by R. J. Batla
“We’ve been having one, if you haven’t realized it,” Wylie said from Celeste’s other side, spitting out some blood, her dark blue hair streaked with green blood. A scratch ran down the left side of her jaw.
Mate said from her back: “Let’s give them hell.” The old sea dog was soaking wet but didn’t look injured at all.
Celeste smirked. Suddenly there was a thunderclap in front of them. They all turned to stare at the shrouded man, whose hands were pressed together. A pulse of water and air ripped away from him, blowing back the Tempus’s clothes with the force of the detonation.
“You don’t have to do this,” said the traitor.
“The hell I don’t!” Celeste screamed, pulling in water from the ocean and pushing her arms out in a fluid motion. “Ice spears!”
Dozens of now-frozen projectiles erupted from the captain, piercing their targets. The creatures they’d struck clutched their throats as they went down.
The traitor flicked his wrist, deflecting the ten spears that went for him. “Fool. Attack!”
The Tempus sprang into action as the brutes charged, water powers plowing through the screeching monsters, who clambered over their dead companions to get to their targets. Swords turned blue with water energy as the sailors met the charge, slicing through limbs and heads, cutting down any who got close enough, throwing water attacks at the ones who kept their distance.
“Steam shots!” Celeste said, thrusting her arm out at each creature in turn, a concentrated shaft of pure steam slicing through their hearts like a thrown knife. She took down ten before sending a torrent of water, a wave throwing the attackers back twenty yards with a surge of blue energy, giving Celeste a chance to back up a step and check their situation.
There was only twelve of her crew left now, the others’ bodies nowhere to be found. The enemy surged back at them, using their numbers to overwhelm the Tempus.
Between strikes with her blade and three more knife throws, she saw two more Tempus dragged underwater, where a flash of lights and a flurry of scales indicated the frenzied battle below the surface. Two more Tempus went down, sliced to pieces by the sharp claws of the beast. Another two disappeared under the waves, dragged below by giant tentacles that sprang from the water so fast, they didn’t have time to react.
Celeste killed dozens of the abominations, but the attackers never touched her. She fought with reckless abandon, striking with steel and water powers, pulverizing pirate and beast.
Another Tempus went down to an oversized urchin’s spike. A great shark launched itself from the water, heading right for more of her crew. Celeste fired at it with a stream of water, hitting it square in the stomach, but it was only deflected, taking out another Tempus.
“No!” Celeste screamed.
Pulling her arms into her chest, gathering her power, she thrust her arms out, sending a large pulse of water and ice out in all directions. Everything that wasn’t Tempus was killed and thrown back fifty yards from the sheer force of the explosion.
Hitting her knees from the effort, she took a second to catch her breath and looked around. Only four Tempus plus herself remained. All five backed together into a tighter circle, breathing hard, swords pulsing with energy. Mate, Leroy, Wylie, and John. The final five left. Of a crew of a hundred fifty-four. The grief and torment of losing her crew threatened to overwhelm her, their deaths pressing down on her with the weight of a blue whale, but she just managed to keep the emotions at bay.
Recovering from being thrown back, the next wave of creatures gave a shriek.
Leroy twirled his daggers. “Well, mates, it’s been an honor serving with you. Let them taste Tempus steel before we go down!”
The writhing mass of animal flesh shrieked again and started to rush towards them. The Tempus gave their loudest battle cry yet.
But then they heard: “Enough!”
All of the fish-beings froze where they stood. That voice…there was something familiar about it. She knew him. But from where?
The traitor stepped between the reptiles, black tendrils hanging from his hat. She stared him down and he stared right back from his featureless mask. “You’ve lost, Celeste. Look around. Most of your crew is dead, the others are captured.”
“My crew and I are not caught; they’re –”
The man said something over his shoulder. Several dozen tentacles shot out, grabbing the rest of the crew and banging their heads together, knocking them out and dropping them back on the wreckage before Celeste could react.
The hooded figure cocked his head and shrugged his shoulders. “Like I said: caught. I told you before I would crush your vessel and kill everyone on board. Your ship has been destroyed and most of your crew is dead. But I’m willing to show you mercy. There’s no need for further bloodshed. If you put down your weapon, I’ll spare you and those few you have left.”
“You ought to know better, traitor. We’re Tempus. We never give up!” Celeste growled.
“Have it your way,” he said, and with a flick of his wrist, sent ice blades flinging towards the four other Tempus.
“No!” Celeste screamed, dropping her sword and flinging her arms out, trying to deflect the blades with water blasts. Her shots were on the mark, but the ice blades were unaffected, continuing on their path until they sliced the throats of the last of her crew. Four dull thuds sounded as the ice blades embedded themselves in the wood.
No! Not them. Not the last of them – I’ve lost them all…
She fell to her knees, her head sagging. Tears rolled down her cheeks. It was her fault. Her decisions had led to this. She was too young, too inexperienced to lead. This was a mistake. She never should have accepted the assignment, never should have…
Mate moved. Probably an involuntary spasm. Except…
With her head still down, she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. The cut on his neck didn’t look as deep as it should. There was blood, but not enough to indicate an artery had been punctured. Could they…had she been able to deflect the blades enough? Not only the one intended for mate, but those for the others as well? If they were alive, she’d have to sell this good, and survive to save them. She just needed to get rid of this traitor somehow so she could save her friends, so she could –
“I tried to warn you, Celeste,” the traitor said, pulling water from the ocean, directing it to Celeste and freezing them on her arms like chains, then yanking them down to hold her fast on the wreckage. Immediately she pulsed her power into the chains holding her, but they didn’t budge and inch. Damnit, what are these made of? I should be able to melt these! Pulling more power to her, she concentrated harder as the man continued talking. “I told you several times to leave this alone. Now look where you are. Alone. In the Lost Seas of all places. Your pirate father would be so disappointed.”
Celeste jerked her head up and gasped, looking into the face of the traitor. “There’s only one person who knows that besides me and my parents.” She broke down, tears welling in her eyes, but her mouth was a thin line. “How could you, Bogata? How could you betray our people?”
The man reached up and grabbed the brim of his black hat, pulling it off. When it was fully removed from his head, tendrils of a black smoke-like substance drew back into the hat, revealing the traitor’s face. The face of her friend. Her best friend.
“Boga! Why?”
“This surprises you, Celeste? I did it all for you! You know how hard things have been for me. Barely making it into the academy, people despising me because I was smaller. Weaker. An inferior specimen with no home or family. How many times did you console me after I was beaten, neglected, shamed? The only reason I was let in was because I had Seaspeak. But then he came to me, gave me his power. All I had to do was bide my time to show you how strong I was, how worthy I was.”
“But we’re friends, Boga! And you’re a Tempus! You love your people, just like I do!”
He laughed. “Once, maybe. Now…” Bogata flexed his fist, a burst of raw energ
y pulsing away from it. “I love power more. And I’ve found someone who can give it to me. Has given it to me. And he will give me more, once I complete my mission. More power than you can even imagine, Celeste.”
“So that’s how you’re controlling all these things at once! Especially the leviathans. It’s because you’ve traded your soul for power!”
Bogata laughed again. “Traded my soul? That’s a bit dramatic, don’t you think? You’ve always outperformed me in everything, Celeste. So perfect, always at the top of the class, always rescuing me. But now the tables have turned. You can’t even touch me. Go ahead, try to break your bonds.”
Celeste concentrated, drawing in her power, straining with all her might, but nothing happened to the ice surrounding her arms. There was no reason why they shouldn’t have melted. Yet, nothing happened.
“See? Draining all the sea life of their energy has increased my strength a hundredfold! It’s allowed me to manipulate life itself, creating these creatures, manipulating them into their much stronger forms!”
“It’s bad enough you did that to ocean life – but you did it to humans! How could you?”
“Oh so you know about that, huh? Oh yes, humans have much more energy than mere animals. The human pirates were too gullible to realize what was going on until it was too late.”
“What did you do with them?” Celeste asked, appalled at the manipulation of nature that surrounded her, that a Tempus would do something like this.
He laughed. “What, you think you could rescue them in your current state? Ha! Not that it matters. I killed the last one before you arrived. There were some who escaped, but no matter.” Spreading his arms wide, he said, “Look around you! All these beings? My army? I made them! They were simple sea life once, but I enhanced them, made them bigger, stronger, more deadly! Have you ever heard of a Tempus doing that?” He laughed, but it wasn’t like anything Celeste had heard before. The laugh of a madman. “I think not. I’m the most powerful Tempus there has ever been, or ever will be!”
Celeste was struck by a memory. “So that squid that attacked us on graduation day – that was one of yours, wasn’t it?”
He smirked. “Yes, that particular one got outside of my control. Damn thing decided to attack me instead of lying in wait like I told it to. I felt it coming and tried to regain control, but its mind was already gone, and it attacked the first thing it saw. I sent out the call to the sperm whales, but they took their time. I was about to use my enhanced powers to kill the squid myself, though I didn’t want to risk you discovering my secret, and then have to kill you. Thankfully the whales did show up and we all lived another day. I had to send one of these giant lizards to dispose of the thing before it went haywire again.”
Her head was spinning. This was too much information, too much of what she thought was true…wasn’t. “But where? Where did you get these enhancements? No one on the East Side would do that –”
“Seems pretty obvious, doesn’t it?”
“What are you talking about?” Tears streamed steadily down her face, her self-control gone.
“Malstrak, of course.”
“Bogata, you wouldn’t! Malstrak! What have you done?”
“I’ve made a deal and a commitment to get what I want by giving him what he wants. Now I have the power I’ve always dreamed of. Those Tempus, the ones who never accepted me – those who rejected me – they‘ll regret ever putting me down, not believing in me. They’ll see their true master when I destroy the entire Tempus navy and bring our people to their knees! Then I will rule our people, and we’ll help Malstrak defeat the rest of the East Side!”
“The Tempus wouldn’t turn on the rest of Terraunum!”
He gave a sly grin. “Then I’ll make them.”
“You can’t do that; you wouldn’t do that! Not the Bogata I know. Not my friend! Not someone who claimed to love me?”
“Your friend has been dead a long time, Celeste. You’ve just been too blind to see it. Just like you’ve never really seen me before, other than someone to rescue, someone weak.”
She fought back tears. “So that kiss, before I left. That meant nothing to you?”
Bogata hesitated, shaking his head like an old dog, then took a deep breath. “That kiss is the only reason you’re alive right now. I love you, Celeste. I always have. So beautiful, so strong. And you befriended me. You sought me out.”
Celeste’s heart was breaking. “Yet you’re still going to betray our people? Betray me?”
He scrunched up his face. “You don’t understand. I can’t turn back. It’s too late.” He turned to her, squatting down and putting a hand on her shoulder, smiling. “But it’s not too late to join me! Join me, Celeste! I know you felt something when we kissed. I just took you by surprise, that’s all. I felt it from you! We can be together! When all this is done, I’ll be king of the Tempus. You could be my queen! Think about it – all the ocean, all the other races, all we could ever want would be ours for the taking!”
She looked at him with tears streaming down her face. “Boga…” She thought she was tough, thought she could handle anything. But her friend, here, talking about…
“Think, Celeste!” he said, throwing his arms wide. “Even if you did go back, they wouldn’t even let you swab the deck after losing your entire crew on your first mission!” He stood up, laughing, maniacal look in his eyes. “But with you by my side, we would be invincible!”
He held out his hand with a smile on his face. She spit in it. “And submit to the monster Malstrak? Never!”
His jaw clenched as he wiped the saliva off his cheek. “You don’t know what you’re saying. I know you love me. You’ll come around. You’ll see my true power and then beg to be with me.”
“Boga, no! You can’t do this! It’s not right!”
His face turned to stone. “So you’re rejecting me again?” A scowl replaced Bogata’s smile when she didn’t reply. He screamed, then turned and shot blue fire from his hand, burning an unsuspecting creature to ash in a matter of seconds. Once finished, he stood there breathing hard and not looking at her. “I had our whole life planned out, Celeste. A perfect life. Destroy those who would oppose us, then we would rule the East Side under Malstrak together. It would have been glorious.” He turned to her and raised his sword. “But no more. You’ve chosen the wrong side, Celeste, and you won’t see reason. I can’t have you standing in my way. It’s time to die.”
She tried to put on a brave face, but she just couldn’t. She cried, bent over, head hanging low. Everything around her slowed to a crawl, sounds dying in her ears. She was spent and tired. She’d given up. Her friend. Her best friend, the traitor, talking about destroying their people. She couldn’t believe it. The tears came even faster now, sobs racking her body as his blade touched her neck. Bogata’s betrayal had broken her heart. This was better. End it quickly. Be done. Over.
Bogata laughed. “How pitiful. Just pitiful. I thought you were stronger than this. I can’t even kill you with honor – your crew died better than this. At least they were noble about it, fighting like true warriors.” He pulled his sword back and sheathed it. “No. There’s a better way. I’ll let you die out here on your beloved ocean. Sending you and your dead friends out on the hull of your destroyed ship. No one will find you and no one will come looking for you. You’ll either rot out here or, more than likely, something will make you its lunch.”
Celeste heard him talking but didn’t care as she sat there on the piece of the hull of the Ajax, bobbing in the water next to the submarine. Some small part of her cared deeply, but mostly she was defeated. The treachery of her friend had broken her.
She barely felt it as some of the vile creations pushed the fragment of her ship away from the submarine, sending them floating away from the vessel.
She barely heard it when Bogata said with a laugh, “Goodbye, Celeste. You could have had it all and you turned it away. Watuaga will burn within a week – I’ve already sent the pirate ships you
escaped earlier to the Tempus capital. It will be your fault that more Tempus will die. Let that be your last thought as you drift toward death: that you failed your people.”
Celeste didn’t say a word as the Tempus traitor was lowered back down into his submarine, which then turned and headed west, slowly sinking down into the depths.
Chapter 13
The ice of her shackles melted within minutes once Bogata was too far away to feed them energy. When they were gone, Celeste collapsed onto the curved wood of what was once the hull of her great ship. The waves lapped over the edge of the makeshift raft, carrying her and her four crew east. Farther away from danger, but farther away from where she was needed.
But what did it matter? Her friend, her best friend, was a traitor. He’d made a deal with the devil, or at least the most evil Senturian in the last hundred years. And she hadn’t seen it. Hadn’t known. They had been so close and he’d even kissed her! In all their time together, she should have known, should have reached out, should have –
Mate stirred slightly and she remembered that there were people still depending on her. People very much alive. Shaking herself out of her depression and sheathing her sword, her training kicking in and she quickly separated the salt from some ocean water and turned it to steam. She inspected Mate’s wound first, using heated water to disinfect and steam to cauterize the cut, then moved on to the others. The cuts weren’t too deep, thank God – at least she had managed to do something right in the last few days, deflecting Bogata’s blades enough that all four of her crew remained alive.
Drawing up some seawater, she pulled her hands apart, again separating the salt and impurities from the water, then directing it into the mouths of herself and her crew.
She did this every hour or so, keeping everyone hydrated as they bobbed on fairly calm waters, the current moving them along. The sun set after an hour adrift, but it took Celeste a long time to sleep, and even when she did, it was sporadic – nightmares of Bogata killing her, killing each of her crew, destroying Watuaga, and betraying her people kept waking her up in a cold sweat despite the chilly night air.