Etheric Apocalypse

by C M Raymond et al.

  "Holy hell," Captain Syd growled. "That thing's not even hurrying, is it?"

  Abbey shuddered at the thought of how fast it must be able to travel when it really tried. "Maybe I should go back up there."

  Dustin raised an eyebrow, the concern evident in his eyes. "And do what? Poke it with your sword?"

  "You want me to throw some fireballs at it?" Olaf shouted.

  "No!" Syd and Abbey called back in unison.

  "Fine." The disappointment was apparent in the sailor's voice. Even though he'd been a physical magic user for over two years now, he'd never gotten over his initial enthusiastic delight at his powers, and he still didn't seem to understand that using fire magic on a ship built mostly of wood wasn't a great idea.

  The captain looked at Abbey. "You're of more use here. Besides, you're the first mate of this ship. No way are you leaving during a fight. You have to lead the defense." She glanced at Dustin. "But first, you two need to do what you can to make sure that thing doesn't reach us. Stormcall your asses off."

  As Captain Syd marched off to prepare the crew, Abbey closed her eyes and touched Dustin's shoulder. Even though she was still a novice at this type of magic, she was able to provide Dustin quite a boost when they combined their powers. She felt the power within her surge as Dustin called a powerful wind.

  Abbey opened her eyes and saw the creature visibly struggle now. Each flap of its massive wings carried it only half the distance they had before as it battled the magically-conjured winds. Still, it was closing the gap.

  "Okay," Dustin ground out. "Time to get tough."

  A lightning bolt lit the sky near the creature, followed closely by the roar of thunder. The flying monster deftly slithered through the air, avoiding Dustin's lightning bolts.

  "Got any more tricks up your robe, Storm Caller?" Captain Syd shouted.

  "Please. I'm just getting started." He gritted his teeth as he conjured an even more powerful attack.

  Abbey felt the power flow through her. Though Dustin was the one casting the weather, she was his anchor, helping to draw more energy from the Etheric and feed it to him so he could shape it.

  A bit east of the flying creature the wind began to swirl, and a cyclone formed above the water and moved toward the monster. A slow smile formed on Abbey's lips as the thing struggled against the force of the cyclone. It flapped its wings frantically, but the churning wind was too mighty. After a moment, the flying beast disappeared into the cyclone.

  The crew of Storm Warrior let out a collective whoop of joy, delighted at the victory against the mysterious attacker.

  Abbey slipped an arm around her husband's waist, her eyes still fixed on the cyclone. "You did it, my love."

  He turned toward her and smiled. "No. We did it. Without your power, I wouldn't have been able to create a wind powerful enough to—" He stopped when he saw the surprise in Abbey's eyes. "What is it?"

  Too shocked to speak, she nodded toward the cyclone.

  Impossibly, the flying creature emerged from the center of it. Even at this distance, Abbey could practically feel the power in the creature's wings as it broke free of the cyclone and surged toward the ship.

  Abbey's heart sank, but at the same time battle fury sprang to life inside her. It looked like this fight wasn't going to be won with storm magic after all. If they were going to defeat this thing, it would have to be with steel. Part of her was glad. While she was a novice at the ways of stormcalling, she was a master at the ways of the sword.

  "Look alive, sailors," she called as she drew her weapon.

  "Can I shoot fireballs now?" Olaf asked.

  "No!" Syd and Abbey yelled.

  The flying beast plunged out of the sky and dove toward the ship, and Abbey gritted her teeth and planted her feet, holding her sword tightly in a two-handed grip. There was no doubt this flying monstrosity had the power to tear their vessel in half, but Abbey silently vowed to give as good as she got. If the monster was out to destroy their ship, so be it, but it wouldn't fly away from this flight unscathed.

  The flying creature was almost upon them now, and Abbey stood ready.

  "Don't kill the beast before we get a chance to join the fun, Abbey," Dag, one of the other sailors, called.

  Abbey allowed a grin to cross her face. "I'm pretty sure this thing is big enough that we'll all get a shot."

  It may have been her imagination, but she was almost sure she could feel the creature's hot breath on her skin as it swooped down at them. She was in the perfect position to attack it. If it slammed into the hull, she could jump on top of it. If it went for the mast, she'd slash at its underside.

  To her surprise, it did neither. Instead, it dove toward the deck. At the last moment it pulled up, and as it began to ascend again something fell off the creature and landed on the main deck with a thud.

  Abbey raced down the causeway to the main deck to see what had landed there and reached the deck just in time to see someone stand. It was a very short, very hairy man, and he looked rather annoyed.

  Abbey's eyes flicked from his stature to his impressively unkempt hair and beard to the hammer hanging from his belt.

  "A rearick," she muttered.

  She'd never met one of their kind, but her father had told her plenty about the diminutive race. He'd dealt with a few of them during his time as a Hunter in Arcadia.

  The rearick brushed himself off. "I heard ya were an unfriendly bunch up in Holdgate, but I wasn't expectin' ta have a damn tornado thrown at me."

  The gathered soldiers looked on in slack-jawed surprise.

  Captain Syd, however, appeared unfazed. She stepped forward with a scowl on her face. "On the long list of foolish actions likely to result in a swift and painful death, boarding a Holdgate stormship without the captain's permission ranks very high."

  Abbey stepped next to her captain, her sword at the ready. "Indeed, it does. It looks like I don’t get to tangle with a flying lizard today, but I’ll settle for an ugly rearick."

  The rearick held up a hand. "’Ugly rearick?’ No need ta be so formal, lass. Ya can call me Karl." He reluctantly lifted his hammer. "As much as I'd relish a round or two against a legendary Holdgate storm sailor, I'm not at my best at the moment. All that twistin’ and divin’ Sal was doin’ ta avoid yer magic has left me a bit queasy."

  Sal. Abbey realized that was the name of the lizard creature.

  "And ta be honest," Karl continued, "the way this ship is rockin’ ain't exactly helpin’ matters. Besides, I didn't come here ta fight."

  "That so?" Abbey asked. "Why did you come here?"

  "I'm in need o’ yer help. I'm lookin’ fer a lass named Abbey. I hear tell she's aboard this very vessel."

  Not one of the crew reacted. Every sailor on the ship had Abbey's back, and they weren't about to rat her out to this oddly-speaking stranger.

  Olaf stepped forward. "Well, you heard wrong. There's no one here by that name, so you'd better get back on your flying monster and...and...fly away."

  Abbey almost rolled her eyes her friend's poor wordplay.

  Karl took a shaky step forward. "Scheisse, that's a damn shame. I've come a long way, and the Founder needs her help."

  The Founder? Abbey and Dustin exchanged a glance. Not only had the Founder brought an end to the Mad Days and founded Arcadia, but he'd also brought storm magic to Holdgate.

  "Is the Founder even still alive?" Abbey asked.

  "If he’s not, he's damn chatty fer a corpse." Karl's face looked a bit green. "What did I ever do ta Hannah ta get sent ta a stormship?"

  Abbey considered a moment. If this rearick knew the Founder, they had to hear him out. If not, it wasn't like a single rearick could take the entire crew by himself. She couldn't see the harm in telling the truth. "I'm Abbey."

  Karl smiled weakly. "I figured as much. The way ya squared off, ready ta fight Sal, sorta gave ya away. I'm glad ta meet ya. And I'm... I'm..."

  Dustin raised an eyebrow. "Are you all right, little man?"

>   Karl opened his mouth, and Abbey thought he was going to speak. Instead, he vomited all over the main deck.

  Chapter Eight

  Abbey stared down at the impressive pile of vomit in front of the rearick.

  "That's a lot of puke for such a little guy," Olaf offered.

  Karl glared up at him. "That's the last time I'll be allowin’ ya ta call me little. Ya do it again, and ya'll find out I pack a hell of a punch."

  "Ha! I'd like to see you try it," the storm sailor replied. "I'd be wiping you off the bottom of my shoe in two minutes."

  "The only thing ya'll be wipin’ is yer arse when ya shit yerself in fear after ya realize what it means ta fight a rearick."

  A few of the sailors nodded at each other, impressed. It remained to be seen whether the rearick could use that hammer at his belt, but at least he could hurl insults like a storm sailor.

  Abbey stepped forward. "Okay, as much fun as this is, I need answers. You said the Founder sent you to look for me. How is that possible? He doesn't even know I exist."

  Karl chuckled, wiping the last bit of vomit from his beard with the back of his hand. "Lass, ye'd do well not ta underestimate Ezekiel. He may be old as dirt, but he's far from senile. And he has a way o’ knowin’ things ya wouldn't think ‘e could."

  Abbey frowned. "Is that another way of saying you have no idea how he heard of me?"

  The rearick shrugged. "It's another way o’ sayin’ the task seemed a bit urgent, and I didn't stick around ta ask fer the backstory."

  "Hang on," Captain Syd interjected. "Can we talk about the flying lizard you rode in on? I've heard plenty of tales about rearicks, but I don't recall any mention of those things. Do you all have one?"

  Karl roared with laughter at that. "Are ya kiddin’? I barely have this one. He's a dragon, an’ ‘is name's Sal. The damned beast is only on loan. I understand why ya grew a bit alarmed when ya saw him, but ‘e's on the side o’ the good guys."

  "A dragon." As soon as Karl said it, Abbey remembered the fairy tales her father had told her. She should have realized what it was, but she hadn’t exactly been expecting a mythical creature to appear on the horizon.

  From the looks on faces of the storm sailors, tales of dragons weren't part of Holdgate’s culture.

  As if on cue, Sal stopped circling high overhead and dove toward the water. He disappeared under the surface for a moment and reemerged with a large fish dangling from his mouth.

  The gathered sailors murmured, their collective reaction to the creature changing from fear to awe as they discovered the dragon was on their side—at least according to the rearick.

  Karl glanced at the crowd gathered around him, then back at Abbey. "Nothin' against yer seafarin’ crew, but do ya think we could speak a bit more privately?"

  Abbey nodded. "Dustin and Syd are coming with us, though. Anything that needs to be said on this ship, you can say it in front of the captain and the Storm Caller."

  Karl raised an eyebrow at that. "Yer not the captain? I just assumed you'd be the leader since yer supposedly this big hero an’ all."

  Abbey grimaced. "I never claimed to be a big hero. Those were your words."

  "They're the Founder’s words, so I'm leanin’ toward believing them, even if ya don’t. If ya want ta bring yer captain and yer storm slinger, that's fine with me."

  Abbey led Karl to the prow, Dustin and Syd following close behind. When they reached it, Abbey turned toward the rearick. "All right, Karl. Start talking."

  Instead of speaking, he reached into the pouch on his belt. Abbey's hand instinctively went to her sword, but she refrained from drawing it. The rearick pulled out a folded slip of paper. "This is what brings me ‘ere. Words from the Founder himself."

  He passed Abbey the letter. The line at the top read, "Abbey of Holdgate, aboard the ship Storm Warrior in the stretch of sea between Algon and the Lost Isles."

  She handed the letter back to Karl. "What does this mean?"

  The rearick's face was hard. "It means things are bad, lass. Bad as it gets. My crew has been through some o’ the roughest shite yer head might imagine. We've faced things I don't even like ta think about once the sun's set, but this time the Founder tells us we won’t be enough. We need more heroes. They're spread far and wide across Irth, and my friends and I have been sent ta bring ya back."

  "So there are other letters like these? Other people searching for other heroes?"

  Karl nodded. "Aye, lass, an’ the way the old wizard talked, we're going ta need every last one o’ them."

  Abbey considered that. For a moment, she flashed back to a dream she'd had, the one where she'd been shown other heroes across Irth. A legacy of heroes. Was that what the voice in her dream had said?

  That dream had sent her and her crew on a year-long journey across the sea to fight monsters—monsters they'd never found. She'd finished that journey with the notion that maybe dreams weren't something to plan your life around.

  "So you're asking me to go with you on some adventure to help the Founder, is that it?"

  Karl grinned and looked at Dustin. "She's a quick one, ain't she?"

  Captain Syd touched her shoulder. "Don't forget about Morton. He's still on the run."

  The rearick tilted his head in surprise. "Maybe yer not takin' my meaning. The world's in danger. We need Abbey's help."

  Captain Syd glared at him. "I take yer meaning just fine. Trouble is, you're not the only one who needs her. They need her too." She nodded toward the crew. "As do the people whose villages are being burned and plundered by Storm Raiders."

  "Begging yer pardon, but this is a bit bigger than some sailor makin' trouble on the coast."

  "Tell you what." Captain Syd took a step toward the rearick. "You come with us to the next village Morton raids. We'll find a child whose father has just been killed and whose mother has just been hauled away. Trust me, such a child will not be hard to find. We'll go stand in the ashes where his house stood before the Storm Raiders burned it to the ground, and you can tell him how your mysterious mission is more important than finding the piece of shit who destroyed his life."

  The rearick met her gaze. "I mean no disrespect ta yer cause. I'd gladly join ya in huntin’ down them bastards raidin' yer villages. But from the way Ezekiel is talkin’, there might not be a whole lot of villages left if we don't take care o’ this big bad loomin' on the horizon."

  Abbey scowled at both of them. "Sorry to interrupt, but would it be all right with you if I had a say in whether I answer this little call to adventure?"

  Dustin smirked. "As if you weren't going to have your say."

  Karl met her eye. "All right, lass. Which will it be? Help a village or save yer world?"

  "Protect your own land or protect someone else's," Syd countered.

  Abbey glanced up at Sal, who was back to lazily circling above their heads. "I think there might be a way for me to do both. I take it that dragon's pretty fast?"

  Karl chuckled. "The overgrown lizard is much too fast fer my likin'. We crisscrossed this whole damn channel twenty times in the last two days looking fer yer little ship."

  "Excellent." Abbey scratched her chin, thinking. "Just one more question. Will he let me ride him?"

  Abbey soared.

  She'd flown plenty of times over the three years or so since she'd discovered her gravity manipulation magic. She'd ridden gentle breezes that had lifted her slowly skyward, giving her a view of her enemies. She'd raced through the sky on powerful gusts that carried her to enemy ships at a speed that nearly took her breath away. But she'd never soared—not like this.

  She clutched Sal as he cut through the clear blue sky, covering a distance in five minutes that would have taken their ship an hour under ideal conditions. Letting out an involuntary whoop of joy as he banked left, she felt the rush of wind against her face and closed her eyes, enjoying the exhilaration of moving faster than she ever had before.

  "Sal, I think I'm in love. But don't tell my husband."


  The dragon let out a purr that vibrated through his long body. The scales under her hand felt cool to the touch, and she liked the way they moved with his every breath. Everything that had happened over the past couple of hours—not the least of which was her finding out the goddamn Founder himself wanted her to go on a mission to save Irth—had left her mind spinning. She was doing her best to push all that away and just enjoy the experience of flying on a dragon—a creature she hadn't even known existed until today.

  She saw a speck up ahead on the water, and she knew it had to be Morton's stormship. None of the well-trafficked fishing or trading routes ran through here, and she'd heard credible reports that the Storm Raiders had been working in this area. Still, she wouldn’t attack until she was sure.

  "See that, Sal? That's where we're heading."

  She wasn't sure whether the dragon understood her actual language or if he could read her intention on some deeper level. Either way, he reacted immediately, moving them rapidly forward with a few flaps of his mighty wings.

  As they raced toward the ship, clouds began to gather around them, eliminating any doubt that the ship below had a Storm Caller. From the speed with which the weather changed, Abbey became even more convinced that was Morton's ship. He had one of the best Storm Callers on the Kaldfell Peninsula. The guy wasn't quite Dustin's level, but he wasn't too far below him.

  Lightning split the sky just to the west and Sal banked sharply east. Abbey's stomach dropped as the dragon dipped close to the surface of the water, although an involuntary grin sprang to her face. Even though she was flying into a two-against-fifty battle, she had to admit this was a hell of a lot of fun.

  Sal had apparently learned from his encounter with Dustin. He didn’t glide lazily as he had when he'd first approached Storm Warrior. He sped across the water.

  "Okay, Sal, here's the plan," she shouted over the wind. The rain fell hard and fast now, obscuring her view of much beyond the tip of Sal's nose. "I need you to drop me off on that ship, same as you dropped Karl on Storm Warrior. Then I need to you to circle back and pick me up on the prow. Got it?"