Before the frenzied water died out, the Captain’s body was covered in boils and turned red. Suddenly, the water evaporated. Captain Reynolds was already dead before falling onto his own deck.
Katie turned to face the other pirates, but none were in sight. Then she heard an angry yell from behind her. First Mate Adrian was charging at her with the sword that had killed Cyrus. Another jet of water flew up and tossed Adrian into the air and sent him into the sea.
More jets of water shot out, these thicker than the originals, each one punching into the ship. The jets fired out like a volcano, coming closer and closer to her. Tantor, Tyson, and Koran moved towards her. They had fear in their eyes, as though her attacks would hit them next.
“Jump over,” Katie told them. “And I’ll meet you.”
Tyson stared at her but understood. He grabbed Tantor and Koran and led them to the ship’s side. The ship was rocking back and forth with every jet and was starting to sink. Tyson looked out at the sea, hesitated for a second, and jumped. Tantor and Koran followed. Katie looked back. She felt the ship sinking fast. She shot another blast of water at Reynolds’ body out of anger and ran to the side of the ship and jumped over. Behind her, the ship collapsed and completely sunk beneath the sea.
Katie found the others and created a strong current that kept them afloat and led them towards land.
13
On the Edge of the Equire Plains
Tyson spluttered onto a sandy beach for the third time since arriving on Narque. Koran was standing on his feet, dripping wet and pissed, but physically okay. Tantor was unconscious, his body being swept onto the sand, and taken back by the tide.
Barely able to stand, Katie tried to pull Tantor onto the beach so he wouldn’t wash away into the ocean. Koran came over and dragged Tantor out of the water and onto dry sand.
“You’re pretty scary when you’re pissed,” Koran said. Katie didn’t reply. She felt completely wiped out, as if she had been awake for a week straight and wanted nothing more than to fall over and sleep for days.
Tyson came by and asked, “Is he breathing?” He stared down at Tantor, almost as if he didn’t care.
Koran knelt and put his ear to Tantor’s chest. “No, I don’t think so.” Koran made a motion as if he were about to start a crude form of CPR. Katie put her hand over Tantor’s mouth and raised her arm, just like she did with Tyson a few days back. In just a few seconds Tantor woke up and started coughing out water. He looked up at Katie for a second, and she looked at him; his face was still swollen and painted with bruises. Katie then fainted and fell over.
Katie was only half-aware of being lifted into someone’s arms and carried off. She could hear Tyson’s and Koran’s voices but couldn’t make out their words. When she opened her eyes, only partially, she only saw the blue, red and orange colors that belonged to the sunset.
When she woke hours later, Katie found herself lying on cool sand. There was a soft pillow under her head. On closer inspection, her pillow was made of long green grass. Katie looked around and saw she was surrounded by a thick group of trees. She could see the waves crashing on the sand several hundred feet away in the moonlight.
She heard the sound of a crackling fire. Katie rose to a sitting position. Koran, Tyson, and Tantor were all staring at her. Koran tended to the fire in the middle with a thick branch.
“How are you feeling?” Koran asked.
Katie didn’t feel like she could speak at the moment, so she nodded. Tyson looked at her with worry. Tantor glared at her as if she had done something wrong, but Katie barely noticed this.
“I’m sure you’re wondering what happened,” Koran said, after exchanging looks of silence with everyone. “Well, truth is, so are we. We’re hoping you may be able to tell us.”
Katie shook her head. At first, she struggled to speak, but then she found her voice, if only scratchy and weak. “Wh-what do you mean?”
“You took down the Pillars of Dusk by yourself,” Koran answered. “That’s a feat no one has managed before. A ghost ship is really what it is. It’s been around for hundreds and hundreds of years. No one has seen that ship and lived to tell the tale, except those who have become a part of it.”
“So I’m the only one who could destroy it?”
Koran nodded. “Describing what you did as destroying might be putting it mildly. You left no survivors, no nothing, well, except for all of us. Thank you, by the way.”
Katie sat in silence. She thought she could hear the others talk to each other, but couldn’t get what they were saying, and when she looked up, none of them were talking.
“What were you doing on the ship?” Katie asked, unknowingly breaking the silence. “Did they capture you or did you get on another way?”
Koran didn’t answer right away.
“They said you stole something from it, is it true?”
Koran stroked the fire. “I was traveling by myself, on a small ship. It was built
