by M H Ryan
“You okay?” Emma asked. “You’re looking like you just saw your dad’s balls.”
“Yeah,” I said, taking up a position with the rudder and thinking about those hands on my shoulders, guiding me in a way. “I think the Murrack was helping me with it. She said she knew how to do it.”
“I don’t like this, Jack,” Emma said.
“I don’t either.”
Over the next few hours, I kept my senses focused on the sea, looking for any predators, but the sea life had dropped off noticeably the closer we got to Hanna. It was as if they didn’t like this part of the ocean. I wasn’t sure what it meant, but it was better than being attacked by sea monsters. Theoretically, anyway.
The girls kept practicing their different abilities. Cass floated her new knife around, changing it into different shapes. Carmen would practice blocking as well, sending Cass’s blade crashing onto the deck of the boat when she did.
Emma worked with Carmen. Together, Carmen learned to direct her blocks, like a cone of protection out in front of her. It was a massive breakthrough that elicited cheers from the group. It also wiped Carmen out, and she now stayed near the middle of the boat, resting.
Benji practiced moving an arrow. With Emma, she slammed one as hard as she could into the water. It exploded on the surface and sent up a plume of water. The mist rained down over us, and we stood in awe of her power. Benji laughed and clapped her hands in excitement before throwing up off the edge of the boat.
As we got closer, I ordered the girls to stop practicing and get ready for Hanna, as I didn’t think the locals were going to give her up easily.
“We’re getting close,” Eliza said, looking nervous.
She had been on edge since we left the island. Every time I glanced at her, I caught her staring at me, and not in the cute, I-want-you-again kind of looks. She was worried for us, for me, and when a person of prophecy seemed concerned, it sent all the girls on edge.
“Aubrey, slow us down,” I said and walked to the front of the boat.
Sherri climbed the mast and got up to the crow’s nest.
“I see it. I see the island ahead.”
I used the telescope and spotted the island as well—a small hunk of land with a few huts on it, scattered palms, and a cluster of trees near the middle.
“It looks a lot like Avocado Island,” I said.
“Oh my God, we have avocadoes?” Carmen asked.
“Sorry, we ate them all,” Benji said.
“Son of a bitch. Can we go get some more?”
“Hey, let’s focus on this island, okay?” I said, looking through the scope.
Many of the Crultar were on the shoreline, walking around. Also on the island was the bird that we spotted on Ben’s Island. It sat on top of one of the palms trees, facing out in our direction. In the daylight, it’s red feathers shined bright.
“Stop the boat,” I said.
The boat slowed to a stop.
“What’s the problem?”
“I see the red bird. I couldn’t sense that bird back on Ben’s Island,” I said and turned to face the girls. “I’m not taking any chances with it; we’re going in with a plan.”
“Hell yeah!” Aubrey said. “Dude, let me create some fog. I think I can do it now. I’ve been practicing.”
“Not a bad idea. We could use it for cover to get close. Could you get rid of the fog when we land?”
“I think so. Just some wind,” Aubrey said with a shrug.
“The bird means something,” Eliza said. “It has a power that will hurt us.”
“Great,” Aubrey drawled.
“I can kill it from here, I bet,” Cass said, rotating the knife a foot above her hand.
“How much you want to bet I can throw a football over them mountains?” Benji asked.
“Oh, my God! I know this one! Napoleon Dynamite!” Eliza yelled out. “I finally get a reference. This is the happiest day of my life.”
“Aw,” Benji said, looking proud. “We need to put on some more plays for her, you guys.”
“Shaya, do you think you can get to the other side and create a distraction for us?” I asked.
“Won’t that put her at risk?” Kara asked.
“Shaya, you could be the one that helps us win. The fog will hide us, but it will also draw their attention to one side of the island. I bet they’re in the waters as much as on land, right?”
She nodded.
“Then, can you create a distraction on the other side?”
“Yes,” Shaya said as she nodded her head again.
Eliza’s lips thinned, and I knew she had an opinion, but she didn’t speak, and I didn’t ask. It was time to get Hanna back.
Chapter 21
Aubrey had her hands out to her side, as if for balance. I watched her for a second, marveling at how powerful she had become. Not only could she feel the air, but she figured out a way to create fog from the water. She said it was nothing more than creating a cloud heavy enough to sit on the water, but nothing seemed simple about it. For the last twenty minutes, she had continuously created this fog until now it seemed as if we were in the San Francisco harbor.
Sherri helped in keeping the boat moving by creating a current that pushed us silently toward the island. Each of the girls had an assigned post and task. With their growing powers and mine, I hoped we would be able to overwhelm the Crultar and rescue Hanna before they knew what hit them.
“We’re close,” Eliza whispered.
Kara got near the front of the boat and leaned over the railing. She tried to feel the island before we got there. The shallow water was giving away to the rising sandy floor.
I kept my senses on, but the Crultar strangely felt just as far and faint as the moment we started moving toward the island. If we were close, I should feel them enough to grab their minds and stop any progress toward us. Shaya had to be at play, guiding most of the forces to the other side of the island.
“You sure we’re close?” I whispered, trying to look through the thick fog all around us.
“Yes,” Eliza said.
“She’s right. I feel the island. Only a few minutes until we hit landfall at this speed,” Kara said, looking back at me.
“Okay, everyone get ready,” I said.
“Shit, are we really doing this?” Carmen asked, holding a spear in her hands and looking terrified.
“Yes, for Hanna. We did this for you as well, Carmen,” Sherri said.
“Okay,” Carmen said, staring at the fog ahead of us.
“You hear that?” Emma said, looking up. “Sounds like a bird.”
I went still, listening, and then I heard it as well, a steady flap of wings directly over us. They weren’t far away. They were suppressed enough for me to think they were. I locked the rudder in place and grabbed my spear.
“They’re in the water around us,” I said. “Get away from the railing.”
Kara jumped back from the railing just as a Crultar launched from the water. A column of the water came up with him as he landed on the outside edge of the boat. A piece of metal shaped like a rod slammed into the thing's chest and exploded out its back just as an arrow lodged in its head. The male Crultar flew back into the ocean, dead.
Or at least I assumed dead. I had no connection, no feeling for these Crultars—just a faint feeling that might as well have been a mile away.
Right then, four more Crultar launched from the water. Two were dealt with in an instant by Benji and Kara. The third landed next to Eliza. The fourth next to Sherri and Aubrey.
I threw my spear, hitting the thing next to Eliza in the neck. It fell toward her, but she had both knives out. Emma stepped in first and swung her bat hard, striking the thing in the head with what would have been a home run any day of the week.
The fishman staggered back and fell out of the boat.
Sherri gripped her spear and made a stabbing motion at the other Crultar still on the ship. He swung his curved blade at her spear, striking it and sli
cing the wooden tip off. It growled, showing a set of sharp teeth. I reached for it, trying to stop it, but my sense slipped right over it, as if it wasn’t there.
Benji shot an arrow and extended her hand out, increasing the speed so much that the air shimmered around it. The stone-tipped arrow hit the Crultar in the chest. The impact boomed across the boat, and Carmen yelled out in shock as blood sprayed in the air from the strike.
Sherri used the blunt end of her spear and pushed the Crultar back until it fell over the railing and back into the water. I watched his body float by for a few seconds before sinking into the dark waters.
“Aubrey, clear the air and push us to the island,” I yelled out.
Aubrey lowered her hands and then raised them both back up and slammed them down while yelling out.
A soft wind blew at our backs, and as I turned to face it, the wind grew in strength. Soon, it blasted against us and the ship.
Aubrey yelled again as the wind raged against sails. The raft launched forward, sending a few girls to the deck. I held onto the rudder for balance and looked ahead. The white sands were right there, not a hundred feet away as I’d anticipated.
“Hold on!” I yelled over the mighty wind.
We were coming in hot. This was going to hurt.
Aubrey yelled out again and turned around. The wind slowed, then stopped. After a half-second of silence, the wind blew from the opposite direction. The sail shifted and pushed toward us. Had she just changed the hurricane-level winds?
“Brace!” I said as the raft hit the sand.
We all fell forward, including Aubrey. She fell into Sherri, but it looked like a soft landing, and a moment later, we were all on our feet, ready to fight.
“Above,” Aubrey said.
I saw it—the red bird, flying far above us like a spotter plane. With a fifteen-foot wingspan, the thing looked massive in the sky.
“Benji?” I asked.
“On it.” Benji pulled back an arrow and pointed it toward the sky.
She let go, and the arrow flew out of the bow. She then thrust her hand forward and launched the arrow toward the bird.
The bird screeched and easily moved away from the incoming arrow.
“Shit!” Benji said, nocking another arrow.
“Hold it,” I said as I looked through the clearing fog.
On the other side of the island, Shaya appeared running toward us. Her slender, female form stood out among the white sands she ran across. Behind her, a couple of Crultar men ran out of the water after her.
Near the center of the island, a fireball launched. The flaming orb arched through the sky and yanked my attention away from Shaya.
“Get off the boat,” I said as I watched the trajectory of the fireball. “Get off the boat!”
The girls dove off the closest part of the boat, some into the shallow waters, while Benji, Aubrey, Sherri, and I flung ourselves off the front of Luna.
I landed on the sand just as the fireball hit the edge of the boat. The fire spread out over the corner of the craft, sending flames up to the bottom of the sail. The idea of the sail getting burned sent me flinging sand and grabbing everything around me to get to my feet. I had to stop the fire and save the ship at all costs.
“Fire? Please,” Sherri said and raised her hand.
A thin wave of water rose and washed over the flames, extinguishing them.
“Nice!” Kara said, rushing through the water toward us.
The rest of the girls rushed out of the water. We gathered near the front of the boat to face the island.
Smoke trailed up from near the center of the island, right from where the fireball had been fired. They must have had a trebuchet or something to launch the things.
Shaya ran near the far right side of the island, far from the smoke and near the beach. She had outrun the Crultar behind her, but then a massive lizard-looking thing emerged from the water, not ten feet from her.
The thing dripped with water as it opened its mouth, exposing a mess of fangs and needle-like teeth.
“What in the holy fuck is that?” Carmen asked, staring at the creature as it emerged fully from the water.
On its slimy back sat a Crultar male. He had a line wrapped around the lizard monster’s neck and urged it toward Shaya.
Right then, I heard a thump from the center of the island. Another fireball flew out from the smoke trail, heading straight for us.
“Run!” I yelled and grabbed Benji’s hand.
We all ran deeper into the island as the fireball hit the sand behind us. It splashed out, fire spreading over several feet around the impact before dying down to a pile of smoking ashes.
“Eliza, where is she?” I asked.
“She’s at the smoke,” Eliza said, pointing ahead.
“We’ve got incoming,” Sherri said, pointing at Shaya running toward us.
With each long step, Shaya kicked up sand, pumped her arms, and looking back at the army behind her.
Shit, the single lizard we’d witnessed before had company. A group of them were cutting across the center of the island, while a couple pursued Shaya. The massive, gray lizards ran on all fours, eating up the distance between them and her.
They were cutting us off from Hanna and boxing us in. I reached for the Crultar once again, trying to find them, but they were ghosts, my mental grasping slipping through them like a mist.
“New plan,” I said, facing the ones gaining on Shaya. “Kill them all.”
Chapter 22
Benji and Cass stepped toward Shaya and raised their weapons. Benji shot first while Cass sent out her piece of metal. They both flew out and increased in speed as they passed Shaya. They slammed into the two Crultar men with devastating effect, sending flesh and blood exploding out of their bodies. They fell back off their lizards and onto the sand.
The two reptiles slowed to a stop and started fighting each other. They reared up, clawing at their faces and chest. Their hate radiated toward me in a hot wave.
Shaya slid in the sand near Benji and bent over, breathing hard.
“Nice distraction, Shaya,” Sherri said with sarcasm.
“They…” she said, trying to catch her breath. “kill the boat.”
She winced and touched her temple.
“You did good,” I said and took in each of them.
Benji hunched over, blood trickling from her nose. Aubrey and Cass were in much of the same condition. Sherri looked tired but ready for more. Carmen stayed back, looking utterly terrified, while Kara and Emma were sneering at the Crultar army forming between us and the smoke.
“Shaya, Benji, Cass, Aubrey, stay in the back and protect our rear. The rest of us will be up front. Emma, Carmen—next to me in case we need to block someone. Sherri, Eliza, and Kara kill anything that comes toward us.”
“I’m so done with these fucking things,” Benji said, taking out another arrow and nocking it against the string with a shaky hand.
“I’m not capable of fighting those things,” Carmen said, taking a step back and loosely holding the spear.
Emma grabbed her hand and pulled Carmen toward me.
“I need you. We all need you,” I said.
She didn’t respond, staring at the Crultar who were spreading over the center of the island. There were so many of them… Soon our only exit would be the ocean, and that would be where we would lose. I had to keep this fight on the land.
With a thumping sound, another fireball launched into the sky through the smoke trail, heading for us.
I didn’t need to say anything this time; we all moved forward, toward the army. The fireball crashed behind us, but I didn’t look back. I wanted to keep an eye on the enemy ahead.
An arrow flew by me and then sped up as it struck a Crultar on the back of a lizard. This set the entire group of Crultar rushing toward us. Only a football field away, they’d be at us in less than half a minute, and from all sides but our backs.
“We rush the middle, or they’re going to
converge on us,” I yelled and kept jogging ahead, picking up my pace with each step.
Soon, I got to running speed, with Sherri right next to me. A thin piece of metal flew by and hit the closest Crultar, sending him flying off the back of his lizard. The lizard skid facefirst on the sand and rolled over before scrambling to its feet. The massive creature ran between other lizards and away from us. I felt the fear from it, that sour flavor in the air, yet the Crultar were still just wisps in the air.
It’s the bird blocking you.
I glanced up at the red bird, still flying over us, gliding in a circle like some carrion bird.
“Carmen, can you block that bird? It’s blocking me,” I asked.
She looked up, a look of doubt scrunching her face. “I don’t know. It’s far away.”
“I got you,” Emma said, taking her hand. “Block that fucking bird.”
Emma and Carmen slowed to a stop while she stared at the sky. I hoped it worked.
A spear from a Crultar on the ground flew by me and stuck in the sand. An arrow hit him in the chest, sending him to the ground. A lizard foot stepped on him as they rushed toward me. There had to be a dozen lizards now, all at varying distances.
Cass screamed out as the metal rod went flying past me. It slammed into one Crultar but kept going, impaling three more before stopping. The metal object fell to the sand, and I glanced back at Cass, who had dropped to her knees. Blood poured from her nose, and tears fell from her eyes. I saw her mouth the words I’m sorry.
Benji didn’t look much better as she fired another arrow, kneeling on one knee as she did. She didn’t use her extra sense to power the arrow, but it still landed right into the heart of a Crultar rider. She quickly grabbed another arrow and fired again.
I stopped, not wanting to get too far from the women. If we didn’t have it in us to punch through their line, then we’d make a stand.
I took the spear stuck in the sand next to me and ran toward a lizard. The thing had to be twenty feet long and five feet tall. The rider threw a spear at me. I juked to the left, and the spear sailed past, just inches by my chest.
The lizard growled and snapped its large mouth at me. It lowered down, trying to bite me again when I swung the spear, hitting it across the side of its face. A gust of air blasted just above me, knocking the rider off the back of the lizard. I glanced over my shoulder to see Aubrey right behind me.