by Mel Odom
Juhg concentrated on the topgallant’s rigging at the edge of the sailcloth. He reached for Hallekk and stuck both feet into the space between the topgallant and the rigging.
Catching hold of the pirate captain’s coat, Juhg fisted his hands in the material. Then the tops of his feet caught the rigging, which slid back and chewed against his shins above his boots. At the end of his reach, Hallekk came to a stop. Juhg felt as though his arms were tearing free of his shoulders.
“I can’t hold you!” Juhg shouted. He wasn’t strong enough. Hallekk outweighed him at least four times. The pirate captain grabbed hold of Juhg with both hands and began climbing along him. Juhg felt like he was about to be pulled apart. The pain was incredible.
Hallekk reached the topgallant rigging and found a new hold.
Once released from the captain’s weight, Juhg tried to turn back on his own body. He bent at the waist in time to see that One-Eyed Peggie had finally crested the immense wave. All of his weight left him as the pirate ship suddenly flipped sideways and started down the wave it had climbed.
Before he could get a grip, Juhg was flung away from the topgallant as if from a slingshot. Hallekk reached for him, managing to touch his leg, but couldn’t get a grip. Juhg hurtled through the air away from the ship.
Then he fell toward the raging sea.
2
Craugh’s Challenge
“Aaaaaayyyyyyyy!” Juhg didn’t want to scream in fear. He recognized it as a waste of time, but it wasn’t like he was going to have a lot of time to waste anyway. “Aaaaaaayyyyyyy!”
At the time, screaming in fear seemed the most natural thing to do. But even as he screamed, he was thinking. They are foolish thoughts! part of his mind yelled at him. You’re going to die, so just scream and get that out of your system! When you scream, dying won’t hurt as much!
Juhg fell through the air, turning end over end. The roiling sea grew closer and closer. And still he couldn’t quite get over the notion that he was going to manage to survive. He could swim. It was just possible he could stay above even these storm-tossed waters. It was even possible that One-Eyed Peggie, only now making her way down the other side of the colossal wave, could find him.
All those years spent in the goblinkin gem mines had taught him that he could survive. Such an experience made hollow people of those who had been through it, but Juhg had learned under the Grandmagister’s tutelage that he was of a different sort of dweller. Where the Grandmagister had been raised in the safety and comfort of the Vault of All Known Knowledge then learned about the evils in the world (or at least along the mainland), Juhg had grown up in the midst of them.
You have strength, the Grandmagister had told Juhg on more than one occasion. You have an inner resolve that I have seen in only a few.
The memory flitted through Juhg’s mind and he felt the guilt that rushed through afterward. He and the Grandmagister had not parted on good terms before the Grandmagister’s capture by the goblinkin and Aldhran Khempus. The brief meeting aboard the goblinkin ship hadn’t counted because the Grandmagister had been too busy providing instruction and helping Juhg escape.
Scream! the voice inside his head commanded. Scream! It is almost over!
Staring at the sea, which now filled all of his vision, Juhg realized that the voice wasn’t his. He wondered where it was coming from. He stopped screaming and worked on taking one last good breath before plunging into the ocean. You can find your way back up, he told himself. Natural buoyancy will bring you up.
Something bit into his right leg.
Startled, Juhg looked at his leg, seeing the rope that coiled around his calf twice more then pulled taut. He stopped in midfall, hanging less than twenty feet above the heaving ocean.
Gazing along the rope that held him, Juhg saw that it led back to One-Eyed Peggie. At the other end of it, Craugh stood pulling the rope back in. Small green sparks, like flying embers from a cook fire, danced through the twisted hemp of the rope.
One-Eyed Peggie turned her prow more into the lee side of the wave. The rope moved accordingly, and the wizard ran, still hauling on the rope, like he was bringing in a large fish.
The sea below Juhg exploded. A maelstrom of salt spray drenched him as the bearded hoar-worm rose up from the depths.
You’re not a fish, the voice told him. You’re a tantalizing little piece of bait. Scream before you die.
The monster opened its huge maw. Juhg saw himself reflected in the enormous black eyes that were bigger than he was. Fangs taller even than Craugh with his hat on filled the cavernous mouth. The creature’s breath was horrible, so strong that it burned Juhg’s eyes.
Tasty morsel.
Juhg put his hands out before him and grabbed the bearded hoar-worm’s upper lip.
You dare put your hands on me!
It isn’t like I have any choice, Juhg thought.
I heard that. Like a dog trained to do a trick, the monster flicked its head and knocked Juhg end over end into the air, then readied itself to catch him in its teeth when he came back down.
Juhg reached for the monster’s lip again, hoping to save himself, but he couldn’t span the distance. He dropped—and just as suddenly rose into the air.
The bearded hoar-worm’s fangs gnashed together without their prize. Glowering at Juhg as he flew backward through the air, the monster dived beneath the ocean and disappeared again.
Flailing and struggling, feeling the rope chafing his leg terribly, Juhg tried to bend up and grab the rope so he could lessen some of the pull. Unfortunately, he couldn’t. Hallekk and a handful of dwarven pirates reeled him up toward the ship as it dropped into the trough at the bottom.
Juhg hit One-Eyed Peggie’s brine-soaked deck and sprawled inelegantly. He hurt all over and the wind was knocked from his lungs. Before he could recover, Hallekk had jerked him to his feet.
“Are ye all right then, Juhg?” the pirate captain asked anxiously.
Juhg tried to answer but couldn’t. He didn’t have his wind back.
Hallekk beat him vigorously on the back, nearly knocking him to his knees. “Stop. Please.”
Grinning mightily, Hallekk stepped back. “He’s all right, Craugh. Just some’at shook up.”
Juhg nodded, hoping he would be left alone.
“By the Old Ones,” Hallekk said, chucking Juhg under the chin, “ye are a brave one, aren’t ye?”
Just then, One-Eyed Peggie hit the bottom of the wave trough. Brine splashed over her, drenching her deck and everyone one on her.
“Gotta see if I can save this ship,” Hallekk muttered. “Thanks fer savin’ me life.” Then he was gone in a whirlwind of bluster and orders, marching across the heaving deck.
Juhg started working on the rope around his ankle, certain that the leg had stretched dramatically and he would walk lopsided the rest of his days.
Craugh snapped his fingers.
Like a live thing, the rope untangled itself and slid away from Juhg. He looked up at the wizard, knowing Craugh was surely about to toadify him.
“You,” the wizard said imperiously, looking down his blade of a nose, “have a job to do. You have no business being brave.”
Juhg’s anger flamed to the forefront. As many times as he’d seen Craugh put his life on the line for the Grandmagister, he couldn’t believe the wizard would have the audacity to chastise him for saving Hallekk’s life. He tried to stand, intending to take umbrage for all the mean things Craugh had said and done lately, and the way he had basically ignored him the last month while they were aboard the pirate ship, but his leg wouldn’t hold his weight. It buckled beneath him and dropped him to the deck.
Craugh turned away from Juhg, obviously dismissing him as he searched the sea.
One-Eyed Peggie fought the wind and the sea. Her sails were a shambles, several of them flopping free at the end of broken rigging or unsupported by snapped ’yards. Hallekk ordered men into the rigging to deal with the damage.
“Get up there with ye
!” Hallekk bawled through his cupped hands as he walked beneath the sails. “Get that canvas furled some’at! We can’t give Peggie her head in this here wind unless she’s evened out!”
Several of the dwarven pirates climbed the rigging, furling sails with difficulty. Handling the amount of damage the ship had been dealt even in calm winds would have proven a daunting task. As things stood now, managing the canvas was almost impossible. Still, they were dwarves and not used to giving up or backing away from a challenge, and they would surely die if they lost the ship, so they fought the sails.
“Lean her out!” Hallekk ordered. He stomped beneath the three masts, calling out individual orders.
Memory of the dwarven pirates falling from the ship wouldn’t leave Juhg’s mind. He grabbed the rope that had been wrapped around his ankle and pulled it into a coil while he raced for the railing. There was a chance one of the three dwarves might yet live.
“Apprentice,” Craugh yelled from the forward deck, addressing Juhg as he always did. From the rank of novice and even when he’d earned the position of First Level Librarian, the wizard had insisted on calling him by that title. Out of all the dwellers that the Grandmagister had trained as Librarians over the years, Juhg was the only one that Craugh had addressed in such a manner. If the wizard’s tone hadn’t been usually disparaging, or if he’d used the title during times of praise instead of remonstration, it might have sounded good.
Juhg hesitated just a moment. The weight of the rope was on his arm. He wondered if the wizard would simply have the rope truss him to the nearest railing.
“I would not have you throw your life away after I worked so hard to safeguard it,” Craugh warned with a glare. “I would be most displeased.”
Juhg spared the wizard only a glance. “Thank you for your concern, but we lost others overboard. There may still be a chance to save them.” He peered into the thrashing sea.
“They’re gone, Apprentice. Lost to us.”
Anger and sorrow warred within Juhg. He hated the way Craugh seemed so able to accept the loss of the dwarves. However, Craugh was always that way. The only time Juhg had seen the wizard get emotional over anyone, it had been over the Grandmagister.
Stubbornly, Juhg kept his attention on the sea. If he saw one of the pirates who’d fallen overboard, he intended to attempt a rescue. But the bearded hoar-worm remained at large also. His heart thundered in his chest and the rope burn around his ankle throbbed with it. He was also tired of following Craugh’s instructions blindly.
Hallekk continued bellowing orders, bringing discipline back to the fearful crew. Critter, for all that everyone despised the rhowdor, performed admirably, calling out commands as well.
The ship lurched again, once more struck by its attacker. Before the crew could recover, the monster raised its broad head from the depths. The prow pointed right at the bearded hoar-worm. Malignant intelligence gleamed in the creature’s black eyes. The massive jaws opened and sea froth poured forth. It towered twenty feet above the main mast.
One-Eyed Peggie slammed into the creature, shuddering, then sliding past, gliding along the slick scales. The bearded hoar-worm lunged forward, swooping toward the dwarves clinging in the rigging. Before it could close its terrible jaws, Craugh stepped forward and raised a hand.
Green lightning gathered around the wizard’s hand. Harsh, sibilant words cracked over the low growl of the wind.
The bearded hoar-worm’s attack halted a few feet distant from the dwarves, who had panicked and dropped from the rigging. An invisible wall held the monster back as it lashed out again and again. Then it lunged forward again, attacking from the side and striking Craugh.
Propelled by the creature’s immense strength, the wizard vanished over the ship’s side. Juhg couldn’t believe what he’d seen.
“Attack!” Hallekk bellowed. “Attack this cursed thing!”
The pirates massed with weapons, drawing cutlasses and battle-axes. Juhg drew his knife, though he knew it would hardly make a dent in the monster.
When the bearded hoar-worm launched itself again, the pirates scattered. But this time they also struck back, swinging their weapons with all the might they could muster. Unfortunately, the weapons had little or no effect against the rigid scales that plated the monster.
Attacking yet again, the creature seized a dwarf in his mouth and bit him in two. As it swung its great head about, the monster struck the mainmast and snapped it in half only a few feet from the deck. Shorn of its support, the mast fell to the starboard side. Two pirates went down under the rigging and sails, and One-Eyed Peggie tilted dangerously.
Juhg took a tighter grip on his knife, but he knew it was useless. We’re going to die. Either the monster will kill us or destroy the ship and we’ll perish in the water. Even if we survive that, we’ll be helpless in these waters, and we won’t find any friends here.
Still, even as he resigned himself to his fate, Juhg’s main concern was for the Grandmagister. Since he was taken from his own family by the goblinkin slavers, Juhg had never really been close to anyone. Until the Grandmagister had taken him in, cared for him, and taught him everything he knew. Now he was going to die and there would be no one to rescue the Grandmagister from the hands of the goblinkin.
Even faced with an opponent they could not vanquish, the pirates girded themselves for battle. Juhg ran to join their ranks. There was no other place for him.
“ENOUGH!” Craugh’s voice split the howling wind.
Completely surprised, thinking that if the wizard wasn’t dead they had surely left him behind because One-Eyed Peggie still ran before the wind, Juhg turned toward the starboard side. Even the monster gave pause.
Amazingly, Craugh rose on a swell of ocean that acted independently of the swirling sea. Wild green fire tinted the water, glowing and shifting within it like coals on a brazier.
Drenched by the sea, the wizard stood wide-legged on the tide. He’d lost his hat and his gray hair and beard hung in matted clumps. With the cloak wet and sticking to him, he looked like a drenched cat, somehow shorn of its size. If he hadn’t been riding the sea, obviously in control of at least that part of it, he would have looked like an old man about to meet his doom.
But Juhg knew the wizard, and knew what Craugh was capable of. The air popped and cracked with the power the wizard called to him and gathered.
“By the Old Ones,” Craugh roared, “this ship and these people are under my protection! My protection! I am Craugh! You know me! And I will not allow this!”
Incredibly, the bearded hoar-worm paused. Then it laughed, throwing its head back and howling with mirth like a madman. The whole time, the monster kept pace with the pirate ship just as the wizard and the magicked wave did. When it finished laughing, the creature looked at the wizard and cocked its head to one side.
“Do not forget your place, Craugh. O mighty wizard.” The monster’s voice came out thunderous and insulting and hoarse, like the watery wind whipped through a tidal cave. “These petty beings are forfeit. They are mine. Because I wish it so.”
“No,” the wizard returned. “I will not allow it.”
The huge face scowled. “You cannot stop me.”
“I can,” Craugh declared forcefully. “And I will.”
“You and the others put me and my kind to sleep at the bottom of the ocean for years,” the monster accused.
“You worked at cross purposes to us.”
Juhg listened to the exchange. Little had been written about the bearded hoar-worms. Most of what he had read in the Vault of All Known Knowledge had been speculation and myth. But to learn that Craugh had known them, had interacted with them—that one of them actually knew Craugh!—was astounding. So much of the wizard’s long life was unknown. Even the Grandmagister talked little of Craugh’s background.
“You are no friend of mine,” the monster said.
“I never was,” Craugh agreed. “Who awakened you, Methoss?”
The monster laughed again.
“So inquisitive. All these years, Craugh, and you have not changed.” The big eyes blinked. “Except, I see, to finally get old and frail.”
Craugh glowered at the creature and lifted his nose ever so little. “Believing that would be a mistake on your part. You should have left as soon as you recognized me.”
“Why? You, even with those others of the Round, could not kill us. You only succeeded in enchanting us.”
“That was a long time ago,” Craugh warned. “I have learned things since those days that I did not know then.”
“I do not fear you, Craugh.”
The wizard stood straight and tall, a reed that would not bend in the howling wind. “Then you will surely die.”
Juhg didn’t know if Craugh was bluffing or not. Craugh was powerful. Juhg had seen the wizard do amazing things over the years. Turning annoying people into toads was a hobby, nothing more. A parlor trick, Craugh claimed, though his victims lived out long, sad lives filled with flies.
But the creature that swam in the sea before him? Juhg had never seen Craugh face anything like that.
“Your time is over, Craugh,” the bearded hoar-worm snarled. “You are not as good a man as you would have yourself to believe. You still battle the darkness that is within you.”
“Perhaps. But I win. And every day I find more reasons to fight against it.”
“You should have sided with us when you were given the chance.”
“I would rather die.”
“Then you shall.” Without any preliminary flicker of movement to betray its intent, the monster popped its head forward and gulped Craugh down whole.
One moment the wizard stood there on the small shelf of water he’d controlled, and the next he was gone.
The bearded hoar-worm laughed uproariously, as if at the best joke that it had ever heard. Then it turned its attention back to the pirate crew. “Now, where was I?” It smiled. “Oh yes. Now that you’ve lost your would-be defender, you should be absolutely filled with fear and—aaaccckkk!”
Aaaccckkk? That didn’t sound like part of a gloating speech to Juhg. And the monster was surely in a position to gloat.