The Long Journey Home (The Legend of Vanx Malic Book 8) (2 page)

There is no use fighting your destiny
, he heard Foxwise Posey-Thorn’s voice say in the back of his head. He hadn’t known Thorn all that long, but the selfless elf had made such an impact on his life that he knew he would never forget his friend or the way he died for Moonsy.

He wondered where the resemblance between Foxwise and General Moonseed stemmed from. A cousin? Thorn hadn’t had any daughters, had he?

Then his thoughts shifted to Gallarael, and he wondered if he really loved her, or if her supposed death had caused those feelings to grow out of proportion in his heart. Thinking she was dead, he’d loved her wholeheartedly. Now that he knew she was alive, the feeling was still there, but it was not nearly as urgent or strong. Just knowing he would eventually be able to see her and speak to her again was enough to stir that longing, though, and he wished he was going directly to her.

“We’re heading to that place on the map, aren’t we?” Zeezle, who was supposed to be resting below, said, giving Vanx a start.

“How’d you know?”

“I felt the course change, Vanxy.” Zeezle slapped him on the back, as if the decision was just fine with him. “Now go down and clean that ripe pile of dog shit off my cabin floor, my brother.”

“Bad?”

“I wouldn’t let him eat raw fish again. Not like he did last night.”

“S’posed to be good for his fur,” Vanx grumbled while he located a bucket and a scrub brush.

“It probably is, and out on the trail, we’d never notice.” Zeezle laughed. “But he has no place to go on a ship.”

By the time Vanx finished cleaning up Poops’s respectable-sized pile of shit, he had an idea, which he hoped would ease any tension that erupted when he told the others in the morning that they were heading to an island on a map some crazy old wizard had given him. An island that wasn’t on any other chart or map at all.

The location was in Vanx’s head, though, exactly where he had seen it represented on the giant, glowing globe the wizard had shown him back on Harthgar.

Chapter Three

We fishermen, we catch our prey

and then our bounty cook
.

But in the end, it’s we who are caught
,

for the fishing has us hooked
.

“Y
ou mean we are going to this island to get some dirt and grass to fill the box you described us building, so the dog’ll have a place to squat?” Sea Mage Castavonti asked dubiously.

It was morning, and though there was no land in sight, the turquoise sky and the smooth sea were speckled with sea birds chasing schools of baitfish. “Or are we going so you can follow your treasure map?”

“Well,”—Vanx shrugged honestly—“both. But I never said ‘treasure map’; it is just a map.”

“But there might be treasure,” Chelda said to help keep the crew in agreement. “If there is, I say we give the ship a share and split the rest between us all.”

“Aye,” Zirk agreed, watching Chelda’s tits bounce under her blouse, with her hopping, half-faked glee. Even though she was putting on a show, Vanx could tell she was interested in the island, too, and she would do anything for Poops.

“She’s good,” Castavonti said to Vanx and Zeezle a little later. “I want two full shares.”

“If you get them to agree, that is fine.” Vanx shrugged.

“Just give him my share.” Zeezle grinned. “I don’t need it, and it avoids an issue. But if there is only a single prize the wizard left for you, we will have a problem.”

“Aye.” Vanx agreed. “Nothing a stop by Pyra’s place won’t fix. It’s on the way to Orendyn, too.”

“So we are guaranteed payment even if there is just a single item you claim?” the sea mage asked.

“You’ll get paid extra shares, within reason, if there isn’t even that much.” Zeezle gave the man a piercing look, as if to say the discussion was over.

Ronzon had replaced Zirk in the rigging, for Zirk had been falling asleep in the ropes. With full dawn directly ahead of them, it was Vanx and Chelda’s turn to rest.

Vanx wasn’t in the hard bunk with his eyes closed for more than half a glass when he sensed some commotion from above. Something had Zeezle and Master Ruuk excited, and now the ship lurched ahead, as if a new wind had found them; only Vanx knew it wasn’t wind, and he was up and running. His head had just poked up, out the doorway, when he heard the call.

“’Tis as big as the ship, Capt’n,” Ronzon yelled down. “Swimming just under the surface.”

“What is?” Vanx asked Zeezle, who had one of the looking glasses out and was standing beside Castavonti, looking behind them.

“Something is following us,” Zeezle said, not pulling his concentration away from what he was seeing.

“Hunting us is more likely,” the sea mage said. “These waters are known for leviathan.”

“Why didn’t you tell us that,” Zeezle asked, “when we were talking about changing courses? Is it going to attack?”

“If we slow enough, it will,” the sea mage said. “We would have passed through this territory either route.” Then he looked at Vanx. “I know you are full of raw power, Zythian, but try asking us the next time you change the plan. We could have skirted this area entirely if you’d have told it true from the start.”

“Can we skirt it now?” Zeezle asked, offering the looking glass to Vanx and pointing at the shadow swimming along behind them.

“We are in the heart of their breeding grounds as we speak,” Castavonti grumbled. “It’s about the same distance out in any direction.”

“It’s diving,” came the call from the rigging. “Should I wake Zirk and the woman?”

“I think we are going too fast for it to attack,” the sea mage said, but his look betrayed his fear. “I will see if I can get us going any faster.”

Vanx never found the shadow of the thing in the looking glass, and after a full turn of the glass, everyone was starting to relax. Nothing had shown itself behind them again, and Castavonti had the ship moving faster than the wind. If they went any faster, the sails would catch the wind the wrong way and slow them.

Vanx knew a few ship captain’s spells. He knew one that would help them go even faster if the need came. He began reciting the words to that one, but then Ronzon called out from above. This time when they looked up at him, he was pointing in front of the ship, not behind it.

Vanx turned and met the glory of the morning. Bright blue sky, deep blue water, rolling and dipping with the huge, slow-moving swells.

As they topped a wave, Vanx saw what Ronzon was pointing at. Up ahead, the sea was boiling in an isolated area the ship was headed right toward.

“Leviathan!” he heard Ronzon scream as he half fell, half climbed down from above.

“Don’t just stand there!” Castavonti yelled. “Grab a harpoon!”

Poops appeared on the deck, barking at the sight before them. Then came Chelda, her blond hair a tangled mess, but her expression that of a woken bear. Zirk came up behind them and went straight to a compartment near the front of the ship.

“Help.” He pulled Chelda, who was staring stupidly at the beast rising out of the sea right in their ship’s path. “Hand me that,” Zirk ordered her, and she obeyed absently, trying not to show the fear that Vanx could sense was dripping from her every pore.

In a matter of heartbeats, there was a well-braced stand erected over the ugly bowsprit, and a crossbow-like harpoon launcher connected to its
top, so that it could be swiveled left and right and up and down to some degree.

“Harpoons are there.” Zirk pointed at a compartment nearby, and Chelda dropped three of the long, barbed shafts at his feet just as the ship met the first of the unnatural waves caused by the huge creature.

The
Adventurer
’s bow rose up and then slapped down hard, causing Zirk to launch a stray harpoon as he was flung overboard.

Chelda grabbed the rail, staying in the boat, and managed to pick up another harpoon. When the ship was settled in the sea again, she took a forward step and threw the shaft at the creature’s mostly submerged head.

The wave that came when her harpoon stuck the thing nearly sent the
Adventurer
flipping over backward.

“Get Chel steadied, and then get Poops below!” Vanx yelled at Zeezle, as he dove for the harpoon launcher and began trying to re-cock it.

After heaving a float over the side to Zirk, Ronzon joined Vanx, situated himself to help crank back the launcher’s mechanism, and made ready to feed him harpoons.

Vanx looked at Castavonti, searching for advice or a solution, but the man was slack-jawed. He was holding the wheel with white knuckles, and his gaze was rising to the point that his head was craned back.

When Vanx turned, he saw why. The creature was at least thirty feet out of the water, and its toothy tentacles were already reaching for the
Adventurer
.

Without another thought, Vanx loosed a harpoon right at the thing’s head. He was disheartened when the shaft was just slapped away, and he began racking his brain for any sort of spell that would help.

To make things worse, he heard Zeezle’s splash, when he dove over the side to go after Zirk.

“Two in the water!” Castavonti yelled, as if there were a full crew to hear him.

“Aye,” Vanx answered out of habit, and then trained the launcher on the creature again, not sure what good it would do against such a thing, even if he shafted it true.

Chapter Four

If you stand atop a rocky mound

and look into the sky
,

don’t stand too long in that one place
,

or you’ll stand there till you die
.

C
helda found her feet and heaved a second harpoon. It flew true. But even with all her gargan strength behind the launch, the tip barely punctured the sea monster’s slimy hide. It was massive, and four of its six tentacles were tipped with shark-like maws; the other two were flippers that looked to fold over, like a hand in mittens, but with gripping, serrated claws in place of knitted wool.

One of the shark-headed tentacles darted down at the water near Zirk. Vanx aimed at the creature’s throat and let the harpoon launcher do its job. This time, the shaft went arcing at its target with at least ten times the speed Chelda had been able to muster. The harpoon fell short of its mark but stuck an arm’s length into its upper abdomen.

Zirk’s scream ended abruptly, and his legs fell into the blood-stained sea. A heartbeat later, Zeezle appeared in the lower rigging, looking terrified, and dripping fresh seawater all over the deck. Vanx could feel Poops’s anger over being latched inside the cabin below. The dog was livid, but Vanx knew it was for the best. He let Poops into his consciousness then, permitting the dog to join the battle through him. It was a good thing, too, for Vanx had to roll out of the way of the sea monster’s grasping tentacle, and Poops’s sense of smell had been what allowed him to know exactly where it was.

The thing got hold of the ship’s mast pole then and used it to tilt the whole ship over, so that the
Adventurer
was almost lying sideways in the sea.

This is exactly why you’re in the cabin
, Poops, Vanx explained as he swung his legs up and hooked them in the skyward facing railing.
You’d be in the water if you’d been up here
.

No water
, the dog barked from within the belly of the ship.

“What do you want of us?” Vanx yelled. He figured the thing could toss the ship away like a man hurling a hay bale or a grain sack. It could cripple the ship on a whim, and the fact that it hadn’t, had Vanx as curious as a cat.

“He’s going to have a chat with it?” asked Castavonti, clinging to the side-rail that was dipping a few inches into the sea.

“Look at his hand,” Zeezle said from the rigging.

Vanx put his hand on the crystal at his throat and started yelling at the creature and pointing away. “Get out of our way!” He squeezed the Hoar Witch’s controlling crystal with all he had. “You’ve no business with us. Now go.”

Oddly, the creature let go of the ship but didn’t leave. It swam there, looking at Vanx through eyes as big around as wagon wheels, then it slapped a large wave at the ship and watched gleefully as the water made the boat lean all the way over one way. Everyone was entangled in something, so no one went stumbling. After cresting the wave, the ship leaned all the way over to the other side. The leviathan’s eyes were locked on the flag flying above the crow’s nest as the boat swung back and forth until it was fully righted again.

“By all the fargin’ hells!” Chelda growled, as she pulled herself from the outside of the railing, up and over, and flopped like an exhausted fish on the planks.

“Ronzon,” Sea Master Castavonti called.

“Aye,” came a weak response from a pile of barrel kegs that had come unleashed and scattered across the back deck.

Vanx positioned himself at the front of the ship. When the creature glanced his way, it might have seen his angry look of defiance, or maybe it was the terrible masthead, but for whatever reason, the monster flinched.

Vanx was offended. The
Adventurer
was offended, too, and Vanx could feel it. He was inclined to oblige the ship’s want for a show of strength, a demand of respect on these waters, where no single creature held reign.

Vanx sucked in a long, slow breath, remembering the feeling of Pyra doing the same, just before she unleashed her fury on something.

“Take us starboard of its body,” Vanx told Castavonti. “Zeezle, do you remember the wind spell?”

“The one we practiced on the way to Dragon Isle?”

“That’s the one.” Vanx motioned with his hands that everyone should hold on, for the thing was leaning down, about to pluck Vanx from the deck with one of its shark-mawed tentacles.

Vanx uttered the words of one of the Hoar Witch’s spells, called
Tempus
Fist.

In the span of a heartbeat, a great plume of turquoise energy bloomed around Vanx’s hand, and then it went streaking from his pointed finger at the unsuspecting monster’s fully-exposed chest.