Savage Messiah

CHAPTER LXXI

From where he stood in the bow of his black ship, Wulfgar looked out over the moonlit sea. His fleet was making good time. The six other Black Ships traveled abreast in a broad line. The ebony vessels and their cargo of Earthshakers and demonslavers flew quickly and silently above the waves.

Miraculous, Wulfgar thought. They had traveled from the Citadel to the coast of Eutracia in only five days. The wizards of the Redoubt would rue the day that they created these mighty ships-he would make sure of that.

Suddenly Wulfgar stiffened. For the briefest moment he thought he sensed something, but then it was gone. Relaxing again, he returned to his previous thoughts. Suddenly the feeling returned. This time the sensation was unmistakable.

"What is it, my lord?" Captain Merriwhether asked. His eerie green eyes glowed brightly from within his dark skull. "Is something amiss?"

Wulfgar quickly raised his good hand, demanding silence.

"There is endowed blood out there," Wulfgar said after a time. "It lies to the west, not far off the coast. You will probably not be able to sense it, but I can. It is blood of a very high order. Its quality is slightly higher than my own, but not altogether perfect. That leads me to only one conclusion. It must belong to the Jin'Saiou. But the Jin'Sai is not traveling with her.

"I find that curious," he added with a smile. "After our first encounter, I would have thought him eager to meet me again. And someone is cloaking Shailiha's blood-either Wigg or Faegan, no doubt. They think that they can hide it from me, but they can't. The enemy fleet must be out there. They're coming fast."

He turned to look at Merriwhether. "Signal the other Black Ships," he ordered, "and alert them to the situation. For now, I want them to maintain this formation. Unless I miss my guess, the enemy will try to surround us. When I give the order, I want the other Black Ships to follow our actions to the letter. It is not my intent to crush the enemy fleet. Our primary goal remains to break through their lines and reach the coast intact. But if we can send a few of them to the bottom, so be it."

"Yes, my lord," Merriwhether answered. "But there is something that I don't understand. If you were unable to detect Shailiha's blood at the Citadel, how is it that you can sense it now-especially if it is cloaked as it was before?"

Wulfgar smiled. "Because I also sense lesser endowed blood out there," he answered. "The wizards are trying to cloak all of it at the same time, and it is taxing their meager gifts. That means that there are also Acolytes of the Redoubt aboard at least some of the enemy vessels. There are, without question, hosts of Minion warriors with them as well. I expected as much. They are throwing everything at us that they dare, while also keeping a suitable force in reserve at the palace. Even so, that will not be enough."

Wulfgar gave Merriwhether a hard glare. "Now stop questioning me and go and carry out your orders."

With a slight bow, the captain hurried away.

Wulfgar turned back to look westward. He would land his troops and Earthshakers on Eutracian soil this night, no matter the cost. And then he could begin the all-important journey to the Tolenkas, just as the Heretics had ordered him to do. As the northern half of her fleet sailed up the coast, Tyranny searched the sea with her spyglass. She could see nothing but empty ocean.

She stood in the stern, next to the ship's wheel. Scars manned the wheel and Shailiha stood by his side. Duvessa had gone off to assemble her female warriors, and Tyranny had ordered Adrian into the crow's nest to use her heightened senses to search for the Enseterat's fleet. The assembled Minion warriors aboard the Reprise were spoiling for a fight. K'jarr stood before them, ready to follow Tyranny's orders at a moment's notice.

Collapsing her spyglass, the privateer took a deep breath. The thirty-one vessels to her south were long gone by now, and they would soon be altering course to help intercept Wulfgar's Black Ships. At this point, she could only hope that she had done the right thing in dividing her fleet.

She was about to speak to the princess when another peal came from the warning bell in the crow's nest.

"I see them!" Adrian called down.

"Where away?" Tyranny shouted back.

Adrian pointed an arm out over the waves. "North by northeast and closing fast!" she answered. "Less than half a league away!"

Tyranny turned and raised her glass. At first she saw nothing. She twisted the cylinders to bring the image into better focus. Suddenly, there they were.

Seven huge moonlit forms flew eerily just above sea, closing in on her position with a speed that she couldn't match. Even at this distance their size was spectacular. She was glad to see that they were sailing in an arrowhead formation. They would be easier to surround, she thought. Perhaps her plan to stop Wulfgar here and now might work after all.

"Steer north by northeast!" she ordered Scars. As the giant spun the wheel, Tyranny called for K'jarr. He was by her side in a flash.

"Send thirty of your fastest messengers to each of our other vessels," she ordered him. "When they see Reprise turn due east, they are to do the same. Once our line has formed east to west we will turn due south, to trap the Black Ships against the other half of our fleet. Then the circle will close."

Worry crowded her face. "Go now. We have no time to lose!"

As K'jarr ran off to follow his orders, Tyranny stabbed another cigarillo between her lips and lit it. She raised the spyglass to her eye once more. This time the Black Ships seemed much larger, and she could almost make out their skeletal captains in their bows. Their course remained unchanged.

"Yes, that's right," she whispered, as she looked though the glass. "Keep on coming, you dark bastards. Soon you'll all know the sharp, unmistakable kiss of Minion dreggans." Unlike Tyranny, the Enseterat had no need of a spyglass. Enhancing his vision with the craft, he could easily see both the northern and southern lines of the enemy fleet as they advanced on his position. Soon they would close their circle and be upon him. Perfect, he thought.

"Your orders, my lord?" Merriwhether asked.

Smiling, Wulfgar shook his head. "The other captains of the Black Ships have been commanded to do exactly as we do, isn't that right?" he asked.

Merriwhether nodded.

"Then I have no additional orders," Wulfgar said softly. "Watch and learn."

The two lines of Tyranny's fleet started to close. Hundreds of Minion warriors launched themselves into the air from the enemy decks.

"Their warriors will to try to board us," Wulfgar said calmly. "Make sure the demonslavers are ready to welcome them."

When the first Minions arrived, they were met by rows upon rows of battle-hungry demonslavers banging their weapons against their shields. The rising cacophony was deafening.

Wulfgar turned to Merriwhether and nodded. Then, slowly-almost lazily-the Enseterat and his dark servant raised their arms and began blasting Minion warriors from the nighttime sky. When Tyranny saw the gleaming azure bolts streaking though the darkness, her heart skipped a beat. The nightmare they had feared was quickly coming to pass: Wulfgar wasn't their only enemy to command the craft. His skeletal captains did as well-and that could spell disaster.

Faegan had warned them of this possibility, and yet he had refused to come along, insisting that he stay deep in the Redoubt with Jessamay to continue their research. As Tyranny looked through her glass at the carnage, her blood began to boil.

Damn your eyes, Faegan! she thought. We need you now!

As the Black Ships approached, Minion warriors were blasted from the sky in staggering numbers. For each one who fought his or her way down to the enemy decks, four or five more burst apart in midair. Others were burned so badly that they crashed helplessly into the sea. As Tyranny looked down at the water, she felt her stomach turn. The sea had turned from black to red in the moonlight.

Looking up at the crow's nest, Tyranny was about to shout an order to Sister Adrian but the acolyte acted first. Twin beams shot from Adrian's hands toward the first of the Black Ships. The acolytes aboard Tyranny's other ships followed suit. The night sky turned bright as day.

The privateer and the princess held their breath as literally hundreds of the sisters' bolts screamed across the waves. Surely nothing can stand up to that, Tyranny thought.

But to her horror, as the azure bolts struck the Black Ships they flattened out and fell away, sizzling harmlessly into the sea-almost as if the enemy vessels wore some kind of endowed armor. Over and over again the acolytes tried, but each time it was the same. The Black Ships were so close now that Tyranny and Shailiha could see their skeletal captains without the use of the spyglass.

Tyranny's ring of ships continued to tighten around Wulfgar's small fleet, but even with their huge advantage in numbers, the Minions failed to take control of the enemy decks. The acolytes' use of the craft seemed little more than pinpricks against the onrushing Black Ships.

Her face grim, Tyranny looked over at Shailiha. The princess immediately understood. Both women drew their swords.

Tyranny turned to K'jarr. "Prepare to board the enemy vessels!" she shouted. "Gangplanks and grappling hooks at the ready!"

She looked out across the sea. Even without her glass, she could see the other half of her fleet taking a line on the port sides of Wulfgar's vessels. There was no going back now. She turned to Scars.

"Steer due south-hard to starboard!" she shouted.

With a massive groan, the Reprise came over hard, the vessels following her quickly doing the same. Tyranny saw her southern line of ships come to port and head north. She knew that in mere moments her vise would tighten its grip, and both lines of her fleet would be near enough to try to board the Black Ships.

As Tyranny's fleet closed, she watched with dread as Wulfgar, in the bow of the lead vessel, raised his hands.

The Black Ships rose higher into the air and their speed increased dramatically. The western ends of Tyranny's two rows of ships finally closed ranks, but to no avail: hulls gleaming in the moonlight, the seven incredible vessels literally flew over the mast tops of Tyranny's fleet.

As they soared overhead they blotted out the moonlight. Tyranny and Shailiha could do nothing but stand there and watch the spectacle in awestruck wonder.

Then, standing by the enemy gunwales, Wulfgar and his captains cast azure bolt after azure bolt down upon the westernmost vessels of Tyranny's fleet. The bolts tore though the ships' riggings, masts, decks, and hulls. Decks exploded, crewmen and warriors were launched into the air, and thick, choking smoke started to blanket everything.

The stricken ships immediately burst into flames. Crewmen and Minions jumped overboard to quench the flames that burned them. At least a third of Tyranny's fleet was ablaze. The privateer watched, aghast, as ship after ship disappeared beneath the waves. Determined Minions continued to hurl themselves against the Black Ships. But between the demonslavers and the azure bolts, the warriors died quickly.

Tyranny looked frantically down the deck of her flagship. The Reprise had been hit at least twice-once in the stern and once amidships. Both areas blazed, and much of the ship's rigging was gone. Pandemonium reigned as the warriors and crewmen desperately tried to save the beleaguered ship. Then came a terrible cracking sound.

With a tortured groan, the entire mainmast and all of her accompanying sails crashed to the deck. The mast bounced once and then split in two, crushing crewmen and warriors to death beneath its weight. The crow's nest and the top half of the mast exploded against the gunwale, to lie awkwardly over the side and droop toward the sea. Sister Adrian was nowhere to be seen.

Tyranny raised her spyglass to the sky. In the darkness she could just make out the hulls of the fleeing Black Ships. They were on course in the exact direction Faegan had predicted they would go. They would anchor just offshore in the great bay that lay directly east of the pass through the Tolenkas. From there Wulfgar and his forces would march west.

Tired and beaten, the privateer and the princess looked out over what remained of their smashed fleet. Fire and smoke ruled the waves as still more of their vessels went down. The remaining ships hurried to help those in need. The water was crowded with Minion dead and dying, but there were very few demonslaver corpses to be seen. Tyranny ordered Scars to search for Sister Adrian.

The privateer sheathed her sword. The crew worked to bring the fires aboard her flagship under control, but it would be many days before the Reprise could be made seaworthy again. Tyranny looked back up to the spot in the sky where the Black Ships had disappeared. Some of the surviving warriors were chasing after them, but she knew that they would never be able to catch up.

A third of my fleet is either lost or disabled, she thought, and slammed a fist against the gunwale. Not to mention the crewmen and warriors I've lost. And for what, she wondered. In the end, what had been the point?

Looking west to the coast, Tyranny hung her head.