The Quest for the Trilogy: Boneslicer; Seaspray; Deathwhisper (52 page)

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Authors: Mel Odom

BOOK: The Quest for the Trilogy: Boneslicer; Seaspray; Deathwhisper
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Then the creature was once more upon the pirate ship, slamming into it at full speed.
“A Lie Will Get You Killed”
T
he creature struck
One-Eyed Peggie
with a resounding boom that temporarily deafened Wick as he hung onto the railing. Cap'n Farok shuddered and went down, landing asprawl and hanging onto the railing with one arm while the other held tight to his crutch.
Despite his tight hold, Wick lost his grip and started to slide away. A massive wave of water, created by the creature's attack, rained down on the deck. For a moment Wick thought he was going to drown, then he realized he was sliding across the deck, heading for the starboard side. Caught at the crest of a wave,
One-Eyed Peggie
twisted violently so that only swirling black water was on the starboard side.
Wick knew that if he slid through the railing on that side he'd be lost for good. Then something hard looped just under his chin and caught him by the throat. Instinctively, he reached up and caught hold of it, recognizing by touch that it was Cap'n Farok's crutch.
“Hold tight there, lad!” Cap'n Farok commanded. “I ain't a-gonna lose ye!”
Scrambling, digging his feet against the deck in an effort to find purchase, Wick looked up in disbelief and saw that the old dwarven captain was holding onto the railing with one hand and managing to keep them both safe.
That's not strength
, the little Librarian realized grimly.
That's stubbornness!
A moment later, the pirate ship righted herself. Water swirled across her deck and washed over the side.
Wick pushed himself up and crossed over to Cap'n Farok.
He helped the old dwarf to his feet. “Thank you,” Wick said. “I would have been washed over the side.”
“I couldn't let ye go,” Cap'n Farok said with a grin. “We ain't written me memoirs yet. I still have a lot of stories to tell ye.” He gave Wick a wink.
“Harpooners!” Hallekk bellowed from the stern castle. “Stand ready!”
Two dozen pirates grabbed long harpoons from the hold and got ready on deck. As he helped Cap'n Farok up onto the stern castle deck, Wick still felt immensely frightened. The day would come, he knew, when the creature or
One-Eyed Peggie
would destroy one or the other. When that day came, he didn't know which would lose, but he was afraid the ship was more fragile than the creature's rock-hard carapace.
Wind whipped across the deck, making the salt spray smack into them more vigorously. Wick squinted against it and stood beside Cap'n Farok and Hallekk.
The ship's crew stood ranked with their harpoons.
“Give it a taste of sharp steel,” Hallekk growled. “See if it likes it any more than last time it found us.”
Green lightning gathered at
One-Eyed Peggie
's prow. Staring through the spray and the rigging, Wick saw Craugh standing there. Green embers whirled dizzyingly around the wizard. In his hand, his gnarled staff glowed lambent emerald.
“Where's the beastie, Zeddar?” Hallekk demanded.
“Ahead!” Zeddar yelled back down from the crow's nest. “Dead ahead!”
Staring forward, Wick spotted the creature once more cutting through the water on a collision course with the pirate ship.
“Hard to port!” Hallekk ordered. “Hard to port!”
Behind them, the helmsman fought the big ship's wheel, cutting
One-Eyed Peggie
's direction to port. Rigging creaked as the sails caught full hold of the wind and yanked at the masts. The crew shifted over to starboard to confront the creature as it shot past.
But the creature altered course as well, resuming its bearing on the ship.
“Brace yerselves!” Zeddar called from above.
Curses ran the length of the ship.
This time the creature came up out of the water. Four of its tentacles reached for
One-Eyed Peggie
's prow. Craugh struck in that moment, unleashing a wall of lightning that hammered the creature. The stench of ozone filled the air and Wick went deaf with the sound of the
boom
!
Incredibly, the creature lifted from the water, almost totally emerging.
One-Eyed Peggie
sailed within mere feet of it but was never touched as the tentacles wildly waved. Most of the dwarven pirates were too stunned to react, entranced by what they had just witnessed, but a few launched their harpoons. Even fewer struck the creature.
“Is it dead?” Cap'n Farok asked, whipping his head around as they passed the creature.
Drawn by the need to see what had happened, Wick abandoned his position at the railing even though the ship's deck still jerked and shifted as the helmsman
fought to find a proper course for her. At the stern railing, he peered out at the sea. The creature floated limply on the water, but it still moved its tentacles.
“It's alive!” Zeddar yelled from aloft. “It's still alive!”
But at least it's not giving chase anymore.
Wick watched as the creature slowly sank beneath the waves. Before it disappeared, though, the pirate ship crested a wave and started down the other side, losing sight of the creature.
 
 
Cap'n Farok took control of the ship, issuing orders that calmed the crew while Hallekk went below to assess the damage. Wick went forward to join Craugh, who was staring out to sea. For a time, the little Librarian looked out at the rolling waves, but couldn't see anything that would interest the wizard so intently.
“What's wrong?” Wick asked.
At first the wizard didn't seem inclined to answer. Then he took a deep breath and let it out just as Wick was prepared to walk away. “That creature found us,” Craugh said.
“It constantly searches for this ship,” Wick replied. “That's always been true.”
Craugh adjusted his slouch hat. His skin held pallor to it that Wick had seldom seen. Then he remembered that the wizard had been weaving spells for hours. Now there'd been a huge expenditure while he'd worked to save the ship. Wick knew from experience with Craugh that the wizard had a large physical debt to repay from using his power.
“It found us through magic,” Craugh said. “Not magic of its own.”
That thought chilled Wick. “You're saying someone sent it? After us?”
Craugh nodded, but held up a hand to quiet Wick. “The others don't need to know this. And perhaps I'm wrong.”
Wick doubted that. Craugh was rarely wrong when it came to magical problems.
“Who would send it?” Wick asked. “Who would even know to send it?” Not even the people of Greydawn Moors knew about the monster and the eye. It was a story the crew of
One-Eyed Peggie
kept quiet because getting dwarven pirates was difficult enough without adding the fact they'd be permanently cursed by a vengeful monster after they signed on.
“I don't know. But I felt the magic that lured the creature here.”
Wick considered that. “We still don't know who Gujhar is working for.”
“No, we don't. That would help. But there's a simpler reason for this.”
“What?”
Craugh looked at Wick. Fatigue ate into the wizard's features. His green-eyed gaze didn't blaze quite so forcefully. “The creature is an animal. It's not inconceivable that an elven warder charmed it and told it where to go. The magic that was used was simple, but very powerful. Primeval. Like that used by elven warders.”
The thought took Wick's breath away. “That's not possible.”
“It's not?” Craugh grinned mirthlessly. “Not all elven warders use their lore to
work with natural animals of the lands, the skies, or the waters. Some of them use their gifts to build relationships with monsters.”
Wick knew that was true. Selmanick Thostos had written several books on the subject of elven warders who learned to tame monsters to further their own goals.
“Who do you think sent the creature?” Wick asked.
“An elven warder,” Craugh answered. “A very powerful elven warder.”
Wick understood then. “You think Sokadir sent the creature after us.”
“Possibly.” Craugh grinned coldly again. “You must admit, after your confrontation with him, that Sokadir isn't predisposed to someone poking around after him.”
Self-consciously, Wick touched his shirt collar. “No.” He swallowed, finding himself a little dry-throated as he looked out at the sea. “But that doesn't have to be the answer.”
“Then find me another,” Craugh snapped. “Right now I'm second-guessing myself enough without having someone do it for me.”
“I can try,” Wick said, marshaling his courage. For the last few days, since they'd quit Wharf Rat's Warren and sailed south, he'd had his present predicament on his mind. “But to do that, we need to return to the Vault of All Known Knowledge.”
“Out of the question,” Craugh responded immediately, shaking his head. “We've lost too much time as it is. All we know is that our enemies are headed south and that they're after Sokadir.”
Craugh had also managed to put a spell on Gujhar's ship,
Wraith
, and was presently able to track them.
“Sokadir is in the Forest of Fangs and Shadows,” Wick pointed out. “He's not going to be easy to find. He's an elf on his home territory, and he's powerful.” He thought for a moment and used Craugh's own thinking against him. “If he's powerful enough to send that creature after us within minutes—”
“He was just lucky it was in the area,” Craugh snarled. “With the creature's interest in this ship already, sending it here was no problem.”
“Within
minutes
?” Wick let his doubt sound in his voice.
“As I said, it was merely good fortune on Sokadir's part.”
The wind blew around them for a few moments. Wick got the distinct impression that Craugh didn't try to walk back to belowdecks because he didn't want anyone to see him fall on his face.
Hallekk came up during that time and informed Cap'n Farok that there were a couple leaks down in the cargo hold, but that they weren't immediately dangerous. He had crews working to patch them.
“When you turned up in Greydawn Moors those weeks ago,” Wick said, trying to pick his words carefully, “you didn't show up by accident.”
Craugh didn't say anything.
“You planned to be there,” Wick said, “and you planned to get me to go looking for the three magical weapons that were at the Battle of Fell's Keep. A dweller wouldn't be noticed the way a wizard would. Maybe—” He took a deep breath, remembering how worn and haggard Craugh had looked. “—maybe you'd already been found out searching for them.”
Craugh kept his silence, but his frown was deeper.
Wick went on even though he knew he would have been far better off being paralyzed with fear. “You said that you were concerned because what happened at that battle—that who betrayed whom—was part of what is keeping humans, elves, and dwarves from uniting once more against the growing goblinkin hordes. I believed you.”
Craugh regarded Wick with a glare of green-eyed steel. “Don't presume to lecture me overmuch, Librarian.”
“You lied to me,” Wick said, but he kept the anger out of his voice.
Although he maintained his silence, Craugh's staff suddenly became a beehive of buzzing green embers that circled it.
“Lying appears to be one of your greatest natural talents, Craugh,” Wick said quietly. “I've never noticed that in you quite so much before.” He took a deep breath, surprised that he hadn't already been consigned to an existence as a toad. Or thrown overboard. “You lie to others about anything you wish to, at any given time you choose to.”
“You're daring far, far too much,” Craugh whispered in a cold, deadly voice.
Shut up! Shut up!
Wick screamed at himself inside his head.
Stop now and maybe he won't do anything to you that will leave scars!
But he couldn't shut up and he knew it. What he had to say was too important. He'd seen how hard Bulokk and Quarrel had tried to get back their ancestors' weapons, how much they'd been willing to risk. The Old Ones knew he was no hero, he was just a dweller, a Second Level Librarian with grand designs on one day becoming a First Level Librarian.
“You can lie to anybody you want to, Craugh,” Wick said in a quavering voice.
“I could strike you down where you stand,” Craugh threatened. The glowing green embers whirled around him now like fireflies.
The power he was giving off made Wick's hair stand on end.
“I could
blind
you,” Craugh went on. “You would never be able to read again, never be able to write.”

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