Chapter Twelve #3
Soren stayed quiet. She watched Isaac with a silent fury. He met her one-eyed
gaze, his arms ready to cast.
“Shut
up!” Soren yelled. “Shut up!”
The
laughter died. The bunny stared him down. He could see his face reflected in
her black eye. His dirty blond hair had grown long and wild. He was filthy,
sunburned, unshaved, and just as gaunt and thin as a starving prisoner.
He knew
he looked pathetic.
Hopefully,
he would not be pathetic, when it mattered.
“It’s
your right,” Soren said, “to request a champion, unconventional they may be.”
Slowly, she lifted her cutlass, aiming the point at Isaac’s chest. “You want to
fight me, love? Is that bravery or ignorance?”
“Neither,”
Isaac replied. “You’re barely worth my time.”
“Tough
words.”
“I’ve
earned them.”
Soren’s
black eye gleamed in the twilight. “Oh, I see it now. I see that fire in your
eyes. You got some venom in your blood, don’t you, human?”
Isaac
didn’t answer.
She
scraped the tip of her cutlass across the knuckled courtyard pavement. “Knew
there was something off about you. The way you look—either you’re horribly
lost, or you’re the meanest cunt standing here.”
He
still did not answer.
Soren
snorted. “What is it then, Zaria? Is he some monk from a monastery, cracking
stone with his fist? Got some magic tucked up his arse, does he?” She turned
her gaze to the hyena. “You willing to trust your life in his hands?”
“Wouldn’t
be standing here if I wasn’t,” Zaria said.
“How
about I just sic my crew on you both and save us all the trouble?”
“We’ll
take half your crew with us if you try.” Zaria turned back to the pirates. “I’m
a fair sort. If my champion loses, I’ll submit. But the first lad who violates
my rights is gettin’ his teeth carved out through his cock. That’s a promise.”
None of
the pirates answered. Some were angry. Many were glancing nervously at each
other. A few were already stepping away.
“Enough,”
Soren said. “Human. Do you pledge yourself in service of your knight here?”
“I do,”
Isaac said.
“Do you
understand that if you lose this duel, either by yield or death, then her life
is forfeit?”
Next to
him, Zaria shifted slightly.
“I do,”
Isaac said.
“Fine,
then. You lot—scatter.”
The pirates
stepped back, creating a circle around them. Zaria did so as well, pausing to
give him one final squeeze of the shoulder. Soren never took her gaze off him.
“Jarrett,”
she called. “Search him. Make sure he’s got nothing tucked away.”
A male
fox stepped forward, approaching Isaac like one might approach a bomb. He
patted him down, running over his legs and arms, pulling off his pack and
dumping the contents on the ground. All his alchemical equipment rolled across
the knuckled pavement. Soren eyed the vials and ciphers, her black eye churning
with reflections.
“He’s
clean, capt,” the fox said. “Nothing on ‘em.”
The
bunny’s ears flicked. “Give him your saber.”
“I
don’t need it,” Isaac said.
“You
sure about that?”
He
flexed his fingers. “Very.”
Jarrett
looked to his captain. She flicked her head. He scampered away.
They
stood around two body lengths from each other. Soren was only
barely tall enough to come up to Isaac’s shoulder. The blade of her cutlass
caught the golden light as she twirled it in her hand. Her burns seemed to
extend down to the muscle. When she furrowed her brow, the mottled skin could
only twitch and pull.
He had
seen how fast she was. She could close the distance between them in a
blink—even now, her bare feet were shifting on the knuckled pavement, tensing
and rolling, begging to be loosed. He brought his arms out in front of him. He
chose to use wind. It had the fastest casting time, and, at the beginning of
the first mnemonic position, it did not look dissimilar from the stance of a
martial art. A strong enough gust would shred Soren’s lungs from acute air
pressure, and the sight of their captain drowning in her own blood would scare
the pirates quite well.
Hopefully.
He was
making a lot of assumptions.
“Oi,
pointy!” Zaria called. “Toss your knives! We’re fighting fair, aren’t we?”
Soren
ran a hand over the sheaths of throwing knives on her chest, still watching
Isaac.
Without
warning, the sandwyrm made a close pass below, the ground almost bulging
against its weight. A melodic call coiled through the earth. It sounded angry.
The more it displayed its threats, the sooner it would realize the colossus was
not alive, and the sooner it would attempt to eviscerate the rival it assumed
was encroaching on its territory. Refraining from an explosion might no longer
save them.
In the
distance, the heaping palace seemed to shake exceptionally hard, like the
skulls were shifting in place.
Soren
did not flinch at the quakes. Her body was as tense as a wire. “Claxton,
Heywood. Notch your crossbows. Flank the human. Both shoulders.”
“Capt?”
a lioness asked.
“Do
it.” She pointed her cutlass at Isaac. “If this
sodding ape tries to cheat, kill him. Better yet, tag him in the belly. Make it
slow. Gut him in front of his knight.”
Out of
the corner of his eye, he saw the lioness hesitate, looking back to her
fellows. None of the pirates moved.
“Do
it!” Soren yelled. “Have to ensure our honor, don’t we? Have to make sure
there’s no craven intentions among us, aye?” Her pink nose wrinkled at him.
“I’m still smelling the stench of a traitor on you, human. Best we set that
straight, right now.”
Slowly,
Isaac shifted his arms to the second mnemonic position. Below them, the
sandwyrm roared through tons of earth and rock, a colossal howl that seemed to
shake the very foundations of the city. Moments later, he heard the creak of
two drawstrings, pulling slowly back. In the surrounding circle of pirates,
many hands went to their scabbards.
Soren
twirled her cutlass. “You’re looking real out of place there, love. Tattered
robes. Thin as a bilge rat. Carrying naught but parchment and vials. Now you’re
refusin’ a weapon. And how’d you get past all these bones and magic, anyway?
Don’t tell me Zaria’s taking on the blackest of evils all by her lonesome. That
was your doing.” Her burned flesh twisted. “Who the
fuck are you?”
All at
once, the palace of skulls began to move. The heads shook, flexing their jaws,
rolling like distended marbles, coalescing into some new ordered shape. As they
slid into position, the skulls tilted their eyeless faces towards the rib cage
sky.
Slowly,
they began to sing.
“You’re
a mage, aren’t you?” Soren fingered a throwing knife. “You’re the one that sundered
the ship. Now you’re gonna spit hellfire my way. That’s your trick, you craven
cunt. I’ll fucking skewer—”
“Captain!”
one of the pirates yelled.
Soren
turned, looking at the palace. The skulls had arranged themselves into a
flat-topped pyramid, and they were all bellowing towards the blackened sky,
their skinless faces wrapped in horror and worship, like the summoning of an
eldritch god. Together, their chorus of voices built into the melodic pitch of
a sandwyrm’s battle cry.
It was
exactly what the real wyrm had been waiting to hear.
The
earth shuddered. The ceiling of the body cavity began to crumble. Around the
city, entire streets and buildings fell through the earth as the ground
collapsed beneath them, the recently carved tunnels below finally giving way as
the sandwyrm lurched through rock and dirt, quickening into a frenzy. It
thundered back a furious response to the skulls, shaking Isaac to the core.
He
realized, all at once, that the sorceress could indeed control the skulls. She
had not stayed her forces against Soren because she wanted Isaac to kill the
pirate. She had merely been waiting, waiting for her chance to kill both of
them, at the same time. To do so, she was willing to sacrifice her entire city.
The
pyramid of skulls stretched their jaws in an ecstasy of worship, their lungless
chorus so loud it almost drowned the coming strike.
“Run!”
Isaac shouted. “Run!”
The
skulls erupted into the air.