Under fallen stars

XXVII

1 Flamerule, the Year of the Gauntlet

Miraculously, Black Champion caught a gust of wind that righted her long enough to pull out of the downward plunge the caravel had taken in front of an approaching wall of water. Jherek held onto the rigging as the wave overtook the ship. The caravel shuddered when the wave slammed into her, twisting violently. Men's screams echoed over the crashing thunder of the impact. Azla snarled orders, trying desperately to rally her crew to meet the challenge of the pirate vessel that stalked them so easily now that Black Champion had lost over a third of her sails.

A ragged line formed along the starboard side. Only three men had bows and they struggled to bring their weapons to bear while trying to hold onto the railing as well. A curling wave peaked and raked brine fingers over them, tearing one of the bowmen from his feet even as he loosed a shaft. The cascade of water shoved the sailor across the deck and hammered him up against the stern castle then carried him on.

Only Glawinn's quick grab and strength prevented the man from being washed overboard.

The salt spray from the waves crashing into Black Champion drenched Jherek and burned his eyes. The rough rope of the rigging sawed into his fingers and felt slick and unsure at the same time as it sagged.

Thankfully, the high waves smashed against the pirate vessel as well, stripping control from her for a time. Azla continued calling orders as she took up her own bow. She put a shaft to the string and threw a leg over the railing, threading it into the railing with her foot braced to hold her steady. Black Champion rode high on the next wave, towering over her pursuer. In that time, the half-elf sea captain put two shafts through pirates.

Black Champion dropped again, fast enough to trigger a feeling of vertigo in Jherek's stomach. The young sailor turned his attention back to the stern deck and started clambering through the rigging.

Below, Sabyna made her way across the slick and treacherous rise and fall of the deck toward the stern as well. Skeins slid across the wooden planks near her, darting out to smother flaming arrows that stood upright from the deck. With the sea spray whipping over the railing, Jherek doubted that any fire would take hold above decks, but the threat remained to the belowdecks. Black Champion would remain wet outside, but her belly could turn into a firepit.

The caravel plunged downward again, riding out the back side of the fast-moving wave and dropping into the trough it left. Without warning, the pirate ship slid down the wave as well, careening down the slanted water.

" Ware the ship!" a man bellowed." "Ware the ship!"

Jherek, locked into the rigging, watched helplessly as the pirate ship sped on a collision course with the caravel. "Sabyna!" he yelled, not knowing if his voice would carry through the violent sea lashing around them.

The ship's mage whipped her head around. Spotting the approaching vessel, she sprinted toward the rear mast and locked her arms around tightly. Her raggamoffyn familiar blew apart into hundreds of pieces, then flew after her. When the creature reached her, the whirling pieces reformed and wrapped around her, helping secure her to the mast.

The pirate vessel slammed into Black Champion, its prow riding hard against the starboard side and sending Azla's crew scurrying for cover. Wood splintered and Jherek prayed that it was the other ship or the railing and not anything below the waterline.

The shudder of impact rippled through the caravel, knocking it loose from the death grip the sea had on it for a moment. Choosing the moment of opportunity or perhaps torn free from their own ship, a handful of pirates leaped aboard Black Champion. Even as the pirate ship slid away and the caravel rose from beneath the other vessel's weight, a clash of swords surged up from the deck as well. A crashing wave splashed over the combatants before they barely had time to cross blades. They spun away, tumbling head over heels, grabbing onto whatever they could.

Before any of them could get to their feet, another onslaught of fiery rocks cannonaded against the decks with hollow, thunderous booms and pelted the ocean around them. White-capped water spiraled up from the impact areas.

Black Champion turned sideways in the following trough, completely out of control. Jherek knew the ship was a wreck waiting for the brine to drink her down. He turned in the rigging and waited while the ship righted herself again. Timing the slow roll back to starboard, he threw himself out toward the rear mast, free of the rigging in an all-or-nothing gambit.

Jherek slammed against the taut sail covering the rear mast's midsection. He skidded down almost immediately and narrowly missed a section of sailcloth on fire from one of the rocks. He pushed off again and hooked his fingers in the support rigging above the steering section. Rigging strands parted and sagged as more rock sliced through the ropes.

As Black Champion briefly rose again, the young sailor spotted Maelstrom and Vurgrom's other ships in the distance. They were well separated from each other, evidently not taking any chances of being thrown together by the storm lashing the Sea of Fallen Stars. All of them seemed to be faring well.

Swinging his body to get momentum, Jherek swung forward again and released, sailing through the distance and dropping on the stern castle near the wheel. A large wave sluiced through the railing and washed across the deck, fast enough and strong enough to take the dead pilot's body across the planks to the railing on the other side. Debris continued peppering the caravel, filling the air with punctuations of thuds and pings.

Jherek was hit in the shoulder hard enough to knock him down. He glanced at his arm and saw an eyeball-sized rock smoldering in his flesh. Fighting back the pain and shock, he slipped his knife from his boot and pushed the rock from his arm with the blade. He tested his grip and found he could still make a fist, but most of his arm was numb.

He got to his feet with effort and launched himself at the spinning wheel as Black Champion wallowed in another trough. He seized the wheel as they went over into the trough, fighting the ship and the sea. The young sailor's muscles strained and burned with agony, but no matter what he did, the caravel seemed determined to founder. The ship fell hard to starboard and looked like it was going under.

Sabyna lurched to the top of the stairs leading up to the stern castle, holding on again as Black Champion slid across another water wall. To Jherek, it felt like the ship had suddenly hit a patch of ice. The caravel seemed determined to race to her doom.

This time the ship's prow pointed straight down into the black water at the bottom of the next trough and the wall of water rushing up from behind her seemed destined to push her end over end. The young sailor felt certain they were going to plunge into the unforgiving heart of the dark sea like an arrow finding its mark.

There'd be no survivors.

Jherek lacked the wind he needed to straighten her up and he wanted to cry out in frustration, knowing there was no way he could save Sabyna from the harsh death that lay before them all.

Then the cold, powerful voice filled his mind. Live, that you may serve.

A wind blew hard and clean from behind him, coming from a different direction than it had only a moment ago. The surviving sails filled, twisting Black Champion from the deadly course she was on.

Jherek pulled the ship into the wind, guiding her with an unforgiving hand. His injured arm burned and ached and felt numb all at the same time, hardly giving him any strength at all. But Black Champion came around into the wind, her holed and flaming sails capturing enough of it to pull her on course, turning her to face the oncoming waves. She met the next wave with her prow and cleaved it cleanly. The new wind stayed with her, pulling her out of the wallows, and it seemed as though less debris struck her.

An awestruck look filled Sabyna's face as she gazed around.

"Who are you?" Jherek shouted into the wind. "Who are you and what do you want?"

He felt scared and mad all at the same time. Despite all the good the voice had done over the years, he felt certain he was at risk and had taken his friends there with him because that voice wanted him there. Whoever owned that voice had saved him only to take a firmer hand in his destiny. Was he pawn or prisoner?

Only silence answered him above the creak of the rigging and the crashing waves.

Then an answer did come. Soon, my son.

"Tell me who you are!" Jherek shouted again.

"Who are you talking to?"

Jherek glanced to port and saw that Sabyna had joined him at the stern castle. Her short-cropped hair lay plastered against her skull, and a half-dozen bloody scratches covered her left cheek. Her eyelids blinked tightly against the salt spray continuing to come over the railing. The young sailor only shook his head, having no words-only the frustration that filled him.

Skeins coiled protectively around the ship's mage, barely holding its pieces together.

Jherek gazed at her, taking in the wounds he saw.

"I'm all right," she told him.

Black Champion continued to pitch and plunge across the uneven ocean, but the supernatural wind that had captured her guided her safely through the troughs. Startled shouts rang across her decks. The sailors cheered as they felt the ship come about under her own power despite the duress she was under.

Without warning, sails punched up into the sky, cresting the next roiling wave that was spurred on by the volcano. At the top of the mainmast, the skull and crossbones on a field of black crowned the pirate ship as it continued its pursuit. The cheers turned to dismay.

"I'll take the wheel," Sabyna said.

Jherek stepped back, breathing hard. He drew the cutlass from his sash and pulled the hook into his free hand. Pushed by a full complement of sails, the pirate ship closed quickly. Red-eyed pirates clamored for blood as they stood at the railing. They clanged their swords together and sang a sea chantey. Jherek only heard a few words, but he recognized it for what it was.

"They're ensorcelled," Sabyna yelled out to be heard.

Jherek nodded. No sane man would take the risks those dozen pirates had lined up for. The young sailor set himself, pushing the pain in his injured arm from his mind as well as he could.

In the next moment, catching the crest of the wave that overtook them, the pirates sprang from their ship. Propelled by magic, the men spanned the twenty feet separating them from Black Champion and landed on the caravel's deck: Immediately, the pirates pushed themselves to their feet and rose to do battle.

"Go below!" Jherek yelled at Sabyna, knowing he couldn't hold a dozen armed pirates back.

"If I let go this wheel, we'll go down!" she shouted back at him.

Knowing it was true, Jherek felt torn. She stood in harm's way, and yet he couldn't protect her if she abandoned the wheel. He concentrated on the possessed pirates who moved at them with single-minded purpose. With the way the stern castle's steering section was left so open, the pirates would surround them quickly. The red-eyed men already moved to flank them.

Jherek swung the cutlass, feeling the impact of blade meeting blade when the pirate automatically blocked. Before his opponent could withdraw his weapon, the young sailor reached out with the hook and caught the man in the shoulder.

The curved hook bit deeply into the man's flesh, skidding for just a moment across the shoulder blade before sinking into bis back. Under the spell that held him, the pirate didn't make a sound, but tried to pull his weapon into Jherek's exposed arm.

Shifting quickly, Jherek blocked the weakly aimed cut, then stepped to the pirate's left and yanked on the grappling hook. Getting his weight into the motion, the young sailor pulled the pirate over his hip in a wrestling throw Malorrie had taught him.

Off-balance and at the mercy of the brutal hook, the pirate stumbled over Jherek's hip and sailed into the next man behind him. With a crashing thrash of limbs, the two pirates tumbled over Black Champion's stern railing and splashed into the dark sea below.

Pulled nearly off his feet by his own efforts, the hook lost to him because he hadn't been able to free it from the pirate, Jherek caught himself on his free hand and pushed up. He blocked a cutlass blow that had been intended to take his head from his shoulders, then launched a kick that caught the pirate wielding it full in the chest.

Bone snapped and the pirate stumbled back, knocking down two others.

"Well met, young warrior," Glawinn growled as he stepped in at Jherek's side. The paladin's blade gleamed despite the darkness of the sky. "Now let's rid ourselves of these vermin."

As the paladin and the young sailor engaged the pirates, Skeins blew past them in a violent flutter. In heartbeats, the raggamoffyn chose a victim and covered him, possessing him even in spite of whatever spell had already claimed him. The pirate lifted his blade against his brethren and attacked from the rear.

Jherek's breath burned deep in his lungs, gusting out in uncontrolled bellows. His trip through the rigging had taken a lot from him already. He fought fiercely, stepping into the rhythm Glawinn set up. Or maybe the paladin stepped into the rhythm Jherek had established. The young sailor wasn't certain. All the days they'd spent as sparring partners stood them in good stead now.

Ducking low beneath a wildly swung cutlass, Jherek saw Glawinn rip a backhand blow across a pirate's throat. Blood dribbled down the man's chest as he fell backward. Jherek surged up, holding tight to the hilt of the cutlass as he drove it into the chest of the pirate in front of him. Though the cutlass wasn't normally a thrusting weapon, it split the man's heart and killed him instantly.

Jherek shoved the corpse from his weapon, aware of Azla racing up the stern castle steps to join them. Her scimitar rang, a death song hammered out in steel. Jherek fought fiercely, defending Sabyna from the pirates who tried to take the fight in her direction. The footing became even more treacherous than the storm had made it, as blood spilled quickly across the brine-stained deck.

Despite his efforts and the fact that his life hung on the eyeblink of time between the slashing and parrying of the cutlass, Jherek played over the voice's words.

Soon, my son.

There'd been no promise of how soon, and no indication again of whom the voice belonged to. The young sailor was only dimly aware of the fight ending. He'd known the odds were lessening, but he didn't know the battle was over until Glawinn grabbed his arm.

"Easy, young warrior," the paladin advised. "It's over."

Jherek struggled against the man for just a moment, then realized the caravel's crew was even now beginning to throw the dead pirates overboard. The young sailor took a deep breath, feeling his heart hammering at his ribs and his body shake with exhaustion. Blood streamed down his face and from half a dozen other cuts across his body where his armor hadn't protected him. He let the cutlass hang like an anchor at the end of his arm.

He glanced at Sabyna as Azla assigned a man to relieve her. The ship's mage met Azla's eyes briefly, then Sabyna turned and walked away.

Jherek wanted to go to her, but he knew it wasn't right. Sabyna was capable of standing on her own, and if she wanted his company, she was capable of asking for that as well.

She didn't.

Uncaring of the debris that occasionally struck the deck around him, he walked to the railing and watched the pirate ship that had trailed them break off pursuit as the supernatural wind continued pushing Black Champion away. In moments, it was tacking back toward Vurgrom's other ship.

Jherek stared back at the spewing volcano in the distance, watching as more lava poured into the Alamber Sea. He didn't understand the forces that had pulled him there. He reached out for the voice inside his head, opening himself up to it, wanting it to fulfill its promise.

Only emptiness rang inside his skull.

Jherek gazed down at the deck, watching Sabyna walk away. The ship's mage had her arms wrapped tightly around herself. She never looked up at him. A heaviness he'd never felt lay on the young sailor's heart. He couldn't make sense out of anything, and in that moment, knowing how little control he had over anything that happened to him, he let go the faith he'd tried to cling to for so long.

Ilmater the Crying God, the god to whom the young sailor had given himself, shed no tears for Jherek Wolf's-get. The young sailor's heart turned cold and hard. No matter what happened, he promised himself silently, once he got the pearl disk from Vurgrom, he would be free.

Covered protectively in Iakhovas's grasp, Laaqueel watched the fiery red of the volcano channel give way to the cool blue of the sea again. Huge boulders spun through the water, wreathed in flames that wouldn't die, until they dropped out of sight.

Iakhovas gripped the wheel sternly, altering his course. "See, priestess. We are arrived hale and whole. If you have faith, all things become possible."

"You have my thanks, Most Exalted One. If not for you, I would have died."

"You cannot die. I won't let you. Our fates are strongly wound together-as long as you acknowledge them."

Laaqueel stepped away from him, no longer feeling the pull of the currents sweeping Tarjana's deck. She stood easily on her own. "Where are we?"

"In the Alamber Sea."

The water around Tarjana roiled with boiling bubbles that raced for the surface. They were so thick, so tightly compacted together, that they created a misty curtain that limited visibility to no more than a few feet. Only the magic surrounding the mudship yet protected them.

Laaqueel looked behind, making sure the fliers trailing them had made it as well. Miraculously, the cone of protection that extended over Tarjana weaved back through the roiling water. She couldn't see if all of the fliers were there, rowed from the belly of the volcano that had burst underwater, but she got the sense that most of them had.

"Where are we going now?" she asked.

"There is much to do now that we are here," Iakhovas said. "First, we will find a place that will serve as our base of operations. If I'm to free the forgotten clan of We Who Eat from this place, I must find the tools to do it."

"Do you know where these items you need are?"

"Yes. There is an ancient place that lies far from here. It's called Coryselmal, a broken city that once housed the cursed sea elves. I shall reap from its corpse all that I need to destroy the Sharksbane Wall, then I shall recoup all that is mine."

Laaqueel gazed at the water, knowing the titanic forces that warred in the ocean were somehow kept separate from them. She started her prayers to Sekolah, asking that their voyage be successful, and that it try the spirits of the sahua-gin so the Shark God's chosen might become even stronger.

It was better, she knew from her experience as a priestess, to pray for the things that were sure to happen. It helped to remind her that those trials weren't unexpected or without reason.

She knew her, people would pay in blood.