by Mel Odom
The pirate waved him off, then dropped down the hold.
Feeling the impulse to go see for himself how bad the damage was, then reconsidering because he didn’t know enough to help and because he really didn’t want to know how bad things were if they were bad, Juhg pulled himself up the simple wooden ladder.
Rain splashed his face before he reached the deck. The world was dark gray overhead and dull gray all around him. Dwarven pirates ran along One-Eyed Peggie’s deck wearing hooded rain slickers and carrying harpoons.
When had it started raining? Juhg didn’t know. He’d been committed to writing down everything he could remember about Imarish, the city where the Grandmagister had left something, he’d said, for Juhg to find.
Craugh the wizard had insisted that be done so others could perhaps find the something the Grandmagister had left there for him in case he got killed along the way. The statement, especially while on a sea full of monsters frenzied by blood, hadn’t offered Juhg any comfort. But Craugh, as always, was a rocky shoal of pragmatism.
“All hands keep a sharp lookout!” Critter crowed from the mid ‘yards. “Stick ’im in the eye if ye gets the chance! That thrice-blasted beast won’t like that none, I’ll warrant!”
Juhg gazed toward the stern bridge, thinking he would see Hallekk or Craugh there. Instead, only the helmsman stood at the great wheel. A dozen dwarven pirates flanked him, all of them peering down into the swirling gray-green water that surrounded them.
Thick fog pressed upon them, flitting in layers across One-Eyed Peggie’s rain-slick deck. Juhg could scarcely see either end of the ship. Lanterns were lit fore and aft so that she might be seen by other ships. However, getting seen was one of the last things anyone aboard the pirate ship wished for. They were in dangerous waters. Goblinkin in their stolen vessels and true human pirates sailed these seas, always searching for the valuable trade shipments the south mainland made with the north.
“Dreezil,” a familiar voice barked, “do ye see anythin’? Anythin’ at all?”
“No, Cap’n Hallekk. I see water boilin’, but no hide nor hair of no creature.” Dreezil stood watch in the crow’s nest high above the deck. He was lost in the thick fog, and Juhg didn’t think the young dwarf could even see the deck from where he was.
Another blow struck One-Eyed Peggie, rolling her over to starboard. Again, the impact came from below the waterline. Juhg thought about the crew down in the hold working to repair the cracked timber. How fast were they taking on water? He remembered the three times he’d tramped through rising water to help seal a puncture in the cargo hold of a ship. None of those experiences had been pleasant. Twice the ship had gone down despite their best efforts, and Juhg had never gone down once himself.
“Well,” Cap’n Hallekk bawled in frustration, “it ain’t gone away, now has it? It’s still knockin’ us about like we was a child’s toy. There’s a monster down there, an’ I want it found.”
Holding on to the railing, getting more soaked by the minute, Juhg made his way forward. The ship rolled slowly from side to side as she recovered her balance.
On the forward deck, Hallekk stood braced and ready with a harpoon in one massive hand. The dwarven captain was nearly as broad as he was tall, carrying massive shoulders and standing a few inches taller than most dwarves, though still shorter than most humans or elves. His fierce beard trailed down to his belly, woven with bits of yellowed ivory carved into the shapes of fish and other sea creatures. Gold hoops hung from his ears. Scars marked his face and arms, testifying to the long and violent years he had put in as a Blood-Soaked Sea pirate. The pirates’ reputations were often earned with a weapon and bravery.
When the Builders had first caused the island to be raised from the sea floor so they could hide the Great Library there, they’d also set up lines of defense to prevent its eventual discovery. The first and most fearsome had been the monsters they’d loosed in the waters, and the second had been the volunteers who had taken up lives and battles under the skull and crossbones. Mainland ships stayed away from the heart of the Blood-Soaked Sea.
Pirates were plentiful after the Cataclysm. During Lord Kharrion’s time, goblinkin had captured ships and harried rescue efforts transporting books from the mainland. But those efforts had been few because the Unity Army had known leaving the mainland to the goblin forces would have meant Darkness had prevailed. In the end, they’d managed to stand and bring the Goblin Lord down.
Mostly, the volunteers from Greydawn Moors had been humans. Their natures, short-lived and determined ever to be wanderers and conquerors, suited the humans for the sea and the promise of combat. It helped that not a few of them gained substantial wealth from their efforts.
Still, a few dwarves and elves had taken to ship occasionally. Generally they tended more toward joining ships for a time. Dwarves liked to go a-roving for gems and chances to work metal in different smithies, and brought back news of the mainland. Elven warders brought back new stock—plants and animals—to keep the island’s plant life and wildlife healthy and hardy. None of them talked about the island or the Great Library while they were about. All of them had families there who would be forfeit the first time they let slip the secret they protected. Strangers were seldom welcome at Greydawn Moors because strangers didn’t have much investment in the city or the people who lived there.
But there had been exceptions. Juhg had been born on the mainland, had never known about the Great Library until Grandmagister Lamplighter had freed him from slavery at a goblinkin gem mine.
One-Eyed Peggie was unique, the only ship in all of the Blood-Soaked Sea under a dwarven captain. Captain Hallekk had taken over the ship after Captain Farok had died in the Grandmagister’s arms during their escape from the undersea port of Callidell after tracking down and stealing the fabled Gem of Umatura. Callidell had been located in the dead heart of a volcano. The carved facets of the Gem of Umatura, once identified and translated, had unlocked a dead language in books long forgotten that had set the Grandmagister off on another whirlwind quest through the history and dangers of the mainland.
Lurching with the motion of the rolling ship, feeling the dreaded heaviness to her now that told she was taking on water, Juhg went up the stairs to the forward deck. The task was made even harder because One-Eyed Peggie bucked and twisted instead of cleanly cutting through the sea. He gazed around, struggling to make sense of the sky and the sea since they insisted on being very nearly the same color.
“There!” a pirate shouted, pointing to port.
Juhg turned at once, staring out at the gray-green sea. At first he saw nothing, then his keen vision tracked the underwater movement despite the rain pinpricking his eyes and peppering the rolling mountains of the ocean.
An undulating mass of deep purple and red scales moved beneath the sea. The mass was gone, disappearing under the ocean surface, almost as quickly as he’d spied it.
“What was it?” Hallekk demanded.
“A monster,” someone replied.
“What kind of monster?”
“Big.”
Hallekk growled a curse as he prowled the prow. “Big? I knowed it was big. From the way it was a-smashin’ up Peggie, why I didn’t need to see it to know it was big. What I need to know is how we’re a-gonna deal with it.”
“We can throw meat in the water. Maybe the beastie will chase the meat to the bottom an’ leave us alone.”
Juhg stood at the back of the bridge, leaving Hallekk plenty of room to pace. The big dwarf kept the harpoon at the ready.
“Meat won’t help,” a calm voice said. “That’s a bearded hoar-worm. You can throw every morsel of meat aboard this ship into the water and that creature won’t go break away from us. It feeds on live prey, and it lives to hunt.”
Moving forward to peer around the triangular jib sails straining in the strong winds, Juhg spotted Craugh the wizard on the other side of the bridge.
Six and a half feet tall and skinny as a rake handle, Craugh w
as nevertheless an imposing figure even among the colorful members of a dwarven pirate crew. His pointed hat defied natural laws by staying atop his head in the gale winds. Of course, Craugh—by virtue (and yes, there was some argument about that word being associated with the wizard as well) of being a wizard—would have argued that magic was as natural as the seasons.
His long gray beard hung down to his belt and his hair past his shoulders. Of late, his face looked more haggard than usual, but his piercing green eyes blazed with the eldritch forces he commanded. His face was long and narrow, seeming to surface from a sea of iron-gray hair and beard, and appeared fierce enough to chop stone. His nose was prominent and he used it as a weapon to look imperious or to show derision.
He wore simple homespun breeches and a white shirt, covered by a russet colored traveling cloak. He carried a gnarled wooden staff thick as his forearm that was even longer than he and his hat stood together. The end of the staff curved into a hook.
“I’ve never seen a bearded hoar-worm,” Hallekk said.
Craugh joined the ship’s captain at the prow railing. His voice was strong and somber, carrying to all of the crew in the immediate vicinity despite the wind and the snapping sailcloth overhead. “You will today.”
“I heard tell of them, but I thought they was a myth.” Hallekk took a fresh grip on the harpoon he carried.
“No. They’re most definitely not a myth.”
“No one’s ever seen one that I can recollect.”
Juhg stopped behind them, feeling awkward about eavesdropping. But he also knew that Craugh hadn’t told him anything more than what he’d wanted him to know even since the attack that had leveled the Vault of All Known Knowledge. Resentment had filled Juhg but he hadn’t confronted the wizard about it. No matter what, Craugh was as interested as Juhg was in rescuing the Grandmagister.
And irritating Craugh meant running the risk of being turned into a toad. A toad, Juhg was certain, wouldn’t be much help to the Grandmagister.
The sea remained chaotic and rough. Waves crashed all across the horizon, matching the stormy movements of the gray clouds in the sky. But to one who knew the sea as Juhg did, there were unnatural movements even in the chaos. Huge ripples warred with the natural tide and movement of the ocean, warning of the large creature that prowled below the waves.
Evidently, Juhg decided with some growing apprehension, the pictures of bearded hoar-worms in the bestiary books don’t do the creature justice when it comes to size.
“Monsters in these waters,” a pirate complained, “why, they ain’t supposed to attack us none. They’re our monsters.”
“Not these,” Craugh answered.
“An’ why ain’t they?”
“When the island was first constructed so that the Library could be built there in the Knucklebones Mountains,” Craugh said, “a number of bearded hoar-worms lived in the waters there. That past history of ships lost at sea to them was one of the reasons that area was picked as the location of the Great Library. Lord Kharrion would never believe that anyone had gone there.”
Another ripple started to the port side. Just as Juhg turned to observe the movement, he caught a glimpse of dark purple scales.
“The other gargantuan creatures living there,” Craugh went on, “the giant squids and the other things, were all able to be charmed so they would recognize the spells carved into the bottom hulls of the island ships and leave them alone.”
The wave created by the creature slapped into One-Eyed Peggie. A salty sheet of cold spray lashed over the side and drenched Juhg. He was chilled to the bone instantly.
“But the bearded hoar-worms couldn’t be charmed,” Craugh said. “So the Builders chose to put them to sleep. It took considerable doing, you know, because the bearded hoar-worms were not at all amenable. Since that time, they have lain at the bottom of the Blood-Soaked Sea, unmoving and unchanging.”
“‘Cept this ’un,” Hallekk growled.
“Yes,” Craugh said. “Except this one.”
“Which has decided it fancies an interest in us. So why ain’t it sleepin’?”
“Because,” Craugh replied ominously, “someone woke it.”
A thousand questions immediately flew into Juhg’s mind. Who had waked the creature? Why? Just to set it on us? How had that been managed? And if this one was awake, were there others awake in the harbor at the Yondering Docks in Greydawn Moors?
Before he could frame the questions, or weigh the wisdom of letting Craugh know he was there, Juhg saw the creature rise from the ocean.
“Look out!” Dreezil yelled from the crow’s nest. “It’s coming fer us! To starboard! To starboard!”
Hallekk roared orders to the helmsman, instructing him to take what evasive action he could, but fighting against the wind and the waves of the storm had limited his ability. The captain bolted past Juhg, carrying the harpoon over his shoulder as he ran to the starboard side.
Craugh turned and saw Juhg. The wizard’s eyes narrowed and he frowned. “You shouldn’t be up here,” the wizard said. “This place is too dangerous.”
“In case you haven’t noticed,” Juhg shot back, “not only are we under attack, but the ship is sinking. Belowdecks is hardly the place I want to be right now.”
“You would be better protected there. I do not want to lose you to your impetuosity.”
Juhg didn’t bother to answer. The argument would have been pointless. There was no way he was going belowdecks. He’d gotten tired of not being in a position to take control of his own life this past month. Maybe he couldn’t get off the ship, but he could choose where he stood on it. He turned and sprinted after Hallekk.
The bearded hoar-worm raised its head clear of the brine. Massively huge, the head carried the wedge shape of a serpent, but had the depth of forehead of a bear. Mottled olive skin covered the face, stretching out to the cheeks and chin where it mixed with a darker color of purple than was on the thing’s body. Dark red underscored the big eyes and the flaring nostrils. Mottled, ice-blue tendrils trailed down from the creature’s broad chin to its neck, giving it the appearance of streams that had frozen there.
Behind the creature, a wake of eighty- and ninety-foot waves suddenly rose up from the ocean. They stayed close to the creature as if it had summoned them.
Hallekk set himself to throw the harpoon, but the creature came too fast. By the time the dwarven captain hauled his arm back to throw and loosed the weapon, the bearded hoar-worm had glided back under the water. The harpoon pierced the sea where it had been, but Juhg was certain the throw had missed.
“Get set!” Hallekk yelled, reaching for the nearest ratline. “It’s gonna” ram—
The bearded hoar-worm slammed into One-Eyed Peggie’s stern so hard the aft section lifted clear of the water and swapped around so fast that for a moment Juhg was certain the stern was going to overtake the prow. The pirate ship reeled, then was immediately caught by the oncoming waves that had trailed the huge monster. One-Eyed Peggie rode up on the first wave sideways, listing hard to port. The successive wave came on, lifting the pirate ship higher and higher, turning her over more and more.
Juhg couldn’t help wondering if the thunderous power of the waves was going to smash One-Eyed Peggie’s fractured side in. Instead, the ship kept climbing the ninety-foot waves. The water came on so fast and so strong that One-Eyed Peggie was helpless, snared in their grip. Incredibly, as she neared the apex of the moving wall of water, the pirate ship rolled over so that it was perpendicular to the ocean and showing signs of rolling all the way over. Her ’yards on that side dipped into the water suddenly as she came over ninety degrees.
Feeling the familiar symptoms of nausea in the pit of his stomach as he achieved momentary weightlessness, Juhg lunged for a fistful of ratlines. His hands caught in the rough rope and he held on tight. His body floated free, caught only by his fingers. In disbelief, he clung to the ratlines and stared down at the swirling water a hundred feet below him.
Nearly all of the pirates had secured holds in the rigging and on the masts and railing. They hung, dangling over the ocean, then three of them lost their holds and they fell.
The screams of the falling men cut through even the sound of the storm and the winds and the ship’s sails ripping free. Juhg watched helplessly as the dwarven pirates flailed until they dropped into the sea.
They’re dead, Juhg knew. We’ll never be able to find them in all of this. Moreover, very few of the pirate crew knew how to swim. He clung fearfully to the ratlines.
Hallekk’s ratline snapped without warning. The big dwarf shot downward as the rope burned through his hands. He struck the mainmast’s top-gallant, which luffed in the strong winds, and slid slowly across the sailcloth. He flailed his arms, trying in vain to get a grip on the elusive sail.
Almost as soon as the idea hit his mind, because dwellers were so quick thinking occurred at almost the same time as doing, Juhg released his hold on the ratline and dropped. Usually, though, those quick responses came about purely in the act of self-preservation, not what Juhg intended.
One-Eyed Peggie continued scaling the tall wave, only now near the peak of it. Once the ship crested the wave, Juhg knew she’d whip away from the pirate captain and leave him to drop into the deadly sea.
Juhg pulled his arms in as he fell, plummeting the way a hawk did when it swooped from the sky to take a field mouse. He saw Craugh holding on to the railing, standing erect despite the ship’s position. The wizard saw him, too.
“Nooooo!” Craugh yelled.
Even if I live, Juhg thought, I’m a toad for sure.
When he hit the topgallant, the sailcloth burned Juhg as it whisked under him. He spread his hands out like a child playing in a snowfield, keeping his balance as he shot under the rigging across the rough material. He focused on Hallekk as the big dwarf neared the end of the topgallant.
Hallekk saw Juhg then. The pirate captain’s eyes rounded in disbelief. In the next moment, he was over the edge, beginning the long fall to the ocean. Below, the bearded hoar-worm broke the surface and seemed to be waiting in anticipation.