That may have ended it right there, as the ship would probably sink with enough time after such an onslaught, and with its steering and main sail wrecked, they wouldn’t be able to get to safety in time. But the crew were still in range, so they were still a threat. Which meant they had to die.
At least three of us still had stored lightning bolts, so we all let loose. Three trails of blue-white electricity cut through the enemy ship, all half as thick as its main masts. Karim, Breena, and I were all at the Practitioner level, and we had time to scribe beneficial scripts in front us before we fired. One bolt tore a burning line across half of the deck, incinerating at least three already woundedMalus crewmen. A second detonation blasted at more of their scripts at the bottom of the hull, deactivating them and blowing a third large hole near the waterline. The third blast cracked into their one remaining undamaged mast and sent an important-looking fellow hurtling through the air, smoking and screaming, until he landed in the water below. Somehow, my blast had knocked him clean off the ship and close to our own path.
Can we grab him? I sent to Gabin. I might need him for questioning.
We can, my captain speculated. But he’ll most likely be dead by then, my lord.
That’s perfect, I replied happily. Gabin seemed to hesitate at that, until he remembered something.
Right. Blood mage. Ookay then, he decided. I’ll have a team go fish him out. Do we have permission to injure or kill him if he resists?
Definitely, I assured him, and two of the Atlanteans cast personal wards and dove into the water.
By this point, most of the enemy crew was dead. We had just thrown too many explosions at them. The debris flying through the air had probably caught just as many Malus crew as the detonations had, and Weylin hadn’t stopped firing, so he had picked off any visible survivors. There was one mage still casting that had some kind of barrier erected in front of him. The barrier had deflected spells, ward blasts, and arrows, but in a few moments I saw his shadow crawl off of the floor and stab its hand through him. He gasped, clutching at his back, and dropped his barrier. Weylin’s arrows and our ward cannons made short work of him afterwards.
Got him, Val declared triumphantly.
That was you? I asked, surprised. Why do you want to have a bow when you can do something like that?
Because it’s a complicated and tiring spell to cast, she replied. And people won’t always have time to notice how cool it looks.
Fair enough, I acknowledged, still impressed at just how far my sister’s Shadow magic had come, and how quickly.
By that point, our ship had drifted into the shorter range of combat, but there was no one left to fight. The ship was sinking visibly due to the holes in the bottom, and every sail was either damaged or knocked down. There could have been a handful of crew still hiding in the fire and smoke, but there was no way they would be able to patch their ship in time. We chose to pass by them, slowing just enough for the two divers to return with the body they had retrieved.
One down, two to go, I thought as I began scanning the surrounding waters for the remaining threats.
The other one’s sinking? I asked the group as the other escort began to dip under the water, already halfway submerged. Is that supposed to happen that fast?
The second escort had taken an iceberg directly on its bow. I knew that was a bad place for a breach, but I didn’t know it would be enough to finish the ship off this quickly.
It’s possible, depending on the hold’s construction, Gabin replied, but I think that’s the main cause right there. He pointed out the other nearby ship.
Viahad brought her own tiny vessel back into the fight. With the front of the ship beginning to sink, they weren’t able to aim their artillery effectively. In addition, she was already at the extreme range of their weapons, even in the best of circumstances. I could just barely make out her whip twirling over her head beforeI saw water ripple toward the Malus ship in a steady line to channel directly into the hole in its ballast.
Oh, wow, Breena said over the link. A pressurized attack at their weak point. She’s increasing the rate at which water floods the hole, as well as increasing the force of its entry. That’ll cause more damage to the weakened wood, and make it even harder to patch the hole because of the way the water is blasting in. I wonder when she learned that spell?
Is she an experienced Water mage? I asked, belatedly realizing how stupid that question was.
She isn’t that much more powerful than Merada... er, more powerful than Merada was before you gave that bracelet to her. Via was well on her way to High Practitioner in Water magic before the Earthborn invaded, so she’s probably pretty close to Adept now. She’s likely at the threshold for that Ideal. But she’s always trying to find new ways to use her skills. She’s a bit more creative than most mages of her same rank. My tiny fairy suddenly shot me an annoyed look. Don’t make it any worse, okay?
What are you talking about? I asked, but she just rolled her eyes at me and began whispering again. After another minute, she nodded in satisfaction.
“She says she’s impressed with your ship’s captain and the power of the mages we have on board. She thinks if we team up, we might have a chance against the remaining ship. She wants reassurance that you can help the people that have already been thrown in the Horde Pit, though.”
“Okay,” I said, pausing to think. “Is that going to create a risk for her passengers? And how come she hasn’t said anything about our ship’s special magic?”
“She feels she can protect her passengers, as long as our ship can draw the majority of the Hordeship’s fire. And she has actually been saying a lot of things about this ship’s fancy magic this whole time, but it’s all super-angry-jealous stuff, so I just, uh, haven’t been passing it all on. She’s been trying to get her hands on a ship like this ever since the Malus members started using theirs, so she’s kind of mad you beat her to it. But yes. She can keep her passengers safe, especially since the Horde will still try to capture them. They probably won’t even attempt to sink her ship anymore if they think she’s trying to board. She’s a high-value target for capturing.”
“Sounds good to me, then,” I replied. “We’ll try and get her into the mindlink as soon as she gets close enough. Until we can get in range, let’s coordinate through your whisper magic to figure out a good attack pattern for both of our ships. Captain, if you wouldn’t mind passing your recommendations directly to Breena?”
“Certainly, my lord,” Gabin said formally.
I let Breena play messenger between my Atlantean captain and Stell’s Seaborn Satellite, as our two ships began to move in tandem toward the Hordeship. Our final remaining enemy had been the most cautious, taking a wide berth to avoid our iceberg trap, which had also removed it out of effective range while we had engaged its escorts. Now, as we pursued it together, Via’s predictions proved correct. It wanted us to approach it, so other than an occasional, half-hearted volley, it let us advance unharmed.
The thing got bigger, and uglier, as we grew closer. The oil and muck that the Horde were known for became more visible, and I began to wonder if the ship was made out of wood at all, given how much disgusting liquid was liberally coating the thing. As I pondered this, a single patch near the bow became clean of muck for a moment, and I realized that the ship’s sides were composed of a black metallic substance.
Ironclad, I swore in the mindlink. The ship has armor plating.
That would explain why they’re not really worried about coming straight at us, Gabin replied. As would that, he pointed with his head.
The front of the ship began to glow with red runes, similar to those we had seen on the two escort ships. The runes seemed to liquify as they glowed, appearing as though they were about to melt off. Then the ship’s prow creaked, and a large black spike emerged from the very top.
A ram.
It makes sense, I suppose, Gabin shrugged, given that they have the larger ship. They could probably snap us in ha
lf with a direct hit, take the survivors as captives, and then try to overwhelm our ally’s vessel with sheer numbers. And they must have figured out that we don’t want to sink their ship directly either, or they wouldn’t risk this strategy, even with their armor.
More volleys began to fire from the enemy ship. Dark red fireballs began to land in the surrounding water, too far away to strike us, but forcing us to maintain our course toward the oncoming ship. Even worse, they discharged a half dozen at a time in clusters, which meant we would have to take at least three fireballs head on if we attempted to move off course. This was a much higher volley of fire than the other two Malus ships had been capable of discharging. I didn’t know why they had been holding back when we were initially skirting around them, but it didn’t matter. Right now, we needed to come up with a way to keep our ship from getting split in half.
They must have seen us unleash magical hell on the other ship’s deck. The fact that they weren’t worried about it was a bad sign.
We need to force them off course, I thought to myself, just before Gabin messaged me.
I have a plan to force them off course, he asserted, already a step ahead of me. We’ll need your Ice magic and your ally’s Water magic. I’d lend our own, but we’re too busy using it to help guide the ship.
You can do that? I asked, surprised.
Yes, you can tie someone’s Ideal magic directly to a ship itself. I’ll explain later. But for now, let’s take advantage of the fact that the enemy has oars, and—
That was the only clue I needed. As soon as Breena informed Via of the plan, I began to form small icebergs in front of our ship whileVia waved her whip rapidly overhead. Her Water magic generated currents that channeled the tiny blocks to congregate on one side of the Hordeship.
The blocks were smaller than the previous bergs I had created, which was good, because we still didn’t want to sink the Hordeship. But their oars were fair game.
These cubes barely rose out of the water, deceptively concealing a human-sized chunk just under the surface. I produced as many as I could, then sat down to conserve my mana. After a short wait, the Malus ship seemed to slow as an oar on its starboard side snapped. Others chipped, and some didn’t break. But striking something solid threw off their rhythm, driving them off course. That prevented them from ramming us head on, but it still didn’t account for whatever tricks they had once the ships got into casting range. Given the large amount of crew I saw on the other ship, I had a feeling that they could both absorb our spell barrage with a bunch of expendable minions, and unleash a greater barrage of their own from the more advanced Hordebeasts and any Malus mages lurking in the ship.
Hey, Wes? Captain? Breena spoke up tentatively. Via has an idea.
What is it? I asked.
It’s... she started to say, then seemed to get flustered and gave up. You should just talk to her and board her ship.
In the middle of combat? I asked.
Because that sounded kind of stupid.
If you hurry, it will be fine, Gabin sent us. Our ships will be moving closer to take advantage of the turn anyway.
Should I take anyone with me? I asked, trying to think through what might be about to happen.
“Yes,” Val told me out loud. “Whatever dangerous thing you’re thinking about agreeing to, you should definitely take someone along with you. Especially someone fast enough to keep up, in case you suddenly get another brilliant idea that makes you leap right into the middle of almost-certain death.”
“Good point,” I hedged, “But Weylin’s better off staying right here—ow!” I said, pulling my shin away to prevent her from kicking me a second time. “Fine. But only because you come back if you die,” I grumbled.
“And I’ve actually saved your butt at least once,” my adopted sister growled.
“That should be the reason, I agree,” I conceded, turning to follow Breena off the ship. “Let’s go.”
Via pulled her ship close to our own. Val and I both grabbed lines, just in case, and leaped overboard to the smaller craft. We landed easily, thanks to our agility and magical enhancements, and I finally saw Via up close.
The dark olive-skinned woman blinked at me as I took a second to recover my balance.
“Oh, what?” she said, looking confused, tired, and beautiful all at once. Like Merada, she had an accent, and like Merada, hers sounded like a composite of Earth dialects, instead of stemming from a specific place. Brazil came the closest, but it honestly sounded like she was mixing several different South American countries at once, her speech an intriguing blend of Spanish and Portuguese. “He already agreed?”
“It will be faster if you just tell him,” Breena sighed. “But he likes crazy ideas.”
“He really does,” Val muttered grumpily.
“It’s not crazy!” Via insisted. “It’s just going to keep us all from being blown up!”
“Hi, I’m Wes Malcolm,” I said as I stepped forward, so that Stell couldn’t fight with herself again. “I’m the Challenger that was captured and tortured for fifty years. This is my adopted sister Val, who was also captured and has become a Challenger herself. Sorry we’re late. Now let’s hear your plan. How can you keep their mages from blowing us up?”
She blinked at that, and I could tell by her stare that she was processing the fact that I’d probably had as many bad days in a row as she had. But my concluding question helped everyone stay on topic.
“The monsters on the ship have explosive magic. It’s what they’ve been using to throw those things,” she saw my baffled look on my face and sighed. “You know, those… ay, I knew this word five minutes ago,” she began waving her hands. “Those—”
“Fireballs?” I asked, cocking my head at her and wondering how the hell we were having any language barrier whatsoever with a universal translator in my skull.
“Yes!” she snapped her fingers. “Those fireballs! And they will hurl bigger ones when your ship gets close! But if we’re already boarding their ship, they can’t risk using them. They don’t have anything smaller that they can throw around.”
“So you want a small team to board their ship and distract them until our vessels can close in, so that our crew doesn’t get blown apart,” I confirmed.
“Yes” she shouted. “Thank you! You are making this so much easier!”
“Told ya he would be on board,” Breena muttered to Val.
“God,” my adopted sister muttered back. “How have you even kept him alive this long?”
“I have no idea,” Breena sighed. “But I swear it’s enough to drive any fairy into mixing caramel wafers with gluten-plus thin mints.”
“We should probably get these people onto our ship and into the cabin, since they can’t come with us,” I told Via, but the sun-bronzed woman was already pointing to the lines we had used to leap down and speaking rapidly. Once again, my mindscreen inexplicably translated it all to either Spanish or Portuguese. The handful of rescued islanders proved to be familiar with boats and climbed up the lines quickly. Gabin sent me a query through the mindlink, and I rapidly relayed the plan and related information.
He agreed quickly. I expected him to take more issue with it, but then again, his people had seen me leap out of safety to cut my way through a Lesser Wyrm.
Speaking of mental communications, I turned back to Via and spoke the invitation to join her to the mindlink.
She was able to receive the invitation, which meant she was close to my own strength, as I had anticipated. Her dark eyes blinked rapidly, then widened in comprehension. She let out a happy shout and accepted immediately, more enthusiastically than any of Stell’s previous Satellites, or anyone at all for that matter. She clapped her hands, even jumped up and down for a moment, as the bond formed between us.
She was aggressive both in what she shared and what she demanded, trying to learn as much as possible about me, about my world, about where I’d been, and oddly enough, about the way I spoke. But she was just as quick to
share why.
I had been assuming all this time that she had trouble speaking to me because the mindscreen was malfunctioning. But the real problem was that she had been trying not to use it. Except for the ‘pendejo’ comment, she had been trying to speak to me in actual English the whole time, and was frustrated that she didn’t know it as well as she did many other languages from the sister worlds. She liked learning, but people’s reaction over her enthusiasm made her try to stifle it, even though she knew she did so poorly.
There was a lot of other information there, but it overwhelmed me, so I pulled away for the moment. I noticed that Via did the same, rearing her head back and blinking. Then she looked back at me.
“That’s how native English speakers do it? That’s why you people talk that way?”
“Um, probably, depending on what you actually saw?” I said, because I had no idea what she had managed to put together right then. As far as I could tell, the mindlink wasn’t even designed to learn everything she had just tried to absorb in that moment. “And whatever you saw was probably only true for American English speakers.”
“Well American English speakers are weird!” she declared, projecting her frustration over trying to learn all the many rules of my language over the decades, and finding that rules from so many other languages mixed in with my own language at random and in her opinion, for completely impractical reasons. “But that is not the point. We need to pull straight up and board it from the side, and we need to get there before your own fancy ship gets in range.” She stopped talking about that, a calculated curiosity pouring over the mindlink. “It is your ship, right?” she asked carefully. “You own it?”
Val looked up, baffled.
“Why would that matter—oh,” she said, her eyes widening.
Say yes, Wes. It’s the truth. You totally own that ship.
“Yes, it’s my ship,” I said, not sure what was going on but knowing we needed to move things along. “It was the only one I could bring through the Pathway at the time. Now how do we do this? Do we just pour Water and Air Magic through this thing to speed it up?”
Lighting Distant Shores Page 36
