by DB King
“Marcus? Are you coming?” Ella’s voice called up the stairs. She appeared in the doorway, looking curiously at him.
He turned to look at her, pointing up at the stands. “Look, there, Ella! The mysterious figure who I saw in the Cove dungeon! It’s back!”
Ella looked up where he pointed, and Marcus followed her gaze.
“I see no one, Marcus,” Ella said quietly, and she was right.
The figure was gone.
“There’s no time to think about it now,” Marcus said firmly as he and Ella came out of the dungeon. He swung the bronze door closed behind him and it clicked shut. “I feel that whoever—whatever—the figure is, it’s not evil. It looks creepy, but I don’t feel like it has any ill intention toward me. That will have to be enough for us for now.”
They walked up the steps to the courtyard, into the main tower and up to the rooftop. Here, they could look out all around at the wide expanse of the Wastelands, covered in ragged trails of mist that hung above the boggy ground and twisted among the ruins and the clusters of dark trees. Not far from the outer wall, Marcus could see groups of gray wights moving slowly back and forth across the path that led to the slums.
“The preparations for the battle are well under way,” Marcus said, pointing down to the walls. Here, Gutter Gang members stood side-by-side with trained members of the slum dwellers, everyone armored in mail and leather and holding spears, shields, and bows. Braziers of burning coals were set along the walls at intervals, and wooden stands held many arrows for the use of the archers. Soldiers milled about in the courtyard below.
“I guess we have about 300 men and women under arms down there,” Marcus said, “and every one of them has been trained in the bow, the sword, and the spear. Unless the Corsair comes with a serious army, we’ll be able to beat off his attack.”
“It’s the docks I’m worried about,” Ella said. “If he does bring a serious force, he could cause a lot of damage to the docklands. We are well defended here, but Kraken City is not a military outpost. Even the City Guards and the mercenary companies combined would struggle to fend off a determined attack.”
“We’ll just have to do everything we can to see that doesn’t happen,” Marcus said grimly. “Come on. I want to try out my new power of flight again.”
Marcus had expected it to be difficult, but in fact he found taking off fairly easy. He felt the new power like a muscle, and he directed it in much the same way as he directed the jets of water that came with his Elemental Water ability. He pushed downward with it, and found himself airborne. Ella hovered beside him as he steadied himself.
“Okay?” she asked him quietly as he hung there, a few feet off the surface of the flat roof.
He nodded. “I think so,” he said. “Let’s give it a go.”
Together, they flew out over the courtyard and then past it, over the wasteland. At first, Marcus’s heart was thundering as he looked down at the gulf of empty air below him, but the flight did not seem to run down or tire him the way his other powers did. He was steady in the air, the wind was low, and he could see far out over the land around him.
“Let’s gain a little height,” he suggested. He leaned forward at an angle and put his arms out like a swimmer, moving forward and up, over the Wasteland toward the sea.
The moon was bright over the water as they left the cliffs behind. Marcus found that up here, he and Ella could put on an impressive turn of speed, and so they made a sweep of the whole coast of Kraken Island, looking down at the silvery moonlit water far below for any signs of the enemy.
They flew back and forth, from the cliffs to the crowded docklands, with wind moving in their hair and stinging their eyes. It was exhilarating, and Marcus was pleased with how quickly he developed his new flying ability. It felt amazing to look down on the packed streets of Kraken City and the vast expanse of the sea. He rose and dived, hovered and sprinted, reveling in the sensation of flight until he’d almost forgotten what they had come out for.
They saw the ships.
“There!” Ella said, clutching his arm and pointing. “Look there!”
Marcus stopped where he was and looked where she indicated. A black-sailed ship was on the water far below. And another. And another.
He swept his gaze over the silver water, and saw the full extent of the Corsair’s navy.
“There must be nearly a hundred ships there!” he exclaimed.
In the front, leading the host, was a massive galleon, bigger than all the others. “That must be the Corsair’s flagship,” he said. “We must go down and have a closer look.”
He dropped through the air, losing height quickly as he approached. When he was near enough to make out the figures moving on the deck below, he stopped. Every figure on the ship was dressed in black—except one. On the high aft deck, a figure dressed in red stood near the man who had the wheel.
Even at this distance, Marcus knew him at once.
“There he is,” he breathed to Ella. “The Corsair himself.”
The fleet was moving under full sail, nearly silent, but coming on fast. A strong, steady wind blew from the east, pushing the fleet on.
“They are heading for the docklands,” Marcus said. “They’re going for a full frontal attack! And… what’s that?”
Something moved through the water—under the water, not far below the surface. It was pale and it moved alongside the flagship.
“It’s enormous,” Ella said. “Some kind of sea creature?”
“It must be, but see how it shadows the flagship? It must be the Corsair’s.”
The pale shape pulled ahead of the flagship. It broke the surface of the water with a rush. The creature’s claws were covered in sharp spikes. Eight beady red eyes darted around below a thick, chitinous layer of shell.
The monster plunged below the surface again, and the fleet plowed on.
“We have to get back to the docklands and warn them,” Marcus said. “They have to be prepared for the attack when it comes!”
As he spoke, he felt his eyes drawn to the figure in red on the deck below. The figure was looking up at him. Though he was too far away to tell for sure, he could have sworn that the Corsair was smiling and glaring at him. From below, borne up on the wind, he heard a loud, cruel laugh.
Chapter 26
They rushed back to the docklands as quickly as their magic could carry them. It turned out that that was pretty fast. Ella went ahead, her wild straw-colored hair flattened in the wind. Marcus followed, pushing his magic as hard as he could. He was beginning to feel a little tired by the effort now, but they were making good speed for the docks and that was all that mattered.
They had left the fleet behind, but Marcus estimated that they had less than an hour before the Corsair was upon them. They flew low over the masts of the ships that were anchored in the docks, and Marcus turned right and flew over the roofs of the inns toward the harbormaster’s building.
He landed on the upper balcony and pushed the screen door open, stepping into the harbormaster’s study. Evo, the small man who had ultimate authority over the administration of the docklands, was sitting at a cluttered desk writing in a ledger. When he heard the screen door open he leaped to his feet, but relaxed when he recognized Marcus.
“Master Marcus!” he exclaimed. “What is this? How did you come to be here?”
“I bring a warning,” Marcus said. “There’s no time to explain, but within the hour, the docklands will come under attack from a great fleet. They are approaching now, and you must raise every guardsman and mercenary who you have any influence over if you want to have any chance of facing them.”
To Marcus’s great relief, Evo the harbormaster did not make any trouble. Evo had not gotten to the position of influence he held today without being a good judge of men, and could see that Marcus was deadly earnest.
“I will do as you say, Master,” he said. Without another word, Marcus left the astonished harbormaster and ran back to the balcony. He jumped
off. With Ella at his side, he flew back down to the docklands proper. Here, the nightly revelry of the docks was in full swing. Crowds of people shuffled around the docks, singing, shouting, talking, eating, and drinking. A merry din emanated from the taverns and the inns, and bright lamps lit the plazas and streets.
As he approached, the alarm bells rang from higher up in the city. Evo had not been slow. The tone of the shouting on the docks changed from merry to fearful. Marcus dove down and soared over their heads.
“A fleet approaches! Arm yourselves! The docks are about to be attacked! To arms! To arms!”
The astonished people looked up at him, but to his satisfaction they immediately obeyed. As he gained height again, and flew back and forth across the city, he saw streams of armed people coming down from the upper levels of the city, guardsmen and mercenary companies, but also groups of traders and merchants. There were even groups from the guilds massing the Hero’s Plaza up by the guild quarter, and down in the Duelists’ Plaza gangs of duelists spilled out of the inns with swords in hand and making their way toward the docks.
Marcus turned and hovered in the air, looking out to sea. There, a line of black ships could now be seen, making its way toward the harbor steadily. He looked at his faerie companion. “Ella,” he said. “I cannot allow this to happen.”
“What?” Ella said, confused. “What do you mean? You are doing all you can!”
“No,” Marcus said firmly. “I’m not. The Corsair is here for me, isn’t he? He’s here for the dungeons. If we fight, he will destroy Kraken City to get to me. Look at that fleet. The people won’t be able to defend themselves against him forever. No, Ella, we must offer the dungeons to him without a fight.”
Ella looked shocked. “You’d do that? You’d sacrifice yourself and all you’ve gained to save the city?”
“I would,” Marcus said resolutely. “But I would do more than that. If the Corsair takes the dungeons by force, and tries to turn them to evil, they will destroy him, is that not right?”
“Yes,” she said, “that’s true. But the dungeons themselves may be destroyed too. And we will be destroyed as well.”
“I’m willing to sacrifice that,” Marcus said, “if it means the Corsair and his army being destroyed and Kraken City being saved. Ella, we have to try.”
She nodded slowly. “Yes,” she said. “I see that. Oh, Marcus, I didn’t think this was how our story would end together, but you’re right. We cannot risk allowing the city to be destroyed and all the people killed. If we have a chance to save it, we must, even if it means our own deaths.”
Ella flew up and hugged him. They turned toward the fleet that was now bearing down on Kraken City’s docklands with relentless speed. The wind blew in their faces now, but they flew resolutely out, two small figures against the vast, moonlit ocean.
At the front of the fleet was the flagship. Marcus and Ella flew straight toward it, until they were close enough to be able to see the figures onboard.
“Corsair!” Marcus yelled through the wind.
The men on the ship turned and stared at him, gathering at the gunwales of the ship. They were alabaster white, with dark hair, and their expressions were uniformly blank as they stared out at him over the water.
“Corsair!” Marcus yelled again, and this time he saw the figure in red approaching through the ranks of his crew, shouldering them aside as he approached the rail. All around them, the creak of timbers and the snap of the wind in the sails made a constant, ominous music.
Marcus flew a little closer to the flagship’s prow, matching his speed to the ship’s, so that he felt almost as if he was still alongside the vessel.
For the first time, he was face-to-face with his enemy.
The Corsair was an immense man, built more like a bear than a man. He was much bigger and more imposing than he had appeared in Marcus’s dream-vision of him. He had a square, slab-like face, with a black pointed beard that jutted forward like the massive buttress of a cliff. His eyes were black as jet, but they gleamed and glittered as if they were made of cut crystal. He was dressed in an enormous, blood-red overcoat with gold buttons that shone as if they had a light of their own. He had a great blue tricorn hat on his head, decorated with an extravagant plume of feathers. Only his deathly pale skin and the glint of his unnaturally sharp teeth showed that he was not a human at all, but a vampire.
And in the place of his right hand, the Corsair had a heavy, sharp hook of black iron.
“So, you have come,” the Corsair said, sounding genuinely surprised.
“I have,” Marcus called over the splash of the waves and the creak of the ship’s timbers. “I have come, and I have an offer for you.”
“Well? What’s your offer?” the huge vampire replied, a mocking edge in his voice.
“You’ve come for the dungeons, haven’t you?” Marcus said, keeping his voice steady. He took a breath. “If you will turn your fleet and leave Kraken City, I will give you the dungeons.”
To Marcus’s surprise, the Corsair flung his head back and roared with laughter. “You think I want only the dungeons? You poor fool! You have underestimated me!”
The Corsair leaned forward and gripped the rail with hook and hand. “I desire to have Kraken City, not just the dungeons. Oh, once I’ve subjugated the city and taken it for my own, then I will take you, and use your dungeons and their monsters as my slaves.” The Corsair shook his head. “You dungeon masters are all the same. You always think your little dungeons are the greatest prize. But there’s more to this island than you can ever know! More wealth, more power! Your dungeons are only the beginning, boy.”
“But you… you said to the Akhians that you were coming for my dungeons!” Marcus said, shocked.
“Hah! And you believed me, and did not warn the city, because you thought I was coming only for you. Just as I had planned. You dungeon masters… ever arrogant, ever foolish.” The Corsair laughed. “Now get you gone! I’ll deal with you later, maggot!”
Marcus and Ella turned and flew back toward the city as quickly as they could. They bypassed the gathering defenses at the docklands and headed straight for the wasteland and the stronghold.
The stronghold was a hive of activity when they flew over it, but as they landed on the tower top they saw that a silence had descended. Groups of soldiers were drawn up behind the wall, and others manned the parapet with bows in hand. It seemed that all was ready for an attack.
But things had now changed. Marcus re-ordered his thoughts about the coming battle. He spoke to Ella quietly.
“If the Corsair is not interested in taking my dungeons for himself as his main priority, that changes things,” he said.
“How so?” Ella replied.
“Well, to begin with it means that we cannot remain in the stronghold. I was expecting the main force of the attack to land here, at the stronghold, but it seems that was wrong. His army is going to attack the docks, and if that’s where the fight is going to be hottest, that’s where we’re going to need to be.”
Ella nodded. She pointed down at the weaving mists that hung over the Wasteland. Among the mists, ghostly figures drifted. The wights were still on guard. “We will need to fight our way past the wights of the Wasteland,” Ella said.
Marcus frowned. “There’s nothing we can do about that. If we have to fight them, we have to fight them. My fighters are trained and well armed, so we have the best chance we can have to win that fight. We’ll have a higher chance of winning the battle at the docks, uniting our strength with the rest of Kraken City. If that means fighting our way past the wraiths, then that’s just what we’re going to have to do.”
Ella looked troubled, and Marcus was far from happy about it either, but he could see no other option.
And something else troubled Marcus. “Did you hear what the Corsair said?” he asked. “‘You dungeon masters’ this, ‘you dungeon masters’ that…”
Ella raised an eyebrow. “What about it…” Her eyes widened as she
realized. “He must’ve known others.”
Marcus nodded. “My thoughts exactly.”
But he didn’t have time to dwell on the Corsair’s past—he was here, now. He was on Kraken Island, ready to raze the city. It didn’t matter if the Corsair had encountered—or defeated—dungeon masters before.
The Corsair had never met a dungeon master like Marcus of the Underway before.
Ella and Marcus landed. He looked down into the courtyard and saw something that made him point and grab Ella’s arm. “Look!” he said. “Look down there!”
Ella peered where he was pointing, and her eyes widened in surprise. “The vampires! They are speaking with the wights!”
It was true. Marcus and Ella flew down into the courtyard and approached the cage that the imprisoned wight was being kept prisoner in. Max and Daya, the two vampires, stood close to the bars of the cage.
The wight in the cage had changed. Before, it had sat in a corner, knees drawn up to its chest. Now it stood, and its whole posture spoke of alertness and attention. It had its bony hands clasped around the bars of the cage, and a quiet flow of words in the strange language flowed from within it.
To Marcus’s surprise and satisfaction, he found that Max and Daya were conversing with the wight. They were speaking its language.
“What’s this?” he asked, smiling at the vampires. “You can speak the wight’s language?”
“He’s speaking the language of the Thun, the ancient people who used to live on this island before the calamity that wiped out the civilization. When we went to sleep here two hundred years ago, this was the language that was spoken here on the island that is now called Kraken Island. This wight—and his companions outside—are the ghosts of the old folk who lived here before the collapse.”
Marcus felt a rising excitement in his belly. “What is he saying?” he asked.
Daya smiled. “He’s saying that he feels the approach of the Corsair—a great vampire who is coming to destroy the world. He says—and I’m not sure entirely what he means—that he feels the approach of a cleansing light, and a devouring darkness. On the one side is a power that can free him and his kind from their limbo as wights, but on the other is a power that would devour him and his kind, and turn the world into wights. I think that being a wight is very unpleasant, but they are under some kind of curse that stops them from passing fully on to the afterlife.”
