by Shawn Keys
Ajax ignored the farther off glints of steel as Faarlinashin’s fleet sent death winging toward them. He was back on the stern ballista deck, and his focus was totally on the Ocean’s Rapier. He was the first in range and on bearing. He sighted on Rasharann’s ship and sent his sparking bolt right into the base of the ship’s main mast. The lightning power hammered through the deck, weakening the massive post which was already straining from the heavy sails set above, making the whole structure creak and bend horribly.
Krizzilani had taken control of the weapon on the port-side main deck. She pointed low and unleashed a shot just above the Ocean’s Rapier’s water line. Callistia had planned this one to explode outward rather than penetrate. Violent force smashed outward, buckling planks and gouging a huge hole in the side of the ship. Sea water poured in, rushing to claim whatever lives it could find.
Callistia had ensorcelled the bolts long ago. Her personal magical reservoir was long-since refreshed. Standing at the rail, she didn’t need her own weapon. With stabbing fingers, she raked the decks of the nearby ships, targeting any ballista crew that looked ready to fire. She couldn’t get them all, but every group she scattered with a slash of electrical power was one more chance they would come through alive. Helleanna stood behind her, ready to haul her out of the way if she saw an arrow or other piece of magic home in on the sun elf princess as the source of the destructive rampage.
Jyliansa was on the forward platform, and had turned the bow ballista as hard to the side as possible. Her grin was positively vicious as she caught Rasharann in her sights. “You wanted me? Not in this life, you pond-scum!” With the fierce joy of revenge, she pulled the trigger. The wire cracked forward, and the massive bolt lashed across the space between their two ships.
Her aim was perfect. It speared through Rasharann’s chest, then the gendarme behind him, and flung them backward as a pair to be pinned against the forward ballista. The lightning magic activated on impact. Rasharann managed one last choked scream before the sizzling energy ripped both of them apart and detonated the wooden siege engine into a million pieces.
The Ocean’s Rapier limped away, already foundering as it took on water.
That was the victory.
But they didn’t escape unscathed.
The Lyvarress fleet had unleashed its own volley. Not all ten ships had clean shots. Many were confused. They had been ordered to harry the Wavesword, surround them as the Commodore boarded and took back what was his. Many had been scattered or killed by the violence of Callistia lightning magic. But as they saw the flag ship get ripped apart, the other ships raced to unleash their anger. The strikes were scattered, not a unified wave, but they were still magically-enhanced daggers of death that blasted into the Wavesword’s sides.
The Wavesword shook and swayed drunkenly under the impacts. Half the after-cabins exploded into a fireball. One blast caved in a large part of the second deck’s central hold, and the main deck buckled above it. Planks bowed and twisted. Helleanna and Callistia jumped for safety but couldn’t clear the area that collapsed. They slid on broken timbers into the smoking darkness below.
Then the Tyvanthelam volley rained down on them.
Ajax and his crew survived because the attack didn’t fall on them alone. Unable to see their target, the Tyvanthelam fleet had fired indiscriminately. Thunderous booms echoed over the sea as elemental impacts started to shred ships apart.
But Wavesword wasn’t totally spared. A water-based hammer cudgeled their bow. Jyliansa leaped clear as the entire bow launch platform was flattened. Ajax saw her cut the ocean waves in a crisp dive, and could only hope she swam well clear. Another weapon used air magic to accelerate to hypersonic levels. The air cracked behind it and sent a deafening sonic blast-wave which blew them all off their feet. Krizzilani dove along the ruptured main deck, scuttling under the cover of a metal deck fitting before she was crushed by a collapsing support beam. Then, a lightning blast hit them. It was only half as powerful as the ones Callistia could conjure, but the scorching power was enough to slash to the heart of their main mast. It groaned loudly, then split with a crack nearly as loud as the sonic blast. Half-attached, the huge wooden pole careened sideways. The crow’s nest splashed into the sea along with most of their sails. Wavesword tipped precipitously to starboard, the deck heaving into a tilt that threatened to throw Ajax into the ocean.
Ajax braced himself against a deck fitting before he was pitched over the rail. He swallowed his fear of being lost at sea. That fate was perilously close. For all he knew, more of that deadly rain was falling toward them even now, ready to carve the last beating heart from the ship and send them all to the deep.
His hand clutched to the thick braid in his hair. “Quala, hear me! We are lost. I call on you. End this before they end us. Give me a miracle, brave spirit!” He reached out with more than words. He reached out with more than his mind. He used every tool he had. His emotions. His soul. Whatever he could use to let the tiny spirit inside the artifact understand his desperation.
From within his braid, the lantern artifact glowed with a piercing white light. The brilliance of it rose fast, quickly eclipsing the brightness of the sun. Even with it behind his head, Ajax had to shut his eyes tight or risk having them burned out of their sockets.
Time stopped.
Reality bent.
A pulse of iridescent, rainbow magic rippled outward in a massive ring.
Wherever the magic touched, sailors screamed as their bodies were disintegrated and rendered into nothing. Ships were broken apart like they were caught in a blizzard of razors. The sawdust dissolved into mist, then blew away into nothing. The ocean churned as the waters frothed into foam, exploding into spinning cyclones that only slowly faded into nothing as the supernatural wind faded as quickly as it had come.
Slowly, the radiance of Quala faded to nothing.
Quiet reigned for a heartbeat or two.
Then, Wavesword’s main mast snapped clean off and plunged into the dark water. The ship lurched back to port, rocking wildly until it finally settled upright.
Quiet once more.
All around them, there was nothing. Not even debris. Eighteen ships and the thousands of sailors aboard them were simply gone. A faint wind brushed over the scene, clearing away a haze of smoke that clung to the area. But no more smoke arose; all of the fires had been snuffed out on Wavesword.
Ajax crawled to the nearest railing and heaved himself back to his feet. He coughed away the phlegm in his throat and spat on the deck. Wiping at the grime and soot on his face, he did his best to make sense of what had happened.
Coughing once more, he called out, “Are you there, lasses? Are you whole?” Worry bordering on panic crept into his tone. If any of them had died…
A plank fell away as a dark hand tunneled out from under a pile of debris. Krizzilani replied with a loud groan, “More or less.” She crawled loose, shaking off the splinters clinging to her.
Ajax left the proud dark elf to recover. He would help her if needed, but she would resent him prying her out when she could manage it herself. Instead, he clambered down the other ladder, peering into the hold below through the warped and jagged holes in the deck. “Callistia! Helleanna! Can you hear me?”
For too long, there was silence. Then, Helleanna’s weak voice echoed up from below, “Callistia is unconscious. Not sure what’s wrong. But she’s alive.”
Fear clouded Ajax’s heart. “I’ll be right down. We’ll get her into the sun.” Being connected to her blood-element could only help. He also wasn’t sure if Helleanna was hurt. The maid would ignore a lot of pain to ensure her mistress got help first.
Krizzilani was picking her way along the far side of the deck. “There’s a collapsed section here. If it’s stable, could make a good ramp.” With a dexterity far beyond anything human, she skipped onto the slanted planks and slid down into the dark.
Ajax climbed over the clutter until he was just above where Callistia and Helleanna had
disappeared. Deciding his strength was in his strength, he grasped hold of the edge and hung down into the musky, damp interior. Letting go, he landed heavily. He wobbled on another collapsed section that led further into the bilge deck. He gave an impressed whistle. The damage had struck deeper than he thought. They were lucky the blow hadn’t jutted through the bottom of the ship.
Krizzilani summoned his attention, “Over here.” She was kneeling over the other two women. It was dark in the hold, but bright as daylight to dark elf. “Callistia is unconscious, and Helleanna has quite a few bad cuts. We need to get them out of this stink, cleaned and wrapped.”
Ajax nodded. He knew the ravages that infection could cause even days after a battle. “I have them.” His arms curled under both of them. Unlike the last time he had carried the elfish pair together, this time he took great care, folding them into his powerful arms and cradling them against his chest.
Helleanna smiled up at him, though pain clung to her face. “Never thought I’d be seeing you again.”
Ajax smiled back. “We’re not out of the woods yet. But we’re safe for now. Krizzilani, can you see if the forward ladder is clear? The after house is all but wrecked.”
With the dark elf scouting and propping a few extra boards and stints into place to shore up the stairs to handle Ajax’s weight, they were able to get the two injured women out onto the open deck. Krizzilani darted to the after castle, slipping through the shattered cabins until she located a few medical supplies. It was mostly bandages and some antiseptic ointment in a tin, but that was enough to stop the worst of it.
The biggest concern was Callistia being unconscious. Ajax checked her over and found nothing but a large bruise on one of her cheeks and around the side of her face. He’d seen worse on men crawling out of a bar-brawl, but that didn’t mean anything.
Gritting his teeth, he whispered again into the back of his mind. “Quala. Can you sense her? Please let me know she’ll be alright.”
The reaction he got was far stronger. An intense glow, though nowhere near as powerful as the last, burst from within his braid and shone down on them all. Injuries were healed and pain receded.
Callistia’s eyes snapped open with a sudden gasp. Helleanna crowed with delight and enveloped her in a hug.
Nearby, the ocean erupted in a small geyser. Jyliansa soared through the air and landed with her typical grace on a patch of solid deck. Flipping her wet hair back, she looked around in confusion. “What happened? When I was thrown clear, I feared the worse! But the sharks gathering for a battle feast have all wandered off. They’re more confused than I am.”
Jyliansa ventured over to hug the other two, while Krizzilani kept her typical, public solitude. But she still exchanged warm looks with the others, beyond glad to see them all whole.
Then, their eyes went to Ajax.
He didn’t make them ask. “It was Quala… sorry, that’s my name for the creation elemental. She like it well enough.”
Callistia was a little woozy. Her injuries were healed, but the sudden transition back to consciousness had left her a little disoriented. The idea of naming an elemental seemed to amuse her. “I thought you said her mental images weren’t clear.”
A small flush of embarrassment threatened to warm even the knight’s stoic face. “At times, the message comes through. When I named her, it felt like she hugged me.”
Sharing his humor with a smile, Helleanna offered, “Well, please pass on our thanks. Without her intervention, we’d all be dead. That… that was her, wasn’t it?” It was the only thing that made sense. None of them had that sort of power. None of them had even heard of an elf or man or any other race capable of such magic.
Ajax reached back and cradled the braid of his hair, along with the artifact within. It wasn’t the first time he wished he could give the troubled spirit a more physical sort of hug. “Indeed, it was.” He extended his senses carefully, and was overjoyed to feel Quala’s life-spark still shining inside the artifact. He exhaled slowly, trying to ease all his lingering fear for the creature. The surge of magic could have killed her. Healing them afterward had been another risk.
Jyliansa shook herself again, wringing water from her clothes. Normally when she went swimming, she wore far less to avoid being so sodden on return. Giving up, she stripped off the soaked dress. “If only she had done so sooner.”
Admittedly distracted with the sea elf’s lithe shape emerging, Ajax tried to help them understand, “The choice wasn’t hers. It was mine.”
Krizzilani sat on her haunches, her own eyes following every move Jyliansa made.
The sea elf realized she was the focus of their attention. She nibbled her lip in a fetching blend of shyness and arousal, very similar to the one she had flashed at Ajax when he had first opened that door to find her outlined by Helleanna and Krizzilani.
The dark elf grew a lush smile. “I’m going to celebrate on you later.”
Helleanna quirked an eyebrow. “You mean with her?”
Krizzilani fired the moon elf an intense look. “No. And if you don’t know the difference, I can show you afterward.”
A blush did rise on the maid’s cheeks.
Callistia softly cleared her throat, “Shall we concentrate first on understanding what happened? And how to stay alive to reach land?” Her tone wasn’t harsh, but carefully hid her amusement at the lightly erotic interplay. After surviving the brush with death, she wasn’t immune to the strange need to celebrate being alive. But she also understood being the responsible one. Her focus went back to Ajax. “You said it was your choice. Why’d you wait so long?” There was no accusation in her tone, only wondering.
The knight gave a heavy sigh. “As long as even the smallest hope remained, we had to try. Because when I made my wish, she would do everything she could to fulfill it. If that burned her out completely, then she would have died by my word alone. Our quest to return her home would have failed before it ever began.”
Krizzilani caught the way he put that. “She has no control over her own energy?”
Ajax searched for the words. “She crafts the magic, but she has no choice but to do all she can to fulfill my wish.”
“Your wish?”
He nodded. “This is wish magic. You have certainly heard stories of genies trapped in small objects? Those stories are describing the rare moments when elementals such as Quala have been snared. The lantern artifact contains her, but it also compels her to fulfill my wishes. Those stories are always made lighter to amuse children. The genie limits the one making the wishes, often giving them only three. So poetic, as if it is the whimsical choice of the spirit. But in truth, the elementals don’t know. Any wish might be the last. If it is large enough, a single wish might burn up the elemental’s entire reservoir of power.”
Callistia narrowed her eyes. “But you said the Kings couldn’t force out her magic. How can you?”
“The one who originally trapped the elemental would have forged a connection instantly. But once the artifact was passed on, the connection had to re-forged. It is not about willpower. Maybe some epically strong wizard could demand a new link. Or maybe there is a spell that could do the same. But if she senses your heart and believes in you, then she will open herself.”
Callistia’s face lightened into a smile. “As she opened to you.” She rose and stepped into his arms, kissing him softly. “As we all did.” She understood. “And once opened, the connection can’t be silenced. She has to obey your wishes.”
Ajax nodded. “I swore I would never do it. Not unless I needed to. I gave her my oath.”
Jyliansa said softly, “We have gained time. But they will keep coming. Our troubles have not changed. We need to find this gateway before they find us again.”
Krizzilani whispered, “Perhaps we must ask for one more wish, then.”
Helleanna was quick to say, “Were you not listening? The poor spirit could be extinguished!”
The dark elf didn’t shy away. “I am committed
to this purpose, as much as any of you. Call me merciless. Such is my birthright, is it not? We are willing to sacrifice ourselves for her. She deserves her freedom. You will hear no argument from me. But if we could die to see her free, then is it so wrong to ask her to risk the same for us? For herself?”
Jyliansa cautioned, “We cannot know how much light she has left.”
“True. We dare not ask for another grand display of magic. There is no need to whisk us from this ship to the ends of the earth. But can we not ask for a guiding star to follow?”
Ajax heard the wisdom in their words. “My heart is heavy to consider it. You speak sense. Yet the possible cost is grave.” He looked around the circle. “Share your thoughts with me. Be my council in this. Quala will give of herself to the end. She will not question. But is this right?”
A silence as deep as the one after the battle descended as they weighed their hearts and minds.
Jyliansa spoke first. “We’ll be fortunate to see the end of the day without this hulk sinking beneath us. We cannot afford to wander. Quala will not see home again from the bottom of the ocean.”
Helleanna looked to Callistia, but the princess shook her head. “Your voice first, my love. So he knows it is not influenced by me.”
The maid laid a gentle hand on her mistress’s leg, then turned to Ajax. “There is no sense trying to balance these scales. How often have we already risked ourselves for her? You said she might have blinked out of existence by ending this battle. How do we measure those costs? We don’t. We do what is needed. We give away no more than necessary. Ask for a guide. Then we will carry her the rest of the way.”
Callistia tilted her head to look up into Ajax’s eyes. “We all give up something when we want to be free. It seems this spirit has given much already. Hurting a slave while she still wears her chains seems like evil. But nothing is ever simple.”