Mortal gods, p.57
Mortal Gods, page 57
“Yeah! Why did ye make us come here?!” The crew grumbled at his angrily.
“We didn’t have a choice!” Adrian retorted quickly. “That battleship would’ve destroyed your ship!”
“Would be a damn site better than where we’ve got to now. Trust me, drownin’ out there would’ve been a lot better than what’s comin’.” Captain Ryce said coldly.
“What’s on this island that’s got you so twisted?” Adrian snapped.
“If I’m lucky, a quick death.” Captain Ryce replied and stalked out of the room.
Most of the crew who were able, followed him, leaving Adrian with nothing but an empty feeling in his stomach. Some spat insults at as they passed but it didn’t stop him pursuing the Captain into the other room. Ryce had sunk against the wall by a shattered window and was sipping gently from a small silver hip flask.
“Are you gonna tell me, or mop about like a wee lassie!” Adrian said, mocking the Captains accent.
Captain Ryce blew air out his nose in a snort of laughter. “Where you from, son?”
“Redbridge.” Adrian answered.
“That explains it then.” Ryce said shaking his head. “I’d half hoped you had some sorta plan when ye suggested this place. But you haven’t the foggiest about this island, do ye?” Ryce asked.
Adrian shrugged his shoulders.
“This was home. Nae poxy monarch, nae authority, nae rules, except our own. Them Hyulian nancies abandoned their Keep here, and we moved in. This was the place for a man of the sea.” Captain Ryce said, slipping his head backwards against the moss covered wall in reminisce. “Everybody knew the rules, the code. Ye didny shite where ye slept.”
“So a pirate island?”
“Aye, of sorts. This was a safe haven for our lot. Somewhere out the reach of the Hyulians and Vacarian, no that they have much to say for themselves anymore.”
“What happened?” Adrian asked.
“He just showed up one day, an’ everthin’ changed. Some of us were lucky, me included. We managed to escape before it went really south.” Ryce said conclusively. “They called him, The Shaman.”
“Who is he?” Adrian asked quickly.
“Dunno.” Ryce sighed. “He turned up battered to hell an’ some of the lads thought to help him. A week later, he was up an’ about, but strange stuff was happenin’. Some spoke about a crow that followed them about, some told of weird, demonic chants at night. From there, the first body was found. Nice young lass, Ramona. Never seen the body myself but there were rumours of her eyes bein’ pecked out an’ her heart missin’. Real nasty stuff. Every time me an’ the boys took to the puddle and returned, we heard more gruesome stories, ye know, sacrifices, cannibalism and the like. Our last return had us slap bang in the middle of somethin’ outa fantasy book. It was nothin’ I’d ever seen before.” Ryce said, visibly distraught at the recanted images that trickled through his mind. He swigged deeply from the hip flask again and then offered it to Adrian. The spiced aroma of the fire whiskey wafted up his nose, but he refused. “Real good boys, good pals, strung up an’ gutted like cattle by these big bastards.”
“What’d you mean?” Adrian asked, but the Captain choked up.
“Our mates an’ family; that Shaman had done somethin’ to them. They were somthin’ else.” Waz said in the Captain’s place.
“Necuratu?” Adrian asked.
“Naw, somethin’ worse.” Captain Ryce resumed. “That bastard called them Titans. Twice the size of the biggest man I’d ever seen. Mountains of muscle an’ death. The way they spoke was like they had forgotten everythin’ this life had taught them. Mindless brutes.” Ryce said.
“Ok… So how do we get off this island?” Adrian asked intently.
“Honestly, haven’t a clue.” Ryce replied.
“You’ve escaped before?”
“I had a ship and a head start. Last I checked, ye blew it a mile inland an’ broke it in half. An’ he already knows we’re here.”
Adrian couldn’t help but think that if he knew the tale of this island, he would’ve rather taken his chances against the Hyulian battleship.
The next hour passed slowly and the daylight trundled steadily towards a horizon, which was barely able to reveal itself through the thick mist of fog that swarmed. Adrian had grown accustom to the frequent reports of the three lockouts Captain Ryce had posted through the broken down building which had been an inn. He barely knew any of the crewmen he was surrounded by, but he felt he would never forget the names, Simmy, Benny or Waz.
“Clear.” Benny and Waz were right on time, like they always were, but Simmy faltered again like he had done three times.
Captain Ryce had went upstairs and slapped him for sleeping, but it never stopped the stout crewman.
However, this time the eerie silence was longer, too long. The worried expressions spread across the faces of the crew, some who climbed to their knees slowly. Captain Ryce never moved. He sat perched, back against the wall and sipped from his hip flask again with a look of resignation on his face. He poured the fire whiskey onto the floor between his legs, and sighed. “Suppose now’s as good a time as any.” He mumbled and then snorted. “They’re here.”
He moved to stand, but a sickening crash screamed through the building and he slumped down again. The crew screamed in terror followed by a deafening shatter from above where Simmy had been. Everyone in the room bound to their feet, all except the Captain. His rotund frame perched against the wall with a knee up supporting his arms. A deliberate silence followed, which massaged the growing tension and fear that was apparent in the room. Adrian felt for his tingling arm, he knew the power was just at the brim. The floorboards creaked ominously as one of the crew tip toed, ever so slightly, towards the open double doorway that was absent one half of its wooden barrier.
“S..Simmy’s dead!” The frightened voice called out, but still the Captain sat idle.
“What’re you doing?!” Adrian hissed at him clawing at his arm to haul him up.
The Captain violently shrugged Adrian away from him with a vulgar look across his face. “Nothin’ we can do.”
Adrian eyed him for a moment, seeing the anger in his face drain to a mixture of fear and hopelessness. Seeing him in this light told Adrian all he needed to know about what was coming. Captain Ryce had given up.
Adrian was drawn back by a sickening crash and a scream. He turned to see the other half of the door way, and a considerable portion of the wall, had been obliterated and the crewman who had confirmed Simmy’s fate, most likely shared it now. The remaining crew retreated deeper into the common room, completely submissive to their terror. Adrian too was fluttering with that idea, but he swallowed hard and kept the urge below. A pained, curdling scream sang out from across the hallway where Benny had been keeping a look out and the crew wilted even more.
“Gods, we’re gonna die here!” One screamed and ran through the open doorway and out of the inn. He had barely disappeared into the fog when his screams echoed in terror. Tears flowed from men who proclaimed to be pirates, renegades of the waves, fugitives from justice. But here, they were no more than scared children.
“We have to get out of here!” Another of their breaking voices called.
“Won’t be any better out there.” The Captain said calmly.
Adrian leaned forward and slapped him hard, but it garnered no reaction from the Captain. “Get up!” He hissed, but he was distracted by the screams of another.
Adrian turned to see just the fade of a mammoth thing, swing a gruesome axe that smashed one of the crewmen clean through the wall. It looked like a man, but it just couldn’t be. The young boy reacted and his orb infested arm shone a vibrant grey. He swung a fist at the seven foot tower of muscle, and it crashed through the wall. There was a moment of optimism from the crew, as they survey the laid out Titan through the wall of the inn. But it deflated quickly when another two, vehemently huge men stepped through the breach. They were trapped like cattle, herded to exactly where these things wanted them to be. The crew looked at Adrian with the same resignation of fear that they afforded the Titans, and the rocks that enveloped the young boys fists retreated. The Captain’s words before were no lie, the Titans were huge, like the legendary barbarians only bigger. They’re faces were a blank rage, but their eyes seemed soft and somewhat lost. Something stalled them that made the Captain finally clamber to his feet. His crew had abandoned their wit, completely and absolutely, like the dregs of ratted sails caught in the wind, submissive to their fate.
“This is wrong…” Captain Ryce said edging through the crewmen to Adrian’s side.
“How?” Adrian whispered slightly so as not to alarm the behemoths.
“We’re still alive.” The Captain replied after a falter in his stride.
In the white misty fog above, a crow squawked quietly. Altogether the Captains colour slowly drained from his chubby face. Adrian closely eyed the three gargantuan titans before him, staggered to believe they were once mere men. It was clear the clothes that once clung to their slender frames seen their end under the relentless bulge of muscle. Only mere drapes of cloth spared their modesty, but at a stretch, they were strained even at that. Adrian gazed on at the far away vacant look that poisoned the eye of the Titans and knew he had seen the same look not so long ago. His mind flittered back to the Highway Bridge, to the guards who had attacked him and Iago. They wore the same look.
“Ahh… Shite.” Ryce said quietly.
“What?” Adrian asked.
“He’s coming.”
Adrian couldn’t see him, but somehow he didn’t need to. He could feel the presence of The Shaman.
“No! please no, not again!” One of the crew sobbed, losing any resemblance of self-control.
He made a break for the open double door way, pushing past the Titan in a crazed dash, but the mass of intimidation spun quickly and threw a broadsword, as though it was a dagger. It impaled the crewman to the wall in the other room with such force, the whole building shook. Adrian winced and turned his eye downward at the sight, but the Captain kept a steal expression.
The squawking crow finally ceased its relentless croaking, but as much as a relief that was to Adrian, it fractured the steely calmness of the Captain. The pounding clatter of slow, methodical footsteps tapped along the moss covered concrete just outside. Of the fifteen crewmen that cowered in the common room, some had turned to embrace each other, seemingly acceptant of their end while others had adopted the same demeanour that befell the Captain. But Adrian kept his eyes transfixed on the hole in the wall that used to be a door. A tall man, dwarfed by the Titans by his side, stepped through, his head held high and his gaze long and searching. He had long, flowing white hair which crept almost to his waist, and cold, dead eyes devoid of any natural colour. The Shaman’s robes were so out of tune with the natural decay of an abandoned island. They were a coal black with flashes of red at the cuffs and neck, and the hood was lined inside with red silk. He pressed forward and eyed those who cowered in the room, until the stare rested upon the Captain.
“Sera.” He said with a smile.
The Captain didn’t respond. That drew a larger smile from The Shaman. He wandered into the room and invaded the space of the crew. It was almost a systematic strip down with his mere presence, turning grown men into quivering children. Adrian could feel the dread an energy from The Shaman, like pot brimming with water. It wasn’t like the call of the water before, this was different. It was more like the power protruding from this man warned him, rather than called to him. There was no directions, just threats.
In a flash, he pounced directly in front of Adrian, his face mere inches from Adrian’s nose, barely able to contain a glowing satisfaction that swarmed him. “I do not believe it…” The Shaman whispered in wonder. “Bring these two, kill the rest.”
“Wait, no!” Adrian proclaimed stepping just a half inch forwards. It was a half inch too far. The Titan to his left, the one which he socked earlier through a wall, catapulted forward and crunched a massive fist into his temple, sending the room into a spinning darkness that spread violently.
Shades of terror and hysteria passed in and out of Adrian’s consciousness but he was powerless to do anything about it. It felt like a play, speeding through at an incoherent rate. People, places, things happening. He couldn’t make any of it out, but then it slowed and he caught a jist.
Arianna and Avari crossed his mind briefly, lifting his spirits the way a good dream would. Even fleeting memories of the farm blew through like tumbleweed, and Redbridge, but then it rushed over Gonoliaro, lingered on The Baroness before splashing through the Order and Iago, holding in his arms, the Tomb of Alamar. Adrian pushed his mind to close the door, but even the visions Tristan had shown him began to spill forward. There was something wrong, he could feel it. The sentencing of Gaius, Hellanious and Cratos, the fall of King Khalan, they played through and he relived them again. The Cycle raced through once more before Adrian snapped back to life on the cold hard stone of a cell opposite the Captain. He forced himself upwards and scanned for intruders to his confinement, before turning his eye over towards the Captain who was badly injured. He sat himself on the stone ground, propped up against the wall, spitting blood that clung in his throat. The cut over his right eye had swollen it shut.
“Ryce!” Adrian called across the way to him, the Captain responded by a flick of the wrist. “Are you okay?”
“Never better.” He replied sending a grog of bloody spit flying across his cell.
Adrian threatened to get up, but the wound on his leg where the splinter of wood had pierced it, although it had healed somewhat, it was still a niggle.
“What happened?” Adrian asked looking around their new accommodation.
“I’m alive ‘cause he’s a mental case. You must have somethin’ he wants.”
“I think he got it…” Adrian said quietly.
“Hard to keep a secret from a man who can read yer mind like an open book.” Captain Ryce said.
“Where are we?” He asked.
“Remember that old Hyulian Keep I told ye about?”
“I’m not dying here.” Adrian said defiantly.
“Sure yer no.” Captain Ryce chuckled before hogging out blood laced spit. “Yer wastin’ yer time, this place is locked up tighter than a Silent Sisters gob. Trust me, I’ve seen both.”
“You’ve brightened up!” Adrian said, standing to take a look at his cell.
“Aye well, if I'm goin’ out, I'm goin’ out with a smile on my face givin’ a one finger salute!” He said gallantly.
“Nobody’s going out just yet.” Adrian said, adjusting his stance. He felt along to bars, searching for a weak point. There was a fair amount of rust and decay, but it was all solid enough.
Screw it. He knelt by the corner of his cell and concentrated. He felt out for the power, but he didn’t know where to reach. The water was already there, he merely manipulated what already existent. He wasn’t to sure how the stone worked, but the was less of a challenge that the water. He searched for fire. He cornered in his mind, looking for answers, searching for the lint to spark a flame. But he didn’t know where to look. He concentrated harder and reached out further. He felt the eart sway back at his calling, even the water made itself known. But when he felt the flames, there was a rush that sped over him. He panicked for a moment and lost it, but fired straight back in.
“What’re you doin’?” Ryce asked. Adrian ignored him again and felt the tingle spread up his arm again. Under his quilted jerkin, the maze of markings on his good arm slowly filled with a shallow red. But it was his seemingly broken, orb infested arm that drew a wondrous gaze from the Captain, and dragged him to his feet. It shone a vibrant shade of red through the crushed orb fragments that penetrated his skin. Adrian felt the heat rise, he could smell the smouldering of cloth as a gentle flame circled his elbow, and crawled down into his palms. The jerkin was incinerated from the elbow down as the flames licked up against the steel. Adrian concentrated all the flame he could muster, downwards into his palms which gripped the bars ever so tightly.
“Keep goin’!” Captain Ryce said, excitement in his voice.
The sweat dripped from the young boy’s brow almost profusely, but not from the heat, from the concerted effort that he had to drag forth from himself. The bars began to glow a molten orange and Adrian could feel their dexterity wilt. He tugged gently, but they held firm. The metal closest to his palms had become white hot and flimsy. He tugged again and again until they began to move with him. One final howl of effort and the portion of the two bars that had glowed so vibrantly, slithered free from the rest.
“Yes!” Captain Ryce howled in appreciation.
Adrian waited for the drips of molten metal to run their course before he slipped in between the gap and out into the dungeons floor. He glanced around quickly, but seen no Titan, and to his relief, no Shaman either.
“Ok, step back.” He said, quickly approaching Captain Ryce’s cell.
He gripped the bars tightly and readied the flames, but the clattering of mammoth footsteps above them faltered his concentration in.
“Shite.” The Captain said, exasperated.
“Don’t worry, don’t worry, I'm not leaving you!” Adrian said forcefully.
He looked around the room and seen a small window above, cluttered by metal bars much the same as the ones the cells had. The clattering grew louder. He drew a severe look at Adrian, and the young boy knew his next words before he even spoke them.
“Just go, wee man!” Captain Ryce hushed.
Adrian shook his head and climbed back into his cell, through the hardened metal cell bars that had cooled into razor sharp points.
“Lay down, Captain!” Adrian said emphatically before throwing himself to the floor of his cell.
The door swung open and in walked a Titan so big, he crouched to enter through the door frame. The clap of his massive feet, assaulted the solid stone floor, coming to a halt just in front of the damaged frame of Adrian’s cell. Adrian lay flat out in his back, acting as though the rigors of his efforts for freedom had bested him. Once, twice, three times the monster clicked its head from cell to cell. It knew something was different, but it couldn’t place what it was. The Titan lingered just a few extra seconds on Captain Ryce, and Adrian sprung to life. With ample agility and poise, he pounced through the gap in the cell and straight onto the back of the Titan, who immediately thrashed his weight around, against the metal bars of the other cells in the dungeon.
