Another wave pitched them toward the sky. Grim narrowed his eyes and pointed at something in the distance.”What is…!”The rest the wind carried away. But it caught the attention of the captain and the dark haired woman. They stared. Grim could hear the shouts of the men pointing, calling their fellows’attention.
In the distance, in a world of black and gray, was a constant pulsating light. It fell from the sky to the sea in a curtain-like way. A curtain that was caught in a wind storm. Where the curtain was pulled apart was…blackness.
Everyone on the Lucky Blue Wing wondered what it was as they stared at it in awed trepidation. The sleek cruiser road along the back of the wave heading straight for the unknown.
“I don’t like the look of that.”JayDee breathed. Willaim nodded mutely. The two of them went to work turning the ship.
“Captain!!!”Jingles screamed. In the pulsating light, Grim could see the man imitating a spider down the main mast. He called out again as he hit the deck and took off running toward them, heedless of the rocking boat. Grim had a brief moment of envy. Jingles ran as if a rocking ship was little more than dry land.
“Spit it out, man!”The captain commanded.
“Mmmmmal…mal…maelstrom!!!”The ever talkative Jingles stuttered.
***
Cold, black water caressed every inch of her body. And there was a lot of body for it to caress. Her serpent’s form was roughly a hundred yards long not including her head, which was large enough to swallow a large man whole. Her jaw was lined with hundreds of hooking teeth. Each covered with toxin that served to rip the soul from the useless flesh. Hmm…tasty.
Kaltana smiled. She would soon have a lovely meal. There, her length above and slightly ahead, was a bobbing little cork. The proper term might have been‘ship’but whatever. It was a little toy that happened to be crawling with two legged snacks.
The Dark Kin Council knew who was on that ship. Thomas Holden thought he had slipped away, but the Council knew. The Council had many eyes and ears. The upstart king who served the light was going to die. A shiver of anticipation swept through her. With the eagerness of a cat playing with a hapless mouse, Kaltana began to swim up toward the little ship.
Roughly three thousand years ago, the Dark Kin had sundered the world. There is more truth to the“divide and conquer”axiom then some believed. Their doubt made it so much easier, not to mention enjoyable, to crush them. The same was true for the world and those who served the light. It was even more satisfying to plant doubt in the hearts of those who knew the light. A challenge, but beautiful when they fell. Braking apart Pershara and Arathin had been imperative if the Dark Kin were to rule the world.
As for the world…The world, with the rise of the barrier, became unbalanced. The sensitive world has this need for balance. Everything from the tiniest atom to the currents in air and sea has this desire. The need for balance causes the flow of energy through the natural world. Same with magic. Magic pools in places and people who are attuned to it till given an outlet to flow. The outward flow produces the work needed. That was the basics of it anyway.
The barrier between Pershara and Arathin was a place of high density magic. The barrier cut deep through the ocean and high into the atmosphere. The magic had been tightly bound. But that was changing. Over the last hundred years the wall had been weakening. That was fine by her because it made it easier to get to and from her favorite hunting ground. It also made lovely storms and turmoil in oceanic currents. Thomas and his friends were going to learn firsthand just how unpredictable magic energized storms could be.
Kaltana gently bumped the ship before diving back toward the depths. Her diaphanous wings giving her extra thrust. The waters were roiling nicely, but she was always a helpful sort…
***
There was a moment when the ship became the still eye of a storm. No one moved on the ship as far as Grim could tell. Every man and JayDee stared to a point just off the port bow. The black sea was lit by the pulsating curtain. Behind them the waves were sixty to a hundred foot tall hills. Before them, the sea was almost flat. There was a rushing sound. It could have been the blood in his ears, but Grim was confident that it was, in fact, the sea. The sea was doing something he had prayed was nothing more than sailor folklore. The water was rushing so fast that it was smooth. All the way to that horrifying point where it vanished. JayDee and the captain had tried to steer the ship away, but they hit something again. The jarring impact had sent them into currents that played in the maelstrom.
“Please tell me those are not last rites you’re muttering.”Doctor Harding said next to him. Grim looked at him in surprise. Others around them were looking too, for the doctor’s words were the first any had said since Jingles had stuttered‘maelstrom’.
“No, Doctor. Those are reserved for those who are about to pass on to the next life. The living have little use for them. I was praying for God’s guidance.”The other man shook his head.
“Why do they bother putting rudders on these dratted things when they don’t darn work?!”JayDee’s outraged question brought Grim’s attention to the helm. She and the captain were struggling vainly with the wheel.
“Current’s too hard!”Captain Willaim called over the rushing sea. JayDee started cursing useless ships. Which the captain took exception to.“Hey now. Don’t be cursing the old boat. She has been doing her darnest to keep us afloat. Blame the sea for being temperamental. But keep it respectful like…and quiet. The sea is already in a bad mood.”
Laughter tinkled over the sounds of water and wind. The sailors glanced uneasily about. JayDee and the captain froze, glanced at each other, than mimicked the crew in looking around. Grim turned to look down at the water. His breath stopped. Dear Father in Heaven….An eye the size of a small child curled in a fetal position peered out of the water. It blinked coquettishly at him. But despite the outward playful manner, Grim knew there was no soul within it. Nothing but evil. It made his heart freeze. Grim’s hand fell on the glowing silver cross.
“Sea Monster!!!”Some of the sailors started to scream. The laughter turned into‘tsk’ing sounds. A whoosh of water later and a large serpentine head loomed above them. Men scattered away from it. A ridiculously feminine voice fell from a maw that spelled‘the end’in so many ways.
“Now, now. That iss jusst plain rude. I’m no sssseamonssster.”Its sibilant voice hissed.
“Then what are you if not a monster?”JayDee challenged.
“Ssspirit. I like that.”The serpent chuckled.“I would not sssay I am nota monsster. I have my momentss.”The snake winked at JayDee in a conspiratorial way.“Asss to your question, what will you pay?”After a moment of JayDee’s silence the snake swayed slowly back with a satisfied smile.“Don’t worry, my dear, I know you will pay me ssoon enough. Asss to the ansswer to your quesstion; I am your guide to the other sside.”
Doctor Harding dropped to his knees before the great serpent. Its eyes fell on him.“Milady.”The man’s voice trembled slightly.
Two great diaphanous wings rose on either side of the serpent. They stretched, each longer than the ship. Water streamed off the gossamer limbs. They wrapped gently about the ship. Grim backed slowly toward the helm. JayDee’s hand fell to her dagger. Near her, she heard Jingles mutter under his breath“I don’t like this. I really don’t.”
The snake’s head bent toward the doctor.“Well done, good and faithful ssservant…”The snake said silkily. It glanced at Grim, its gaze obviously mocking. It looked down at the bowing man again“You have sserved me well. And now you will sserve me again, one lasst time.”Before any could react the snake struck.
Harding screamed as the snake nipped at his back. Teeth penetrated deep enough to be able to yank him up off the deck. His screams were shrill as it tossed him up into the air and caught him in its finely toothed maw. It chomped twice and Grim knew that it didn’t need to. It enjoyed the spectacle. Harding’s scream didn’t stop with his death. A faintly glowing mist was caught about the
snake’s mouth. It condensed enough to resemble the deceased doctor. With obvious relish the snake made a slurping sound. The screams grew in volume and shrillness until there was nothing left of the mist.
“Hmmm.”The snake sighed.“Now, where were we? Ah yesss, it iss time to play.”The fragile looking wings wrapped about the ship tightened and what could only be the snake’s tail rose on the opposite side from its head. With lightning speed, the tail hooked around main mast and yanked. The Lucky Blue Wing shuddered. Wood groaned as the main mast was pulled one way and the rest of the ship was twisted the other. Men’s screams were drowned under the screech of rending wood as the ship was gutted.
Swift as any snake, the serpent plucked men caught in the main mast’s rigging in her teeth. If they came whole or not didn’t seem to matter to the monster. Glowing mist shrouded the serpent’s head. Their screams were too high. Inhuman notes that sank icy fangs deep into the souls of anyone in hearing distance. Done with the main mast, the snake tossed it into the maelstrom. Several things happened simultaneously then. Grim dove for the helm. The snake crashed down onto the crippled ship and dove into the depths. And the main mast came hurtling back around like a spear tipped ram. The stern, which had started to fold toward the bow, was jolted and crunched with the impact of the mast. The chaotic moment slowed for Grim as he braced himself against the helm. Dangling below him, miraculously clinging to his forearm, was JayDee. He was mirroring her clasp. Below her was Captain Willaim. The older man was clinging to her leg. Below him was the roiling sea, red with the blood of good men. Grim reached into his tunic, his hand touching the wooden cross.
Time sped up again as the serpent resurfaced and struck at the bow. One of its wings bashed into the stern, knocking it deeper into the maelstrom. Grim heard JayDee scream Willaim’s name shortly before the strong currents shredded the doomed ship apart. GrimHolden lost his hold. Cold, black water caught Grim in its perilous clasp. Muted rushing filled his ears as he tumbled about. He couldn’t see a thing. He became conscious of his tightened hold on a soft, fine boned hand. JayDee. She was flailing about too; the miraculous current was having far too much fun. Grim could hear the monster’s laughter in the depths as the Lucky Blue Wing lost her luck, crew, and existence.
Grim was quickly running out of breath when something knocked into his back. He reached his arm around and grasped it. The object was wood and it was speeding in a set direction. Praying that this piece of flotsam was on its way to the surface, Grim tightened his hold on both it and JayDee.
Sputtering, his head broke the surface. He dragged JayDee up with him. Blindly she latched onto their piece of flotsam. It was a fair size considering the bashing the ship received. Large enough for two to three people if they lay side by side with their feet in the water. It looked like it had once been part of the ship’s rail. Coils of rigging were still tethered to its pulley mount. JayDee and Grim pulled themselves as far onto the ship chunk as they could. Around them were other such ship pieces. On a few of them were struggling men. Others were desperately trying to help shipmates out of the water. Those with men were much farther away.
As soon as she caught her breath, JayDee began screaming for her friend.“Willaim! Will! WILLAIM!”Her voice was hoarse. Tears and sea water streaming down her face.
“JayDee, hush!”Grim commanded. The snake had resurfaced, picking off hapless sailors. Their cries joined the chorus of inhuman screeching mist. The sailors on flotsam nearest the carnage began to swim as quickly as they could. The snake would laugh and corral them back with a wing…or her teeth.
“Oh no.”JayDee sobbed.“What are we going to do?”
“Hide.”
She looked at Grim as if wondering when he had gone mad. Grim smiled grimly and pulled the wooden cross from his tunic.“Thank you, Lord.”He whispered as he kissed the cross; thankful that he hadn’t lost it in the chaos. He then prayed; thanking the Lord for keeping them alive then asked for his next idea to actually work. There was a spell that the Grimdian Knights used to remain unnoticed by forest game. He prayed that it would work on the open sea. The cross began to glow softly and a small pressure brushed the nape of his neck.
“What did you do?”JayDee whispered.
“Hopefully, made it so we would go unnoticed.”
“Hopefully?”Her voice sounded strained.
“God willing.”And the Lord did indeed seem willing. The serpent ignored them. They were swept away from the carnage. Grim and JayDee watched the destruction of their friends and prayed that they could save at least one. But they were carried farther and farther away and closer to the curtain of pulsating light. Pressure built on the back of their necks. It was getting very uncomfortable.
“Look.”JayDee pointed. Coming closer on what used to be yardarm was a very wet Jingles. When the wet and tired man was close enough, Grim threw a length of rigging to him. Jingles blinked at it, then followed the rope to them. He startled, his eyes very round. “I guess your spell is working.”JayDee said.
“Grim! Ma’am! Where did you come from?”Jingles asked.
“We just floated up. Grab the rope, we’ll pull you over.”JayDee replied. Jingles took hold of the rope and Grim pulled him in. “Have you seen anyone else?”She asked, helping to keep the yardarm close as Grim lashed the two pieces together.
“I saw the captain earlier…”Jingles said looking about.“How come I didn’t see you till the rope came at me?”
“Magic to keep us unremarkable.”Grim replied. He showed the still faintly glowing cross to the sailor.
“Not that it really matters.”JayDee muttered.“I don’t see the serpent anymore and I see our death coming for us in two ways. Drowning.”She said nodding toward the center of the maelstrom. “Or the unknown fate of that.”She said staring at the curtain of rippling light. She was right. Grim acknowledged. It looked like the maelstrom was sweeping them toward the curtain of wildly moving magic. He narrowed his eyes.
“What is that up ahead?”He asked. JayDee, who had been resting her head on her arms looked up. Jingles barely managed to turn his head to see. There was a bobbing object ahead of them. The current they were in was pushing whatever it was too.“Might that be another of the crew?”
“Too far to see.”She said.
“Then let us get closer.”Grim said as he started to kick his feet, aiming their haphazard craft toward it.
When they were close enough, JayDee reached out and pulled the object closer. It shifted and she cried.“Willaim?”Lashed to a barrel was the old captain. He opened bleary eyes when he heard JayDee’s voice.
He cracked a smile.“Hi, Lady. I saved a piece of the old gal.”He held up a waterlogged limb. In his hand was a scrap of wood with a solitary barnacle and an etching of a wing.“Unless I miss my guess, it’s a piece of the darn rudder.”
JayDee, Grim, and a tired Jingles laughed. At that moment the pressure increased to severely painful and the world turned into a kaleidoscope of colors.
This ends the preview of The Ways of Mages #3, Startfire
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Other Books
by Andrew Beery
(Click on titles to jump to order page)
The Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles
Inception, #1 - July 2012
*Redemption, #2 - Fall 2012
*Exploration, #3 - 2013
The Ways of Mages (with Catherine Beery)
The Ways of Mages, #1 -Revised July 2012
The Ways of Mages: Two Worlds, #2 - Aug 2012
The Ways of Mages: Starfire, #3 - 2012<
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*The Ways of Mages: Three Swords, #4 - 2013
* Coming Soon
The Ways of Mages: Two Worlds Page 19