Wizard's Blood [Part Two] (74 page)

A shout brought their attention back to the ship and the crewman high in the rigging. Asari was up there as well this morning, and the two were frantically pointing off to starboard and a bit ahead of the ship. Jolan and Shyar looked in the indicated direction, but for the moment at least, were unable to see anything in that direction. The ocean was clear and empty all the way to the horizon.

The crewman said something to Asari, who slid off his perch and grabbed the rigging for a quick descent to the deck. Jolan and Shyar had made their way to where he was climbing down, and he shouted their way before hurrying off to warn the First Officer of the threat.

“
Octi,” he shouted as he neared the deck. “Lots of them.”

Jolan remembered the massive creatures and the warning that they were a serious threat to ships with their playful nature. Normally seen singly or in pairs, Asari was indicating that dozens of the creatures were on an intersecting path. There was little the ship could do but hope to avoid them, since the huge creatures were immune to any of the normal weapons that were carried aboard.

They felt the ship move as it changed direction and tried to head toward the shore along a course that would lessen the chance the creatures would intersect their path. The creatures liked the deeper water, so there was also a chance of protection if they could reach the shallows in time. It was unlikely the
Wave Runner
had been discovered as yet, but the herd would be upon them in less than a half hour if they were unable to move far enough from their path.

The minutes passed slowly, the crewman in the loft pointing the direction he was seeing the creatures. For a time it looked as if they might pass on by on the seaward side, but then one of the creatures surfaced less than five hundred yards off the ships port side. The creature had seen the ship and bleated loudly and enthusiastically as it turned to play with this new toy. The sound carried to the herd, which soon turned away from their current path which would have seen them pass harmlessly by and headed toward the sound of their fellow Octi.

A grim looking Yade approached them as the crewman signaled the change in direction. “This is very bad,” he said. “One or two of them might cause some damage, but they would most likely tire of the game soon enough. The
Wave Runner
is a stout ship, and we’d probably have to put into shore for an inspection and possible repairs, but this number will likely sink us. We have two small boats aboard. You two should be ready to board immediately if things go badly. It’s a bad place to go ashore, but if you follow the mountains north you will eventually come to civilization.”

As he hurried off to talk to the crew, Jolan could see the shapes in the water as they approached. The massive gray-white bodies broke the surface briefly, then slid below the water only to reappear fifty yards closer to the ship. There had to be something they could do. Jolan didn’t know if he could kill one of the creatures, especially at the ranges involved here, but he might be able to scare them. He repeated a trick he’d used to destroy one of the shielded enemy ships some months ago, creating balls of oxygen and hydrogen under the water, and then igniting the mixture. A large blast could be heard, and a fountain of water blasted into the air. It was nowhere as impressive as the blasts he’d created against the ship, but the closest Octi turned suddenly aside in response to the unexpected blast.

Jolan began to repeat the process, but he knew he was too slow. His magic was nowhere near as strong as it had been, and there were far too many of the creatures for him to chase them away. Already more than fifty of the creatures were within a couple of hundred yards of the ship and closing fast.

Shyar had seen what Jolan had done. As Jolan concentrated on his third explosion, the sea suddenly erupted in a series of immense explosions that appeared as if someone were firing an impossibly huge automatic weapon into the sea along the line of the Octi advance. Shyar stood with legs spread, her staff held firmly in both hands, as she focused on the advancing creatures. A second wave of the explosions rocked the surface of the ocean, the spray flying high enough into the air that some of it fell like rain on the deck. If one hadn’t known what was happening, it wouldn’t have seemed that Shyar and the explosions were related. There were no lines of power, or bright flashes of energy that proceeded the explosions. They simply seemed to happen spontaneously. Jolan, however, could sense the tremendous power Shyar was controlling effortlessly. The explosions came so fast they almost sounded like a continuous rumble of very near thunder, but now the Octi were responding. Frightened by the unexplained fury of the ocean around the plaything they had found, the herd turned sharply away toward the deeper waters of the sea. Several screamed as they were caught in an explosion and blasted into shattered gray blobs that sank into the depths leaving purple stains in the water that quickly dissipated as the waves churned and mixed the foaming water.

The attack was over. The fight had lasted only minutes, but it had seemed far longer. The crewman in the loft was waving his hands indicating the creatures were fleeing. The crew cheered wildly and waved at Shyar when they realized her magic had worked. None of them had ever seen such an impressive display of power. Wade returned to them grinning, and thanked them for saving the ship before hurrying off to see to the crew. The ship continued on its current heading until it was well clear of the creatures before resuming its previous heading, adjusted slightly to make up for the offset induced by their attempt to escape.

“
That was pretty impressive,” Jolan said to Shyar a bit in awe. He wasn’t sure he’d ever controlled power in such amounts or so expertly.

She grinned and hefted the staff. “You’ve done as much before, as I recall.”

Before I lost my staff and the amulet Jolan knew she meant but didn’t want to say. The loss still pained him. Even so, Jolan knew she was more powerful than he had ever been. The speed and power of her spelling was nothing short of incredible. He wasn’t sure even Cheurt would be able to stand up against her. Without the amulet, he wouldn’t have a chance.

* * * *

Just shy of a week after the Octi encounter, Jolan and Asari watched as the land off to port slowly disappeared from view. It felt as if they were headed out to sea, where in truth they were passing the great inlet that extended almost a hundred miles inland. There was little point to following the land inland here, since the shores were rocky and steep with incredibly high and inhospitable mountains to cross before reaching the main valley of the Lost Territories. Yade had made a trip around the inlet some years before and had found the area lacking in sites to put ashore, and those they did investigate offered little to the explorers. They did find places to replenish their water, which wasn’t a problem at the moment, but little else. Continuing on their present heading would see the land reappear in a couple of days as they approached the eastern side of the inlet.

The first sight of land came a day and a half later near midday when land was sighted off the port bow. Before long the steep mountains that bordered the wildness could be seen, several of the taller mountains clearly volcanic with smoke lazily snaking its way skyward from the peaks of the forbidding looking mountains. Jolan had been told that the mountains would soon thin out as the central plain of the Lost Territories came into view. The huge central area was said to be almost tropical in its climate and home to thousands of unusual plants and animals. There were also a surprising variety of snakes and other creatures that were extremely poisonous, one of the reasons the area had long held little appeal to the people of the Settled Lands. Almost completely isolated with inhospitable climate and filled with danger, the land had been left wild even in the days before the War of the Mages.

As he’d been told, the land changed, and soon Jolan saw a land with a heavy green cover, which often reached right to the shore. In many places however, sandy beaches beckoned before the thick jungle-like vegetation hid the view of the land beyond. A day later they passed a large muddy river that emptied out into the sea. The heavily silted waters from the slowly flowing river darkened the pristine waters of the ocean for more than a mile out to sea before the ocean diluted the brownish water flowing out from the land.

One option had been to follow the river inland, but since the trip would be against the current the entire way and the cove another day ahead actually placed them much closer to their intended destination, the decision had been made to anchor there. The cove would provide protected anchorage for the ship while they were gone, and should also shorten the distance to be traveled. There was also a huge inland lake that they might be able to cross, which would make the journey significantly easier than fighting their way through heavy jungle most of the way.

The day they passed the unnamed river that flowed out of the Lost Territories, they suddenly lost the Travel Box. Jolan and Shyar had gone to check the daily messages and leave a note of their current position. When Jolan opened the small square to access the box, the square simply seemed to fade away as he tried to lift away the lid. Within seconds there was nothing left at all.

“
Do you think something happened in Cobalo?” Shyar asked.

“
I don’t know. Perhaps we have exceeded the distance at which the thing works.” From the chart that Captain Elms had on the bridge Jolan knew they were currently farther from Cobalo than they had been at anytime during the trip, although only marginally so.

Perhaps the problem reflected Jolan’s reduced abilities. This was really the first time the Travel Box had been used other than to experiment, and they really didn’t know much about it. Perhaps had Jolan still been as strong as before, the box would still be functioning. Maybe it was like the Mage’s Box. In that case, the stronger one was in the power, the larger size box one could create. Jolan had noticed he could no longer build the largest size box he used to make with ease. Perhaps the range of the Travel Box was limited by one’s power in some way. It didn’t matter. It was gone, and so was their link with home. There would be no more messages until they found a portal, or eventually made their way back to Cobalo.

Shyar attempted to contact Tishe using the mental link the two shared, and after a bit was able to establish that all seemed well enough on that end, but that the box had disappeared there as well. No one had discovered the fact until Tishe asked someone to check, so it must have happened recently, probably at the same time Jolan’s portion of the device melted away.

Feeling a bit more isolated than ever before, they finally pulled into shore two days later. The sparkling waters of the small cove made for a delightful place to stop. The crew would have a beautiful private beach, abundant fresh water and, from the looks of the trees, plentiful fresh fruit while they waited for the trio to return from their trip into the wilds.

When they finally reached shore in one of the ship’s dinghies, Jolan couldn’t help but compare the beautiful little cove to a resort he had once visited in the Philippines. The long stretch of unblemished sand set off by scattered tall trees, which in this case looked almost identical to the palm trees he was familiar with from home, promised a fancy resort with fine food and drink. Of course, here there were no buildings, no wide deep swimming pools for guests despite the perfect waters of the ocean. Missing also were the wide trails through the grasses that led one to all the places of interest. Instead, the trees gradually became thicker, until an almost impenetrable wall of tall trees and heavy underbrush greeted them. In a manner reminiscent of the tropics, the beautiful vista was only slightly marred by the heat and humidity, although these Jolan was able to push away with just a touch of magic. Asari and the crew, however, would have to adapt to the change in climate. There would be few cooling sea breezes while they remained here.

In the distance off to the East they could see yet another range of tall mountains that separated the Lost Territories from the western Ale’ald desert. Jolan had been surprised to realize that the border of their enemy was less than a week away, although it was considerably farther to any place that had much in the way of population. It said something about how the land here was viewed that in all the hundreds of years, no one from nearby Ale’ald had felt the area worthy of any serious exploration or colonization.

“
The path is almost due north,” Chief Mate Lyen said as they stood by the edge of the small stream that tumbled down the bank and made its way into the sea. “The waters from this stream come from the great lake, so if we follow it we can’t go too far wrong.”

The crew was busy making repeated trips back to the
Wave Runner
, bringing ashore a wide variety of items that would allow them to set up a comfortable temporary base here on the edge of the ocean. Some of the crew would stay on board at night, but a rotation would be set up for those that preferred the chance of sleeping on land again.

“
Have you been there?” Shyar asked. The Chief Mate seemed very familiar with the area.

“
No, no one in the crew has been to this spot before. A friend of mine made the trek almost ten years ago. I asked him about it before we left Cobalo. He says it isn’t particularly difficult, but the area is alive with critters one needs to be wary of. They lost two men making that trip, both due to poisonous bites. Snakes and spiders in particular.”