Aldric Vane's Arc

Chapter 5 of 5

The severed limb had bought Aldric nothing. He stood in the shallows at dawn, his repaired ship rocking beside him. The creature still lurked past the ward line, waiting. He had cut off its arm and closed the door, but the wound only made it hungrier. If he sailed out, it would drag him under before the hull cleared the reef. He gripped the driftwood staff and stared at the dark water. He would not spend another year on this island. He would kill the thing outright. He climbed aboard and raised the staff. Green fire ran up the spiral grain and warmed his palm. He cast the spell he had saved for last. It reached through the water and hooked the beached black frigate inland, dragging it toward the open gap in the wards. If the creature wanted a fight, Aldric would give it two ships and a crew to feed on first. The wards split. The frigate slid through, and behind it came the pale shapes of the ghost crew, tethered to their captain. The creature rose. Its body shifted, half serpent, half man, faces sliding beneath its skin. It coiled toward Aldric's ship, jaws wide, green light bleeding through black. "Kade!" Aldric shouted. "Off your ship. Now." Silas Kade stood at the helm of the frigate, cutlass drawn, red eyes fixed on the sorcerer who had trapped his crew and lied to his face. He should have let the water take Aldric. He wanted to. But then the ground itself shuddered. Something huge broke from the tree line inland. It was bone-white stone, porous and vast, its exposed spine glowing amber. Its jaw unhinged into four parts lined with crystal. It charged the water creature and struck like a landslide. The two beasts crashed together in the surf. The bone-white thing sank its crystal teeth into the serpent's throat and tore. Green light sprayed across the waves. The water creature shrieked, thrashed, and went still. Its body dissolved to wet smoke and sank. Silence. The offshore water lay empty for the first time in months. The path was clear. Aldric lowered the staff, breathing hard. He looked at Silas. Something had changed in the pirate's face. Silas was not looking at the dead creature. He was looking at Aldric, and the anger was gone from his red eyes. Silas left his own ship. He walked past the frigate's rail and climbed onto Aldric's deck. His boots hit the boards. The ghost crew drifted after him, pale and silent, crossing the water in his wake. "You cleared the way," Silas said. He stood close. Too close. "I'm not leaving your side." Aldric had killed the thing that guarded the sea. He could sail now. But he had a pirate on his deck, a ghost crew he could not explain, and a beast of glowing bone still standing in the shallows, watching them both.