The knights and soldiers aboard the Lela, stared on, stunned by the ferocity of the explosions. None had ever seen such raw destructive power before.
James was utterly horrified. Danielle and Faith were in that blazing inferno. He rallied his senses, and began to unbuckle his belt and pull off his shirt of chainmail. The Ra’tane was falling astern of the Lela, listing to starboard and taking on water through a number of gapping wounds in her hull. He had to get across there before the vessel succumbed to her fatal wounds.
But even as he put a hand on the railing to lever himself over the side of the ship Lord Baryon shouted a warning that the wards had broken. Almost in the same instant the air above their heads turned to a whirlwind of shrieking crows that descended on them out of the fog as one writhing mass. Men screamed and swatted wildly as beck and claw tore at flesh and eyes. Baryon was yelling at them to close ranks. His kin immediately turned their magic to the protection of the Lela. The air above their heads filled with fire, and blood and feathers fell like rain over the deck, but it wasn’t enough to hold back the tide, and green flashes began to pop across the deck in rapid succession as birds transformed into sword wielding warriors and engaged Colita’s meagre force.
Consumed by a bitter-fatalism, James lifted his sword and threw himself at the wall of death that was surging across the deck toward him.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Faith looked up as the ship shuddered violently and the sounds of destruction filtered down to them from the decks above.
Danielle had stiffened beside her. “What was that?”
Another explosion rocked the ship and then another and another. The noise of shattering and collapsing timbers was getting closer, the sound becoming deafening in the confined space of the brig. Then in a flash of blinding hot light and fire the bulkhead on the other side of the cabin disintegrated into splinters. Faith and Dee clung to each other as the floor to the deck above partially collapsed around them. Fires sprung up amid the scattered debris lighting the smoke filled air. Faith’s ears were ringing.
“Are you alright,” Danielle asked.
Faith nodded, then shook her head and blinked her eyes to clear them.
“I don’t know what’s going on. They were going to ram the ship as soon as I killed the priestess. But Keira is not dead.”
“It’s magic. I can feel it,” Dee said.
Another explosion sent splinters of wood flying down the passageway beyond the broken door to the brig, and daylight filtered in through the smoke.
“We can’t stay here,” Danielle said.
Faith was thinking the same thing. The deck was beginning to pitch. Small leaks had sprung open in the side of the ship and water was running down the timbers of the hull and onto the floor.
“Is there anything you can do to escape those chains?” Faith was looking through the debris of the flooding brig for something to unlock the padlocks that held Danielle’s chains to the bulkhead. She spotted an iron brace lying on the floor by the brig’s broken door. Faith pulled it out of a small fire and quickly set to work, hammering at the iron loop to which Dee’s chains were secured. Her own chains chafed painfully at her wrists as she worked. The smoke from the small fires was growing thicker and burning her throat and making them cough.
“Someone is coming,” Danielle said.
Faith stopped. She heard the hurried footsteps and immediately thought it was James. “In here!”
Her hopes vanished as Keira appeared in the hole where the door had been.
Faith brandished the piece of iron in her hands. “You leave us alone.”
Keira held up a key. “Unless you want to stay here and drown, I suggest you put that down now.”
With the water rising to their knees there was little choice so Faith did as she was told.
“Quickly, undo their chains,” Keira ordered, stepping aside to let two dread knights into the flooding brig. “Hurry, we have to go.”
“Where are you taking us?” Danielle asked.
Keira flashed an angry glare at Faith. “Since your friend’s little deceit has cost me this ship, we’re going to take yours. Allius is a cross there now removing the vermin.
An ear-shattering explosion hit the ship and the bulkhead between the brig and the main hold disappeared in a fireball as it was torn apart. The shock wave and heat from the blast knocked them all off their feet. Faith’s ears were ringing again as she came to in the rising water. She opened her eyes and quickly got up on her hands and knees. Water was rushing down the passageway from the direction of the ship’s hold. Smoke was filling the air making it almost impossible to breathe or see.
“Faith!”
She shook her head to clear it and glanced over her shoulder to see Danielle pulling desperately against her chains.
“Help me.”
Faith bolted forward, sloshing through the knee-deep water. But her efforts were futile. She had nothing to release the chains. “I need help,” Faith yelled at the others in the brig.
“Leave her,” Keira’s voice was hoarse with pain. A horseman had just pushed a timber beam off the priestess and was helping her to her feet. Faith hadn’t noticed until now, but the woman’s pretty face was burnt on one side, her robe was torn and most of her hair had gone.
“Please, we must try. You need her.”
One of the horsemen raised his sword and tried to chop through the chain. Sparks flew off his blade, but even with his raw strength it was doing no good.
“Where’s the key?” Faith shouted. The water was rising to their waists and the ship was groaning horribly as it took on ever more water.
“It’s no good. We have to go. Leave her. We have to go!” Keira’s voice faulted and she stumbled, overcome with pain. A horseman grabbed her, hoisted her into his arms and waded out into the passageway
“Oh, please no. Kill me. Don’t let me drown,” Dee pleaded.
Her face was full of fear as she looked to Faith, but the remaining knight had grabbed Faith around the waist and was dragging her towards the door.
“Let the little bitch drown,” Keira said from the passageway.
Faith writhed and struggled to get free. Danielle was crying loudly, begging for mercy.
“You need her!” Faith said. “Please. You need her.”
“She’s dead, and we will be too if we don’t get out of here now,” Keira said. “Look to those you can save.”
They had managed to get across the flooding hold, which was filled with the floating bodies of dead horses, and were climbing a narrow set of stairs to the deck above.
“Please. You could use your magic.” Faith was crying now. The sound of rushing water had drowned out Danielle’s pleas for help and she knew they were fast running out of time.
“Do I look like I have the strength?” Keira spat blood out of her mouth. Her chest was heaving, and she looked like she was about to lose consciousness.
Faith felt naught but hatred for the woman and she knew exactly what she was going to do as soon as she had opportunity. But the ship was floundering and she knew she didn’t have much time.
With the way up onto the mid deck blocked by splintered beams and fire, Keira ordered them into the captain’s cabin, where there were windows they could escape from. As they pushed into the wrecked cabin, Faith saw her opportunity. The windows along the stern of the vessel had been replaced by a gaping hole. Beyond was the wall of fog and far below the water.
“Cast off your armour. We’re going to have to swim for the other vessel,” Keira said. The knights quickly began to unbuckle their plate and cast it aside. One of the knights undid the chains around Faith’s wrists and ankles.
Faith stood compliantly until it was done. She could hear the sounds of fierce battle somewhere across the water and prayed James and the others could hold. Then, as soon as her chains fell away she snatched one of the knights’ daggers and without hesitation leaped out through the hole in the back of the ship. She hit the water feet first and went u
nder. When she surfaced, she blinked the cold water out of her eyes and stroked as hard as she could around to the starboard side of the sinking ship. Keira was bellowing orders, her voice tense with pain. There were three successive splashes. Faith glanced over her shoulder and saw two of the horsemen swimming after her through the debris of the sinking ship.
She reached the hole in the vessel’s side and squeezed through into the dark of the flooding hold.
“Don’t you go in there, Milady. You won’t get out. She’s going down!”
She heard them cursing as she waded across the hold and down the passageway. Fires were still burning but it was considerably darker than it had been a few minutes before with the water having risen to her armpits.
“Danielle. Danielle!”
“Faith. It’s too late. You have to go,” her friend replied.
Faith pushed into the storeroom and frantically swam over to where Danielle’s head was just above the surface. “I’m going to jimmy the locks. I have a dagger.”
Danielle shook her head of wet hair. “There’s no time. You have to go.” Timbers were groaning and cracking around them, straining under the constant inundation of water.
Faith ducked under the surface and felt for the padlocks in the murky water. She might have had the first one undone, except Danielle’s hand clasped her hair and dragged her back to the surface. There was barely a foot of water between their heads and the ceiling now and the ship was groaning its death throes and pitching down at the bow. Danielle could just keep her face above the surface, and the water was rising faster than ever. Timbers were collapsing into the water around them.
“Listen to me. You have to go.” Danielle’s gaze told her there would be no argument and her hands found Faith’s beneath the water and she tried to take the dagger. “Please. I don’t want you to see this.” Their heads were just about touching the ceiling.
Faith realised what her friend was going to do, but before she could stop her, the ship groaned piteously and then shuddered. A sound like shattering rock reverberated around them as the timbers of the hull gave way under the pressure. A surge of white water and debris filled the brig. Danielle cried out, her face twisted in pain and then she went under. Faith saw the blood in the water. But there was nothing she could do as she lost her grip on Dee’s arm and the current carried her up through a hole in the brig’s shattered ceiling to the deck above. She yelled out to Danielle and tried to find her footing to go back, well aware it was futile and her friend was dead, but the ship was going down fast at the bow and the water carried her up the passageway, smashing her into the walls and floating debris. She managed to grab a ladder and pull herself towards the light coming in through the open hatch above, but the ship began to roll over. Faith barely had time to take a deep breath before the water swallowed her in a hiss of blinding bubbles.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
The air hung heavy with the stench of burnt flesh and the chaotic sounds of clashing steel and cries of pain.
James staved off a spear point and sunk his sword into the attacker’s chest. But even as the warrior fell to the blood soaked deck another man took his place.
An explosion of blue fire flashed from Lord Baryon’s palm and tore a bloody hole in the Druid’s ranks, but it closed just as quickly as more black robed warriors threw themselves into the fray, hacking and chopping at Colita’s meagre company of soldiers and knights.
An arrow felled the knight standing beside James and as the man went down, three Druids took revenge with their spears, sinking the iron tips of their weapons into any gap they could find in the man’s armour.
“Loose!” Colita’s commanding voice thundered over the sounds of battle raging across the deck.
The rapid clunk of crossbows releasing their deadly cargo was followed by a sharp chorus of screams as a rank of Druids buckled and collapsed. In the brief respite that followed. Colita seized the advantage and ordered his shield wall forward across the deck. James was in the front rank, a knight on one side and the Lady Amley on the other. The woman had exhausted her magic, and had now taken up her sword, of which she had proved herself to be quite the master. They slashed and cut their way through another line of the enemy’s ranks and advanced again, stepping over the dead.
“Loose!”
More bolts hammered into the Druid ranks sending some tumbling over the ship’s railing. Lord Baryon and the few of his brethren with any reserves of magic left were now focusing most of their efforts on the sky about their heads and flashes of searing light were bringing a constant rain of feathers and blood down on their heads.
The battle was turning in their favour; James could feel it. The impetus of the enemies attack was waning, at least in number if not in a willingness to throw themselves at the shield wall.
A few enemy archers returned fire from where they had taken up a position at the bow of the ship. Arrows clattered off armour or struck shields, while a few soldiers cried out and went down. An instant later the bow exploded into a searing blue light, incinerating the archers, as Baryon cast a fireball at them.
A sudden roar deafened them and another wave of Druid warriors winged out of the fog, transforming in a series of blinding green flashes, before adding their weight to the faltering attack.
James’ relief of a minute ago was quickly extinguished as the press of the enemy forced them back and began to whittle down their numbers again. The explosions of Druid fire stopped altogether and Lord Baryon and his brethren drew swords and threw themselves into the fray in an attempt to bolster their diminishing ranks.
Like lightening in a darkened sky a solitary flash of white light came from the bow of the vessel. Past an enemy’s shoulder James saw the towering Druid warrior who had foiled Danielle’s rescue two hours before materialise on the deck. The man stood there a moment, his sword scabbard and seemingly impervious to fear as he took in the carnage unfolding around him.
Lord Baryon, bellowed frantic instructions to the remaining archers, to train their bolts and arrows on the new arrival. Panic laced his voice and James saw why when the Druid warrior drew a crystal orb from his armour and tossed it on the deck before ducking in behind a hatch just in time to avoid being peppered with arrows.
The orb began to pulsate and grow, just as it had in the square beneath the South Gate. Sensing victory in the face of defeat, the black robed warriors cheered and threw themselves into the fight with even more vigour.
“Lord Colita!” Baryon shouted. “We can’t hold against that. Retreat! Retreat!”
“To where?” Colita yelled.
If there was a reply James did not hear it. For even as the first of the Twenty Three burst from the sphere of swirling white flames and charged across the deck like a wave of steel, Baryon tossed the Seer’s bones over the side of the ship and in a flash of light he transformed into an eagle and hurriedly winged away into the fog, harried by dozens of crows. His brethren quickly followed him, clawing and pecking their way through the writhing mass of crows and beating a hasty retreat. Lady Amley was the only Kathiusian elder unable to transform because she was caught up in the onslaught on the deck. She fended the blade of Allius’ long sword with her own, only to have a spear thrust into her gut. An instant later, a horseman’s axe took her head from her shoulders.
With holes and breaches in their ranks it was clear the battle was lost and even as Colita shouted the command to abandon ship, men were breaking for the railing and throwing themselves into the lake. James stood firm with a small group of soldiers and their sanctified blades and brutal determination kept the dread knights at bay long enough for the commander to throw off his plate and mail and escape over the side of the ship.
Then the remaining defence broke completely and it was every man for himself. Soldiers and knights went down like herded sheep before the butcher’s axe, caught at the ship’s railings and amid the press of bodies.
James ducked underneath a swinging bade, only to be clubbed from the side. Stunned, he
lost his footing on the blood soaked deck and tripped over the body of a dead knight and went down. The soldier fighting at his side collapsed beside him, an axe cleaved in his head. Then the enemy swarmed past and threw off the few remaining defenders to reach the railing. A loud cheer went up as the battle was won. James lay as still as he could. Some of the Druids were now shooting their crossbows at those in the water and cries of pain punctuated the riotous laughter around him. He gingerly stole a glance past the legs of the enemy throng and realised he was only a few yards from the railing. He saw an opening appear as a dread knight pushed back through the mass of soldiers, shouting orders to the men. Determined to escape, he clamped a hand around the handle of a sword lying on the deck beside him and then bolted up as quickly as he could. His sword took the head off an archer and then he dropped his shoulder into the back of one of the horsemen and drove them both over the railing of the ship. They hit the surface of the water in an explosion of spray and went under. The cold jarred James’ senses and muffled the cries of outrage from the deck above. The horseman grabbed desperately at James’ ankle, the weight of his armour dragging him down. James kicked free from the man’s grasping hands and swum away from the ship. Dead men floated on the surface above him and even as he swam he saw more of the escaping soldiers go limp and the water darken with blood.
The magnitude of what they’d lost was only just beginning to sink in. Part of him refused to believe what had happened and the urge to find Dee and Faith was over powering.
He surfaced to find the Lela disappeared into the fog. Someone called his name and her turned in the water. Lord Colita and seven of his men had reached a piece of wreckage from the Ra’tane and were struggling to get out of the cold water.
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