“Good Croí. Just remember, snakes’ coil back, then release with intense speeds. You can’t rely on being able to dodge it. So, what would you do if you can’t dodge?” Zanataz asked the next morning. I squinted at the large snake like statue, the head covered with padding, so it did hurt as much when it hit us. I gripped my spear tighter as Zanataz moved behind it.
There was a click as he released the lever and the massive head of the fake snake lunged at me. Without thinking, I jammed the spear into the top of the snake’s mouth, where I figured the brain would be. It kept moving, knocking me over. Zanataz came out from behind it, looked at it, and clapped. “Well done. Use its own momentum against it, drive the spear up into the brain and it’ll die. But.” He offered me a hand up. “It’ll keep moving and most likely knock you on your arse. And don’t forget that most snakes have teeth, and the number of teeth, or size of them can tell you essential information, like whether or not the snake is venomous for example.”
He pushed the snake’s head back and it latched into place, then ripped my spear out and tossed it to Jael. “Your turn.” He said with a smile.
Then we heard shouting above deck, and people running. I looked to Zanataz.
“Exercises on deck with the others?” I asked. Zanataz shook his head slowly, eyes locked on the ceiling. The door opened and Danith shouted down.
“Zanataz! Ships sighted!” Zanataz looked to us, considering what to do.
“Let’s go check it out.” Klintock said, excited. Zanataz considered a second longer, then nodded.
“Come on then.” He said with a small roll of his eyes. We smiled and followed him up on deck. Zanataz walked straight over to Edorin on the quarter deck, and all of us moved to the upper deck. The ships were nothing more than small colored blips, far ahead of us. Kind of anticlimactic. I was expecting them to be close enough for us to see the crew of the other ship waving to us.
“I was hoping we would see something cool, like a ship full of Uraggians or something.” Sable said from behind us.
“Me too.” Klintock said.
“We won’t need to be waiting long.” Céírde said.
“How long?” Sable asked excitedly. Céírde looked down for a second.
“I would say roughly two hours. Maybe two and a half.”
“That’s a long time.” Sable groaned.
“Maybe we should get back to training.” I said. They all looked kind of bummed but agreed. We turned to see Zanataz just coming onto the upper deck with Edorin, who said.
“Get back to training, all of you.” Sable raised her hand, Edorin raised an eyebrow at her.
“Do we know who they are? Where they’re from?” He shook his head.
“No. Just white flags, no colors. Possibly a stranded ship. Either way, it’ll be two hours until we find out. Back to training.” He said.
We rushed back to the training room, all feeling a bit distracted. I personally wanted to know who was on those ships. Were they Human? Were they Uraggian? Or were they something I’d never seen before? Were they heading to the Trial Islands? Zanataz clicked the lever, and Jael got slammed by the padded snake head. The spear clattered across the floor, and she slammed flat on her back with a grunt. Zanataz sighed.
“Focus, Agers. I know you think it’s exciting to meet another ship, but you need to set that aside while we train.” Jael nodded as she got to her feet and Zanataz kicked the spear to her.
“Now. Let’s try it again.”
For the next hour and forty-five minutes we trained with the snake and a dog like dummy. We learned which positions to be in if we were forced to fight a Hybrid Wolf or other four-legged creatures from the Island. Each one was slightly different, but the tactics were generally the same. Wound or slow it. Surround and kill it. There was commotion up on deck again from the crew running around tying up the sails to slow the ship.
“Will do Captain.” Zanataz said suddenly. “Captain wants all of you to stay down here with me.” Why though? It would be cool to see other people.
“Why do we have to stay down here?” Sable asked.
“We’re keeping you all down here for safety’s sake. If those ships happen to be marauders, or sneaky pirates, we don’t want the ten of you up on deck when the fighting starts. Captain Edorin will feel them out and see if their need for aid is genuine. If it is, I’ll take you up myself.” Sable huffed then nodded as she sat, leaning back on her palms with her legs outstretched. Pirates?
“Seems reasonable. When will we know?” She asked.
“When the fighting starts, or we start moving and I get a message.” Zanataz replied. I grabbed a spear and chucked it at a target.
“Quiet.” Flint said. “I’m trying to listen.” I forgot about the spear and focused my hearing above me. I could hear an unusual quiet. There wasn’t any of the usual noise from the crew, just the usual sounds of the ship creaking as it bobbed up and down in the water. Then I could hear something else, muffled voices. I couldn’t hear what they were saying. They were too far away. I moved as close as I could to the stairs. A loud voice was speaking.
“… course all our papers are in order. Just picked up some valuable resources. Would be happy to let you take a look, but in the meantime, we could use some help on repairs for the Wonder. Those Gods cursed Royal idiots have no idea what they’re doing. Sent the ship out on a test run without proper supplies. Just need a bit of supplies and a few hands is all. They’ll pay you of course. Royals are nothing if not wealthy.” The man said with a loud chuckle. Why is he yelling? Well, he must be on the other ship further away right? Of course he’s yelling. Then I heard Edorin answer much quieter.
“We’ll help you. We don’t have much but we’ll help how we can.” Edorin said.
“Great! We’ll get our leaky tub turned around and meet you alongside the Wonder then. Away ya scabby rats! Get a move on!” The man yelled. Me and the other Agers glanced between ourselves and the mentors.
“Sounds like the Captain…” Zanataz started, then paused. “Yes Captain.” He said. “Ok, follow me up on deck then kids.” He said as he trotted up the stairs, the lot of us following eagerly on his heels. Once we got up on deck, we were met with the sight of a much larger ship than before. Two sails unfurled and we started moving closer to it.
The other ship was larger and grander than the Pony. It had three large masts in the middle and three small ones divided between the front and back, some even hanging over the sides of the ship. It looked to have at least two more decks than the Pony and looked more bulbous on the bottom. Parts of it glistened in the morning light of Kolob. I realized it was covered with flowery, flowing, golden framework. It was primarily light brown and cream colored with bright blue and red accents. A few of the white sails looked damaged, like something had sliced through them. I couldn’t see any of the crew though; the deck was too high up for me to see onto it. There was a large red ribbon carved from wood surrounding the name of the ship, The Wonder, in big golden Common letters.
“It’s huge!” Sable said, smiling.
“It looks expensive. Is it covered in gold?” Flint asked.
“It’s beautiful!” Lánn said, giggling excitedly.
“The Wonder. Not a bad name.” Keokin said.
“What happened to the sails? They look like they got sliced.” Céírde pointed out. I nodded to her.
“I saw that too. Looks like something sliced them. But what could do that out here? Some kind of bird or something?”
“Maybe some pirates tried to get them. Pirates go for the sails from what I heard, so you can’t escape.” Flint said.
“Pirates?” I asked.
“Yeah. Really bad people that sail around looking for other ships to rob.” That doesn’t seem smart. These are the first ships we’ve seen since we left. You’d starve to death before you found another ship to rob. Probably a myth.
A man suddenly popped up on the railing of the other ship as we approached. It surprised me. If I’d blinked, I would’ve missed him. He stood completely still, hanging with one hand on the rope that tied off to the sails above him. He looked unusually pale and was bundled up tight in his clothing. His eyes were extremely wide open, and his mouth was covered by a dark cloth. Something about him made me nervous.
A hand pulled him down and a loud voice shouted at him for standing on the railing, then told him to go and clean a toilet somewhere. Laughter came from the deck of The Wonder, which made me think it was a joke the other sailor was playing. Though, as I looked around, only a few of our crew chuckled. Edorin didn’t look amused.
The crew furled our sails. Ropes with hooks attached were thrown from one ship to the other and hooked to the railing, pulling the two ships side by side. I watched the crew tie the ropes down and the gangway of The Wonder rolled out from below its deck and lowered down to ours by wires attached to the railing. Edorin stood near the bottom of the gangway. There was a small moment of silence, and he squinted at the other ship. What was that look? Where is the other crew?
“Captain of The Wonder.” Edorin called. There were several heavy footsteps, then a heavyset, larger man with a big, wide brimmed hat appeared at the other end of the gangway. His big, bushy, grey beard and hair looked unkempt, but his clothes looked well-kept and really fancy for the most part. He wore form fit dull silver and gold armor with two swords, one on each hip. There was a red sash across his mid-section, breaking up the deep blue of the rest of his clothes. Just like the other sailor I saw, there was something strange about his eyes. They were wide open, and he never seemed to blink. It made me feel uneasy.
He dipped to a bow, holding his hat to his head.
“Pleasant greetings Captain. Come aboard.” The man said in a deep dry voice. He was strange, but I couldn’t figure out why. He looked normal enough, aside from those eyes. Edorin didn’t move, just sat staring at the other Captain, then his eyes flashed purple as he glanced at Zanataz. Zanataz moved towards us, almost looking rushed, his eyes serious. What’s going on? I looked back at the other Captain as he spoke.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
“Won’t you come aboard Captain?”
Edorin held his arms out wide and sported an uncharacteristically wide smile, and spoke in a grand and flamboyant way, that was just as unnerving as the other Captain.
“Of course! Just let me pick out which men I want to send over.” The other man didn’t move, but his eyelids started fluttering, dipping down almost to a squint, then shooting wide open, over and over again.
“Get below deck, all of you.” Zanataz whispered. We followed him.
“Where are they headed? Come aboard!” The other man yelled.
“They’re going to get the supplies you wanted. Not to worry.” Edorin answered. I was weirded out by the strange behavior of Edorin. Then I glanced at the crew. None of them even glanced at us as we passed them by, heading for the stairs. All of them had firm grips on their sword hilts. Just as Zanataz reached the door and pulled it open, the other man shouted.
“Captain! Please stop!” There was a strange, guttural howling from the other two ships. The crew of The Wonder suddenly appeared, all with weapons raised as they ran and leapt from the railing of their ship. One of our crewmen moved forward and whipped his sword in an upward arc at one of the sailors, just before he hit the deck. Blood sprayed from the massive slash in the sailor’s torso as another sailor landed on the deck and sprinted with unnatural speed towards us.
“Move Croí!” Zanataz yelled, pushing me through the door before following me. He slammed a board down across the door, locking it in place. Sounds of fighting and screaming burst from the deck as we rushed down the stairs. “Into your room!” Zanataz ordered. We obeyed quickly, moving past a few crewmen and slipping into the relative darkness of our room. I was starting to panic; I didn’t know what to do. Were those pirates?
“Stay in here. Lock the door and don’t let anyone but me or Edorin in. No matter what. Get your weapons out and keep them at the ready. Try to stay calm and be as quiet as you can. Breathe Agers. I’ll be back.” He smiled at us, then pulled the door closed. Several breaths came and went before anyone moved. Keokin hissed a whisper.
“Weapons out guys, come on.” He unsheathed his Sealgair and knife. We rustled through our things and pulled out our weapons. I tested the grip on mine, and bounced back and forth on my toes, trying to control my breathing. As I listened, I could hear fighting above us. Yelling and what sounded like swords clashing. Right, lock the door he said.
I started moving quietly across the room. Then I heard a sound. Someone was running towards us from further below deck. I heard them yelp as they tripped and fell. They shouted in the hallway outside our room.
“You don’t need to do this! Please! No sto…” They were cut short by a strange squelching slice, then a gurgle, then silence. Lánn let out a small whimper but quickly covered her mouth. I slowly flipped the lock down and backed away from the door. Heavy footsteps came from the galley seconds later, heading towards us, then two shadows blocked most of the light from the bottom of the door.
A blade came through the small gap in the side, pushing the lock up, and the door started to move. I was shaking with fear, horrified by the thoughts of what might come through. Glancing around, I could see everyone else felt the same way. Holding their weapons tightly, shifting from one foot to the other as sweat beaded down their faces, their eyes were locked onto the opening door as it slowly swung open.
There was a man standing in the doorway. He had short black hair, overalls, and bare feet. It took a second to recognize him as Morean. He would play cards with Danith and Cairen.
But there was something odd, almost eerie about him. His posture was slackened, and his feet looked almost twisted, like they weren’t even below him or supporting his weight. Then my eyes adjusted to the light, and I noticed his head, drooped to the side with his dead eyes slightly open, mouth slackened, blood still drenching the right side of his body, a slash across his throat. He’s dead!? But, how?... There was someone behind the body, someone large, muscled, and bulky. My hands started to shake as recognition of the shape began to dawn on me. A face peeking over the shoulders of Morean’s body. It was scarred with one milky eye. The body was pushed into the room from behind, landing with a sickening smack on the floor as the larger, familiar shape filled up the doorway.
My jaw clenched shut, my hands began to shake, my eyes found it hard to focus, and my breathing became quick and shallow as my wide eyes locked onto the figure I now recognized. Sacae entered the room, smiling, and holding a short sword, his sickening smile and eyes locked in on me as he spoke.
“Hello there. Little Croí.” His grip tightened on the sword and his smile widened. William dropped into a fetal position, cowering in the corner by my bed. Jael and Klintock took wary steps forward, weapons in their shaking hands. Their movement shook me enough to remember to breathe. “I wouldn’t if I were you whelps.” Sacae pointed his sword at them. “Don’t worry, I’ll get to you soon enough. But right now, I just want him.”
He pointed his sword at me. The look on his face changed. His eyes were wide, but there wasn’t any emotion in them, no rage, no fear, just pure malevolent, murderous intent. The look shocked me; he didn’t seem like a person anymore. The look was like being targeted as prey by a predator. Keokin stepped up on my left, shaking, but with determination in his eyes. Focus. That’s right, I need to focus. I’ve trained for this. I beat William. Now I have to conquer Sacae. Why won’t my body move?! If I don’t beat Sacae, he’ll kill us all! Gods…This is real, isn’t it?
“I… If you want him. You g… gotta…” Klintock stammered out but was interrupted by Sacae.
“Go through all of you first?” He smiled. A sickening smile. “Not much of a challenge, is it?”
“We’ve grown.” Keokin said confidently, though his shaking hands betrayed him.
“So that’s how it’s gotta be then? All of you want to get in the way?” I knew I wanted to help my shield family, but I couldn’t move. I was frozen, shaking with fear, the best I could do was focus on my breathing. “Very well then.” Sacae began, the look in his eyes showing a slight sadistic joy now. “As you wish, Leader.” His smile widened for a moment, then dropped as he focused on Klintock with the eyes of a predator.
He moved quickly, too quick for Klintock to fully react. He brought up his hatchet to block an overhead strike from the sword, but Sacae wasn’t aiming for Klintock’s head, he was aiming for his hand.
There was a slicing sound and a dull thud as his right middle finger fell to the floor. Jael and Keokin, were spurred to action by his movement. They lunged at Sacae as Klintock stepped back, shock on his face as he looked at his hand. There was a severe gash across the knuckles of his pinky and index fingers. His middle finger was missing, and his ring finger held on by a small thread of skin.
This is happening. This isn’t a nightmare. Keokin tried to stab Sacae, but Sacae caught his wrist, while he blocked a blow from Jael’s hatchet with his sword and kicked her in the stomach at the same time, sending her flying past me into the wall. She coughed and gagged as she fell to her knees, then vomited.
I looked back to Sacae. Keokin had dropped his Sealgair into his other hand as Sacae was kicking Jael aside, and now stabbed forward with it. Sacae twisted, but the blade still sliced across his stomach. Keokin brought the Sealgair around, aiming to chop off Sacae’s hand, but his wrist was caught again. The world seemed to be moving slowly around me as Sacae twisted Keokin’s wrist. I heard a snap and his scream of pain as the Sealgair was flung from his grip out the open door. Keokin was brought to his knees as Sacae smiled, slowly raising his sword.
He’s going to kill him! He’s going to kill him! What can I do? I felt a small tap on my chest from my necklace as my body straightened with fear. Focus. Training. Accuracy. That’s it! Almost on instinct, my hand flipped the knife over. I reeled it back quickly and threw it, aiming for Sacae’s head. He noticed the movement just in time and tried to sidestep out of the way. Keokin wrenched his broken hand through Sacae’s thumb and ran out into the galley.
My knife dug into Sacae’s right cheek, deflecting off the cheek bone and flying into the galley above Keokin’s head. A sickening look overcame Sacae’s face again, that animalistic predatory focus as he slightly raised his sword and he lunged towards me, only a small grunt escaping his lips.
Focus! Or he kills you and then the group. I brought my hatchet up and deflected the lunging blade but was hit by his right jab to my face. I recovered quickly to see his sword swinging at my neck. Again, I pulled the hatchet up in time to hook the blade, this time expecting his fist. I moved my head left and crouched low, diving under his outstretched right arm and out of his field of view. Mid dive, I brought my hatchet down into his right thigh, where I lost my grip on it and rolled away from him.
I looked over to see Klintock pull his ring finger the rest of the way off and ready his grip on his hatchet, his two remaining fingers white and shaking from pressure, but I didn’t see his knife. I took a quick breath, glancing at Jael as she stood. She nodded to me and held out her knife. I took it, and she motioned for me to back away. I saw a flash of movement. I was distracted taking the knife from Jael and didn’t notice Sacae twisting with his blade low. I moved back but it was too late.
I felt the tip of the blade slide several inches into my abdomen. My muscles clenched. Oddly enough, I didn’t feel much pain, aside from the initial sharp burst, just shock and surprise, which helped me stay focused. I reached up and grabbed hold of his wrist, keeping his sword hand extended, gasping as it felt like the wind was knocked out of me. I tried to stab him, but my body wouldn’t move forward. Jael saw the opportunity and brought her hatchet down in a glancing strike to Sacae’s forearm.
As Sacae’s grip on the sword was torn away, I accidently pulled the sword slightly further into my stomach and stumbled several steps back, dropping to my knees from the intense pain. Klintock’s hatchet buried itself, with his guidance, into Sacae’s right shoulder blade. Sacae yelped and mule kicked Klintock, sending him stumbling to the ground. Céírde, Leola, Flint, and Lánn all rushed the now bladeless Sacae. No! He excels at hand to hand! But I couldn’t open my mouth fast enough to warn them.
Sacae’s massive hands encompassed the entirety of Céírde and Leola’s faces as he pushed their heads together with a hard crack. Lánn and Flint punched his stomach and face, barely fazing him. The back of his hand moved through the strikes Lánn was throwing and into her jaw, knocking her back. Jael dove low behind him and dug her hatchet into the back of the same thigh I’d hit and was met with a stern elbow to the jaw. She flopped to the floor, dazed.
Sacae dodged two of Flint’s punches before leveling one of his own at Flint’s stomach, collapsing him in pain. It was then that Sacae and I noticed Sable in the corner of the room with her bow. She had been waiting for a clean shot and she now had it. Sacae brought up his already injured hand as the arrow flew, piercing through it. The arrowhead burst through his hand, scraping against the side of his head, slicing off the top of his left ear and embedding itself in the wall behind him as he growled and roared with anger.
He glared at Sable as she pulled out another arrow, shakily trying to nock it. Sacae pulled my hatchet from his thigh and threw it at her. She dropped low, sliding to the floor as the hatchet slammed into the wall above her head. Several white hairs fell next to her. He kicked Jael again as he bent over and picked up Lánn, throwing her at Klintock, who had no time to react and caught her, but was slammed into the wall.
Sacae moved towards Sable, bent, and grabbed her left ankle, dragging her towards him and pulled Jael’s hatchet out of his thigh. Jael quickly got up and leapt forward, grabbing onto the arm with the hatchet as Sable readied another arrow, kicking Sacae’s shins with the bottom of her boot. As Jael used her body weight to jerk Sacae away from Sable, he kicked his foot out just enough to tap the bow and deflect Sable’s shot. Angered by Jael, he slammed his injured fist into her jaw, dazing her again. Sacae glanced at me as he pulled the hatchet up.
I can’t move. I need to get the sword out. I need to help. A metallic flash passed through the air from the galley as Keokin tossed a knife back into the room at Sacae. It struck handle first into Sacae’s forehead, stunning him. Flint pulled Jael out of the way as the hatchet struck the floor, barely missing her head. I remembered the knife I was holding and readied it. Looking behind Sacae, I saw Klintock rising to his feet with his knife. He nodded at me. I took a quick breath.
It’s a target, just target practice. I followed through with my throw, feeling the satisfying feeling of a solid release, followed by searing, debilitating pain in my stomach. Sacae looked up in time to see the knife but wasn’t fast enough to catch it. I watched it slip through his fingers and sink deep into the right side of his chest as Klintock moved in behind him.
The impact from the knife twisted Sacae enough that he noticed Klintock. He looked up at him and moved his hand out to stop the blow, but again was too slow as Klintock pushed through Sacae’s fingers. Klintock’s knife dug deep into Sacae’s neck. There was a moment of calm as Sacae realized he’d been struck. He made a gurgle noise and moved his hands towards Klintock’s throat. Klintock pushed the knife out to the side, severing Sacae’s left carotid and kicked him to the ground.
My breathing became slightly hoarse as I sat, staring into Sacae’s glaring eyes as he crawled towards me, slowly losing strength, and finally collapsing, still glaring at me. Emotions flashed through his eyes. Anger, rage, and eyes intent on murder. Other small emotions also seemed to pass through his eyes. Sadness, desperation, panic, then back to anger. I watched his eyes in horror as the light slowly left them.