Black Champion dropped again, fast enough to trigger a feeling of vertigo in Jherek's stomach. The young sailor turned his attention back to the stern deck and started clambering through the rigging.
Below, Sabyna made her way across the slick and treacherous rise and fall of the deck toward the stern as well. Skeins slid across the wooden planks near her, darting out to smother flaming arrows that stood upright from the deck. With the sea spray whipping over the railing, Jherek doubted that any fire would take hold above decks, but the threat remained to the belowdecks. Black Champion would remain wet outside, but her belly could turn into a firepit.
The caravel plunged downward again, riding out the back side of the fast-moving wave and dropping into the trough it left. Without warning, the pirate ship slid down the wave as well, careening down the slanted water.
" Ware the ship!" a man bellowed." "Ware the ship!"
Jherek, locked into the rigging, watched helplessly as the pirate ship sped on a collision course with the caravel. "Sabyna!" he yelled, not knowing if his voice would carry through the violent sea lashing around them.
The ship's mage whipped her head around. Spotting the approaching vessel, she sprinted toward the rear mast and locked her arms around tightly. Her raggamoffyn familiar blew apart into hundreds of pieces, then flew after her. When the creature reached her, the whirling pieces reformed and wrapped around her, helping secure her to the mast.
The pirate vessel slammed into Black Champion, its prow riding hard against the starboard side and sending Azla's crew scurrying for cover. Wood splintered and Jherek prayed that it was the other ship or the railing and not anything below the waterline.
The shudder of impact rippled through the caravel, knocking it loose from the death grip the sea had on it for a moment. Choosing the moment of opportunity or perhaps torn free from their own ship, a handful of pirates leaped aboard Black Champion. Even as the pirate ship slid away and the caravel rose from beneath the other vessel's weight, a clash of swords surged up from the deck as well. A crashing wave splashed over the combatants before they barely had time to cross blades. They spun away, tumbling head over heels, grabbing onto whatever they could.
Before any of them could get to their feet, another onslaught of fiery rocks cannonaded against the decks with hollow, thunderous booms and pelted the ocean around them. White-capped water spiraled up from the impact areas.
Black Champion turned sideways in the following trough, completely out of control. Jherek knew the ship was a wreck waiting for the brine to drink her down. He turned in the rigging and waited while the ship righted herself again. Timing the slow roll back to starboard, he threw himself out toward the rear mast, free of the rigging in an all-or-nothing gambit.
Jherek slammed against the taut sail covering the rear mast's midsection. He skidded down almost immediately and narrowly missed a section of sailcloth on fire from one of the rocks. He pushed off again and hooked his fingers in the support rigging above the steering section. Rigging strands parted and sagged as more rock sliced through the ropes.
As Black Champion briefly rose again, the young sailor spotted Maelstrom and Vurgrom's other ships in the distance. They were well separated from each other, evidently not taking any chances of being thrown together by the storm lashing the Sea of Fallen Stars. All of them seemed to be faring well.
Swinging his body to get momentum, Jherek swung forward again and released, sailing through the distance and dropping on the stern castle near the wheel. A large wave sluiced through the railing and washed across the deck, fast enough and strong enough to take the dead pilot's body across the planks to the railing on the other side. Debris continued peppering the caravel, filling the air with punctuations of thuds and pings.
Jherek was hit in the shoulder hard enough to knock him down. He glanced at his arm and saw an eyeball-sized rock smoldering in his flesh. Fighting back the pain and shock, he slipped his knife from his boot and pushed the rock from his arm with the blade. He tested his grip and found he could still make a fist, but most of his arm was numb.
He got to his feet with effort and launched himself at the spinning wheel as Black Champion wallowed in another trough. He seized the wheel as they went over into the trough, fighting the ship and the sea. The young sailor's muscles strained and burned with agony, but no matter what he did, the caravel seemed determined to founder. The ship fell hard to starboard and looked like it was going under.
Sabyna lurched to the top of the stairs leading up to the stern castle, holding on again as Black Champion slid across another water wall. To Jherek, it felt like the ship had suddenly hit a patch of ice. The caravel seemed determined to race to her doom.
This time the ship's prow pointed straight down into the black water at the bottom of the next trough and the wall of water rushing up from behind her seemed destined to push her end over end. The young sailor felt certain they were going to plunge into the unforgiving heart of the dark sea like an arrow finding its mark.
There'd be no survivors.
Jherek lacked the wind he needed to straighten her up and he wanted to cry out in frustration, knowing there was no way he could save Sabyna from the harsh death that lay before them all.
Then the cold, powerful voice filled his mind. Live, that you may serve.
A wind blew hard and clean from behind him, coming from a different direction than it had only a moment ago. The surviving sails filled, twisting Black Champion from the deadly course she was on.
Jherek pulled the ship into the wind, guiding her with an unforgiving hand. His injured arm burned and ached and felt numb all at the same time, hardly giving him any strength at all. But Black Champion came around into the wind, her holed and flaming sails capturing enough of it to pull her on course, turning her to face the oncoming waves. She met the next wave with her prow and cleaved it cleanly. The new wind stayed with her, pulling her out of the wallows, and it seemed as though less debris struck her.
An awestruck look filled Sabyna's face as she gazed around.
"Who are you?" Jherek shouted into the wind. "Who are you and what do you want?"
He felt scared and mad all at the same time. Despite all the good the voice had done over the years, he felt 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.