The Coral Kingdom - Douglas Niles [109]
Robyn recognized the impending disaster clearly, and she raised a prayer to the goddess Earthmother. Even through the deck of the longship, past the thousands of feet of brine into the ocean depth, the power of the great druid touched that of her deity and the words of the spell came forth.
"Cadeus, devor-ast!" cried the High Queen, and the command words touched the power of wood. Trees were the most stately children of the goddess, and thus ever susceptible to her will, even after they had been torn from the earth, their timber turned to the uses of creatures such as humans… or sea trolls.
Timber such as the heavy shaft of the ram.
Robyn's spell warped the great beam, twisting it downward and forming a great curl back toward the Manta. The creaking force of the twisting wood shrieked against their ears, but the shaft did not splinter. Instead, it held its new shape, the great timber curling downward into the water, pointed harmlessly toward the ocean floor. The sudden increase in drag slowed the great raft like an anchor, and disaster was averted for the moment. As the Manta lurched to the side, waves of water rolled over the long rowing benches, dragging the craft still slower and carrying many of the sahuagin right off their vessel.
A huge scrag, wild strands of weedy hair blowing around its head, snapped and shouted at the crew members, many of whom scrambled back aboard and returned to their places on the long benches. Slowly the flat ship picked up speed, until it again approached the pace of its quarry.
But though no longer threatened by the ram, the Princess of Moonshae couldn't pull away from the deceptively swift vessel. Keane cast a fireball against the bow of the Manta, incinerating a dozen sahuagin and a trio of scrags-but even that lethal explosion made little dent in the numbers on the wide raft.
The thing was surprisingly huge, Alicia saw-far bigger than she had previously imagined. Not only was it longer than the Princess of Moonshae, but the Manta's tremendous beam also increased its carrying capacity by dozens of times. She counted six of the great rowing benches, each little more than a long pole running fore to aft, straddled by dozens of sahuagin. From the pole the creatures dipped their paddles into the water that slid below them. The Manta had five long slots in its deck for just this purpose.
The sharks swarmed in closer, as if they, too, sensed imminent bloodshed. Several more sahuagin, slain by arrows, toppled into the water, and the ravenous shark pack immediately swarmed around them. The blood in the water drove the fish into a frenzy, and the surface of the sea roiled from the savage orgy of feeding.
"We can't keep this up forever!" Brandon declared, drawing Robyn and Keane aside.
"What do you suggest?" inquired the queen.
"We attack," the Prince of Gnarhelm stated bluntly. "We grapple with the bastards. We kill them or kick them off of that accursed raft, and then we burn the thing!"
"They outnumber us ten to one," objected Robyn. "That's too rash!"
"More like five to one," suggested Keane, who was studying the Manta intently. He frowned in concentration. "Of course, we'll need to leave a guard behind on the Princess. It wouldn't do to have them swim under her and come up on the far side."
"You're not seriously thinking of this, are you?" pressed Robyn, turning to the magic-user. Then her brows tightened. She knew the time for debate and decision was short, and finally she sighed. "I don't have any other solution. Let's do it."
"The sharks… they might keep the fishmen out of the water," suggested Alicia, who had joined them.
"Too risky. They kill the wounded, sure, but they're under the control of the same forces. Better to leave the bowmen on the longship. They'll have to use swords if it comes to that. Bring up the casks of oil. We'll need help if we're going to burn the raft."
Within a few minutes, the plans for the attack had been made. The Manta plunged along to the rear, within long