The Crystal Sorcerers (17 page)

"A good day for a hunt," one of the sailors cried.

Forgetting what Leti had told him only moments before, Mark smiled in agreement and settled back to enjoy the invigorating roller coaster ride.

"There they are!" one of the lookouts shouted at last, pointing to several small boats on the horizon.

Cupping his hands, the sailor leaned over the railing. "Straight ahead," he roared.

Tulana came floating up through the rigging to hover next to the crow's nest. He brought up his communications crystal and listened as a report came in from the ships ahead.

"Four of them to be sure--it'll be a hell of a hunt. Get your people ready!" he shouted.

Rising from the crow's nest, Mark and Ikawa followed Tulana back down to the deck.

"Clear the boats," Tulana ordered, and the deck crew, racing to the port and starboard railings, pulled the canvas clear from a dozen sleek, two-masted catamarans. At the bow of each of the boats was a massive catapult armed with a twelve-foot spear tipped with a razor-sharp barb, and stacked alongside each weapon were a dozen more bolts. Forward on the main deck,
a battery of four more catapults were
revealed that stood nearly fifteen feet high, armed with twenty-foot bolts.

"They've got double torsion catapults," Kochanski said excitedly. "It's like an ancient navy going to war."

In spite of his earlier trepidation, Mark found himself getting caught up in what was happening.

"Gather round," Tulana commanded, and for the moment the giant became serious and grim-faced as the offworlders clustered around him.

"We're gonna have a grand time in a couple of minutes. Leti's told me that except for your leaders, you folks have never been underwater before."

The men exchanged nervous glances. Mark could see that besides the underwater briefing, Leti must have been filling them in on what they would be facing, for their previous childlike enthusiasm had definitely been tempered.

"Now the Cresus is a terrible big beastie, not very smart, but nasty when he gets riled. We'll pick up our ladultas once we get near, and then we start in."

"What are ladultas?" Ikawa asked.

"Friends of ours--you'll see. Hopefully there'll be enough to tow us all in; I sent word ahead to get extra mounts for the rest of you. Now, once we start to close, the trick is to get underneath a Cresus and then start hitting him with your energy bolts. Aim for the ass end of the damned things, they're real sensitive there, but watch out for their tail flukes. Have you got all of that?"

"I think so," Mark replied, though he wasn't quite sure what had just been said. "You mean we just shoot to kill them and that's it."

"Kill them?" Tulana roared, looking over at the two sorcerers from his island,
who
started to laugh uproariously. "Kill them, he says!"

"What's so funny?" Mark asked, looking at a short, barrel-chested sorcerer who had stripped to nothing but a loin cloth.

"It's just to get the damn things moving," the Sorcerer told him. "You see, we want the things to breach."

"What the hell is breach?" Goldberg asked.

"You know, like in
Moby Dick
--to get them out of the water," Kochanski responded. "I guess the catapults are to finish them off."

"Aye, you've got it, laddie," Tulana rejoined, slapping Kochanski on the back and knocking the wind out of him. "We want the damned things to breach, and by Jartan's hairy ass it's a sight that'll make a god tremble. When you got one heading up, get out of the water ahead of it, so the boat crews know what's coming. If it looks like the thing is going to hit a boat, it's your job to go back in and divert it a wee bit."

"And how do we do that?" Ikawa asked nervously.

"You go back in and give it a couple of strikes along the head to steer it in the opposite direction, then get the hell out of the way and watch the show."

"In range!"
came
a shout from above.

"Helmsman, take her into the wind and clear away the boats. Sorcerers, follow me, and by the gods don't let any of them get near this ship. Old Naga would just love to eat this thing for dinner."

Pulling off his tunic, Tulana quickly stripped down to skin and crystals, all the time giving Leti a lascivious grin. The goddess slipped out of her tunic and flying breeches, but shaking her head at Tuiana, she modestly left her undergarments on.

"Let's go then," Tulana
ordered,
his disappointment obvious. He flew across the deck and out over the ocean toward a light catamaran that was running close hauled before the wind.

Leti and the offworlders followed him, the men quiet for a change.

"There's our ladultas," the barrel-chested sorcerer called, pointing to what appeared to be
a boiling
foam of water, laced with fins.

"They look like sharks to me,"
Walker said nervously.

"More like dolphins," Shigeru said excitedly.

Slowing, the group drifted down to the water. Tulana plunged right in, disappeared for a moment, and then surfaced, while the offworlders hovered nervously above the waves.

"Come on in, the water's great," Tulana shouted. A fin came up alongside him and several of the Americans shouted warnings, to which Tuiana replied with laughter. "They're friends," the prince roared. "Now get your asses in the water, damn it."

Setting the lead, Mark plunged in. When he resurfaced, he saw a lithe torpedo-shaped creature that looked a bit like a sailfish circling tight around him. Mark gazed suspiciously at the ladulta. Its eyes were large and round, almost like a baby seal's. Drawing closer, the creature gently nudged him.

"Air breather, friend?"

Startled, Mark could only swim down to look at the ladulta.

"Friend, airbreather kill Cresus?" Like a Tal, the ladulta was telepathically communicating with him.

Smiling, Mark reached out to touch it.

"Friend," he thought, "never
fight
Cresus before. Will you help me?"

"Help
good
. I am Sul named; take hold my top fin. Cresus bad, kill our young, try to smash cities of airbreathers. We teach them lesson today."

Tentatively, Mark grabbed Sul's dorsal fin and let the ladulta pull him back to the surface. It came nearly out of the water, blowing air. Taking a throaty breath through a breathing hole in the middle of its back, it dove slightly.

"Say, these things are like Tals!" Imada shouted.

"There's enough here for all of us," Tulana shouted, as the off-woriders floundered around the water, getting oriented. "Trust their judgment; they know this game better than you. We'll stick together as a group--if you get separated from your ladulta, just call his name and keep calling it till he picks you up."

"Worg, stay on the surface and direct the action up here. Mark and
Ikawa,
keep track of your people and I'll call the commands in to you. Shift your crystals accordingly."

The barrel-chested sorcerer mumbled a curse, but nodded in reply.

Tulana disappeared below the waves,
then
surfaced again. "I've got one. Follow me."

"Hold tight," Sul commanded, and together he and Mark plunged beneath the waves.

"Check in," Mark called through his comm crystal.

"Smithie here."

"Goldberg here.
This is great, Captain."

"
Walker. I don't like this underwater shit, captain."

"Kochanski here.
Everything's all right."

"Kraut here.
Captain, I'm sensing something really big up ahead--make that two, no,
four
images forming."

Mark turned his attention forward and sensed a vast moving wall straight ahead.

"Ikawa here.
My people are all right."

"Hang on, my friend, something damn big ahead."

"I've got it, Mark." Sul surged forward with remarkable speed and Mark was thrilled by this strange charge into the sea. Propelled by the ladulta's powerful undulating action, Mark rode above the creature, hanging on with his left hand so his right would be free to fire.

A dull flash lit the ocean ahead, followed an instant later by a deafening roar.

"Tulana hit good," Sul whispered, and Mark could sense the delight in the creature's thoughts.

"I'm on to one," Tulana's voice roared through the crystal. "Close on me and let's get him up."

Sul, as if having heard Tulana's voice, swam forward. In spite of the shielding which protected Mark from the drag of the ocean, he found himself struggling to hang on as the ladulta charged in.

Looking around, he could see the other ladultas closing in, each towing an offworlder. More than one sorcerer was gripping his ride with both hands and cursing wildly.

Suddenly the ocean before Mark turned a darker blue, and then went black.

"Hang on!" Sul called, and instantly he snapped over, diving straight down.

"Holy shit!"
Walker screamed, and the comm crystal was suddenly overloaded with shouts of panic, matched by Mark's own cry.

The ocean before him was a vast cavern of darkness half a hundred feet across, surging in his direction. The circle of darkness was rimmed with teeth, each of which was the size of a man.

The darkness surged past, buffeting Sul and Mark. Behind the mouth was a great dark bulk that seemed to stretch off into infinity.

Tulana appeared straight ahead, racing beside the creature. Turning, he swung in next to Mark.

"I figured I'd stir him up for you first," Tulana roared. "It's just a little one for you folks to break in on. Now let's get him upset!"

"You crazy bastard," Mark yelled, but his words were drowned by the shouts of his companions.

"Start fire," Sul whispered.

Mark pointed his hand at the massive bulk gliding above him and fired. His shot was followed instantly by a score of others.

A deafening roar boomed through the ocean, and the Cresus kicked and rolled, buffeting Mark and his ladulta.

"Again!"
Tulana ordered.

Another volley laced out. Suddenly the creature's tail loomed straight ahead, flukes slashing back and forth as the Cresus turned and started up.

"He's breaching!" Tulana shouted.
"Everybody out of the water!"

Sul cut away from the Cresus and raced straight upward, rocketing past their prey.

"Release," Sul called. "I wait in direction of sun."

Mark let go and, clearing the surface, he flew into the sky, blinded by the afternoon glare. Around him the water seemed to explode as the offworlders soared into the air. Several launches stood by not fifty yards away, their aft catapults pointed to where the sorcerers had emerged.

"He's breaching," Tulana roared, exploding out of the water below Mark. "Everyone get your asses clear."

Directly beneath Mark the water suddenly turned black. A geyser exploded under him, threatening to tumble him as he shot away.

And then the Cresus appeared.

The mouth, its teeth glinting wickedly in the sun, rose heavenward, higher and higher into the air. Transfixed, Mark floated above it.

Yet still it came upward--fifty feet, then a hundred feet, the water exploding around it like a tidal wave.

A glint of light shot past, and the creature gave a bellow and seemed to rear even higher.

Another
glint,
and a catapult bolt snapped past Mark to bury itself in the creature's head.

A third bolt shot out, catching the creature in the middle of its body. A geyser of hot blood sprayed the ocean in rivers of red.

The Cresus shrieked and kicked, and then like a mountain it fell on its side. As its body hit the water, a towering wall of water and foam kicked into the air.

"Good shooting!" Tulana cried.

The Cresus rolled and kicked on the ocean's surface, while the three launches crested the tidal wave and circled in, slamming three more shots into its head.

Tulana soared to Mark's side. "Fun, isn't it?"

Stunned by what he had just witnessed, Mark just looked at the prince.

"Now let's go for a big one," Tulana yelled. Turning, he dove westward to where the ladultas circled, waiting.

"Fun, he said,"
Walker called to Mark. "If I hadn't been swimming naked, I'd still be cleaning the shit out of my pants."

"Well, let's get after them," Leti shouted, and Mark could see that she was caught up in the excitement of the hunt.

"In and after them," Kochanski screamed, swinging in behind Tulana. "Thar she blows!"

Shigeru roared with joy and dove past Mark. Finally caught up in the thrill of the chase, Mark followed, plunging into the ocean and calling Sul's name. Within seconds his companion appeared, joyfully spinning through the water in a series of loops before coming up alongside Mark.