Gareth and th Lost Island (23 page)

“Well met, my lord.  It makes my old, dead
heart swell with pride to know that one of the Void Rods I
fashioned is being wielded by a Mintel once again,” the gray haired
man said sincerely.

The warrior’s eyes darted from side to side as he
processed what he had just learned.  They snapped up to meet
Gareth’s suddenly as his old oaths reasserted themselves.  “My
lord, this ‘Izzy’, is she your mate?” he asked.

“Um… no…” Gareth replied, drawing out both
words.

The warrior’s eyes narrowed as he stared into
Gareth’s.  “Do you wish her to be, or have you already wed
someone else?” he inquired.

The unflinching eyes made Gareth look deep inside
himself.  He realized that he had come to love the quirky
engineer, and couldn’t really see a future without her in it.
 “If I can save her, then yes, I want to stand by her side for
the rest of my life,” he admitted.

The warrior nodded once, and took the gauntlet off
of his right hand.  The gray haired man grabbed the warrior by
the shoulder to make him stop for a moment.  “You know what
will happen if you go through with this, don’t you?” he asked in
almost a whisper.

“I swore to protect the Mintels in life and beyond.
 This includes their mates.  I
will
fulfill my
oath, old one,” the warrior said firmly, as he shook off the old
man’s hand.  As he stepped closer to Gareth, purple colored
magic engulfed his outstretched hand.

“What are you doing?” Gareth asked, feeling a
strange affinity for the purple magic, even though he had never
shown a trace of magic in his body before.

“I’m going to give you that which you will need to
save the next Lady Mintel,” the warrior replied.  As he placed
his glowing hand on Gareth’s chest, he reverently intoned, “By my
own free will, I give unto thee my strength and knowledge. May you
use them to protect those whom I no longer can.”  When he was
done speaking, the purple magic flared and engulfed the warrior’s
whole body.  With a bright flash, the warrior disappeared and
the magic forced itself into Gareth’s chest.

The shock and pain drove Gareth to his knees.
 The gray haired man looked at Gareth solemnly.  “You
have been given a great gift, young Lord Mintel.  One that
very few of our people have ever been granted.  Use it well,
and go kick those feces extruding orifices straight to the lowest
level of the hells for me, my lord!” he instructed.

As Gareth’s vision started to blur again, he quickly
called out, “Wait!  What are we?” he begged, somehow knowing
these were his people.

“Those who wield a Void Rod, of course” the gray
haired man chuckled, as he faded from view along with the other
figures surrounding Gareth.  As soon as they were gone, Gareth
had a brief falling sensation before his consciousness returned to
the physical world.

As the Scaled One shook Izzy again to make sure that
those on the Leyship got his message, Gareth used the knowledge the
warrior had forced into him, and let the magic he never knew he had
mingle with that of the rod.  Using the extra power gained
from the Void Rod, Gareth was able to jump over the railing of the
Glorious Dawn and down onto the pirate ship far below them.
 After crossing a distance no man should be able to, he
crashed into the deck, going down onto one knee and his free hand.
 Gareth looked down at the cracked timber below him and then
up at the pirates, letting his hate for them show.  For their
part, the pirates nearest him took an involuntary step backwards
when they saw his purple eyes were quite literally glowing with
barely contained energy.

Gareth quickly stood up, while spinning the end of
his staff up, across his body, and then over his head.  He
continued the spin using his left hand to add momentum to the
bottom of the staff.  The pirate nearest to Gareth on his left
side died instantly as the end of the staff slammed into his skull,
sending splinters of bone into his brain.

Stepping back with his right foot, Gareth shifted
his weight, and slid the staff through the air perpendicular with
the deck to strike the pirate behind him and to his right.
 The base of the staff crushed the pirate’s trachea, and
knocked him onto his back.  The pirate suffocated as he clawed
at his throat in a vain attempt to get air.

Elizabeth rubbed her good eye with the back of her
left hand in an effort to make sure what she had just seen was
real. When the image of the Professor still standing on the deck of
the pirate ship remained, she spun around and looked for one of the
trophies from their last fight with pirates.  She picked up
the harpoon gun, and tied off the end of the rope around the base
of their single cannon.  Sighting along the barrel, she
squeezed the trigger of the harpoon gun. The black powder charge
ignited and launched the barbed projectile into the wall of the
enemy’s wheel house.  

After dropping the empty gun, Elizabeth threw her
mechanical arm over the rope. She grabbed her artificial wrist with
her flesh and bone hand.  With the rope sliding in the crook
of her mechanical elbow, Elizabeth ran along the deck, and then
leaped over the railing.  She slid down the rope to the pirate
ship below them. Drawing her sword as she hit the deck, Elizabeth
rolled with the momentum, and thrust her weapon through a pirate
who had stood gawking at her audacity. She pivoted while she stood
up, slicing her sword through the pirate’s torso on its way up and
out.  For a brief instant, the pirate was able to look down
and see his own heart before he died.

Gareth brought his staff down onto the arm of a
pirate in front of him like he was chopping firewood.  The
pirate shrieked as his forearm shattered.  Gareth spun around
in a complete circle, and slammed the opposite end of the staff
into the man’s other shoulder.  The impact of the magical
weapon drove the shoulder through its socket into the man’s lung.
Gareth stepped over the man he had crippled on his way to his
primary target, the Scaled One who had threatened Izzy.  

Elizabeth stepped to her left to avoid a slash from
a garishly dressed pirate who obviously thought of himself as
something of a swordsman. Unfortunately for her, he seemed to be
correct and was in fact, just slightly better than her. Using his
advantage, the pirate pressed hard, forcing Elizabeth to give
ground. The other pirates gave them room as they performed their
deadly dance with the beat being kept by the clang of steel against
steel. The pirate continued to drive Elizabeth until she was forced
to stand back to back with Gareth.

“Captain,” Gareth greeted her as their backs
touched.

“Professor,” Elizabeth replied politely. A small
part of her was glad that if she were to die on the deck of this
pirate ship, at least she would die trying to protect her little
sister. She shook off those negative thoughts, and decided to
gamble her life on a stunt that would have her old fencing
instructor swearing off teaching and opening a brewery instead.
Elizabeth lowered her sword to her side in preparation for a
vicious upward stroke.

The pirate took the bait when he saw she had left
herself open for an overhand strike with no chance of getting her
sword up in time to block it. The evil sneer of triumph on the
swordsman’s face melted away as his killing blow never landed. As
he swung down, his sword was firmly caught in in a three fingered
mechanical claw at the end of his opponents out stretched
prosthetic arm. Eyes widening in fear, the pirate watched as
Elizabeth swung her sword up and through his armpit. A bit of cloth
at the pirate’s shoulder caught on Elizabeth’s blade causing the
man’s severed sword arm to fly into the air.

Sensing motion above him, Gareth flicked his eyes
upwards and then back at a pirate wearing an antiquated three
corner hat who was keeping just out of range of the deadly black
staff. Gareth shifted his hands on the staff, as he waited for
gravity to do its job. Swinging from the hips, Gareth hit the
falling limb right as it was even with him. The bloody arm flew
through the air, and slammed into the pirate in front of Gareth
with enough force to stagger him.

The pirate looked down at what was suddenly in his
arms, and he let out a high pitched scream of horror. He continued
to stumble backwards as he threw the arm away from him in disgust.
The deck railing was suddenly upon him, and his backwards momentum,
combined with the force of his throw, caused the pirate to fall
over the rail backwards. An updraft caught the pirate’s hat as he
fell, and brought it in for a soft landing on the deck.

The Scaled One looked on in horror as one by one,
his crew was killed by these demons straight out of his worst
nightmares. The woman’s scarred face and mechanical arm was proof
that she didn’t die like most decent people would in her shoes. As
for the man, the Scaled Ones had legends from a time before the
Second Great Apocalypse. Legends passed on from generation to
generation that spoke of terrible warriors with purple glowing
eyes. Warriors who were able to kill entire raiding parties
singlehandedly. Watching this demon tear through his men brought
those legends to life in a way the Scaled One had never wished to
experience. Realizing that his enemies hadn’t attacked until after
he threatened the red haired human, the Scaled One grabbed both of
her arms and pulled her in front of him to use as a shield.

Izzy caught the Scaled One of guard by sighing in
relief. He had no idea she had been waiting for the lizard-man to
hold her tight against himself. When she felt her back touch his
chest, she went limp and buckled her knees. Not wanting to let go
of his human shield, the Scaled One was forced to lean over
slightly to keep his balance while holding onto her. With all of
her strength, Izzy straightened her legs, and stood up in an
explosive motion. The pain to the top of her head was nothing
compared to the pain the Scaled One felt as she drove her head up
into his jaw.

The stunned pirate captain let go of Izzy’s arms,
and staggered a step to the side. Izzy followed up her jaw breaking
strike by kicking backwards like a mule through the Scaled One’s
left knee. With a sickening snap, his leg bent in a direction it
was never designed to go in. The Scaled One fell to the deck on his
good knee, while his shattered leg stuck out to the side. Izzy
brought her foot back, and then spun on that foot as fast as she
could. She used that speed to slam the heel of her other foot into
the pirate captain’s temple, knocking him out cold.

Izzy looked upon her handiwork, and nodded in
satisfaction. She looked up, and met Gareth’s cold, purple glowing
eyes. As she stared into his eyes, they quit glowing, and regained
some of the compassion she was used to seeing there. Sensing that
the threat was over, his strange staff reverted back to its
original form as a Void Rod.

Elizabeth stepped in between Izzy and Gareth, and
motioned for her to turn around. With a quick flick of her blade,
Elizabeth cut the ropes binding her sister. When Izzy turned back
around, she couldn’t decide who she wanted to hug first, her sister
or Gareth. The decision was made for her after Gareth looked around
at the death and destruction he had wrought. Without a word, he ran
to the railing, and emptied his stomach over the side of the
ship.

Standing at the bow of the Glorious Dawn, Gareth
tried to make sense of the multitude of emotions swirling around in
his soul. Relief that Izzy was safe warred with disgust at how easy
he had found it to kill the pirates. He was so focused inwards that
he flinched when he felt a hand put on his shoulder.

“I’ve been looking for you all over the ship,” Izzy
said softly. I should have known you would be here. Perhaps we
should hang a plaque that reads ‘Gareth’s Brooding Spot’,” she
teased.

Refusing to turn and look at her, Gareth continued to
stare at the horizon, not really seeing it. “Looking for me? How
can you even stand to be near me after you saw what I did to those
pirates?” he asked. Knowing that actions spoke louder than words,
Izzy smacked the back of Gareth’s head with the palm of her hand.
“Owe! What was that for?!” he demanded as he spun around to glare
at Izzy. His angry expression softened when he saw Izzy smiling at
him.

“Now that I have your
undivided
attention,
Professor, I’ll answer your question with one of my own. Why
wouldn’t I want to spend time with a man who was willing to jump
overboard onto a ship full of pirates to save my life?” Izzy
countered. Gareth started to turn away again, but she stopped him
by grabbing his arm. “Let me ask you something, Gareth. If you had
to do it over again, would you? When we find Teesh, and there are
more of those bastards between us and her, will you let them hurt
her, or will you destroy them like you did earlier? Keep in mind,
these assholes are only going to give you those two options,” she
inquired.

Gareth fought down the urge to grab the Void Rod at
the thought of Teesh being hurt. His voice was a whisper when he
responded to Izzy’s question. “I’d kill every damn one of them with
my bare hands if it meant keeping you two safe. That’s what is
bothering me so much. I feel horrible about what I did, but I would
do it again, and even more without hesitation,” he admitted.

Izzy stepped close to Gareth, and held his hand,
intertwining their fingers. “And that Professor, is one of the many
reasons why I fancy you,” she whispered in his ear. “That and your
adorable rear end. I could watch you walk for hours,” she added
playfully.

Izzy laughed as Gareth tried to look over his
shoulder at his own butt. Her heart soared when he faced her again,
and there was a hint of a smile on his lips. With an exaggerated
motion, Gareth leaned back, and ogled her derriere. The sight of
her curves underneath her work pants cheered him up immensely.
“Feelings mutual, I assure you,” he told her in a sultry voice. He
straightened up, and leaned in to kiss Izzy.