke free from the other Saurian and surfaced again. As Magnus filled his lungs to capacity, Calum’s shouts filled his ears again in another warning.

  But Magnus already knew what had happened to the other Saurian, and he’d abandoned any thoughts of righting the wrongs inflicted upon him and his family in Reptilius. Instead, only one motivation drove him: survive.

  But was it already too late? Not if he could get back aboard the Baroness of Destiny quickly enough to avoid the same fate.

  The other Saurian grabbed and yanked on his right arm again, and Magnus’s grip on his sword faltered. It dropped from his hand into the water. He jerked free and torpedoed down after it, his tail and all four limbs lashing at the cool water with full fury.

  He had to get that sword before it disappeared forever.

  The Saurian kept pace with him and grabbed Magnus’s tail, but just as soon as grabbed on, he let go. A shadow passed over Magnus, and a bubbling roar bellowed through the water, then abruptly ceased.

  Magnus didn’t have to look back. He knew the Saurian was already dead.

  The sword knifed down, down, down through the water, but Magnus chased it nonetheless, even as the waters grew murkier, darker. This time, the added weight of his armor was working for him as he descended into the depths.

  Yet even as he chased his sword, the primal animalistic part of his brain crackled with warnings, threatening to override his calm and make him panic. Whatever had gotten the other two Saurians now chased him. He could sense it behind him, drawing closer and closer.

  Magnus resisted the urge to flee, resisted the urge to abandon his sword to the depths. It was his only chance of defending himself. His only chance of staying alive.

  His hardened scales and armor would do him little good against one of the fabled beasts that made its home in this lake, especially one big enough that it only left a cloud of blood in the water in the wake of its attack on the first Saurian.

  Magnus kicked and whipped his tail with all his might until his fingers coiled around the sword’s silver hilt. He tightened his grip, then he whirled around in the water to face the monster.

  There was nothing there.

  Lilly plowed through the nearest white cloud. Normally, she’d savor the puffs of water vapor that cooled her cheeks under the sun, but with two Windgale pirates not far behind, she didn’t have time to idle. As quickly as she entered the cloud, she dropped out of it, then she curved up and into another one.

  The Windgales chased her just as she figured they would: they followed the trail she carved through the clouds and didn’t bother to try to cut her off or try anything else. Did they expect her to tire out? Or run out of ideas and give up?

  Whatever they thought, they were wrong. She hadn’t been kidnapped by slave traders, escaped, and survived an encounter with not one but two Gronyxes to be brought down by a pair of idiot Windgale pirates.

  Again using gravity’s pull to her advantage, she looped through the air with incredible speed and reentered the cloud from which she’d just exited. She drew her sword, waited a beat, then swung the instant she saw a dark form flicker toward her from inside the cloud.

  Her blade connected just below a stunned face, and the Windgale pirate dropped out of the cloud, his arms and legs limp.

  One down, one to go.

  Magnus’s head swiveled, but he couldn’t see anything around him, partially due to the darker, deeper waters in which he floated. High above him, the sunlight amounted to little more than a pale orb, barely visible.

  No reason to stay here any longer than he had to. Wherever the thing had gone didn’t matter. The lake was home to dozens, hundreds—even thousands of other creatures both big and brutal enough to take him out.

  The two vessels, now comparable in size to a big leaf next to a small leaf, floated on the surface. Magnus’s tail swished back into action and he fought against his armor as he began to ascend again until his head broke through the surface.

  “Magnus!” This time it was Axel’s voice calling as Magnus inhaled a d
eep and wondrous breath.

  Magnus wanted to respond, but his eyes locked on the Werewolf captain, who stared back at him.

  “Like I said…” The Werewolf smirked. “I don’t have to kill ye to beat ye.”

  Next to the Werewolf, Calum’s eyes widened. He opened his mouth to scream, but his voice disappeared against the deafening thunder of water that surged at Magnus from his left.

  His sword ready, Magnus braced himself for the blow as a dark finned form emerged from the swell. Dozens of spearhead-sized teeth lined its gaping mouth, all of them aimed at Magnus.

  He swung his blade just as the beast hit him, and then everything went black.

  Chapter Five

  Calum’s scream died in his throat.

  Magnus was gone. Instead, a black dorsal fin and matching tail thrashed in the bloodied water, then it all disappeared beneath the lake’s rippling surface.

  “You brigand!” Axel strained against his Saurian captors and almost tore free until one of them punched him in his stomach. He doubled over and gasped in between curses.

  Calum wanted to try to break free as well, but he knew there was no use. Even after taking down a few of the pirates before they got ahold of Axel and him, he knew they couldn’t possibly overcome the rest of them, not without Magnus.

  Magnus is… gone.

  The image of the giant fish launching out of the water toward Magnus, its ferocious teeth bared, and pummeling his body below the water’s surface twisted Calum’s gut. All of his memories with Magnus, everything they’d endured and survived together—it all faded to darkness against the horror of Magnus’s death.

  When the Werewolf’s dark-brown hind paws stepped into view, Calum realized he’d let his head droop. He raised his head with defiance on his mind.

  The Werewolf smirked. “Ye’ve got a lot o’ spirit. Ye contain it inside, unlike yar comrade here, who lets it lead ’im to shipwreck. Can’t help but wonder what’ll happen when ye finally loose your terrible fury. Will ye be able to control yarself?”