Riven Isles

35 | Legend Led

"Hold fire!" a nasally voice cries from the trees. A white handkerchief waves from the bush, quickly greying under the rain of ash. A barrel-chested man steps out, primly dressed in worn, decorated red and gold naval attire that I do not recognize. It is not of Praedor, nor is his bronze skin. His accent further betrays his foreign hailing. "You are vastly outnumbered, please. Hold your fire. I have been sent to negotiate, my yellow friend." His sparkling white teeth are flashed with every word spoken.

The captain lays a hand on the man loyally hovering just behind him. He murmurs something to Increas and the officer silently nods and slinks towards the ship and the water, gesturing a discrete party to follow.

"Ah, Paisley," Captain Avery greets, baring his teeth with unintelligible expression between irritation and amusement. He leans on his crutch, placing a hand upon its end and his chin upon his hand. "I haven't seen you since—"

"Your mutiny." Paisley frowns. He beckons to the men behind him and a few more faces melt from the shadows.

I shiver at the sight. I had only been able to make out perhaps six men in the gloom before, but more materialize, like apparitions. A row of twelve hover behind Paisley, laden with weapons reminiscent of Harvey's strange and terrifying collection. More eyes glow behind them, and I wonder how many more are concealed beyond, carrying unpredictable devices of doom.

The leader tucks his handkerchief up his sleeve and smiles tightly to the captain. "You've lost a leg. The missus had been looking forward to a good fight... that's a shame."

Avery sneers. "Cut the pussyfooting."

Paisley's shoulders lift carelessly and he gestures around to his followers. "We would like your map and the keys to the treasure. Hand them over, please. Thank you."

"Thank you?" Avery laughs, then spits at the ground. "You want my map? Come and get it."

Paisley's eyes sharpen and he grins maliciously, his teeth long and jagged like a wolf's. His canines trip over his lower lip. "I will take it off your corpse, gladly."

His men raise their weapons and I dive my head into the sand at the very same time that an earsplitting blast ripples the water around my knees and plasters my hair back with the damp. My voice cries with a chorus of others in one awful screech of surprise and pain, my eyes flying open to watch our side flung back towards our ship and their side painting the blackened trees a new sickening hue. A fresh coat of crimson. An arm lands in the water next to me and I scream, scrambling away, towards the hull of the ship.

Harvey Cobbe howls gleefully from the deck, raising a botefeux over his head in triumph, the smoke of its tip joining with the smoke belching from the canon and billowing from the foliage lining the beach.

I stare back in horror as smaller gunshots racket and I realize that they aren't all dead—not their men, not ours. Multiple pairs of narrow eyes flicker under the light of a surreal ball of energy swirling in the air, blasted by one of their volatile arms. The captain is heaving himself to stand, brandishing his blade laboriously before the massive weapon buzzing over the beach. With the crew rising and drawing their weapons behind him, he steps on the back of the unconscious, well-dressed enemy leader and glares into the trees. His sword remains fixed on the nova caught in the air, trembling. One great ball of light and electricity, like a star the size of me, humming powerfully. Bullets fly from the cover of the trees, but each one stops midair around him as if time has frozen. The silver pellets turn, quivering.

The captain laughs madly, his upper lip curled to expose his gums in a vicious snarl of concentration and rage and lunacy. Sweat trickles down his brow and he draws his arms back like an orchestral composer and casts them forward like a sorcerer. The bullets and the ball of light shudder and bolt back to where they came from at greater speeds than they had come, propelled by unseen force, and the forest erupts in flames and screams, and explosion, and silence.