There were four people on the stern. One was Sheba, in her trousers and shirt, and the other was the priest in his tunic. Another was a steersman, and the fourth, a huge reptillian one, reminded him somewhat of Binter and Sisska, but this one had a differently shaped snout.
He never had the chance to land. The priest pointed at him, and a bright white light issued forth from his hand. It turned into a intense white-blue bolt of lightning, and it struck him directly in the chest. Searing, blasting pain roared through him as his vision darkened, and he dimly realized that the impact had thrown him back towards the deck. He felt something sharp and heavy against his legs, then he was tumbling wildly, and then something hit him in the head.
And then he knew no more.
Still locked in a circle, the four Sorcerers watched helplessly as Tarrin made his way up the deck. They still protected the ship's rear quarter against arrow fire, which became more and more sproadic as Tarrin's disruption of the enemy ship took hold. It stopped completely when the mast of the clipper sagged, then came free of its anchorings, crashing to the deck. When that happened, Dolanna broke their circle and wilted visibly. "We no longer need the shield," she panted. "Do what you can where you can." Faalken took hold of Dolanna gently and led her to where she could sit down, for she was drawn and sallow, and the effort of it showed clearly on her face. For Dolanna, it had been exhausting, because she was the one who was leading. The others in the circle would fare much better than her.
Keritanima rushed to the rail with Allia and Dar and watched with something approaching horror as Tarrin appeared again from behind the fallen mast, then vaulted into the air-
– -and then was struck my some kind of lightning bolt released from the stern. It struck him like a giant's fist, sending him flying backwards. He bounced off the fallen mast, and between the mast and the deck, Allia and Keritanima clearly saw him hit the rail and then tumble over the side.
"What was that?" Dar asked suddenly, eyes wide. "Is he alright?"
"He went over!" Keritanima said in shock, and then a cold icy hand gripped her around her heart. She'd felt that feeling once before, when Tarrin had been kidnapped by Jula, and she didn't like it. She was stricken with shock and anxiety, uncertain if Tarrin even survived the attack. Tarrin was family to her, the brother she never had, a brother that loved her and cared about her. She felt that cold hand turn suddenly into a raging inferno in her breast, and raw, unmitigated anger and rage roared up in her mind, tinging her vision. How dare they attack her brother! They hurt him!
They would pay!
Fire exploded from her upraised hands as Keritanima shrieked loudly in inarticulate fury, the fire coalescing and condensing down into a ballista-sized arrow of pure fire so bright that it hurt the eyes to gaze upon it. She pointed with a scream, and the bolt of fire lanced towards the black ship faster than the eye could track. It struck in a gunport and drove through like a solid thing, then penetrated the wall behind that, and the wall behind that, until it struck yet another wall and then exploded with terrific force. The explosion blew out the wall where the initial strike could not, and billowing clouds of intense heat and fire, and flaming spears of shattered woord, raged directly into the clipper's main powder magazine. A burning shard of wood penetrated a tightly sealed barrel of gunpowder, and that started a chain reaction of explosions.
The first ripped the side of the ship asunder and send a cloud of sooty fire billowing out from the wound, setting off smaller explosions of powder in the gunchambers that shattered the entire port beam. That explosive shockwave slammed into the galleon, and knocked everyone on the Star of Jerod off their feet. Keritanima and Allia were blown back, Dar landing on top of the Selani as the galleon shuddered away from the force of the blast, sending a few men on the other side of the ship over the rail. The second erupted from around the fallen mast, causing it to shift as fire and explosive force pressed up against its weight.
The third was a thunderous detonation, as the main powder reserves all exploded at once. The entire middle of the ship suddenly disappeared in a horrendously loud blast of fire and smoke, sending shards of wood flying like cannonballs to rake through the galleon's sails and rigging. Keritanima and Allia both screamed in surprise and fear, Dar trying to cover Allia as best he could to shield her from the blast, but their screams were swallowed up by a massive roaring, cracking sound that caused Keritanima's ears to bleed and left her dizzy and dazed. The galleon rocked to the side, almost putting the port rail in the water, and sending men and supplies flying overboard.
When the ship rolled back to where Keritanima could see the clipper, she was horrified. The entire amidships of the vessel was just gone. A gaping hole was there, as if some giant had reached down and scooped out the middle. Her ears were ringing, so she couldn't hear what was going on around her, but her eyes were totally affixed to the black clipper. There was no sign of life aboard, and the ship's bow was beginning to list to starbord as the stern started rolling backwards.
Keritanima was stunned. The ship had literally been blown in half.
Flaming debris, bits of wood, and grisly pieces of what had been living things moments ago began to rain down onto the deck. Keritanima got up onto her knees as Allia angrily pushed Dar aside and rose herself. She was overwhelmed. She had single-handedly destroyed the Black Clipper, and had probably killed the notorious Sheba the Pirate. But that wasn't made her face so horrified. She didn't know if Tarrin survived that explosion. The thought that she may have killed her own brother was simply too much for her to face.
Eyes rolling back into her head, Keritanima sagged forward, and then fainted dead away.
The crew of the Star of Jerod watched in stunned silence as the two halves of the ship settled, listed, then slipped silently beneath the waves.
GoTo: Title EoF
Chapter 3
There was nothing left of the Black Ship, but there was plenty of it floating on the surface.
Tarrin's eyes fluttered open, and he coughed out a mouthful of briny water as the sunlight stung at his vision. He was floating on the surface, bobbing on the waves still lapping from the sinking of the Black Ship. He only vaguely remembered the explosion of the vessel, the impact of which had driven him under and knocked him out. Only his grip on his staff saved him, the Ironwood staff whose bouyant ability was so powerful that it lifted him back up to the surface. The sun wavered on the edge of an inky black cloud of greasy smoke that billowed up from the surface of the sea, and smaller pieces of debris were still raining down from it, peppering the surface of the ocean like stone thrown into a pond by children.
The injury to his chest throbbed with the beating of his heart. The seawater only burned it more, and he clutched at it and panted for breath. No wonder Sheba had been willing to pit her priest against Kern's unknown magic. He'd never experienced anything quite like that before. Just by touching the wound he could tell that the skin and flesh were charred, and because it was a wound inflicted by magic, it wouldn't simply regenerate. Dolanna would have to heal it.
Putting an elbow over his staff, he got control of the pain, shunted it aside enough to be able to think clearly. He was floating in a debris field, and he wasn't alone. Several other Wikuni also clung to twisted lengths of wood, and all of them looked the worse for wear. He had no idea what made the ship explode, but he had a pretty good idea that Dolanna had something to do with it. She would be the only one with the experience or training to lay an entire vessel low so effectively. Many of them were wounded, some of them laying on flatter pieces of debris unconscious with other Wikuni making sure they didn't slip off and drown. All of them looked stunned and dazed, and Tarrin couldn't blame them. The sound of it, the pure concussive force, it was something that he could appreciate to create that kind of condition. It had even knocked him out, and he was substantially tougher than a human or Wikuni.