Dancing On Ice

Into The Fray

"Forgot Kazimir could do stuff like that."

Cole just stood there, mouth hanging open as his ship sailed at the edge of a waterfall in the middle of the ocean. Miles below, down in the darkness, the sea bed must have been visible by now and gods knew what the fish were thinking as their world tore in two before them.

Aeralie stopped beside Cole, peering over the edge and he gaped at her.

"He can tear the sea in two?" he muttered.

"Well, it's not something he does often," Aeralie said, "He did it once when he was six and decided it wasn't a good idea to repeat the move."

Cole just stared at her. "These are the powers of gods."

"No, these are just the powers of those favoured by the sea. Which we're going to fall into, by the way."

Cole's eyes snapped away from her to the grappling canons. She was right; they'd reach the end of their chains any minute now and the king's ship was still drawing away from them. He'd pull them over the edge.

"Lock the canons!" he shouted as he ran for the wheel.

His men heaved the levers across the tops of the cannons and there was a grinding shriek as the chains ground to a halt. Both ships lurched, knocking people to the ground.

Dago grabbed the edge, glaring before pointing towards the wheel.

"Hard to starboard! Drag them over the edge!" he snarled.

The Santiago lurched again as The King's Command dragged her towards the crack in the sea.

Perry jumped aside as Cole grabbed the wheel and heaved it in the opposite direction, his muscles straining, teeth grinding against the weight of battling against the pull of a ship.

"Hold down the cannons! If we lose them we can't get across!" he snarled as the grappling guns began to lift off the deck.

His men jumped on them, weighing them down and Cole let out a cry as his body began to shake off the effort of trying to keep his ship from toppling over the edge.

"Move! Let me!"

He looked around to see Aeralie reaching for the wheel.

"You can't! It's too heavy!" he snarled.

"For a mortal man. Move!" she snarled and shoved him aside, grabbing the wheel. With one almighty push, the wheel turned and they drew back from the edge of the world. "You have to disrupt the king's powers!" she shouted, looking over to Cole.

"How?"

"I don't know! Distract him! Knock him out! Whatever! You just have to disrupt him long enough for me to control his crew! If you remove his command over the sea, I can fix this! Just hurry!"

"Incoming, Cap!"

Another wave of explosion heralded in another assault of cannon balls as his men hit the deck to avoid the attack.

"Keep her safe!" Cole shouted to Perry as he looked up at the ropes that hung from above. Usually, they'd just swing across to the other ship but they were too far apart to reach. They'd have the swing, let go and pray to whatever god they believed in they had enough force behind them to throw them onto the deck.

"Sire! Stop!"

Cole looked around, confused by the term coming from his own ship and his heart stopped.

Dalton was stood on the chains like they were a tightrope.

"No! No, no, NO!" Cole cried, running to the edge. "Dalton! Stop! You'll fall!"