by Vitaly Zykov
Far to the north there was a black summit of the familiar mountain. To the south laid the wide swamp. He did not want to go west, so he drew his attention to the east, but there were only tops of unfamiliar trees swaying in the wind, like a green wave running through the sea of the Forest. Then Yaroslav examined the area with magical vision. Almost nothing changed, only the mountain was now looking like a pillar of green flame and some black and gray mist appeared over the swamp. Even the look at it caused some nasty feeling. Yaroslav shivered involuntarily and nearly fell down. After the branch stopped swinging and his galloping heart calmed down he continued his inspection. There was nothing interesting in the west, only trees were shrouded with mysteriously shimmering bluish-green haze. Eventually, he picked the east direction with a giant tongue of bluish flame standing against the same hazy background.
– Well, I'm going there, – decided Yaroslav, sitting like a sparrow, the flame of magician-researcher flared up in his soul again, and he began to descent.
He found a branch that was lying very comfortably in hand, it branched from the main trunk and had a fork at a distance of about one yard. He only had to break it off the trunk. But it was not so easy. The wood was too hard for Yaroslav, and considering that all that was happening at the height of a five-storey building… Yaroslav turned to his new abilities without thinking twice.
There was not enough room for the whip of Nergal. It was Force rolled into energy wisp, configured either for internal damage to the object of an attack (like Hisser had punished him), or for external damage, as in the case with the lizard-poodle. But he needed to wave his arm to make the whip of Nergal, otherwise, as experiments had shown, it would not work. In addition, creation of the whip took a lot of energy, because of the strong resistance of the air environment. Therefore Yaroslav chose the recently revealed method in which he used his own hand as a conductor of Force.
He brought two fingers to the branch and tried to concentrate an energy beam of green magic in his fingertips. The fingers began to glow with green light. Having reached the desired concentration of magical energy, he pressed his fingers to the branch and released the stored energy into the wood. After that, removing his hand he began to watch the ongoing process with great interest. The place where he had pressed his fingers glowed with emerald light. Then the glowing spot generated two small snakes, which ran meandering towards each other along the branch, forming a ring over the wood. Finally, they met, swelled, filled with power and formed a pretty green ring. A moment later the ring shrank cutting off the branch from the tree. There was a quiet cracking sound, smell of ozone, and the severed branch rushed to the ground quickly gaining speed. Yaroslav began to climb down puffing happy.
He found the future staff on the ground and using the same method cut two branches just above the fork. The staff was ready. It was a very comfortable smooth stick with slightly curved end on one side and with a fork on the other.
Having made the staff, Yaroslav immediately set off in the chosen direction. Nothing could delay him here and he was moving forward without looking back.
CHAPTER 7
Oleg was sitting on the bow, leaning against a covered cannon, named «scorpion». As it seemed, the local world either did not know gunpowder, or it was not widely used, because «scorpions» worked on a different principle. Their appearance strongly resembled «Scorpions» on illustrations of Roman weapons in school history books, but there were differences. In any case, Oleg doubted that missile weapons of ancient Romans could throw those clumps of fire, which had been shot at the attacking marhuz, and that Romans had used complex mechanisms(certainly magic!), which allowed to keep a captured target in gunpoint, regardless of the motions of a ship. The last was clearly explained by one talkative sailor with a nickname «Bull». It must be said, that his nickname was quite adequate, not only externally but also internally. At least mentally – that was for sure. Boy, was he bragging about his knowledge when he was talking about ship cannons with an ignorant savage (the savage, of course, was Oleg!).
So, leaning against the mighty cannon, enjoying the fresh breeze, Oleg spent several hours a day in idle contemplation. It was stifling in the cabin, and Nastya expelled him away. She was severely tortured with seasickness, and she did not want Oleg to see her in such a state. She accepted no objections. The first mate often chatted with Natasha and Olesya. Oleg met him a couple times in the cabin, but understood that he was not wanted there. So he was alone and indulged into the forced idleness. Only three times a day, he was invited to the mess room, where they all had dinner. After the first questioning captain Irung was no longer interested in his guests. At least he did not show his interest.
During the first days Oleg walked around the whole ship, but he was politely kicked out from most of the compartments, and as a result the only place available for him was the deck. But he did not complain. What could be better than a rapidly rushing ship, waves lapping against the sides, the shine of green splashes and the shouts of different members of feathered race engaged in fishing. However, he was surprised that birds were fishing so far from land, but the mate told him that local sea birds were not quite normal. When he was asked what that abnormality stood for, he pointed everything around with a sweeping gesture and responded vaguely that they were in the Dark Ocean, inhabited by various monsters and everything there being unusual. At that the explanation had ended.
Oleg personally witnessed the fact that the local waters had wonderful surprises, quite soon. Yesterday morning, as usual, he came onto the deck and found everyone in extraordinary excitement. A lot of people were running back and forth all over the deck. Oleg had not imagined before that he was sailing with so many people. Judging by the stir around all the ship guns (two on bow and two on stern!), the crew was preparing for some military action. Lir Irung came to the platform above the deck superstructure. He was immensely concentrated, shadows were running on his beautiful strong-willed face. The first mate Bernard was explaining something to his captain. His face was slightly pale. Oleg tried to find out what the hell was going on, he stopped one sailor, but the latter pushed him away and ran on his business. Oleg went furious. He, a former border guard and a stout man, was pushed off like a kitten?! But he quickly calmed down. That was his own fault, do not bother people while they are doing their job. But what was that job?!
It became clear pretty quickly. Powerful bows of the ship «scorpions» snapped dully and two giant columns of water rose in about three hundred yards from the ship. Immediately after, a body of some beast shot up into the air. Dark spots spreading on the water indicated, that the beast was wounded badly, but that did not slow down its speed. With guttural roar, it narrowed the gap of forty yards in couple of seconds literally. But ten crossbowmen jumped to the bulwarks, quickly aimed and fired their arrows. There were twice more arrows than shooters. Oleg already knew that these hand crossbows were doubly charged.
The arrows were only resembling ordinary crossbow quarrels. In flight, some of them began to glow, while others kept their normal form, but the fact that one could touch them only wearing special gloves, proved that they had deadly surprises in stock as well. Most of the arrows hit the target. There were several explosions, a couple of flashes of light, and a low, sepulchral moan swept over the water. The seriously wounded creature disappeared under the water.
– Done! – Someone cried triumphantly behind Oleg.
The young man looked around and saw another sailor that winked in return.
– A bony worm, damn it! Dead, bolt into its ass! The first salvo damaged its armor and the bolts finished it! – Finally, he slapped Oleg's shoulder and said: – Now, boy, pray to all gods that it was not the leader of the pack.
– But if it was the leader? – Oleg asked, rubbing his bruised shoulder.
The sailor turned serious:
– Then we are all going to see the other face of Two-Faced, marhuz be your wife! The entire herd will come to take revenge!
The sailor loo
ked up, listened to the screams and happily swore:
– It looks that the danger is over! Capt said that it's all right! And he has never been wrong!
Thus Oleg met Arg. He was a simple, cheerful guy who loved a good drink, a bawdy joke and a good boarding. His attitude to women was prominent as well, but only on dry land. During the whole evening Arg was telling Oleg the tales about local monsters and about an experienced sailor Arg who beat them. Some of the stories were quite eerie and it was horrible to sleep after them. What would happen if a Carpet-maw covered the ship? Or if water jackals circled them! However, in day light, all those stories seemed fiction and lies.
Oleg got distracted from his thoughts and turned to a shout of lookout man. Glancing to where the latter was pointing, he saw two ships, very small because of the distance, but clearly heading towards the Nold's ship. Intrigued, Oleg stood up. Something hit him in his chest, with familiar gesture he adjusted the heavy medallion and silently thanked the creator of this wonderful thing – the personal interpreter. Bernard gave them these medallions the first day and that made their life significantly easier. In addition, as Bernard had said, that after long wearing, they automatically study the language, and they could expect to speak Toarn, the common speech of Toarn, with no accent in a week!
Once again sailors were running on the deck, and even the captain came out of his cabin. He lifted his spyglass, looked toward the unknown ships and breathed: «Pirates!», and then in a loud, firm voice he began to give orders. Once again, a wave of pre-combat fuss swept through the ship. The «scorpions» were uncovered again and crossbowmen lined. But there was something new this time. Several heavy boxes were lifted on the deck. One of them contained swords and long straight knives. Oleg immediately remembered cutlasses from earth novels.
Another box contained armor. It was neither knightly nor iron at all. There was nothing made of iron, just skin and bone, bone and skin, if more precisely, there were tight leather suits with hoods. Oleg found out later, that such suit could withstand a sword blow, or an arrow on decline, successfully resist some kinds of combat spells, defend the body against fire and boiling water, and you do not drown in it if you fall into the water. This wonderful suit was made of skin and shell of bony worm and charmed by magicians. These suits were a trademark of Nold sailors. No other place could sew protective clothing of such quality.
Suddenly Oleg heard his name. He looked around and saw Bernard waving his hand on the deck-bridge. Oleg ran to him, and Bernard handed him a long knife.
– Come down with the girls and do not come to the deck. You can't fight in such conditions. Arg will be with you. Remember, he bears full responsibility for you.
Oleg nodded with disappointment to indicate that he had understood everything. Bernard looked into his eyes, sighed and let him go. Oleg ran downstairs turning his head in all directions. Of course, it was devilishly interesting to look at a sea battle, but the girls really needed his help. He had not gone down the hatch, when a fountain of water rose close to the ship, and Oleg heard a sound of a distant gunshot.
«Stop! What was that shot?! Is that a powder gun? Then we're dead! – A terrifying thought came into his head. – If they almost hit with the first shot from that distance, they will simply drown us by shooting from afar, and we can do nothing! Devil!»
Distracted by these gloomy thoughts, Oleg did not look at his feet. Ship does not tolerate careless – his foot slipped on a ladder step, and Oleg fell down. When he came to his senses, ship corridors heard a weighty phrase, which showed that Oleg was not a gentleman, because gentleman always calls a cat a «cat», and a ladder a «ladder» always, even if they have caused his fall.
Suddenly, there was another explosion near the ship. Oleg rose to his feet with groaning, cursed for the last time and ran towards their cabins, he had to calm the girls.
Irung was cursing himself silently up and down: «boarding, sea battles, romance of sea… Idiot! It is easy to be the best, though the youngest captain-magician of sea hunters in Nold's fleet. Until you have met a really strong enemy!»
He took another look through the spyglass at the predatory noses of the enemy ships cutting water of the Dark Ocean. Everything seemed so easy at first! Just think: two iron troughs, armed with the apotheosis of human stupidity, the gunpowder guns. A simple magical ritual from school course of ritual magic and these guns on the decks of each ship would be blown to dust. And they only have to finish the job: come within range of «scorpion» shot, neutralize remnants of resistance, then send a prize team to collect survived trophies before the ships sink.
This scheme was the first thing that came into his mind. And why would he think about anything else, if use of firearms (in terms of gunpowder) had already been given up in the Epoch of Wars[18], when it turned out that a simplest spell was enough to destroy enemy's stocks of explosives?
And these mercilessly smoking steam engines! Who dared to use them? Magic mover is much safer and more mobile. However, they are only supplied on permission of the Nold Lodge of Mages, who knew the secret of its manufacture. Evidently, somebody disagree with this monopoly of Nold on powerful movers. The boarding would show who exactly. The unidentified ships did not have names. Their noses were decorated with strange runes, and on their flagpoles were flying blood-red flags – the symbol of Brotherhood of Blood from the Snake archipelago. This was another mystery – no one would have dared to come out under this flag, not being a member of the sinister Brotherhood. But the fact that these were not Brothers was obvious. Despite the absurdity of such a ship, its creation required technology and resources. The islands of the archipelago had neither.
But everything turned wrong. With a command «full speed ahead!» Irung ordered to activate the small sphere of Ptolemy, which enveloped the «Kiss» with a membrane of defensive magic and he sketched the seven-pointed star on a ritual table and lit scented candles, one at each point. He decided to deal with the enemy's guns personally, though a senior student from magic mover service crew could do that. Familiar tremor came from Astral and waves of ether swirled around Irung's astral twin. Generously sparing energy Irung formed flows of a destructive spell. Finally the weaving of the spell was completed, and two invisible arrows were put on the string of an ethereal bow. It remained to say a keyword and that would launch the system in action. Irung admired the deadly beauty of his dangerous spell for a second and said «Fire!». With an unpleasant sound inaudible to ordinary mortals, the thoroughly created arrows rushed to their targets. Irung followed them with his Inner Eye and only due to that he was able to see the impossible. The arrows hit right into the target and… with a sound of breaking glass broke into weightless and perfectly safe spray. The guns and gunpowder were protected. Someone solved the problem, which was considered unsolvable by the best magicians and scientists of Nold. Irung was dumbstruck. He felt like a fish taken out of water, stupidly opening his mouth. One of the basic laws of magic, that magic and complex mixtures such as gunpowder are incompatible, was debunked just before his eyes right now.
Meanwhile the enemies took advantage of his moment confusion. The ship continued to move forward, the team was performing the previous orders. A volley of two perfectly aimed powerful guns would break any ship into pieces, but that did not happen. The active defense, constructed by Archimagus Ptolemy and used only in the arsenal of Nold fleet, saved them. The ship was not damaged, the hostile charges hit into the defensive wall and exploded before reaching the ship. But every wall has endurance limit. A panic message from Swann, one of the students responsible for maintenance of magical tools of the «Kiss» brought Irung to life – «Captain! The sphere became dark!! The defense will not last long!»
And Irung gave a necessary, clearly right in this case, but so shameful order to retreat. Steersman got an order «Left left rudder!» at the moment when the «Scorpions» gave a return volley. The fire stroke of magical charges raced toward the unusual ships. Irung held his breath in hope. Usually such a volley was enough to
cause terrible damage to any enemy, but today was obviously a bad day for the young captain. The aptly aimed projectile weapons send the charges at the target. The sparkling clots of fire hit exactly on target, but it did not bring any results. Like in the case with marhuz, the damage from use of the weapon, considered quite powerful, was not visible. The charges had flown over the enemy decks like fiery streams and quickly disappeared.
Meanwhile the «Kiss» quickly turned around. For a moment the sea hunter showed the pursuers its left side, and the enemy cannoneers took advantage of that moment. Two shots roared again, and a powerful blow shook the ship. But it seemed to Irung that his ship shuddered because of an explosion inside the ship, and he felt panic at once: the ship defense was gone!
– The sphere exploded! – Whispered his cold lips, and immediately his trained mind pushed the growing fear into the farthest corner of his consciousness. A mental message to the engine room was like a furious prick of rapier.
– Full speed ahead, you, mermaid kids! Full speed ahead!
Irung had never failed a battle before, but now he was too close to that. Smoke began to rise from an open hatch on the deck.
