Witchbreaker (Dragon Apocalypse) (44 page)

The pale green pygmy looked forlorn and frightened until Bigsby clicked, clucked, and whistled something to him. The pygmy smiled gently as he went below deck.

“What did you say?” asked Jetsam.

“The smallest men walk away from the longest falls,” said Bigsby. “It’s an aphorism forest pygmies use to cheer themselves when faced with hard times.”

By now the knight to Slate’s right, who wore a tunic of gold embroidered with a large red lion, had dismounted. He said, “I thought the cloud giants had the best of us. I can’t understand why they suddenly retreated when we were so outnumbered.”

“Indeed,” said a thundering voice that rolled across the bay. “It’s quite the mystery. I look forward to learning who issued such a command once I’m finished retrieving my property.”

The thunderhead above the burning docks writhed as a whirlwind spun out to form a long, serpentine neck. Sheets of clouds spread across the sky, shaping themselves into wings. Shadows fell across the
Circus
as Gale raised her hands to summon winds. The sails caught air with a loud
SNAP
and smashed into the rising waves as Tempest emerged from the clouds, a massive gray dragon far larger than their ship. The great beast easily outpaced the
Circus
, looping around before it with the grace of a creature that had dwelled for centuries in the sky.

Tempest’s mouth was full of lightning as he said, “You’ve stolen something from me. I would like it back.”

“We’ll never give you the slaves!” Brand said, leaping onto the bowsprit and shaking his fist at the sky-monster. Before waiting for the dragon’s reply, Brand glanced back at Gale and grinned. “Any of this turning you on?”

Gale smiled. “I’d answer, but I don’t want my children to blush.”

“Oh, Ma,” said Sage.

“The slaves are of no concern,” rumbled Tempest. “You’ve stolen the One True Book. Its presence in my kingdom brings me a great deal of power.”

“You’ve no right to this sacred tome!” the green knight shouted, drawing his sword. Sorrow was puzzled as a woman’s voice suddenly filled the air, singing a rousing battle-hymn. “My singing sword and I shall defend this holy book to our dying—”

There was a flash. A mound of molten slag burned into the black circle on the deck where the knight had stood as flecks of green fabric drifted through the air. The singing sword landed on the deck, still calling out its battle-hymn, until it was drowned out by the wave of thunder that washed across the lurching ship. Sorrow was thrown to the deck. The impact knocked the lightning rod from her hands. It rolled across the planks, bouncing as it went, until she was certain it would fall into the sea. As luck would have it, Bigsby fell in front of the rod and caught it, though Sorrow couldn’t tell if he’d leapt to make this catch, or merely lost his footing on the pitching deck.

Tempest whirled around the boat once more, giving everyone time to study the burnt spot that had once been a man. His voice again thundered through the rigging. “Place the book upon the spot I’ve marked, turn away, and I shall spare you.”

Gale shouted, “Hold steady for the mouth of the bay!”

“Have we thought about giving him the damn book?” Rigger asked. “What’s it to us?”

“If he wants the book badly enough to chase us, he can’t capsize the ship without losing it! If we turn the book over, we’ve nothing to shield us!”

“You’ve nothing to shield you now,” Tempest said, as he turned his gaze toward Gale and opened his jaws wide. Sorrow could see straight down his gullet as the lightning arced toward them.

CHAPTER TWENTY

FLESH AND BONE

B
IGSBY MADE IT
to his feet a few yards in front of Gale just as lighting erupted from Tempest’s jaws. The lighting rod flared as thunder cracked so loud it rattled Sorrow’s teeth. In the aftermath, no one was harmed.

Tempest’s eyes narrowed as he glared at the dwarf. He flapped his wings forward and the waves rose in towering whitecaps, crashing across the deck. Sorrow was swept from her feet by the wall of water. As she was washed over the rail, ropes snaked through the surf to wrap around her arms and legs. She jerked to a halt, yelping in pain as her stitches tore, and wound up choking on a mouthful of brine.

As Rigger dragged her back aboard, she saw Slate was gone. Had he been washed overboard, or had he gone below to place the One True Book in a safer location? Two of the horses skittered in the air a yard above the pitching deck. The third horse charged toward Tempest with the red-lion knight in the saddle. A tight shaft of brilliant ruby light beamed from the tip of his lance and left a path of burnt scales across Tempest’s face. The dragon roared, punctuating his pain by spitting lightning. Knight and horse fell toward the water, trailing smoke.

“I gave you a fair chance to surrender the tome!” Tempest cried. “You shall pay the ultimate price for your defiance!” Lightning arced from his jaws once more, targeting the front of the boat, well clear of Bigsby’s rod. The top half of the foremast toppled into the crashing waves, the sails in flame.

Tempest circled the ship, whipping his tail, leaving waterspouts in his wake. Hail pelted Sorrow like shot from a sling. She was too rattled by the assault to think clearly. She could feel the dark energy building in the center of her being, but didn’t dare attempt to release it while she was so muddled.

A chunk of hail the size of a fist slammed into her forehead, knocking her flat. She blinked stars from her eyes as she stared up at the churning clouds. Without warning, the clouds tore in twain and a giant man dropped from them. It was Levi, grown to half a mile in length, splashing into the bay with a wave that threatened to turn the
Circus
on its side. Levi wrapped his arms around Tempest’s neck, dragging the massive reptile down into the sea.

Instantly, the waterspouts collapsed upon themselves. Sorrow grabbed the railing and struggled back to her feet as the wind lessened and the hail stopped pounding her. Tempest was apparently as susceptible to distraction as any other living thing.

“Go!” Levi shouted as the backwash swirled the
Circus
past his thighs. “I can’t hold him for long!”

“You can’t hold me at all!” cried Tempest as an enormous claw closed around Levi’s throat. With a rapid slash, he slit Levi’s jugular.

“Levi!” Gale cried as her son fell toward the
Circus
, clutching his windpipe.

Levi’s eyes were unfocused, but with his last flicker of thought he lurched to the side to avoid crushing the ship. Blood sprayed across the
Circus
as he fell, speckling the sails with crimson as his enormous body splashed into the water. The
Circus
rose atop a wave that lifted the ship to the clouds.

At last the wave broke, dropping the ship into the brine red with blood. Sorrow held her breath as the ship plunged beneath the surface. She couldn’t see a thing for half a minute, until the
Circus
popped above the bloodied water like a cork.

“That son of a bitch!” Rigger cried, turning the wheel hard. Every rope on deck rose, until the ship resembled an inverted jellyfish, its tendrils probing for a meal of dragon.

“What are you doing?” Brand shouted.

“I’m going to drown that bastard!” Rigger answered. “The waves are the domain of Abyss! Tempest will be weakened if he doesn’t make it back to the sky!”

Rigger’s hope of revenge came to a rapid end as Tempest swam away from the
Circus
, his body whipping through the water. When he finally spread his wings, they caught the wind and lifted him from the whitecaps. Tempest flew nearly a mile away from the ship before turning. His mouth glowed as he opened his jaws once more. There was a loud
crack
, but again his lightning failed to rake the deck. Instead, Sorrow saw the arc stop a few hundred feet before the dragon’s gaping mouth. She narrowed her eyes, squinting through the squall, cursing her half-blindness.

She spotted the thin columns of light cast by a knight’s horseshoes. Only it wasn’t a knight in the saddle. It was Bigsby, lashing the steed forward, holding the glowing lightning rod above the long, flowing locks of his bright blonde wig.

“Is he committing suicide?” Sorrow shouted.

“When the hell did he get the wig?” Brand asked.

Rigger fought the wheel as the ship slid down a mountain of water. “He said he was going to shove the rod down the dragon’s throat! If he can rob the beast of his lightning, we stand a chance!”

The dragon assisted Bigsby in his mission by thrusting his neck forward and snapping his jaws shut, swallowing the horse in a single gulp.

“Now!” Cinnamon shouted.

Sorrow turned in time to see Poppy balanced on her sister’s shoulders. The girl jumped off and Cinnamon shot into the air, tracing a perfect arc toward the dragon’s nose.

“No!” Gale cried as she watched her daughter fly.

“Yes,” Sage shouted from beside Poppy. “I helped them aim! She’s going to hit her target!”

“It was Cinnamon’s idea,” Poppy said, defensively. “She’s going to make the dragon so sick he can’t fight!”

“Have you both lost your minds?” Gale cried.

Sage knelt and ran her fingers along the deck. It looked as if the planks were awash with wine. “I’ve never seen things more clearly.” She turned and ran for the hold just as Slate emerged from below deck, Witchbreaker in hand.

Sorrow had no time to follow what was happening on the ship. Instead, she watched Cinnamon land dead center of Tempest’s snout. The dragon’s eyes grew wide. His jaws snapped open as his tongue shot from his mouth as if it was trying to escape. Bigsby tumbled out of the dragon’s mouth, plummeting toward the sea, leaving his wig fluttering in mid-air. He looked to still be alive to judge from his flailing limbs, but he was falling from a quarter mile up. His odds of surviving the impact weren’t favorable.

Just before Bigsby hit, Mako shot from the waves like a missile, wrapping his arms around the dwarf, absorbing some of his momentum as they splashed into the froth.

Tempest whipped his head back and forth, his body convulsing as he gagged. Cinnamon lost her grasp on his scales and was tossed aside. Sorrow hoped Mako saw her as the girl plummeted. Instead, it was Jetsam who came to her rescue, jumping from wave to wave, sprinting and vaulting until he neared her. He used the momentum of a cresting wave to kick into the air, spreading his arms to catch his sister before they both disappeared.

Tempest cut a long, slow arc through the air as he probed his jaws with his claws, plucking free the lightning rod.

“Poppy!” Slate shouted. “Pop me!”

The girl leapt into the riggings and jumped onto his shoulders. Slate zoomed into the sky, brandishing the Witchbreaker. Tempest turned his back toward the knight and lashed out with his tail, batting Slate back toward the ship. Rigger snared him in ropes as he fell, but Slate still hit the deck hard enough that Sorrow felt the impact.

Sage came back from the hold, dragging the masthead of the
Freewind
.

“Levi hasn’t died in vain,” she announced. “His life energy is soaking every board! It’s the same aura that used to envelop the
Freewind
when we’d cross into the abstract realms! We have to get Grandmother in place on the bow! If we free her, we can escape to the Sea of Wine!”

“Give her to me!” Rigger shouted, wrapping his ropes around the wooden figure. “I can lash her to the hull in seconds!”

Sorrow headed toward the front of the ship. “Contact with the blood may be enough to free her, but I’ll use my powers to blend the old figurehead to the ship!”

The figurehead was directly above Sorrow, carried forward by ropes. Without warning, a reptilian claw stretched from the clouds and tore the wooden bust from Rigger’s grasp.

“Was this precious to you?” Tempest snarled as he whirled above them. The sea began to swirl as he swept around them, sending the
Circus
in a dizzying spin. “As precious as the book was to me?”

“Where’s Jetsam?” Mako asked as he leapt over the rail, dragging Bigsby by the collar. The dwarf gasped loudly as he hugged the deck.

“He brought Cinnamon on board then went back into the air,” said Sage, “but he can’t fight the dragon alone!”

“He’s not alone,” said Sorrow, clenching her talons. She spread her wings, allowing the hurricane winds to snatch her from the deck. She didn’t want to be touching the
Circus
for what was coming next.

Tempest turned his jaws toward her. Lightning glowed in his mouth.

She opened her jaws and a jet of flies shot forth. They quickly burnt to ash as Tempest unleashed his lightning. Sorrow’s human skin felt as if it was boiling away.

But not from the lightning.

Because the second her feet had left the deck, she’d focused on the nexus of the dark energy, seeing it clearly in her mind’s eye like a wobbling black disk. She grabbed the portal with the fingers of her mind and stretched it as wide as possible. Her blood turned to ice as she stared into the void beyond.

The void stared back, with eyes devoid of all emotion other than hunger.

“Come out,” she whispered.