The group, carried away with the feasting and Tulana's half angry, half excited mood, shouted approval.
"To the ships, then!" Tulana stormed over to the trap door, followed by a boisterous mob.
"Just what the hell are Cresus?" Mark asked, falling in beside Leti, who was obviously less than pleased.
"They're fish," she said quietly.
"What kind of fish?" Mark asked, although he really didn't want to know.
"Carnivorous, and bigger than a house. They're a constant problem for the sea shepherds."
"You mean like a shark?" Ikawa asked.
"I don't know the word," Leti replied, "but if a shark can swallow an entire ship, you've got the right idea."
"Here we go again," Ikawa said, trying to smile.
Following Tulana's lead, the party poured into the street, which was aswarm with several hundred men racing down to the boats docked on the lee side of the island. The atmosphere was strange: grim, but with a wild note of excitement. Above the general confusion, Tulana's voice could be heard booming out oaths and commands.
Reaching the harbor side, Mark was delighted to see that they were going to board the large clipper-type ship he had seen from the air.
"What do you think of her?" Tulana called, pointing expansively. "Cloud Dancer is the finest one afloat!"
Not waiting for a response, he turned away, and with a good deal of cursing and shouting, ordered the ship to depart.
"I think we're going to be swimming underwater," Leti announced. "The rest of our group hasn't had a chance to practice so I'd better give them some pointers right now." Calling the offworlders together, she hurriedly started to explain the techniques of breathing beneath the waves.
Mark and Ikawa broke away from their men and wandered astern to where Tulana stood by the wheel.
"We've got four of them out there for certain," Tulana announced. "One is old Naga--he's been a thorn in my side for years. Wait until he finds out I've got over a score of sorcerers and another demigod with me this time!"
"It sounds like it's going to be exciting," Mark said tentatively.
"Exciting? There's nothing like it! I hate the damn things. They can swallow a hundred tons of the finest mituni in a single pass and be out again in an hour. This time of year they cruise the western end of my chain; later in the season they'll shift further east. And the gods help us if they ever got to one of my cities--they'd make splinters of it in the flash of an eye. But damn my soul, if they weren't here to pester me, I'd die of boredom, I would."
"All's ready!" came a cry from forward.
"Cast away, then," Tulana shouted. "Hoist all sails."
"Why don't we just fly out to where they are?" Ikawa ventured. "It'd be faster."
"I'll need the rest of the men when we get them to breach. But you'll see, we've got a broad reach today, we'll be there in no time."
"Clear away!"
A curtain of white canvas thundered down from above, filling the masts. The crew, cursing and shouting, worked the sheets, pulling the sails in, while from above came a wild litany of shouts and chanties as the men let out yet more sails.
A shudder ran through the huge vessel as Tulana guided it out past the star point bastions.
"Now hang on," Tulana shouted, a delighted grin on his face.
Spinning the wheel hard over, he pointed the ship north. The canvas sails snapped and thundered, bellying out with the wind, and the deck started to heel over. Nervously Mark looked around for something to grab on to.
The vessel lurched and the deck canted even higher, while the crew strained at the windlasses, hauling the sheets in tight, cranking the vast fore and aft sails down to form winglike airfoils.
"We're flying a hull," Tulana cried as the canting continued so that Mark felt as if the entire vessel would roll straight on over. Unable to contain himself, he lifted off the deck.
"A land walker to be sure," Tulana shouted good-naturedly. "But go on, fly out a bit and see me beauty sail."
Mark looked over at Ikawa, who flew up to follow Mark through the rigging. Sailors waved to them as they rose above the ship.
"It's magnificent!" Ikawa cried.
Cloud Dancer cut through the water like a knife, its massive fore and aft sails pulled taut as drumheads. It sliced easily through the waves, kicking up curtains of spray and leaving a rooster tail plume fifty feet high in its wake. The curtains of water caught the early afternoon sun in a rainbow wash.
"She must be doing close to thirty knots," Ikawa said. "It's just amazing."
Together the two swooped down, racing along the downwind side, slicing through the salty spray and then arcing back up again. Pointing to the foremast crow's nest, Mark raced through the rigging once more and alighted next to several sailors who were anxiously peering forward.
"A good day for a hunt," one of the sailors cried.
Forgetting what Leti had told him only moments before, Mark smiled in agreement and settled back to enjoy the invigorating roller coaster ride.
"There they are!" one of the lookouts shouted at last, pointing to several small boats on the horizon.
Cupping his hands, the sailor leaned over the railing. "Straight ahead," he roared.
Tulana came floating up through the rigging to hover next to the crow's nest. He brought up his communications crystal and listened as a report came in from the ships ahead.
"Four of them to be sure--it'll be a hell of a hunt. Get your people ready!" he shouted.
Rising from the crow's nest, Mark and Ikawa followed Tulana back down to the deck.
"Clear the boats," Tulana ordered, and the deck crew, racing to the port and starboard railings, pulled the canvas clear from a dozen sleek, two-masted catamarans. At the bow of each of the boats was a massive catapult armed with a twelve-foot spear tipped with a razor-sharp barb, and stacked alongside each weapon were a dozen more bolts. Forward on the main deck, a battery of four more catapults were revealed that stood nearly fifteen feet high, armed with twenty-foot bolts.
"They've got double torsion catapults," Kochanski said excitedly. "It's like an ancient navy going to war."
In spite of his earlier trepidation, Mark found himself getting caught up in what was happening.
"Gather round," Tulana commanded, and for the moment the giant became serious and grim-faced as the offworlders clustered around him.
"We're gonna have a grand time in a couple of minutes. Leti's told me that except for your leaders, you folks have never been underwater before."
The men exchanged nervous glances. Mark could see that besides the underwater briefing, Leti must have been filling them in on what they would be facing, for their previous childlike enthusiasm had definitely been tempered.
"Now the Cresus is a terrible big beastie, not very smart, but nasty when he gets riled. We'll pick up our ladultas once we get near, and then we start in."
"What are ladultas?" Ikawa asked.
"Friends of ours--you'll see. Hopefully there'll be enough to tow us all in; I sent word ahead to get extra mounts for the rest of you. Now, once we start to close, the trick is to get underneath a Cresus and then start hitting him with your energy bolts. Aim for the ass end of the damned things, they're real sensitive there, but watch out for their tail flukes. Have you got all of that?"
"I think so," Mark replied, though he wasn't quite sure what had just been said. "You mean we just shoot to kill them and that's it."
"Kill them?" Tulana roared, looking over at the two sorcerers from his island, who started to laugh uproariously. "Kill them, he says!"
"What's so funny?" Mark asked, looking at a short, barrel-chested sorcerer who had stripped to nothing but a loin cloth.
"It's just to get the damn things moving," the Sorcerer told him. "You see, we want the things to breach."
"What the hell is breach?" Goldberg asked.
"You know, like in Moby Dick--to get them out of the water," Kochanski responded. "I guess the catapults are to finish them of
f."
"Aye, you've got it, laddie," Tulana rejoined, slapping Kochanski on the back and knocking the wind out of him. "We want the damned things to breach, and by Jartan's hairy ass it's a sight that'll make a god tremble. When you got one heading up, get out of the water ahead of it, so the boat crews know what's coming. If it looks like the thing is going to hit a boat, it's your job to go back in and divert it a wee bit."
"And how do we do that?" Ikawa asked nervously.
"You go back in and give it a couple of strikes along the head to steer it in the opposite direction, then get the hell out of the way and watch the show."
"In range!" came a shout from above.
"Helmsman, take her into the wind and clear away the boats. Sorcerers, follow me, and by the gods don't let any of them get near this ship. Old Naga would just love to eat this thing for dinner."
Pulling off his tunic, Tulana quickly stripped down to skin and crystals, all the time giving Leti a lascivious grin. The goddess slipped out of her tunic and flying breeches, but shaking her head at Tuiana, she modestly left her undergarments on.
"Let's go then," Tulana ordered, his disappointment obvious. He flew across the deck and out over the ocean toward a light catamaran that was running close hauled before the wind.
Leti and the offworlders followed him, the men quiet for a change.
"There's our ladultas," the barrel-chested sorcerer called, pointing to what appeared to be a boiling foam of water, laced with fins.
"They look like sharks to me," Walker said nervously.
"More like dolphins," Shigeru said excitedly.
Slowing, the group drifted down to the water. Tulana plunged right in, disappeared for a moment, and then surfaced, while the offworlders hovered nervously above the waves.
"Come on in, the water's great," Tulana shouted. A fin came up alongside him and several of the Americans shouted warnings, to which Tuiana replied with laughter. "They're friends," the prince roared. "Now get your asses in the water, damn it."
Setting the lead, Mark plunged in. When he resurfaced, he saw a lithe torpedo-shaped creature that looked a bit like a sailfish circling tight around him. Mark gazed suspiciously at the ladulta. Its eyes were large and round, almost like a baby seal's. Drawing closer, the creature gently nudged him.
"Air breather, friend?"
Startled, Mark could only swim down to look at the ladulta.
"Friend, airbreather kill Cresus?" Like a Tal, the ladulta was telepathically communicating with him.
Smiling, Mark reached out to touch it.
"Friend," he thought, "never fight Cresus before. Will you help me?"
"Help good. I am Sul named; take hold my top fin. Cresus bad, kill our young, try to smash cities of airbreathers. We teach them lesson today."
Tentatively, Mark grabbed Sul's dorsal fin and let the ladulta pull him back to the surface. It came nearly out of the water, blowing air. Taking a throaty breath through a breathing hole in the middle of its back, it dove slightly.
"Say, these things are like Tals!" Imada shouted.
"There's enough here for all of us," Tulana shouted, as the off-woriders floundered around the water, getting oriented. "Trust their judgment; they know this game better than you. We'll stick together as a group--if you get separated from your ladulta, just call his name and keep calling it till he picks you up."
"Worg, stay on the surface and direct the action up here. Mark and Ikawa, keep track of your people and I'll call the commands in to you. Shift your crystals accordingly."
The barrel-chested sorcerer mumbled a curse, but nodded in reply.
Tulana disappeared below the waves, then surfaced again. "I've got one. Follow me."
"Hold tight," Sul commanded, and together he and Mark plunged beneath the waves.
"Check in," Mark called through his comm crystal.
"Smithie here."
"Goldberg here. This is great, Captain."
"Walker. I don't like this underwater shit, captain."
"Kochanski here. Everything's all right."
"Kraut here. Captain, I'm sensing something really big up ahead--make that two, no, four images forming."
Mark turned his attention forward and sensed a vast moving wall straight ahead.
"Ikawa here. My people are all right."
"Hang on, my friend, something damn big ahead."
"I've got it, Mark." Sul surged forward with remarkable speed and Mark was thrilled by this strange charge into the sea. Propelled by the ladulta's powerful undulating action, Mark rode above the creature, hanging on with his left hand so his right would be free to fire.
A dull flash lit the ocean ahead, followed an instant later by a deafening roar.
"Tulana hit good," Sul whispered, and Mark could sense the delight in the creature's thoughts.
"I'm on to one," Tulana's voice roared through the crystal. "Close on me and let's get him up."
Sul, as if having heard Tulana's voice, swam forward. In spite of the shielding which protected Mark from the drag of the ocean, he found himself struggling to hang on as the ladulta charged in.
Looking around, he could see the other ladultas closing in, each towing an offworlder. More than one sorcerer was gripping his ride with both hands and cursing wildly.
Suddenly the ocean before Mark turned a darker blue, and then went black.
"Hang on!" Sul called, and instantly he snapped over, diving straight down.
"Holy shit!" Walker screamed, and the comm crystal was suddenly overloaded with shouts of panic, matched by Mark's own cry.
The ocean before him was a vast cavern of darkness half a hundred feet across, surging in his direction. The circle of darkness was rimmed with teeth, each of which was the size of a man.
The darkness surged past, buffeting Sul and Mark. Behind the mouth was a great dark bulk that seemed to stretch off into infinity.
Tulana appeared straight ahead, racing beside the creature. Turning, he swung in next to Mark.
"I figured I'd stir him up for you first," Tulana roared. "It's just a little one for you folks to break in on. Now let's get him upset!"
"You crazy bastard," Mark yelled, but his words were drowned by the shouts of his companions.
"Start fire," Sul whispered.
Mark pointed his hand at the massive bulk gliding above him and fired. His shot was followed instantly by a score of others.
A deafening roar boomed through the ocean, and the Cresus kicked and rolled, buffeting Mark and his ladulta.
"Again!" Tulana ordered.
Another volley laced out. Suddenly the creature's tail loomed straight ahead, flukes slashing back and forth as the Cresus turned and started up.
"He's breaching!" Tulana shouted. "Everybody out of the water!"
Sul cut away from the Cresus and raced straight upward, rocketing past their prey.
"Release," Sul called. "I wait in direction of sun."
Mark let go and, clearing the surface, he flew into the sky, blinded by the afternoon glare. Around him the water seemed to explode as the offworlders soared into the air. Several launches stood by not fifty yards away, their aft catapults pointed to where the sorcerers had emerged.
"He's breaching," Tulana roared, exploding out of the water below Mark. "Everyone get your asses clear."
Directly beneath Mark the water suddenly turned black. A geyser exploded under him, threatening to tumble him as he shot away.
And then the Cresus appeared.
The mouth, its teeth glinting wickedly in the sun, rose heavenward, higher and higher into the air. Transfixed, Mark floated above it.
Yet still it came upward--fifty feet, then a hundred feet, the water exploding around it like a tidal wave.
A glint of light shot past, and the creature gave a bellow and seemed to rear even higher.
Another glint, and a catapult bolt snapped past Mark to bury itself in the creature's head.
A third bolt shot out, catching the creature in the middle of its b
ody. A geyser of hot blood sprayed the ocean in rivers of red.
The Cresus shrieked and kicked, and then like a mountain it fell on its side. As its body hit the water, a towering wall of water and foam kicked into the air.
"Good shooting!" Tulana cried.
The Cresus rolled and kicked on the ocean's surface, while the three launches crested the tidal wave and circled in, slamming three more shots into its head.
Tulana soared to Mark's side. "Fun, isn't it?"
Stunned by what he had just witnessed, Mark just looked at the prince.
"Now let's go for a big one," Tulana yelled. Turning, he dove westward to where the ladultas circled, waiting.
"Fun, he said," Walker called to Mark. "If I hadn't been swimming naked, I'd still be cleaning the shit out of my pants."
"Well, let's get after them," Leti shouted, and Mark could see that she was caught up in the excitement of the hunt.
"In and after them," Kochanski screamed, swinging in behind Tulana. "Thar she blows!"
Shigeru roared with joy and dove past Mark. Finally caught up in the thrill of the chase, Mark followed, plunging into the ocean and calling Sul's name. Within seconds his companion appeared, joyfully spinning through the water in a series of loops before coming up alongside Mark.
"Good kill," Sul called. "Now let's get big one!"
"Lead on!" Mark shouted.
As they dove, the world started to turn dark, the visible reds near the surface shifting in the water through green and into an ever-darkening blue.
"I've got him," Tulana called through the comm crystal. "Tell your ladultas to track on me!"
As Mark relayed the command, Sul made a sharp banking turn and raced away.
Mark turned his senses forward, probing, and picked up the images of Tulana and Leti ahead of the group.
"Naga! It's him, damn it!" Tulana screamed.
The effect on the ladultas was electric: A series of throaty growls echoed through the water in a strange harmonic chorus that shifted and wove itself in a multivaried interplay of minor chords.
"What the hell is that?" Mark thought.
"Battle chant," Sul's thought returned. "Let Naga know we come, that we come to kill. He take many young, many herd brothers, many mates. Now we fight again."
Crystal Sorcerers Page 17