Toby Neighbors: Fierce Loyalty

He was about to help Mansel, who was already much more ill than either Zollin or Eustice, but then he hesitated. For a brief moment the thought of letting Mansel suffer seemed appropriate. His friend had murdered Kelvich, after all, and had tried to kill Zollin’s father. In fact, Mansel would have succeeded if Zollin hadn’t found his father and been able to heal him using magic. Then Zollin shook the hesitation away. He hadn’t fully forgiven Mansel, but he also understood that Mansel wasn’t himself when he had committed the heinous crimes, and keeping his friend sick wouldn’t make their journey any more enjoyable.

He let his magic flow into Mansel without saying anything. The motion of the fluid in Mansel’s inner ear was almost violent. Zollin concentrated on settling the fluid down. It took several minutes, but soon Mansel appeared to feel better. He went immediately to his bunk and went to sleep.

“It doesn’t seem that sea travel suits our friend,” Zollin said to Eustice, who was swaying in the hammock.

Eustice nodded. The former servant of the Torr was almost like a child in his energy and enthusiasm to help Zollin. He had a perpetual smile on his face and was always quick to help. He accepted the hammock immediately, even though Zollin had proposed that they take turns sleeping on the swaying canvass.

“Are you feeling ill?” Zollin asked.

Eustice waved his hand as if to say, “Not really.”

“You’re stronger than I am then,” Zollin said. “I was afraid I was going to lose my lunch before long.”

Eustice smiled and pointed at their rations, which were stored in a sea chest. He made the gesture that Zollin had come to recognize to mean cooking.

“No, I don’t think I want much tonight. Just some bread and olive oil. Maybe a little wine to help me sleep.”

Eustice nodded and Zollin stepped out of the cabin and took a walk around the deck. The ship was loaded with cargo, and most of the sailors were spending their last few hours on shore. There were only a few men on watch. One officer stood near the big, round wheel that was used to steer the ship. A few moved around in the ropes that stretched from the ship rails to the towering masts. Zollin could see the sails neatly bundled and tied to the crossbeams of the masts. He leaned against the ship rail and looked down into the water. The sun had set and the water was dark below him. Lights from the city reflected on the surface, but Zollin occasionally saw the darkness that indicated deep water.

He let his magic flow into the water. He had learned through the winter in Kelvich’s small cabin how to let his magic touch the world around him. He would go out at night to hunt, standing still in almost complete darkness and learning to see with his magic, which was often much more sensitive than his eyes alone.

The magic plunged beneath the surface and began to drift down. At first, Zollin was just curious how deep the water was, but he was soon fascinated with the amount of life he found in the watery depths. There were sedate creatures fixed to the hull of the ship. Schools of fish swam together with speed and agility that would have made flocks of birds envious. The sandy seafloor was not too far below the surface-Zollin guessed a tall tree’s leafy peak would rise above the waves. There were larger creatures too, some moving slowly, innocently, while others were obviously hunting.

Zollin didn’t disturb the sea life. He stood, silent and still, leaning against the ship’s railing, completely absorbed by the world under the waves. Then, suddenly, the fish swam away, leaving the waters around the ship empty except for the waving flora and the tiny sea creatures that merely floated through the water, too small to be seen. Zollin was puzzling over the strange turn of events when an old and evil presence suddenly came over the young wizard. He felt the cold relish of death, almost as if he could smell the sickly sweet odor of rotting flesh. Zollin suddenly felt very cold, and fear began to run a jagged claw down his spine. Goose bumps rose up on his arms and the hair on the back of his neck stood out.

Then Zollin felt the monster enter his magic. It was a large creature, swimming with powerful but precise movements. Its body was long and thick, as long as the massive ship Zollin was standing on. From the long, tube-like body came over a dozen tentacles. To Zollin they seemed like giant snakes, each moving independently. On the massive body were two large, black eyes, and in the middle of the sprouting tentacles a large maw with thick pincers instead of teeth.

“Captain!” Zollin shouted, running along the dark deck. “Captain!”

“What is it?” said the officer on watch. “The captain is in his cabin and doesn’t wish to be disturbed.”

“Some kind of sea creature,” Zollin said. “It’s huge. It’s swimming toward the ship right now.”

“I believe you’ve heard one too many stories, sir,” said the officer. “There’s no creature in the ocean that would bother this ship.”

Just then there was blow to the side of the ship that echoed through the hull and reverberated up onto the deck.

“What was that?” Zollin asked.

The officer didn’t respond. He stood silent, almost frozen with fear, unsure what to make of the sound. Suddenly a huge tentacle shot up out of the water. It was too dark to make out the writhing appendage, but seawater cascaded off of it, splashing back down into the ocean. Zollin watched as the sailor’s eyes opened wide in terror, and then the tentacle smashed down onto the deck with a crash. The ship rail splintered and the other sailors began to shout in fear. The entire ship rocked under the blow before six more tentacles rose up out of the water.

“Mansel!” Zollin shouted, throwing up a quick magical shield above him and the ship’s officer.

The tentacles fell hard on the ship, like massive trees falling in the forest. The wooden railing on the seaward side of the ship was destroyed and the smaller mast near the front of the ship was snapped in two. Several of the crossbeams were also broken so that the deck of the ship became a jumble of splintered wood, ripped canvas sails, and rope. Several of the sailors on watch had been injured, but even though one of the tentacles had fallen on them, Zollin and the officer were unharmed.

Zollin felt his magic shooting through him as he struggled to hold up the massive limb. It rolled clumsily and Zollin guessed that its massive weight out of the water made it difficult to control. He pushed the frightened officer back toward the raised platform where the captain’s cabin was located.

“Move!” Zollin screamed. “Get away from that thing.”

The door to the captain’s cabin burst open and a short man with a long, thick beard and an equally thick belly came storming out.

“What in the name of Neptune is going on out…” His voice trailed off as he saw the tentacles that had smashed into the ship rise back up in the air.

“Take cover!” Zollin shouted, pushing the captain and his officer back into the cabin just as the tentacle dropped again, this time splintering the deck.

He turned and unleashed a gout of molten energy that struck the tentacle in a sizzling, steaming spray. The tentacle swung away from Zollin and wrapped around the ship’s mast. Zollin didn’t wait for instructions. He ran forward and began blasting the tentacles with bolts of white-hot magical energy. His power was roaring like a fire inside him, but his mind was reeling. The sea creature was even larger than the black dragon he’d fought, and although most of it’s body was in the water, the monster’s tentacles were like separate enemies, each one a grave menace.

There was a loud crack, like the pop of a lightning strike, as the mast broke. Zollin was attacking the beast, but even more tentacles were rising up out of the water.