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.
