'Have you got that thrice-damned craft of fishy black-hearts in your sights?'
'Aye, Cap'n.'
'Fire away and send 'em back to Umberlee's caresses.'
The fire projector belched a thin stream of flaming, explosive liquid that served immediately to drown the cheers of the cog's crew. Most sailors didn't like the weapons. They sat like waiting death on a ship's deck, as able to work against a crew as for one. Jherek had seen them explode on ships' decks during battle before, ruptured by a catapult shot. Twice, damaged fire projectors had sent both ships to the ocean floor before any real salvage could be made.
Against the sahuagin, it was the most frightful weapon for the sea devils outside of magic.
The launched flames showered down over the manta, catching even the wet wood and the sahuagin unlucky enough to be standing there on fire. Sahuagin worked immediately to put the fire out, but oil-based as it was, they only spread it for the moment and made it burn hotter.
In the stern, Hawlyng shouted curses at the sahuagin from beside the fire projector. He didn't see the first of the sea devils climbing over the railing of the cog's squared stern castle. Before anyone could shout a warning, the sahuagin threw a spear that caught the mate in the side, pinning him to the stern castle walls.
'Clear that stern, you flea-bitten rum dogs, and Umberlee take any that lags behind!' Finaren shouted.
Jherek tossed the bow aside and slid the cutlass and hook free. He ran for the stern, charging up the starboard side steps that led into the stern castle with the other sailors. The lead sahuagin thrust out with its trident, intending to impale Hawlyng again.
Swinging the hook, Jherek caught the tines of the trident and yanked them aside. They buried in the wooden deck. Before the sahuagin could recover, the young sailor thrust the point of his cutlass between the creature's open jaws. Fangs snapped off at the impact, and the sword slid through the back of the sahuagin's neck. Jherek twisted the blade savagely, making sure to cut the sea devil's spine. Even if it didn't die right away, it was paralyzed.
Butterfly's crew crowded onto the stern castle, and the sounds of battle swamped over Jherek. The young sailor pulled his cutlass free with effort, then kicked the sahuagin backward as Malorrie had taught him. The creature's dead weight slammed into two of his fellows and drove them all backward into the ocean again.
'Die humaan!' a sahuagin snarled in the common tongue as it stabbed at Jherek with a trident. Its voice out of the water, wrapping around unaccustomed words, sounded flat and out of breath, a nightmarish gasp of rage and hate.
The young sailor turned the trident with the cutlass, losing the sword's use for a moment while it was trapped in the tines. The sahuagin swiped at him with its free hand, the talons black and sharp as razors.
Unflinching, Jherek took the attack to the sahuagin rather than retreating. All the fear inside him was concentrated on survival, and Malorrie's training made sure each move he made was smooth as Dalelands spider silk. He swept the hook up, catching the sahuagin's hand and driving the curved point through the creature's palm, stopping it only inches from his face. Before the sahuagin could react either to the counterblow or the pain, Jherek headbutted it in the face.
Off-balance, the sahuagin stumbled backward. Still holding the impaled hand on the hook, Jherek slid back and freed the cutlass with a slither of metal on metal that threw off sparks. He swung with all his might at the sahuagin's corded neck. The heavy blade bit deeply into his opponent's flesh, almost cutting through. It dropped with a harsh gargling croak, then died.
Jherek freed his weapons, watching as Finaren swung an oil lantern into the face of another boarding sahuagin. The lantern shattered and oil covered the creature's head, wreathing it in flames. It screamed horribly, clawing at its face, then toppled back into the dark water. The scent of burned flesh clung to the stern castle, overwhelming even the fishy musk from the sahuagin.
'Hold us steady, helmsman,' Finaren commanded. 'Keep us into the wind and let's put this place behind us.'
Jherek fought on, slashing at his opponents. Two sailors went down around him, both with grievous wounds. He kept himself poised, riding out the pitch and yaw of Butterfly as she sailed across the ocean. He cut and thrust, blocking a dagger thrust with the cutlass, then ripping a sahuagin's throat out with the hook.
One of the passengers at the top of the port stairs threw out his hands, thumbs touching. Jherek caught the movement from the corner of his eye. Flames shot from the passenger's fingers, arcing across the stern castle and splashing across three sahuagin. All three sea devils released their holds on the stern railing and dropped into the ocean.
Catching a trident thrust by another sahuagin with the hook, Jherek turned it aside and kicked the sea devil in the face. He followed with a thrust through the creature's heart. Thrusting the hook through the sahuagin's harness, he dragged the body to the railing to clear it from the stern deck. He sheathed the cutlass and grabbed one of the corpse's legs and levered the body over the railing.
A sahuagin net spun up at him from a sea devil clinging to the ship's stern. It settled over the young sailor before he had a chance to move. Cruel fish hooks woven into the net bit into his flesh. Blood flowed from a dozen small injuries as the net drew tight.
Jherek screamed in pain, instinctively pulling back against the net in an attempt to escape. The effort only drove the hooks more deeply into his flesh. Luckily, there was no burn of sahuagin poison, but the weight and the strength of the sahuagin at the other end pulled him forward. He caught the edge of the railing in one hand and with the hook, watching as the hooked bits of his skin stood out. The pain ripped another scream from his throat.
A cold voice entered his mind. Live, that you may serve.
Fire leaped from one of the burning sahuagin still on deck onto the net. The strands parted like hairs over an open flame.
Jherek stumbled back onto the deck. The pain from the hooks was sharp and tearing, almost blinding in its intensity, but he saw that the sailors had successfully broken the sahuagin attack. The manta still burned in the distance, looking like a single torch in the night. Sea devil corpses littered Butterfly's wake, catching the pallor of the lightning flashing through the wine-dark clouds overhead.
Claustrophobia tightened over Jherek more tightly than the net. He didn't like closed in places. Hooking his fingers in the net, he started pulling, hoping to dislodge some of the hooks.
'Stand easy, lad,' Finaren ordered, striding close. 'Damned nets are hard to get away from. Lucky that this one got burned the way it did.'
Jherek took a deep breath and relaxed the way Malorrie had taught him. He distanced the fear, giving himself over to the peaceful pitch and yaw of Butterfly's rolling deck. Finaren hadn't seen the way the net had parted.
'Carthos, Himtap,' Finaren called out, 'get some snips and get the lad free of that net.' The captain regarded Jherek. 'You stay here, lad. I got the rest of me crew to look in on, and some of them need burying. I got to save them what I can.'
'Aye, sir.' Jherek started to nod, then stopped when the hooks pulled at his flesh. One of them had embedded in the back of his head.
Finaren walked away.
Jherek crouched and slid his knife free of the shin sheath. Hagagne joined him, working gently to cut away the strands of the net. The first thing to do was cut sections of it away, then go after the individual hooks.
Malorrie's training allowed him to ignore the majority of the pain, but it was still difficult. Cutting the strands became automatic, and he turned his thoughts to the cold voice that had whispered to him.
Live, that you may serve.
He'd heard the command before. The first time had been when he was a child, fallen from his father's ship during a battle and nearly drowned. The voice had been more gentle, then, but perhaps he only remembered it that way. At that time, a dolphin had swum close to him and nosed him to the surface. His life had been spared then, as it had probably been spared this night, and there was no clue why, or by whom.
It had been three years since he'd last heard the voice. He'd thought it might be gone for good, with no explanation of why it had involved itself with him. Even Madame litaar with all her magic, and Malorrie with his insight, could offer no illumination concerning the voice. All of them, however, did what they had to, drawn together by whatever mystery linked them. Both his mentors had offered only the consolation that when the time came to know, he would.
Live, that you may serve.
