Seawater lapped against Celeste’s cheek, snapping her from unconsciousness. She jerked up, cracking her head on a fallen beam—and if the pain lancing through her skull was any indication, in exactly the spot where it had knocked her insensate. Her senses reeled, and for a moment she saw everything doubled.
“Stars and heavens!” Blinking away her double vision, Celeste took in her surroundings.
She didn’t find anything at all encouraging. The entire quarterdeck had collapsed, burying her beneath a veritable landslide of shattered timber. She spied gaps above, but nothing near large enough for her to slither through. Then there was the seawater sloshing across the cabin sole. She had no idea how long she’d been out cold, but she no longer heard any voices from outside. All she could hear was the rending crash of broken planks and groaning timbers. A sharp tremor reverberated through the ship, galvanizing her to action. She had to get out before the sea claimed Stargazer, and her with it.
Celeste moved her long, sinuous body, assessing her condition. Fortunately, no bones felt broken, and none of the splintered timbers had pierced her scales. She was, however, badly bruised for her entire length. Hissing in pain, she slithered out from under the shattered wood into a space barely large enough for her to coil. She flipped open the knapsack and picked though the contents. There! She had no healing potions left, but this would do for now. Celeste floated a bottle out of the pack, popped the cork, and quaffed its contents. Immediately, her fatigue and weakness ebbed away like a bad dream. She still ached, but at least she no longer felt like fainting.
Now to get the hell out of here.
Unfortunately, she had no spells to move the broken timbers out of her way or teleport her to safety. Through the wreckage aft, she glimpsed the shattered stern gallery windows. The opening was large enough for her to get through, but a ton of fractured wood filled the space between her and the potential exit. The crack and crash of breaking wood from forward recalled to her Grogul’s mention of a monster. The last thing she wanted was to meet up with whatever it was. Got to try aft, then. The deck lurched, and more water flooded up beneath her. There was no time to waste.
Celeste picked the widest aperture she could see and started to slither through. Immediately, her pack got hung up. Usually, she had no problem snaking her way through tight places. She tried again to shove through, but it was no use. The pack kept getting snagged on a splintered timber. She wiggled backward until she was once again in the open space.
“Blasted contrivance!” She unbuckled the harness and the pack dropped to the deck. With all of the potions, scrolls, and instruments, it was too heavy for her to lift with magic. “I’ll be damned if I’m leaving it behind!” She gripped the straps in her teeth and tried again to slither through the gap. It was a tight squeeze, but she might make it.
A horrendous crash sounded from behind her, shivering the timbers of the maze she was negotiating. Thankfully, they didn’t collapse to crush her. As she struggled forward, a cool breeze blew through the wreckage. Sunlight slanted in, warming her tail.
Celeste hazarded a glance back, and immediately regretted it. With a roar of shattering timber, a vast claw tore away the cabin’s forward bulkhead, and through the widening gap, an eerie blue eye peered in at her.
By the stars! Celeste had no idea what the creature was, and no desire for a closer look. With a surge of adrenaline, she slithered forward, but her harness caught on a beam and halted her progress. Something scraped along her tail, and she glanced back again. A smaller claw raked at her, its tip unable to pierce her tough scales. A basso growl reverberated through the hull, and the creature lurched forward, tearing through the deck with renewed vigor.
No! Celeste squirmed frantically as the smaller claw lanced down, missing her by only inches. Once again, the blue eye peered in at her, unnerving her with its scrutiny. Celeste mumbled a spell around the pack in her teeth, sending a flight of magical projectiles streaking toward it. The motes of energy plunged into their target, darkening the blue orb. The monster reared back.
Celeste took the opportunity to remove the harness from the pack. With renewed energy, she slithered on, trying to keep her head above the ever-rising water. The demolished stern windows were just ahead. She pressed forward, gritting her teeth against the pack’s leather strap as sharp splinters scored her bruised scales.
I can make it. I can get out!
A deep howl shook the ship, and the harsh cracking renewed with such a ferocity that Celeste could barely hear herself think. Her stomach lurched as the stern of the ship dipped, and the sea poured in through the windows. Her escape was flooded.
No, no, no! Celeste gasped in a deep breath before the water surged over her head.
She thrashed, trying to get above the surface, and cracked her head again. Stars exploded in her sight, and a vision flashed in her mind. Stars … Eox, planet of the dead, among the shining constellation of the Stargazer, the sign of her birth. She had thought the significance clear, that the alignment referred to the death of their beloved ship. Now she thought that she might have been mistaken.
My prophecy … my death.
* * *
Vreva watched the volley of ballista bolts streak toward the towering monster. Several struck its thick armor, and a few plunged deep into its fatty underside. The barrage got the beast’s attention, just as Torius had hoped. Unfortunately, instead of driving it off or luring it away from Stargazer, the attack seemed only to provoke it. The creature turned its attention toward Fury’s Crown and emitted a gut-wrenching howl. Heaving its huge body forward, the beast lurched over Stargazer, forcing the damaged ship even further down into the sea.
The clatter of a scimitar hitting the deck broke Vreva’s fixation upon the spectacle.
“Celeste!” Torius vaulted to the rail.
“Torius, don’t!” Vreva warned.
Kalli echoed her sentiment. “Captain! No! I’ll get her!” The gillman pulled her captain off the railing and dove into the sea, vanishing beneath the waves.
Unfortunately, Vreva’s concern for Torius also caught the attention of Captain Lance. “What the devil…”
Vreva realized she’d blown her disguise. Yami was supposed to be terrified of the pirates, and she’d just shown concern.
The captain’s confusion turned to narrow-eyed suspicion. “I don’t know what deception you’re playing at, but I’ll have none of it! All hands, make all sail. We’re getting away from this monster!”
Torius flicked his dropped sword up with his toe and caught it by the hilt, his face as grim as Vreva had ever seen it. “You’ll turn this ship back, Captain. Right now!”
“I will not!” Lance drew her sword. “Furies, stand ready!”
The marines snapped to formation, shoulder to shoulder and bristling with steel. The Stargazers drew their own weapons. With most of the Chelish sailors swarming over the rigging, piling on more canvas, the opposing forces on deck were nearly equal. Torius and Captain Lance squared off.
It was time for a distraction. Vreva had no idea where her familiar was, but hoped he was ready. “Mathias,” Vreva said in their secret language, “now!”
Captain Lance screamed as Mathias materialized on her face, his claws raking bloody tracks across her cheeks. Grasping the cat, she peeled him away and flung him high over Vreva’s head.
“Mathias!”
Behind her, Grogul reached up and snatched the flying feline by the scruff. “Got him!”
*What did I say about no catapults?* Mathias howled as Grogul dropped him to the deck. He scurried away in a panic.
Vreva sighed in relief. Not only was her familiar safe, but Mathias had had the presence of mind not to scratch Grogul with his poisoned claws.
Captain Lance was not so fortunate. The Chelish captain collapsed to her knees, her hands clutching her chest as her heart succumbed to the deadly toxin. Gaping in surprise, she toppled forward.
The crew of Fury’s Crown stared at their fallen captain in shock.
That was all the distraction Vreva needed. She plucked two of the tiny golden charms from the bracelet she’d recovered from the dead witch, Keah. Uttering the command word, she cast the charms to the deck. As two full-sized lions sprang up from the gold figurines, Vreva cast another spell on herself and vanished from sight.
“Kill the Chelish!” she ordered the summoned lions, and dashed toward the quarterdeck as mayhem erupted behind her.
* * *
I guess the little furball’s not completely useless after all, Torius thought, as Captain Lance toppled to the deck. Then he staggered back as two huge lions sprang up from nowhere. When he asked Vreva if she could come up with a surprise, he had expected some sleight of hand or illusion, but the lions looked quite real. All eyes were on the huge felines as Vreva vanished and shouted her order. With a roar that shook the deck, the beasts leapt forward, scattering Chelish marines.
Now time for our own surprise. “Snick! Now!”
“Bombs away!” the gnome shrilled with glee as she and her ballista crews hurled the ceramic warheads they’d smuggled aboard.
Gozreh, please don’t let those be incendiaries! To Torius’s relief, the shattered warheads spewed sticky resin all over the deck, gluing the marines’ boots to the planks.
“Stargazers!” Torius bellowed, sending his pirates surging forward. “Thillion, aloft! Grogul, with me to the quarterdeck!”
“Aye, sir!” The elf scrambled up the ratlines.
As the Stargazers clashed with the immobilized marines, Vreva’s lions ravaged the free, throwing the organized Chelish lines into chaos. Overhead, Chelish sailors called out in alarm, scrambling down to join the fray. Bolts and arrows whistled past, some sheathing themselves in flesh. Torius parried a sword stroke and slashed the marine’s wrist. The man didn’t even have time to yelp before Grogul’s axe split him from collar to crotch. They forced their way aft, skirting the ravening lions toward the quarterdeck stairs.
“Pikes and archers!” bellowed a Chelish officer, but his command died in a scream as one of the lions took him down.
The stair to the quarterdeck was blocked by a small knot of sailors led by a nervous midshipman. Torius and Grogul hit them like a battering ram. Torius took a deep cut to his left arm, but made the sailor pay with his lifeblood. Ducking under another stroke, he barreled into the man, his shoulder to the sailor’s midriff. The captain winced as the sailor bashed him between the shoulders with the pommel of his sword. He slammed the man against the sterncastle wall and planted his fighting dagger hilt-deep in the sailor’s groin.
Whirling to face his next opponent, he found Grogul standing among three sailors sprawled in a welter of blood. The terrified midshipman scrabbled back, his hand clenching the hilt of a broken cutlass. The weapon’s blade stood out from Grogul’s thigh. With a snarl, the half-orc wrenched free the bloody blade and cast it aside. Eyes filled with murder, and knuckles white on the haft of his axe, Grogul took a menacing step toward the young officer.
“Grogul! Come on!” Torius grabbed his bosun’s arm. “No time! We have to take the helm!”
“Aye, sir!” Grogul spat on the deck at the midshipman’s feet and followed his captain.
As they climbed the stairs to the quarterdeck, Torius cast a glance at Stargazer, and his heart surged into his throat. The vast weight of the beast had pushed all but the bowsprit underwater.
“Celeste…”
“Kalli’ll get her out. Come on!” Grogul’s huge hand propelled him up the steps. “We can’t get her unless we take the helm!”
Torius knew Grogul was right. Focus! Take the helm, take the ship, evade that bloody great monster, and sail back to pick up Celeste and Kalli. Simple! He flung another glance at his foundering ship and gritted his teeth in determination. Hang on, love. I’m coming!
They charged up the stairs, but then skidded to a halt. Six marines stood in a line before the wheel, crossbows leveled and ready to fire.
“Maybe this wasn’t such a good plan after all,” Grogul muttered.
“You think?”