Heart of Black Ice

CHAPTER 75

The widely dispersed Tanimuran navy was a motley collection of large and small ships, some heavily armored and riding low in the water, others more nimble. Hardened fishermen and veteran traders knew how to combat storms and big fish on the high seas, but they had never battled anything like the Norukai.

More than a hundred serpent ships sailed toward them. Nathan stood at the bow of the Chaser, feeling his pulse race. He found that he quite looked forward to the encounter.

The foremost Norukai ship pressed directly toward the krakener, oars churning the water. “Sweet Sea Mother, here they come!” Bannon said.

Across the defensive line, the fighters prepared for the clash, soldiers, sailors, and archers. There were also gifted men and women, including Oron, Perri, several Sisters of the Light, trained scholars from Cliffwall, and other gifted Tanimura residents who offered their abilities.

Captain Jared grew more serious than Nathan had seen him before. “I didn’t know the Norukai had so many ships!”

Impressed, Nathan smiled. “King Grieve likes to prey upon helpless villages. Today, he will learn we are different.”

Nicci had stayed on land along with Zimmer and Linden, joining the D’Haran troops that patrolled the waterfront. They were ready to fight in the streets if the Norukai broke through the naval blockade and tried to pillage the city. Nathan knew the sorceress could stop them, but he didn’t intend to let any of the serpent ships break through.

As the attackers approached, the scarred warriors crowded the decks, raising swords and axes. Clutching the serpent figurehead, King Grieve thundered out his primal challenge.

Bannon roared back at the top of his lungs, “We will kill you, Grieve! Come and get us, you ugly bastard!”

Looking at him, Lila cocked an eyebrow. “Impressive, boy.”

Nathan directed his sharp focus toward the Norukai king, who was the most hideous of them all. A repulsive blocky woman beside him pumped a fist into the air with a meaty arm.

Nathan felt the dangerous magic build inside him. “Come and meet your fate.”

He had first seen the Norukai after he, Nicci, and Bannon had been shipwrecked near Renda Bay. During the attack on that town, the Norukai had mowed down so many helpless people.…

As if Bannon was recalling that same night, his expression hardened. He held his sword in a death grip, and sweat prickled his forehead. “There’ll be a big fight ahead. I may go into my blood rage and I won’t know what’s happening.” He looked at Lila. “So many of them to kill.”

The pounding of Norukai drums echoed across the harbor, and the shouts of challenge grew louder. Inside his chest, Nathan felt his heart twist with anger, not entirely caused by the lingering shadow of Chief Handler Ivan. He whispered to the dark presence inside him, “You will soon have as much violence as you desire. Make yourself useful.”

The serpent ships came closer and closer. The raiders pulled on their oars in a final charge.

At the Chaser’s bow, Nathan raised his hands, spread his fingers. “It’s about time.” As a crackle of magic infused the air, the breezes picked up, and his cape snapped about like a flag in the wind. On other nearby ships he saw Sisters of the Light standing at the bow, and they all summoned their magic as well.

All along the defensive line, the gifted fighters stirred the water, tugged on the waves, stretched the sea. Froth swirled in front of the Chaser, and Nathan drew upon his gift to fashion new waves like a baker stretching dough. Exhaling with the effort, he pushed his hands down, using the unseen force to create a trough in the water. The blow sent successive ripples, each one building upon the last, and waves began to coalesce into whitecaps that rolled toward the Norukai fleet.

Nathan shoved more power into the water, churning bigger waves and pushing a storm into the sea. His fellow gifted fighters on other ships used similar magic to form waves and unleash surging currents into the normally placid harbor. As the enemy fleet advanced, high waves rocked the vessels from side to side like flotsam in a squall, throwing several Norukai overboard. One man slipped down into the sweeping oars, which battered him under the water.

Nathan saw Oron aboard Captain Straker’s ship, slashing his fists sideways to whip up towering waves, which capsized a serpent vessel. Seawater sloshed over the deck and swept away a dozen angry raiders.

Nathan resonated his waves with Oron’s, which built them to twice the force. Hammer-walls of water crashed the Norukai ships together like toys, breaking open hulls and snapping masts.

But the raiders kept coming. King Grieve demanded more speed from his crew, and they pulled relentlessly on the oars. From the prow of each Norukai vessel, a carved serpent stared with jaws wide, ready to ram.

Nathan pushed a wave against one of the flanking serpent ships, raised it high, then instantly withdrew the water so that it plummeted back down and splintered in the sea. Waves threw two raider ships against each other, shattering both like eggs.

Dozens more plowed through the wreckage of their own ships. The Sisters of the Light worked together to raise a concerted shield of water that doused more Norukai ships and pushed several vessels back, but the raiders only rowed harder.

The Chaser’s crew held on for dear life in the backwash of the waves. Bannon stabilized himself against the rail, while Lila planted her feet and kept her balance, glaring murder at the oncoming attackers.

King Grieve somehow managed to keep his rowers pushing the lead ship forward. With surprising speed, his vessel plowed toward the krakener. Even with half of its oars snapped, the king’s flagship came forward like a snarling beast. Nathan tried to slam it with a wave, but the enemy ship kept coming.

Beside Grieve at the bow of the vessel, the ugly Norukai woman waved a sword of her own. The king raised his war axe.

Nathan called wind to try to drive away the oncoming ship, but the flagship crashed ahead in a suicidal push. He shoved his wall of air with such force that he cracked the mainmast, but the enemy vessel could not be stopped. The ship rammed the krakener with an impact like a thunderclap that shuddered through the hull and deck. As it slammed into them, the serpent figurehead shattered into pieces. Boards shivered and cracked.

Bannon was flung down the deck as the Chaser tilted, and Lila snatched his shirt to keep him from falling.

But Nathan had been concentrating on his gift, shaping the wind and moving the waves. He could not catch himself fast enough and lost his footing. Thrown off balance, he tumbled into the rail, tried to grab it, but slipped. He fell overboard and into the churning water filled with broken wood and bleeding bodies.