Chapter 35.
waxing moon Filled with fierce triumph, Ubel gripped the railing and watched the Wolfram warships gain on the enemy. That witch-loving bastard was heading for the big island, probably hoping he could circle it and find a place to hide. There was no place to hide. There would never be a place to hide from an Inquisitor's righteous judgment. He had the bastard now. He had him.
Turning his head, he shouted at his ship's captain, "We're in range of that last ship. Signal the other Wolfram captains. Put fire down on those witch-lovers!"
The ship's captain shouted orders. Sailors scrambled to obey as the first mate changed course to give them the best shot and the flagman waved the signal flags to alert the other warships. The guard captain shouted orders, too, and guards scrambled along the deck to prepare the catapult while others carried up one of the boxes of round clay pots that contained shards of metal floating in liquid fire.
Ubel turned back to watch the fleeing ships. The Wolfram captains knew what to do and needed no further orders from him. The guard captain shouted the order. Ubel watched the round clay pot sail over the water and hit the side of the closest enemy ship, setting the wood on fire. The metal shards flew from the pot, ripping into the flesh of people on deck.
Another pot was prepared and fired. It hit the sails and was cradled in the cloth for a moment before it fell to the deck, spraying its liquid fire and metal shards.
As the other warships engaged their catapults and shot clay pots toward the other ships, Ubel heard the screams of the burned and wounded aboard the now-floundering ships. He bared his teeth in a vicious smile.
Try to run, you bastards. You won't escape me. What fire doesn't cleanse from the world, the sea will.
Jenny stepped out of the cottage and saw men running toward the stone stairs that led down to the harbor. Saw Murtagh striding toward her, his face grim and determined. She ran to meet him.
"What's happening?" she asked, chilled by the comforting hand he laid on her arm.
"We've sighted some ships heading for the island," Murtagh replied.
For a moment, her heart leaped into her throat, making it impossible to breathe. "Mihail?"
"Can't tell yet. But they're being pursued by warships. Since sea thieves know better than to come into these waters, I suspect it's Black Coats in pursuit. One of those ships running ahead of them could be your brother's."
Murtagh squeezed her arm lightly. "Not to worry, sweet Jenny. My selkies are getting our own ships ready to sail to meet them, and the coastal barons whose land touches the bay all have ships out to keep watch. We'll get the people on those ships to safe harbor."
Turning away, he hurried after his men.
Jenny took one step to follow, then spun and ran for the cliffs. She would be
in the way down at the harbor, but she would be able to see the ships from the cliffs. Even from a distance, she would be able to identify Sweet Selkie.She ran until the village was almost out of sight, then stopped, reluctant to go too much farther. From her vantage point, she saw the Fae ships leaving the harbor, heading for the neck of water between the coast and a spur of the island. That spur kept her from seeing the ships running toward the island.
So she waited, her hands clenched, her heart pounding. Waited for that first sighting of a sail. When she was younger, how often she'd waited on the home docks in the same way, watching the Una River until she saw the sails and knew her father or brothers were coming home. Now the only brother left to wait for was Mihail.
Birds screamed. Looking up from the sea, she noticed the flocks of gulls
circling and swirling. Sea hawks flew above them, around them. Were they really birds or were there Fae among them, guiding the birds that answered to their particular gifts?
She saw the sails now-and her blood turned to ice.A handful of ships. Sweet Selkie ran ahead of the smaller ships, but the warships had closed the distance. As she watched, flames appeared on one side of the smallest ship. Moments later, fire bloomed on the deck, spreading to the mast and sails.The sails of the warship closest to Sweet Selkie burst into flames. Yes!
Someone on that ship had the gift of fire and was fighting back.
Fighting back.
Jenny stared at the warships. "No," she whispered. "No. You accuse us of
being evil and take our land. You take away our way of life, and then you take our lives." Her voice rose as she watched the burning ship flounder and roll. "You've taken our homes, our families, everything we held dear. Now take our grief, take our rage, take our pain."
She drew on the branch of water, filled herself with the power. Then, charging that power with all the feelings raging in her heart, she gave it to the sea.
The sea went insane.
One moment, Ubel was watching the burning ship roll to its death and the people on board leap into the sea in an effort to escape. One moment, the guards not manning the catapult were shooting the gulls that flew around the
ship, Fae spies for the witches. One moment, the enemy was almost in his grasp.
And the next moment, the sea went insane. Walls of dark water rose out of
nowhere, curled into foaming white fists, and smashed down on his warships. Waves rose as high as cliffs, with a ship teetering on the crest before it rolled and smashed to the base of the wave, only to have the wave arch and dive back into the sea, taking the ship with it.
Ubel clung to the rail with all his strength, listening to his men screaming as the box of clay pots broke and liquid fire spilled out over the deck and the men trying to cling to anything they could hold onto. They screamed as the fire washed over them. They screamed as they were pitched into the merciless sea.
The sky suddenly turned dark. Looking up, Ubel realized his ship was caught in a tunnel made by two waves coming together at the crests. Then the tunnel collapsed, and there was nothing but the sea. Nothing at all.
* * * "Jenny! Jenny! Mother's mercy, what have you done?" Rough hands gripped her arms and spun her away from the sea. She stared into Murtagh's face, seeing fury and fear-seeing him, but feeling only the sea.
"Jenny! Ground the power now! Ground it, Jenny!"She bared her teeth. "They kill us and kill us and kill us. But they will kill no more of us. No more!"
He was breathing deeply, roughly, as if he struggled to complete a ferocious task. "That's right," he said, his voice straining for calm. "They'll kill no more."
His eyes were dark and intense as he stared into hers. His voice smoothed
out, a balm to raw emotions.
"You defended your people, and you defended them well. Now help me, Jenny. Help me get them to safe harbor. My ships can't reach them until you calm the sea. Help me, Jenny. Help me get your brother to safe harbor."
"Safe harbor," she whispered, unable to look away from his eyes.
"Yes. Safe harbor. Calm your heart, Jenny. Calm the sea."
Safe harbor. Help the selkies get Mihail and the others to safe harbor.
She closed her eyes, but Murtagh's voice still washed over her. She breathed
in the power she'd given to the sea, and breathed it out again, flowing on the path of that soothing voice. Calm the heart. Calm the sea.
"That's good, Jenny. That's good."
She opened her eyes. She saw relief in his eyes now-and still a hint of fear behind it. When she tried to turn to look at the sea, Murtagh shifted to place himself on the seaward side of the cliff. With his arm firmly around her shoulders, he led her back toward the village.
"We'll go down to the harbor and welcome your brother," Murtagh said.
"When he sees you, he'll know he's among friends."
Mihail. Yes. When he saw her waiting for him, he would know he'd reached safe harbor.
It didn't occur to her until much later that Murtagh had deliberately kept her
from seeing what her fury and the sea had done.
Ubel clung to the broken mast, surrounded by debris that had once been a
Wolfram warship. Surrounded by bodies. There were a few other men clinging to anything that would float, but not many.
A pained, garbled sound came from the guard captain, who was also clinging
to the mast with his good arm. Ubel kept his face averted. The captain had been splashed in the face with liquid fire. The area around his right eye had been spared, but that normal eye, dulled with shock and exhaustion, made the rest of the ruined face look more obscene.
He didn't know how long he'd been in the water when he saw the line of ships slowly sailing through the debris, looking for survivors. He didn't know how long he watched them before he noticed all the seals swimming ahead of the ships, before he heard their odd barks that guided the ships'
crews toward the living.
He waited. When a sleek brown head rose from the water and the creature stared at him, he shuddered. Not seals. Not here. Selkies. An animal body with a man's brain.
Seconds passed, stretched, turned into agonizing years before the selkie
made that odd barking sound. Then it sank beneath the water.
Finally a ship approached. Beyond throwing out two loops of canvas attached to ropes, the crew offered no help. Since the ship continued moving past him, his choices were to abandon the mast and swim as best as he could to reach the canvas loop or to remain in the sea until his strength gave out.
He splashed and floundered, came close to sinking when his foot almost tangled in one of the lines from the sails, but he managed to reach the canvas loop and slip his arms through it. They pulled him toward the ship, used the rope to steady him as he climbed the rope netting attached to the side of the ship. He glanced back once. There was no one clinging to the mast now, and the other canvas loop being hauled up was empty.
He barely had time to collapse on the deck when he was lifted to his feet and dragged to the stern. In the bow, people were wrapped in blankets. Some were sipping from mugs. Others were having wounds tended. He caught no more than a glimpse of them before he was shoved to his knees, and his hands were tightly bound to the stern railing. The first mate was there, but not his ship's captain. A few guards, a few sailors. Almost all of them were wounded in one way or another.
"Water," Ubel croaked. "We need water."