Guild Wars: Sea Of Sorrows Part 25

His wounds bleeding, his body wracked with pain, Cobiah looked over the twisted deck railing at Isaye, meeting her eyes across the widening gulf of water between them. Never losing sight of her, he put his foot on the Indomitable's gunwale and leapt into the sea.

The ocean current spun Cobiah around and around, dragging him after the sinking Indomitable. He fought against it, but his wounds were grave and his body weary. He could barely even kick his feet through the water, struggling to stay alive despite all the odds. The Maw's tail slid past, but the creature was too eager, the sea too full of las.h.i.+ng bodies and sinking wreckage, and it missed Cobiah by several feet. Just as he was beginning to give up, fearing the light above him was no longer the surface of the waves, Cobiah felt something snag on his body, dragging him out of the sea. It was too hard to be an arm: wooden, tipped with metal. A boat hook, then. One of Isaye's sailors?

But as he broke the surface of the chopping waves, Cobiah realized the Nomad II was too far away to be his savior.

"Ready? Heave!" The boat hook dragged Cobiah back against the side of a ma.s.sive galleon, the wood cracking against his shoulder painfully as he was pulled up her hull toward the topside of the s.h.i.+p. He spat water, kicking off his soaked boots to lighten the load, and clawed his way through the rail onto the deck boards. Once safely there, Cobiah untangled himself from the boat hook and stared up into a white-faced group of Krytan sailors. He was aboard the Balthazar's Trident.

"Is he alive?" Prince Edair put his hand on Cobiah's shoulder. "Commodore-are you injured?"

"Yes." Cobiah blinked salt water out of his eyes, s.h.i.+vering from the cold of the sea. "If you're going to make me a prisoner, I'd rather you just kill me now. I'd rather die on deck than drown in the bilge like some kind of . . . of . . . stowaway skritt." His stomach churned with sea-water and disappointment.

Edair's brown eyes softened. "I'm not sending you to the brig, Commodore, though I do intend to have strong words with the individuals who took it upon themselves to countermand my orders in that regard." Edair flashed an indignant glance at Livia. "Nevertheless, I watched what you did on that great black galleon-leaping across to face the undead captain one-on-one? I've never seen anything like it." The prince of Kryta grasped Cobiah's hand and pulled him to his feet, supporting Cobiah with his shoulder when the older man's knees failed to gain balance right away. "Your actions saved my s.h.i.+p from destruction. I . . . may have misjudged you."

"'May have'?"

The prince shook his head. "We've no time for argument, Commodore. You're needed." Edair pointed across the ocean, indicating the battle taking place around them. One of the Seraph came forward, and Edair took the man's proffered cloak, placing it on Cobiah's shoulders and wrapping it around his s.h.i.+vering body. "That black-sailed devil of a s.h.i.+p is gone, but my armada's not doing well. We were unprepared for this a.s.sault. Though they have fought bravely, you and the Nomad have taken on the lion's share of this fight. With the reinforcements from your city-however odd-we may yet have a chance against these Dead s.h.i.+ps.

"But I hold no such hope for victory against them." Edair's finger pointed toward the xebecs with scarlet sails. "The Trident is uninjured and ready to fight. But I . . ." The prince's voice failed him, and his jaw stiffened with pride. He moved out from under Cobiah's shoulder, allowing the commodore to stand on his own among the Seraph marines. "I saw you command the Nomad," Edair added. "I'm asking you to do the same with the Trident. Although the fight is going well-"

"It doesn't matter how well it's going. Those Orrians won't leave until you've destroyed them utterly or they've replenished what they've lost and won the day. Every loss for you increases their numbers, don't you understand that?" Cobiah said wryly, pulling the cloak about him. "Macha used to call it a 'zero-sum equation.' There's no such thing as just driving them off. Unless you're winning-you're losing.

"They'll ram your s.h.i.+ps, use their cannons, and leave your men to die at sea-and every sailor drowned in the tide, every vessel that sinks in their attack-they'll rise to fight against you." He narrowed his eyes and took a strip of cloth from one of the s.h.i.+ning Blade, wrapping it about his torso to staunch the seeping wounds. His hand had swollen, the flesh torn and ravaged, but everything still worked-for now. Limping to the Balthazar's Trident's railing, Cobiah leaned on the smooth wood and looked out at the firefight on the waves. "You can't fight Orr like you fight charr."

The patchwork s.h.i.+ps from Lion's Arch were fighting like nimble piranhas, packing light punches but evading most of the attacks being levied against them. They didn't have much protection, and their hulls, too long out of the water, couldn't absorb a powerful blow. Already several were down, their hulls compromised by a single hit from the cannons on the black-sailed galleons. The Krytan vessels, on the other hand, were ready for a fight, and although they were taking a pounding from the Orrians, most of them managed to remain afloat despite a great deal of abuse. However, they were wasting their blows pounding on the already-ruined hulls of the Dead s.h.i.+ps, a tactic that would work on living s.h.i.+ps but did very little to this enemy. "This is what you wanted. Lion's Arch at your fingertips, our fleet at the bottom of the sea. You said the Dead s.h.i.+ps were no danger. You said we were lying." He glanced back over his shoulder with a hostile snort. "You have everything you asked for."

Edair bristled, a satirical reply on his lips. Before he could speak, Livia's hand fell upon the prince's sleeve. He paused and took a long, deep breath, closing his eyes as he regained control of his temper. Cobiah turned and looked out at the waves once more, listening to the pound and flash of cannon fire, the booming of gunnery emplacements on the cliffsides, the high, arching loft of flaming b.a.l.l.s of pitch heaved from Claw Island's sh.o.r.e.

"You were right," Edair ground out between clenched teeth.

In a low, angry tone, Cobiah agreed. "d.a.m.n straight, I was."

The anger slowly left Edair's eyes, but his shoulders were back, and his stance was still that of a soldier. "Tell me how to save my s.h.i.+ps."

"And if I do?"

It took Edair a moment to answer. "I'll leave your city. Take my s.h.i.+ps and my army, and renege on the siege." Livia's hand tightened rea.s.suringly on the prince's arm. Lifting his head, Edair said, "We'll . . . negotiate a truce. Limited autonomy under Krytan rule, with you as the city's governor-"

"Full independence," Cobiah retorted sharply.

"Are you mad?" Edair blurted in shock. Several of the Seraph around them reached for their weapons, antic.i.p.ating an angry command. The Krytan prince shook free of his exemplar's restraint, stomping closer to Cobiah until their faces were mere inches apart. "Lion's Arch will never survive. The races weren't meant to live together. You'll tear yourself apart!"

"If we do, that's my problem. Not yours." Cobiah met the young prince's fervent gaze with the cold wisdom of years as a s.h.i.+p commander. As shouts and cannon fire echoed off the water and the Maw rose again to swallow one of the smaller pinnaces whole, the two men stood locked in a fierce battle of wills.

As smoke wafted past over the Balthazar's Trident's deck, Edair made his decision. "Fine. I'll recognize the city's sovereignty so long as the Captain's Council remains in charge."

Cobiah put out his uninjured hand. "Done." Unused to such gestures, Edair shook it awkwardly.

Now that they were in agreement, Cobiah turned his mind to the battle. "Your s.h.i.+ps need to work with ours. Let our faster vessels lure the Dead s.h.i.+ps to the Krytan line and then use your heavier guns to blow apart their masts, shatter their rudders, and target their guns. Don't waste ammunition on their hulls." Pulling the warm cloak more firmly about his s.h.i.+vering body, Cobiah warned him, "It takes a h.e.l.l of a lot more damage than your s.h.i.+ps can do in a few pa.s.ses to get through the layers of bone and gristle hidden beneath their rotting hulls." The prince blanched at Cobiah's description but nodded. "If the Orrians can't chase you and they can't shoot at you, then you'll have plenty of time to break them apart."

Edair summoned one of the sailors forward. "Have our mesmer pa.s.s those commands to the other s.h.i.+ps. Send the same message to the Pride and tell them the orders come from Commodore Marriner." The crewman saluted briefly and raced to do the prince's bidding.

"That's a start. But we've got another problem. Those red-sailed s.h.i.+ps. The xebecs, the ones with the fire s.h.i.+elds and magical artillery." Cobiah frowned. "They're more self-willed than the others. I don't know-maybe they're smarter, or maybe they're better able to interpret the dragon's commands. Those s.h.i.+ps won't fall for our tactics, and cannons alone won't take them out. The only way to destroy them is with magic."

Edair understood at once. "We'll have to take the Trident in."

No, you don't know a storm 'til you ride the wind Beneath cold and blackened skies, O 'Til you're sailing through a thunderhead With the lightning in your eyes Death, he laughs in the sails and the jags And the b.l.o.o.d.y sun won't rise, O.

-"Weather the Storm"

As Cobiah's battle plan spread among the two fleets, the Krytans and the patchwork armada began to work together. Although neither had the ability to defeat a Dead s.h.i.+p alone, working as one, they began to turn their advantage into victory. Sykox and Fa.s.sur led the charge aboard the Pride, plowing courageously into their enemy as though wholly unafraid. Their bravery was contagious; where the Krytans had been flagging, they picked up the fight once more, inspired by the Pride and her cobbled-together city-fleet. Acting as one, they drove the Orrian vessels back toward the south. Only the two xebecs held their ground, sweeping the sea with fire and lightning, using their powerful magic to eradicate any living s.h.i.+ps that happened to cross their path.

What would Isaye say? Cobiah looked out across the sea at the Nomad II, still foundered near a set of moss-covered rocks that jutted up from beneath the sea. He could make out sailors moving on her deck, trying to fix the yardarms of the one remaining mast, firing volleys at Dead s.h.i.+ps that came too close in their pursuit of more active Krytan vessels. He couldn't find the dark-haired captain amid the others, but he knew she was there. What would she say if she knew he was taking the prince's s.h.i.+p-and her son-into battle? The Balthazar's Trident could be destroyed if they were outmatched by the s.h.i.+ps of Orr. Young Dane could die.

"He's dead if I don't."

"What's that, Commodore?" Livia's voice was smooth and emotionless. Although the words were a question, there was no hint of curiosity in her voice, and Cobiah wondered if she was already aware of his thoughts before he spoke them.

He raised his head to look at her. "I need you to issue a command to the Seraph. Get the n.o.bles and other civilians to the center of the s.h.i.+p where they'll be most protected from shrapnel and other damage to her hull. Keep those people together. If the s.h.i.+p starts to sink, get them to the lifeboats and get them out of here. I don't like going to battle with them on board, but I can't afford the time to get them off-and they wouldn't last long in rowboats. Not with the Maw chewing up everything that fits in its mouth."

Livia nodded. "Of course."

Quick to defend her more fragile companions, the Pride engaged one of the s.h.i.+ps with scarlet sails. The spell-casters of Lion's Arch were less powerful, their magic less facile, but they'd fought such s.h.i.+ps before, and their vessel was the faster. Bit by bit, the Pride led their opponent away from the main battle, leaving the body of the armada to dismantle the rest of the Dead s.h.i.+ps without interference from the devastating Orrian spells.

The Balthazar's Trident closed on the second, with Cobiah yelling encouragement and tactics to the three young elementalists aboard. Four guardians, like Osh Moran, stood on the Balthazar's Trident's bow, firing orb after orb of energy at the two xebecs. A single mesmer, the Balthazar's Trident's messenger and one of the s.h.i.+ning Blade, used his illusions to hide their true position, causing the xebec to waste attacks against empty sea. Still, the red-sailed xebec was smaller than the prince's galleon and far faster in the water, using widespread area-effect spells to catch the Balthazar's Trident and deal damage to her hull and masts. Sickly fireb.a.l.l.s exploded from the xebec's cannons, setting the Krytan galleon's canvas alight, and one of the Krytan elementalists was forced to turn her attention from the battle to use water spells to put out the blaze. The impact had another cost as well: the young mesmer used to coordinate among the Krytan s.h.i.+ps had been knocked overboard, swallowed up by the Maw.

Suddenly, an explosion rocked the rear of the Krytan galleon. Amid the shouting and furious activity, one of the Seraph marines yelled a report to the commanders. "They're using a wind spell to block our cannons! It's surrounded the lower decks of the s.h.i.+p. If we continue firing, we'll only be damaging ourselves."

"Order the cannons to hold their fire!" Edair called back to them commandingly. "Continue using the deck guns. Load the carronades with grapeshot and fire at their sails." He glanced at Cobiah, and the commodore nodded approvingly. Edair pointed at one of the elementalists. "Doralyn, get below and see if you can counter that wind spell-or divert it to our sails. See if we can use their magic for our benefit." The woman nodded and raced for a nearby hatch to the decks below.

Clever. Cobiah chuckled to himself. The boy might just make a good commander someday.

Seeing that the Balthazar's Trident was in danger, the Pride cut short her attack on one opponent, turning her cannons toward the xebec attacking the prince's s.h.i.+p. So long as the xebec was fighting the Pride, she couldn't also a.s.sault the Balthazar's Trident. But that made two Orrian s.h.i.+ps against one small pinnace, and the Pride wouldn't be able to hold them off for long. Meanwhile, the Maw zigzagged between the s.h.i.+ps, churning the waves and snapping its ma.s.sive teeth with a sound like clanging iron. The Pride's guns harried the xebec, and the Balthazar's Trident followed suit as best it could, but the Orrian elementalists continued to hold their ground against both sets of opponents.

"Sykox!" Cobiah yelled at the top of his lungs as the pinnace pulled closer. "Like with the Salma's Grace!" He pointed at the closest xebec and grinned.

On the other s.h.i.+p, the rust-furred engineer's four ears stretched forward, trying to catch Cobiah's words. Comprehension dawned on Sykox's face, and he lifted one hand in agreement, turning to yell something to the crew, his words too m.u.f.fled for Cobiah to make out. Slowly but unrelentingly, the Pride pulled alongside one of the xebecs. With the Balthazar's Trident on one side and the Pride on her other, the xebec was caught in a simultaneous volley of cannon fire-and the xebec's magic allowed her to defend against only one. Hull collapsing, her magic overwhelmed by the spells of the Krytan elementalists, the Orrian s.h.i.+p foundered and broke apart.

Cobiah began to warn Livia: "They'll come at us under the water-"

"No. They won't." The ancient necromancer raised her hands, her fingers arched like claws and her eyes turning black from edge to edge. The language she spoke echoed with murder, and withering green smoke hissed from her palms and her eyes. As the Orrian zombies and wights touched the Balthazar's Trident, Livia's magic took hold of them, shredding their putrid flesh into a thick, reddish goo. Cobiah stared at the necromancer in awe and horror, and took a quiet step away.

The second xebec came around, shooting bolts of magical fire at the Balthazar's Trident. One caught her side, setting the hull alight and causing the crew to respond with an immediate brigade of buckets and water spells. Before the scarlet-sailed vessel could fire again, the Pride dodged between them, firing a broadside to get the xebec's attention away from the slower, wallowing galleon.

Just then, there was a cras.h.i.+ng thump, and the Balthazar's Trident bucked in the water. Cobiah grasped the gunwale and looked over the side of the s.h.i.+p. The water below them was whitecapped and churning, but through the waves, he caught a glimpse of the Maw rising beneath them. There was a second jolt, and the s.h.i.+p's keel creaked dangerously. "It's trying to break the s.h.i.+p apart!" he yelled to Edair.

Amid the shouts and panic of their crew, Cobiah noted a third s.h.i.+p approaching. For a moment he thought it was one of the Lion's Arch fleet, but something about the vessel bothered him. Taking a second look, he realized the s.h.i.+p was Yomm's, the brigantine the merchant had purchased to qualify for a spot on the Captain's Council. "I can't believe it!" Cobiah exclaimed. "That cowardly old coot used the asura gates to get to his s.h.i.+p in Rata Sum-and then sailed all the way back alone? Has he gone completely mad?"

The asuran brig was no war vessel. Cobiah doubted she had enough guns to spearfish along the coast. Despite her blue-glowing, enchanted masts and her alchemically reinforced hull, the st.u.r.dy little caravel was a cargo s.h.i.+p, with an expanded hold and a study hall. "Yomm could have at least brought a few more s.h.i.+ps. Or a bunch of asuran elementalists," groused the commodore, trying to catch a glimpse of the asura on the Nadir s.h.i.+ll's deck. "I can't imagine what a little dinghy like that is going to do against Dead s.h.i.+ps-or the Maw." He saw only one robed figure on the deck; the rest were obviously frightened sailors, scurrying about the s.h.i.+p as they prepared to enter the battle zone.

"My lord prince." One of the sailors approached them. "Bad news. The explosion below reached our ammunition stores. Elementalist Doralyn was forced to flood the area with water spells to be sure it didn't catch fire and destroy the s.h.i.+p. We saved most of the munitions, but Doralyn . . . well, sir, she gave her life for the Trident."

"Bad news, indeed." Edair frowned. "And the gunpowder?"

The sailor shook his head. "Not in good order, sir. Between the wind stoppering our cannons, the explosion in our stern, and the flooding of the deck, it's all we can do to load the carronades."

"d.a.m.n it." The prince stared sullenly toward the second xebec. "We've got one more of those G.o.ds-cursed vessels left, not to mention the monster below. By Balthazar's hounds, what are we going to do?"

Looks like you're in trouble again, bookah. The whisper came out of thin air, nearly making Cobiah jump out of his skin. It was high-pitched, snarky . . . and wholly familiar. I have no idea how you managed to get along without me.

Cobiah blinked. "Macha?"

Yomm snuck through the asura gate to Rata Sum, the voice said blithely. You should have seen him begging the Arcane Council for a.s.sistance! But his request was rejected. None of the colleges were willing to send help. Who knew they'd be so mad over a little counter-appropriation almost twenty years ago? It's not like they didn't make their money back when they double-charged us to build gates in Lion's Arch.

"Macha, what are you doing here?"

In the last few years, I've spent a lot of time considering the Eternal Alchemy, and I've come to the conclusion that my formula of diverse interaction was flawed. I redid the calculations and found my initial error.

"What?"

An audible sigh. I said, I came to make things right.

The Nadir s.h.i.+ll pushed its way past the others, cresting the whitecapped waves. As it cut in front of the Trident, Cobiah saw four more phantom s.h.i.+ps materialize around it. Scarlet spread through the water, and he smelled the overwhelming reek of blood. Apparently the Maw smelled it, too, because the monster broke off its attack on the Balthazar's Trident and gave chase. Macha's illusionary s.h.i.+ps began to limp and wobble in the water like injured birds pretending to have broken a wing. The Maw eagerly focused its attention on them, teeth snapping through hulls that didn't exist, tail las.h.i.+ng the water as it was drawn away.

That left the Pride and the Balthazar's Trident to deal with the second xebec.

"I've got an idea." Cobiah brightened. "Helmsman, sail to the west-back where you picked me up. The Pride will follow us." He signaled toward the Pride, and Sykox waved back. Cobiah gestured for them to unfurl the sails. "Put ours down, too."

"They're burned," Livia protested smoothly. "They'll do us no good."

"Put them down! All of them! Even the ones that aren't catching wind. We need to block their line of sight."

"We have no guns to the rear," Edair reminded him. "We won't be able to fire at the Orrians when they give chase."

"We won't need our guns. Just unfurl the sails and head west-and keep them on the Trident's stern!"

Together, the Pride and the Balthazar's Trident sailed side by side, sails wide and grasping at the ocean wind as the Orrian s.h.i.+p followed them. The xebec continued to fire, and the remaining elementalists on the Krytan galleon did everything they could to turn the blasts aside. Twice, Cobiah thought they would be blown apart by the Orrian attacks, only to see one of the four Krytan guardians lunge forward, s.h.i.+elding the rear of the s.h.i.+p with a protective blue hemisphere of magic. When the Orrian spells impacted upon their magical protection, the guardian's enchanted s.h.i.+eld crumpled, and the protector fell, their life force expended to prevent the blast from reaching the s.h.i.+p-giving their lives to save their fellows.

Cobiah signaled to Sykox. Using charr hand signals designed to coordinate a silent attack, he initiated a countdown. They were almost there . . . almost . . .

"Now! Hard to port!" Yelling, he followed the command with, "Sykox! Hard to starboard!" The charr aboard the Pride were ready, and both crews pulled their rudders hard and twisted their sails to draw them away. The two s.h.i.+ps parted like a leaf cut in two by the keen blade of a sword. Their unfurled sails had hidden the sea ahead from their pursuer, keeping the Orrians from recognizing the territory into which they sailed. And as the two s.h.i.+ps broke to the sides, they slowed, allowing the Orrian s.h.i.+p to rush between them-and onto a ma.s.sive, rocky outcropping that jutted up above the waves.

The xebec slammed into the promontory, wood shrieking as moss-covered stone pierced through her fire s.h.i.+eld and into the hull itself. The entire s.h.i.+p crashed upward, masts giving way with a terrible cracking sound. They fell forward, snapping the rigging and causing the scarlet sails to founder and unfurl across her deck. The undead crew, caught off guard, flew forward, cras.h.i.+ng into her forecastle and tumbling across the s.h.i.+p's deck. And as her spellcasters lost their concentration, the xebec's magical protections failed.

"Fire!" Cobiah pounded his fist on the railing. "Now, now, now!"

Cannons fired from both s.h.i.+ps, taking advantage of the xebec's crumpling prow and her lack of magical defenses. Free of the winds that had been enchanted to shroud the portholes and lower decks, the Balthazar's Trident's ma.s.sive cannons could fire at last. By the time the smoke cleared, there was nothing left on the rock except a keel, weathered shards of wood, and a wide sc.r.a.p of singed red sail.

Edair stood in the center of the deck, commanding the Seraph response to the damage that had been done to his s.h.i.+p. The Krytans obeyed his commands earnestly, doing their best to repair the injuries done to the ma.s.sive s.h.i.+p's hull and sails. "Commodore," the prince called to him. "Looks like the Nomad's full foundered. We should sail by and offer aid while we can-that asuran friend seems to have lost the beast. It could resurface anywhere."

Fully aware that the Maw was still out there, Cobiah nodded. The monstrous creature would see a still s.h.i.+p as a target, and it would take little effort for it to destroy a craft that couldn't move. Across the rippling plain of the bay, Cobiah could see limping Krytan vessels taking aboard rafts of sailors from crushed s.h.i.+ps of Lion's Arch and a flurry of small s.h.i.+ps taking on a black-sailed clipper that was trying to take advantage of a Krytan s.h.i.+p on fire. The Pride was headed to meet with the Nadir s.h.i.+ll, pulling alongside the asuran craft to exchange greetings.

Cobiah's breath came in short gasps, his lungs laboring. The damage he'd taken aboard the Indomitable was significant, but he ignored it. The leviathan was still out there, and at any moment, it could strike. He scanned the sea, trying to catch a glimpse of the creature's fin or wake, but the waves were so choppy, the number of wrecked and ruined s.h.i.+ps so great, that Cobiah could not find any sign of the ma.s.sive beast.

Battered and weary, the Balthazar's Trident pulled alongside the Nomad II, its ma.s.sive bulk making the clipper's small body look like a delicate koi resting against the bulk of a fat sunfish. "Isaye!" Cobiah called to her.

"Cobiah! Thank the G.o.ddess Lyssa, you're safe. We thought you'd gone down with the Indomitable!" she shouted back from the Nomad II. "Is it over? Is Dane . . .?"

"Your son's fine. The Maw-it's still out there. We need to get your crew aboard the Trident. Without sails to move you, your vessel's a sitting duck." He heard his own voice shaking and struggled to regain his composure. Sailors on the Seraph vessel hurried to extend planks between the s.h.i.+ps so the sailors on the Nomad II could evacuate. "It's all right. Edair's made a promise; we need to work together. Hurry." He reached to take her hand, helping her across the wooden board.

"And you trust him?" she asked skeptically. Still, she couldn't hide the relief in her eyes as she took his hand. As the rest of the Nomad II's crew came aboard, Isaye made her way across the plank to Cobiah's side.

"No. But when we have a choice"-he pulled her toward him-"I'll let you know."

"What is Sykox doing?" Isaye asked as she stepped across to the Trident. Leaning against Cobiah, she raised one hand to s.h.i.+eld her eyes and squinted out to sea. "Is that Yomm's s.h.i.+p? Why are the charr going aboard?" Nearby, Rahli helped Tenzin across one of the walkways; he leaned heavily on the bosun. Confused, Cobiah turned to follow Isaye's gaze, spying the Pride and the Nadir s.h.i.+ll floating side by side. Several of the charr were leaping onto the asuran s.h.i.+p, their weapons at the ready, though there were no undead anywhere that Cobiah could see. Before he could venture an opinion, the Balthazar's Trident's bell began to ring. One of the crew nearby shouted, "I see the beast! To starboard, ahoy!"

Indeed, the Maw was rising once more, tearing one of the patchwork s.h.i.+ps of Lion's Arch between its teeth as the monster lifted its ma.s.sive bulk above the waves. Cobiah heard sailors screaming and wood rending, and saw the vessel's mangled deck shatter in the monster's mouth. The leviathan slammed down into the water, scattering dead bodies and ruined canvas in its wake. Huge waves rolled in all directions from the impact, swelling so high that they knocked the Nomad II violently against the Balthazar's Trident as if she'd been buffeted by a giant's fist. Cobiah heard boards smash and crack as their hulls crashed against one another.

"Your Highness!" a sailor called out from the far end of the s.h.i.+p. "We're stuck!"

"Stuck?"

"The boards, sir!"

Pulling Isaye away from the edge of the s.h.i.+p, Cobiah looked past the railing. Indeed, jagged boards in the Nomad II's hull had impaled the Balthazar's Trident, twisting their boards together where the clipper's broken ones jutted out at an angle from the s.h.i.+p. "Get the boat hooks!" commanded Prince Edair. "Tear them apart. We'll fix the damage after . . ."

Even as he yelled, the Maw rose again, this time on the far side of the Nomad II. Its teeth grazed the hull of the clipper, ripping through boards, tearing apart her lifeboats, and catching in her rigging. The blow hadn't been dead-on but rather askew, and the Maw continued on past the two s.h.i.+ps, expelling water in a wide arc where it crashed back into the sea.

The galleon and the clipper rolled in the waves, pushed gently by the wind and the tossing of the creature's wake. "We've got to get away from the Nomad. We have to keep moving," Cobiah called to the prince. "As long as we're moving, it's harder for the Maw to catch us."

A nearby sailor shook his head. "Those boards are caught together too well for us to lever them apart without proper tools, sir. We're trapped."

"We'll see about that," said Grymm Svaard, grasping a long boat hook in either hand. As he wedged them down between the two vessels, Cobiah heard the sound of small-arms fire. He looked back over his shoulder and saw the faint smoke of pistols rising from the deck of the Nadir s.h.i.+ll.

The Pride was pulling away from the asuran vessel, her engines chugging full bore. But Cobiah could see charr on the Nadir s.h.i.+ll, and he heard Fa.s.sur cursing even this far away across the waves. "What's going on?"

"Coby!" Sykox roared from the deck of the Nadir s.h.i.+ll. "Coby! That skritt-fink of an asura! She stole our d.a.m.n s.h.i.+p!"

"Wait-what?" He bolted toward the railing but was forced to stop as the wound in his side flared up agonizingly. "What did you say?" Cobiah yelled back, still holding Isaye close.

"Macha!" The charr pointed desperately after the Pride. "She made us think you were aboard the s.h.i.+ll. It was one of her crazy, confusing illusions-we came across because you ordered it, but then you vanished. By the time we realized it was a trick, the lines had been cut, and her engine'd already gotten them out of leaping range!" Asuran sailors raced about on the little caravel, terrified by the furious charr warband trapped in their midst. Fa.s.sur swatted at one, knocking the little fellow into the s.h.i.+p's hold with a squeak of terror.

"Macha's here?" Isaye's hazel eyes flew wide. "What is she doing?"

Cobiah glowered with barely contained rage. "Apparently, she's stealing the Pride."

Grymm Svaard stood with one foot on the deck of the Balthazar's Trident and the other foot on the deck of the Nomad II, shoving two long boat hooks down between their hulls. Crew from both s.h.i.+ps lined the railing, with boat hooks, halberds, and other poles, trying to lever the two s.h.i.+ps away from one another. The boards groaned and creaked but held firm, tangled together. The norn's muscles bulged, and he shouted encouragement to the sailors, each hand gripping a boat hook scissored between the hulls. The boards cracked slowly apart under the push of his mighty strength.

"She's taking on water," Edair noted, lending his strength to the task. "The Nomad's sinking." The prince labored side by side with his sailors, ignoring the fact that his golden sleeves were torn and his elegant silk s.h.i.+rt was stained with blood and salt water.