Terry W. Ervin

by Flank Hawk

  Belinda the Cursed appeared on deck, wearing a black robe and leaning heavily on her staff as she walked. Even so, her ship’s rocking didn’t appear to affect her. The strong light of the moon wasn’t enough to mask the cobalt glow her eyes emitted after she pulled back her robe’s hood to appraise us. “You travel with interesting henchmen, Mercenary.”

  A wave nudged the aging but well maintained ship against the dock, sending vibrations through both. She turned to the sailor with a blue snake tattoo winding from his jaw, across the bridge of his nose, and circling around his left eye. “First Mate, extend the plank.” Belinda the Cursed turned and over her shoulder warned, “Crusader, if you must pray to your God, do so only on the foredeck.”

  Roos snapped back, “I would pray for removal of thy curse, if ye truly suffered one.”

  The crone spun around, fixing her cobalt gaze on Roos. “Venture to trade barbs with me at your peril, Crusader. Unravel the spells enchanting my rowers and you’ll take their place.”

  I stepped on the plank, placing myself between Roos and the crone. “The ship is yours, Belinda the Cursed. And you captain it. But, I have bartered for its use, along with your skills and cooperation. In my experience, unwarranted insults cast among equals leads to violence.”

  The three sailors gripped their cutlasses, grinning in expectation.

  The crone let out a cackling laugh. “You consider yourself my equal, Mercenary?”

  Roos laughed back. “I recognize thou as a half-blood, one whom my friend Hawk names Captain.”

  The crone ignored Roos, saying to me, “My equal? Any of you?” She laughed again. “You’d better be.” She motioned for the snake-faced sailor to step away from the plank before pulling up her hood and again turning back to the small cabin in the elevated quarterdeck.

  Her last statement wasn’t a threat. She uttered it as a statement of fact, and that worried me. She’d said in Sint Malo that the greater elf, the Colonel of the West, would have to deem us worthy.

  Lilly tugged at my arm. “Don’t board. We’ll find another way.”

  “It’ll be okay, Lilly.”

  She looked from me to Roos. He stood ready to board, but shrugged his shoulders.

  “Don’t worry about Roos,” I said. “It didn’t take him long to warm up to you.”

  “You think I’m like her?”

  “Of course not,” I said, elbowing her in the ribs. “According to Roos, she’s not cursed.”

  Lilly looked up at the snake-faced sailor and laughed. “Roos, how long are you going to call her, one whom my friend Hawk names Captain?”

  Travel aboard the Sunset Siren was cramped, uncomfortable, and dull. Sleeping on the rolling deck beneath a stretched tarp that did little to ward off the elements made it worse. Roos grumbled, but never complained openly. Lilly adjusted better than either of us.

  From sunrise until an hour past noon Belinda the Cursed took the wheel, guiding our westward progress across the North Atlantic. During that time the snake-faced sailor, whose name was the same as his title, First Mate, slept. A few years past his prime, but still wiry and quick, First Mate’s weathered skin reminded me of leather stretched tight over flexing iron bars. What hair he had was gray stubble.

  First Mate was in charge whenever Belinda was in her cabin. He was the only one of the three sailors who could shout orders. First Mate said the other two had their tongues cut out long before becoming part of the Sunset Siren’s crew.

  Thrall was a skinny youth who’d stayed on after fulfilling his indentured servitude to Belinda. Hax, who Belinda simply called Sailor, was a stocky pickpocket who’d spent half his thirty years imprisoned. Layers of crosshatched scars across his back from repeated whippings emphasized that life had been cruel to him.

  The three sailors rotated watch, maintenance, steering, rigging and sail work duties. The sails supplemented what I found to be the most impressive part of the ship: The two golems that manned the oars day and night.

  The golems, carved from oak, manned their oars tirelessly. With short legs braced against a block, each golem’s long upper pair of arms drew back one oar while a shorter set of arms pulled second oar. Their single onyx eye gave their carved faces an unfocused, yet sinister gaze. Roos said the sun-weathered creatures held some sort of spirit, neither good nor evil. Whether the spirits were bound or a willing part of the magical creatures, he couldn’t say. They reminded him of a gargoyle, a grotesque statue-like creature able to move about. But, whereas gargoyles have devious minds like those of gremlins, the oak golems appeared to lack any self-awareness. They only responded to simple, one sentence orders from Belinda the Cursed.

  I sat in the narrow shade cast by the sails, watching First Mate give Lilly another lesson in knife fighting. He’d tried to teach both of us, but Lilly learned much faster and I was slowing her down.

  Roos slept under the tarp, having shared the night watch with Thrall. Hax had climbed up the mast to view the surrounding seas. His sharp whistle caught everyone’s attention, even bringing Belinda the Cursed from her cabin. He pointed the direction our ship traveled before climbing down the pole.

  Hax ran up to Belinda and frantically explained what he saw using sign language.

  Belinda the Cursed called to First Mate. “Take the wheel. Sailor spotted a serpent ahead. One with a rider.”

  I took the news to be dire from First Mate’s grim stare and the worried expressions of Thrall and Hax as they hurried about clearing the deck of buckets, fishing nets, and other stray gear. I slipped on and buttoned my padded armor shirt and grabbed my crossbow and quiver of quarrels. I decided against buckling on my breast and backplate. If I did and went overboard, I’d be sure to drown.

  Belinda pointed at Lilly. “Climb the mast and report what you see.”

  Roos tossed Lilly his spyglass. I stood next him at the bow of the ship, unsuccessfully trying to spot the danger. The Crusader fixed the bayonet to his rifle.

  “I see it,” called Lilly. “A big snake swimming this way. One rider, but there are many others swimming with them as well. Some are holding onto big fish.”

  Roos said to me, “Mermaids and their mates. Dolphins help their mates keep pace.” At my questioning glance he added, “Sailors lured overboard become mates.”

  Belinda leaned on her staff. “We cannot outrun them. Crusader, do you sense any magic?”

  Roos shook his head. “The distance is too great.”

  “I count fifteen mermaids,” said Lilly. “Eleven dolphins towing men and one serpent.”

  “A warning, friend Hawk,” said Roos, again looking out to sea. “Serpents of the sea spew out venom.”

  I looked back to Belinda the Cursed, waiting for her to do something. After she ordered Hax and Thrall to lower the sails I crossed the ship and asked her, “Have you encountered something like this before?”

  “Only an important priestess of Uplersh would command a serpent.” She grinned. “If it should come to a fight, Mercenary, I am more than her equal. And I have ways of fending off a serpent.”

  “Why would a priestess of Uplersh be interested in us?”

  “We cross her domain.”

  I kicked the sealed crate holding the Blood-Sword. The ropes securing it to the deck held tight. “Isn’t there a way to go around?”

  “Not if you intend to cross the North Atlantic.” She dismissed me with a wave of her hand and strode to the bow. “Crusader, stand near the mast. Werebeast, has one come forward yet?”

  Undeterred and angry, I followed Belinda. Before I said anything, she turned on me. “Keep silent, Mercenary. You have no idea the stakes or the forces set in motion.”

  Lilly called down, “A man and dolphin are approaching.”

  In the distance, a large serpent swam with its head above the water. The dragon-like head was four times the size of Hell Furnace’s. That concerned me. Then I saw what Lilly reported. A pale-skinned man with flowing red hair held the dorsal fin of a large fish, what Roos called a dolphin. Th
e man held a slender spear in his right hand and wore only a belt woven from seaweed. From it dangled shells, a sheathed knife, and a coiled length of seaweed rope.

  Belinda kept the oarsmen rowing on course, directly toward the serpent. The action forced the man to veer to our starboard side and hang on to his dolphin to keep pace.

  Thirty yards away the man climbed onto his companion beast. “Belinda Iceheart, daughter of the Colonel of the West, you trespass across the Sea Goddess’ domain.”

  Belinda leaned on her staff. “Who speaks on behalf of Uplersh?”

  His chest puffed out with pride. “Red Tide, Mate of Blue Coral, High Priestess of the Sea Goddess.”

  “Then your captor is well aware I pay proper tribute to Uplersh, so be on your way and we’ll be on ours.”

  The dolphin carrying the man easily matched the speed of Belinda’s rowers. “It was not tribute enough.”

  “And what would Uplersh determine adequate tribute?” Belinda’s cobalt eyes sparkled in the sunlight, causing the mermaid mate to hesitate before answering.

  The man urged his dolphin ahead so that he could more easily face Belinda. “If you don’t know the answer to that, then you should never have journeyed into the Sea Goddess’ domain.”

  “I see,” responded Belinda. A brief motion with her right hand combined with a mumbled phrase resulted in a thunderous concussion erupting around the man. When the water spray and foam fell away, the broken, contorted bodies of both man and dolphin floated on the bubbling surface.

  Without bothering to examine her handiwork, Belinda shouted, “Oarsmen, battle speed. Thrall, take the wheel. Prepare to tie it off. Werebeast, get down from there and prepare to repel boarders.”

  Boarders? I thought. That serpent out there had to be at least sixty yards long. They wouldn’t need boarders.

  “The serpent dove,” warned Lilly, reaching the deck and collapsing the spyglass and handing it to Roos. She pulled out her sling and set a stone half the size of my fist in its pocket.

  “The serpent will strive to shatter the keel, friend Hawk.” Roos slid my spear across the deck to me. “If not, ye may need the reach of thy spear.”

  First Mate stood next to Belinda at the bow of the ship. He watched the waters with a pair of javelins in hand. Thrall still manned the wheel. Roos stood amid ship with Lilly. He watched starboard while she watched the portside. Hax stood aft, crouched and ready, holding a harpoon that looked too long and heavy for him to handle. I waited for the attack next to Belinda, who stood with eyes closed, mumbling. The rhythmic splash and creaking of the oars pulling at the ocean rose above the ominous silence. Even the normal wind slapping the rigging against wood had ceased.

  Belinda’s eyes snapped open. “Oarsmen, retract oars!” As they methodically withdrew them through the ports beneath the gunwale, she murmured another spell and tapped the butt of her staff three times against the deck.

  Immediately the Sunset Siren lost momentum, causing all but Belinda to grab a hold of something rather than fall. Two seconds later a tremendous blow impacted the ship’s hull, staggering everyone, including Belinda.

  “She held!” yelled First Mate. Fifteen seconds later the serpent surfaced one hundred yards starboard, then dove, its length arcing along the wake until its tail slapped the water before disappearing.

  “Thy ship is strong,” said Roos. “Thou must have iron backing the keel.”

  Lilly leaned over the side. “No, Crusader. She surrounded the hull with ice. That’s what stopped us.”

  “If we can’t move,” I said, “we can’t escape.” First Mate nodded in agreement. Slowly the bow began to shift starboard. First Mate noticed it too. We looked to Belinda, who stood with eyes closed. She shook, leaning on her staff. Her wrinkled face contorted into a wicked sneer as she chanted, summoning more magic.

  First Mate motioned for Roos to back further away. The snake-faced sailor looked from his captain, out to the mermaids and serpent four hundred yards away. Sweat broke out across Belinda’s brow and her cheeks began twitching. Still, the Sunset Siren continued to spin, faster.

  Hax signaled with his hands. First Mate agreed. “A whirlpool. Crusader, can you do anything?”

  Roos shook his head.

  Belinda’s eyes snapped open. “That bitch! She’s channeling power directly from Uplersh.” The ship immediately began to spin faster. “She bars my elementals from reaching her priestess and sends more energy than I can counter.”

  “One who the dead man named Iceheart,” said Roos. “Is thy foe upon the serpent?”

  Belinda nodded. “Uplersh hasn’t won yet.”

  Roos flipped up the rectangular sight on his rifle and adjusted the small crossbar. “Bide.” He marched to the bow, rested the muzzle of his rifle on the gunwale, and signaled for silence. It now took less than fifteen seconds for the ship to rotate a full circle.

  I held my breath, wondering if Roos could hit the target, and if he did, could his bullet pierce the magical barriers Uplersh had erected to protect her priestess from Belinda.

  The priestess on the serpent, her arms upraised and surrounded by circling mermaids, men and dolphins, rotated through the Crusader’s line of sight without him firing. The ocean level appeared to be rising in relation to the hull of our ship.

  Lilly grabbed my arm, causing me to fire my crossbow into the water. I smiled at her, trying to disguise my fear. Drowning wouldn’t be as bad as being torn apart by zombies, but it wouldn’t be as fast as death by an ogre’s club. I was going to ask Lilly why she’d unbuttoned her shirt when the crack of Roos’ rifle sounded.

  Roos looked up from his rifle’s sight. When the priestess toppled off the serpent’s head, he removed his forage cap and wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Lord, thank ye for thy guidance.”

  “Crusader,” warned Belinda. “Might want to withhold your gratitude.” As if to accent her words, the serpent emitted a screeching hiss before speeding toward us, mermaids, men and dolphins trailing in its wake. Belinda’s knees buckled, but First Mate caught and steadied her.

  “We’re doomed,” said Lilly. She shed her clothes, stepped back and dropped to her hands and knees on the deck, her lips drawn back in pain. “Flank Hawk, look away.” I already had, reloading my crossbow.

  “Oarsmen,” said Belinda with renewed vibrancy, “except for those on the ship right now, rend any creature that comes within your grasp.”

  The wood golems stiffly rose to their feet and stood with their arms held high. They reminded me of dead trees whose smaller branches had been shorn off. Behind me, Lilly groaned. The reshaping of her bones and joints sounded like stalks of celery twisting and snapping. I didn’t dare turn to see Lilly change, afraid of what I might see.

  “Leave the serpent to me,” hissed Belinda. The enemy closed to within one hundred yards. “Don’t let them snare you with their lassos or they’ll pull you overboard.”

  “Thy foe closes,” warned Roos. He pulled the trigger, catching a mermaid in the shoulder. A line of red trailed where she dove. They were too far for my crossbow.

  The serpent propelled itself forward by undulating its snake-like body laterally along the surface. It didn’t matter whether the serpent intended to ram above the ice line or surge out of the water and crash down upon our ship. Weakened as Belinda was, the Sunset Siren appeared doomed, and us with it.

  I held my crossbow ready, watching the sea serpent grow nearer. The threat of lassos and javelins seemed insignificant. Maybe Roos and his rifle could make a difference, but my crossbow would be like flicking pebbles at a charging bull. Even Hax’s harpoon looked small.

  Belinda stood defiantly at the prow of her ship. I grabbed hold of a rope strung along the gunwale and braced for the shattering impact.

  The serpent rose up, intent on smashing its bulk onto the deck. At the last second, Belinda shouted, “Rise and defend!” In response a huge wave with watery arms slammed into the serpent, engulfing its head and fanged maw. The water elemental knocked
the serpent off course and both crashed into the ocean just off the portside. The resulting wave rocked the Sunset Siren, tipping her to within inches of taking on water. Whether the buoyancy of the ice encasing the hull saved or nearly foundered us, I couldn’t tell.

  Lilly skidded next to me, her claws digging for traction on the wet deck. First Mate hurled his two javelins at mermaids, doing his best to ward the captain while she controlled the giant elemental battling the thrashing serpent.

  The ship continued to rock wildly, enabling several mermen to grab hold and climb aboard. The serpent’s tale whipped wildly, smacking the mast before the elemental hauled it beneath the surface.

  One of the unlucky mermen fell into the grasp of the enchanted oarsmen and in a tug-of-war they tore him screaming, limb from limb. Lilly charged one of the mermen, knocking him to the deck as he stabbed at her with his flint dagger. I stood and took aim at one of the four mermaids holding their torsos above the water with powerful tail strokes while twirling lassos over their heads. My aim was true and one alluring green-haired mermaid sank beneath the surface with a quarrel in her heart.

  I ducked two lassos, but failed to see a third. It snagged my crossbow, and a mermaid yanked it from my unsuspecting hands. I reached for my spear on the deck only a few feet away.

  From the stern, Hax hurled his harpoon. I didn’t see if the sailor hit his target, but two thin spears shot up, piercing his forearm and stomach. A pair of lassos followed, pulling the wounded man over the side.

  Roos fired his revolver starboard, into the mermen and maids as they hurled spears and knives, and flung lassos. The whole time Roos belted out uneven lyrics to a song that held him steadfast in battle.

  I drove my spear into the chest of a merman as he tried to board, and smashed a second across the face with the shaft, knocking him back into the water. Thrall hacked the fingers off another merman as he gripped the gunwale, trying to climb aboard. The sailor appeared unaware of his bloody shoulder wound as he spun and charged aft, seeking other foes.