The Coral Kingdom - Douglas Niles [120]
"We'll go out and meet them. We'll try to draw as many of them off as we can," explained Hanrald. The earl looked up at Alicia, who had joined them in the bow.
"Farewell, princess!" boomed Hanrald, with a bright smile at Alicia. "We battle yon foe; it is the way of the knight, after all!"
Alicia felt a great fear for her friends. "Take care," she said quietly, stretching upward to kiss the suddenly blushing Hanrald. She turned to Brigit with a wan smile. "Don't let him get into too much trouble!"
The elfwoman smiled sadly and touched Alicia on the arm. "It is too late for that, I fear," she said.
Then, as the swarming fishmen were almost upon them, Brigit and Hanrald dove over the side, racing through the water as swiftly as if they sprinted over a grassy field. The two dropped to the surface of the submarine ridge, landing lightly on their feet after a hundred-foot descent. Immediately they began running over the rough terrain, dodging around large outcrops of coral that loomed like giant boulders before them, and within a few seconds, they had disappeared from the view of their companions in the longship.
The voyagers saw scores of the attacking monsters swerve downward, pursuing the two knights. Scrags spread into a wide screen, swimming dozens of feet above the ocean floor, while many sahuagin darted into the ravines and gullies where the two intruders had vanished.
At the same time, the rest of the swarming predators continued to press toward the Princess of Moonshae. The complex of towers and domes was well defended, and more and more of the guards appeared in the distance, swimming toward the fight.
"Phyrosyne!" cried the princess, stamping her changestaff against the longship's hull. Immediately the shaft grew upward, though the tree creature twisted low to prevent its upper branches from breaking into the water over their heads. Thus propped in the hull, the wooden fighter reached out with knotty branches, ready to defend the ship against the wave of attackers that surged against them from all sides.
For an hour, Alicia's life became a maze of battle as she joined the crew of Brandon's ship in a desperate defense of their beleaguered vessel. Only the shock of their appearance and the success of Brigit and Hanrald's diversion, it seemed, gave them any chance in this battle, for no sooner had they vanquished a company of scrags or sahuagin than a fresh formation arrived to take its place. If the sea creatures had all attacked together, she knew, the battle could have had but one grim outcome.
Robyn recovered her awareness as the battle began and rose to her feet to aid in the fight, remaining in the body of a human this time and wielding spells instead of her own flesh. Tavish frantically played her harp, and as always the enchanted instrument caused the human warriors to forget their fatigue and their fear, striving their utmost to win this all-important battle.
The changestaff fought as steadily as any courageous human warrior. It broke the backs of fishmen and scrags alike, seizing their bodies in its firm branches and twisting with inexorable force, tossing the crippled remains back into the sea as it searched for another foe.
As it was, they battled desperately with spells and steel, arrows and axes, and they just barely managed to hold the swarm at bay. The water in their wake was littered by the torn bodies of the sea creatures, while many brave northmen and Ffolk gasped out their last breaths in the blood-spattered hull of the longship. The air grew thick with the stench of sweat and blood and saltwater, until each breath clogged in the throat, burning lungs and providing precious little oxygen for the breather.
Desperately battling men and monsters crashed over the benches, around the casks of stores, and even up and down the mast, but in the end, every attack was driven off, at a dear cost in blood.
"There-some kind of castle!" announced Brandon, peering through the murk toward a mountainous structure rising before them.