Beneath dark waters, p.23
Beneath Dark Waters, page 23
The sea serpents rammed Tempest Rover.
“Fuck!” Torin hissed, staggering as the ship lurched.
The jaeger’s stomach was already twisting and churning from the ceaseless rocking. Every sudden tremor and heave as the sea serpents struck the ship sent jolts of sickness crashing through him. He clenched the gunwales in a white-knuckle grip, swallowing his nausea. The moment his boots touched Albion, Torin swore he would never set foot on a sea vessel again!
Boom-boom-boom!
Tempest Rover groaned under another brutal barrage. Planks howled – how much more could they take before splitting?
“Torin, Sinder, arm the ballistae!” Tam roared.
Torin was closest to the portside ballista. He took a deep breath and stumbled towards it. He threw himself onto his knees and lifted a board near the base of the ballista where the bolts were stored. Torin reached inside the cubby and fumbled for a bolt. His hand met something warm.
Torin’s breath caught – there was a person stuffed into the empty space! He ripped the boards aside and, to his horror, a face stared back at him from the storage space.
“Krinn?!”
The bone picker, damp and sweating, was hugging a bolt.
“Here you go!” The bone-picker grinned sheepishly, offering the bolt to the jaeger.
Torin was relieved it wasn’t a fresh corpse hidden in the storage area, however, the shock of finding the bone picker smuggled aboard made Torin want to strangle Krinn himself.
“When the hell did you sneak onboard?”
“Thought I’d found myself a good place to hide when the riots started.”
“Who is this?” A nearby crewman demanded. “A stowaway?!”
“Fuck!” Torin snarled.
Torin grabbed the neck of Krinn’s shirt and hauled him out of the storage space. He snatched the bolt from the bone-picker and wedged the boards in the hole to prevent them from sliding along the deck while leaving the other bolts accessible.
“Go to the mast and stay there! Don’t move and don’t get in the way!” Torin snarled at Krinn before turning to the crewman. “I’ll handle him later – first the serpents.”
The crewman nodded, passing a disgusted glance at Krinn over Torin’s shoulder.
Crewmen speared the sea serpents from along the sides of the ship. The monsters snapped and screeched, darting through the waters, dodging the weapons. A chorus of screams rang out, drowned by the shrill screech of a sea serpent.
“Argh!” A crewman roared as a sea serpent lunged up and bit him, dragging him into the water.
It happened too quickly – no one could save him. The crewman was pulling his lance from the waters by the rope tied to its end when, in the blink of an eye, one of the grotesqueries lunged up from the waters, its ugly jaws open wide. With a sickening crunch, the serpent plunged it’s fangs into his arm. The crewman’s agonising howl rattled through the air as he tried to wrench his arm free from the monster’s rotten maw, its fangs red with his blood. In one swift turn, the sea serpent twisted its body away from the ship and yanked the crewman overboard, dragging him screaming into the abyss, disappearing into the darkness with a flick of its long, pointed tail.
Fury sizzled in Torin’s veins and boiled in his chest as he rammed the bolt into place. He shoved the ballista, swivelling it around to face the stern. The sleek bodies of the sea serpents coiled through the blackened waves like shadows, soaring up from the deep, snapping at the seafarers’ lances.
“Fire at will!” Tam thundered.
The ballista bolt boomed as Torin pulled the lever, firing the bolt through the air. It smashed into the bulbous head of sea serpent with a sickening crack, hot blood splashing over the crewmen and ship, clouding the water. Torin didn’t waste any time. He slammed another bolt into place and scanned the waters for his next target.
“Captain! Ship astern! She’s distant but gaining fast!”
Tam shielded his narrowed eyes with his hand, searching for the ship. He caught sight of a white blob in the distance. Grunting, Tam fished a spyglass out from his pocket, pointed the spyglass at the blob and leered down the lens.
“Oh, shit!” Tam’s stomach dropped, and his blood ran cold.
From the sea-splattered lens of the spyglass, Tam realised the white blob was a huge golden galley, single-banked, propelled by thirty oars, with a large rectangular ivory sail. Huge painted eyes glared from the head of the ship, locked on Tempest Rover.
Tam had run into ships like these in the past, and he knew from experience that they were armed with cannons as well as ballistae. There was only one nation that sailed in these golden ships – the Sirinean Empire.
There was still a week until Tempest Rover would reach land. If the Sirinean Empire galley was following Tempest Rover, they would have to find a way of outrunning or hiding from it. If they changed course, they might be able to hide amongst some of the smaller islands of the coasts of the other Jordic countries, Nordheim, Fjordby and Ravenscar.
Could Tempest Rover outrace the galley until then? The sea serpents were slowing them down, and it was only by the grace of the gods that the wind was strong and billowing in their direction, allowing the crew to fight the grotesqueries instead of rowing. If the wind stopped or turned at any point, Tempest Rover would be in big trouble.
“Kill the fucking serpents so we can get moving!” Tam bellowed, seizing his lance.
Tam speared the serpents snapping at the steering oar, unleashing a hail of Boodjaran curses upon them with every stab and strike.
Boom-boom-boom!
The longship lurched as the sea serpents slammed against it, knocking three of the crewmen overboard. Before the crew could even think about tossing a rope to their mates, the sea serpents lunged upon the men and tore them to pieces, littering body parts and gore across the waters.
Boom-boom-boom!
It didn’t matter how many sea serpents they took out, more kept emerging, the waters were boiling with the monsters! At the stern, a knot of the grotesqueries thrashed at the steering oar, jaws gnawing and tearing until it wrenched uselessly in Tam’s grip.
“Fucking bastards!” Tam hissed.
Twisting and weaving, the sea serpents formed a shifting wall of writhing bodies to port and starboard, ramming and bullying the ship, forcing it down a single path. The serpents weren’t just attacking Tempest Rover – they were herding it! All the while, the Sirinean Empire’s golden galley was gaining on them.
“Captain, dead ahead! An island!”
“An island? There aren’t any islands out here!” Tam retorted.
Heart racing, Torin glared through the spray, scanning the waters ahead of the ship, his heart pounding in his throat. The lookout was right – far ahead of Tempest Rover was an island, looming larger by the second.
Torin’s gut twisted – it wasn’t an island.
“It’s a hafgufa!” Torin roared over the crashing waves.
The waters darkened and churned as the massive grotesquery rose from the depths, sheets of water cascading from its barnacle-crusted skin. The overwhelming stench of brine and decay filled the air as the creature’s head surfaced.
A hideous blend of pig, cat, and leviathan, the hafgufa had short front legs like a cat, complete with razor sharp clawed paws in place of pectoral fins. Capable of sealing its nostril closed, the monster could hold its breath for long stretches of time, allowing it to dive deep without drowning, periodically emerging for air.
Though sightings of the massive grotesqueries were rare, so rare that Torin thought they were nothing more than fairy tales and folklore, hafgufa were said to feast on whales and fish, luring the creatures by churning up their vomit as bait. It was also said that the monsters had a penchant for devouring ships.
The beast’s cavernous maw yawned open, tusked and gaping, stretching at a perfect right angle, exhaling a sickening, rotting gust. It expelled thousands of dead, half-chewed fish into the water, surrounding itself with gore and the oily clouds of stomach acids. Its neck frill flattened against its throat as it opened its mouth, seemingly waiting for the ship to sail right into its mouth – or be driven into it.
Torin’s heart raced painfully in his chest.
Hafgufa were trap-feeders, and sea serpents hunted in packs. Was it possible – were the sea serpents pushing Tempest Rover towards the monster? Were the sea serpents and hafgufa hunting together, or were the sea serpents taking advantage of the creature? The hafgufa could chomp the ship in half in one snap of its great mouth. The sea serpents could swoop up and take out the seafarers the hafgufa didn’t swallow like carrion-feeders.
Torin glanced between the golden speck growing with every passing moment and the beast ahead of them.
“Fuck the serpents! Down oars!” Tam bellowed.
The crew scrambled to their places. Oars bit the water, offering Tempest Rover a burst of speed. The crew fought to regain control of the ship, struggling against the writhing bodies and gnashing jaws of the sea serpents winding around the oars. Water surged over the gunwales, drenching the deck as the longship rocked, almost tossing the men from their benches. Crests slammed onto the deck, filling the hull. Kýlan and a few others stumbled and fell as they tried in vain to bail out the ship.
Oarsmen struggled against the unpredictable surges while fighting against the sea serpents snapping at the oars, wrenching a few from the helpless crew’s trembling red hands. If they lost too many oars, they wouldn’t be able to pilot the ship at all, especially without the steering oar. The barricade of writhing serpents blocked all ways of escape.
The only open path was toward the hafgufa.
Even without the sea serpents to contend with, turning against the waves was a death sentence. If they tried to angle the ship against the incoming waves to avoid the hafgufa, Tempest Rover would capsize or get pulverised by the roiling waters.
A slow, guttural inhale rumbled through the air, a vortex forming at the hafgufa’s huge maw, opening like a chasm. The sea rushed inward, taking Tempest Rover along with it.
Tam glared between the Sirinean Empire galley and the hafgufa. Tempest Rover couldn’t outrun a galley like that, even with a head start, and they were vastly outgunned – two ballistae would do nothing against cannons.
“Tam! We’ve got better luck with the hafgufa!” Torin roared.
Tam clenched the steering oar, his jaw set and expression grim. His eyes flicked from the black waves to the monstrous maw ahead. If they turned against the waves, Tempest Rover would flip. If they stopped, they’d be swarmed by the sea serpents, leaving them ripe for the Sirinean Empire’s galley to attack. The only path left was forward – into the hafgufa’s mouth. Forward was death, but the only kind of death they had a chance of fighting.
“Hang on her, lads!” Tam bellowed. “Brace yourselves!”
Wind screeched through the rigging, whipping the oarsmen’s sore hands and faces. The gaping jaws of the hafgufa stretched wider still, the reek of death billowing across the water, thick enough to choke the seafarers.
Sea spray drenched Torin’s face as the ship plunged forward. His knuckles ached from gripping the oar, but he held on. With every ounce of strength the oarsmen had left, they dug in. The sea serpents shrieked before vanishing beneath the waves as Tempest Rover hurtled straight toward the abyss of the waiting maw.
19
“WHAT ARE YOU doing?” Krinn howled, bowling down the ship and dropping to his knees, scrambling across the slippery deck for something to hold on to. “Don’t you see the grotesquery?!”
The blood was drained from the bone-picker’s pock-marked face. Trembling with fear, he clung to the brace stays with a vice grip, his yellowed eyes bulging from their sockets.
“Get back to the mast and hold tight!” Torin spat, hauling the oar hard, his muscles screaming.
“The hafgufa! The hafgufa!”
“We see it!” Seethed Merfyn ap Merfyn, Torin’s rowing mate, veins popping in his wind-whipped forearms as the pair struggled against the waters with their oar.
“Then why are you rowing towards it?”
“See that ship behind us?” Torin snapped. “It belongs to the Sirinean Empire! We’re dead in the water with them on our arses! If we can get the hafgufa between us and that galley, we might just survive!”
“As long as the hafgufa doesn’t eat us first!” Krinn yowled.
“Exactly! Now get out the way so we can concentrate.”
“If we give you to the Order, this will end!” Krinn pointed a trembling accusatory finger at the jaeger. “We won’t have to risk being eaten! We can throw you overboard – they’ll retrieve you while we get away!”
Torin’s blood turned to ice. His chest seized, a bolt of shock jolting through him. For a moment, the whole world froze. The waves and wind were silenced, Torin could not hear the yell or groans of the crew nor the screeching of the sea serpents around him, even the yawn of the hafgufa disappeared. The only thing Torin could hear was the bone-pickers words echoing in his mind. Slowly, his eyes round as coins, Torin turned to the ugly stowaway, his heart pounding in his chest.
“What did you say?” Torin breathed.
“This is all your fault, Jaeger! The grotesqueries – the suicides – it’s all because of you!”
Black loathing flooded through every fibre of Torin’s being, like boiling tar searing his insides. His face contorted into a scowl as fury seized him. Krinn and the Keeper from Freystad were saying the same thing – blaming Torin for the deaths, for the curse. Releasing the oar, Torin leapt to his feet, snatched up the front of Krinn’s sodden shirt and hoisted him into the air.
“What do you know, bone-picker?!” Torin shook the bastard.
“I know more things about the world of Bodan than you could learn in a thousand years!”
An unhinged grin spread across Krinn’s ugly face, and fear crackled in his wild, anxious laughter. The bone-picker’s face was pallid, and fear and malice churned in his watery eyes as they flicked between Torin and the ocean. He clung to Torin’s arm, terrified the jaeger might just toss him into the waters.
“Tell me or you’re serpent food!”
“If you kill me, you’ll never know why the Order of Divine Balance is interested in you!”
Down the longship, Tam was bellowing something, but his words were drowned out by the pounding of Torin’s blood in his ears. His fists trembled, gripping the bone-picker’s clothing so tightly. With a roar, Torin threw Krinn to the deck, sending him tumbling down the way. Krinn scarpered to the mast, half-hiding behind it, his eyes blazing with fear despite the twisted smile spread across his hideous countenance.
“Hunting the hunter! Hunting the hunter!” Krinn sang with sinister, childish glee. “Chasing him down, ready to pounce – hunting the hunter!”
“But why, Krinn? Why?” Torin roared, stomping towards the bone-picker, his fists balled at his sides.
“Ask your mother!” Krinn’s eyes grew big, glinting with sadistic amusement. “Ask him!”
“Shut up or I’ll cut your fucking tongue out!” Tam snarled, storming down the deck. “He’s talking shit, Torin! He doesn’t know anything!”
The jaeger turned to Tam, his sapphire gaze searing with fury, his body tense and trembling. All this time, Tam had been hiding something from Torin and Krinn’s words confirmed it.
“Tell me what you know, Tam.” Torin words rumbled like thunder.
“We don’t have time for this, Torin! Get to your bench and row! If we’re gonna survive the fucking hafgufa, we can’t squabble over the lies of a shit-spewing bone-picker.”
Every fibre of Torin’s body sizzled with loathing. Engulfed by a wave of black rage, Torin swung his fist back and smashed it into Tam’s face, sending the ship captain soaring to the deck.
A wild rush of fear and excitement coursed through Torin’s veins. Fury and loathing had simmered inside him since the day Tam dumped Torin at the Middenheim Guard on the Isle of Rim more than twenty years ago. With that punch, the lid sealing all the hurt, the hate, the anger, had blown off – and Torin couldn’t stop.
Torin leapt on top of Tam, pounding his fists against Tam’s forearms shielding his face. Torin let every moment of anger, every ounce of betrayal, every shred of hatred from the past twenty years consume him. His muscles throbbed, but he was numb to the pain, pulverising Tam’s arms until they quaked, but still Torin did not relent. Once – twice – Tam’s arms shuddered, weakening beneath the relentless tumult of Torin’s attacks.
“Get off him, Torin!” A crewman yelled.
A handful of nearby crewmen – Torin didn’t see who, nor did he care – leapt on the jaeger and tried to pull him off. Torin jerked his body, swinging at the crewmen, hurling them off him.
“No! Don’t touch him!” Tam roared, just as a crewman was about to smash the broken steering oar at the jaeger.
The crewmen froze, immediately obeying their captain. Torin spared a glance over his shoulder, and that brief distraction was all Tam needed. He bucked Torin forwards, throwing him off balance, and twisted out from beneath him with agility impressive for a man of his age. Tam scrambled to his feet and, roaring, spittle flying from his mouth, booted Torin in the ribs before he could rise, kicking the wind out of him. Trapped in the narrow alley between the rowing benches, Torin couldn’t scramble to his feet to get away. White light blinded his vision with every brutal kick. Intense heat billowed inside Torin’s belly, searing and shooting through him with every kick, like oil hissing on a fire. The jaeger’s abdominal muscles tightened, pulsing. He sucked in a low, rasping breath, nausea surging up his throat.
Leaving the jaeger curled on the deck gripping his middle, Tam thundered over to the bone-picker. Krinn tried to scarper, tried to hide, begging the crewmen for mercy, but he received none. They blocked his path, forcing him towards Tam.
Panicked, Krinn tried to scramble up the mast to put distance between himself and Tam, but the bone-picker didn’t have the strength nor the skill to succeed. Tam wrenched Krinn off the mast and spun him around. He smashed the bone-pickers against the mast and, with a mighty swing, punched him in the face. Krinn crumpled in the ship captain’s grip, blood cascading from his nostrils, knocked out cold.
