The Way of the Clan 9

by Dem Mikhaylov

  We continued to dance …

  Hell was revealed all around us. The Archs quickly realized where the main threat was coming from. And all their firepower was sent to the command bridge. Magical shields burst like a cluster of firecrackers — just as quickly and loudly. Several huge domes flickered furiously, covering the defenders — they were covered by supporters, and this let the wizards recover.

  Joyfully yelling something, the elf lifted his skinny hands to the fire in the sky, and wrenched his wrists in a strange gesture. Some of the howling ghosts stopped attacking the enemy and returned to us with sharp turns, and one by one they began to fly into the holes of the huge flagship. Hundreds and hundreds of ghosts disappeared into our holds. Hundreds and hundreds, big, small and fat ghosts …. And then, ghostly arms and legs appeared, similar to tentacles, to fins, and to claws. And a lot of them — they protruded from almost every hole in the hull. At the broken nose of the Queen, a spherical cluster of ghostly green light flashed and thickened, and then transformed into a huge head. It formed a mouth and began to gaze fiercely at the approaching enemies.

  The Black Queen shuddered.

  As if lightning had struck from heaven.

  The giant dreadnought stopped sinking …

  “Fire from all guns!” The order of the Baroness came from above, near the flag. “All we got! Shoot at First Greatness!”

  We took aim at a very large sailing ship by that name. It had a dozen masts, a powerful hull, three decks, a sea of mounted armor, and luminous sails and rigging. Quite a worthy flagship. And now “Greatness” was making its way to the howling Black Queen.

  “The dinosaur is dead!”

  ” Forward!”

  Surrounded by a multiplying cloud of ghosts, the Black Queen, already looking like an evil ghost, moved to the enemy. A single ship attacking many at once. The ghosts supporting us worked as a single organism. And they obeyed the madly laughing bald elf. And we repeated every movement after him, dancing around the white tree.

  A black shadow fell upon me. The bony hand of the skeleton seized the white trunk. Anrull, the ancient awakened god, stubbornly climbed upward, heading to where a piece of frozen amber was hanging on one of the upper branches. The eyeless skeleton rested his palm on the amber, shouted a few words in a guttural voice, and squeezed his fingers. With a crash, the petrified resin shattered into pieces. The small bat that had been encased in the amber turned into a giant undead monster.

  It was impossible to wait. Now was not the time to blunder. And I just chose the frigate “First Greatness” and pointed to it with an unsteady hand.

  The flagship of the Architects had an active magical defense and resisted our shot. It was preparing to complete a maneuver … when the undead bat struck it, easily penetrating most of the defensive fields. The ship survived, but the force of the impact was such that it only slowly straightened. I’d just attacked the Architects clan … with the help of a giant bastion of undead …

  The bounce back of the hit knocked out more and more pieces of our plating, but the ghosts did not care. The black funnel turned into a blue sky, and a blistering blot of black drops fell into the water revived there, transforming into something terrible and alive.

  This was not good. We had created something very bad …

  But we continued to dance. And the musicians continued to play, although by their distorted faces it was clear— these people were in shock.

  “Eye of Digra-a-aatsiy!” Demanded the bald elf.

  And suddenly I did not feel well…

  “What for?!” This cry was familiar. Crossbill? It seems so …

  “M-m-must!”

  A good explanation. Next, I heard the permission of the Baroness. And after a moment, a unique roundish object struck, fiercely blazing, literally red hot, evaporating the water, appeared on deck. Why did Orbit need the eye of the fallen god?

  I received the answer quickly. And it was horrifying.

  Picking up the artifact with his bare hand, and paying no attention to his subsiding life — Doc was standing behind the circle did not waste time in healing the elf — Orbit waved his other hand and … thrust his terrible black knife into the eye. As if he committed the murder of an ordinary bread loaf — this atrocity was done almost every day by every person, so that everyone was used to it. But here it was not a simple loaf of bread that was being stabbed!…

  The dead silence that covered us lasted about a second. Maybe a little more. And then the ocean exploded, the familiar grotesque armored figures of the Krabbers jumping into the air, writhing in the wild paroxysm of pain. Their claws clicked, their hands clenched, and wild cries ripped their ears.

  The Krabbers had already lost their god. And now the crazy elf slaughtered the last of their divinity … This unfortunate race had to endure a nightmare of loss again. And their cries of grief were evidence that their souls were being plunged into a pool of despair …

  They went with our enemies only in the hope of revenge, and in the hope of returning the Eye. Well … there goes the eye.

  The “tree,” having received such an abundant sacrifice, increased sharply in diameter and height. My eyes were glued to the carelessly discarded eye of Digratsy under the tree — it spewed clots of energy that were immediately absorbed by the tree.

  Having received the blast from us, the flagship prevailed — but it began to sink. The players rushing along the deck tried to do something about the monster, but I wanted to spit on their efforts — the monster was immortal as long as there was a tree and a great dance of spirits. The glowing sails turned into ragged rags. There were deep cracks in the sides of the boat already. The howling ghosts attacked the other ships and living creatures under the water — at the bottom, there was a continuous flashing and a thrash of rushing bodies.

  We had arranged a real Day of the Dead in the middle of the crimson ocean.

  And Anrull was our trump card.

  Sness is our guest celebrity with relationships to hell.

  And Orbit … a work of chaos.

  “I always dreamed of crashing a funeral!” Whisper said.

  We continued to dance ….

  The Architects and their allies would remember this day for a long time. With a loud crash on board the “Greatness”, three masts fell at once. The bat howled violently, pierced the side of the ship with its paw, and pushed its claws into the inner compartments. Cracked it. Sweet flesh served to the table of the ghost bat.

  The elf muttered something. He repeated it aloud:

  “N-n-noo! His tail is already smoldering!”

  “The Archs so wanted to be near us — and we delivered! Let us squeeze deeper into their ranks!”

  “This is the real Baroness,” I thought to myself, too busy with dancing to be distracted by something else.

  And then dancing became more difficult. Immediately, and for two reasons. First — the tree did not stop growing. If ten steps, earlier, were enough to completely go around it, now we needed to run. And we began to get stuck. Literally. There were too many ghosts — the air became stiff and dense, and we barely made our way through it. And my fatigue was surging. Doc was supporting us with different auras. But this could not last too long — the air wall literally struck me like a bulldozer. I did not move through the air — I pushed it.

  I think this was the very limit of this wild power — that of the great dance of spirits. Each turn was the turn of the clock key tightening the spring. And with every turn to turn it was all the more difficult. Soon the weakest of us would fall. Shamans dance until they fall dead. Speakers with spirits — they are the same way. So we would dance until we collapsed. And then, would the great boom promised by the elf would happen? I did not know. But there was less than a minute left …

  Only the dark gods were not fatigued. Everything to them was still good fun. Even Anrull, who had returned to our ranks, seems to be smiling … I was terrified. What if I accidentally stepped on Anrull’s foot … he would surely be offended, d
emand a duel … a duel with Anrull…

  I amused myself now with these half-panicked thoughts, which distracted me from dancing.

  “They are turning! Running away!” I heard someone’s joyous voice. “Running in all directions!”

  “Sness … you must go …”

  “See you, my friend!” Hissed the snake headed god and disappeared.

  One heavyweight had been taken out of the dance team. The group of dystrophic continued the dance. The skeleton trainer followed them unceasingly.

  “Eye of the lousy crab gave away its power!” Roared Anrull. “Without the residue! Crushed are the gods! Believers had also crushed! To believe in a red-hot crab! Just think! And what is his merit? That he managed to escape from the divine pot with boiling water? What has this world become?

  “It is time for you Anrull too …” the elf began. “To g-g-gooo…”

  “See you! And remember — we will tear out the heart of your father together!”

  “All right,” the elf agreed with flat simplicity.

  I almost collapsed. But resisted the urge, and continued to dance, looking at the figure of the girl who had heard him.

  “Orbit! What are you going to do with our father?! No, I do not mind — I am all for it! But could we do it in a full family circle?!”

  “Ten sec-oo-onds,” drawled Orbit, with bloodthirsty anticipation.

  “Hey!” I cried. “It is not just a bomb, is it?”

  “Oh, no… the explosion is just a side eff-e-ect … we bring out a sacrifice to A-anrull. And he will return from nonexistence his d-divine … personal household troops … a-and “

  “What?”

  “What?!” Repeated the Baroness.

  “He will give you control of it,” Orbit shrugged his shoulders with disdain. ”But this is not interestee-e-esting… s-sister … do you want to play with ancient und-de-ead?”

  “Yes! I do!” Squeaked the head of Sleepless. “I want to!”

  “Here … catch the amulet...”

  Anrull had solved the matter simply — while we were chatting, he had jumped up. From a distance, probably, it looked like a tiny beetle jumping on top of a burning wax candle. He got to the top of the “tree” and tore off its sparkling diamond — but in fact, it was the same ugly skull, saturated with wild power and transformed into … food? I could not call it differently — because Anrull simply swallowed it as easily as he would swallow a pill.

  “E-v-v-vacuation …” the elf drawled. “Who w-wants to die? And you can s-stop dancing...”

  “Roska! Go to Malice!” I ordered, interrupting the dance with relief. So did the rest. Only Whisper continued to gaily dance the “ghost jam”.

  “I will not leave you!”

  “Tog-g-gether,” the elf smiled, holding out his hand to me.

  Oh! Damn it to death! — An artifact flashed in my daughter’s hands – one allowing her to teleport. Working only on divine energy. And while Roska was standing by the “white tree”, it had fully charged — apparently, from the energy discharges of Digratsy’s eye.

  “Krabbers!” Anrull roared from the top of a huge tree. ”From now on, I am your God! Me! And only me!”

  U-u-uh…

  “Fall to your knees in front of me! Enough of your false gods! Enough worshipping food! I am Anrull! I am born to rule! Fall!”

  “They’re on their knees!” a shout came from the decks – someone able to see what was happening in the depths. “They recognize him!”

  I would also submit if such a creature appeared over me …

  Several people disappeared from the broken bridge. Then there was only me. And Whisper. The music was interrupted — the musicians did not want to gain the laurels of the orchestra on the Titanic and preferred to retire with the others. Now, everyone evacuated.

  “And why did not you leave?” I asked Whisper.

  “Did you remember how we were covered by one meteor together?” asked the spy. “Let us do it again!”

  “Lets …”

  There was nothing to be afraid of — the “ghost jam” covered us completely. It made it impossible to teleport. The Black Queen, directed by Orbit, walked alone. Like a missile towards an assigned target. The white tree crackled, and the bark was covered with many glowing cracks.

  “I turned all the videos on,” added Whisper. “A lot of money can be earned.”

  “It is unlikely. Remember Kaylen,” I reminded him. “And Kray. She certainly asked him to capture the most savory moments.”

  “Damn … she was right to do it. And Let us hope he chooses the most savory, indeed.”

  “Give destruction to everyone! Everyone!’ Anrull continued to roar.

  I’d seen a lot in my playing age.

  But I could not have expected that there would be a giant knife woven from howling ghosts in the hand of Anrull. And that, with this knife, he could easily cut off the upper layer from the ocean, including several dozen ships that were passing. Under the layer that was removed was a terrible blackness, a grave blackness … from which there promptly appeared many bony hands and skulls. The creatures that emerged resembled people remotely, but they were made entirely of bones, and were still eyeless — and they had scorpion tails, fanged mouths, spines growing from their skulls like crowns … there were a lot of them and they all looked only upwards, at Anrull. Their god had returned. And they returned with him. Every god had his own people. Guorra’s harpies. Snessa and the Sness had special snakes, it seemed. And the ancient god Anrull had a terrible personal guard …

  “Did not make them wait,” Anrull rumbled — and disappeared with a slap of his hands. “Give the order …”

  And the white tree exploded with a hellish roar.

  Time slowed down— so it seemed, at first. But in fact, time ran just as before. Only the “ghost jam” took over the flying debris and delayed its flight. It did not stop it — just delayed it. A piece of wood the size of a hut had been in the process of flying straight at me. Would have hit pretty soon. And it was stuck tight — everything around was compressed, and filled with ominous green dusk.

  “Forward!” The Baroness said, with vengeful joy and anger in her voice. “Kill everyone you reach! Do not spare anyone! Kill them all!

  Here it was – revenge for the Black Queen …

  Anrull had turned… and disappeared. And then the slaughter began. Ignoring the fragment that was flying towards me, I walked very slowly towards the Baroness. Whisper froze in bewilderment, watching the chaos in the ocean from the front rows.

  Masts were cut, decks from the bow to the stern broken open, the bottoms of ships pierced, the dinosaurs maimed. And the Krabbers fought, too. They now had a new god. And God commanded them to kill. And the Krabbers obeyed with great joy. They were, in many respects, similar to the personal guard of Anrull— armored, dispassionate, evil and bloodthirsty. And in addition to this terrible army, a typhoon was created by the explosion of the white tree. The ghosts, dispersed in all directions along with the streams of air, and overturned ships. The huge rolling waves reached a height of several tens of meters, and they threw up the ships like toys.

  “Dad … should I take you out of there?” Roska’s alarmed voice came to me, as though through cotton wool. “I could do it now …”

  “I am quite grown up,” I sighed.

  “They will pay! They will pay!” The Baroness hissed, clenching her fists. “Pay for my Queen!”

  “Let us get out of here …,” I muttered.

  “Look how they die! Look! For the Queen!”

  “Dad?”

  “Take me out, daughter,” I agreed, grabbing the Baroness’ waist.

  An emerald flash enveloped me. The deck disappeared under my feet, but then it returned. The emerald fog dissipated and the first thing I saw were Kira’s very evil eyes as she stood before me. And behind her was a thunderstorm in the horizon — there were lightning strikes from the storm, dying ships.

  “I did not understand,” Kira said coldl
y, looking at my chest.

  “What?” I asked and looked below.

  I held the Black Baroness in my arms.

  “Just try to throw me!” Baroness said, coming to her senses.

  “Better to throw!” Kira shook her head.

  “I will go fishing,” Roska remarked wisely and stomped to the side.

  “I am with you!” I hurriedly said, dropping the head of Sleepless on the deck and turning quickly to my daughter. “Well, the day turned out, right, dear?”

  “Yes, a thousand devils! This was a great day! I want to have fun everyday! Dad, give me a combat fishing ship!”

  “A combat fishing ship?”

  “A combat fishing ship!”

  “Hmm … well, I ...”

  “Uncle Orbit said you had enough money!”

  “Did he?”

  “Yes!”

  “Then I will buy it. And I even know whose living figure I would peg to the stem ...”

  “Maybe to the bowsprit?” Someone corrected me.

  “No, really. To the stem...”

  “Navigator! What fishing? Come back to the watch!”

  “Here goes the fishing ...” I groaned. “I was dancing!”

  “Enough dancing. Time to work! Send the order to all ships — we embark back on course!”

  A hard wind hit the sails. The amber ray “shot” from my chest, pointing to the horizon. We were on the right course again. And somewhere behind our backs, the Black Queen was still alive.

  “Someone wake up the watchmen and analysts! We need detailed military reports on the losses of the enemy! All orders must be approved by Special Private Storm! We continue the campaign! On course Zar’Graad!”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine.

  Souls howling in the crimson waves.

  We are the Messenger of Valdira! The most complete and objective source of knowledge about all current events in the magical world of Valdira! We always try to find out what cannot be learned, so that we could then tell our kind and devoted readers! Here and now one of our glorious correspondents … lies in oblivion on a corner of the couch and mutters, in delirium, something so terrible that we are afraid to record it! And no — this was not the nonsense of digital consciousness! This is a brief summary of the events from the scene of the clash of one ship of the Sleepless Clan and three enemy fleets … only a brief summary! Already three of our editorial board went into the real world and do not want to return because of the unabridged version.