Dungeon Master 4

by Eric Vall

  I watched the reflection of the moon undulate across the water then glanced over at Annalise as she looked out over the water, too. Her expression was pensive and her usually bright eyes downcast as she thought. I was quiet too as I thought over what she told me. Each of them came from different backgrounds, but I never knew their meetings were so different from each other. Morrigan’s saddened me especially.

  I already knew that the High Elf had been kicked out of not only the Holy Band of Mages but also from the High Elven society because of her love for dark magic, but I hadn’t realized the exact circumstances of her fall from grace. Morrigan must have been born into luxury, a pure-blooded elf among her people, and when she was cast out, she had no way to provide for herself.

  We sat in silence for a time, and then there was a strange sound from below. Annalise and I both looked down, and the water below our feet looked different, choppier, and the waves were more angled in the wake of our ship. Slowly, I saw what was happening. The river was freezing and icing over, and our ship was breaking through it. As our ship sailed closer to Machstein, the slower it moved while breaking the ice. The high queen and I climbed down from the crow’s nest and peered over the side of the ship. The ice was growing thicker by the minute and moved away in broken chunks.

  “How long will it take to get to Machstein?” I asked the swordswoman as we made our way back to bed.

  “We should reach the port of Eifersucht by late afternoon,” she whispered as I held open the bedroom door for her,

  “That long? To get to the middle of a river?” I asked incredulously as I closed the door behind me, and she nodded as she bent down to take off her boots.

  “If it weren’t for the ice, it would only take a half a day to get there,” she murmured over to me as she crawled back in bed beside Carmedy. “Tomorrow, we should hit the thickest ice, and it’ll slow us down to a crawl.”

  I crawled in between all of them, and Annalise reached out over Carmedy’s cuddled form and clasped my hand. Her slender fingers still held a chill in them, but they slowly warmed from my touch. Over Carmedy’s black hair, the high queen smiled at me softly as her eyelids fluttered sleepily, then she lowered her head to the pillow and drifted off. I pushed away the building excitement to reach the island of Machstein and the two dungeons there and willed myself to rest. I wished all of my minions peaceful sleep as I too closed my eyes.

  Chapter Eight

  The next morning was the slowest I had experienced in a long time. Once I got up and dressed, I headed down to the mess hall and ate a small breakfast before going up on the deck. Annalise was correct when she said the ice was thick, and I watched it for a long time as our ship slowly broke and cracked the surface. I could tell the ice was at least three feet deep from the huge chunks that floated away in our wake. It was as equally mesmerizing as it was boring. I let my minions sleep for most of the morning since there wasn’t much to do on the ship besides sit around and play craits in our room below deck where it was slightly warmer.

  By midafternoon, a thick fog had settled in, and an eerie feeling blanketed the deck of the ship. I sat on a stray barrel and observed as the crew and captain spoke to each other in hurried whispers, their faces tense with fear and concern. I tilted my head to them and listened to their heart rates, each man’s was elevated, especially the captain's. Strange. At first, he had seemed to be a level-headed and relaxed man, but now, as he glanced over his shoulder and took suspicious peeks at me, I knew there must be something very wrong either with the ship or in the water.

  I was about to walk over and confront him when Morrigan and Rana came up on deck, and both astute women stopped in their tracks. Rana’s black-tipped ears twitched, and one fell flat against her head as the other rotated around like the ears of hounds on the hunt for rabbits. Fea and Macha began to caw, and it only added to the already unnerving feeling hanging in the foggy air. Morrigan’s pale hand reached up and attempted to calm them, but her eyes widened as they hopped off her shoulders to avoid her hand and shriek loudly.

  I stood and quickly walked over to the two of my women. Rana looked up into my face with apprehension, and Morrigan grabbed onto my forearm with feverish strength. I wrapped my arms around both of them and brought them to my chest as a tremor ran through the deck below our feet.

  “What is it?” I asked both of them.

  Rana shook her head, her eyes unsure, and glanced over at Morrigan, whose eyes were wholly black as she searched around us.

  “Do you hear that?” the fox questioned as both of her ears pressed hard against her head. Her eyes shot around the deck and searched for the source of the sound Morrigan and I couldn’t hear.

  “What are you talking about?” the High Elf asked, but Rana didn’t answer and only clapped both paws over her ears as she winced in pain. I grabbed onto her shoulder to steady her, and she latched onto me, her teeth gritted in pain.

  I glanced towards the stairs that led down into the hull of the ship just as Carmedy stumbled up them, her black paws held tightly over her ears and a pained expression etched on her face much like Rana’s. Annalise followed after the cat as she stumbled, and the swordswoman had to grab onto her a few times to keep her upright and on her feet.

  “What’s wrong with them?” Morrigan asked me as she reached out for Rana, but the fox-woman jerked away in pain. Carmedy collapsed to the wooden planks of the ship, and her pitch-black ears twitched and shook as she attempted to cover them with her paws.

  “I don’t know,” I growled between my teeth as I brought the red-haired fox closer to my chest, and I could see tears blooming in her bright blue eyes. I made eye contact with the captain, and his eyes widened as he scuttled away. I pushed Rana’s huddled form to Morrigan, and the High Elf took the pained woman into her slender arms. “Take care of her, I’ll be right back.”

  My pale minion nodded and held Rana rightly to her chest as I moved away, up the steps of the helm, and followed after the captain like a hungry predator. He attempted to scurry away, but I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and lifted him off his feet. The smaller man yelped, and his stubby legs swung out underneath him as I held him aloft. His face was unshaven and his cheeks tanned from the sun, but at this moment, all color faded from his face as I stared at him gravely.

  “Are you going to explain to us what’s going on?” I asked him as I tilted my head and examined his face. “You and your crew have been acting strange all morning. Care to fill us in on what’s going on, and why my companions are acting that way?”

  “It’s nothing, sir, just a bit of an unexpected occurrence. Ya know, turning tides and dense fogs, everything makes women act a little crazy,” he assured me as he shrugged his shoulders.

  I leaned in closer and squinted my eyes at him. “Turning tides and dense fogs making my women crazy? That’s an unacceptable excuse in any situation, but even more preposterous as it is two of my women. It’s an insult to me and even more of an insult to my minions. I don’t take kindly to that. See their ears? They can hear things that you and the others can’t, but you’re still acting strangely. You’re going to tell me what’s going on and what’s hurting my minions right this instant.”

  “And what if I don’t?” the captain asked, incensed. His double chin wobbled as he looked me up and down. I raised my eyebrows. This man dared to speak to me in such a way, and I was still holding him up in the air. Was it ballsy or just plain stupid?

  “So far, I’d say this strange sound is coming from the water, and from my women’s reactions, it’s something in the water,” I intoned darkly. “Now, you can tell me what’s going on, and you can stay on this ship safe and sound, or you could push that bullshit you were trying to feed me earlier, and you can go over the side with whatever’s down there waiting for us. So, what’s it going to be?”

  I walked over to the edge of the helm, picked the captain up higher, and held him out over the freezing, frothing water below. He struggled against me and reached out to grapple onto me
. I only chuckled deep in my throat as I watched the fear bloom in his pale green eyes. His bony face grew red with strain, and his nails dug into the flesh of my wrist, but my iron grip was unflinching. I sighed loudly, pursed my lips, and raised my eyebrows at him as I waited for his explanation.

  When he didn’t answer, I let go. As he dropped from my grip, the scream that exploded from his lips was feminine, and I chuckled to myself as I grabbed him nonchalantly by the lapels before he fell no more than a foot. He was breathing hard as he stared up into my face, and I inclined my head to him to prompt his answer … and then something in the water caught my attention.

  I moved the captain out of my view to see a translucent head bob on the surface of the water, long white hair streaming around the head in rivulets as I stared in wonder. Icy blue eyes stared back at me, and I could tell it was a woman, but when our eyes connected, she disappeared into the depths, and another unseen assault wracked through Carmedy and Rana though the rest of us couldn’t hear it.

  “What are they? Mermaids? Harpies? Huh?” I asked the captain as I jerked him around in the air. His limp legs clacked against the metal side of the ship, and he whimpered like a small child.

  He stammered for words but finally spit it out as three heads appeared from the water below and glared up at the side of the enormous metal ship.

  “Rusalka,” he gasped out, his breath shaky as his hands reached out and clamped onto the wooden handrailing. “Dead women, women who’ve been murdered. If you bring me aboard, I can tell you more.”

  “How can I help my minions?” I asked angrily as I pointed down towards Rana and Carmedy’s struggling forms.

  “Please, bring me on board, if we’re too loud they’ll come up and … ” the captain stuttered and glanced down at the now five heads as they bobbed and weaved on the water’s surface. One mouth opened, and nothing came out that I could hear, but Carmedy screamed shrilly and her small feline body twisted in agony.

  “What will they do? Tell me now,” I commanded loudly, and the eyes of the Rusalka widened. Then all five of their mouths opened, and Rana joined in with Carmedy’s howling.

  “They’ll kill us and eat our flesh!” he screamed as the irises of his eyes quaked with fear.

  With the truth told, I hauled him over the edge and tossed him to the wooden planks. He scrambled away from the handrailing and clung to the podium of the ship’s wheel. Sweat dripped down his face as he panted, and he stared at the hand railing as if the Rusalka would climb up over the side at any second.

  “Now tell me, you bastard, how do I help my women? Can’t you see they’re in pain?” I snarled down at him as I pointed down at Carmedy and Rana. Morrigan and Annalise attempted to comfort them by placing their hands over the fox and cat’s ears to stifle the horrible warbling screams.

  “It’ll be more painful for them, but we need to get them below deck,” he muttered in a shaky voice, his eyes trained behind me. “Our medic should have some cotton, it may not take away the pain, but if you put it in their ears, it should lessen the pain. If the Rusalka can’t see us, then they will go away eventually. We’re nearly to the shore, maybe about an hour. They tend to stay away from densely populated places, so we’ll lose them once we near Eifersucht.”

  I didn’t acknowledge his words. Instead, I turned on my heel, stomped down the stairs, grabbed Carmedy and Rana up as gently as I could, and pulled all of them below deck. The sounds of my women’s screams loudened in the smaller space, and I instructed Annalise to find the medic and get the cotton the captain told me about. The swordswoman hurried away as the captain and all other crew who had been on deck scurried down the stairs, closed the hatch above their heads, and sealed it tightly.

  The high queen came back a few minutes later, her hands full of pure white cotton. She and the elf helped my other two minions place the tightly balled cotton in their ears, and their cries quieted. I glanced over at the captain, and in his hands, he clutched a blue and gold beaded necklace, a crudely cut rune dangling from the end. He prayed in a foreign language under his breath as he stared up at the hatch. I grabbed him by the shoulder and slammed him against the far wall, and he yelped in fear as he held the wooden beads close to his chest, his lips still moving as they recited the lines he knew by heart.

  “Explain yourself,” I growled between my teeth, and he nodded limply, his eyes wide and terrified of not only me but the creatures waiting outside.

  “As I said, the Rusalka are dead women,” he explained in a shaking voice. “They haunt the waters of the Riese. They climb onto ships and tear the crew limb from limb then consume what’s left of the bodies.” The crew members huddled to my left nodded in agreement.

  “They’re spirits? Where do they come from?” Morrigan asked as she pressed the cotton deep into Carmedy’s right ear.

  “They only started appearing about ten years ago,” the captain answered as some bit of rationality pierced his terror. “We started finding dead bodies partially frozen in the ice to the east of Machstein. We believe the current carries them closer to the island, but that’s not where they originate from. Us sailors believe that they come from one of the isles of Tintagal, but those are only rumors.”

  My high queen’s head lifted, and her eyes narrowed on our captain as he spoke. Her eyes were glassy and steadily moved as she ran away with her thoughts. I sensed a change in her, she seemed more defensive and on edge, and I wanted to ask her what was wrong, but something thumped above our heads on the wooden planks of the deck. The crew sucked in a deep breath, and silence enveloped our group of people as four more thumps came after.

  The Rusalka had boarded our ship.

  The boards above our heads creaked and groaned with the weight of five people walking around slowly, and I watched as again, a trickle of sweat coursed down our captain’s face. His pale green eyes were wide as our invaders moved around sluggishly on the deck. I listened hard and could see Carmedy and Rana wince a few times, but they no longer screamed in pain. The Rusalka were communicating with each other in a series of clicks and high-pitched squeals, not unlike the sounds saltwater dolphins made below the surface.

  “Annalise,” I whispered, barely audible, but she turned her head to me and looked into my eyes, her face set into a hard expression as fear crept into her bones. “Have you ever heard of these Rusalka before?”

  “Yes,” she murmured back as she held Carmedy to her chest, and the cat was nearly sobbing and hid her face in the swordswoman’s coat, “but only in storybooks and fairytales from other lands. I never believed them to be real, they were just a legend.”

  “Can you tell me more about them?” I inquired, and she stepped silently over, tiptoeing in her heavy boots to stand next to me, Carmedy still glued to her side.

  “From what I’ve read, the Rusalka are women either murdered in the water or near it,” the high queen recalled in a soft whisper as we listened intently. “Not all women who are killed near or in the water turn into Rusalka, but the circumstances have to be right. In the books, it said they had to be drowned, or their throats slit over the water so their blood became one with the river. Their souls do not cling to the water for long, though, they just have to live out the remainder of their human lives as a Rusalka because their time was cut short. It’s said that if their deaths are avenged, they will leave the waterways and ascend into the next life as a newborn baby.”

  “They remain here because the water captures and holds their memories,” Morrigan whispered as she moved towards the ladder and the closed hatch. Multiple crew members placed their fingers over their mouths to signal her to quiet down, but the elven woman only glared at them in disinterest. “Water has many magical properties, whether it be used for white or black magic. Think of it as an incubator. If you place good things into it, the water will nourish it and bring it to life. If you place malicious intent into it, it will do the same, evil begets evil, and it will multiply like cancer and spread through the river and into other waterways that branch
out from its source.”

  “You’re saying if we don’t somehow appease them, they’ll never go away?” a crew member asked aggressively, but he drew back into the crowd as Morrigan’s cold gaze sliced into him,

  “They are not dogs that can be put off with a bone. Can you not see something terrible has happened to these spirits and they are exacting revenge upon hapless sailors?” she hissed as she grabbed the sailor who had spoken by the arm and hauled him towards the hatch. He squealed weakly in fear but she resumed speaking in her angered tone. “I say we sacrifice the crew to these otherwise peaceful creatures and sail on to Machstein ourselves. They have no qualms with outsiders, only those who have Tintagal blood coursing through their veins.”

  “How do you know this?” I asked as I grabbed her by the arm before she reached for the locked hatch. She swung around to face me, and her white hair flew about her shoulders as she looked deeply into my eyes.

  “They speak to me,” Morrigan indifferently stated as she turned back to the hatch. “I too have been hurt by men like they have. The High Order of Elves turned their backs on me, and the Holy Band of Mages, all of them men, tossed me out like I was nothing, discarded like trash. I understand the pain that they hold in their cold, dead hearts.”

  “Morrigan,” Carmedy whined in a loud nasally voice as she struggled to hear through the cotton. The alchemist let go of Annalise and stumbled forward with her arms outstretched. “This is wrong. You can’t take out your anger on men who have done nothing wrong. Look at Master, he’s a man, and he has shown you nothing but guidance and love. Would you sacrifice him to these creatures you don’t even know? Would you sacrifice us too? Me, Annalise, and Rana?”

  “The Rusalka have no interest in us women, they only want the men,” Morrigan said coldly as she looked into Carmedy’s emerald eyes. “As I said before, they have no interest in outsiders which includes Master, even if he is a man.”