The Souls of the Ocean (Book Two in The Tamarack Series)

by Ross Turner

Isabel once again felt him gather his will, but this time it seemed not to penetrate the world around her, but to underlie it almost completely. It was as if her son was slowly becoming a part of the kingdom, and the land, and even the water, itself.

  The mist all around them once again began to ebb away, but this time it did not stop. Further and further into the distance they could see and the morning light broke through the now clear air with cold delight.

  A few moments later, the mist had entirely vanished, and Isabel’s breath caught in her throat as her eyes fell upon Compii Tower, breaking the horizon in the not so far distance, directly in their path, the streaks of fresh sunlight streaming across its spire gloriously, silhouetted against the baby blue backdrop.

  The water all around however was not blue, but black, and Isabel could feel the eyes upon them from the deep. It was a feeling she had experienced for the first time many, many years ago, and in unnerved her in just the same way even now.

  Then, all at once, the waters all around them began to bubble and surge and a thousand and more monstrous bodies rushed from it, pouring towards the ship and immediately clambering up the sides and onto the deck, their sleek amphibious forms shifting and moulding into walking hulking beasts even as they did so, baring teeth and claws and limbs and piercing green eyes.

  It all happened too fast. Isabel did not have time to react to the rush of demons, and it seemed suddenly that their journey had ended right before its climax.

  But then, in the split-second before the demons engulfed them, her son spoke, quietly and surely.

  “No.” He said quite simply, his awareness gripping him and his world like a powerful vice.

  In roaring anger and blinded fury, the demons charged, and Isabel was thrown violently to the ground, a sharp, sudden pain coursing fiercely through her side, her vision blurring and the world turning black.

  41

  It was a change in the deep, lumbering, rocking motion of the ship that awoke Isabel, rousing her from her blackout and reigniting the pain in her side. She groaned heavily as she rolled on the hard, splintering wooden floor of the ship’s deck and glanced around carefully, not knowing what she would find.

  But as she did so, she saw no demons, and the ship seemed unchanged. Sitting up, clutching her side painfully, she laid eyes upon Cole and Rose. Cole looked tired, but grimly focused, and glanced critically at his mother’s obvious pain. His eyes clouded for a second and the pain in Isabel’s ribs faded slowly away, the throbbing heat dissipating as if it had never been there.

  She stared at her son incredulously, not knowing what to say.

  He smiled somewhat half-heartedly and helped his mother to her feet. She realised then that it had not been a demon that had knocked her to the ground, but instead it had been the blinding barrier that Cole had generated, at the last instant saving them all, just as the demons were inches from claiming their victory.

  “What happened Cole?” Isabel asked, not for the first time coming to her son for the answers she sought.

  “Thorn was trying to stop us before we reached him.” Cole explained abstractedly, glancing out over the endless waters. “We can’t waste our strength fighting his army while he holds back. That’s what he wants.”

  “So you created another barrier?” Zanriath asked, walking over with his hand on the back of his head. Cole sensed his discomfort and within moments the pain at the back of his father’s head faded also, and a confused expression crossed his face.

  “Yes.” Cole replied quickly. “We’re very close to Thorn now, and to his link with the demonic realm. Soon he will have no choice but to face us.”

  “And that’s what we need…?” Isabel added, admittedly a little questioningly.

  “Yes.” Her son replied simply. “If I don’t face Thorn, this will never be resolved.” A lump caught in Isabel’s throat, but her husband recovered her failing.

  “Can’t you keep creating those barriers?” Zanriath asked, somewhat reluctantly, reaching reflexively for the back of his head, even though the pain from his fall had faded entirely. But Cole shook his head and rested his hand upon Rose’s back as he explained, all the while petting her furred head gently.

  “It would only continue to banish the demons back to the demonic realm, and they would just continue to return. It wouldn’t be powerful enough to kill Thorn, and it would serve nothing but to exhaust me. Eventually, when I was drained, he would show himself and overpower us.”

  “Oh…” Zanriath replied. “I didn’t realise…”

  “The Souls are not harmed by the barrier, it is a demonic mechanism.” Cole continued. “So, as the demons are banished, the Souls continue to occupy them, meaning that the demons will just return from their realm once more, and the cycle would repeat. We need to cut them off at the source.”

  “The source?” Isabel asked,

  “Thorn.” Cole said, somewhat menacingly. “He commands them, but the Souls are also, for the most part, commanding him.”

  “So where is he?” Zanriath asked, looking out over the now clear ocean and across the shimmering, blue, demon-free waters. How they would locate Thorn amongst the countless other demons he commanded, Cole’s father did not know. But his failing was that not he, nor Cole’s mother, saw the world in the same way that their son now did.

  It mattered not where Thorn hid; Cole would know his every movement, for now he knew his world in a very different, albeit strange new way, as if he was very much a part of it.

  “He’s circling Compii Tower.” Cole replied a little vaguely. “When we are close enough, I will hopefully be able to force him out - he will show himself.”

  “What about the barrier?” Isabel asked, sensing that Cole’s defence extended beyond Compii Tower, and out in every direction for the best part of five miles.

  “I will remove it when the time is right.” Cole said. “The demons will attack, and Thorn will have no choice but to show himself. He’s knows he must face me. He cannot put it off. I won’t let him.”

  “Can you maintain the barrier long enough?” Isabel asked him then, concerned. “It’s ten miles across, Cole.”

  “Yes, thank you.” He replied abstractly, his thoughts clearly elsewhere. It is of no bother.” Then he sighed. “It won’t matter how well prepared the people are…” He continued ominously, and very seriously. “They may be courageous, but if we fail them, they will be overpowered, and Tamarack will be lost. Already too many lives have been lost in the time it took us to get here.”

  Cole’s chilling tone struck fear at Isabel’s heart, but only for a moment. As Cole continued, it was soon replaced by a steadfast resolve that she recognised so well, and that she had called upon many a time in the past. Although, even now as it crept over her, Isabel realised, quite shockingly, that it was altogether possible that the resolve that always strengthened her in times of great need, may not even have been her own doing.

  Her son’s voice quelled her racing thoughts.

  “Those hordes who have sought to dominate Tamarack for so long, the lost souls and the demonic, will claim our world, and eventually every other world too.” His words were oddly prophesising, and his tone was yet another thing that Isabel recognised, and she knew for certain that it was not his own. She had heard the same voice speak through the lips of her husband too, once, long ago, before they had been wed.

  Perhaps the strange voice that Isabel had heard for so long, and that she still knew of no owner for, was responsible for much more than just subtle hints and instructions. Perhaps her understanding of their world was even more limited than she had at first thought.

  After the voice that was not of a God had spoken through Cole, he retreated from conversation, and they continued towards Compii Tower in near-silence. Isabel and Zanriath had no idea how long it would be before they reached Thorn, but the tower was growing visibly closer, seemingly even by the minute. Isabel could sense somehow that, before long, they would reach their unmarked destination, and then their wo
rld would be silent no longer.

  She watched Cole carefully in those hours, keeping a close eye on him as they waited, as they ate, as they rested, as they prepared.

  She realised, very gladly, that the young man she saw was indeed still her son, and that she and Zanriath had not lost him as they had feared. He had simply accepted what was being asked of him, and with that had come the price of a lost innocence.

  Isabel imagined that, had he still been alive, her father would have thought much the same of her. It saddened her then as she realised she had thought often only of her father, and not always of her mother. But that was only because they had been given so much more time together.

  She wondered, though she was of course glad for it, why she and Zanriath had not been taken from Cole, in the same way their families had been? And Ayva’s, and Ben’s, and Zhack’s?

  Why had they not been killed like all the others?

  Was there still more that they had to do?

  Eventually the ship came to an eerie halt, less than a mile from Compii Tower, stopping almost inside its enormous towering shadow cast across the blue waters. Isabel stood and looked out in every direction. She could see the bridges extending out from the tower, hovering perilously over the water with nothing to support them. Never had she seen them from this angle before, and the sight was uncanny.

  “This is it.” Cole said quietly, walking over to join his parents.

  “Are you sure Cole?” Isabel asked. He nodded and Rose nudged Isabel gently with her massive snout. She smiled and petted the caring beast, hopefully not for the last time.

  “What happens now Cole?” Zanriath asked, looking all around.

  “Are you both ready?” Their son asked them very seriously. They looked at each other for a moment and nodded. Never before had they been so directly asked that question. It seemed that, even under the circumstances, their son was somehow still in control.

  Isabel looked to her son and his demon and asked the same.

  “Are you two ready?” Cole and Rose looked at each other and he rubbed behind her ears affectionately.

  “Yes we are.” He replied. “This is it…there’s nothing else left but this.”

  Her son’s statement was ominous to say the least, and for some reason then, Isabel cast a quick glancing thought out across Tamarack to confirm their suspicions.

  All the endless numbers of demons were indeed back in the water, thousands upon tens of thousands of them, far too many for them to ever hope to defeat. That did at least mean that the four islands were once again entirely free from the infestation, for now - until one eventuality won out over another, whichever that may be.

  Finally, Isabel could see the extent of Cole’s concern. The beasts formed a perfect circle around the ship, about ten miles in diameter, avoiding Cole’s barrier, and waited eagerly to swarm in on the helpless family, marooned alone and seemingly defenceless in the ocean.

  Cole sighed and closed his eyes, preparing for what was to come.

  Isabel felt the barrier disintegrate and the masses of demons held back behind it rushed forward in a maddened advance.

  She grimly prepared herself, along with her family, for the impact, and her heart raced and pounded viciously against her ribs as the blue water, sparkling in the cold sunlight, darkened like mud. The blackness advanced rapidly, continuing to turn the water black and menacing all around their ship, its surging charge rapid and unfaltering.

  The clear sky above clouded threateningly as the demons approached, and a rumble like thunder echoed up from the depths below them, preparing to engulf them with all its evil and vengeful and loathing might.

  This was it.

  The blackness reached them.

  Isabel’s heart was in her mouth.

  42

  For a few seconds nothing happened. The ship continued to bob from side to side, even as the water directly beneath them turned black. It seemed at first to have taken no effect. But then, just as Isabel began to be lulled into a false sense of anticlimactic security, everything changed.

  The ship lurched violently to the side as something crashed loudly and fiercely into the hull, something very large and moving very fast. The four aboard were thrown like rag-dolls. Cascading across the deck, they collided heavily with the opposite wooden barrier.

  Wood shattered and splintered and a terrible roar echoed up from the ocean once again. This time it was accompanied by the rushing sound of water gushing in through the hull, and the ship began to sink rapidly, even as the four of them dragged themselves heavily to their feet.

  Then the onslaught began, giving them no time to regroup. Wave after wave of hideous beasts leapt up out of the blackened water and tore their way onto the deck, a mixture of maddened anger and hatred and desire of both the lost souls and the demons in their eyes.

  Their forms differed wildly as, even in mid-flight and on deck, they morphed from their fish-like bodies into all arrays of limbed creatures. Regardless of their size or build, whether they had two legs or four or even six, they all launched themselves for Cole with a ferocious lust for destruction.

  Immediately, Cole and his demon leapt to defensive action. His parents too threw themselves into the ensuing battle, fighting for all of their lives, and together they attempted to counter the blitzing assault.

  Zanriath cast a scorching ring of fire around the descending ship, scalding, even melting those still trying to get on board. As for the demons that were already on the deck, he simply set them alight, certainly distracting them somewhat from their attack.

  Isabel worked with her husband to kill any who managed to struggle through the searing pain of his defence and continue their attack in blind rage. Her strikes were no less destructive than her husband’s, and innumerable demons fell under her wrath with horrific screams of both agony and disappointment, matched only by her own shrieking incantations.

  Their combined demonic and elemental barricade proved formidable, but their strength would not last forever, and was indeed already waning.

  Cole and Rose, their power already as one, had the same devastating effect on the advancing masses, only their power was far greater than Isabel and Zanriath’s, and there was no delay between their combined efforts, since their thoughts were actually linked.

  The result was catastrophic.

  Great devastating arcs of fire swept in all directions, incinerating everything they came into contact with, boiling seawater simply on contact, creating vast bubbling pools as far as the eye could see. Somehow simultaneously, Cole combined his demonic efforts with Rose’s to obliterate those demons managing to escape his parents’ wrath, and even those not yet aboard.

  The massacre they commanded was both brutal and ruthless.

  And, as if that was not enough, even as she combined her power with Cole’s, Rose dashed up and down the now waterlogged vessel in a monstrous frenzy, ripping through every flaming and screaming monster that was unlucky enough to come within her striking range. Her claws and fangs worked rhythmically, even mechanically, to rip to mutilated pieces every possible threat.

  Bloodied seawater soon stained the wooden deck of the ship and sloshed about their feet as the battle raged on.

  Whilst the demonic assault was indeed formidable, the devastation Isabel’s family wreaked verged on cataclysmic.

  Soon however, they all dripped with sweat, drained from their exertions, and the salty water pouring in from all directions soaked them, threatening to wash them overboard the listing vessel, overtaking even the demons’ advance.

  Rose’s fur was stained from head to tail with black and red, and, even as waves of both water and demons smashed into her, she did not once let up her fury.

  But, despite all of their efforts, the swarms were relentless and unending; the limitless masses of demons surrounding the sinking ship simply continued their advance, without even a hint of relenting. Soon the ship would sink, and they would be helpless to the resist as the demons bore down upon them in the
ocean itself.

  They had to do something, and they had to do it now, or they would all end up underwater and completely at the demons’ mercy.

  The ship continued to cascade downwards and once more they were thrown across the deck as the hulking wooden mass, being swiftly torn apart by the army assaulting it, listed heavily sideward yet again.

  Cole managed to catch the wooden rail at the side of the ship, just saving himself from being thrown overboard, and focused his will on the ragged vessel. The huge wooden mass, barely holding itself together, creaked and groaned noisily as he focus his will, and slowly lifted from its watery grave.

  The demons gaped in amazement as the ship ascended disbelievingly from the water. Cole was attempting to drain some of the water from their already ruined ship - to save it from going down immediately, to buy them at least a little more time. But his efforts were futile.

  A terrible and ear-splitting roar caused them all to turn. Cole too looked across and saw at last what he had been waiting for. It seemed that, thankfully, their efforts had not been wasted after all, and by pulling the ship back out from the greedy waters, he had indeed drawn Thorn out from the depths.

  Rose’s brother ascended from the surface of the blackened ocean like a corpse rising from a grave. The endless hordes of demons surrounding the now floating ship trembled in the monster’s wake, and backed down below the surface and retreated into the depths, shielding themselves from his wrath.

  Thorn now took on the vague form of a human, only he stood a hundred metres tall from the water’s surface and his body was entirely black. Giant gaping claws replaced his fingers and his once soft, brown eyes were now piercing and evil, no longer even recognisable as Cole’s.

  As he extended to his full height, all chance of victory seemed to shrink and vanish, and the enormity of what Cole had himself created overwhelmed the young man, draining any remaining pity he had for Thorn into a bottomless recess, hidden away somewhere very deep and very dark.