by Simon Archer
I closed my eyes and let out a long-suffering sigh before I cast my gaze about the deck. Finally, I located the orc I needed.
“Ready for action!” I commanded the officer of the watch, and he scurried off to relay that along and signal the other ships of my fleet.
The deck exploded in a frenzy of activity as my crew prepared for combat. There was a slim chance that we weren’t headed into a fight, but it was best to be prepared. This bustle rousted Jimmy and Mary from below, and they joined me at the helm in short order.
“What be all the ruckus?” Mocker asked. He was as disheveled as he ever was, his long hair tied back by a bandanna.
Mary leaned against the rail and gave me a bleary-eyed, curious look. “I would be interested in knowing that, myself.”
“Ships.” I pointed off to the fore. “Lookout says they be ‘twixt us an’ the land ahead.”
“Are we close to that damned island?” Jimmy asked.
I nodded. “Aye, ‘tis the land ahead.”
“Bloody hell,” he said and shook his head. “Do we know for certain ol’ Eustace didn’t talk to anyone else?”
“We don’t know for certain,” Mary filled in. “The Imperials had no witches aboard, and that breaks both their standard operations and their agreement with the Sisterhood. I was wondering about that, myself. Perhaps they left with news while Potts sailed for Avion.”
“That would make a lick o’ sense,” Jimmy mused. “An’ they’d have record, somewhere, o’ the planned course o’ The Golden Bull. ”
I nodded slowly. The Empire and the Admiralty did keep fairly meticulous records of their shipping, and there were…
“Oh, son of a bitch,” I swore as the realization hit me. “Layne’s got a foreseer, remember? All he needed was for us to set course, and the bastard would know precisely where we meant to go. As close as we are to Avion, he just had to position a few quick response fleets and send them a message by way o’ witches.”
“Fuck!” Mary exclaimed, a sentiment that Jimmy Mocker echoed.
“I bloody well should have remembered that,” my witch continued. “Marai Bloddwen is her name, and she’s more gifted even than Cerridwyn.”
I nodded as I recalled the raven-haired witch-lover of Bloody Bill’s. She’d kept us on our toes through that adventure, and Mary had barely been able to keep her from seeing our course when we sought the treasure of the pirate king.
“None of us thought of it, ‘til now.” I shifted my grip on The Hullbreaker’s wheel. “Jimmy, hold course. I need to speak with Ligeia.”
“Aye, Cap’n,” he said and stepped close for me to hand off the wheel.
Mary gave me a questioning look.
“Do what ye think best, lass. Fog ain’t going to help us here, but I’m sure ye might have some trick that will.” I gave her a grin and walked over to the port rail to bellow at my siren.
Rather than yell back, she rose and waved to me, then walked out to stand on Tiny’s snout. He lowered his massive head, and she crouched. Then, with a snort, the Dragon Turtle snapped his head up, and the siren sprang towards my ship when it reached its apex.
Ligeia turned a somersault in the air and landed in a crouch before me, along with a spray of water. She rose and asked, “What do you need, my Captain?”
“Ahead lie some ships that be unknown to us, though we suspect they be from the Empire. I need the pair o’ ye to scout them out,” I replied.
My siren nodded slowly and pushed her wet hair back from her brow. “I think we would be happy to. Tiny and I are a bit bored.” Her eyes twinkled mischievously. “Is that all, my Captain?”
“Aye,” I replied. “Set to and get back as quick as ye can. Likely they’ve seen us by now, but I want to know for certain if they’re enemies or just in the wrong bloody place at the wrong time.”
“Of course. Do you wish us to deal with them in any other fashion?” she asked.
I scratched my head, and an idea occurred to me. “Ye know, lass, if ye can, sing them to sleep. If they be trouble, then we can deal with ‘em. If not, we can leave ‘em be.”
A part of me rebelled at this sort of strategy. I wanted blood and violence. Fighting was what I was made for, after all. In this, though, I had to be smart. We were after the treasure of The Golden Bull , not a fight with whatever awaited us.
“I shall do that, then, my Captain,” Ligeia said with a dip of her head. “We shall return anon.” Then she turned, strode to the rail, and dove over the side to disappear in the dark, choppy sea.
Moments later, Tiny sank beneath the waves as well. I turned and strode back to the wheel. Jimmy eyed me as I returned.
“Ye want it back?” he asked.
“‘Tis still my watch,” I replied. “Unless ye would prefer that I led the boarders.”
He shrugged. “Bord still has my musket. Besides, why would I want to keep ye from what ye do best?” A sly grin stole across the foppish pirate’s thin face.
“Aye, I like being in the thick of it, Mister Mocker,” I said and turned to watch Mary. She sat cross-legged with her back against the mizzenmast. I could feel a stirring in the air as her whispers disturbed the elementals that flitted along with the wind in our sails. “Held yer position, then. I’ll go ready myself and head forward.”
“Aye, aye, Cap’n.”
Not much later, I stood at the prow of The Hullbreaker with Mary beside me and watched the distant ships grow closer. They were moving and looked to be engaged in combat with something that I couldn’t see. No cannons fired, but the ships themselves maneuvered as if they strove to fend off an enemy.
“That be bloody odd,” I observed, shading my eyes with my right hand as I peered towards the ships ahead.
“What?” Mary asked. She’d seemed more than a bit distracted after working her hex. It had taken something out of her, though she denied it.
“Yon ships be in a fight,” I replied. “I can’t be certain, but they move like they be engaged with somethin’.”
She turned her gaze in that direction and shaded her eyes with both hands. The reflection of the sunlight through the clouds sparkled even on the dark waves.
“I see it. They’re shooting at something in the water,” my witch said.
“What in the hell?” I muttered.
We drew closer. The crack of gunfire sounded distantly. Something was definitely afoot, but I wanted to take advantage of the distraction as long as I could. When Tiny burst up from below off to port, I pulled myself away and ran to meet Ligeia as she landed upon the main deck.
“They war, my Captain,” the siren reported. “Merfolk, men, and sahagin. I chose not to interfere, but I did not succeed in remaining unnoticed.”
“Damn it,” I swore. We hadn’t expected an underwater threat but likely should have. The fish-men must have moved into the waters around the island after Eustace escaped from it, else they’d always been there and had been the ones to drag The Golden Bull down into the depths.
All of a sudden, this was a whole lot more complicated, but then, what adventure didn’t require heroic effort?
“How close behind, lass?” I asked my siren.
Tiny suddenly let out a roar of challenge that rattled the timbers and dove under. “That close,” she replied contritely. “I am sorry, my Captain. I was overconfident.”
“Worry not,” I said with a shake of my head, then turned and bellowed out to the waiting crew, “Ware below!”
Around The Hullbreaker, the water began to churn. We were coming up close to the embattled vessels, and I could make out a deck full of Imperial uniforms in frantic combat with the dark shapes of fish-men who kept swarming up out of the water.
Fighting raged below the surface, too. A leaping merfolk tackled one of the fishmen from the side of a ship as I watched. In numbers, though, the sahagin definitely seemed to have the upper hand. My own men scrambled to line the rails to repel an assault from the sea, and once again, I was glad I’d drilled them until organized assault and
defense was second nature.
“Bord!” I roared.
“Aye, what?” The dwarf stood by the odd, four-barrelled cannon that had replaced the four I’d once had mounted on the foredeck. He had a crew standing ready, along with a quartet of orcish shot-runners, ready to replenish the powder and flat-bottomed, pointed-nosed shot my cannonmaster had made for his creation.
“Now be yer chance to show me what that damned thing can do,” I replied and pointed towards the fight. “Forget the ships. Have ye any explosive shells or petards?”
“Aye, o’ course! What do ye think I am, orc, a bloody landlubber?” Bord grumbled. “What be me target?”
“Lob the petards as close to our hull as ye can, and lay some explosive in the water short o’ yon ships. Just watch for Tiny,” I answered. “Gods only know what else is down there.”
“Right,” the dwarf boomed before he turned and started shouting commands to the cannoneers and the shot-runners.
I shouldered my axe and glanced over at Mary. She’d drawn her long knives and stood, eyes wide and searching, waiting for the creatures from below to launch their attack. Ligeia stood on the foredeck as well, waiting with us. She was as perfectly still as she could be on the rolling deck.
Moments stretched out in anticipation, and I felt impacts against the hull through my bare feet. Dwarves, orcs, and a few humans carried waxed barrels of powder to the rails where another of Bord’s crew lit the fuzes. Overboard the petards went, and then the explosions started, the water around us erupted into a fury of spray and froth, and from the dark seas came the sahagin.
“Kraken!” the shriek came from the crow’s nest, and I turned to see one of the Imperial ships vanish in a fountain of water. Where it had been, something vast and dark stirred. A shark’s fin easily the size of a small ship’s sail broke the water, followed by the head and gnashing teeth of an equally enormous shark. Tentacles flailed in the air, then the thing went back underwater.
That was no kraken, that was a lascu, a giant, shark-headed octopus. Seemed like I was to get my wish, after all.
“There be yer target, Bord!” I bellowed. “Fire at will!”
25
C annonfire rang in my ears as Bord set his crew to firing away at the shape in the water. Meanwhile, I charged down onto the main deck to repel the fish-men, my greataxe over my head and ready. Mary and Ligeia followed, then split off at the bottom of the steps from the foredeck, moving to support the crewmen at the rails.
Unlike the incursion of sahagin that assaulted us while we sailed to Tarrant, these set to with a fury and violence that I hadn’t expected. Despite the detonations of the petards underwater, they barely seemed phased, though a few flailed and staggered, unable to keep their balance upon the deck.
Roars and shouts from my men answered the hissing shrieks of the sea creatures, and the battle was quickly joined. Tooth, claw, and weapons of bone and coral clashed with steel and wood. Pistol fire rang out across the deck, and one of the sahagin pitched into my path with half of its piscine head missing. I kicked the body out of my way, caved in the skull of one of the creatures that rushed me, and stepped up to close a gap by the rails.
A quick glance in the direction of Sirensong showed me a similarly desperate fight going on, though, from the churning in the water, the merfolk weren’t beaten yet. The Wasp , though, veered off, and the deck crew was firing into the water while Nagra worked some hex or other. I wanted to check on The Black Cat, but two more of the sahagin pounced onto the deck before me.
Both of them died under my axe, and I kicked the twitching bodies into the sea, but there were more. The crew, with me fending off more climbers with cutlasses and spars, hacking at the creatures as they clawed their way up the timbers of the hull.
All was chaos. In a regular battle between ships, there was a kind of rhythm. Cannons fired until ships were close enough to grapple each other, then the fighting got more personal. Same with on land. Forces approached each other, exchanged shots, then closed to grapple and duel with sword, axe, and spear.
This fight was nothing like that. The sahagin swarmed like animals, like sharks, maybe. If they downed someone, they didn’t leave them and move on, they savaged them. Sometimes more than one would pounce on a fallen sailor to rend them with claws and sharklike teeth unless one of their crewmates intervened.
I whirled my axe, spinning it to keep the momentum going as I moved through the swarming fish-men. They were stronger than humans but not as strong as orcs, and glancing blows had a tendency to rebound from their scaly hides.
My axe, though, devastated them. Blood and gobbets of fishy-flesh, along with the occasional arm or leg, went flying as I tore through their ranks.
Up on the aftcastle deck, Jimmy held our course, one hand on the ship’s wheel while he drew a flintlock and shot one of the creatures from the stairs. Beside him, Gol the Clanless took the gun and handed another to him, then started reloading it, an axe resting against her leg.
Mary danced by, blades flashing as her evil eye blazed, paralyzing three of the sahagin before she sliced them cleanly open and left them in her wake. She was followed by Ligeia, who darted among the fishmen like a shark, tearing at them with her claws before she tackled one to the deck and tore its throat out with a snap of her shark-like teeth.
Somewhere nearby, Tiny let out a bellow, and water washed across the deck as The Hullbreaker lurched and rolled, then righted itself. As it washed over my feet, the voices of the sea sang to me of triumph and freedom. It called out to my very blood, the core of who I was, and I exulted in the power.
Was this how it always was for a shaman? I had to know more! The elements sprang up around me and lent strength to my hands. Singing along with the spirits, I swung my axe through the sudden flood before turning and sweeping my blade through several of the incoming sahagin. The water strengthened my blow, and that power was joined by the wind as it tore through the creatures’ bodies and blasted them from the deck.
For a moment, I paused at the extent of the devastation I’d unleashed. Fully half of the creatures that had taken to the deck of The Hullbreaker had been slain by that single onslaught. I looked upon my work and saw that it was good, then plunged back into the fray, the elementals’ song on my lips.
More cannonfire boomed. We were close to the Imperial ships now, but they were very much engaged in their battle with the sahagin. The lascu, at least, seemed to be gone for now, but it had taken two of the enemy ships with it. From what little I’d seen of the creature, it was larger than Ligeia’s dragon turtle ally, and possibly the largest of those particular monsters that I’d ever heard of.
That would be one hell of a fight, but first, we needed to clear the decks of sahagin and drive back the merfolks and the Imperials. Right now, though, the three ships that were left still fought for their lives against the swarming sea creatures.
In some way, we’d be rescuing them.
Water and wind whirled madly around me while I made short work of another clump of sahagin. My crew, recognizing how effective I was against the beasts, formed up around me to cover my back and flanks while I strove to gather up the creatures and send them either back into the water or to whatever hell took them when they died.
The wind and water helped. Fortunately, the elementals recognized that I wanted to protect my people, and spent their wrath on the enemy instead of raging indiscriminately.
“I will return to Tiny,” Ligeia called to me.
I nodded and waved to her, then led a charge to intercept a clump of sahagin that rushed the aftcastle deck. Gol and Jimmy shot a few, then I scattered them enough for Mary and my buccaneers to finish them off. My siren simply leaped overboard into the frothing water and vanished.
Ligeia had proven time and again that I had nothing to worry about when she disappeared into the water, and I trusted her, but the situation was such that there were lots of bodies in the water, as well as potentially a fight between two monstrous hunters of the sea.
There would be time to worry later. Right now, we had a battle to win.
As I strode back towards the fore of my ship, I caught sight of The Black Cat. Ember Spark apparently lived up to her name, and women of the little sloop made quite an accounting of themselves. Burning fishmen leaped from the ship’s deck into the sea, followed by frighteningly accurate flintlock and musket shots. Very few of the creatures survived to retreat.
Once we finished sweeping the deck of The Hullbreaker clean of invaders, we had sailed clear past the Imperial ships and had to swing back around. There was still no sign of the lascu or Tiny and Ligeia. Hopefully, the duo hadn’t bitten off more than they could chew down there in the depths.
Unfortunately, I had to concern myself with more immediate problems: the three Imperial ships. They were gathering themselves, as, for some reason, the sahagin had retreated into the depths once more, taking with them their own dead and any sailors in the water that they could grab and pull under.
I gathered the deck crew and signaled Bord to prepare to fire when one of the enemy ships unexpectedly ran up the white flag.
“Hold!” I bellowed across the deck. Fortunately, it seemed that Sirensong, The Wasp, and The Black Cat all followed my lead. We had the Admiralty vessels all lined up in a crossfire, and with two of their number gone, apparently, the fight went out of them as well.
Then, just to add insult to injury, the sea erupted in the center of the enemy vessels as Tiny surfaced. Ligeia stood proudly on the Dragon Turtle’s broad shell while what appeared to be a tentacle of some sort vanished down the monster’s gullet.
Cries of alarm and consternation went up, and the remains of the deck crews scrambled until I raised a fist and once again roared, “Hold!”
I closed my eyes for a moment to envision the elementals dancing beneath the waves, then focused on them and exerted my will, urging them to do what I wanted.
They did. My ship suddenly lurched a bit and drifted to bump hard against the side of the Imperial ship. I shouldered my axe and walked forward, then hopped from my ship to the deck of the man-o-war. Mary sauntered after me, and the brothers Daka and Dogar flanked me.