The Shattered Land_ The Dreaming Dark - Keith Baker [81]
The water erupted around them.
The ship fell to the side, and no amount of agility could help Pierce; Daine saw his warforged companion disappear into the boiling water. Daine was still clinging to the rope, and now he found himself dangling in the air, clutching the slick line as he hung over the violent surf. A massive wall of water had risen to the north, completely obscuring their view of the horizon. The crest of the wave was over twenty feet in height, and there was no doubt in Daine’s mind that it held the end of the Gray Cat.
It refused to break.
It simply hung in the air, a cobra waiting to strike. Doom poised above them, as Daine managed to wrap the line around his forearm, and Gerrion clung to the wheel. It was merely a question of whether the wave would finally fall before the vessel completed capsizing.
Then, as quickly as the disaster struck, it came to an end. The towering wave didn’t break; it fell back, gently subsiding into the sea. Daine caught a glimpse of a vast, dark shape moving through the depths, and then, inexplicably, the Gray Cat was rising up. Water fell from deck and sail as the ship righted itself, finally standing straight and true. Now the ocean was truly calm, and the wind had died completely. The Gray Cat had survived, but it was dead in the water.
Pierce! Daine scrambled along the edge of the deck, still clinging to the rope. Daine had fallen asleep in his chainmail shirt, and he’d never been a strong swimmer; leaping into the water with armor on was a sure path to a watery death, but Pierce didn’t need to breathe. He had to be alive. Of course, Pierce had never learned to swim. For a moment Daine had an image of the warforged sinking to the ocean floor, slowly walking back to Stormreach.
He had to be alive.
“Can you see him?” Lei was still holding the rope around her waist. If she’d managed to get the knots undone a moment ago, she would have been swept into the ocean by the second wave. Now she held the rope belt, uncertain whether she trusted the new calm enough to undo her lifeline.
“I do so hate to lose crew,” Gerrion remarked, “but we might want to set to the oars and get out of these troubled waters before something worse comes along. Better to lose one than five.”
Daine ignored him, studying the still waters for any sign of motion. Was that a glint of metal, deep in the darkness? Rising to the surface?
It was—but he was not alone. A vast spout of water rose up from the sea, but this was no wave, and it didn’t even shake the ship. A shower of spray washed across the deck, obscuring their view, then they saw her through the mist.
A woman was gazing down at the Gray Cat. She was at least thirty feet tall, dressed in a long flowing robe—a robe formed of water. As the mist cleared and the sunlight struck her, Daine realized that the gown was a part of her. Her clear blue skin was still water, and her long white hair was bubbling surf; the surface of the gown was flowing water, the current giving the appearance of textured cloth. The hem of the gown disappeared into the sea.
And Pierce was in one liquid hand.
For a moment, Daine was stunned by the sight. She was beautiful and strange, as close to a god as he’d ever thought to see. This only lasted a second: his friend’s life was at stake, and there was no time for awe. Even as he wracked his brain for a plan—wondering if there was time to act before she could strike the ship, whether Lei’s magic arrows could affect such a magnificent creature—she reached down, placing Pierce on the deck of the ship.
Be not afraid. The voice swept across them like the tide itself. It was the sound of a gentle brook, of a tumbling waterfall, and Daine couldn’t say whether the sound was shaped into actual words or if they simply somehow knew what it wished to tell them.
“Pierce, are you hurt?”
“No, Daine. It was an interesting experience, but I am none the worse for it.”
Bursting free of the rope at last,