by M H Ryan
She took a deep breath. “You’re right. It’s just a splash.”
“We got fire, Jack,” Kara said, stepping back from the small flames.
“Grab it and get ready, Hanna,” I said. “Get next to Emma. I think you’re going to need her.”
Sherri yelled out, and a burst of water sprayed the bottom of the boat.
“Aubrey, now!”
Aubrey took a deep breath and gripped Emma’s hand tighter as she held her other hand over the deck.
She exhaled a long breath.
The warm weather around me shifted to cold as if Aubrey’s very breath was sucking the warmth out. Then it went from cold to frigid. A wave of goosebumps went over my arms, and I realized this was the first coldness, real coldness, I’d felt since we’d been there. The kind of cold that pulled the breath from my body and burned my lungs with each breath. As cold as I was, it was nothing compared to the deep freeze she was sending to the creature below Luna.
Between the planks, ice formed, and the wood below us popped and felt as cold as ice against my feet.
“It’s as cold as I can get it,” Aubrey said, bending over and breathing hard.
“Benji, Cass—pull it off the boat.”
“Shit,” Cass said as she closed her eyes. “It’s so big.”
“That’s what she said,” Benji said.
They both pushed their hands down in unison, and I felt the boat sinking. The bamboo and boards cracked and popped.
“The ship, Jack,” Carmen said with wide-eyed fear.
“It will hold,” I said.
“This is awesome!” Sherri said, jumping up and down on the deck. “You guys, are incredible.”
Then it broke free from the bottom of Luna, and the boat lunged back up as it reached buoyancy. We all fell to the deck.
“Don’t lose it,” I yelled, jumping back to my feet.
“Help me, Cass,” Benji said, staying on her hands and knees. Her face reddened with strain as she held onto the beast now free in the water below.
If she lost it, the ocean would thaw the creature out quickly, and I knew it would be right back on us.
“I got you,” Cass said.
“Hanna and Emma, get ready.”
Emma grabbed Hanna’s shoulders as she held a ball of fire in her hand. When Emma touched her, an expression of shock went across her face and then strain.
“I can’t hold it back for long. Not with Emma. Holy shit, you’re powerful,” Hanna said.
“Portside,” Benji said, in almost a scream. “It’s coming up.”
Cass stood next to her, looking as if the air around her was crushing her.
“Aubrey, feed as much air into this as you can,” Hanna said, staring at the fireball swirling above her hand.
I moved to the port side as the frozen monster emerged from the water. Its black body looked slick, and water ran down its misshapen form as the girls brought it up.
“It’s so heavy,” Benji said, almost crying.
“We got this, Benji,” Cass said.
It continued to lift from the water in more or less the form of a monolith. If Benji could speak, I knew she’d be making some Space Odyssey reference. The pure black body of the creature had some contrast, with chunks of our boat stuck on its body. Partial shoots of bamboo and plenty of shards of wood were frozen to it. It’s one dark eye came out of the water, looking to be trapped open. Good, I hoped it saw its fate.
“Can’t do this much longer,” Cass said.
“As soon as it clears the water, Hanna,” I said.
The bottom of the thing, nearly the size of our boat, cleared the water, making for some kind of sick, black sheet of frozen goo floating about thirty feet from the boat. I felt the wind at my back and then the fiery heat of Hanna’s inferno ball as she and Aubrey worked together.
It swirled over me as I stepped back, motioning for all the girls to do the same.
We all moved to the opposite end of the boat as the wind wanted to push us toward the monster, toward the swirling flames slowly moving toward it.
The inferno kept growing, and the wind kept blowing.
“Push it harder, Aubrey!” Hanna yelled.
Aubrey screamed, falling to her knees with her hands out toward the fire that was growing brighter by the moment.
Benji, Cass, Emma, and Hanna were all screaming as each of them struggled to find the depths of their strengths.
“Sherri, we’re going to need you to protect us soon,” I yelled over the hurricane of wind.
She stared at me, looking terrified, but nodded.
The flame grew so bright I struggled to look at it. It swirled and thinned into the shape of a saw blade. Sparks flew from it, and I winced as the brightness strained my eyes.
It hit the frozen black creature, and for one second, I thought that maybe we hadn’t done enough, that all this effort would be for nothing.
Then it exploded.
The sound boomed across us, and I felt the cold wave of water over me. At first, I thought I had been knocked into the water, but then I felt the cold deck. I yelled out for the others but couldn’t hear them. I couldn’t hear anything but a buzzing sound in my ear. I looked for them, but a bright light enveloped most of my vision, with just a fuzzy edge.
My finger grazed soft skin, and I moved toward the person, grabbing their arm and holding her body against mine. I felt her chest against my chest and knew it was Kara. I spoke, at least I think I spoke. I couldn’t hear my own words, but I kept telling everyone to grab someone and hold on.
The buzzing sound dulled, and I heard words spoken as my vision went from bright blindness to brightness with a blurry edge. Blinking seemed to help, so I kept blinking hard, trying to clear my vision and using my free hand to rub them.
“Jack,” Kara said as she hugged me tightly.
I gripped her tiny body and held her tight.
“Is everyone on the boat?” I said, turning in a circle, struggling to make out the shapes in my hazy vision.
Wait, my vision wasn’t just hazy from the light, there was smoke. I smelled it.
“The boat’s on fire,” Carmen yelled out.
“Sherri?” I said and then noticed some of the girls were lying down.
Cass, Emma, Hanna, Benji, and Sherri were all on the deck, unconscious.
“Take care of them,” I said as the girls were already rushing to them. “I’ll handle the fire.”
The other girls got to them, holding up their heads and making sure they were okay. I knew they were—they had to be.
If we didn’t get this fire out, we’d all be in trouble, especially with half of us not able to move. In my short time on the Veronica and with Captain Rebecca Brown, she drilled into us the importance of stopping a fire before it got out of control. Because if it broke loose, there was little you could do besides jumping into the one refuge you had, and that liquid mistress wasn’t welcoming.
My hearing and vision became half of what it had been before, plenty for me to see the front of the ship on fire. The flames were large enough and hot enough to keep me staying back at a safe distance. We didn’t have a single bucket, and only had bags of freshwater. Those were to keep us alive, not put out a fire. There had to be another way.
I hopped over the railing and got down on the small space on the edge of the boat. Using my hand, I scooped some water and threw it at the flames. The fire laughed at me for the effort. Sparks slapped against the sail, and I cringed. If that went up, we’d be in real trouble—that was if the entire boat didn’t sink into the water. Then it would be us in the predator’s domain.
The predators!
I closed my eyes and searched for them. They were in a frenzy all around us. Fear permeated through them, and hunger—a hunger for us. I found the biggest one, almost like a whale shark but much lighter and not as docile. Still, I had to try. It might be the only chance we had.
With a deep breath, I slammed my thoughts into the creature. It stretched and resisted, b
ut I kept pushing. Then I moved into the space I created by ramming into it. It wasn’t a break. It wasn’t total control, but I knew it could now be influenced. I commanded the beast to move up, but it pushed back, and a sharp pain smashed into my head like a strike from a sledgehammer. It knocked me straight on my ass, but I kept my concentrating, not letting the beast get loose. I screamed at it with everything I had, commanding it to rise.
This time, it obeyed.
Off the port side of Luna, the giant fish emerged. It had what looked like quills all along its dark back like it had merged with a porcupine. What I brought it up for was its massive, wide tail. I commanded it to slap its tail against the water.
It pushed back, but I screamed once again, and it obeyed. It dipped into the water, head first, with its massive tail sticking up out of the water. Then in a powerful motion, the tail slammed down into the water. The action created a wave of water that crashed over the boat and the fire.
I let go of the creature, and my head pulsed violently as if it might explode. I cracked open an eye to check the boat—the flames were gone.
The wood still smoldered and smoked, but the fire was extinguished. I fell to the floor, unable to move as blood trickled from my nose.
I pushed off the deck and wiped my nose. The smell of smoke overwhelmed most of my other senses that still weren’t a hundred percent. Now, I just needed to make sure my girls were okay.
The girls were grouped at the back of the boat, holding onto each other. To my relief, all of them were awake and aware, even if they looked as weak as I felt.
“That was really cool, Jack,” Hanna said.
“Someone’s been to Sea World,” Benji said.
“Sorry I couldn’t help you,” Sherri said, sounding weak.
“You can,” I said, pushing past the throbbing headache I now had. “We have to get to the island, and we can’t sit here even for one minute.”
“Oh, come on, Jack. Do you know the amount of effort we just exerted? I doubt I could even stand,” Cass said.
Reaching down, I took her hand in mine. She looked up at me, curious at the physical contact, and then I pulled her up to her feet. She swayed and fell into me. I held her for a moment and she looked up into my eyes, keeping her hands on me. I took a step back, gently letting go of her.
“See, you can stand on your own, and right now, I need more from all of you.”
“What can we do, Jack?” Benji said, getting to her feet.
“Look around,” I said, pointing to the sea that had once again gone to a stagnant, glassy lake. “If we don’t get moving, we’re going to die.”
“I don’t know, it’s not that bad,” Carmen said, helping Aubrey get to her feet. “We don’t have to always be fighting, you know?”
“We keep fighting, or this place is going to eat us alive,” I said, resisting the urge to pass out. “Sherri, we need your water flow, and Aubrey, we need your wind.”
“I can sing,” Benji whispered.
“If you can sing while you row, then let’s hear those pretty pipes,” I said. “Everyone, get in place for rowing, and let’s get this burned, beautiful boat bounding the hell out of here.”
“Aye, aye, Captain,” Sherri said.
“Fuck me,” Aubrey said as a slight breeze of wind pushed against the sail.
Chapter 31
It had been at least an hour since the fire since we removed the leech monster from the underside of the boat. It had been a grueling hour, and I knew some of the girls were near complete exhaustion.
“Don’t stop believing,” Benji sang.
She worked through a catalog of music that many of the girls were able to sing along with. Kara had even sung a few Twenty-One Pilot songs that I was impressed with. Who knew she could fast rap? But she could. Pretty badass.
Eliza and Shaya were both smiling at each song. Eliza had even started to make requests to hear songs again.
It was one of the few things keeping spirits up. I knew that if I didn’t have them, the pressure of trying to keep so many predators away from us would have crushed me. That was my task, to give a strong urge for them to all leave us alone, and there were plenty of them vying for us.
The girls were taking turns using the four oars we had. Currently, Benji, Cass, and Carmen were up, paddling away at the water.
Sherri stood at the front of the boat, guiding us through the water while Aubrey hung near the back of the craft, keeping her mind on a steady breeze. Emma walked between the two, buffing them as much as she could. Emma currently stood with Sherri.
I kept my thoughts on the sea.
A soft hand touched the back of my arm. I opened my eyes and turned to see Shaya there, looking up at me.
She touched her throat with a pleading look.
“Do you want Emma?” I asked.
She shook her head.
“Fix,” she said with a wince and then touched her throat.
“Oh, you want me to free you of his curse?”
She nodded with a pleading smile.
Near exhaustion myself, and with an impending horde of things that wanted to kill us, I didn’t know if it was possible to do it all. Looking at her pretty, exotic face, with those bigger than life eyes, I knew I had to try.
“Okay,” I said. “No promises, but I will try.”
She gave me one assertive nod and then reached out and took my hands in hers.
I gave the bastards in the water a single, powerful mental push and then focused on the exotic beauty in front of me.
I could skip the process of feeling every inch of her with my thoughts since I knew already where the seam was. I wanted Emma with me. With her, I felt much more powerful, but she staggered back from Sherri and headed toward Aubrey.
Emma spotted me and Shaya holding hands and stopped, then rushed to us.
“You’re trying to free her, aren’t you?” Emma asked.
“Yes.”
“Not without me.”
“No, you’re—”
“Jack, I will slap you like a disobedient goat,” Emma said, feigning with a raised hand.
“Umm, I…Just hold my hand.” I extended my hand to her.
“That’s right.”
She took my hand, and I felt the rush of being with Emma.
“You’re hurting, Jack,” Emma said and then covered her mouth. “Oh, I’m so sorry.”
“I’m fine,” I said and took a deep breath as I closed my eyes.
Clearing my head of the predators, I focused on Shaya. While the males of her race were simple beings, easy to find and decipher, Shaya was considerably more complicated. I wasn’t sure why, but females were harder to understand. That’s not just some cliché—I couldn’t read the emotions of any female, and even with Emma touching me, while I held Shaya, she only came across as a faint glow.
A faint glow would be enough, though.
I found the edge I had pulled at last time and gripped it with my mind. I took a breath and yanked as hard as I could.
No pain hit my head, and I felt the curse that had wrapped around Shaya fall away and disappear into the black void. Shaya also disappeared to my senses, her faint glow gone. I opened my eyes, only to find her standing in front of me with a questioning look.
“It worked?” I asked.
“No,” Shaya said, then her eyes narrowed and went wide. “It don’t hurt.”
Her eyes went even wider, and her mouth hung open.
“Did it work?” Emma asked, holding my hand still.
“I speak. No pain.”
“Oh, good,” Emma said and hugged Shaya.
“I can talk to you!” Shaya said, jumping up and down and screaming. “I can say things! This feels so good.”
A few of the other girls came over to us and formed a semi-circle around Shaya.
“Yes!” Shaya jumped up and down, throwing punches in the air. “You hear that, king? Fuck you!”
Shaya sent a double middle finger to the sky, and I wondered if the girl’
s bad language had been rubbing off on Shaya.
“I’m so happy for you,” Benji said, on the edge of tears.
Hanna stayed back, watching our fish woman run around the deck with her arms out, yelling in joy. Everyone shared in smiles as we took in the moment.
“Thank you, Jack.” Shaya rushed to me, hugging me.
She shook in my arms as she cried. I patted the back of her head and whispered to her.
“I’m happy I could. You can have a voice now, and I would love to hear it.”
She took a step back from me, looking up with those big eyes filled with tears.
“Lyra, and Murrack, and even Anyck. I need to tell you more about them.”
“You know of these things?” I asked. “The Crultar told me they had limited memories.”
“Yes, the curse,” she said with a scowl. “It holds things back for us but not everything. My dad found ways to remember, and it was one of the reasons he knew that you were so important. It was known that you would be the one to come here and free our people. To end the king.”
“I’m sorry. I feel I failed your people.”
She held my face in both her hands. “Jack, you did nothing wrong, and I hold you as responsible for their fate as a…” She struggled to finish the thought.
“As much as a blind man in a dart-throwing competition,” Emma said.
“I love you, Emma,” Shaya said, giving her a big smile. “You gave me a voice before I had one.” She started crying again. “Even as I pursue the same man as you.”
Shaya looked back at me.
“You were pursuing Jack?” Emma asked, looking surprised.
“Yes. He is chief and powerful. It is his right to take the best as he has with you.”
“Whoa, none of this has been approved by the first wife here,” Aubrey said. “Are you even… you know…compatible down there?”
“Aubrey!” Benji snapped, aghast.
“Oh, please,” Aubrey said. “Like any of you haven’t thought about it. She might have some fish VJ down there.”
“I have thought about it,” Sherri said, raising her hand.