The Jewel of Turmish - Mel Odom [109]
"Get oil up here!" a big warrior yelled. "Get oil up here and well burn that damned ship to the waterline! Those undead bastards will go down with it!"
Borran Kiosk unleashed a spell, sending an arc of fire streaming from his hand. The fireball deflected off course and shot up into the sky, warring with another brilliant flash of lightning for preeminence in the dark heavens.
A tall, gangly man in elegant robes covered in runes strode onto the second ship's deck. He thrust out a hand. In response, the winds picked up strength and smashed into Mistress Talia. Several of the undead crew were blown down, and a handful of others were blown off the deck into the ocean. Overhead, a sail ripped free of its moorings and went fluttering away, disappearing into the darkness.
Borran Kiosk clung defiantly to the railing.
"No matter what ill fate awaits me," he told Allis, T will not be taken. I will not be humbled. My vengeance, my bloodlust, will be slaked in the lives of these men and those alive in Alaghфn and all of Turmish. I will survive this."
"You'll do more than that," the werespider said, touching his arm. "Look."
Borran Kiosk turned and looked in the direction she pointed. At first he saw only a few gleams amid the wall of water approaching them from the ruins of the Whamite Isles, and he assumed they were jellyfishes reflecting the lightning or perhaps debris, wood pieces with nails or other bits of metal driven into them, then he saw them change direction.
"It's the drowned ones," Allis said.
Doubt lingered in Borran Kiosk, then he felt a fresh infusion of power through the coral glove.
"This is your moment, Borran Kiosk," Allis said. "Seize control of the power blessed Malar has put at your disposal."
"Borran Kiosk," the wizard aboard the other ship yelled. "Surrender your vessel!"
Ignoring the challenge, Borran Kiosk turned to Allis and asked, "Why did this league of wizards you say you work for choose to give this power to me?"
Allis hesitated. She glanced toward the other ship and the light from the blazing fire arrows reflected in her eyes.
"Kill the monster!" someone from the other ship shouted. "Kill him and be quick about it!"
"Why?" Borran Kiosk asked again, moving closer to the werespider.
She looked back at Borran Kiosk, defeat in her gaze.
"Because they can't use it," she said. "The glove was created by their magic, but only an undead can wear it. They chose you because of your hatred for Turmish, and because Malar instructed them to."
"What is your answer, Borran Kiosk?" the wizard on the other ship demanded.
Allis glanced past the mohrg, toward the prow of the ship.
"You must act quickly, Borran Kiosk," she said, "else the drowned ones will take us down as well."
Looking over his shoulder, Borran Kiosk saw the gleam of white bone swimming beneath the black water now. He recognized the bodies of men, women, and children swimming in the sea. They were less than fifty yards from the ships. So intent was the focus of the men aboard the other ship that none of them noticed the arrival of the drowned ones.
Something butted into Mistress Talia.
Borran Kiosk felt the echo of the impact through the ship's deck. Gazing down into the water, he saw the heads of the drowned ones clustered by the ship. There must have been fifty or sixty of them, with more coming. Lightning seared the sky, and reflections dawned in the dead eyes or in the empty eye holes that gazed up at him. He felt the hunger that drove them, as insistent as his own.
"Borran Kiosk!" the wizard on the other ship called out. "This is your last warning. I won't hold these men back any longer."
The drowned ones at the waterline began forming a pyramid of bodies. The ones on the bottom stayed motionless while the others started piling on, floating higher and higher as the waves rocked them. Already they were halfway up the side of the merchanter and no one had noticed them.
Looking across the water, Borran Kiosk discovered that