Chapter 11 Lily #2
I heard a scream as the ship directly next to us was knocked sideways from the enemy galleon that speared it with the long spire stretching from its front. “Wrath, I need you to be more specific.”
“I raised the kraken from deep within the bowels of the sea to defeat the Barbarians who held you captive. You need to do the same.”
At the battle of Riviana Star, I raised not only men, but also orcs. They mindlessly fought for me. I realized then that the call wasn’t specific to any race or creature—that nothing was immune.
“Raise the dead,” he said. “Let your crew see what happens to the enemies of the Death Queen.” His hand moved to my chest in the center of my breast plate, like he could feel my heartbeat.
“Focus just as you did in Riviana Star. Close your mind to the living and concentrate on the dead. Cast your net wide and pull hard.”
With his hand supporting my stance, I closed my eyes and did as he instructed. It’d been so easy in Riviana Star because I could see those I wished to command. But this was like reaching into the shadows and grabbing an ally just by the touch of a hand.
But I felt the presence in the deep, one that overshadowed all the others, a size that felt akin to a ship…or maybe even two. My mind grew tentacles and wrapped around my prey, and I tugged him hard to the surface, and when I felt him wrestle in my grasp, I released him.
My eyes opened just as I felt planks shift beneath my feet, felt the force of the wave that knocked the ship sideways before it flattened once again, rocking everyone from one side to the other.
Wrath’s eyes shifted past me, and a proud smile moved over his lips.
I looked behind me and saw an enormous fin, as tall as the masts that held the sails of the ships.
The battle turned silent as everyone stopped when they spotted the fin cut through the water, creating a swell of waves that tilted every galleon sideways as it passed. Then the fin slowly dropped back into the sea, cutting through the water and leaving a large ripple behind it.
“What the fuck was that?” Hawk asked.
The sound of a crash made everyone whip in the other direction, catching sight of the galleon snatched in the jaws of an enormous shark that had most of its flesh missing…
the bones underneath visible. His teeth crushed through the wood of the black ship, snapped it in two and then turned through the water before it struck the debris with its enormous fin, smashing it into further pieces and making it sink immediately.
I felt a pair of eyes stare hard into my face, and I flicked my eyes to meet them.
Jack stared directly at me with a slight look of admiration—but mostly fear.
The shark went after the next black ship and sank it to the deep with a single attack. At that point, everyone started to catch on—that undead shark was only interested in the black ships.
Cannon fire ceased as the enemy tried to navigate away from the battle, their union dismantling right before our very eyes and becoming an every-man-for-himself scenario.
They all tried to sail in different directions, like getting away from us was the key to staying alive, but the gigantic shark hunted each and every one.
One galleon turned with the wind and put distance between us, gaining ground while the sharp was occupied with the other ships that remained nearby. I watched it sail toward the horizon, wondering if it would get away.
Jack appeared at my side and turned to look at me, his eyes flicking from one feature to the next, as if trying to put me together like a puzzle.
I hadn’t needed to unsheathe my blade for this battle. Didn’t even leave the ship. All I did was use a power bestowed upon me by a god to do my bidding, and I took all the credit for it.
Now other pirates looked at me as well, from other ships, as they silently deduced where the underwater ally had come from.
The last enemy ship disappeared into the water in a surge of planks and debris, and all turned quiet.
The only ones who’d survived the attack were far out into the distance, lucky enough to turn away at the opportune moment.
An entire army of pirates had been decimated, leaving a single lonely ship.
The shark didn’t resurface, probably ready to return to its eternal slumber somewhere at the bottom from where it had come. The sun had already set, so the light was low, a hint of pink on the horizon.
Then a large fin emerged, slowly rising up from the depths, stretching high toward the sky—heading straight toward the final galleon. They were so far away now that we couldn’t hear what happened next, only see it.
The shark crashed into the bow of the ship, swallowing half of it in its enormous mouth.
After a hard thrash, half of the ship went flying across the surface until it landed fifty feet away, and it immediately began to sink beneath the waves.
Little dots that seemed to be the survivors were visible, but the shark took care of that too.
Once every one of my enemies was dead, the shark dipped below the surface, and I knew it wouldn’t be seen again.
Our ships continued to rock on the waves, the world silent except for the wind that made the sails flap. One by one, every pirate on every ship turned to look at me where I stood on the starboard, silently staring at me like the shark and I were the same entity.
My brother said nothing as he looked at me, clearly shocked by the horror he had just witnessed because he hadn’t seen it in Riviana Star.
Wrath was still there, the only person to look at me with pride instead of fear. Like a father who was proud of something his child had done, he had that fullness in his eyes and a stoutness in his heart that was easy to make out.
Jack was the first one to interrupt the silence. “The Pirate Queen.” His hand tightened into a fist over his chest, a custom gesture of respect among pirates. “Forever at your service.”