SeaJourney (Arken Freeth and the Adventure of the Neanderthals Book 1)

by Alex Paul

  “Astounding!”

  “Ready the catapults to fire on the approaching enemy ship! Be accurate with your catapult!” he shouted to Lancon Koman. “He’ll be closing fast with the wind off his port side.”

  “Take the candle once again, Arken. This shot is a tight angle. Be ready to light the instant I say!”

  “Sir!” Arken stiffened, ready to move quickly.

  “Now!” Koman shouted seconds later. The small bomb left a trail of gray smoke as it rose and then fell from the sky. A bomb shot up in response from the flagship. The flagship had moved closer while the approaching ship had distracted the catapult crews.

  “Duck down for cover!” Lancon Koman yelled. But Arken couldn’t tear his eyes away from the red bomb arcing toward them. Seconds later a ripping sound shot over Arken’s head, and he heard a splash on the starboard side of the Sea Nymph.

  “He’s overshot and missed us,” Arken yelled.

  “But we have a hit!” Lancon Koman screamed back to the command deck. Yellow tongues of flame rushed across the command deck of the cutter, the smaller pirate ship, engulfing the tiller and forcing their helmsman to abandon his position.

  The crew of the Sea Nymph shouted in joy.

  Let the other Tookan ships attack us now, Arken thought as a feeling of power and exultation ran through him. Lancon Koman is so accurate, we’ll burn them up as well!

  Suddenly, a crunching sound came from under his feet as the entire stern catapult lurched forward, the entire circle seeming to dive into the deck. At the same time, the deck seemed to be pulled backward, knocking him off his feet. As he started to fall forward, he heard a loud crack above him, and then something smashed into his hand, knocking the candle from his grasp. A heavy object hit his head, and he heard Talya screaming high overhead as he blacked out.

  CHAPTER 21

  ESCAPE TO SHORE

  Smoke billows behind us, far to the north. Asher’s ship is nowhere in sight. If they’d escaped, we would see them by now. I pray he is not dead or captured. I should have ordered our ship to stop and bring him along. And I was so foolish to agree to place the necklace in the royal treasure chest on the Golden Willow for safekeeping, and then allow it to be transferred to that Lantish vessel Asher was on! Safekeeping! The smoke is probably that same Lantish ship, and I’ll never see the necklace or Asher again. I weep as I burn incense and pray. I hate the Amarrats and their Tookan pirate allies! Someday we will crush their army. I promise now on Tol’s honor, if Asher is dead, I shall avenge his death.

  —Diary of Princess Sharmane of Tolaria

  “What happened?” Arken came awake as he felt a weight being lifted from his back. He looked around and saw Asher above him.

  “The catapult arm was on your back. I’ve lifted it now.” Asher’s voice sounded strained from lifting the weight. “Roll to your left to get clear of it.”

  Arken rolled until he was clear of the catapult arm.

  “The ship stopped suddenly. I think it ran aground,” Asher explained as he lowered the catapult arm to the deck. “The stern catapult flew up and the arm twisted off and hit you in the head before pinning you to the deck. Are you all right?”

  Arken stood. “I think so. I think my armor saved me.”

  “It dented the back of your helmet.” Asher examined Arken from behind. “The catapult arm is heavy; it must have been a hard blow.”

  “I don’t remember.” Arken looked around. “It happened so fast.”

  “Well, you’re lucky your helmet is tough, or you’d be dead.” Asher looked around the ship. “The ship has definitely stopped.”

  “Oh no!” Arken said. “I dropped my candle when the catapult arm hit me!” He looked about frantically.

  “There! It went out. You’re lucky!” Asher tapped his big toe on the dead candle lying on a pile of sand.

  “Thank Kal!” Arken looked around the deck. “We should see if anyone else is trapped.” Arken grabbed his quiver and stuffed it under the catapult walkway with his bow to keep them safe and out of the way. He scanned the ship. Ropes, shields, and water casks littered the deck. Men were scattered around the deck as well, some of them stunned and getting up like him, others who were uninjured helping the less fortunate.

  “The mast broke and fell forward? How did that happen?”

  “The mast snapped off at the base when the ship stopped.” Asher pointed at the tangle of ropes, sail, and broken timbers. The sail covered the forward catapult.

  Suddenly, muffled groans and screams came from beneath the sail.

  “Someone’s trapped underneath!” Arken said.

  They crossed the command deck and ran down the stairs and across the main deck before climbing up the stairs at the side of the fore cabin. Arken grabbed his service knife and slit the sail. Two sailors climbed out through the opening Arken had cut.

  “Thank you, sir,” the sailors said as they squinted against the sudden brightness of the sun.

  “Talya! I just remembered. She was in the bird’s nest when the mast fell!” Arken ran to the bow railing. The empty bird’s nest hovered over the water beyond the bow. The top cover swung on its hinges, and no one was inside the basket.

  “Where is she?” Asher peered over the rail.

  “There!” Arken shouted. Her long, brown-blonde hair formed a perfect fan shape around her head as Talya sank face down beneath the blue-green surface, her unconscious form outlined by the bright white sand below her.

  “Asher, find a rope to pull us out of the water. I’m diving in!” Arken stripped off his armor and sword belts, and then he dove off the railing. The warm sea embraced him with a splash. He opened his eyes and stroked down, down, until his ears hurt and the light turned greenish blue. His lungs ached with each stroke, yet still he dove deeper toward Talya.

  He grabbed the armor at her neck and pulled up, but her weight only pulled him down. Arken reached for the obsidian knife on his thigh. He heard strange cracking and popping sounds behind him as the ship settled and moved against the sand bar.

  Arken sliced the sharp obsidian blade effortlessly through the banskin straps that secured Talya’s armor. At last, the armor dropped to the sea bottom and Talya floated free.

  Arken’s lungs convulsed in agony as he kicked for the surface, dragging Talya behind him. He vowed he would thank his father again for giving him the knife because it had cut Talya free. His lungs heaved as he fought the urge to breathe, and then he remembered his training and began sipping water and swallowing it, which stopped his breathing reflex. But his vision began to blacken, just like the day of his rock test before he fainted. He had to breathe, but the surface still hovered so far above him. Then the sparkling surface shrank to a small circle surrounded by blackness. He kicked and stroked with the obsidian blade still in his right hand and Talya’s tunic firmly in his left hand’s grip.

  Air! The surface! He broke through and sucked sweet air while holding Talya’s limp head above the water as he glanced at the ship.

  “Asher!” But he didn’t need to call, a rope hit Arken’s right ear, a welcome pain.

  “Run the loop around her chest!” Asher shouted.

  Arken put the antler bone handle of his obsidian blade into his mouth, and then grabbed the loop Asher had thrown and opened it. He lifted Talya, and then he wrapped the loop around and under her arms, which drove him underwater. He rose to the surface to breathe, tightened the loop, and waved.

  “Pull men!” Lancon Koman had joined Asher, and he and a small group of sailors pulled on the rope. Talya’s limp form rose quickly from the water and disappeared up over the railing. Arken kept the obsidian blade in his mouth so that his hands were free to catch the rope. It flashed down, and Arken was in the ship seconds later.

  “Good job, Arken.” Asher pounded his back.

  “Is she all right?” Arken asked. The crewmembers were trying to revive Talya, so he quickly sheathed his knife to keep it a secret.

  “I think so. Lancon Zeem showed me what to do
.” Two sailors had draped Talya face down with her stomach hanging over an empty water barrel to allow water to drain from her lungs. One of them held her shoulders, while the other lifted her head so Lancon Koman could lie below her face and blow air into her mouth to force the water out of her lungs.

  For a few anxious seconds, she did not respond. Then, with a cough, she sprayed water all over Koman’s face. He darted back, just as she vomited. The sailor holding her head wiped her mouth clean, and she gasped for breath.

  “She’ll be fine now.” Koman stood as the sailors lowered Talya to lie on her side. She coughed, and then sat up.

  “What happened?” She looked around, bewildered.

  “We hit a sandbar.” Lancon Koman supported Talya’s back as she started to lie back down. “You have to stay sitting up,” he explained.

  “All right.” Talya had another coughing fit, and then Koman continued his explanation.

  “You were in the bird’s nest when we hit the sandbar and the mast broke. You rode the basket down and then popped out when the mast hit the deck. You were pitched into the ocean.”

  “Oh...” Talya’s head slumped to the side, and Koman had to grab her as she fainted.

  “What should we do?” Koman asked in a frantic voice.

  “I just need to hold her head lower than her waist,” Asher advised as he laid Talya on her side. “Lancon Zeem taught me this. Talya should come around soon.”

  “All right,” Lancon Koman said. “So you can take care of her?” he asked.

  “Yes, she’ll be fine,” Asher assured him.

  Koman looked over the side, and then he glanced around the chaos on the Sea Nymph. “The ship’s taking on water. We have to abandon ship and row longboats to shore,” Koman told them. “If we hurry, we can escape into the jungle with the treasure chest. Everyone remove your armor; otherwise, if you fall in the water, you’ll drown. Keep your swords and sword belts, though. If you do go in the water, you’ll have to drop your sword, but the belt and long knife aren’t heavy. Keep those because you’ll need them when you get to shore.”

  “Yes, sir,” Asher said.

  Koman turned to Arken before heading back to the command deck. “Be sure and bring your bow, Arken. You’ll need it onshore.”

  Asher stripped off his armor, and then he tended to the still unconscious Talya. Arken walked around the mess of the downed mast until he found a way to reach the stern catapult. He squeezed under the partially collapsed walkway and reached for his bow and quiver.

  “It’s in good shape.” Arken felt so happy that he spoke to himself as he examined his bow. The quiver was a different story; some of the arrows had been broken by the weight of the catapult on the walkway.

  Arken looped the bowstring over his shoulder and tied the quiver around his waist and chest before walking back to Asher. Sailors were frantically gathering supplies and readying the longboats for launching. So far the Tookan pirates were keeping their distance from the Sea Nymph, and Arken wondered if they were worried running aground had disabled the catapults. Or perhaps the pirates weren’t rushing in because they could see their ship was stranded on a sandbar. The Tookans wouldn’t approach until the tide came in and gave them safe passage. At the same time, they knew the treasure wasn’t going to sink into the sea because the sand bar was holding up the Sea Nymph.

  Talya was awake when he returned to Asher, but she seemed dizzy when they helped her stand. Once she was steady on her feet, Arken found his sword belt and strapped his sword and long knife back on.

  “You three should fetch your packs from your cabins,” Koman called and ran up to them. “We’re getting the chest into one of the longboats now. Also, stop in the galley to grab as much food and water as you can carry!”

  “Sir, what about the Tookan ship coming toward us? The one you set on fire?” Asher pointed behind Lancon Koman and out to sea.

  “What?” Koman asked as he spun around. “They were staying back!”

  “Yes, but we ran aground, and they’ve caught us,” Asher said, pointing out the obvious.

  Fire consumed the stern of the cutter. The tiller had been abandoned and had somehow managed to become stuck dead center because the ship was coming straight toward them. To make matters worse, while the sail was on fire it still held the wind, giving the ship speed as it came straight toward the side of the helpless Sea Nymph.

  “It’s going to hit us!” Koman warned. The approaching ship was equipped with a ram at the bow, a one-leg-diameter pole that extended three legs beyond the bow. A lin’s head was carved on the end of the ram, and the savage snarling face grew in size as it bore down on them.

  “Talya, we have to move!” Arken yelled, but she appeared confused, so he pushed his bow over to make room for her, and then draped her arm around his neck so that he could get her to safety.

  “Where to?” Asher asked as he took Talya’s free arm in the same way.

  “To the center deck,” Koman ordered. “The Tookans are going to ram close to the bow.”

  They shuffled Talya to the ship’s center. It was not easy because her leg kept catching on Arken’s bow no matter how he tried to keep it out of her way. When they had her safely lying on the deck, Arken and Asher turned to watch.

  Smoke poured from every opening of the onrushing ship. There were still places on the deck that were not on fire, and here Tookan sailors huddled behind barrels and other cargo to avoid the raging heat. Some of the Tookans were still trying to extinguish the fire with sand. But the fire had defeated the sailors long ago, and now it was only a matter of time before the ship disappeared in smoke.

  “Brace yourselves for ramming!” Koman yelled as he stood with Arken and the other crewmembers.

  The Tookan ship crashed into the Sea Nymph. A low, rumbling, tearing sound from below told Arken the lin’s head ram was plowing into them close to the Sea Nymph’s waterline because the cutter was a smaller ship, and the Sea Nymph had heeled over on the sand bar away from the Tookan cutter. The ship kept coming, shoving its ram into the side of the Sea Nymph’s bow and tipping her further away until her decks slanted noticeably.

  Timbers screamed and cracked in protest on both ships. Arken and the others fell to the deck. With a final groan, the Tookan vessel stopped, its bow resting beneath the tipped bow of the Sea Nymph.

  An eerie calm settled over the ship as they struggled to their feet on the steep deck. Arken climbed to the railing and looked down at the Tookan ship, half expecting a party of screaming warriors with swords to jump on board, but not one Tookan came over the rail. Instead, they were trying to launch longboats on the far side of their ship to escape the fire.

  The longboats were stored on the sides of the ships, suspended below deck level by several wooden beams that extended from the ship. Ropes ran from block and tackles that let the crew lower the longboat to the sea after the crew had jumped in.

  The sound of crackling flames joined the shouted orders and screams coming from the Tookan ship. The deck of the Sea Nymph was quiet by comparison, as the officers and crew worked furiously to assess the damage to the ship and decide a course of action.

  “I fell into the ocean?” Talya sputtered suddenly.

  “Yes!” Asher pointed at the mast on the deck. “The mast broke and pitched you out of the bird’s nest into the water. Arken saved you.”

  “Arken, thank you. You’re brave. I don’t remember anything. One moment I was watching the Tookan ships, and then I woke up here on deck.” She looked down. “Where’s my armor?”

  “I had to cut it off you underwater. I couldn’t lift you.”

  She leaned forward, hugged him, and kissed his cheek. “You saved my life. I owe you life debt.”

  “It was nothing,” Arken stammered. He felt so nervous. “I mean, of course it was something, because you’re important, and I wanted to save your life.”

  “I understand.” Talya kissed him once more, which was not easy, due to the slant of the deck and her trying to kiss uphill
. To make things more difficult, Arken’s bow nearly poked her in the eye as he leaned forward to be closer to her. The whole effort was so embarrassing that Arken could feel his cheeks turning red.

  “Thank you, Arken,” Talya added.

  “I think we should fetch our packs now like Lancon Koman ordered,” Asher interrupted. “Talya, can you wait for us here?”

  “Yes, of course!” Talya assured them. “But shouldn’t I get my pack too?”

  “If you can,” Arken said.

  Talya clung to parts of the ship as she crept toward the girl’s sleeping quarters, which were in the stern of the ship by the officer’s quarters. Arken and Asher scrambled across the deck for the ladder descending below, while the crew began lowering longboats into the water and cadets started to pile in with their packs.

  “Asher, where’s Jalar?” Arken shouted as he squeezed his sandals against the ladder and tried to drop down. But the quiver caught on a ladder rung so he had to lean back and climb down.

  Asher didn’t answer.

  “Where is he? We can’t leave him.”

  “He died,” Asher explained as he climbed down. It wasn’t easy because, with the ship’s slant, it was like climbing down a ladder lying at a low angle.

  “Dead?” Arken asked as he neared the bottom rungs. “How?”

  “I think his leg kept gushing out blood, and by the time they’d freed him, he had died.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I saw them toss him overboard,” Asher said.

  “Oh, no!” Arken’s brain filled with the image of Jalar alive.

  When they reached the bottom, they had to walk with one foot braced on the cabin walls and the other on the deck. The ship came partly back to level suddenly, righting itself with a groaning sound. A foot of water rushed over their feet.

  “We’re sinking!” Asher yelled as they splashed their way to the cabin.

  “Not yet. That’s just the boat settling back closer to level.” The deck was still tilted but not as steeply.

  Despite the rules, they entered the cabin and grabbed their packs complete with boda bags, rope, miscellaneous gear, and the last of the food Asher had stored in his closet.