“Are they hiding?” Zeezle asked.
“Not sure.” Vanx shook his head, and was pleased to see that, after a few moments, they were back in the sky.
“They probably had to piss,” Zeezle joked.
“Probably so.” Vanx remembered how it was to be over the sea on dragon back. It wasn’t all wind and rushing blood; sometimes it was hours of uncomfortable concentration just to manage your bodily functions. The memory saddened him, and he wondered how many dragons were still around the island. They hadn’t seen any preying from overhead on their approach. Before, there had always been at least a few wyrms visible, skimming the shore or the forest’s edge. He knew many of them had gone through to Harthgar with him and the others and had died fighting the Paragon. But a few still had to be around. He could only hope his familiarity with Pyra would keep them from turning against him.
Master Ruuk appeared to land badly on the bigger ship. It was hard to tell from where Vanx was standing, but Chelda’s laugh and Castavonti’s “Oooh!” could be heard when the Zythian wizard landed.
Have you heard from Gallarael? Has she returned from Orendyn, yet? Vanx asked Moonsy with the Hoar Witch’s crystal. As long as he held the connection this way, what they thought would be kept between them alone.
He didn’t wait for her answer, because what he was saying would affect her, too. My goddess has tasked me with a quest to find and quicken the seeds of Heart Trees like yours, for they are needed to root in and replace the bind the towers once held on the world, but in a more wholesome way. I want Gallarael to go with me, but as you can see, I am not in a position to go ask her myself.
There was a long silence, and in it Vanx feared he’d said this to the whole of Saint Elm’s Deep, but finally Moonsy sighed back at him.
Vanx of Malic, I will only do this for you because you’ve brought my Chelda back safe. Moonsy seemed to have mixed feelings. Now you are saying you are going on another quest, which my love will surely follow you on.
It is her choice, Moonsy. I have not and will not ask her to go, but I can’t disallow it if that is what she chooses to do.
I know, Vanx, but it’s an easy choice since I can go, too. Moonsy’s tone seemed to brighten a bit. I’ve relinquished command.
She seemed to be giggling, and Vanx realized she must have tricked her way out of the strict duty that had kept her from questing with them after the Trigon War.
I only have to return with the Glaive of Gladiolus. No one said when. Since your quest is for the benefit of Heart Trees and all fae, I feel compelled, obligated even, to carry the Glaive of Gladiolus with you as you go forward. In Good King Longroot’s name and for his glory, of course.
She seemed giddy.
Really? Vanx was shocked.
It was a monumental thing, for Moonsy and her two charges had powers that the current group did not, skills that would be invaluable on a quest for magical gems in faraway lands. And if the great hawks would come along, it would be even better.
Vanx imagined riding the big birds so he could spot the schools of fish he liked to catch. He couldn’t ride one, he figured. They carried the waist tall elves well, though. They just didn’t seem big enough to carry a man.
There is a sprite on my shoulder that says even Elva Toyon of the Troika Sven agrees. Moonsy voiced.
Now that is hard to wrap my mind around. Vanx conveyed mirth through the ethereal. She never agrees to anything.
After we see to these ships, I will send a flyer for Gallarael. Moonsy knew this part had nothing to do with the good of the fae, and Vanx knew Elva Toyon was probably in her ear about it, even now. Pen her a message now, before this battle commences; and please hurry and get Chelda and her horses ashore.
Thank you, was all Vanx could think to reply. After getting his mind back on the situation, he used two more wind wishes to get the ship going that much faster toward the island.
Moonsy, he saw through the looking glass in a fish-eyed circle, was taking the battle to the pirates. From high above, the two elves with her dropped head-sized boulders. These rocks fell slowly at first, but were suddenly hammered downward by some invisible force, only to smash straight into a ship, probably leaving a gaping hole all the way through the hull.
This time, when the elves returned to the island, no one made jokes.
They were getting more rocks.
“They might cripple all the ships before they can get here,” Zeezle told Vanx.
Poops barked his agreement.
“They will be ready this time.” Vanx had to pull the glass from his eyes and take in the world without magnification for a moment.
“You’re right.” Zeezle pointed.
One of the elves’ rocks had been hammered down, only to be shattered to dust as it impacted a bubble-like shield. Another rock fell slowly for a moment before being sent streaking down at an impossible speed. It looked as if it would hit the unprotected ship it was aimed at, but it didn’t. It bounced and was deflected to the side, where it rolled down the face of the magical field on its way to the sea. The shield was only visible as a flickering glassine film when it was disturbed. The rest of the time, it was invisible.
“Four ships are down,” Zeezle said, after taking the looking glass from Vanx and studying the scenes. “That only leaves three…and only from two positions. We need a new idea. Crippling them before they reach us was brilliant, but now they are protected.”
“Not from everything,” Vanx said. Zeezle was looking through the tube and didn’t even notice when he dove into the sea. Vanx wondered what Zeezle’s expression would be like when he found naught but clothes on the deck where he’d been standing.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Every story has a beginning,
and they all should have an end.
The best thing about finishing a good tale
is that a new one can begin.
The Adventurer shuddered, as if in indecision. This brought Zeezle’s attention off of the tube. He wasn’t shocked to see that Vanx was gone, but he had to use a wind wish to make sure the ship didn’t falter.
“He knows what he is doing,” Zeezle told the ship. He then repeated the words to Sir Poopsalot, who he was about to trick down into the belly of the boat so that he didn’t get thrown overboard in the coming battle. If Vanx was doing what he suspected, then there were surely about to be some waves.
Once the dog was secure, Zeezle found the deck and made sure they were still heading directly toward the part of the island where Vanx wanted them to leave Chelda and the horses. Then he turned to the distant battles.
He watched as a streak of jagged lightning shot up from one of the sinking ships and caught one of Moonsy’s great hawks. It wasn’t her, which was a relief, but both rider and bird fell limply toward the sea. Just before they splashed into the water, Moonsy’s hawk swept by. The Glaive of Gladiolus glimmered brightly in the sun, and Moonsy must have caught the tumbling bird with the healing blade. He didn’t see where the elf splashed in, but the great hawk righted itself just above the waves and started gliding in a circle around the area.
It would still be long moments before any of the ships were in bow or harpoon range, and he looked ahead to see that they were coming very near the island now.
It’s almost time, Master Ruuk said to Zeezle, who understood he had to make sure that, as soon as the other group was back on the Adventurer and the tow was loose, the smaller ship was scooting out from between the land and the converging pirates.
When I hear your true voice from this tub’s deck, we will be skimming the waves out of here, Zeezle replied, hoping Vanx would be along for the ride.
Not having seen his friend surface for air and knowing one of the elves might be dead didn’t have him feeling hopeful. He still manned the harpoon and readied himself to try and hit the captain of the first ship that came close enough. He knew he didn’t have to control the ship, and knowing that Vanx had connected with it helped ease the worry over his friend; for i
f Vanx had been hurt or killed, Zeezle had no doubt the boat would have ditched the plan and gone after him.
The closest ship suddenly stalled in the water, causing all the pirates hustling on the deck to pitch forward.
“Did they run aground?” Zeezle said aloud, even though he was the only one on the boat, save for Poops.
It sure looked like they had. He had to turn from the ordeal when he heard Ronzon’s voice yelling out in alarm. He saw Ronzon as he half-climbed, half-fell from the rigging of the bigger ship to get down to the deck.
He saw Chelda and the horses appear on the distant shore. They’d ended up ankle-deep in water, and from this distance the two full-sized animals looked like a pair of Spring Fair ponies next to her. She led them from the sandy beach, across a small stretch of open area, and into the trees.
Suddenly Castavonti, Master Ruuk, and Ronzon appeared like a net haul of fish on the Adventurer’s deck, and the ship went speeding off in the direction it was supposed to, all by itself.
“Where is Vanx?” Master Ruuk asked.
“He dove in.” Zeezle shrugged, but the sight of a bigger harpoon-laden vessel cutting across their intended path, coming from the other side of the island, made him gasp. The others turned and, amazingly, went into action.
Master Ruuk repelled the rope-trailing harpoons that were being launched at them with a shield similar to the one the pirates used earlier. Castavonti started sending his kinetic pulses at the planks, just at sea level, as if he were trying to pound through the hull.
But then a shadow swept past them, and the pirate ship’s sails burst into flames.
One of the harpoons made it through the Zythian wizard’s casting. Zeezle had to think where he’d stashed his machete, because he hadn’t thought about leaving it in reach, as he had all the bows and arrows.
Ronzon was trying to untangle the harpoon’s hook, but the rope attached to the thing pulled tight, pinning him violently against the rail.
Zeezle’s chopping swing severed the rope and saved the seaman from being cut in half.
Then the Adventurer was yanked from the transom, where another rope had started hauling them toward the larger ship. Zeezle ran and chopped it. The next harpoon that came through Master Ruuk’s casting was knocked aside by Castavonti’s well-timed kinetic pulse.
Ronzon found the ax they had used on the invisible island and made ready to chop lines if any more came.
The chaos of the flames on the larger ship and the two magi on their smaller vessel acted together to allow them the room they needed to slip out from between the closing pirate ships.
It was what happened next, though—to both the horse hauler and the seemingly stalled vessel—that left them all standing slack-jawed on the deck.
Even the pirates stopped and watched in shock and awe.
Chapter Twenty-Five
It is only a coin
and only a price.
It’s not worth your honor
and not worth your life.
Vanx had to scream at the female leviathan that attacked the horse hauler instead of the newly arrived pirate ship, which was trying to get hold of his Adventurer. He was just glad she hadn’t made the worse mistake of attacking the boat his friends were on.
He was on the shoulder of the male, which was rising before a ship full of confused pirates, who were wondering why their vessel wouldn’t move. Then, four shark-mawed tentacles were darting down and snatching men, one at a time, off the deck while Vanx prepared a spell that would fracture the hull.
A whoosh sounded as a ball of colorful force appeared, hissing and crackling in Vanx’s hand and slowly pulling energy from the air. He cast a Tempus Fist first, and then he cast an expanding ball of sticky wizard fire that coated the rigging and upper deck of the sinking ship.
A cloud of dark tar smoke blown from one of the other ships’ burning sails assaulted his nose, sending him and Poops both into a fit of sneezing.
The female leviathan finally left the Ada Rosamond and dove. The creature Vanx was riding swam toward the other two ships, its upper half out of the water. Vanx laughed when they both started changing sail and maneuvering to flee.
Too bad for the slower ship. Vanx winced. Moonsy and the elf that had been plucked from the water already had it burning like a floating pyre. The faster ship, they didn’t pursue, which Vanx decided was just as well. Those men would spread the tale of what happened to those who ventured too close to Dragon Isle.
Using the Hoar Witch’s controlling crystal, he directed the leviathan he was riding back to its mate and the larger vessel she was now tipping over by its charred main mast. She was casually feeding on the swimming sailors with her shark-mawed tentacles while the big eyes on her fishy head seemingly stared into the distance.
Vanx saw the Adventurer, and once the ship understood what he was doing, it started speeding his way. He left the male leviathan by leaping back into the sea. He had damaged its digestive system when he’d pounded it before, but it was healing. Luckily, it was afraid of him, as if he were Nepton himself. Vanx had allowed it the sea around Dragon Isle to keep its mate and raise its young, in exchange for it stopping any ship but his from taking anything from the island.
He wasn’t greedy, but in Pyra’s lair there was enough wealth to buy the world. He didn’t want it falling into the wrong hands, and now, at least by sea, the hoard had some protection.
The leviathan would be protecting more than just Pyra’s hoard, too. Vanx moved the Adventurer to a protected cove and ordered that the longboat be readied. He also informed them that there would be two separate camps made. The one Castavonti, Master Ruuk, and Ronzon would be going to was already being set up by Chelda and Moonsy.
Vanx stopped and imagined that Moonsy’s two elves were really doing the setting up while Moonsy and Chelda rolled around in the high grass somewhere. He chuckled. It was their business. He wasn’t keen on angering the Troika, but Moonsy said Elva Toyon agreed with her aiding Vanx in his new quest. If the elven council wanted him to try and send her back, they could reach him through the crystal now, and they hadn’t.
Vanx watched the seaman and the sea mage lead Master Ruuk along the shoreline toward the stream of smoke rising above the trees down the beach. Vanx, Poops, and Zeezle started the harder uphill trek to crest the high ridge that protected Pyra’s valley from the blunt of Nepton’s sometimes stormy wrath.
The deceased queen dragon’s wealth was in another cavern at the far end of the island. It opened facing upward, and, from the edge of the opening, one could see the sunrise at an amazing angle without the smell of this foul valley reaching one’s nose.
This end was where Pyra left her shit, and every male dragon on the island did, too, just to try and impress her. Vanx had decided that he was going to crack the Heart Tree seed here; at least it would have fertilizer underneath it for a few hundred thousand years.
Once they were near the top of the ridge, Moonsy landed her great hawk, and in the moonlight, Vanx had a strange memory of Foxwise Posey-Thorn and their trek down the Rotted Root Way under the Hoar Witch’s dungeon.
Had everything in his life been leading him to this? The waist-tall beauty had a hard time with the hammer. It dragged the ground, even hanging from her belt. Vanx went to her and took it. The moment it was in his full grasp, it stopped being heavy. In fact, he put his hand through the looped, braided-leather cord at the end, and it never regained its weight when he let it dangle from his wrist.
“Have you—?” Vanx started to ask, but Moonsy saved him the question.
“Papri left before the sun went down.” She smiled a goofy grin, but he wasn’t sure if it was because Chelda had satisfied her or if she was happy he was in love with Gallarael.
“Where are you going to smash it?” Zeezle asked.
“Down there in the shit field,” Vanx replied.
“I was afraid of that.” Zeezle found a piece of cloth in his gear and tied it around his face so it covered his nose.
The dog sniffed the air, and both he and Vanx sneezed at the same time. “I suppose not.” Vanx pulled the collar of his undershirt up over his nose.
“Can you cover us from above?” Vanx asked Moonsy.
“I will stay perched here, where my mount can see both the campfire and your descent.”
“Good enough.” Vanx nodded, and then followed the eager dog down into a valley full of old dragon shit and who knew what else.
They traveled in silence until about halfway down the semi-steep grade. Zeezle started laughing and then asked Vanx a clearly rhetorical question.
“Why, again, are we heading into a field of dragon shit, in the dark?” He started spitting under the rag. “Gah! I can fargin’ taste it.”
“You think that’s bad?” Vanx spoke the words, trying not to open his mouth very much. “Poops wants to eat it.”
“Gahhhhh!” Zeezle made a gagging noise. “Yuuuck.”
Vanx was surprised to see Zeezle do a cartwheel-like move away from something. Vanx saw it was a huge dung beetle with forward pincers extending from its head. They snapped shut right where Zeezle had been, and Vanx cast a kinetic pulse that lit up the immediate area and flipped the huge bug.
Poops was barking at another of them, but Moonsy’s hawk came flapping down and grabbed the upended bug and flew away with it.
“Cast an illumination, fools!” Moonsy screamed as she passed. Vanx saw that her face was scrunched from the smell. “Light it up.” She said the last with her breath held.
Zeezle did just that, and Vanx saw that there were more insects than he could have imagined skittering around them. They were hurrying away now, afraid of the feeding great hawk and the sudden brightness.
They only had a short way to go after that, which was good, because Poops finally sampled the dragon shit or a chunk of something that was in the dragon shit.
The Long Journey Home (The Legend of Vanx Malic Book 8) Page 8
