14
Warmth. On my skin, inside my flesh, in my bones.
I had the impression of being sucked into a magma abyss.
I felt dizzy. My muscles were numb. The last thing I remembered was having breakfast with Amlach as we watched the sun rise over the exact line where the sea meets the sky.
He then had told me I could close my eyes for a while if I wanted to.
And against all logic, I had accepted.
Why? I didn’t need to rest, so why had I lain down where he had slept all night and ended up falling asleep?
I touched my ear, wincing. Every sound was muffled, and it took a few seconds for my hearing to return to normal. Yet, even as it did, I quickly realized something was off. The noises around me didn’t reach my ears with the hyper-accurate clarity that elves were used to.
Something was wrong.
Then, suddenly, Amlach’s thunderous voice burst into my ears. With a start, I sat up and turned around. He was on his feet, looking tall and broad like the trees in the Forest of Witches. He was wildly waving his arms, making the raft swing dangerously.
“This way!” he was shouting.
“Amlach?” I said, confused.
He turned to me, beaming. “There’s a ship! Over there, look!”
I stood up but inexplicably lost my balance. Amlach quickly sneaked an arm around my waist and pulled me against his strong body to steady me. I blushed violently, bewildered by how familiar that gesture felt.
By the fact that I didn’t instantly jerk myself away from him.
“It’s way far, and I can’t tell if it’s my folks or yours, but I’ll be damned, that’s a ship.” He grabbed me by the shoulders and gave me a joy-filled shake. “A ship!” He laughed and started waving again. “We’re here! Hey, over here! Help!”
I followed the direction of his gaze and spotted a dark dot on the horizon. My eyesight didn’t fail me, as my hearing had a moment earlier, and I recognized the unmistakable shape of a galleon with broad, billowing white sails.
And a black flag that gradually faded to red at the flapping end.
My eyes widened. In a snap, I jumped on Amlach to hold his arms down.
“What the heck are you doing, Elf?” he yelled, trying to wriggle away.
“Stop it,” I ordered, tightening my grip on his wrists. “ Stop it.”
“This way, they’ll never see us!” he bawled, desperately glancing toward the ship.
“They mustn’t see us,” I hissed. I let go of him to grab one of the oars and pressed it against his chest. “Take this, sit down, and row as fast as you can.”
“Why?” he protested, staring at me as if I had gone mad as I seized the second oar.
“Because they are pirates!” I dropped to my knees by the edge of the raft and tossed Amlach a fiery look. “ Row!”
He made an annoyed face and knelt, diving his oar into the water. “I didn’t know they were pirates,” he growled.
“Why didn’t you wake me?” I shouted, rowing furiously.
“I thought you’d like the surprise.”
I scowled at him. “Instead, you have revealed our presence to men who will enslave us if they catch us.”
“I know,” he hissed through gritted teeth.
I quickly glanced over my shoulder. The galleon had gotten much closer. We were rowing against the tide, and despite my strength, each stroke felt like sinking into a sea of heavy sand.
“They’re gaining on us,” Amlach said, and I could hear a hint of fear in his angry voice.
“They have a favorable wind,” I ground out.
There was no point in running away. We had no chance of getting through it. There was only one thing we could do.
Fight.
So, I pulled the oar out of the water and set it on the raft, sitting on my heels. “Amlach, stop,” I said peremptorily, staring straight ahead with a determined look.
“What?” he yelled, astonished. “Are you crazy? They’re basically on us! Start rowing again!”
“I said stop,” I commanded with a stern stare. I paused to let the unspoken meaning of my words sink in. “Save your energy.”
Amlach froze up. He held my gaze, and once he understood what I meant, he frowned and angrily threw the oar onto the beams. He sat back on his heels with a snort.
We stared at each other keenly, as if I were trying to infuse him with all my superhuman strength, and he was absorbing it.
My eyes stayed on his for what felt like ages, until a large shadow cast over us, breaking that intimate and intense connection that had made my heart race.
Amlach and I clung to the raft, our nails digging into the wood, as the waves caused by the approaching ship violently swung us.
The sailing ship, as dark as ebony, towered beside us in all its grandeur, making me feel small like an ant.
It was so different from the elven boats, which seemed light enough to glide over the water.
This ship, by contrast, had a heavy, sturdy appearance, giving it an almost unsinkable look.
It featured a sharp stern with tall decorations and a bow with a spur supporting the bowsprit, which extended diagonally across the hull deck.
Additionally, it had four other masts. The quarterdeck was decorated with wooden statues of sirens and other sea creatures, along with red hatches for cannons.
The figurehead portrayed a fish-woman who, crying, leaned toward the sea as if longing to return to its depths.
Many heads looked down from the parapet.
“Drop the anchor!” someone cried.
Gradually, the water settled around the now-stationary galleon, and our raft became stable again, enabling Amlach and me to stand up.
I glanced at the pirates’ snarling faces as they yelled and whistled—they knew they had found a valuable prize—and I searched in vain for their possible captain.
Within seconds, two lifeboats were attached to the ropes to be lowered into the sea.
The creaking of the pulleys was drowned out by the loud screams and the violent blows from countless hands and boots pounding on the ship’s wood.
Amlach breathed furiously, his eyes fixed on the two boats slowly descending. “You know what, Elf?” he said in a biting tone. “I’m starting to think that maybe it would have been better to die from drowning on that plain.”
I glanced sideways at him, then quickly checked the sun’s position. Lastly, my eyes swept over the sea behind us. If we tied ourselves with Amlach’s rope, I could use all my strength to swim us away. By going underwater for a few stretches, perhaps we might outrun the galleon.
“Go,” Amlach said suddenly, his voice firm.
Confused, I cut him another glance.
He looked down at me with a bitter half-smile. “There’s nothing more you can do to save me.”
I frowned, and fury welled up inside me as I saw him unsheathe his dagger and prepare to face the pirates to the death rather than be caught.
The boats landed in the sea, and a dozen men climbed down the rope ladder to get on board, eager to come to us. The oars were set into the water as the pulleys’ ropes were released.
I observed the cutlasses and knives of the pirates, drooling with eagerness to attack us. The very thought of Amlach’s blood dripping from those grimy blades made my stomach turn.
It made me sizzle with an energy that I did not understand.
An energy that violently urged me to protect.
So, I drew my dagger and declared, “I am not leaving.”