Tides of Faith: Travail of The Dark Mage Book Two (82 page)

“
Going to flank us,”
commented Scar.

James nodded. “Keep heading for the
big one.”

“
Aye,” replied a nervous
Captain Anyn.

He cocked an eye to the captain.
“Don’t worry, we’ll keep your ship safe.”

The captain returned an unconvinced
look though he nodded.

Summoning more magic to him, James
extended the protective shield along both sides of the ship to ward
off any attacks the sets of three ships may attempt during their
flanking maneuver.

Wham!

Another bright explosion erupted as
beams of light struck the shield. This time the effect was lessened
as the beams were now unable to concentrate their attacks upon a
single spot. Three from the flagship struck the bow section of the
shield while three struck on each side from the
flankers.

“
How are you
doing?”

James glanced to Potbelly. “Piece of
cake.” Then under his breath he mumbled, “If that’s the best they
can do.”

The seas grew choppy as Hikai brought
clouds in from all parts of the sky. The deck rolled upon the
waves.

“
Target the flagship if you
would,” James said.

“
Yes, Master,” replied
Hikai.

James took three of his spell-embedded
slugs into his right hand as lightning struck down upon the enemy
ship. Even from so far a distance, the resulting thunder resonated
within his chest. More than one sailor made exclamations; some in
shock, others in awe, and still others in exuberant
encouragement.

Arcing back his hand to throw, he
overheard Scar say to a sailor, “…this is nothing, you should have
seen him at the walls of Korazan. Of course, then he was by
himself…now, with two apprentices, this should really be
something….”

Turning a deaf ear to the Pit Master,
he concentrated on the three ships moving to flank them on the
right. Once he had the trajectory firmly set in his mind, he threw
the stones and let loose the magic.

Wham!

Beams again struck the shield and did
little more than drain magic that he could readily afford to
lose.

The slugs sailed through the air. He
kept them firmly set in his mind’s eye as they rose to the apex of
their arc. Then, after a final magical burst to send them down to
their respective targets, he let go the magic and they fell as
dormant iron.

Like before, when they struck the
wooden deck of the ship, the latent spells activated.

Men died as magic drained from them to
power the spells that cracked hulls and exploded flames outward to
tear ships asunder.

Sailors cheered and Scar hollered.
“Didn’t I tell ya?”

As the trio sank beneath the waves,
James tried not to think of the loss of life; he did what he did
for his family.

Lightning continued pummeling the
flagship. As he turned his attention to the ships on the left,
there was a lull in the strikes and he caught sight of a barely
seen field of golden luminosity surrounding the
flagship.

“
A shield,” he
mumbled.

“
What?” asked
Miko.

He pointed to the flagship. “They have
a shield.”

“
Will that be a
problem?”

“
I don’t know.” His gaze
lingered upon the shield as he muttered, “Let’s hope
not.”

Sending his mind’s eye to the ship, he
saw that the lightning strikes had had little effect. Not a sail
had been scorched and no men had been harmed. Then another series
of strikes hit and he watched as they were deflected many feet
before they could reach the wooden spars of the ship. At least
Hikai was keeping the priest on board busy while he took care of
the support ships.

Again he took three slugs in his hand,
readied the spells to launch them.

Golden magical beams of heat struck
his shield in rapid succession. Each was easily deflected and he
wondered if these priests with their magical devices were little
more than one-trick ponies. Against the average, non-mage-carrying
ship, they would be devastating. But against someone who knew what
he was doing…little more than a nuisance.

He didn’t have time to think about
that now, he readied his slugs, set in his mind the trajectory to
the other trio of ships, and threw.

As before, they sailed through the
air. The first hit the wooden body of the mast…the spell triggered
and the ship disintegrated in a mass of fire and death. The second
left a hole in the mainsail on its way to the deck; spells
activated, men died and the ship was no more.

The third slug hit one of the smaller
sails at an angle, slid along its length, and fell upon a coil of
rope. Not striking the wooden deck, the latent spells failed to
activate. When the ship did not explode as had the others, James
sent his senses to investigate.

Sailors and men-at-arms stood gathered
around the coil of rope. The ship’s priest knelt before the slug,
hand reaching out, his fingers came close but did not connect to
the bit of iron. One sailor was gesticulating wildly, pointing to
the sail and then to the slug and speaking in an animated fashion
as if to explain how the slug came to be there.

James did not wait for them to figure
it out. He sent his senses toward the slug with the intent to
manually activate the spell. But as they drew near, they grew hazy
until finally breaking down altogether. Pulling back, they regained
their clarity.

He tried a second time with the same
result. For some reason, he could not connect with the slug. The
presence of the priest must in some way inhibit his ability to work
magic. That, coupled with the distance may explain it.

The priest in question pulled out his
magic-tracker, the crystal dove and held it out before the slug. It
rotated away from it and pointed in the direction of where James
stood upon the ship across the water.

“
It’s just a dead slug,”
James mumbled under his breath. “Hardly worth your time.” He hoped
they would dismiss it and in some way cause it to fall to the deck
thereby activating the spells. But such was not to be.

A golden glow enveloped the tracker
dove and the slug. For a few moments, the priest concentrated upon
the slug before the glow vanished. He then spoke to a nearby
sailor, gestured to it and the sailor moved to pick it up. The
priest stopped him, and then produced a cloth. The sailor took it
and used the cloth to pick up the slug. He then proceeded to walk
to the side and tossed it overboard.

By this time the flagship had closed
the gap; sailors on both ships could easily be made out with the
naked eye. Waves of heat rolled over the ship as the priest sent
beams of heat to strike the shield. Another series struck and James
glanced toward the flagship. Lightning rained down upon the ship as
Hikai maintained his barrage.

So dark was the cloud cover above that
it had created a gloom in the world beneath; rain began to fall.
The gathered storms had sparked other strikes of lightning; one
shot for Captain Anyn’s mainmast but was deflected at the last
minute.

Azhan shot James a look of
accomplishment.

“
Good job,” praised his
master.

“
That crazy Hikai is
dropping them all over the place,” Shorty mumbled.

“
That last was not him,”
Azhan said, defending his friend.

“
Then who?”

Azhan shrugged. “Nature? The Gods?
Take your pick.”

Another strike went for the mainmast
but Azhan readily deflected it.

Low on slugs, James readied a trio of
copper coins to act as receptacles for the devastating,
ship-destroying spells. Tapping them on the wooden rail to set the
trigger in place, he gathered magic and threw.

As before, they soared unerringly
toward the ship only this time, they struck a shield at the last
minute and deflected harmlessly into the sea.

“
Damn,” cursed
James.

“
They are learning,”
commenting Miko.

James thought for a moment then turned
to Scar. “Tell the captain to turn and lead them for a while.” As
Scar made to do so, James added, “Not in the direction my family
went.”

“
Goes without saying,” Scar
replied then hurried toward where Captain Anyn watched the battle
with several of his crew.

“
What do you have in mind?”
queried Potbelly.

James ignored the question and
instead, pulled out his mirror. He first focused on the flagship
and found the priest had been joined by a second. Any attempt to
zoom in for a closer look resulted in an increasingly indistinct
picture that quickly deteriorated into nothingness. Pulling back
for a bird’s eye view restored the picture. He then scrolled the
image to the flanking ship.

This time he managed a very close look
before the image grew affected. The priest that had once held a
look of complete confidence now bore a more worried look; many of
the soldiers and crew looked just at worried if not downright
nervous.

“
Not as much protection on
the smaller one,” he said.

“
Take care of it first?”
Miko asked.

James nodded. Closing his eyes, he
sent his senses toward the forward hull of the smaller ship. First,
he tried penetrating the hull with his senses. When he encountered
no resistance, he returned them to the wooden hull below the water
line. Then formulating his assassin spell, he cut out a sizeable
chunk from the hull.

Water gushed in as he cut away a
second section.

Men shouted and scrambled for the
ladder leading to the deck above.

A second piece of hull fell away, and
then a third before he felt a slight interference to his work. He
pulled back and let his senses remain just enough to allow him to
monitor the inflow of water into the enemy ship.

“
It’s listing!” a sailor
shouted. A cheer went up. A moment later another cry sounded that
it was turning about and heading back to the island.

All the while, James continued to see
what the priest would do about the inflow of water. For him, a
simple shield spell modified to prevent water from passion would
have sealed the leak. But such failed to materialize. Instead,
sailors entered the maelstrom of rushing water with planks,
mallets, tar and nails to shore it up. Before they could accomplish
it, his senses were clouded over and obscured by the enemy
spells.

Letting the magic go, he opened his
eyes and saw that the ship was indeed listing badly to one
side.

“
Hikai.”

“
Yes, Master?”

“
Hold off on the lightning
for a moment,” he told his apprentice.

“
Yes, Master.”

Quiet settled over the water as the
last roll of thunder faded away. Sailing toward the northeast, they
led the enemy flagship by less than a hundred yards.

James sent his senses
toward the flagship’s hull in an attempt to do the same to it as he
had to the other, but ran into a magical wall some ten feet from
the ship. He tried forcing his way through to no avail. He probed
for weaknesses first to the right then to the left; up and then
down below the water. The enemy’s shield proved to be quite
extensive.
Could the priest on the
flagship have learned from what happened to the other ship? Or was
he just that much better than the other priest?

He readied a handful of coins with
ship-destroying spells, used magic to send them toward the ship
only to watch each be deflected into the sea.

“
This priest is
good.”

James cocked an eye to Scar and
nodded. “So it would seem.”

An image from a Melville book read
back in high school came to mind and he turned to his apprentices.
“Either of you proficient with commanding animals?” Their blank
expressions said the answer was no. “Don’t worry, neither am I.”
Bringing a whale or other large sea creature up to take out the
ship, while a great idea, was not very practical when it came right
down to it.

He stared at the pursuing ship for a
moment. “It’s going to catch us, isn’t it?”

“
Yes,” replied Miko. “They
have gained continually since we turned and ran.”

“
What we need is a
submarine.”

“
A submarine?”

James nodded. “A ship that sails
beneath the water.”

Scar laughed and Potbelly guffawed,
“Now that would be something.”

Then James got a reflective look as he
turned toward the port side of the ship.

They followed his gaze and saw a
six-man rowboat secured to the deck with rope and
tackle.

Walking to the rowboat, James ran his
hand along the edge as he looked thoughtfully back at the ship
trailing them.

“
What are you
thinking?”

Turning to Miko, he said, “Thinking
about being creative.” Then to Scar, “How about some
fun?”

Grinning, Scar replied, “Anytime
you’re ready.”