“Hey,” said Jenur. “Don't talk to Kinker that way. He has a good point, you know. That barrier really can't be breached by normal means.”
Banika turned to face Jenur with the most terrifying eyes Kinker had ever seen in his life. “And why aren't you helping? I know you hate Malock, but that doesn't mean you have the right to abandon him to his death.”
“I don't hate Malock,” said Jenur, folding her arms. “And I was just helping, Miss Tight Pants. I just was taking a break to see what Kinker was up to and to rest my head, which is aching like hell right now.”
“There is no time to rest when our Captain is in danger,” Banika insisted. “We have no idea how much time we have left until Bifor kills Malock.”
“How do you know that's what he's doing, anyway?” said Jenur. “What if Malock is actually—”
Banika slapped Jenur across the face so hard that Kinker was surprised the young woman's face didn't go flying off. Jenur staggered to the side, almost falling over, before she regained her balance and looked at Banika, rubbing the side of her face as she did so.
“The hell was that for?” said Jenur. “Almost knocked me out.”
“For daring to imply that Malock is up to no good,” said Banika, holding her hand high like she was going to slap Jenur again. “It's obvious that Bifor is holding him and Vashnas hostage. Don't you dare imply otherwise or I will toss you overside like the trash you are.”
Jenur straightened up, still rubbing the side of her face, but Kinker noticed her other hand going for the knife at her belt. “I've always thought you never liked me, Banika, but until tonight I didn't know for sure. I wonder if an old bat like yourself could even do what you said you were going to do to me. Would be interesting to find out.”
Banika took a step forward, but Kinker got between the two feuding women and said, “Hold on, ladies. This is no time to be fighting amongst ourselves. Our Captain and our lookout are currently being held hostage by someone who could kill them without even thinking about it. We need to work together.”
For a moment, he was sure that the two were going to beat him up because they glared at him like they were trying to set him on fire with their eyes alone.
Then Banika's arms flopped to her sides and she said, in a half-defeated voice, “What are we supposed to do? None of us know any magic, so we can't pierce or break Bifor's barrier.”
“And even if we could, I doubt any of us could stop him from killing Malock and Vashnas,” said Jenur, glancing at the crew that was still gathered around the barrier. “Even with all of us working together, we might not be fast enough.”
Kinker stroked his beard in thought. He had no ideas, either, until without warning he noticed exactly where Bifor, Malock, and Vashnas were standing. He had a terrible flashback just then, remembering how he shot a cannonball into the Tusked God's mouth. It was terrible because he recalled the exact look on Deddio's face when he was snatched up into the Tusked God's mouth, but he forced himself to ignore it because he had no time to break down and cry.
“I think I know how we can save them and defeat Bifor at the same time,” said Kinker. “But it will undoubtedly be dangerous, might even not work depending on how strong the barrier is and how far it extends below deck.”
“I don't care how dangerous your plan is,” Banika said. “Tell me what to do and I'll order the others to do whatever you need them to do.”
“All right,” said Kinker. “Gather round, you two, because we will need to do this quickly. There's no telling how much time we have until Bifor decides to finish them off.”
-
“They're running away,” Vashnas said.
Her observation snapped Malock out of his concentration on Bifor's wand, which was still crackling with energy. He looked around the large mage and noticed that Vashnas was correct. The entire crew had backed off entirely by now; in fact, most of them seem to have disappeared entirely, like they had gone below deck. The only one left was Jenur, who was standing at a distance and doing all kinds of strange hand signals that Malock couldn't read.
Bifor didn't look over his shoulder, perhaps because he didn't want to give Malock and Vashnas the chance to escape. “I imagine they must have given up by now. They probably think that there's nothing they can do to save you or stop me. And they would be quite right in that regard. At last the unwashed masses show signs of intelligence.”
Malock felt Vashnas slip her hand into his. He looked at her, but rather than seeing fear and resignation on her face, she looked focused, like she was mentally counting down to something.
“I would have liked to have an audience to see your deaths, but alas that is not to be,” said Bifor. “No matter. Whether this is witnessed by a hundred or merely one, I will kill you just the same.”
Jenur was shaking her head and jumping up and down, but Malock still didn't understand what she was trying to do. Was she trying to warn them of something? He couldn't be sure.
“Before you kill us, Bifor, may I ask for my last words?” said Malock. “Just a few words, that's all I ask.”
“I am not the noble villain of Zarsk's plays, prince,” said Bifor. “I do not offer my victims their last words. Too often, they—“
Bifor never got to finish that sentence because Vashnas immediately grabbed Malock's arm and dragged him to the bulwarks. She pulled, almost tossed, him overside, jumping down with him as she did so, even as a dozen or so bolts of energy shot over their heads. But Bifor's magic never hit them and soon they were falling down the starboard of the Iron Wind, the wind whipping Malock's hair and boat cloak until they hit the water with a splash.
Despite the warmth of the day, the ocean water was bitterly cold. It was also darker than the night itself and Malock struggled to find his way up. This was complicated by his boat cloak, which was beginning to weigh him down. Not only that, but it seemed like Vashnas herself was trying to keep him from surfacing, because she was holding him down with both hands and he could feel his air rapidly running out.
Yet even as he struggled for the surface, a loud boom from above echoed them, the sound slightly muffled by the water. Malock heard large things hitting the surface of the water above, but due to the darkness of the ocean he could not tell what was going on. Had Bifor blown up the ship after all? Were he and Vashnas stranded in the ocean, with no way of getting to World's End alive?
Then he felt himself ascending, courtesy of Vashnas, who was propelling them both through the water at an astonishing pace. His boat cloak weighed them both down, however, forcing Vashnas to actually rip it off him and let it descend into the ocean depths, much to his disappointment. On the other hand, he desperately needed air right away, so he didn't mourn its loss as much as he might have.
Then, without warning, the two broke the surface, Malock gasping as his wet face met the cold air of the night. He shivered violently, wiping his dripping hair out of his eyes and looked around at where they had emerged.
All around them, chunks of burning wood floated on the water. None of it was close enough to harm them or even warm them, but Malock and Vashnas would have to be careful when navigating it. Malock wondered where the burning wood chunks had come from before Vashnas pointed ahead of them and said, “Look at that.”
Malock hadn't realized it, but they had somehow swam away from the Iron Wind, not just swimming underneath it. Or perhaps the ship had moved away from them when they jumped off it. Either way, Malock was still shocked and disappointed by what he saw.
The starboard side of the ship—the side that had been newly repaired thanks to the Mechanical Goddess's automaton shipwrights—was gone, replaced with a gaping hole in the side of the ship that reminded Malock all too much of how the Iron Wind had looked back on Stalf. He could see it because parts of the ship were now on fire, the flames illuminating the hole and the sailors who were working to put it out.
Malock looked at Vashnas in disbelief. “What ... was ... how did that happen?”
Vashnas began
tugging Malock through the water toward the ship, carefully winding her way around the floating debris. “I don't know the exact details, but I think that the crew must have used one of the cannons below to blow a giant hole in the side of the ship.”
“Why the hell would they do that?” said Malock. “And how did you know it was going to happen?”
“I recognized Jenur's hand signs,” said Vashnas, stopping briefly to look at him. “She was trying to warn us that we needed to jump off the ship when the cannon was ready so we wouldn't be blown to kingdom come. I have to admit I wasn't entirely sure at first because of the darkness, but I'm glad I figured it out; otherwise, we'd both be in pieces.”
Malock noticed a thin piece of wood floating by, which he snatched. It was Bifor's wand, burnt black, true, but still in one piece.
“So Bifor is dead?” said Malock.
“Looks like it,” said Vashnas.
Malock stared at the wand for a moment and then threw it away in disgust. He heard it land in the water nearby, but he didn't bother to look for it. He was just glad that that bastard had been blasted to hell.
-
After being pulled out of the sea by the ship's remaining davit on the port, Malock immediately asked for the identity of the person who came up with the idea of destroying the starboard side. It was Kinker who came forward, his hands black with gunpowder, who seemed to think he was going to get punished, if the way he walked with his head down indicated anything.
Malock was shivering, still cold, even after Banika had fetched a blanket to drape around his shoulders. “So you were the one who decided to break the ship again.”
“I'm sorry, Malock,” said Kinker, not looking him in the face. “I didn't even know it would work. I was desperate and it was the only idea I thought would have a chance at succeeding.”
Malock put one wet hand on Kinker's shoulder and said, “Kinker, I'm not angry at you at all. In fact, I am extremely happy with what you did.”
Kinker looked up at him, disbelief etched in his face. “You are? But I damaged the ship, possibly beyond repair this time.”
“Yeah, that sucks,” said Malock, nodding. “But you saved my life and Vashnas's life as well. For that, I must thank you.”
Jenur, who was standing nearby, patted Kinker on the back. “See? I knew you would have nothing to worry about. Even if you did blow up half the ship.”
“What happened?” said Gino, who was also with them. “Why did Bifor try to kill you two? What's the story?”
Malock exchanged looks with Vashnas, who seemed to be as tired as he felt, and said, “That's a story for tomorrow morning, I'm afraid. For now, we all need to get some rest so we will be ready to face our next destination.”
“And that is ... ?” said Banika.
Vashnas answered the question this time. “World's End, known also as the Throne of the Gods.”
***
Chapter Twenty-Two
In the morning, Malock got to see the full extent of the cannon explosion and he had to cringe, despite not being angry with Kinker about it. Only one cannon had been used to blast a hole in the ship, but it looked like an entire arsenal of cannons had been unleashed on it. The fires had been put out, but the edges of the hole were still burnt black, crumbling anytime anyone got near them, and the cannon itself was little more than twisted, scraped metal. The other cannons had taken varying degrees of damage, from resembling the first cannon in almost every respect to being a little burnt but in good shape otherwise.
Unfortunately, it wasn't just the cannon room that had suffered from the explosion. The sails all had holes torn in them from flying shrapnel; not large enough to halt the ship entirely, but enough to worry him. Malock ordered several of the men to patch the sails up using some of the extra cloth they had in the hold, vividly reminding him of the day the old sails had to be patched, back when they first started this voyage so long ago. Thankfully, the ship was not in danger of sinking.
No one got hurt in the explosion, as Banika had made sure to get the entire crew out of the blast range. The only fatality the crew suffered from the explosion was Bifor and in Malock's opinion he couldn't quite call Bifor's death something that the crew 'suffered' from when it was clear that losing the mage was good for them all.
Speaking of Bifor, news of his betrayal quickly spread through the entire crew. The general reaction at first was shock. Most of the sailors couldn't believe how Bifor had been deceiving them the entire time. A few even insisted that that could not be true, but even fewer listened to them. The general consensus quickly became anger; anger at Bifor's betrayal, anger at how he had planned to kill them all, anger at his deceptions and lies. There was no funeral services held for him, although a handful of sailors did pray a vengeful prayer to their gods, asking for Bifor's soul to be tortured in the afterlife.
Malock sympathized with those prayers, but he prayed none himself, if only because he was taking the time over the next few days to think about everything he had learned last night.
He had no trouble believing in Vashnas's old age, at least not anymore. She was still insisting upon it, even the next day, and he saw no reason to argue when he thought about all of the other weird things he'd seen on the southern seas. He just wondered about the ethics of him, a thirty-year-old human, sleeping with a millenniums-old aquarian.
But that was nothing compared to the very idea of deicide. He at first thought that maybe Vashnas would give up the idea in the morning, after a good night's rest, but to his disbelief the first thing Vashnas told him, when she woke up on the couch in his stateroom (he had elected to sleep on the floor due to the aforementioned uncertainty about the ethical implications regarding his relationship with her) was, “I am still going to kill Tinkar.”
Malock looked up at her from his spot on the floor, his blankets wrapped tightly around him in an effort to keep him warm. He propped himself up on one elbow and looked at her with complete disbelief. “Are you certain?”
“Of course,” said Vashnas. “Now more than ever. With Bifor gone, I can do what I need to do without any interruptions. Unless you, of course, want to stand in my way.”
Malock shook his head. “I wouldn't ... I mean, what you're suggesting is still insane. Killing a god is not what I went on this voyage for.”
“You don't have to help,” said Vashnas. “I can do it myself. Just take me there and I will do it myself.”
“Yeah, but—“
“And this is Tinkar we're talking about,” Vashnas pointed out. “The same god who sent one of his followers to kill you. Would you really care if he died?”
Malock pursed his lips, trying to think of a counter-argument. “Well, I guess I wouldn't cry about it or anything, but I don't think you understand the implications of what you're suggesting. Tinkar is a god. The gods are foundational to Martir. The Loner God back on Ikadori Island told me that during the War the deaths of so many gods completely messed up Martir's ecosystem and led to a lot of death and destruction.”
“Are you saying it will be the apocalypse if I kill Tinkar?” said Vashnas.
“No,” said Malock. “But Tinkar is the God of Fate. What would happen if there was no one to control fate anymore?”
“I bet it would just shift to the Mechanical Goddess's control,” said Vashnas. “She is, after all, the one who gave me part of her power. It's not my concern.”
“It's still risky,” Malock insisted. “And honestly I'm not sure it can work. Fate is such an all-powerful, all-guiding force in this world.”
Vashnas sat up, the blankets falling off her chest. “Are you going to try to stop me?”
Malock almost said 'yes,' but he hesitated. He saw the light of irrationality in her eyes, saw the way in which her hands shook with rage, and realized that he had no idea what she would do to him if he stood against her. She might just leave him alone. Or she might kill him. Anyone who was willing to kill a god would have no trouble killing a prince, in his opinion; then again, Vashnas did
love him, so perhaps he would be safe.
He needed to approach this issue from a different angle, so he sat up himself, took one of Vashnas's hands into his, looked her into the eyes, and said, “Vash, I still love you. I'm just worried what will happen if you try to kill Tinkar. What if you fail? What if the other gods try to stop you? You're immortal, true, but you're also a mortal. Tinkar could still kill you, couldn't he?”
“No,” said Vashnas. “Remember the Treaty. Individual mortals under the direct protection of a god cannot be harmed by other gods. So I think I'm pretty safe.”
“Oh,” said Malock. That took out the 'I'm concerned about your life' angle he was using. “Well, how do you know Tinkar is on World's End at all? I know it's called the Throne of the Gods, but I doubt every god lives there all the time. He has no reason to be there, especially if he knows you're coming to kill him.”
Vashnas cupped Malock's chin with her other hand. “That may be so. But I doubt it.”
Malock raised an eyebrow, although he didn't tug his head out of her hand. “Why?”
“Because if Tinkar wanted Bifor to kill you, then that means he will probably be on World's End with Kano,” said Vashnas. “He will be there to see you because I know Tinkar. He won't kill you, as you're still under Kano's protection, but he'll still be there anyway. To see you.”
“I don't understand,” said Malock. “What would Tinkar gain from remaining on World's End when he knows that you're coming to kill him? Even if he takes certain precautions to keep himself safe, it would still be more logical for him to be elsewhere, wouldn't it?”
“Perhaps it would,” said Vashnas. “But no one ever said Tinkar was a logical god. It has been thousands of years since I last set foot on World's End, since I last saw Tinkar, and he will no doubt want to see me. It is only natural.”
Malock let go of her hand, but still didn't push her webbed hand off his chin. “So there's nothing that I can say that will change your mind, is there?”
The Mad Voyage of Prince Malock Page 32
