Sea Devil's Eye

by Mel Odom

  “Come hard to starboard!” Azla ordered from the forecastle.

  Jherek looked up at the half-elf pirate captain with respect. She stood there knowing she was losing her ship, yet she remained inviolate, totally in command.

  “What are you thinking, young warrior?” Glawinn asked.

  “Look at her,” Jherek said. “Aboard a dying ship, about to take on a crew twice the size of hers, yet she knows no fear.”

  “You don’t think she’s afraid?”

  “Maybe she is,” he conceded, “but she overcomes it well.”

  “Fear isn’t necessarily a bad thing, young warrior. It’s meant to warn of uncertain situations and concentrate resolve, to give strength to flagging muscles and wings to thoughts. In the end it must be embraced and accepted, not conquered like an enemy blade. Aren’t you afraid now?”

  “Aye,” Jherek said, continuing to watch the pirate captain as she ordered the grappling crew to the railing, “and it shames me.”

  “I’d rather see you afraid,” Glawinn said, “and know that you are truly alive, than to see you the way I have seen you in the past days.”

  “I have done so many wrong things, made so many mistakes.” He glanced at Sabyna, who stood on the forecastle deck with Arthoris and Azla. “I’ve hurt someone I would never have offered any injury.” He turned his attention to the paladin and added, “I’ve even offended you, who have done nothing but try to help me.”

  Glawinn smiled, his eyes twinkling, and dropped his mailed hand on Jherek’s shoulder. “Young warrior,” he said, “if you made no trespasses, who would there be to say you’d ever been by?”

  Black Champion smashed through another wave and took a while to right herself. Jherek held onto the railing, balancing himself easily while Glawinn struggled slightly with all his armor on.

  “Keep something in mind, young warrior. A hero who has never known fear or want, uncertainty or anger, hunger or loneliness, is no real hero. It isn’t their bravery that should impress you. That turns on a moment, marking an event that most people choose to recognize as heroic. It is in the journey that leads up to that moment, the persistence of vision, that makes a man or woman truly heroic. Do you understand?”

  “Some of it.”

  Glawinn patted him on the shoulder. “The rest will come in time. For now we have a ship to take.”

  Jherek watched as the slave ship drew closer and closer.

  The slaver’s stern ballista crew swung the large weapon around. Even as they started locking the ballista down and getting ready to fire at Black Champion—a target scarcely more than seventy feet distant—a mass of writhing black tentacles suddenly sprouted from the deck.

  The ballista crew turned and tried to flee, but the black tentacles whipped out blindly and wrapped the slavers up, snapping bones and squeezing the life from them. Their screams were lost in the rush of water and wind. The tentacles ripped the ballista from the deck and smashed it into a thousand pieces.

  “Azla’s mage,” Glawinn said.

  Jherek nodded and watched as the slaver crew attacked the tentacles with harpoons and swords.

  Twisting tongues of flame suddenly ignited in the slaver’s amidships. For a moment, Jherek believed the vessel was afire, then the flame blossomed hotter and brighter and shot toward Black Champion.

  “Fireball!” one of the pirates squalled. As a man, the boarding crew ducked under the huge mass of roiling flames.

  The wizard’s casting was slightly off, and the fireball sizzled as it touched the water beside the pirate ship, then exploded into a wall of flames that rushed across Black Champion’s deck. Rigging and sailcloth caught fire. Only the water washing over the deck kept it from burning as well.

  Arthoris stepped to the edge of the forecastle railing above and extended his hands to the heavens, the sleeves of his robes falling back down his skinny arms. He cried out in a language Jherek didn’t understand, his tone at once commanding and beseeching.

  Dark clouds spiraled into the sky above the ships, spreading out for miles in all directions. The wind lifted and came howling across the choppy ocean surface. Rigging creaked above, and lanyards that were cracked but not broken through now gave way. A heavy, stinging rain smacked into Black Champion and her crew.

  The flames atop the rigging were quickly snuffed.

  “Grappling crew!” Azla yelled above the roar of the storm. “Ready on the line!”

  The pirates surged forward to the railing again. Jherek stooped and picked up a grappling line, running the rough hemp through his hands. He measured back from the big, three-pronged hook and readied himself to cast.

  A giant shape surged out of the water between the two ships. A webbed green foot with great claws slapped against the starboard railing. A huge head at least eight feet across, cut with a grim maw and gold-webbed spines along the back of its neck, followed the foot. Malevolent red eyes glared at the surprised crew. Another foot followed the first, and the great creature tried to drag itself aboard. The neck strained up from the dark green shell on its back.

  “Dragon turtle!” a man screamed.

  The grappling line crew surged back, breaking away from the deadly creature.

  Pacys woke in black waters. Panicked, he struggled to get free of the ocean. He tried to find a way back to his own body.

  Taleweaver.

  The call wasn’t from anything human. Pacys heard it in his mind, but the syllables were long and drawn out.

  Do not be in such a hurry, the voice went on. There is much to learn.

  Basso booming filled the water, stretching out into squeaks and squeals, turning again to a deep moaning sound like wind blowing over the neck of a bottle. The old bard listened to the sound carefully, drawn to its melodic nature.

  Where am I? Pacys asked.

  We call this the dreaming time.

  Who are you?

  Enemies of the Taker and his sahuagin.

  What do you want with me?

  We did not summon you. You came to us as it was foretold in our songs.

  With surprise, Pacys realized that the booming squeals and squeaks were whale songs. Are you here with me?

  In the only way that we can be.

  I can’t see you.

  Open your mind, Taleweaver. All that we may tell you will be revealed.

  Letting go the panic that vibrated inside him, Pacys immersed himself in the whale song. There weren’t words or even tones especially. The sounds played upon the ear, but they touched the heart. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, the black water was sapphire blue.

  He peered below, seeing the pale white-gray of the ocean floor a hundred feet or more below. Above him, sunlight kissed the surface of the water and turned it to too-bright silver. He glanced away, trying to peer through the blue-gray cloud that settled in the water before him.

  Where are you? the old bard asked.

  I am here, the slow voice replied. Reach out and you will touch me.

  Tentatively, Pacys stretched out his arm toward the gray-blue fog. Only instead of penetrating it as he’d expected, the fog felt rough and solid. With that single touch, the bard’s perceptions changed.

  A great whale floated in the water in front of him. The gray-blue color partially masked it in the water, and his closeness prevented him from seeing all of it even now. Pacys knew some of the great whales grew to be four hundred feet long. This one was so long its tail flukes disappeared in the distance.

  Who are you? Pacys asked.

  In your language, I am called Song Who Brings Bright Rains. My mother gave birth to me after a storm, when a rainbow stretched across the sky.

  By looking up, then down, Pacys could make out the familiar wedge-shaped head of the massive cetacean. He knew this was a humpback whale. The bard trailed his fingers along the pebbly skin as he swam down the length of its body. He found the creature’s eye only a little later.

  The eye was dark and bigger around than Pacys was tall. Instinctively, the
bard swam away from the eye, wondering if the creature could see him from this close.

  I see you, Taleweaver, the whale boomed.

  Jherek stared at the huge beast clinging to Black Champion’s starboard side.

  “It’s not real, young warrior,” Glawinn said, starting forward.

  Jherek wanted to reach out and hold the paladin back, even put a hand on his shoulder. “Wait,” he said.

  Glawinn turned on him, his beard wet with gleaming diamonds from the salt spray and the rain. “Look at it. Look hard at it and you will know it’s not real. It’s just more magery, and a weak spell at best, not one that will hurt a man. Where is that thing’s battle cry? Where is the sound of those claws rasping against the wood? How is it that the creature’s weight doesn’t tear the railing free?”

  Pirates screamed at Glawinn to get back as the dragon turtle sighted him. The neck elongated and stretched forward. The mouth opened into a cavernous gullet that could swallow a man whole. The paladin stretched his arms out and smiled.

  The dragon turtle struck, snapping its jaws closed over the paladin. Only instead of tearing flesh and breaking bone, the edged beak passed through the paladin. The illusion faded, leaving Glawinn standing untouched on the rolling deck.

  “Magery,” Glawinn shouted. “A child’s trick meant to give them enough time to get away.”

  Jherek lifted the grappling hook again and raced to the starboard railing. The slave ship had gained twenty feet in distance, too far to make the cast good.

  “Boarding party,” Jherek shouted. “Make ready.”

  Snarling curses, the pirates gathered again and took up the grappling hooks. Black Champion came about at a crawl, the waterline no more than two feet below her deck. She moved forward slowly, overtaking the slave ship with flagging strength.

  The distance closed as the pirate ship came abreast the slaver. The pirates jeered the slaver crew as they overtook them, then came alongside. Aboard the slave ship, crewmen stood ready with hatchets and axes to chop any lines that succeeded in grabbing hold.

  “Steady, men,” Azla ordered. “On my orders.”

  The slaver crew consisted mostly of humans, but there were a few half-ogres among them. The half-ogres towered above the human crew, standing eight and nine feet tall, dressed in bear skins and sahuagin hides.

  “Arthoris,” Azla barked.

  “Aye, Cap’n,” the old ship’s mage responded.

  “Ready the men.”

  Jherek felt a tingle pass through him and knew that the old man’s spell had affected him. He felt curiously light, as if he weighed nothing. Understanding what was about to happen, he quickly wrapped the grappling line around his left forearm, holding the hook itself in his hand.

  The ships closed to within twenty feet. Over-eager crewmen on both sides threw daggers, but none of them did any real harm.

  A robed man dashed atop the stern castle and spoke harsh syllables. He gestured at the writhing black tentacles still holding onto the corpses of its victims and the tentacles disappeared in an explosion of crimson powder, the spell broken. He turned and pointed a wand at the crew aboard Black Champion.

  As the slaver mage spoke, Jherek felt the hair on his head start to stand while energies gathered in the air above him. A lightning bolt from the wand cracked like a beastmaster’s whip between the ships, and struck a pirate full in the chest.

  The bolt lifted the man from his feet and held him in the air for a moment before ripping the flesh from his bones in bloody chunks that showered down over the crew. The charred corpse, white bones showing through burned meat, dropped to the deck. When a wave lapped over the side of the ship and rolled over the dead man, smoke rose from the body.

  The slaver mage pointed again.

  A flutter of movement speeding across the rain-streaked sky caught Jherek’s attention. It took the young sailor a moment to recognize the bits and pieces of material as Skeins, Sabyna’s familiar. Before the mage could unleash the power of the wand again, the raggamoffyn attacked. The living cloth plastered the man, sticking to him and covering him from head to toe in an instant, as tightly as a second skin.

  The mage tried to fight the raggamoffyn, beating against his own breast and shouting in fear as the pieces wrapped over his face. His voice became muffled, then ended abruptly. The mage jerked frantically as he tried to escape, then even that stopped. Totally under the raggamoffyn’s control, the mage ran for the side of the ship and threw himself over. He disappeared at once into the black water between the ships.

  “Boarding crew, advance!” Azla shouted.

  Stunned by the events of the last few seconds, Black Champion’s crew leaped across the twenty-foot span between the ships. The slaver rode the ocean a good eight feet higher than the pirate ship’s deck. Though Arthoris’s magic allowed them to leap the distance between the ships, most men only rose four or five feet.

  Two pirates slammed into the bulwark and fell into the sea. Three others used their grappling lines to catch onto the slaver’s railing. Jherek and the others managed to grab the railing and started hoisting themselves up.

  A half-ogre stepped up to the railing as the young sailor started his climb. His eyes showed the white pupils of a true ogre. Scars tracked his ugly, pointed face bearing a nose that was too long and too broad for the rest of his features. The pockmarked skin was the color of butter gone bad. A single braid held his long black hair from his face, revealing pointed ears.

  “Throg kill you, puny man,” the half-ogre growled. He shoved his harpoon down toward Jherek.

  The young sailor hooked an arm inside the railing, aware of the roiling sea below him and the waves crashing against the side of the slave ship. Even as well as he could swim, dropping into the ocean would probably mean death. He let go with his free hand, pushing himself against the ship in a half-roll. The ship’s pitching hammered him against the side with bruising force.

  Snarling in rage, the half-ogre drew the harpoon up to thrust again.

  Swinging back into position, Jherek reached through the railing and caught the back of the half-ogre’s foot. The young sailor yanked as hard as he could, counting on the unsteady deck to aid him. Slipping across the wet deck, the half-ogre’s foot came forward and smashed through the railing.

  Even as his opponent fell backward, Jherek planted his boots against the slave ship’s side and leaped again, using what remained of Arthoris’s spell. He flew ten feet into the air, over the heads of the slaver crew, his fist still tight around the grappling hook and line he carried. He landed, drew the cutlass from the sash, and turned to face his adversaries.

  He swung the big grappling hook into the face of the first man who reached him, knocking the man to one side. Giving ground immediately, the young sailor retreated toward the broken stump that remained of the ship’s mainmast. Moving lithely, he dodged around the mast, slammed a slaver’s blade aside, then slashed the cutlass through the slaver’s stomach, cracking ribs and ripping the man open.

  Other pirates from Black Champion landed on the deck as well, and the brawl quickly turned bloody. Crimson stained the wet decks, sluicing through the rainwater pools that collected on the warped deck.

  “Secure the lines!” Jherek yelled.

  He beat aside another slaver’s sword thrust with the flat of the cutlass, then stepped into the man and slammed his shoulder into his chest, knocking him back. The young sailor kept going forward, staying in close and using his elbows and knees to beat his opponents back as Malorrie had taught him. He slapped a knife stroke down, captured the wrist in his same hand, and buried the blade in another slaver’s chest.

  Taking advantage of the confusion and the tangle of arms and legs around him, Jherek ran to the slaver’s port railing. He shook the line free of his forearm, thrust the cutlass point down into the deck, and readied the grappling hook.

  A man charged at him from the crowd of slavers with an upraised sword. Jherek ducked under the angled sword stroke, then slammed the grappling
hook into the man’s chest, hooking the belt that crossed him from shoulder to hip. He yanked and twisted, putting all his strength and all the leverage he could muster into the move.

  Instead of merely going over the side of the ship as Jherek intended, the ship pitched suddenly and aided in the throw, making the slaver go high into the air. As he came down, Black Champion surged into the side of the slave ship, crunching the man between the two massive wooden hulls.

  The impact nearly drove Jherek from his feet. He stumbled and caught himself against the railing, staring down at the pulped smear that remained of the slaver trapped between the two ships. A wave crashed against the ships, and even that was gone.

  Horror filled Jherek and he pushed nausea from his mind. He stood on the lurching deck and watched as Black Champion went up broadside against the slave ship again. He cast the grappling hook and watched as Glawinn made it fast. Dressed in his armor, the paladin would never have made the jump even with the magic spell Arthoris had woven.

  The young sailor pulled the line taut when the two ships closed again, then wrapped it around the slaver’s railing. Wood creaked ominously as the two ships started to slide apart, but the line and the railings held. The drag created by Black Champion’s flooded hold was immediately noticeable, pulling at the slave ship like a drowning man.

  Jherek turned at the sound of footsteps behind him, catching sight of the half-ogre charging at him. The young sailor plucked his cutlass from the deck, wrapping his fingers around the hilt. He met the half-ogre’s bastard sword as it descended. Steel clanged, and the impact shivered down Jherek’s arm.

  Parrying the half-ogre’s next attack, the young sailor attempted a riposte, only to find that the creature was faster than his bulk implied. Jherek parried again to keep his head on his shoulders. Another slaver attacked from the young sailor’s side, trying to drive a spear through his guts.