Despite Querry’s warning, Reg came and stood beside him, their shoulders touching, as Reg held his augmented pistols. Querry couldn’t help being reassured at Reg’s presence.
“What the hell are we shooting at?” Reg shouted over the noise.
“I told you to stay down.”
“Since when are you in charge, Querry?”
“Since— Oh hell.”
“Right. What am I shooting at?”
“I don’t know.” Querry lied to his partner, lied to someone who loved and trusted him for the second time in less than an hour.
“Querry?” Reg suspected; he knew Querry too well.
“I don’t want to hurt the faeries, Reg.”
“For the love of God, why not? Do you see what’s happening here? People are dying because of them.”
Querry couldn’t answer. He looked at the lovely beings bobbing in the water, their smooth, lithe, upper bodies exposed, glistening with sea-spray. They belonged there, maybe, probably, more than the men aboard the ship. He didn’t know why the sea fey impeded them, but perhaps they had legitimate reason. Should he trust them any less than Lord Starling? He wondered if his association with his gentleman would hold any water with the creatures surrounding the ship. As absurd as he knew it would sound to Reg or anyone else, Querry wished he could just speak with those faeries. His instinct for self-preservation clashed hard against his fondness for beings who’d treated him equitably, valued him when no one else did, and he didn’t know which to choose.
He didn’t get to decide. The mercenary leader Querry had quarreled with before, newly freed by Frolic and protected by Cornelia, joined them at the railing. The big man slipped some thick goggles over his eyes and lifted a huge, clockwork rifle to his shoulder. He took his shot, and Querry watched in horror as his bullet ripped through the chest of a gorgeous, male water fey. With a high-pitched shriek, the creature exploded in a spray of briny water. Querry tried to believe the fish-like man wasn’t dead, just returned to his element.
“Haha! Take that, you bastards!” The mercenary shot at and vanquished another of the beings. Then he called out to his men. “Lads! Use the special lenses. And the iron bullets. Be quick. Move!”
The dark-haired brothers obeyed with the speed of any trained soldier, donning their eyewear and lifting their guns. Querry knew he couldn’t stop them, as much as he wanted to. After a few more casualties, the ocean faeries opened their mouths impossibly wide, a discordant tone bellowing forth. The few sailors Frolic hadn’t managed to liberate turned on the mercenaries. The unenchanted men grabbed pails to douse the fire on the main mast, while a few others tried to help the mercenaries. Querry noticed a couple of the men vomiting the blood and flesh of their shipmates onto the deck, and the bile rose in his throat.
Still, that single, bizarre note from the water fey drifted on the still air. Thunder clapped above, the air around the ship grew close and stifling. The mercenaries and the sailors, with Frolic and Cornelia, had managed to free the last few men who remained under the influence of the fey-song. Querry and Reg watched the scene unfold as the song swelled to an earsplitting pitch. The mercenaries retrieved their weapons, but even with the wool in their ears, their hands went to the sides of their heads, trying to block out the tone. Querry, Reg, and Cornelia did the same. Out of everyone, only Frolic remained upright and unaffected. He turned and shouted at his companions. Querry saw Frolic’s mouth move, saw the horror in his eyes, but heard nothing but the ceaseless echo of that one, wavering note. Frolic’s hand drifted up, pointing at something. Abruptly the song, like the rain, stopped.
“Querry, Reg,” Frolic called. “You might want to have a look at this!” They immediately ran to the railing next to their love and sought out the object of the terror in Frolic’s eyes.
“Dear God,” Reg gasped, his hand going to his mouth.
Chapter 7
BEFORE QUERRY saw what Reg and Frolic were seeing, he looked at the sea fey. They all wore almost identical smirks. His gaze drifted up from them, focusing on a point just before the horizon. “That can’t be good,” he said, watching the spot of churning water in an otherwise calm sea headed straight for them. A strange, spiked fin crested the water, cutting a path directly to the ship.
“What is it?” The gray-haired mercenary asked. A crowd had gathered at the port railing. The water roiled around whatever it was. The beast rose slowly out of the salty, foaming water.
“Nothin’ I’ve ever seen,” answered an old sailor with a deep scar across the bridge of his nose.
“It’s the devil,” someone else offered as two vacant orbs as black as the void emerged above the waves it created. Something like giant sea snakes writhed in the wake the monster left behind.
No, Querry thought. Not snakes, tentacles. The sea fey bobbed on waves created by the rings preceding the beast’s approach.
“To the cannons!” ordered the man Querry thought of as the first mate, finally breaking the spell of the monstrosity. Immediately men dashed about the deck, readying the portside cannons.
“It’s not going to be enough,” Cornelia murmured in awe. “I’ll be back in a tick.” She dashed to the portal leading to the hold and disappeared.
The ship rocked on the waves the creature created. The sea fey parted to make way for the beast they’d summoned. Its mouth rose into view, awful to behold, filled with strangely angled fangs at irregular intervals. The eyes blinked with two sets of eyelids, one set moving vertically, the other horizontally over those fathomless black orbs. Querry saw death in those globes, cold and indiscriminate.
“To arms, boys,” the oldest mercenary barked, and his men knelt at the railing, pointing their guns and rifles at the beast. Querry and Reg exchanged a glance and did the same, using the rail to steady their weapons, though it did no good. The entire ship nodded on the now churning waters.
Odd light glinted off the scales of the monster, reminding Querry of the peacocks he’d once seen in a nobleman’s menagerie back home. “It’s not slowing down,” he pointed out.
“It’s going to ram us?” Reg asked. It suddenly occurred to Querry that this might not be the best place to be when those teeth reached the ship. He opened his mouth to tell the others, but the first mate gave the order to fire the cannons, and the world erupted around him. The mercenaries followed suit, firing at the beast.
The creature bellowed and rose out of the waves, launching itself at the ship. Querry saw the enormous beast in its entirety. Its huge mouth gaped hungrily. The body was that of some kind of abominable fish with scales and mean, spiky fins. Instead of a tail, the beast had a fan of tentacles that propelled it along. On either side of the creature’s corpse-white belly were two sets of frog-like legs, the webbed feet ending in evil talons. The claws of the monster’s front legs looked disturbingly similar to human hands.
The bullets had very little effect, and the few cannonballs that actually hit the beast did only slightly more damage. One or two of the tentacles were severed. Still, the abomination didn’t slow, and one more leap would allow it to reach the ship. “Scatter!” Querry screamed, and to his surprise, nearly everyone listened to him. The few men who didn’t were impaled by those nasty, crooked fangs.
The beast slid back into the ocean with the rock of the boat, though they felt it passing under the hull. “The guns aren’t doing anything,” Reg yelled as he leaned toward Querry.
“I noticed.” Querry stowed his pistol and pulled out his sword. Reg did the same as Frolic joined them, the three of them standing shoulder to shoulder.
“What can we do against that thing?” Frolic asked.
“I don’t know,” Querry answered honestly. He couldn’t bring himself to offer false assurances. They jumped back as the beast’s giant claw landed on the deck, scratching into the boards as it dragged itself partially onto the ship. Its tentacles whipped around chaotically, smacking men around, coiling around them, crushing them. Most of the sailors dashed about trying to avoid the bea
st. The mercenaries, armed with blades, flanked the beast’s arm.
A tentacle swept toward Querry, and he lashed out with his sword, slicing the appendage off. Black blood spattered across the boards of the deck. The creature roared and grabbed at Querry with the hand that wasn’t holding it on the ship. Frolic leaped in front of his lover and lashed out with his magic blade, impaling the webbed hand. Frolic planted his feet, and when the beast pulled its hand back, it only succeeded in tearing its own flesh. More dark blood poured down Frolic’s blade and coated his hands and arms.
“Heave!”
Querry’s attention was drawn to the mercenaries.
Two of the men held blades over their heads, while the others lit the fuses of grenades. “Ho!” the leader shouted. Their blades flashed through the air, chopping at the beast’s wrist, severing the hand. The loosed grenades exploded in the mouth of the monster as it dropped back into the sea. The mercenaries whooped with triumph, laughing and congratulating each other with slaps to the back.
The ship lurched, knocking everyone off balance as the beast leapt out of the boiling surf, its cadaver-white belly landing on the deck. Water poured over the rails as the ship dipped with the extra weight, close to capsizing. The tentacles crawled relentlessly toward the crew members. An angry war cry rent the air, and Querry turned in time to see Frolic leaping onto the face of the beast before plunging his enchanted blade into the monster’s eye. Sickening, thick yellow liquid fountained out of the ruined sphere, knocking Frolic back to the ship.
The beast cried and flopped on the deck. Querry and Reg both hacked at the tentacles that came too close. It seemed as though each one they severed spawned two more. “This is getting us nowhere,” Reg yelled.
“I’m open to suggestions!” Querry answered.
“Where’s Frolic?”
“He’s on the other side of the beast.” Querry could see him hacking away at the tentacles as well, the monster’s black blood splashing his fair skin and coating him in tar-like grime. “He’s fighting like a man possessed.”
The mercenaries were engaged similarly. One of the brothers lit another round of grenades. Before he could finish, the beast swept its abbreviated arm, knocking back the entire party of attackers, including Querry, Frolic, and Reg.
Querry slid across the deck, crashing into the starboard rail. He shook his head and looked up to see a flaming projectile lodge itself in the beast’s scaly hide. Querry followed the smoke trail to Cornelia, standing with some sort of clockwork backpack. A copper tube the size of a small tree was attached to the apparatus, and she held it against her shoulder like a rifle. The projectile exploded, and the beast screeched, its ragged jaws snapping. The damage remained superficial, and the monster turned its attention to the defiant girl on the deck.
“Cornelia!” Frolic called to his newest friend. She fired another of the smoldering grenade-arrows. This one arched right into the beast’s mouth. Querry suddenly had an idea. The monster’s mouth snapped down on the incendiary object and muffled the ensuing explosion. When the beast opened its gaping maw again, smoke billowed out. Querry ran to Cornelia’s side.
“How are you at aiming that thing?” he asked.
“Fair enough. I designed it myself, Mr. Knotte.”
“Good.” Querry patted her shoulder. “You’ll know when to fire,” he told her and dashed across the deck, avoiding the monster’s tentacles. On his way, he scooped up a bit of fishing net. He reached his goal: three barrels of lamp oil lashed to the stern rail. He sliced the rope, and the barrels rolled free with the rocking of the ship. He tried to catch them all with the net but only managed two. Querry dragged the net with barrels back toward the beast, making no attempt to avoid the monster’s tentacles. This was their only chance. If they didn’t kill or drive the thing off soon, its weight alone would drag the ship to the bottom of the sea.
Querry’s gamble paid off, and the beast swept him up, barrels and all, tossing him toward its mouth. Querry pulled out his grapple gun in midair, and fired. He thanked whatever deities might exist Frolic had found time to repair it. The grapple bit into the fin on the beast’s back, and he reeled himself over the monster’s mouth and onto its face, between its good and ruined eye. He released the grapple and pulled out his sword, stabbing it into one barrel then the other. Lamp oil spilled over the monster’s face, and he gave Cornelia a high sign before diving off the beast. Seconds later, the grenade-arrow stuck fast in the monster’s forehead as Querry rolled into his landing.
The grenade exploded, and the lamp oil burst into flames, coaxing strangled cries from the creature’s throat as its flesh bubbled and cracked. The foul beast thrashed about the deck, splintering rails and booms, shredding sails. Finally, with one last, trumpeting bellow, the beast retreated into the sea. The clouds dissipated with the disappearance of the creature. At some point the sea fey had departed as well.
Querry rose, cradling his shoulder, searching for Frolic and Reg. Frolic sat on the deck, covered in ichor but unscathed. Cornelia had run to check on him and now held his head in her lap. Reg lay just out of reach near the bow. Querry limped over.
“Are you all right, Reg?” Querry asked.
“Aside from having no idea what just happened, I suppose so.” Reg rose, shakily.
“Fuck,” Querry whispered. He grabbed the front of Reg’s shirt and pulled him close, trembling as he wove his arms around Reg, just like the faerie magic had. He squeezed, feeling Reg’s bones crack and grind under the pressure. He couldn’t let go. Reg’s scent aroused him as he buried his face in Reg’s blond hair. Querry’s body tingled with awareness, still ready to fight, still acute. It turned him on, made him seek an outlet for his energy, but his guilt and shame squelched it. He’d put his partner in such danger and barely managed to save him. He didn’t deserve Reg’s devotion.
“I’m sorry.”
“Querry?”
“God, Reg. I love you so much.”
“I love you too, Querry, but we should talk later, in private. Where’s Frolic?”
Both of them turned, pulling away from one another, to see Frolic sheathing his blade as he crossed the deck. He looked shaken to his core, his golden eyes wide and wondering, and his sweet, swollen little lips turned down. Viscous black fluid clung to his skin and dripped from his curls. It saturated his clothing, reeking of rotted fish. He stopped a few feet short of Querry and Reg.
“What have we done?” Frolic whispered. “Why did we do this?”
Querry reached for him, but for the first time ever, Frolic didn’t rush into his embrace. He just stood chewing his lip and said, “I felt like I was on the wrong side. Those creatures didn’t deserve to die. If we’d have left them alone, they never would have summoned that thing.”
“How can you say that?” Reg asked in a loud voice.
Frolic flinched. “Reg—what if they were right to try to stop us? We don’t even know what we’re doing.”
“And who’s to blame for that?” Reg snapped.
Querry’s pulse raced. Anger replaced the hundred other conflicting emotions he experienced. His rage relieved his misunderstanding and felt almost like a reprieve. Here was something he understood. He’d been deceived, and the people he loved had been placed in danger. “I don’t know who’s at fault here. But I’ve an idea, and I’m bloody well going to find out. Wait here. I need to have a chat with our revered Lord Starling. I noticed he wasn’t anywhere near the deck during that entire encounter! Yellow-bellied sod.”
He strode toward the hatch, but Reg caught his arm. “You aren’t going alone. I have some questions too.”
“So do I,” Frolic said, lifting his chin defiantly. “I’ll have answers. I don’t like what just happened, and I’ll make him tell me why it did if I have to.”
Querry nodded, glad for the support of his fellows as he descended into the smoke-filled hold in search of his employer. The time had come and then some for him to know what he and his companions really faced.
C
hapter 8
REG, QUERRY, and Frolic found Lord Starling and Tom Teezle in the engine room, among stacks of smoking debris. Bent gears littered the floor, and steam hissed in spurts from damaged pipes. The intricate circuits of wheels and pistons that powered the ship stood still and silent. The furnace still burned, and the wizard and fey stood backlit by the red glow.
“You son of a bitch,” Querry said, tensing, fists knotted tight, ready to lunge at Lord Starling.
Reg caught his friend’s elbow. “Let’s just hear what he has to say. Maybe it won’t come to violence.” Reg didn’t add that if the baron didn’t provide satisfactory answers to their questions, for once, he’d certainly advocate the use of a little force. This man had deceived them, and he’d put the people Reg loved in danger. Reg considered himself a patient and tolerant man, a man who valued reason over conflict, but he wouldn’t abide anyone threatening Querry or Frolic.
Starling turned. “What is it?” he asked irritably. “Surely even the three of you are astute enough to see I have much to deal with at the moment.”
“It will have to wait.” Reg stepped in front of Querry and Frolic. “You owe us some explanations.”
“I owe you nothing, Mr. Whitney. You have no right to demand anything of me. In fact, I don’t recall ever requesting your presence here.”
Reg struggled to control his outrage and keep his voice a polite volume. “That is beside the point, sir. I am here, and none of us, including you, have any way to leave, especially now. The secrets you’ve chosen to keep have cost several people their lives already. I simply cannot let the same thing happen to my friends. I will not, sir. One way or another, you will answer our questions. Remember, sir, you hold no contract over me. I remain free to act as I deem appropriate.”
A Grimoire for the Baron Page 9
