Emerald Sea

by John Ringo

  "Conner?" Martin said, shaking the cube. "Conner. Damnit!" He looked at the rapidly approaching inferno and chucked the useless cube over the side. Then he took off his boots and shirt, sorrowfully. Both had been custom-made for him and he had grown attached to them, especially the boots. But needs must. He then cut the legs of his finely woven silk pants just below his crotch, in a circle, leaving him in short shorts and holding two tubes of fabric. He tightened his belt around his waist, tied one end of each tube, put his knife away and followed the captain over the side.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Back on the carrier, with Shep having the bolt removed from his thigh, Jerry watched nervously for any sign of Vickie. At his warning the carrier had continued into the wind, running far to the north, and he was afraid that it was too far. Koo was out there, as well, but both of them had faded over the horizon and Vickie should have been on her way back by now.

  Finally there were two dots to be seen and the carrier prepared to recover dragons.

  "Worked like a charm," Vickie said, hopping off of Yazov as the dragon was led below. "I got three for three. One of them was right up in the bow of the boat, though, and if they were fast they might have gotten it out. But it burned up their front sails before I turned back. There's only one ship that's unscathed, and the other three are sunk or were burning to the waterline when I turned back."

  "Good job," the skipper said. "How are the dragons?"

  Jerry looked at the sky and shrugged.

  "Shep is out for today anyway," he said. "We can send one more sortie out if you want."

  "Do it," the skipper said. "We're fair for launching now. As soon as they're in the air I'm going to turn around and head back downwind. Make sure there's nothing in my way when I get there."

  Shep's bomb-rig was loaded onto Nebka and the two dragons took off, one after the other, climbing fast to the south.

  "All hands wear ship," the skipper called. "Let's go chase some dragon."

  It was late afternoon when the lookouts spotted the dragons, flapping wearily north against the wind. The captain actually sailed down past them before turning the ship about and came up to the LSO position for their landing. This time Nebka had a bolt in his leg and when he landed it crumpled under him. But a sling was put in place and the piteously wailing wyvern was lifted up and lowered into the stable area.

  Koo had been thrown clear on the landing but stumbled to his feet and blearily saluted the skipper.

  "They're all burned, sir," the rider said. "I went too low on my second pass. The one that Vickie winged had put out the fire and they were apparently a little upset about it. They were learning to maneuver, too. But we got both of them. I had one bomb left but I dumped it on the way back."

  "Damn fine job," the skipper said, shaking his hand. "Now, get below and get some rest, we still have Vickie to recover."

  Vickie made a perfect landing, but she was clearly tired.

  "You know, I think landing is worse than fighting?" she said as she slid off her wyvern. "We got 'em all, though. How's Koo and Debka?"

  "Debka's leg looked bad," Jerry said. "Worse than Shep. Right now, you've got the only hale dragon."

  "Well, we won't need them for those guys," Vickie said. "Some of them were in boats headed for the islands. I suppose they'll be a problem for the islanders but we can always send some marines or Blood Lords down to fix that." She shook her head tiredly. "It really takes it out of you."

  "So does the waiting," the skipper said. "And the wondering. This is a strange sea battle. You expect boarding actions, but this is all . . . at arm's length. It just feels . . . wrong."

  "Not particularly heroic," Jerry said. "But I wonder . . ."

  "What?"

  "I wonder when they'll start having carriers of their own," he said, looking to the south.

  "Now that will be something," Vickie admitted.

  "And I wonder how the mer are doing," the skipper said.

  * * *

  It was near dusk when the weary group of mer and dragons reached Charzan Inlet. The broad, flat banks were visible through the entrance and warm, almost hot, water boiled out to the ocean on a descending tide.

  Herzer reveled in it. As the day had progressed he had gotten colder and colder until by the late afternoon he was shivering uncontrollably and continuously. The warm water of the inlet was like a balm to the soul.

  The mer quickly writhed their way over the sandbar at the entrance of the inlet, which on the falling tide had less than a meter of water covering it. They then clustered in the shallow waters, lying back and breathing in the warm salt.

  "Up," Herzer said, wearily. He had dismounted from Chauncey and now waded through the thigh deep water, thumping the mer with his foot. "The delphinos need the space; you're for the land."

  "Oh, God, Herzer," Elayna said, sitting up and blowing water from her lungs. "We can come on land, but it's not comfortable."

  "I don't really give a rat's ass," Herzer said, tiredly. "Get your pretty little tail up on land and make room for Herman and his people."

  Between Herzer, Edmund and what Herzer had come to think of as the mer-leaders—Jason, Pete, Antja and Bill—they got the mer up and out of the inlet as the delphinos started to fight their way over the bar.

  They had far more trouble with it than the mer. The delphino bodies were ill suited for crossing the spit—they were purely marine creatures—and in the interval the tide had fallen still farther, making the water over the bar barely the depth of their bodies. But with some assistance from Herzer and Bast they all made it into the inlet. The water in the inlet was deep enough that they weren't going to have to support their weight, which was the important part. And if they and the mer had hard going getting into the inlet, so would the ixchitl and the orcas, if the latter ever showed up.

  But even after getting everyone in the inlet the work wasn't done.

  "Jason," Edmund said. "We're going to have to post sentries, about one person in four. They'll take two hour shifts. One of the command group is going to have to be awake at all times as well."

  "Okay," Jason said, wearily. "I'll go start finding people."

  "General," Herzer said, "I want to go check the back of the inlet."

  "That's the banks back there, Herzer," Pete said. "None of the ixchitl can make it through the banks, even at high tide. And it won't start flooding for a couple of hours."

  "Fine, Pete," Herzer said. "But you don't make assumptions. We need to watch that as well as the land. There's nothing saying that they won't have help from landsmen and if we get attacked by orcs we're all up shit's creek."

  "Do it," Edmund said. "Joanna."

  "General?" the dragon said. For the first time in Herzer's experience she actually looked ragged, her wings hanging slightly limp.

  "Go hunt with the wyverns. Keep an eye out for enemies. Try to bring something back if you can find enough, but get yourselves fed."

  Herzer walked to the back of the inlet as the dragons waded into the water to hunt. From the spit of land at the back of the inlet he could see far out over the banks in the dying light. The water on the north side was deeper than at the entrance but he could see that it shoaled out quickly and large areas of the banks were already exposed to the dropping tide. Ixchitl probably couldn't make their way through that, but better safe than sorry. He waded into the warm waters of the inlet, noting that the breeze was turning colder as the sun set, and hunted up Herman.

  The leader of the delphinos was floating at the edge of his pod, dropping below the surface from time to time until his pectorals hit the bottom then floating back up to breathe.

  "Herman," Herzer said as the leader resurfaced.

  "Herzer man," the delphino squeaked. "Safe are?"

  "I'd like a couple of delphinos awake in shifts, posted near the inlet on the north. Probably nothing can come across the banks, but we shouldn't take 'probably' for an answer right now."

  "Will," the delphino said, dropping below the surface
and clicking his sonar. A couple of the delphino males, clicking irritably, moved to the north and stationed themselves by the entrance.

  "I'll get someone to tell them when to find relief," Herzer said. "I'd suggest you get some sleep."

  "Hungry," Herman replied. "Pod hungry."

  "Hopefully the dragons will bring something back," was all Herzer said.

  He waded wearily ashore and found that Bast had, somehow, gotten a fire started.

  "Get some water," Edmund said, pointing at one of the barrels that had had its end opened. "No more than a liter; we need most of it for the dragons."

  Herzer dipped out a cup of water and drank it carefully, avoiding slopping any despite his thirst. He had been in sun and salt water all day and his body felt like a drooping plant. The water seemed like the finest wine and he felt refreshed with just one cup but he carefully drained another; he knew he needed it.

  "There's some mackerel left," Edmund said. "But until the dragons get back I don't want to share it out."

  "I found some conch," Pete said. He had already extracted the snail from the shells and was now cutting the foot of the mollusc into slices. "Wish I had some lemon. It's pretty good marinated in lemon juice."

  "I'll just toast mine if you don't mind," Herzer said, accepting one of the slices and going up into the brush to find a stick. He returned with four of them and managed to whittle a point that would penetrate the rock-hard flesh. He held it over the fire, turning it carefully, until the flesh became limp, then pulled it out, nibbling at it before it even cooled.

  "Bleck," he said, struggling with the rubbery flesh. "I never thought I'd eat anything worse than monkey on a stick."

  "I'm not sure I want to know," Antja said.

  "Field rations," Edmund said, struggling with his own conch. "Dried and pressed meat, basically."

  "But I'd kill for a handful of parched corn about now," Herzer added.

  "Wine-baked venison," Bast said.

  "Stalled ox," Edmund added with a chuckle. "With the meat red at the bone."

  "Trigger fish in wine and cream sauce," Pete added. He hadn't bothered to cook his conch and it was already gone.

  "How about grilled grouper?" Joanna said from the edge of the fire. The voice was muffled because she held one the size of Bast's torso in her mouth.

  "Nothing that big should be able to move that quietly," Jason said as Chauncey dropped a smaller grouper by Herzer.

  "We're going to have to share this with the delphinos," Herzer said as Edmund started to gut the fish.

  "Donal is taking them the largest," Joanna said. "And I'm ready to collapse."

  "Lie in the entrance, if you don't mind," Edmund said. "You're not going to get too cold?"

  "No, I'm fine," the dragon said, then yawned hugely. "But ready to sleep. And when the time comes, you owe me one of those stalled oxen, barbecued. With sauce."

  "Will do," Edmund chuckled.

  "See ya," the dragon said, moving out of the firelight.

  The wyverns had already backed up against the cliff and were nodding off to sleep. Herzer realized he could barely keep his eyes open but he waited for the fish to cook, nodding from time to time. Many of the mer hadn't had that much discipline, or hunger, Elayna included, and were sprawled on the sands asleep.

  When the fish was cooked he took portions and went among the mer, waking them up and forcing them to eat. Many of them protested that they weren't hungry but he made sure that they all were eating before going back to his, small, portion.

  "A liter of water and, what? Two hundred grams of grouper? This is like the Dying Time."

  "No," Edmund said. "More water then." He popped his own morsel of grouper into his mouth and swallowed it nearly whole. "I'm for bed."

  "I'll take first watch," Herzer said.

  "No, I will," Bast said. "But you're going to lie down here beside me."

  Herzer soon found himself in a pile of bodies as the mer and landsmen huddled together for warmth against the cold wind. Herzer, Edmund, Bast, Elayna, Antja, Jason and Pete were all there. He realized that it wasn't just warm, it was comfortably warm, and that was the last thing he remembered. Except a memory of gnawing hunger through the night.

  He awoke to a bellow and was on his feet, sword drawn, before he realized that it was dawn, with the sun peeping over the horizon to the southeast.

  He looked around for danger but then saw Joanna, stretching and yawning hugely in the dawn light.

  "Sorry about that," Joanna said, yawning again, which came as a bellow from the belly of the immense beast. "Can't help it."

  "Well, the good news is we're all awake," Edmund said. He, too, was on his feet but his sword was still sheathed.

  "And how are you this morning, Commander Gramlich?" Herzer asked.

  "Fine," the dragon replied, yawning again. "Except I had to keep waking up all night to let the water in and out."

  It was apparent that the sand of the entrance had been gouged by water and dragon claws. It was also deeper than it had been on their entrance, with the water going out again. They had slept through the flood and high tide and now were in the ebb again.

  "Dragons have to forage first," Edmund said, looking around at the mer, who were wiping at their eyes. "Landsmen and dragons get some water first. If the delphinos want to run some scouts out, I wouldn't mind. When the dragons get back, if they bring anything, we eat. Then we take off."

  "We're going farther out this time," Joanna said. "We pretty much hunted out this area last night."

  "Go," Edmund said. "Take as much time as you need, but no more."

  "Will do, General," the dragon said with a grin. She rounded up the wyverns and between the three dragons they finished off the water barrel. Then they headed for the crest of the island to get some room for takeoff.

  "I was supposed to take a watch last night," Herzer told Bast, who looked wide awake.

  "I don't need that much sleep," Bast said. "And there were no threats. On that you may trust me, lover."

  "I do," Herzer admitted. "And thanks."

  "You can thank me properly later," she said with a grin. "There's been so little time!"

  "Where the hell are the orcas?" Edmund growled. He was looking out to sea, frowning. "The ixchitl can be down in the sand. But the orcas have to surface some time or another. I expected them to be waiting right outside the entrance when we woke up."

  But neither the orcas nor the ixchitl made their appearance even after the dragons returned with a fine haul of large fish.

  "We saw some rays in the distance," Joanna said and burped hugely. "But I don't know if they were ixchitl; we didn't get that close. There's a really productive reef just down the coast; we could see all the fish on it as we flew over."

  "This is great, Commander," Edmund said. The three dragons had returned with huge grouper and there was more than enough for everyone to, if not eat their fill, at least get a good portion.

  "But we need to get on the move," Edmund said. The sun was already well up. "Dragons out, with riders, then the armed mer, then the delphinos, then the unarmed mer. We'll set up a perimeter until we can get the hemisphere reformed."

  Herzer chuckled as he buckled the sailcloth halter on Chauncey, and Bast smiled at him as she climbed on Joanna's back.

  "You see it, too," Bast said.

  "Yep," Herzer replied, leading the dragon down to the water; it was nearly impossible to ride the dragons without their full harness until they were laid out in the water.

  "What?" Edmund asked.

  "You," Joanna said as she walked out into the water until she was deep enough to partially submerge. "Did you think about how to get out of this bay last night? Or did it emerge, full blown, from your forehead like Athena from Zeus?"

  "I thought about it before we left Raven's Mill," Edmund replied. "It's a simple modification of the way that Roman Legions, or the Blood Lords for that matter, exited their camps."

  "Except we don't have to take it down behind us,
" Herzer said with a nod. "I just hadn't thought that far ahead."

  "You'll learn, Herzer," Edmund said, climbing on Donal when he lay down in the water. "You'll learn."

  They weren't hit as they debouched from the inlet, or even after they reformed the hemisphere and started off down the coast.

  "Where are they?" Herzer asked.

  "Waiting in ambush," Edmund replied. "That's their way."

  Herzer had taken the comment about thinking ahead to heart and used the time now. Something about the narrows that entered the channel through the banks had been bothering him for a while and how he had it.

  "I think they're going to hit us at the entrance to the banks, sir," he said. They were traveling beneath the water, the dragons swimming for a while and then broaching like whales for a breath.

  "That's my guess as well," Edmund replied.

  "And there's only a few ways for them to do it," Herzer replied. "And . . . I think I have a way that we might be able to round up the whole set. But I'm afraid it might take too much coordination, that it's too complicated."

  "If a plan is too complicated, the way to use it is to decomplicate it," Edmund replied. "So what's the plan?"

  Herzer told him and he nodded.

  "You're right," Edmund said after some thought. "That's too complicated. And you haven't allowed for it to go to hell in a handbasket. Let's see if we can decomplicate it and come up with a go-to-hell option."

  They talked about it for a while, as, reinforcing their suspicions, the ixchitl failed to attack, until Edmund finally nodded.

  "It doesn't take into account the orcas," Edmund said. "Or the kraken. But it will do. If one appears it still might work. If both appear we're on the go-to-hell-plan."

  "Which is?" Herzer asked.

  "The mer get on land, as far up as they can and the delphinos are on their own," Edmund said, brutally. "If there's an orc force, we just pull into the shallows and fight until we're all dead. That's why it's called a 'go-to-hell' plan. You're all going to hell, anyway, so you might as well take as large an honor guard as possible. Go brief the mer, I'll handle the delphinos."