by Simon Archer
Tabitha stayed with me for a few more steps, then plunged into the waves. Once she was safely on her way, I killed another sahagin attacker with the Huntsman’s Spear and then took the dive myself. The first breath, as always, was hard, but once my lungs filled and adjusted to the water, I struck out towards the eye, kicking hard as the bottom descended.
All around me swam the maddened sahagin, but somehow, they didn’t seem to notice us here in the water. Ligeia darted around to keep the rest of us together as we swam desperately for the drop-off. It came up surprisingly quickly, and without hesitation, we went over.
With the sheer heaviness of my muscle and bone, all I had to do was not fight the pull of gravity. I sank like a stone into the darkness while the others swam downwards in my wake.
The siren’s gift served a greater purpose than just allowing us to breathe underwater. It also adapted us to the pressure as we descended. Without any real reference, it was hard to tell just how far down we went, but we stayed near the wall and watched the upwards rush of sahagin thin out until only a few could be seen floating in the darkness. They seemed to be waiting, but with their attention focused upwards, they didn’t see us as we plunged towards the bottom of the sea’s eye.
Odd lights darted around as we went deeper, schools of glowing fish investigated us, then shot off. Finally, after dropping for what seemed like forever, I saw the bottom coming up. Thick, lush seagrass covered the bed of the hole and silt burst upwards in a cloud as I landed, taking the impact with flexed knees. It was a strange and silent world here, but it was far from dead.
Glowing fish swam here and there, and fist-sized crabs scurried from our path as we moved out from the shadow of the wall. Ahead, through the silt and clouds of tiny creatures, a shape loomed.
It was here! The Golden Bull rose in the distance, crusted with barnacles and teeming with sea life.
Abandoning caution, the four of us rushed forward as quickly as we could. Our passage disturbed things, stirred up more silt, and set fish and crabs fleeing. So intent were we on our target that we almost missed the ambush.
It wasn’t sahagin, they seemed to all be away and hopefully not overrunning my men above. No, the creatures that lunged at us from the grass were maybe eight feet in length, with bodies that appeared to be armored with bony plates. In some way, they looked like an odd cross between a shark and an armored catfish, right down to the long feelers at the corners of their jaws.
And there were three of them.
Tabitha, much less used to moving underwater than Mary or I, quickly lost her balance and started floating sideways. The creature would have had her if it hadn’t been for Ligeia.
My siren yanked the feline from the armored fish’s path and quickly darted between it and its intended target. Her distraction worked, and the one monster shot off in hot pursuit.
Of the others, one swam at me, jaws snapping, while the other charged at Mary. Mine wasn’t much of a fight, not with the Huntsman’s Spear. I met the predator’s charge head-on, the spear clenched in a two-handed grip, and drove the razor-sharp point of the magical spear forward. The mighty blow pierced entirely through the thing’s skull from top to bottom and pinned it to the sandy seabed.
My witch squirmed aside like an eel from her assailant, and her evil eye flared in the darkness. The fish went stiff, paralyzed, and kept right on going past her and off into a crash-landing in the seagrass while the one I’d impaled thrashed around and finally went limp.
Ligeia returned after a short while with a satisfied look in her predator’s eyes, along with a slight distending of her belly. Whatever she’d done with her attacker, it had involved filling her belly.
Tabith regained her bearings, safe and sound, save for a scowl that seemed almost permanently etched in her otherwise lovely face. Once we regrouped and checked our surroundings a bit more carefully, we resumed our march across the bottom of the hole towards the dim shape of the sunken ship.
Nothing else accosted us as we crossed the remaining distance, and we reached the hull of the ship in short order. The reason for it’s sinking was obvious. Around the forward portion of the keel, the wood had splintered as if from some sort of tremendous impact. She had been taking on water when she landed on the sandbar, and once the tide, waves, the lascu, or maybe even the sahagin got her free, she dove straight for the bottom of the sea’s eye.
At this point, the big question was whether or not we could raise her and drag her up onto the beach. It was entirely possible that she’d break apart under the stress, but I wasn’t entirely sure how gentle elementals could be.
So far, we hadn’t spoken a word on the descent, and we stayed within sight of each other. The silence was eerie down here. There were none of the usual sounds that I’d experienced when Ligeia had taken me swimming. Not even the vocalizations of the sahagin far above reached these lower depths.
We exchanged looks, and I pointed up to the ship. The next step was to verify that the treasure was intact. I suspected it was. We’d descended for several minutes past the lowest stationed of the fishman sentries, and I suspected that they didn’t descend this far down. Perhaps the lascu laired here, at least until its untimely death at our hands.
I meant to find out. With a slight crouch, I kicked off the bottom and swam clumsily upwards. The others followed, and it wasn’t too long before we stood or floated over the canted deck of the large, wide ship. She was definitely a cargo or merchant class of some kind, but I didn’t recognize her lines. Of course, she’d been here for going on forty years.
Without a real reason to split up, we stayed close and moved through the sunken vessel with Ligeia and I taking point. The main deck access to the cargo hold had been opened, and the door was missing. What remained of the metal hinges had been twisted and torn by an immense force. That seemed to support my theory that the lascu had dwelled here.
What I didn’t know was why the monster hadn’t torn the ship to bits or tossed it around down here like a toy. As we were about to descend into the hold, Ligeia suddenly darted in front and held up her hands to stop us.
“Something lurks below,” she said. Her voice, adapted to underwater communication, was audible, but when I tried to speak, in answer, the pressure of the water here reduced my normally powerful tones to next to nothing.
I growled in frustration and nodded. The ability we had to speak in the upper reaches was lost here. If any of us but the siren needed to speak, we’d have to ascend to shallower depths or figure some other way to communicate.
While she floated over the open hold with her head cocked in a listening posture, I cast around for anything of interest or use. The Golden Bull was remarkably whole for its time in the depths, and I had high hopes that its treasure was untouched. The presence of whatever Ligeia sensed below didn’t much dash that hope, either. If there was a creature of some sort hiding down there, that made it all the more likely no one had plundered the vessel.
Of course, this could be just wishing on my part. I eased my way over to the lip surrounding the yawning opening that led below and craned my neck to peer over it. Mary and Tabitha crowded in with me, the Ailur actually crouched at my feet as we carefully peered downward.
There were stacks of crates and boxes in the large hold, and it still looked to be at least two-thirds full. That would have been the limit for treasure in a ship this size. Any more, and she’d ride far too low in the water for safety and would wallow through the waves like a hog in a puddle of mud.
Ligeia’s sudden hiss warned us, and we fell back from the edge of the portal as shapes burst out from among the crates and swarmed upwards and out to attack us. They were like octopi in form, but half their bodies were those of sharks, exactly like the monstrous lascu.
That was why the beast hadn’t destroyed the ship.
It had laid its eggs in it.
29
T he four of us gathered back-to-back as the immature lascu jetted out of the open hold and circled us. They were fast,
too. Unlike the mother, the children were a deep blood red in color, with hooks at the ends of their eight sucker covered arms. The smallest of them was longer than I was tall.
“Be still,” Ligeia told us, and we obeyed.
I watched the creatures circle us. There was no way to tell how many of them spiraled around us. Octopoid, sharklike bodies slid over and around each other as they circled, and more poured from the depths of the sunken ship. At least at the moment, they weren’t attacking, but we were ready for when that would inevitably change.
The siren had her claws and teeth, I had the Huntsman’s Spear, Mary held her twin knives, and Tabitha bore a harpoon in addition to her cutlass. Stabbing weapons were best underwater and far easier to use than heavy slashing swords or axes. Water slowed any fighter that wasn’t used to it.
Young lascu continued to circle us, and I suspected they studied us with those large, dark eyes. Tense seconds passed, and Ligeia began to hum, then sing. Her voice carried through the water like the chirps of dolphins or the songs of whales.
It was hauntingly hypnotic, and the little monsters seemed to respond to it. The patterns they swam in changed, and then, slowly, Ligeia began to rise, separating herself from our group as she kicked slowly upwards.
Like rats drawn to a piper, the lascu followed her.
She had a modicum of control over sharks and other monsters of the sea, so it stood to reason that she might be able to influence creatures like this, too. The mother must have been too large or maybe even too intelligent or angry to fall under the siren’s spell. Her young, though, were not.
Slowly and carefully, Ligeia drifted up towards the distant surface, with the diminutive lascu whirling around her like a tornado of eyes and arms and rippling fins. It took a while, but soon, the deck was clear, and we were no longer surrounded.
I looked up to meet her gaze, and she replied with a single nod. The message that passed between us was clear: She would lure the creatures away and keep them from us. There were far too many for us to kill, although we’d have given a good accounting of ourselves before we fell.
Mary touched my arm and pointed to the hold. I nodded, and without hesitation, I hopped over the lip and dropped down. My feet landed on tumbled crates and some kind of slippery slime, and I flailed my arms to keep my balance.
Tabitha and my witch followed, though, with slightly more agile landings. The loaded, jumbled hold aboard the treasure ship The Golden Bull spread before us. I crouched and took hold of a crate, then tore the lid off to reveal a wet mass of sodden packing straw, and a glinting object of gold and jewels. It was a crown of some sort, a bejeweled circle of gold with delicate tines that were tipped by precious stones.
The Ailur woman squeezed up next to me and reached into the crate to fish around in the packing. She pulled out a golden scepter, next, then a jewel-encrusted orb of office.
We all exchanged broad grins. This was it. We had found the treasure ship, and her hold was still packed with the wealth she carried. Of course, whether its greatest treasures and magic were here was not certain, and our investigation proceeded.
There were chests of coins and jewels here, and crates of ingots. Not all was merely gold, either. Some were silver and platinum, too, while a small portion may have been orichalcum, the magical metal used for the greatest of enchantments. I’d never seen the stuff, but I’d heard tales of it, and the description matched.
This would more than outfit a fleet if we managed to recover it, or it would give all of us enough wealth to just disappear and leave the Archipelago behind. I wouldn’t do that, though. The place had become my home, and I would protect it and the free towns to my dying breath and perhaps beyond.
The Hullbreaker would make one hell of a ghost ship.
As we explored, we found more patches of the slime, and bones, lots and lots of bones. They were mostly those of fish, but there were also bones of sahagin and other creatures, including humans. All were stripped down and showed damage from squid beaks. Mother might have helped the fishmen, but she also didn’t seem to have any qualms about feeding them to her spawn.
Or maybe the sahagin sacrificed to them. Some part of me harbored a deep-seated curiosity about the situation, but this was neither the time nor the place. There was one more thing I needed to find.
Mary and Tabitha followed along as I made my way deeper. I wanted to see the Black Mirror, wherever it was. The manifest had not really described it, but if it were fragile at all, it would be packed in a crate and kept separate from everything else.
The sheer wealth contained in this ship was mind-boggling. It was more than the trove I’d won from Bloody Bill, that was for certain. Perhaps it wasn’t nearly as much as the pirate king had amassed over his career, but it would put us off to a good start.
My mind snapped back to the present as I came to a locked door in the furthest aft point of the hold. This had to be where the Black Mirror was.
On closer inspection, I found that three heavy locks held the door shut, and the thing itself was iron-bound and cut from a single plank that was reinforced for strength. No window offered a glimpse into what lay beyond.
I was about to lay my spear aside and see if I could break it open when Mary Night gently caught my hand and shook her head, the thick mass of her hair drifting around her head like a halo. Unsure of what she intended, I moved aside to let her swim up to the door.
At each lock, Mary’s evil eye flared with light, and she leaned in to kiss the metal with her soft lips. With each kiss, the lock clicked open, and after the last one, she shot me a smug, playful look and kicked backward to give me my turn.
Tabitha pursed her lips and nodded approvingly as I took my place at the door and pulled hard on it. The wood had swollen during the long years of submersion, and it didn’t want to move.
I simply rolled my shoulders and pulled harder. There’s nothing like an orc for forcing open a stubborn door. The first bit was the hardest. I had to get it open enough to get my fingers around the edge, and the latches began to pull out of the wood as I drew on them. Finally, though, I had it. With one hand braced on the wall and with my fingers curled around the edge of the stuck door, I pulled with all my considerable, and the door opened like a virgin’s legs on her wedding night.
Beyond was a room with far less jumble than the main hold. A table was bolted to the floor in the center, and upon it rested a large, flat crate. It was perhaps eight feet long by five feet wide and secured to the table beneath. In addition, it was wrapped in chains and locked by no less than five heavy padlocks.
Other crates were secured similarly to shelves and racks, but nothing had quite the size or presence of the unknown centerpiece. I suspected that this was the mirror described in the manifest, and I paused to glance at Tabitha Binx for confirmation. A palpable sense of energy hung in the air, emanating from the various boxes and crates that filled the room.
The Ailur stared about the room in wonder. Something changed as she stepped across the threshold. My hackles rose as I watched Tabitha drift forward, her ears were pinned back and her eyes wide and intent. One of her hands slowly lifted and reached out towards not the large crate, but a small one that sat in a barred cabinet also secured by five padlocks. As she drifted forward, Mary grabbed her belt and hauled her bodily back.
Something was wrong. I moved in their direction, but my witch had it well in hand. When Tabitha twisted in my witch’s grasp and tried to bring her harpoon to bear, Mary paralyzed her with a flash of her evil eye.
I caught both of them then, and my witch didn’t resist as I hauled them out of that room and back into the main hold. Things were raining from the water above, and I was surprised to realize that some of them were body parts. A clawed hand here, a foot, a fin. A mostly intact sahagin corpse drifted downward with an immature lascu wrapped around it and feasting.
Sudden realization hit me as to what Ligeia had done. With ruthless efficiency, she had led the horde of monsters up into the region of th
e hole claimed by the fishmen. Driven by hunger and perhaps encouraged by the siren, the little monsters had set upon their worshippers/protectors.
Mary wiggled free, and we both swam for the hold opening. I had Tabitha since it really wasn’t any harder for me to swim with her than it was for me to fight for the surface myself.
On the deck once more, we were only slightly surprised by the sudden appearance of Ligeia. Instead of speaking, she snapped her teeth and pointed upwards, confirming my suspicions, then looked pointedly at the Ailur.
I shook my head and then tapped my temple before making a circle with my forefinger. Mary nodded and wiggled her fingers to indicate magic. The siren nodded, then held out her arms to me.
She wanted to take Tabitha, then. I suppose that made sense. She’d proven able to swim quickly with me in tow, and I was going to be the weak link in our ascent unless I could get help.
Help? I was surrounded by water. How hard would it be to convince the elementals that swam here to carry me to the surface? I scowled, then pointed to the three and upwards, then made a shooing motion.
Ligeia nodded. If worst came to worst, she’d return for me, but for now, we needed to get Tabitha as far from the sunken ship as possible and hope she’d be okay when she woke up.
Mary hung back a moment, her eyes on me as the siren began to swim upwards. Ligeia was obviously waiting on the witch, though, and I made a shooing motion again, then held up the spear and grinned. I’d be fine.
That convinced my witch. She darted in and kissed me, then kicked for the distant surface and rejoined the other two. I watched until they disappeared into the murk above.
Ligeia could help both of them if they needed it, but I’d hold them back, and the reaches above were dangerous. My own ascent would be painfully slow, and even with my strength and endurance, I’d reach the surface exhausted. It was time to utilize my other resources.