“I don’t think, I know,” laughed Nickelo. “The sensors in your ring have a sonar device. I have been pinging the bottom in my spare time for something to do. How deep to you think it is?”
Richard contemplated the problem. He hadn’t quite figured out how to use the ring’s sensor without his battle computer’s help, so he approached it from another direction. “Well, I’ve been using my passive scan to monitor sea life. Based upon the distance from me to the lowest ones I’ve sensed, I figure we’ve been in deep water the last ten days, say between three and five thousand meters. The water started shallowing this morning. The deepest life form beneath us now is only a hundred and fifty meters down. I’m guessing that’s the current bottom.”
“I’m impressed,” said Nickelo. “The floor of the ocean is only a hundred and fifty-four meters below the ship’s keel at the moment. I calculate we are sailing above a large plateau on an underwater mountain range. Based upon sonar readings, I calculate the plateau ends just over the horizon to the north. The ocean will undoubtedly get deeper on the other side.”
Richard had several questions, but the sound of light footsteps behind him made him forget all about the depth of the ocean. He knew the footsteps well. He’d grown to look forward to them each day about this time. He turned and nodded at Mia, beautiful as ever.
The priestess walked up and leaned her elbows on the railing. Staring out over the water, she said nothing. They remained that way for several minutes, each lost in their thoughts. When a rogue wave caused the ship to roll unexpectedly, Mia stumbled and leaned her shoulder onto Richard for support. When the wave passed, she left her shoulder where it was. Although the day was warm to the point of being uncomfortable, the elf’s touch gave Richard a strange sense of peace.
Something on Richard’s left hand tingled and grew warm. He glanced down at his ring. Feeling guilty for some reason, he shifted to the right a little to give the beautiful elf some room. She gave him a strange look but remained silent.
Nodding at the horizon, Richard said, “How long before we get to where we’re going?”
Mia shifted to face him. The silver specks in her dark eyes twirled in a pattern Richard found fascinating.
“How long?” she held up all ten fingers of both hands, balled them into fists, and then held up all ten fingers again. “That is twenty, right?”
Richard nodded. “You got it. Are you saying we’ll get to our destination in twenty days?”
The priestess frowned.
Richard knew she still didn’t understand everything he said, but she’d proven to be quite adept at figuring out his meaning even when she couldn’t translate all of his words.
Mia turned so that her back was against the rail and crossed her arms, letting her staff rest in the crook of her left arm. “Yes. In twenty days, we will be in…”
The word she said was gibberish, gone from Richard’s mind as soon as she finished saying it. Richard shrugged his shoulders. “Sorry. If you’re saying a name, it’s not sticking in my brain for some reason.”
The elf shook her head. “You are strange, Rick. I do not think I will ever understand you.”
“Join the club,” Richard said. “I rarely understand myself.”
“What do you mean by ‘the club?’ Do you mean a piece of wood like a weapon? I do not think I understand.”
Richard shrugged. “Never mind. The point I was trying to make is that I also think I’m strange.”
Mia laughed. The silver specks in her eyes swirled. “Good. Then we finally agree on something.”
Richard returned her laugh. His ring tingled again. He tried his best to ignore the tingle, but the faint hint of warmth he’d felt earlier became downright hot. Once again, he began feeling guilty.
This is crazy, he thought. It’s just a ring, and Mia and I are just talking. She’s trying to learn my language. I’m trying to teach her. That’s all.
Despite his thoughts, Richard knew he’d grown to look forward to their impromptu language lessons. It was more than just the elf’s beauty that drew him. He felt a connection to her. Maybe it’s the silver in her eyes, he thought. I think I’ve always liked silver.
Richard was trying to think of some way to compliment Mia given the limited words at his disposal when something from the port side of the ship drew his attention. He turned and looked to the north. All he could see was the flat ocean. As far as he could tell, the water stretched out for a thousand kilometers with nothing to break its surface.
“That is a ridiculous notion,” said Nickelo. “Based upon your height above the water, I calculate the horizon is ten kilometers away, give or take a hundred meters.”
“Quiet, Nick. Something’s wrong. I can feel it.”
Growing serious, Nickelo said, “What is it? I am detecting nothing unusual with the ring’s sensors. Are you sensing something on the surface or below it?”
“What is it, Rick?” asked Mia. “You have that blank look you get on your face sometimes.”
Richard pointed north. “Something’s happening out there. I can feel it.”
The priestess stared north, her face taking on a blank look of its own. A ball of magic reached out from her and sped northward. After five heartbeats, the ball of magic returned.
Mia shook her head. “My tracker spell senses nothing in that direction. I went all the way to the horizon. Are you talking about something below the water?”
Pushing his passive scan as far to the north as he could, he succeeded in going well beyond the horizon. He sensed a lot of life forms. That in itself wasn’t strange given the abundance of life gathered on the underwater plateau. What was strange was that a lot of the life forms he was detecting to the north were too high in the air to be sea life. On the flip side, he had a feeling they were too large and massed together to be birds. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end.
“Nick,” Richard said in his mind. “Is the depth of the ocean still a hundred and fifty meters?”
“That’s strange,” said Nickelo. “The depth is now only a hundred and twenty meters. The plateau below us is relatively flat, and the ship has not moved much. I calculate something must have drained some of the water from underneath us. The most logical reason would be a—”
“Tsunami!” Richard shouted. “Turn the ship! Turn it now!”
Mia stared at him. “A what? What is a—”
“Wave,” Richard shouted as he frantically pointed to the north. “Big wave! Turn the ship now, or we’re dead.”
Mia faced north and waved her hand as she said a word Richard heard but quickly forgot. Another ball of magic shot out to the north, then returned within five heartbeats. The priestess’s eyes grew wide as her face turned white. She turned and ran for the stern of the ship shouting words of gibberish to the captain and first mate as she went. The crew began scrambling up the ship’s rigging as the officers began shouting commands.
Once she reached the rear of the ship, Mia placed her staff on the wooden deck and began chanting. The gem on her staff blazed with a bright blue light. The blue glow flowed up into the sails. The previously slack canvas billowed out accompanied by the sound of wind. Sailors scrambled across yardarms lowering sails until every piece of canvas on the ship was filled with air and pushing the ship forward.
The ship began turning. Richard wasn’t a sailor, but he didn’t need to be to know it wasn’t changing direction nearly fast enough. A sweep to the north with his passive scan picked up life forms high in the air. He strained his eyes in an effort to see what was coming. The northern horizon took on a grayish haze as if revealing the foothills of a distant mountain range.
“You were right,” said Nickelo. “It is a tsunami. An underwater earthquake must have set off a landslide to the north. According to the ring’s sensors, the wave coming our way is massive. If we were in deep water, I calculate it would pass under the ship with no effect. As it is, the water is being bunched up by the plateau. Based upon speed and density readings, I calculate the initial wa
ve will be three hundred meters high by the time it reaches us.”
Richard glanced back at the rear of the ship. Mia was holding her staff high as she continued chanting words he heard and quickly forgot. The blue glow from her spell filled the sails as the ship’s momentum picked up.
Master Freestrod and Lord Derander came running up the stairs from the cargo hold followed by most of the elf lancers. Mia stopped chanting long enough to yell commands to the two mages before returning her concentration to her spell.
Richard expected the mages to start feeding their Power to the priestess. They didn’t. Instead, they joined him near the bow. Master Freestrod took up a position on the port side of the ship and Lord Derander on the starboard. The mages drew Power from their reserves and began waving their hands in intricate patterns as they took up similar chants.
Lines of blue magic left the mages’ hands and met at the bow. Richard sensed the magic shoving the bow to port while lifting it slightly out of the water. The ship’s turn to the north increased noticeably.
“They are trying to levitate the ship,” said Nickelo. “It is too heavy for them to lift completely, but I calculate it is enough to reduce the friction of the water against the hull.”
Richard glanced northward. The distant gray haze he’d seen earlier was growing higher in the sky and getting a lot closer. He detected the life forms caught in the wave, then sensed a second wave behind the first and another after that. He tried gauging the distance from the wave against the speed of their turn.
“It is going to be close,” said Nickelo.
Sergeant Thornbriar shouted commands to his lancers. Tracer ran up with the rest of her team and tossed Richard a rope.
“Tie,” Tracer shouted.
Glancing around, Richard noticed the elves and most of the sailors tying themselves to the railing, the masts, and anything else that looked sturdy.
“Uh,” said Nickelo. “Unless you want to go for a swim, I recommend you do the same. Your team is tying themselves to the windlass for the anchor. I calculate it is as good a place to tie down as any.”
Wasting no time, Richard joined the others at the windlass. Double wrapping the rope around his waist, he tied off the other end to the windlass. He noticed Commander Astradis and the young monk run up and tie Freestrod and Derander to the railings on the port and starboard sides of the bow. He glanced back at the stern. Two more monks were busy securing Mia in place with a thick rope. She paid them no mind as the wind whipped her long black hair behind her. Even from a distance, Richard imagined he could see the silver flecks in her eyes swirling as the magic from her staff filled the sails.
By this time, the bow of the ship was facing due north. As the ship completed its turn, Richard sensed the two mages change their spells. They no longer tried to turn the ship. They seemed to concentrate their efforts on lifting the bow as much as possible.
“They are trying to make it into a poor-man’s hydrofoil,” said Nickelo. “The less surface touching the water, the faster the ship will go. I calculate we are going to need to go a lot faster to get over that wave.”
Wind whipped past Richard as the ship’s momentum increased, but he knew his battle computer was right. They weren’t going nearly fast enough. The distant wave had already covered half the distance from when he’d first spotted it. He was forced to look up in order to see the top of the mountain of water heading their way.
Amir nudged him on the shoulder and pointed at the wave. “Tall.”
“Yeah,” Richard said. “Very tall.” He gauged the distance to the first wave. “We’re not going to make it, are we Nick.”
“No,” admitted Nickelo, making no attempt to cloud the truth with words of hope. “I calculate the ship’s momentum will only carry it halfway up the wave before it crashes back into the ocean. This ship is doomed. I can survive in the ring underwater, but unless you can hold your breath a lot longer than I think you can, you are as good as dead. The reserve for your self-heal will run out long before you can walk to shore underwater.”
Richard didn’t think he minded dying that much, but a smile and some words of gibberish from Tracer caused a sadness to wash over him. He felt as if he was letting her and the other elves down. The ring on his finger tingled. Something coming through the red gem seemed to urge him to fight and live.
Fight how? he wondered. I don’t have enough Power to help the elves. All I’ve got is a little residual Power from the seepage from my healing reserve. It’s enough to change the DNA of food when I’m cooking, but it’s not enough to help the elves with their spells. Heck, even if I had Power, I couldn’t cast a spell. I don’t do magic.
Something told Richard he was wrong. He couldn’t do magic, but he had a feeling he still might be able to help. Reaching out with his passive scan, he sensed the lines of magic of Derander, Mia, and Freestrod as they continued casting their spells. With what little Power he had, he touched Mia and pulled some of her Power toward him. Instead of keeping it for himself, he passed the Power on to Derander. The amount of Power he passed increased slightly. He drew the line of Power from Derander to Master Freestrod. The amount of Power grew even more. He passed the growing Power back to Mia, forming a continuous circle between the priestess, the two mages, and himself. The intensity of the magic grew as the Power connecting the priestess and the mages jumped around the circle from one to the other.
The blue glow at the bow of the ship grew brighter. The ship lurched forward as the bow partially lifted out of the water. The blue glow filling the sails grew brighter as well. The magic breeze grew so strong it threatened to rip the thick canvas apart. Richard heard shouts from Mia and the two mages grow louder as if urging their spells to perform beyond their own limitations.
Richard tore his gaze away from Mia to look ahead. The first wave was on them, looming three hundred meters overhead. The ship began climbing the steep slope, losing its momentum as it went. Halfway up the ship went, then three-quarters. The Mengaza’s momentum continued slowing despite the frantic shouts of Mia and the two mages. Intuition told Richard the Power of their spells was at its max. They could do no more.
The ring on Richard’s hand tingled. The red gem became hot enough to cause him to wince. He sensed a link from him to the something inside the gem, or more to the point, something on the other side of the gem. On a hunch, he drew magic from the circle he’d created with Mia and the mages and sent it down the link and through the gem. More Power came back than he’d sent. He returned the extra Power to the circle and sent more Power down his link to the something. Still more Power was returned. The magic of the three elves increased incrementally with the extra Power he’d sent to the Circle.
The bow of the Mengaza lifted higher as the ship resumed its climb toward the top of the wave. Just before the last of its momentum was spent, the bow of the Mengaza crested the wave. Down the other side the ship went. Water crashed over the deck, washing anything not tied down overboard. Richard heard a scream. The stinging saltwater in his eyes prevented him from seeing the source. The ship continued its plunge down the wave as its speed increased with every passing second.
Richard could no longer hear the chanting of Mia or the mages, but he sensed their spells changing. They no longer seemed to be urging their ship forward. Instead, they seemed to be using their magic to slow the Mengaza’s rate of decent. The ship reached the bottom of the wave and hit the water. It hit the water hard.
Richard’s head slammed into the side of the windlass. A cold blackness sought to steal him away, but his self-heal brought him back to the light. He sensed someone nearby slipping away. Reaching out, he grabbed hold of a massive arm. It belonged to Amir. Opening his eyes, Richard saw the frayed end of a rope flapping near the big man’s waist.
Amir’s eyes were closed. Blood flowed down a deep cut on his forehead.
“Another wave,” shouted Tracer as she reached over and helped Richard pull Amir back to the windlass.
With Tracer’s help, Rich
ard held Amir in place while Skylark and Grapeon retied the big man to the windlass. They were just in time. Richard’s passive scan picked up another change in the spells of Mia and the mages. The ship lunged forward. He looked past the bow to see the top of the next wave. It was only two hundred meters high. Onward it came. Mia’s breeze spell carried the ship over the top. Down the backside went the Mengaza. This time when they hit the sea at the bottom of the wave, the uppermost section of the foremast broke off. Jagged pieces of splintered wood came raining down, carrying torn canvas with it.
Two sailors untied themselves and grabbed axes. They began cutting away at the debris. Richard sensed Derander cast a spell to levitate the damaged rigging over the side of the ship. It had just cleared the railing when the next wave came. This time the wave was only a hundred meters high, but with part of its sails out of commission, the Mengaza struggled to reach the top. Richard felt himself leaning forward in an attempt to urge the battered ship onward. Up it went, slowing with each meter gained. As the last of its momentum gave out, Richard sensed Freestrod add his Power to that of Mia’s. The few remaining sails filled with more of the glowing wind. The Mengaza reached the top and plunged downward.
One of the sailors who’d helped cleared away the debris with his axe came sliding past Richard. Releasing his grip on Amir, Richard grabbed hold of the sailor’s shirt. The shirt began ripping, but Grapeon latched onto the man’s bare foot and pulled him close. Two large eyes stared at Richard as the sailor released his axe and grabbed onto the ropes tied around the windlass. The ship hit the bottom of the wave. As the hull slammed into the water, more canvas, rigging, and broken pieces of wood came crashing onto the deck. Part of a sail fell over the windlass, covering Richard and the others.
Struggling free of heavy material, Richard looked past the bow’s railing for the next wave. He saw nothing except the flat ocean.
“We made it,” Richard said in his shared space.
“Yes, we did,” agreed Nickelo. “Now all we have to do is see if the captain and his crew can keep this pile of wood afloat.”
Wizard Gigantic (Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles Book 9) Page 29
