Water flooded across the small boat, but the little craft was now rising high into the air. Quinn held the rudder fast, fear locking him in place so that he was like a statue. The ship topped the crest of the wave and shot down the other side, slamming her nose once again into the water.
“Storm!” Olton cried from the bow of the ship. He struggling to get back to where Quinn was holding the rudder but the waves knocked him off his feet.
“What do I do?” Quinn shouted.
“We’ve got to get the sail down!”
Quinn couldn’t see the sail, but he could hear it. It was groaning and straining in the wind, which was now whipping all around him. He was afraid to let go of the rudder and stood paralyzed. He hated sailing because it always made him seasick. When Mansel had thrown him overboard he had been afraid he would drown, but the fear of this storm was much worse than anything he had ever felt before. He had always enjoyed storms before. He didn’t like being caught out in one and didn’t like to be kept from working, but he had enjoyed watching a good storm while sitting in his house or in an inn where he was warm and safe. He had always thought the lightning was beautiful as it arced through the sky, and the sense of security that came from having shelter made him feel cozy. But now, caught in a violent storm on the open sea, he knew a terror that was even greater than facing the dragon in Brighton’s Gate.
Being exposed to a storm was frightening, but being tossed around on the sea during a storm gave Quinn a new sense of helplessness that he had never known before. The boat creaked and popped as if the strain was going to break it apart. The rudder was starting to buck and fight as if it were alive.
Olton had gotten to his feet and was trying to untie the rope that held their sail in place. Quinn could only see his shadowy outline and only then when they were on top of a wave. When they fell into the trough of the wave the world was completely black. Cold water sprayed up and Quinn was quickly drenched. The ship had small scuppers that allowed most of the water to flow back into the sea, but some of it found a place on the small vessel. Quinn noticed that there was water sloshing over his feet.
“Should we bail this water out?” he screamed.
“No!” Olton shouted back. “All we can do is ride it out.”
The sailor had finally gotten the sail untied. It was whipping wildly in the wind, snapping and popping as it was blown out across the deck. Once Olton had it wadded up he stuffed it down in between the railing and a bulkhead. Then he staggered back to Quinn. He took hold of the rudder but motioned for Quinn to stay with him. He had to shout to be heard over the wind and waves.
“We need to try and steer her so that we’re running with the waves, not against them.”
Now that the sail was down, the rudder seemed less inclined to fight against them, but helping Olton hold the steering oar gave Quinn something to focus on.
Olton steered on instinct. He had been on the water his whole life and could sense the direction they needed to go just by feeling the movement of the ship. Quinn followed the sailor’s lead, and occasionally lightning would give him a glimpse of what was happening. They were being blown out to sea, which was fortunate. The coast along the Walheta Mountains was rocky and dangerous. The waves grew larger and larger. When Quinn could see them during a flash of lighting he thought they looked as tall as trees.
Quinn soon found himself shaking from cold and fear. He was drenched in cold sea water and driving rain, his muscles tensed, and adrenaline coursed through his body. His teeth chattered and his eyes burned from the water, which he didn’t wipe away because he refused to let go of the rudder. The boat was alternately thrust up by the force of heaving water and then pulled down by gravity as they rose and fell over the huge waves. Quinn’s stomach flopped as they fell off the top of one wave, then his knees tried to buckle as they slammed into the next.
Eventually, the rain stopped. The waves were still large, although they didn’t seem as ferocious as before. The wind waned, the clouds broke apart, and the stars reappeared.
“Well, that was a close one,” Olton said.
“What do we do now?”
“There’s only one thing we can do. We wait for morning and try to figure out where we are.”
Chapter 7
Zollin and Brianna considered moving on, but they were both tired. The storm was closing in on them, so they took refuge in the cave that Rup had shown them. The space was small, but once their belongings were arranged they were both comfortable. Zollin missed the merry feeling of having a fire, but there simply wasn’t enough fuel to support one. Zollin used magic to warm the cave floor and also to cook the meat from the ram Brianna had brought down with her new bow. Soon after working his magic, he fell asleep.
Brianna watched as the rain fell and the temperature dropped. The dim afternoon turned into a dark night, and the rain turned to sleet and then snow. She was propped on her pack and shared a blanket with Zollin. She was tired but sleep was elusive. The night wore on as the wind whistled outside the cave. Brianna finally nodded off just before dawn, and, when she finally woke up, it was almost noon. The world outside the cave looked gray. The sky was filled with thick clouds, and the light that filtered through them seemed weak.
“Hey, good morning,” Zollin said.
“I didn’t mean to sleep so late,” Brianna replied.
“Well, it’s still miserable out there,” Zollin pointed out of the cave. “The snow has turned to sleet and I didn’t feel like hiking in wet clothes. I thought we were just as well off staying here.”
“Aren’t you tired of these mountains?” Brianna asked.
“Well, I miss having a fire at night, but to be honest, I kind of like the solitude.”
“Well, I don’t. I miss a lot of things, but mostly, I miss a soft mattress.”
“Me too,” Zollin said.
“You must be feeling better.”
“I am. I finally feel like I got enough rest. And I’ve been working on building a barrier around my magic. I think it’s working. I can still feel my magic, still control it, but it doesn’t seem to affect me as much as before.”
“That’s good,” Brianna said.
“You don’t seem very happy about it. I thought you would be, since it was your idea and all.”
“I never doubted you for a second,” Brianna said with a smile, but Zollin could tell she wasn’t sincere.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
“Come on, I know you better than that. I can tell something is bothering you.”
“I’m tired,” she admitted. “Not just physically, but I’m mentally exhausted. It seems like I’m bouncing between mind-numbing fear and paralyzing worry over you. I want things to get back to normal.”
“You mean hiding out somewhere and hoping the bad guys don’t find us.”
“Well, it seems better than hunting down a dragon.”
They both laughed.
“You know,” he said as he sat down next to Brianna, “we don’t have to hurry back. We can take our time. Rest. Just be together.”
“You didn’t slay the dragon,” Brianna said.
“No, but we wounded it. We know we can hurt it again. We just haven’t figured out how to kill the wretched beast.”
“I have an idea about that. I was thinking last night when I couldn’t sleep that maybe with my new bow I could hit it from far enough away that we would be safe. I mean, if we could ambush it somehow, maybe we could put enough arrows in it to bring it down.”
“It would have to be in a place where it couldn’t escape,” Zollin said contemplatively.
“Exactly, but it isn’t flying now. At least, it wasn’t flying yesterday. It was hurt. If it can’t fly away and we can stay ahead of it, perhaps we can find a place to ambush it.”
“That’s not a bad plan. I’m sure we could kill it if we just knew where to shoot it.”
“I was thinking about that, too. I hit it just beneath the wing. I was thinking t
hat its wings were like forelegs and perhaps the heart was just under them. I also hit it in the leg. The arrows are penetrating, I’m just not sure if we’re hitting the right places or sinking the arrows in deep enough.”
“Well, the new bow should allow your arrows to penetrate deeper. That’s a good thing. We’ll just need to find the dragon again and stay ahead of it.”
They spent the rest of the day watching the sky outside and talking through their plans. The storm finally passed late in the afternoon, but they stayed in their cave. The terrain was covered in sleet, which wasn’t melting very fast, and neither of them were anxious to get back out into the damp cold. Brianna slept better that night, and the next morning they were greeted with sunshine.
“I feel better knowing we have a plan,” Zollin said. “You have a very strategic mind.”
“I do?” Brianna said, surprised at Zollin’s pronouncement.
“Yes. You made a very calculated decision about where to shoot the dragon. Now, you’ve come up with a plan to kill it. It’s much better than my plan. I was just hoping to find it and somehow expose it.”
“Well, I’ll take that compliment,” Brianna said cheerily.
They spent the day loafing in their small cave. The time passed quickly and both fell asleep soon after dark. The next day they were up early and ready to get moving. They had a light breakfast of even more mutton. They couldn’t make themselves eat very much. They choked down enough to curb their hunger and drank cold water from their canteens.
They both hefted their heavy packs. They were filled with dried mutton that Zollin had made from what they couldn’t eat of the ram. It wasn’t salted and had very little flavor, but at least they had food. Their canteens had been refilled with sleet the day before, which had melted overnight. They were ready to head south, but first Zollin needed to use his magic to see if he could sense the dragon anywhere nearby.
He let the magic flow out of him and felt the familiar hot wind blowing through him. His inner reservoir of magic churned as always, like the inner workings of a blacksmith’s forge, incredibly powerful but also dangerous. He had done a fairly good job of building a magical barrier around the source of his power so that while he could feel it at work, he could also feel that it was affecting him physically to a much smaller degree than before. He had a wall of defense against others, and now he had a wall of containment to protect himself.
The magic moved out of him like a mist, rolling through the mountains. It was like a sixth sense, allowing him to feel the presence of other beings. He felt small animals and a young elk that was moving slowly through the mountains. Then he came across something strange. It was unlike any animal he had ever seen or heard of. He felt the beast waking up, as if from a long sleep. Then the animal roared, and the sound was like a cross between a hawk’s piercing cry and a bull’s bellow.
“What was that?” Brianna asked.
“I’m not sure,” Zollin said. “I sensed it; in fact, I may have woken it up. But it was weird.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, it was like several different animals put together. It had legs like a ram, with hoofs. The body was thick, much bigger than a goat or even an elk. It had a head that was like an eagle, with a sharp beak. And its tail was long and thick.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“No, I’m completely serious. I don’t think we should hang out here any longer than we have to.”
“Okay, so where do we go?”
“Southwest, away from that creature.”
Zollin used his magic to lower them down the mountainside. Then they spent several hours hiking through a long canyon. They stopped to rest and eat around noon. The sun was finally high enough to shine directly down on them. Although they were warm from their long hike, the sun still felt good. Zollin reached out with his magic again before they set out. The creature he had felt earlier was closer than before.
“What is it?” Brianna asked. She had been watching Zollin and saw his face go white.
“That creature is following us.”
“What do we do?”
“I don’t know. It may not be wild. Rup didn’t try to hurt us.”
“Can we really take that chance?”
“I guess there’s only one way to find out. You take cover, higher up on the mountain. I’ll stay here and wait for it. I should be able to protect myself well enough and, if it attacks, you can shoot it.”
They spent the next few minutes trying to find a place where Brianna could keep an eye on the canyon but stay hidden herself. They identified a suitable rocky outcropping, and Zollin levitated her there. There wasn’t much room, and the sleet from the day before had not fully melted behind the rocks, leaving the perch slippery and uncomfortable.
Zollin waited, sipping water from his canteen. He could feel his magic churning; it was agitated by his worry. The creature he had felt reminded him of the dragon. Both creatures radiated a type of magic that was foreign to Zollin. The dragon wasn’t a magic user and although it seemed almost invincible, it wasn’t immune to his power. He only hoped the creature approaching him was the same.
The roots of the mountains were jagged and steep. There were no trails, no passes through the Northern Range. The valleys between the mountains were steep canyons, filled with rocky debris. Just walking through the canyons was difficult and dangerous. Zollin let his magic flow out again. He knew that if the creature could feel his magic he was essentially giving his position away. Still, he didn’t like waiting. He was impatient and he didn’t want to be caught off guard.
The levy he had built around his magic seemed to channel his power and give it more potency. He felt stronger than ever. He could use his magic without being stricken with physical weakness. He let the power build, and as his senses spread along the canyon he felt as if he were growing larger. He felt Brianna, like a raging bonfire on the mountainside, which surprised him. She wasn’t wearing the white alzerstone ring anymore, and he thought that perhaps he just wasn’t used to sensing her with his magic. Still, the more he thought about it he realized he’d never sensed such tangible power in anyone else. He chalked it up to the magical bow, which he assumed was radiating a sense of magical power. He could sense her worry, but also her sense of resolve. She had no intentions of losing him again.
Then he felt the creature. It was close. Just around a bend in the canyon and out of his sight. Unlike Brianna he couldn’t sense the creature’s intentions. He waited as the minutes slowly crept by. He would have thought that the creature had no intention of getting any closer, but it had gotten closer throughout the day. Perhaps it was more afraid of him than he was of it. In fact, he had no reason to fear the beast, but there was something so unnatural about it that he couldn’t help but feel that it posed a danger.
Suddenly the creature was moving, rushing toward him. Zollin saw the beast, running sure-footed across the canyon floor so fast it was a blur. He barely had time to raise a shield around himself before the creature’s thick tail whipped around and struck him. The tail didn’t pass his shield, but the blow knocked Zollin off his feet and the creature raced by. Zollin was bruised from falling onto the rocky ground. He felt as if he had been pushed by a much larger man, shoved unexpectedly and knocked back. He scrambled to his feet, wishing he still had his staff. The creature roared, and the sound echoed off the mountainsides until it was almost too loud to bear. Zollin was busy holding his hands over his ears, and he almost got caught by the beast, but he dove to the side and felt the wind swoosh by as the tail whipped past him. He didn’t hesitate but gave the creature a magical shove of his own. It toppled onto its side and Zollin jumped up, pressing his magic down on the creature to hold it in place. But the beast was too powerful and bucked him off, then scrambled away.
Brianna was frustrated by the creature’s speed. It simply didn’t stay still long enough for her to have a shot. The beast sprinted forward again, but this time Zollin sent a bolt of sizzling blue energy
crackling toward the beast. It saw the attack and veered up the side of the mountain. It seemed to dance across the almost vertical cliff face effortlessly and was soon out of range. Zollin readied himself for the next attack, but Brianna was ready, too. She anticipated the creature’s charge and, as soon as she saw it move out of her peripheral vision, she fired her arrow. It arced down and slammed into the creature’s rear leg, causing the beast to stumble and slide through the rocks toward Zollin.
Zollin felt a twinge of magic when the arrow was fired, but all of his concentration was on the creature. As soon as the beast stumbled from Brianna’s arrow, Zollin pounced. He used his magic to hold down the tail that was swinging wildly in all directions. He held it down as the creature struggled to rise. It was hissing like a snake, its hoofed forelegs scrabbling among the loose rocks in an effort to rise.
“Stay down!” Zollin shouted.
It had been a verbal expression of his will. He had not intended to say it out loud, it was merely what he was thinking as he worked to hold the thick, knobby tail in place. But the creature responded instantly. It became still, the hissing stopped, the tail laying down on the canyon floor.
Zollin was sure that it was some kind of trick. The creature had heard him, had understood him even, which was a surprise. He didn’t trust it, but he had to try and communicate with it.
“What are you?” he asked.
“I am an Aberration,” the creature said. It’s voice was high pitched and loud. It was hard to understand.
“A what?”
“An Aberration. A magical freak. Don’t pretend not to know me, wizard.”
Zollin was shocked. Magical creatures seemed drawn to him. They often knew he was a wizard and some even implied that his presence had an effect on them, but he was still shocked.
“Why did you try to kill me?”
“You enslaved me,” it hissed.
“No, I didn’t,” Zollin said angrily. “I’ve never even heard of you or anything like you.”
“Your kind made me. I will not obey. I will die before I obey.”
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