by R. J. Batla
But there was nothing. Nothing at all. Celeste turned to Mate. “I’m betting we’re going to need to head into that fog, right? The pirates told us to continue on this heading? No deviations?” She knew the answer, but asked it anyway.
“Yes, ma’am, due east. Right into that gunk. It doesn’t look like it ends going north or south, so the best way is just to go straight through instead of trying to go around. Looks as thick as peanut butter,” Mate said.
She eyed the sails, conflicted internally. Here they were at a crossroads again. Go forward and risk the lives of her crew or turn back now? They’d already gone farther than they should have, but was it worth the risk? What would they find in the fog? Death? Or would their one ship be able to turn the tide and stop whatever was going on at the source? Her sense of duty swelled inside her.
“Well, we aren’t going to get blown there.” She braced herself and shoved forward. A pulse of water rocked the Ajax as the ship lurched forward. “Tempus – let’s Push it out.”
“Hough!” they said, lining up and launching the ship into motion, directly toward the swirling gray mist. With the water so smooth, the ship built up speed quick. They were gliding across the water effortlessly when they hit something big, and the Ajax jerked to the side, scattering crew and supplies alike. Mate spun the wheel, fighting to straighten her out quickly. Another crash and the ship was rocked once again. Then they hit something else, then another, then another.
“Stop!” Celeste yelled. “Stop the ship before we tear her apart!”
The crew reversed their motion, and the ship slowed and finally stopped just after hitting another unknown object.
Everyone rushed to the rails and was greeted with a familiar sight: dead whales, squids, and sharks. All appeared to be drained of life, their skin white, like everything that made them what they were had been drained from them, the signature puncture marks in each one. The corpses bobbed just under the surface of the water, invisible until you were right in the middle of them. The crew started murmuring amongst themselves.
Encountering the whales once again was both a blessing and a curse – it meant they were on the right track of the pirates, but it also meant they were sailing directly into their midst with no idea what they were getting into. And, with this fog, it only upped the weird factor of this sector of ocean.
The captured pirates had said the place of their imprisonment would be reached by heading east. Which meant, more than likely, it was in the middle of this fog bank. Where they couldn’t see anything that might be coming after them.
“All right, let’s Push ahead, quarter speed,” she said. “You five clear the path ahead. Leroy, James, get up in the crow’s nest and give us some more eyes.”
Leroy and James shimmied up the main mast as twenty of the crew started Pushing, though much slower than before. The Ajax started moving again, Celeste remained on the bow railing, helping her crew move as many carcasses out of the way as they could while steering around the others. Then she saw it. And it was big.
“What the hell is that? Port side!” Jake said. “You’ll clear it, but barely.”
“Aye,” Mate said, tightening his grip on the wheel, feeling out with his powers to help him steer.
The Ajax slowly glided by what could only be described as a leviathan. Fish scales covered a reptilian head and legs on the dead creature, shrunken down to a white shell just like the rest of them. Only it was the size of a blue whale.
“That’s got to be twice as big as the ship, Captain!” Jace said.
“Did we even know these existed?” Wylie said. “I thought they were just a myth.”
Jace gave a shiver. “No wonder no one ever returns from Lost Seas.”
All eyes watched as they passed its head, full of teeth the size of a man, eyes closed and body drained of life. Celeste gulped despite herself. How could such a thing exist? And if there was one, there must be more…
“This is a bad sign, Captain, a bad sign indeed,” Jace said, moving closer to the rail. “What could do that to something so big?”
“Starboard side! Captain, it’s the Spirit! We’ve found her!”
The whole crew rushed to the other side of the ship. There she was, the Spirit – the whole reason they were in this mess – and she was torn completely in two. If any of her crew had survived the initial attack, they probably wouldn’t have survived until now. Jagged edges of wood stuck out at odd angles, as if a boulder had smashed right in the middle of her. Which was odd – they should have sunk to the bottom.
“Damnit,” Celeste said, banging her fist on the rail, accidentally letting a little power slip out. A wave pulsed away from her, rocking the destroyed ship, Spirit clearly visible on her stern, moving gently on the wave. Here she was. They’d found their objective. It’d taken them to the Lost Seas. Into forbidden waters. Out in the middle of nowhere.
Which meant technically their mission was over. They could return to Watuaga without anyone thinking anything less of them. They’d investigated, found out it was pirates, and found the Spirit.
They were clear.
Legally, under Tempus law.
But not for Celeste. They’d gone this far, gone outside the boundaries set before them. And so far, despite everything they’ve been through, they’d prevailed.
And they were close enough to their quarry to taste it. To figure out who was behind this, once and for all, and maybe save a few more lives in the process. “Well, Captain, do we press on?” Mate asked.
Celeste looked around – her crew was steely-eyed, resilient, and ready for action.
She smiled – they were like her: they would see it though. Her heart swelled with pride.
“Captain! The fog is moving towards us!” Leroy called from above. She whipped her head around, dreadlocks flying behind her as she ran back to the bow. Indeed, the carpet of cloud advanced on the ship at an alarming rate and was upon them before Celeste could give another order. Instantly they were enveloped in the thick mist, barely able to see the person standing a couple yards away.
Celeste gave the order to move forward, the fog actually lightening as they moved through it until Celeste could see at least a hundred yards.
“Captain, off the starboard bow. Wreckage. A lot of wreckage,” Leroy called again from the crow’s nest.
“Steady as she goes, Mate,” Celeste said.
“Aye,” Mate replied, guiding the ship between two massive wrecks of ships, each splintered and torn in half, barely bobbing on the surface of the water. Boats of all sizes surrounded them, some mostly intact, some in pieces, others completely obliterated, their wooden hulls spread out like they’d exploded from the inside.
Leroy dropped down from the crow’s nest and came up next to Celeste. “This is a bad omen,” he said, twirling his knife. “You know they say if you find a ship’s graveyard, you should let it be, lest the ghosts of those lost souls come and haunt you forever.”
“Leroy, there’s no such thing as ghosts,” Wylie said. “Captain, do we need to turn back? Is this trying to do too much? We’ve found the Spirit. We’ve got no communications, no backup coming – no one even knows where we are. Can’t we just go back home now?”
A terrified scream split the air, the hair-raising sound reverberating off everything at once. It was much too loud, much too close.
That made the decision for Celeste. “There’s someone who needs help. We can’t abandon them. You saw those other pirates – I’m sure they weren’t the only ones. Steady as goes, Mate!” Celeste said, shouting to be heard over the still wailing scream.
Even if turning back was the best course of action, Celeste wasn’t going to give up that easy. Especially when she knew that they had to be closing in on the traitor and whoever belonged to that scream. “Steady, crew. Stay with me and we’ll find those who did this to innocent sea life, to innocent ships, and make them pay.”
“Captain, motion off the starboard bow!” Jace called, still in the crow’s nest.
/> The crew rushed to the other rail. “Is that a tentacle?” John said.
“Negative. It’s just a lot of big fish, all swimming together in a line,” Wylie said. “But what are they doing? They don’t behave like that naturally.”
“Which way are they heading, Jace?” Celeste called back up to the crow’s nest.
“Northeast.”
Celeste looked back and forth between Mate at the wheel, who gave no indication of what he thought they should do, Wylie who shrugged, and Leroy who grinned and pulled his daggers out. Celeste didn’t know why he ever put them away.
“All right, we follow the fish. That’s the only thing alive we’ve seen in this mist, so there has to be a reason they’re moving in a line. Wylie, get back to the wheel and get your instruments out. We’ll need a detailed log of our progress or we’ll never be able to get out of here. Eyes open, people. Weapons at the ready.”
There was no telling what they would find.
“Slower, sailors. I only want two people Pushing. Take it slow.” Celeste had her head on a swivel, looking for any threat. The already low visibility was enhanced by the setting sun, which also cooled the air around them. She was getting goosebumps, and not from the temperature – this place reeked of danger.
“Captain, the water’s getting shallower,” James said, pulling up the depth finder. “It was fifty feet five minutes ago, now it’s only thirty!”
There wasn’t anything charted anywhere near here, but that wasn’t surprising – they were in the Lost Seas, after all. “Mate, get me the scope!”
Mate pulled a lever near the wheel and a panel slid open on the front of the ship. Celeste walked the length of the ship to get to it, then pressed the red button, activating the device. She pushed the red button again and the view split into three; two other views appeared on the screen, still looking downward but at forty-five-degree angles. She could see easily through the crystal clear water. Moving the joystick, she studied the bottom – shallow, but level.
“Wylie, come up here. I need a second set of eyes.”
Wylie made her way to the bow and looked at the screen. “That’s the bottom there, but what is that?”
Celeste swirled the ball and it zoomed in slightly. “It looks like a whale.”
“But it’s made of metal; I’d bet my sword on it. It can’t be a whale. Looks kinda like a long tube with fins sticking out all over,” Wylie said.
“Yeah, but what is it?” Celeste pondered. She twirled the ball and the view moved to the back of the…whatever it was. There was definitely some kind of spinning propulsion device. “A boat. Definitely a boat of some kind – but how the hell is it staying underwater like that?”
“Captain – is that a submarine?” Wylie asked.
Celeste shook her head. “It couldn’t be. There hasn’t been one of those for millennia, not since before the great wars.”
“Um…” Wylie said, pointing at the screen. “That has to be what it is. And if that’s submarine, and it’s right under us…”
Even looking through the scope, Celeste could see a slight waver in the water, like it suddenly clouded up for a moment.
She looked up from the screen, and the fog parted for a second. It was enough to give her a view of the island the pirates had told her about. Metal, earth, and wood all cobbled together into something that bobbed in the water – like a giant lily pad. Then just like that, it disappeared into the fog again.
“Captain! Something surfacing port side!”
“Captain, something on the starboard side too!”
“Something’s launching off that submarine,” Wylie said. “Are those sharks? I’ve never seen sharks that big.”
“Tempus, battle stations! There’s a ship underneath us; she’s sending boats out to attack! And what is that?” Celeste spun the ball and widened the scope. “Oh my God…”
There was a something on the screen. A big something.
“Tempus! Battle stations NOW!”
Chapter 12
The water around the Ajax erupted in a flurry of waves, boats, and creatures. The crew aboard the Ajax also launched into action, water powers blasting at anything that moved. But it had no effect on either the metal sharks or the slowly rising beings streaming from the side of the vessel – and they were a terrible sight to see.
Once fully emerged, every eye stared at them. Towering over the ship, the two reptilian beasts – like an ape adapted to water – gave a great roar, their very breath putting wind in the sails. Leviathans.
The Tempus sailors shot the beasts with jets of water powerful enough to cut through metal. The vile things shrugged off the attacks. Even more rose from the depths – five, no, now six. One would have been too much to handle, let alone a group.
The crew manned the ballista, firing dozens of bolts at the smaller attackers that poured from the smaller metal submarines. Each bolt killed an enemy, penetrating their thick hides, and many fell to their deadly barrage. But not enough.
The leviathans quickly closed in on the ship, shutting off any means of escape, but didn’t attack.
“Oh no, oh no,” Celeste said, drawing her sword.
Suddenly the submarine sprang from the depths, and smaller versions of the giant animals burst from the submarine and quickly scaled the sides of the Ajax. Steel and water powers rang out on scales and claws, the Tempus fighting valiantly against their reptilian enemies that walked on two legs. But they were severely outnumbered, and the Tempus started dying, falling to claws and teeth.
“No!” Celeste yelled, running into the fray. She pulled and threw three knives in quick succession, each bringing down a fish-like opponent. When they closed on her, Celeste swung her cutlass with lethal accuracy, relieving the abominations of their heads as she helped her counterparts battle. She impaled one with a frozen spear, sending it flying into another one before it died.
Leroy ran by, his blades a whirling metal mass of death, barreling into a mass of lizard-men and mowing through them. Each strike was precise, green blood staining his swords. He ducked a swipe from a clawed hand, sheathed one sword, then threw five daggers in quick succession to take out five more. With a wink, he redrew his cutlass and dove back into the fray, a row of bodies left in his wake.
Screams of dying men rang out on all sides. The Tempus fought bravely, taking out a dozen enemies to each Tempus who fell. Her crew was dying too fast. Red Tempus blood, too much of it, mixed with the green blood of the creatures. No! Not my crew! Celeste stepped it up a notch, fighting for all she was worth, grabbing a loose piece of rigging and swinging in a wide arc above the deck, killing their opponents as she went, jets of water slicing them in two.
Suddenly the rope gave out, and she plunged to the deck, landing hard. Standing up quickly, she was immediately thrown back down, the deck suddenly pulsing up, wood and metal splintering. Celeste and her crew rolled along the deck toward the edge of the Ajax. She caught the railing just before she flew off the side, leaving her dangling on the side, clinging to the edge of her vessel. A few of her crew slid over the edge, their lifeless bodies falling to the water. Celeste’s heart was breaking in two – this was her crew, her boat – they had died because of her decisions. Their deaths were on her.
The last sailor to go over the edge, instead of splashing in the ocean below, clanged off something metal. Celeste jerked her gaze down to the water – the submarine had surfaced, right under the Ajax, the metal vessel rising with such force that it tipped up the Tempus ship, pushing the front end out of the water. Something else was coming up too – another one of the reptilian creations. The leviathan stood up. Its face was like an alligator crossed with a dog. Gorilla-like arms covered in scales came next, followed by an equally scaly and heavily muscled torso.
The leviathan roared and looked down at the sub. Celeste sneered as the traitor appeared seemingly out of nowhere, shrouded in shadow as always, rising up from a hole in the submarine. The man looked up at the beast, who stared back, and then nodd
ed.
Seaspeak. The Tempus traitor could use Seaspeak. That explained his control over the beasts and the pulses in the water Celeste kept seeing just before they’d been attacked.
The leviathan reached up and put one hand on the bow of the Ajax, the other on the stern, knocking over all three masts with a swipe of its massive hand in the process. The ship now balanced on the submarine, fully out of the water.
“No!” Celeste screamed as she dangled there. The monster grunted and gave a mighty shove. In a crash of breaking lumber and twisted metal, the great ship Ajax was torn in two.
Celeste was shaken from her perch and fell to the hull of the submarine.
Landing on her feet, she stood for only a second then fell to her knees. Her ship. Her ship. Her crew. They were dying or dead already. Her ship destroyed.
She took a deep breath, the distinct sounds of battle echoing in her ears. But all of her crew weren’t dead. There were some alive, still fighting. And a Tempus never gave up. Luckily her sword had fallen next to her, so she picked it up, jumping to a large section of the hull of the Ajax floating near the submarine. She shouted, “Tempus! To me!”
From around her, twenty of her crew, a tenth of the original number, rode waves and ice boards or came up from the ocean to stand with her on the remnant of their once mighty ship still crumbling to pieces behind them.
They formed a circle, with Celeste facing the traitor. She’d seen her crew’s faces as they came to her call. Determined looks. The faces of people who knew the odds were long, and that death was a high probability. But they would fight to that death, taking as many with them as they could.
“Looks like we have a right fight on our hands now, Captain,” Leroy said beside her, flexing his muscles, a knife in one hand and a cutlass in the other. Cuts showed under his ripped shirt.