Refuge: Kurt's Quest (9 page)

“The lookout has spotted the top of a mast
behind us,” said Gromli, staring up at the crow’s nest.

“Do they know who it is?” asked Jackie.

“Not one of ours,” said the Knight.  “From
there, your guess is as good as mine.”

Jackie looked over to Kurt, and from the
expression on his face, knew he had reached the same conclusion that she had.

Kurt took a good long look at the scorpion that
was sitting on the forward deck, in front of the mast, a quarter of stout
spears lying on the deck nearby.

“How does that thing work against dragons?”
asked the big man.

Jackie shuddered at the thought of one of the
big, scaly beasts coming after them while they were trapped on a boat.  But
like Kurt, she figured the enemy would eventually vector one onto their
position if they had a spotting ship behind them.

“If it hits, it can really hurt one,” said the
Knight, his own eyes locked onto the engine.  “The problem comes in hitting
one.”

“That’s what I thought,” said Kurt.  “We might
need some way to send multiple spears at one at the same time.  So it doesn’t
have room to dodge.”

“But we only have the one engine,” said the
confused Knight.  “And it takes time to load.”

Kurt smiled and nodded, his eyes never leaving
the spears, and Jackie knew exactly what he was thinking.  Whether it would
work or not was another story entirely.

*     *     *

“We have them, your Imperial Majesty,” said the
Ellala commander over the scrying ball.

The Half Lich Emperor
Ellandra Mashara nodded
as he looked at the map of the Northern Sea painted on the wall.  The ship he
was in contact with was just off the coast of the Kingdom of the Nord, about a
day’s sail.  There were three other ships within a day’s sail of that point,
though the enemy would, of course, not be at that point by the time they got
there.  But one of them could reach an interception point about the same the
time the trailing ship caught them, in about four days. 
And if I could get
a dragon to that point, to strike at the same time, I could assure that they go
to the bottom
.

Normally a dragon by itself would be enough to
guarantee the destruction of a single merchant ship.  But with this group, he
was not willing to take the chance that a dragon by itself would be enough. 
No,
I want both ships and the dragon to get to them at the same time.

“Here are your orders, Commander,” he told the
ship’s captain.  “Keep them in sight.  And when the other ship I am sending
your way gets to you, continue to keep contact.  I’ll let you know when to move
into the attack.”

“So other aid will be coming, your Imperial
Majesty?”

“Yes, Commander.  Hopefully more than they can
handle.” 
And we can use a victory
, he thought, looking over at another
wall which had the map of his own Empire painted upon it.  And markers that
showed how close the enemy, the Germans and Americans, were getting to the
heart of his Empire. 
And when I send those humans and their allies to the
bottom of the Sea, especially the one they call the Promised One, he of the
prophecy, we will turn the tide of this war.

Chapter Seven

Kurt stood on the poop, near to the helmsman
holding his wheel, and looked back at the two sails that followed them.  The
second ship had come up the night before, and had fallen in beside the other as
they maintained a five kilometer distance from the cog.  They were not five
kilometers now.  More like three, and the oars were quickly pulling them
closer.

“I think they’re closing for the attack,” said
Jackie, walking up beside him and staring at the ships.

“I noticed that you didn’t sleep well either,”
he told the woman, who had been sharing his bed since their night back at the
Duke’s castle.

“You don’t sleep well, I don’t sleep well,” she
said with a frown.  “I was catching glimpses of your dreams all night.  Damned
telepathy isn’t totally positive, is it?”

Unless we’re feeling each other’s thoughts,
desires and sensations while making love,
thought the man, looking at the dusky
skinned, blue eyed woman, whose eye color seemed to match that of all
Immortals.  
Then, it’s a wonder. 
The memory of the early part of the
night returned, with him thrusting inside her, and feeling both sides of that
thrusting.  Any ordinary sex would now seem just too mundane.

He looked up at the sky, trying to spot the dot
he was sure would be there, if not now, then in the near future.  “I want you
to keep your eyes to the sky,” he told Jackie, looking back down at her and
noting with approval that she was fully armed and armored, just as he was.  “We
have the sharpest eyesight, even better than the Elf.  So I trust you’ll spot
it before anyone else does.”

Jackie nodded before she started scanning the
sky, and Kurt knew she had understood exactly what he was talking about. 
Meanwhile, he walked over to the warning bell and started to bang his
gauntleted fist against it.

“What in the hells is going on,” yelled Alred,
running out of his cabin, sword in hand.  He was bare-chested, probably just
out of bed and ready for breakfast.

“The enemy ships are moving to attack,” said
Kurt, pointing a finger at the two galleys that were now up to their maximum
speed.

“Everyone to their action stations,” yelled the
Captain, running up to the railing to take in the two ships, either of which
was probably a match for his own.

Maybe not with us aboard,
thought Kurt, staring
at the enemy vessels. 
The rowers aboard those things are slaves, not
willing warriors ready to drop the oars and fight.  As long as they don’t hole
and sink us, we should be able to beat them.

“What is it, my Lord Kurt?” said Fenris,
running up the ladder and onto the poop deck on light feet, his bow clutched in
his hand, unlaced armor thrown over his shoulder.

“We may have need of your bow, and soon, Lord
Fenris,” said Kurt, turning toward the Ellala warrior.  “Do you think you could
pick off some of the men on the decks.”

“Not until they get closer,” said the Elf
officer, giving a very human head shake.  “And by then, we’ll be in their range
as well.  Plus, they have a catapult each on the bow decks as well, which will
out range anything we have.”  He turned for a moment to look back at the ladder
leading up to the poop, and the young man who was coming up it.  “Perhaps our
young mage can be of help.”

“I don’t think so,” said James Drake, coming up
onto the deck, one hand wiping the sleep from his eyes.  “Oh, I can still throw
some spells, but they aren’t going to be any stronger than what the mages they
have aboard that ship can deal out.”

“What about your fire magic?” asked Kurt, his
eyes narrowing. 
If he can’t perform here and now, then we are in real
trouble.

“Look at where we are, man,” said James,
gesturing around the ship.  “We’re surrounded by water.  Even the earth, the
place where I draw most of my power, is almost four hundred meters under this
water.  I don’t have a hope of pulling any power from it.”

“And the sun?” asked Jackie, looking upward,
then stifling a scream, pointing up to the sky.

Kurt followed her finger, immediately knowing
that James was not going to get the time to draw the heat energy out of the
sunlight.  Because before he could, the large red dragon diving at them would
have already torched the ship.

“Get the scorpion ready,” yelled the Captain,
waving to some of the crew who were already on deck in leather armor, weapons
belted to their sides.  “Engage that damned thing, before it puts us on the
bottom.”

*     *     *

The commander of the Imperial Ship
Colossus
cursed as he caught sight of the dragon dropping from the sky with folded
wings. 
The damned rider was supposed to wait until we were within
engagement range before he showed himself
, he thought, toying with the idea
of warning the pilot off.  But it was too late now.  The dragon would not be
able to recover from its dive before coming within engine range of the ship. 
And if they had a mage aboard, which he knew they did, the dragon would be
within striking distance of his magic.

“Drive the slaves to row faster,” he yelled
down to the waist, where the drummers were drumming the rhythm and the master
walked from bench to bench plying his whip.  The same thing was going on below
decks, with the other rowers.  The males at the oars grunted, groaned and
sometimes cried out  as the lashes stripped flesh from their backs.

“They are pulling as hard as they can,” called
back the rowing master, stopping for a moment to lash the back of a muscular
Grogatha.  The Orc yelled out, but did nothing more to pull harder, lending
verisimilitude to the pronouncement of the master.  The men, a combination of Ellala,
humans and Grogatha, with an occasional Dwarf in the mix, were obviously
already pulling as hard as they could.

With a roar the dragon let out a ball of fire
before spreading its wings and braking.  The fireball hit the deck, setting a
mass of wood afire, engulfing one robed man on the poop, while everyone else
scattered, some into the water.

Unless I’m mistaken, that’s the end of their mage,
thought
the Commander, waving at the commander of his other ship.  The second galley
started to veer away, sticking with the plan to come up on the enemy ship from
different sides.  The dragon skimmed the waves, flapping its wings and again
gaining altitude, turning into a bank that would bring it back to the cog.

As it maneuvered back to the ship the scorpion
mounted on the front let loose with a long spear that barely missed the wing of
the dragon.  The Commander was thinking that they shot their best bolt, when a
large man in armor reared back and threw one of the long spears at the flying
beast.  An impossible throw that took the rider through the chest at far arrow
range.  The rider went limp immediately and fell slack into the webbing that
held him to the saddle.

The dragon roared again, this time in anger
that his rider had been killed, and released another gout of flames, hitting
the sail and turning it to ash in an instant.  It banked again, turning back to
the ship, obviously with nothing in mind but the total destruction of the cog. 
Which it looked ready to achieve, its mouth open, flames licking at the sides
of its gums, ready to kill the ship.  Until something even more powerful rose
from that vessel to hit the dragon.

*     *     *

The fireball came down from the dragon to the
deck, exploding with flame and starting a roaring blaze on the deck.  The
helmsman and Captain jumped away, the helmsman over the side, while James was
engulfed in a ball that should have taken the flesh from his bones.  Jackie
yelled and tried to get to him, but was repulsed by the awful heat of the natural
flames.

James started to cry out as well, sure that he
was about to be in terrible agony as the flesh was burned from his bones.  He
opened his mouth to scream, then realized that he felt no pain.  In fact, he
felt really good, surrounded by a sense of warmth that went through to his
soul.  And a sense of power.  He turned in the flames, looking out at the other
people running about their duties to try and fight the ship.  There were some
heading his way with buckets of water.  Not enough of them, as it was also
vital to fight off the dragon, or staunching one blaze would mean nothing.

The scorpion fired, launching its three meter
long missile into the air, to miss the dragon.  Kurt grabbed one of the spears,
reared back, and launched it through the air with a hum of speed, his great
muscles sending it like a god of legend at the dragon.  It missed the monster,
going high, and speared through the rider, killing him in an instant, and
driving the dragon into a frenzy.

The dragon released another gout of flame, this
time hitting the mast and ashing the sail.  It flapped for altitude, then
banked again and headed back for the ship, its mouth open, waves of heat coming
off of it into the surrounding air.

Drake pulled as much of the fire as he could
into his body, to the point where the warm feeling started to head into the
region of pain.  With a shout, he pointed his right finger at the dragon,
sending a stream of white hot fire into the beast.

Red dragons were resistant to fire, more so
than any of the other elemental attacks used by dragons.  Resistant did not
mean proof, and the fire burned a hole in the red’s hard scales and into the
less resistant flesh underneath.  The dragon roared as it released its next
blast of flames, into the water to the port side of the ship.

“Eat this,” yelled James, taking the last of
the flame energy on the deck, extinguishing the fire, then throwing a roaring
ball that sped unerringly to strike the head of the dragon.  The ball exploded
in fury, the monster was flung backwards, and when it cleared the flame it had
no head, only the smoking end of a neck.  The monster’s body was limp and it
fell heavily into the sea.  In moments it was gone, the water bubbling as the
still hot creature sunk beneath the waves.

“Are you alright, James?” asked Jackie, running
up to him and putting his arm around her shoulder.

James leaned his weight into the woman who had
several times his physical strength.  “That exhausted me,” he said, looking at
the bubbling water where the dragon had gone under.  “I’m afraid the rest of
you are going to have to take it from here.  Unless we set the ship on fire
again.”

“I don’t think that would be wise,” said Kurt,
coming up beside the young man, holding one of the three meter long spears in
his hand.  “The ship can only handle so much burning before we’re incapable of
sailing.  I understand you don’t have the power to do what you just did to the
dragon to those ships.  But any magic you can muster will be appreciated.”

*     *     *

“What are we to do, my Lord?” asked the Officer
of Marines, staring at the spot where the dragon had gone into the water.

“What do you think, fool?” said the Commander,
glaring at the officer.  “We have orders to take that ship and the people
aboard it.  And that is what we are going to do.”

“But, their mage killed that dragon.”

“And they have not faced our mages,” growled
the Commander, nodding to the two men standing in the bow of the ship.  One of
the wizards looked back and raised his staff into the air. The Commander raised
his hand into the air and motioned at the enemy cog.

The Mage gave a slight head nod, then turned
back and raised his staff again into the air, while calling out some power
words.  The winds coming down from the north increased in strength, and the
Mage lowered his staff to point at the water near to the cog.  He shouted out
more words of power, and a blue light sprung from the staff to the spot where
the rod was pointed.  The liquid flared with light, and solidified, turned to
ice by the power of the water mage.

All of the mages aboard the galleys could throw
fireballs, to a degree, but all specialized in the magic of wind or water,
thought to be more useful at sea.  The other three mages performed the same
spell, and the cog lurched to a halt, surrounded by the ice that captured
entire waves in its embrace as it instantaneously crystallized.

“Let loose the catapults,” yelled the
Commander, and both ships released the forward mounted arms of their weapons,
sending balls of fiery pitch toward the cog.  One missed far to the port,
landing on the ice to burn harmlessly.

The other struck the stern of the ship, the
ball sliding to the ice, but enough pitch being rubbed off to start the wood on
fire.

“Reload and loose again,” yelled the Commander. 
“And all archers, shoot burning arrows into that vessel.  I will see them burn
to the waterline before we are through.”

The archers on each vessel, half of the fifty
marines that both carried, ignited the heads of their arrows and set them to
string, then sent them in arcing paths over to the enemy ship.  Soon the cog
was burning by the stern, and there seemed no way this enemy would be
victorious this day.

“Soften the ice up to them,” yelled the Captain
to his mages.  “I want us to capture who we can.”  He looked back at the
steersman.  “Do not come to close.  We don’t want to catch ourselves afire.”