Permission granted, I affirmed. Let us know how we can help.
When we are closer, Gabin replied, we will be able to bring your magics to bear. I’ll explain all the details in a moment.
Our ship changed course again, veering at an angle that brought us closer to our enemy ships. They turned as well, stubbornly trying to put themselves in a position to chase both us and their former target. That was fortunate, because it would prevent them from doing either very well, even though they managed to slightly close the distance between both of our ships.
But then I saw shapes dive off of the center Horde ship into the water below. I thought I could make out torpedo-like ripples beneath the waves, heading both toward us and Via’s boat. Breena noticed as soon as I did, and she frantically sent another whisper message to her fellow Satellite. She hissed in response to whatever Via had told her.
“Boarders,” she said out loud. “The new Horde can swim through the water, and travel long distances on their own. She’ll fight off her group, but we need to take the group heading our way seriously. She says to prepare for a fight.”
“Really?” Gabin asked, perplexed. The captain raised a green eyebrow, looking incredulous. “Why would that be effective? How fast can they swim? Do they have any protection?”
Breena tilted her head at the question, but she muttered another whisper spell without complaint. A moment later, she blinked and looked back up.
“They can swim three times as fast as a normal Seaborn. They’re usually about as dangerous as a Horde Mongrel, though they’re not as physically powerful. They don’t wear armor and fight with natural claws, spears, and light blades. They’re a little resistant to Fire magic and natural cold, but beyond that they’re just like normal Horde that can breathe underwater. She said to make sure you’re ready for a brawl.”
I sent Gabin all the information I had on Horde through the mindlink. He shook his head again in disgust.
“Boarders. Without protection. Against a glyph ship.” He turned his attention back to the crew. “Increase speed, but otherwise stay on course. Watch for more glyph fire from the enemy ship. The Lord Challenger’s people will repel any boarders that somehow make it to the deck.”
The crew had a laugh at that last sentence, privy to some joke my retinue and I were not.
“She did say to take them seriously,” Breena repeated cautiously.
The captain turned to look at her.
“If the Lord Earthborn was armed and wearing full armor while riding an enchanted, charging, flaming warhorse outfitted with barding, and I told you that some Seaborn children were going to try and jump on the horse mid-gallop and wrest control of the animal from him, would you have him take any special precautions?”
“No,” she said cautiously. “I would be completely baffled that they would even try, and I’m not sure how that’s the same thing as Via’s warning.”
“You will see in another thirty minutes, when the idiot monsters try to grapple and climb up our ship, which is currently traveling at full speed.”
“I take it you don’t want us to waste any magic on them,” I said cautiously.
“That is correct,” the captain nodded. “But feel free to engage if any of them do make it on board.”
I left it at that, and chose to watch the battle unfolding over the water.
One of the Malus escort ships chose to fire another volley near Via’s ship. The fireballs arced all the way over her vessel, resulting in a large splash that sent her boat rocking dangerously atop the water. I activated my magic to get a better view of the situation. I saw the beautiful woman adjust the sail and ride the wave, then reach for some kind of weapon on her waist. I could barely make out that she was searching the water in front of her with a patient, determined expression.
Breena, I sent to my bonded fairy. Is she going to be alright?
I think so, the sprite confided nervously. Via is at least as skilled as Merada in close combat, and she knows a bit more magic as well. I think she’ll be okay.
I chose to believe her, still frustrated that I was out of range to act personally.
A moment later, the ripples reached the vicinity of her boat. She pulled her weapon free of her belt, revealing it to be a long, dark whip, and began twirling it over her head. The whip took on a blue shimmer as she lashed it through the air, and the water in front of her boat started to churn. Whatever she did seemed to work on her attackers, as most of the finned, humanoid shapes began floating belly-up, with their limbs at unnatural angles. The water vortex she had created must have torn their bodies apart somehow. The few that did emerge from the water unharmed were quickly decapitated when Via struck them with her still-glowing whip.
Wow, I sent to Breena. You were right.
Teeth also whistled appreciatively. I did my best to tune him out.
“Change course,” Gabin commanded. “Arc toward the allied boat.”
As the crew complied, I turned my attention back to the captain.
I don’t mean to second-guess your order, I sent privately. But I thought we were trying to draw attention away from her? Are we going to be a fire shield or something?
No, my lord, the Captain said respectfully, reminding me that I was his boss and he had to be patient with me. I am attempting to finally bring your retinue’s magic into play. Especially yours. Continue conserving your magic, and stand by for my command to act. If you please.”
Acknowledged, I sent back, holding my tongue so he could work.
About thirty minutes later, we encountered the churning waves we had seen earlier. I noticed that our new course was taking us directly over them. A few of the ripples seemed to try and dive to the left or right, but most of them diminished, as if they were suddenly diving deeper down.
Foreign contaminant detected, my mindscreen said, activating as I caught sight of the dark shapes below the water that were about try and board our ship from the sides and beneath. Subject is—
My mindscreen cut off, as the caravel rocked slightly. There were a bunch of bumps from the bottom of the vessel, and another series of glyphs flared all along the ship with bright, sizzling energy. The bumps from under the ship died off immediately. A dark trail of liquid the same color of Horde blood followed our caravel’s wake. Gabin and the crew didn’t react to the experience, except for a few more snorts of contempt. When he caught the confused looks of my team, Gabin explained what had happened.
“This caravel was built primarily for exploration voyages,” he said patiently. “That makes it more of an all-purpose vessel, so it’s not going to carry as much cargo, passengers, or ship-to-ship weaponry as our other glyph ships. But its role as an explorer means that it’s more likely to suffer attacks from deep-sea monsters than almost any other type of boat, so it has the strongest anti-contact wards available for a vessel this size. Something roughly the size of a human, and with only a few Rises or Descents to its name, isn’t likely to survive touching the ship for longer than a few seconds. And that’s if it’s stubborn.”
“Anti-contact…” I said as I processed what he had just said. “You mean this ship is able to shock monsters just by touching them?”
“Of course,” he answered, blinking at me. “There are all manner of dangerous denizens of the deep, even for our race. It would be incredibly irresponsible not have some kind of defense against them built directly into your ship. It would be like forgetting to put in a space to carry food or fresh water.”
I shuddered as I tried to process all the implications of his statement.
Breena, I sent to her, and she immediately guessed my question.
No, Wes, she replied. Magic like that hasn’t been a thing for thousands of years. There are only a handful of ships left with any glyph magic at all, and nothing on the level of even the Malus ships, much less this Atlantean craft. If I had to guess, the Malus Earthborn cobbled the technology together from a bunch of stolen sources, some of which they probably got from Cavus. But the Atlanteans
look like they have been doing this sort of thing for as long as the Elder Woadfolk had been cultivating Gaelguard and Woadfathers. Congratulations on uncovering another miracle, Wes.
She hadn’t bothered to make her reply private. I felt Karim sigh mentally as he began to speak.
Witnessed in… forget it, he said, giving up halfway through.
Damn straight, Eadric grumbled. Didn’t sign up for this kind of crap to happen all the Icon-damned time.
No one’s going to believe even half of these events anyway, Weylin added. We’d get thrown out of the College before we could even finish describing how he pulled a castle out of the floor of another castle.
For real, Wes! Breena suddenly harrumphed. That was a… how do you call it… a rooster! That was a real rooster move!
I sighed and turned my attention back to the battle, painfully aware of the fact that my friends had just announced that they weren't going to bother keeping track of my deeds, while making it clear in the very next sentence that they weren't ever going to forget or forgive me for them.
Please let me know when you’re ready, I sent to the ship’s captain. So that my people will have a reason to stop talking.
As you command, my lord, the Atlantean replied with a hint of amusement. The bastard. I would like more information about the castle incident at a later date, if you don’t mind.
Tell Eadric, Weylin, and Karim that I hereby order them to act out the whole scenario in an interpretive dance. One that is somehow also a musical, I replied, and the other man chuckled, finally sounding like he was having fun with today.
For the next fifteen minutes, that was all of the real entertainment. The enemy’s fireballs continued to rain down on us, and Gabin continued to successfully predict their landing, keeping the caravel clear of the missiles, though some came a lot closer to hitting us than they had before. We continued to fire blue bolts from our two staff-cannons, hitting most of the time but failing to do more than superficial damage to the sides of the much larger ships.
That’s normal, unfortunately, the marine-turned captain sent to me over the mindlink. Our staves are only equipped with Journeyman-level magic. They’re designed to handle monsters or pirate ships our size or smaller, since we can usually outrun anything larger than us. The blasting wards will do more damage when we get closer. But the real damage will probably come from your retinue.
Noted, I said, as we continued to drift into position.
Finally, our ship arrived just behind Via's, putting us directly between her and her pursuers. Now that we were closer, I was finally able to see her ship in much greater detail. It was a rough-looking vessel, clearly seaworthy, but its appearance made me believe that Via or someone else had cobbled it together in as little time as possible, and skipped any unnecessary details. It also looked as if it had been frequently and expertly repaired. I could see the shivering shapes of the islanders huddled under a small alcove that probably served as the modest vessel’s cargo hold.
Via herself had turned to look at us, and though it was a really bad time for it, I had to admit Teeth was right about her figure. Then I made myself focus on the fact that she was also close enough for me to notice that she looked super angry. She waved her arms in an exasperated expression, then she pointed to Breena with one hand, and made gestures at her own mouth with her other arm.
“She wants to talk again,” Breena sighed. “Hold on, everyone.”
The little fairy closed her eyes and began muttering quietly. Then she opened her eyes and took on an angry expression of her own. She glared at the woman in the other boat, leaned forward and shook her finger, whispering something I couldn’t hear. The other Satellite leaned her head back and cocked her head, as if in angry disbelief, and then fired off a reply at Breena. Breena let out a big, angry huff.
“Oh, no, she didn’t!” I heard the little fairy gasp, and then she snapped her fingers back at her fellow Satellite, whispered at her angrily for a whole minute, rolling her eyes as she spoke and gestured. She ended her message by opening her hand and closing it, as if to say ‘zip it, girlfriend.’
Via turned her face as if she had been slapped. She pointed her finger and began an angry, heated reply of her own, but Breena had already turned her back on her fellow Satellite while repeating her last hand gesture.
My god, I love these women, Teeth said privately. Er, woman. Singular or plural, don’t care.
The beautiful, angry brown woman then turned her furious gaze to me, and I quickly turned to face the captain.
“Yes, we’re in position now,” he remarked dryly, not bothering to hide his smile. As entertaining, and dangerous, as the two Satellites’ exchange had been, the whole thing had only lasted for a few minutes. The Malus ships hadn’t had time to launch another volley yet. “If you could direct your ally’s ship to keep moving away from us…”
“I am not speaking to her right now,” Breena said without turning around. “She can just figure it out on her own, just like she says she’s been doing with everything else the whole time,” she trailed off then, muttering phrases like ‘ungrateful’ and ‘thinks she’s all that now,’ and ‘oh she’s the one with problems?’
“I’ll handle it,” I replied with a sigh. “Just give me a second.”
I walked to the prow, so that the angry, Latina-featured goddess could see me more clearly. I saluted her respectfully. She just blinked in response. I took that as a good sign. I pointed out behind her.
“Keep going!” I shouted as loudly as I could. “Don’t stop!”
She cocked her head at me, as if I had just told her to turn purple and vote for the duck party in the next election. She blinked again, took a deep breath, and put her whip away so that she could cup her hands at me while she shouted back.
“Claro!” she shouted back, with a rich, musical voice that sounded nice even though she was probably about to curse at me. “Pendejo tarde!” As pretty as it sounded, I hated being right.
Error, my mindscreen beeped at me. Translation software is changing words to Challenger’s secondary language, instead of his native tongue. Correcting now.
Not necessary, I ordered, though I honestly wasn’t sure if I could give Stell’s software commands. I was able to figure everything out.
I sighed, and reminded myself that this poor beautiful woman had been desperately trying to save an entire world on her own, probably with even less help than Merada had gotten. She’ll calm down when I help her, I told myself. Maybe.
Breena was still muttering to herself when Gabin directed both of us to stand at the back of the ship.
Alright, he directed through the mindlink. We’re going to take advantage of the fact that you are both experienced Water mages. If you were a little stronger, or if we were in a more narrow body of water, we’d have you two affect the tides to wreck their fleet. But instead, we’re going to take advantage of the fact that one of you has the Subideal of Ice, and start creating one of the most lethal forces of nature to have ever plagued the art of sailing. You two are going to create icebergs.
Really? I sent back, remembering the ancient tragedy of the Titanic back on Earth. The iceberg that had sunk that ship had been huge, according to the dramatic stories. I was a powerful mage at this point, but I wasn’t sure that I could generate something that big out of thin air, even with Breena’s help.
Fortunately, Gabin seemed to sense my concerns.
It sounds like you have the same misconception a lot of others have, he told me. An iceberg doesn’t have to be large to sink or damage a ship, even a glyph ship. They are one of the hardest dangers to ward against, partly because they are so hard to detect, and partly because they do not recoil away from our wards like a kraken or sea drake would. They simply break up and remain dangerous. We save our strongest barrier wards for ships expecting to navigate through them, and sometimes even those are not enough. Even at the height of our power, we were still researching ways to make them less of a threat.
Well, o
kay then, I said, as our own ship fired off a pair of blue bolts at one of the Malus escorts. I guess as long as we avoid sinking the middle one, we’re fine.
The Seaborn people did not inherit their Atlantean ancestors’ ability to breathe underwater. I had no idea if that would make a difference to victims already inside of a Horde Pit, but I didn’t want to have to dive to the bottom of the sea and find out.
That should be doable, though it will certainly take damage. I want the two of you to create ice sheets of the following sizes…
As our ships continued to trade ineffectual fire, Breena and I began creating ice caps of varying sizes. The first one was the most obvious, a twelve foot high, twenty foot wide block that stretched out even further below the water’s surface. According to Gabin, a block this size was called something that translated into my mindscreen as a ‘bergy bit.’ Still not a very large iceberg, but big enough to be seen from a distance and possibly be recognized as a threat.
The Malus ships reacted immediately to the sight. As much as my own captain had disparaged their nautical skill, they were smart enough to recognize an iceberg as those innocent-looking things that could sink ships, and that if one had just appeared out of nowhere, then it was probably something very dangerous. They changed course immediately, though they fired a couple fireballs at the floating block. Gabin broke down and started laughing at that.
“Unbelievable,” he said to himself. “Just when I thought they were getting smart.” He shook his head, still amazed by it all. “They must have never had to fight any of it. Other mages. A ship that can do the same things their ships can do.”
“So far, most of their strategies have been making other problems worse,” I said to him. “But my understanding is that mages of even the basic Ideals aren’t all that common, and having a SubIdeal is pretty rare.”
Lighting Distant Shores (Challenger's Call Book 4) Page 34
