Chapter 11 #2
Fear lanced through me as I watched the wave drag Toring under, and I dove beneath the surface once more.
“We went over on the starboard side!” I kicked my legs as hard as I could, reaching out blindly.
Hopefully I didn’t run into some kind of sea creature, but considering we were in the middle of a storm, I doubted any living thing would willingly be so close to the turbulent surface.
“WE?”
My foot bumped against something that felt like a shoulder, and I grabbed hold of Toring.
“Hurry up!” I snapped, diving below the water so I could drag Toring up with me.
He was big and bulky, and it took forever before we broke the surface even though we weren’t very far from it.
A gust of wind slapped my cheek as I gasped for air, hauling him against me so that he wouldn’t sink again.
I couldn’t tell if he was breathing or not, and the smell of blood near his scalp told me he’d probably hit his head when the rope broke, which explained why he was unconscious.
Magic sizzled around us, and I exhaled a sigh of relief as we began to rise up out of the ocean.
Iannis had clearly employed a levitation spell, something I probably could have done myself if not for the crazy winds.
Grateful, I focused on clinging to Toring as tightly as I could as we were guided above the huge waves toward the ship.
Lightning flashed in the sky above us, and, for an instant, I saw Iannis clearly, standing at the prow.
His hair flew about his face, his robes billowing in the wind, and his handsome face was drawn tight in concentration as he made sure the winds didn’t knock us out of the air and right back into the stormy sea.
Toring’s body seized in my arms as I squeezed his chest, and he began coughing up lungfuls of sea water. Thank Magorah. He was alive.
“Thank the Lady you’re safe,” Iannis shouted as my feet touched down on the ground.
My legs felt strangely weak, and I gratefully took the hand he stretched out to steady me.
Iannis looked angry and relieved all at once as his violet eyes swept over me, and I knew that under different circumstances, he would have hugged me fiercely.
“Take Garrett inside and stay with him.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but the words died on my lips as his expression turned thunderous.
Instead, I took a deep breath, hefted Toring onto my back, and did as he asked.
We didn’t have time to argue, and though I wanted to help with the spell, making sure Toring didn’t die was more important.
Toring moaned a little as I adjusted his weight, his head lolling against my shoulder, but he didn’t react otherwise. I hoped his injury wasn’t too serious.
Still, there was no way I was going to miss out on this completely, so instead of heading below deck, I climbed the stairs up to the bridge.
It was no easy feat to do so, with slippery decks, buffeting winds, and a full-grown man on my back.
On top of that, I still had to dodge various members of the crew who were rushing about as the first mate barked orders.
Obviously, they weren’t going to sit back and hope the mages managed to pull off their spell—not when their lives and the safety of their ship depended on it.
Thankfully, someone from inside the bridge saw me coming, and they held the door open.
“By the Ur-God,” the sailor exclaimed as he held the door open for me. “What happened? Is he all right?”
I lowered Toring into a chair that was bolted to the floor, then pressed two finger against his neck.
“He’s got a pulse,” I said. “A rather strong one, actually.” I sought out the knot on his head, which was sizeable, but my fingers came away clear.
The water must have temporarily staunched the blood flow.
“One of the mages will heal him after this is over—he’ll be fine in the meantime. ”
The sailor nodded, then went back over to the large station toward the prow of the ship, where the Captain was monitoring the various dials.
The Captain grabbed the brass phone on the wall, and I turned back toward the window as he shouted instructions to the engine room down below.
My eyes found Iannis, who was still standing at the prow, his hands outstretched to the elements, his entire body glowing incandescently.
The other mages were glowing too, I realized as I glanced out at the other windows.
I turned my gaze back to Iannis, and my eyes widened as I watched a huge wave crest both sides of the prow, forming a towering wall of frothy water.
My breath caught in my chest, but just as I was sure the wave would crash down on the deck and obliterate everything, a magical shield flared to life around the ship, and the wave slapped against it instead.
I let out a huge sigh of relief as the water sluiced harmlessly off the sides of the ship, heading back down into the ocean.
“The wind is starting to calm!” the Captain said incredulously, looking at one of his gauges. “The spell is working!”
Sure enough, it was. The rocking gradually began to subside, and the huge waves pummeling the ship grew smaller and smaller. The howl of the wind died down, the torrential rains subsiding to a patter, and I let out a huge sigh of relief. The storm was being turned away from us.
We would live to see another day.