like a shark, then plunged back into the water, the entire body following the course of the head. A great lump of its body rolled just above the water ending when the tail finished the course and disappeared beneath the surface again.
“It’s coming!” Ethan shouted. His sight allowed him to penetrate the murk and see the massive creature swimming toward the Trinity.
“Ready the guns, men!” Levi commanded. He kept a white-knuckle grip on the helm, hoping the sea dragon would not emerge at the bow or stern where defenses were weakest. “When you get a shot, take it!” he shouted to the gunnery crews.
For what seemed like an age, everything remained still. Only the sound of the Trinity treading water was heard now as even the enemy ships had stopped firing-most likely curious as to the dragon’s appearance and its next move.
Ethan watched as it drew nearer. The beast swam incredibly fast. Then the great toothy head erupted from the Azure on the Trinity’s starboard side. Its head seemed even more massive close-up and its open maw could have swallowed an elephant whole. The huge serpent held its body aloft for a moment and then brought the head down to strike.
The mouth split into rows of jagged teeth and smashed into the deck. The strike caught three men. The deck boards buckled and cracked where the men had been standing. One sailor disappeared inside the mouth completely. Another dangled by one leg caught between the teeth. He screamed frantically as his tan trousers turned red. The third man fell away to the side sustaining scrapes, cuts, and probably broken bones.
What happened to the first man in the next flash of those teeth was too horrible to describe-rows of serrated knives transformed from bone white to crimson. The second man fell away as the head rose up, chewing, swallowing. His lower leg was gone. Some rushed to help him. They brandished blades, trying to hack at the sea serpent. Gideon ran among them.
Ethan looked within the creature and saw the demon possessing it-the same which had been protecting the enemy ships. That was why the sea dragon, usually never seen, had come up from the depths to attack them. The beast struck again, becoming entangled in the rigging. Gideon jumped up and grabbed some of the ropes tangled about its head. He thrashed it with his blade.
“Shoot the body!” Levi commanded. The Man-O-wars were still approaching fast. The beast held the Trinity in place as the wind fought against the sails to drive them forward.
Cannons exploded, striking the beast where it draped over onto the deck. The sea dragon lurched and screeched, pulling away from the rigging ropes. The head sped on over the other side of the deck with the long body following like a shimmering blue archway over the ship. “Gideon!” Ethan cried.
Gideon disappeared over the side, still tangled in the ropes about the dragon’s head. Ethan leaped after him into realm shift, entering the spiritual plane to follow. Gideon tried to free himself, gouging the beast with his sword, giving it all of the effort he could muster.
The beast shot up toward the surface again, breeching with Ethan hot on its trail. He reached the head and saw the ethereal form of the demon within riding along like a passenger in a coach. Ethan’s blade leapt to his hand and he slashed into the dragon’s head-more at the demon than the animal. He had a plan.
The demon had to be struck three times to dislodge him from the dragon. The spirit writhed and then evaporated away as he’d seen happen to their kind before, during the attack on the slaver ship. Gideon thrashed, trying to catch his breath and his bearings before the serpent dove beneath the waves again. Everything happened so quickly.
Ethan leaped at the head, attempting to enter the dragon as the demon had, but he was repelled. For whatever reason, he could not possess the creature as a purely spiritual being could. Instead, he straddled the neck behind the head. His sword became liquid mercury, forming a silver chain in his hand.
Ethan wasn’t sure exactly how he accomplished it, but he didn’t care so long as he saved his friend. He had seen the demons using various weapons in combat and he wondered if they weren’t all the same weapon with this ability to change. Ethan whipped the chain over the serpentine head, then jerked it firm like a bit into the dragon’s mouth. He now held a crude bridle on the beast, hoping to force his will on the creature.
The serpent struggled against him, trying to free itself, but Ethan exerted all of his strength. He muttered a prayer for divine help and forced the dragon to submit. Willing it forward, Ethan dug into the scaly flesh and the sea dragon surged away toward the enemy ships. The Man-o-wars were almost upon the Trinity and preparing to resume their attack.
Ethan, the dragon, and a bewildered Gideon all plunged down beneath the surface of the sea. Ethan hoped Gideon could hold his breath for a few moments more as he sent the creature on the attack. The priest had little choice but to hang on for dear life.
The dragon veered to the port side of both Man-O-wars and then surged upward. The breech was so powerful that three quarters of the serpent’s thick, muscular body left the water and hung suspended over both ships. Ethan waited for just the right moment.
It all happened slightly slower than the time it took a man to blink his eyes. Ethan pulled the chain away. It became liquid then sword again. He sliced away the rope binding Gideon to the sea monster, grabbed him bodily, and leaped away.
The hulking mass of serpentine muscle struggled only a moment against gravity and then it all came crashing back toward the sea. Caught in between were both Man-O-war battleships. Wooden masts splintered and toppled. Deck planks burst asunder from the impact of the sea dragon’s bulk. Both warships buckled and stopped dead in the water.
Ethan returned to the physical world, still holding onto Gideon. But their tumbling bodies produced too much centrifugal force and he lost his grip. Both priests of Shaddai splashed into the sea.
Ethan felt drained, much like his experience after sinking the slaver ship and the demon battle that had taken place onboard. He barely managed to struggle against the water and keep his head above the surface. Ethan moaned. Exhausted, he slipped beneath the rolling waves of the sea.
A hand seized him-Gideon’s. He called to Ethan, but his words grew faint and distant. Unconsciousness swallowed up his final reserves of strength. And when he knew that his friend held him secure, bobbing on the surface of the Azure Sea, Ethan surrendered to it.
PRISONER OF WAR
Sarah slumped sideways, lying exhausted against the powerful leather clad arm of her captor. They had been riding for more than a day non-stop. Somehow the horses pushed on without water or food. Perhaps, she thought, their horses are as abominable as they are.
There were twelve Wraith Riders in their group-the same who had come to Millertown and burned it. Sarah had gone through bouts of crying during the long journey south. She had no idea if her parents had survived their brief attack.
Why had they not killed her already? What were they waiting for? Perhaps Mordred simply desired to perform the deed himself. Maybe he hoped to wring information about Gideon and the Deliverer from her before she died. She resolved to tell him nothing-a resolution Sarah hoped she had the courage to keep when faced with the warlord face to face.
Several columns of black smoke rose above the tree line ahead. The twelve riders in black leather armor turned from the road, riding in that same direction. Sarah thought of escape, but she had no chance of getting away. Even if she had not been heavy with child, she could never have hoped to outrun the riders.
When the riders breeched the line of trees, Sarah saw the village beyond. It had been occupied by several hundred people. Now the only living beings moving in it rode upon black horses. She immediately thought of Millertown although the heinous act committed here was far worse.
Images of people running in terror, then cut down like wheat, flashed through her mind. The lodges still burned while the smaller homes had been reduced to smoldering piles of waste already. The sparse countryside, with its few trees and yellow straw grass, was littered with the inhabitants of the village.
Mordred’s Wraith Riders had spared no one. The only weapons the villagers had possessed with which to
