Ashrak! Chari! It’s time to go,” Duke Valeran called from the Skywitch.
The five friends paused, taking a long look at each other one last time. “That’s it then, time for us to go off and fight monsters,” Aiden said seriously. “Be careful. I think our monsters will be easier to spot than yours.”
Ashrak returned his serious look with an equally grim on. “I think so too. Stay safe and,” he held up his com unit, “keep in touch.”
And with that, they were gone. Aiden, Gavin, and Markam trooped aboard the other large skimmer and watched as the Skywitch slowly moved out of its docking berth. The majestic ship was taking several people they cared about into danger, and they knew it. Then it was time for them to leave.
The Stormdancer was the same model as the Skywitch, but whereas the Skywitch was gleaming white and cream, the Stormdancer had a darker tone with gray and blue. It was a beautiful ship, but Aiden missed the familiarity of the Skywitch. The two smaller skimmers accompanied them once they had backed out of the skydocks, and then the three ships headed east.
“How long is it going to take for us to get there?” Aiden asked. He’d not been on one of the Skimmers that was in a hurry before, and before they knew it, farmland and forest were passing far below them.
“Unfortunately, a little over an hour,” Stelios said, coming up behind Gavin and Aiden. I wish we could get there sooner. Trelakor sounded like he was more than a little desperate. Aiden, can you try to reach him?”
Aiden nodded and pulled out his com unit, pushing the button as he thought of the wizened head of Dawad clan. “Hello? Trelakor? Are you there?”
They could immediately hear the muffled voice of Trelakor giving orders, but it wasn’t very clear. Aiden figured Trelakor had the com unit in a pouch or somewhere else that made it difficult to make out everything that was said. It wasn’t difficult to make out the angry screaming of men and women fighting, punctuated by the occasional high pierced yell of someone in pain. To Aiden, it sounded like Trelakor was yelling orders to his men and it didn’t sound good.”
Stelios cursed and held his hand out for the com unit. Aiden handed it over, and Stelios immediately started calling out Trelakor’s name with considerably more volume than Aiden could produce. “Trelakor! Trelakor, can you hear me? We’re on our way.”
They heard fumbling, and then Trelakor’s voice came over the unit sound tired and haggard. “Stelios? Stelios is that you? Thank the Circles. How far out are you? We need your help badly.”
“We’re an hour out, Trelakor. Can you tell me what is happening? We have the Stormdancer and two other skimmers with a hundred men.”
“Hurry! Please! My people are dying!” Trelakor begged. “These things are huge and able to crawl up the side of the ship.” There was a momentary pause, followed by a muffled sob. “They…they have already sunk two of our ships. Everyone aboard killed and eaten. We could hear their cries over the water, but we couldn’t do anything to stop it. The two other ships are starting to list. These things, their skin burns. It eats through the wood and destroys our weapons! Please hurry!”
Stelios’s face reflected the horror that Aiden was feeling. “Tell the Captain to increase our speed to maximum,” Stelios said to one of his men. “The other two skimmers can catch up, but we’ve got to get there as fast as possible.” Stelios watched as his man ran towards the bridge before turning his attention back to the com unit. “Trelakor, we’re coming. We’ll get there as fast as possible, I promise.”
Suddenly the com unit went silent. The friends all looked at each other in shock before Gavin turned to Aiden. “What would cause a com unit to cut off like that?”
Aiden swallowed but shook his head. “I…I don’t know.” But he could guess, he just didn’t want to say it out loud.
Chapter 12
Instead of an hour, it took them forty-five minutes to reach the small port town of Ravenwood Cove. There was still light in the sky though the sun was getting close to the horizon with the tips of the tallest pine trees already intercepting the first of the sun’s rays. From their vantage point high in the air, the crew and passengers of the Stormdancer could clearly see the full horror that was befalling Trelakor and his clan.
At first, Aiden though the waters in the small cove was boiling but that was not the case. They were filled with creatures thrashing and even climbing over each other to get to their prey. Aiden was worried, because either the small harbor was that shallow or there were just that many creatures. The skimmer had stopped so they could take stock of the situation, but it was obvious to them all that the two remaining ships of the Dawad clan didn’t have much time.
Of the two ships, the smaller one was listing to the side, and the dwindling crew was having a very difficult time keeping the monsters from crawling over the lowest side. They were doing their best with long hooks, swords, and even planks of wood but even from here they could hear the faint screams and cursing from the crew as they slowly lost ground. The larger ship was resisting the monsters better because it had plates of glimmer steel that sheathed its lower hull.
“Okay boys,” Stelios said quickly, gathering Gavin, Markam, and Aiden together near Aiden’s small skimmer. “You’re observers, but we need to get the Stormdancer down close to the ships so we can take on their crews. I want you to take your skimmer and stay above the fight.” Stelios held up his com unit. “I have this, so if you need anything, try to get ahold of me. I can’t promise anything, but I’ll try to answer. Got it?”
The three boys nodded, and Stelios’ clapped them all on their shoulders before turning away. It wasn’t difficult to climb into Aiden’s skimmer. He’d made it look like an old rowboat, so the gunwale wasn’t steep so getting into it was not a chore despite the armor that Stelios had brought for Aiden. Markam and Gavin obviously wore theirs with little difficulty, but Aiden had never worn a helmet or breastplate before.
Still, it did not take them long to lift off and begin to circle the fight below. The Stormdancer began to descend towards the smaller, beleaguered ship with its side needlers firing down into the water near the sides of both ships. The small blue bolts of energy sizzled down and wreaked havoc with the large, slime covered monsters.
Aiden moved his skimmer down in the wake of the Stormdancer but wasn’t about to get too close. “What are you doing, Aiden?” Markam said, nervously. “We need to stay high and away from those things.
“We’re here to observe, Markam. To do that I need to get lower while we still have light. We’re not getting too low. I don’t think those things can jump, or they would have over-run the ships already.”
Markam gave him a wary eye but nodded, turning back to the gunwale and looking over the side with Gavin. Aiden was amazed. He knew Markam had some strong feeling about heights and water, but he forced himself to look and observe their foe.
“Would you look at that,” Gavin said in awe, pointing towards one of the creatures clinging to the side of one of the ships. Both of the other boys looked as well, taking in their first, relatively close look at one of the monsters. Dark-purple chitin covered its head as several long antennae thrust outward, tapping and waving in the air as it struggled to heave its bulk up against the wood. Black eyes reflected what was going on around it, giving the creature a soulless feel. Two powerful, hinged claws gripped into the hardwood of the ship while its bulbous, soft body was pushed upwards through the efforts of multiple, articulated legs. Even as the thing moved, it left a slime trail of viscous liquid behind it which ate into the ships, just like the burn marks in the fishing vessel that had beached itself in Reid.
There was no doubt that this was the same creature that had attacked the crew of the small fishing vessel, but instead of just one, there were thousands.
“Those things are a lot larger than what made the marks on that fishing boat,” Gavin said, frowning. “Do you think that was a small one, or do you think they are growing that quickly?”
“I don’t know, but I think we w
ould have heard of something like this before, wouldn’t we?” Aiden asked, making sure to keep his skimmer away from where the Stormdancer was firing. The needlers were very effective but couldn’t be used to sweep the sides of the ship clean. They would probably sink the vessel faster so were restricted to firing into the water. However, the crossbowmen were having more success as the skimmer settled against the high side of the listing vessel. Their bolts were strong enough to penetrate the thick chitin and cause the monsters that were close to climbing over the side to erupt in pained, high-pitched screams.
Finally, the Stormdancer was close enough, causing Stelios and his men to rush onto the slanted deck of the doomed seagoing ship and move to support the terrified crew. Some of the soldiers engaged the monsters directly while others began helping injured Dawad clansmen onto the skimmer. Most of the soldiers had normal swords and shields, but the Duke’s Guardsmen all had Aiden’s improved swords and armor. A small pocket of them immediately began to make a difference, slicing through claws and armored carapaces with ease.
“That will get them,” Gavin said, grinning and watching the men begin to sweep the side clear. It looked like it would be a rout until Aiden saw one of the creatures that had lost a claw suddenly swell and let loose an eruption of sickly green vomit onto the group of brave soldiers.
The men began to scream in pain, falling back and collapsing onto the deck. Whatever the liquid was, it seemed to trigger a reaction, and several more of the monsters let loose with their expulsion, covering almost a third of the men on the front line. To a man, they fell or slipped, dropping everything and trying to crawl away from the acid that seemed to be dissolving their flesh.
The crossbowmen on the Stormdancer redoubled their efforts, working to keep the creatures back but without the men on the ship to help, they couldn’t fire fast enough, allowing several of the beasts to make it onto the deck. Most of them fell on the wounded and fallen, picking them up and feasting on their slowly dissolving flesh before they were dead. It was a horrible sight to watch as they held the bodies and brought them into their large mouths surrounding by hooked feeding appendages. The screams of the dying cut deeply into Aiden’s soul.
“Get to the skimmer!” Stelios bellowed and went to help a man who had lost a leg. The remaining soldiers and sailors all began to move, scrabbling up the now dangerously tilted deck. Even as they fought for the relative safety of the Stormdancer, some men were being pulled out of the mass by huge claws, screaming and flailing desperately as the monsters reached for more food.
Aiden, Gavin, and Markam were dumbfounded. They’d never experienced something like this horrible massacre and were horrified at the people dying before their eyes.
“We’ve got to do something!” Aiden shouted, watching as another spout of green gook shot out, covering a few more brave soldiers. Two immediately lost their grips and fell along the deck, plummeting into the now voracious mass of creatures feeding on whatever they could get, but the third held on with his arms while his legs dissolved. Even as Aiden watched, they seemed to dwindle and smoke, boiling away until the pain was too much, and the third man soundlessly let go and dropped to his doom.
The last man had been one of Stelios’ men, and while everything else of his was susceptible to the monsters acid, the tunic that Aiden had made for him was unharmed, gumming up one of the creature’s mouth-parts. Aiden watched it struggle with the glimmer steel material, and eventually it became hopelessly entangled and dove back into the ocean in distress.
“What can we do?” Gavin said, his sword was out of its sheath as if Gavin meant to leap over the side. “We can’t go down and fight. It wouldn’t make any difference.”
“We’re not going to go and fight!” Markam said, glaring at Gavin and then Aiden.
“No, we’re not, but we’ve got a glimmer steel craft. The acid won’t hurt us. We can at least do something to help the men trying to escape.”
“Markam turned fully, towards Aiden. “What are you going to do!? You are not going to put Gavin into harms…urk!”
Aiden drove the skimmer toward the fighting. “Hang on and duck! Don’t look over the sides. I’m going to ram them!”
Aiden had practiced flying his skimmer, working to make his handling of it smoother and surer. He’d also tweaked the controls at the same time he’d added more seats, and it allowed him a better ability to control how and where his craft went. The vessel shot down, not going its full speed, but it didn’t need to. It just needed to sweep at least some of the creatures from the deck to give the crew time to escape.
At the last moment, Aiden pulled his walking stick up and in front of him, engaging the shield. He wasn’t sure what to expect, but the last thing he needed was being knocked unconscious by something flying over the side. No matter what happened, he knew this was a terribly dangerous maneuver. Markam had tackled Gavin and pulled him down into the bed of the skimmer, but Aiden needed to see where he was going, so he held his stick in front of his face and aimed for the mass of beasts crawling over the almost-submerged railing.
He felt the first few impacts and immediately his skimmer began bouncing and bucking underneath him. The wildly crawling and flailing monsters were not small, and even though his skimmer was impervious to their attacks, their weight was another matter entirely. He felt every impact, and it was getting harder and harder to maintain a course. Aiden angled the nose of the skimmer closer to the wooden deck of the sinking ship which helped, but when he finally reached the end of the sinking ship, he was more than happy to pull up and away from the melee behind them.
Aiden looked back, hoping they’d been effective and was happy to see they’d cleared a small path through the creatures, knocking some of them into others which caused quite a lot of confusion in their ranks. The crossbowmen took advantage of this momentary distraction, sending their bolts into the soft fleshy sides and underbellies rather than at their armored heads. Aiden breathed a soft sigh of relief, watching as the remaining clansmen and soldiers scrambled to get clear of the dead ship.
Suddenly, two large hands grabbed him, pulling him up and away from the controls of his skimmer.
“You damn fool! You could have had us all killed!” Markam snarled, as he thrust his face toward Aiden. “I should throw you over the side of this ship right now!”
“Markam!” Gavin yelled. “Stand down now! Stand down!” Gavin was suddenly there, pulling on Markam’s arms, but the large boy wasn’t budging.
Aiden was having none of it. He didn’t want to hurt Markam, but he was done being bullied. He let his dangling walking stick tap against one of Markam’s grieves on the inside of his boot. Immediately, the large guard’s leg flew sideways as if a giant had swept his foot, sending him down to the floor of the skimmer with a crash.
Aiden took a step back while he and Gavin stared down at a now dazed and prone Markam. Aiden hoped he hadn’t done anything permanent to his foot, but it didn’t take long for the large boy to recover. He made as if he were going to launch himself at Aiden, but Gavin grabbed his shoulder armor, pulling him back off balance. “Markam, that’s enough,” Gavin growled, pulling the wild-eyed guard around to face him. “Stop it now, If Aiden hadn’t done that, I would have asked him to do it.”
For a moment, Markam looked like he was going to rebel and Aiden got his walking stick ready, turning on the shield as he watched for any sign of an attack. However, Markam only nodded, glancing at Aiden for a moment and bowing his head slightly. “I’m…sorry, Aiden. You startled me. I didn’t expect that.”
Aiden watched for a moment longer, then lowered his walking stick and shield before climbing back in the seat. “Well, for what it is worth, neither did I. I just knew I had to do something. Markam, I know your purpose is to protect Gavin, but I just can’t sit by and watch people killed.”
“Neither can I,” Gavin said, holding his large friend's arm. “I know your purpose is to protect me, but sometimes I have to risk myself to save others. I’m not sure ho
w to balance that with you, but we have to try, Markam.”
“I’ll try,” Markam said, taking a big breath and blowing it out before sitting down and leaning down to inspect his foot. “By the Circle Stone, Aiden, that thing hits with a wallop. I thought you blew my leg off.”
Aiden shook his head and tapped his walking stick in his hand, “Nope, only had it on setting two.” He said darkly, “Good thing my finger didn’t slip to three.”
Markam just nodded, frowning at the stick in Aiden hand. “Yeah, me too. I guess it’s about time I stop lifting you up by your shirt, then.”
Gavin clapped Markam on the back. “Yes, more than about time.” Gavin stopped and looked over the side of the skimmer and frowned. “Aiden, Stelios is waving for us. I think he wants us to come down. They’ve lifted away from the first ship and are moving towards the second.”
Aiden glanced down and nodded, seeing the large guard captain and heading towards the slowly moving Stormdancer. They watched it as the needlers and the main gun kept firing. The needlers were focusing on the area near the last ship, but the main gun seemed just to be firing down into the water in the same long arc across the front of the bay. Aiden wasn’t sure but thought they might just be trying to discourage more creatures from entering the shallow water.
The Glimmer Steel Saga, Boxed Set, Books 1 - 4 Page 74
