The Lost Library of Cormanthy - Mel Odom [108]
"We've picked up a lot of it outside." Uziraff grinned in the lantern light.
Baylee kept silent, struggling to get through the gap and bringing the chest with them. They had nearly made it to the waiting net when one of the two pirates pointed and screamed.
Turning, Baylee looked back in the direction they'd come from. The lantern lights were barely bright enough to illuminate the huge gray bodies as they swam into view. The alien eyes, bigger than the ranger himself, stared at him.
Then the whales swam into the wreckage of Chalice of the Crowns, smashing it into even smaller bits than it had been. The turbulence created by their passing shoved Baylee from his feet. For a moment, he was tangled in the net with the treasure Uziraff and his two men had gathered. Then he was free, the lantern in hand as he swam for a rocky outcropping.
Uziraff joined him a moment later. "Where in the nine hells did they come from?" the pirate captain demanded.
"I don't know," Baylee said. "But I'm glad they didn't arrive while we were still inside."
Both major parts of Chalice of the Crowns crumbled to pieces under the giant whales' assault. In the gathered darkness, Baylee wasn't sure how many of the creatures there were.
On their next pass through the area, they opened their mouths and shoveled in the broken pieces of the ship, swallowing them whole. More whales glided through the water and raked the silt in the nearby areas, dredging up huge tracts of the ocean floor.
Miraculously, they did not see the two nets Uziraff had been using.
A moment later, they were gone. Baylee pushed himself away from the rocky outcropping, staring at the long ditches where Chalice of the Crowns had lain for hundreds of years.
22
"I'll want a boat before I let you strand us out here," Baylee said. They were back aboard Windchaser, his clothes still dripping cold brine. The whales had completely left the area and, according to the pirate crew, never even broke the surface.
Uziraff stood at the prow of the cog, lanterns throwing light over him. The boom arm creaked threateningly as it lifted the second of the nets free of the ocean floor while the crew yelled in triumph. The pirate captain turned his attention from the glittering gold and silver pieces in the dripping nets to Baylee. "Who are you to make demands at this point? I could have all of you killed, cut up into chum for the sharks, and thrown overboard."
Baylee was aware of Civva Cthulad shifting beside him. The old warrior's hands were already on his weapons. "That would be a misadventure on your part," Baylee said.
"How can you stand there and say that?" Uziraff demanded. "You're outnumbered almost nine to one!"
"Think about it," Baylee said in a neutral voice. "How often have you seen me go armed?"
Uziraff leaned on the railing, gazing down at the ranger.
Baylee knew what he was saying was true, and it gave the pirate captain
pause.
I promise, Xuxa said, opening her thoughts to Uziraff, that I will kill you if Baylee falls.
"They're only two men," one of the nearby pirates shouted out. "I say kill 'em and be d-" His voice froze in his throat, blocked by the quivering throwing knife that suddenly took shape there. The pirate gurgled, finally managing to yank the throwing knife free of his throat. But it was too late, his life was already spent.
"Anyone else want to venture an opinion?" Baylee asked. He fanned three throwing knives out in front of him, then made them disappear with the grace of a fan dancer. "If you try to attack me, I have nothing to lose."
None of the other pirates said a word.
"I await your answer," Baylee said.
Uziraff hesitated only a moment, then gestured to his men. "Give them a lifeboat. We've got the treasure. They can't take that away from us."
"Well, lad," Civva Cthulad said in a whisper as they faced the pirate crew, "I must admit I didn't expect you to kill that man outright so quickly. You seem to be rather laid back for that kind of thing."
"He would have talked them into killing us," Baylee replied. "And we would have killed