A tall man with wild black hair and fiery brown eyes dropped onto the deck before her. A short, thrusting goatee and mustache covered his cruelly handsome face. He was dressed in black, tight breeches tucked into buccaneer's boots and a black shirt with belled sleeves left open to reveal the tattoo of the flaming skull wearing a chain mask that left only the eyes and fanged mouth uncovered. Another tattoo on his left cheek showed a shark-like creature with a black haired mane twisted in mid-strike.
Selune help her, she recognized the man at once, and she prayed him dead in the same instant.
The man attacked at once, and she wielded her sword to parry the heavy-bladed falchion he swung. Afternoon sunlight glinted from the blades. He drew back immediately, setting himself to swing again.
The vision was rudely interrupted and Sabyna's senses returned to her own body, to her own time. The young sailor held her, steadying her as another shudder passed through Breezerunner, shaking the whole ship as the dulled thud of impact echoed up through the hold.
"We've run aground," the young sailor said, helping her to her feet in spite of the way the ship jerked and tossed. "We'll be lucky if we haven't torn the bottom out of her!"
XX
"Impossible," Sabyna said, pushing her way free of the young sailor. "We're miles from land." She had trouble standing as Breezerunner continued rocking while its length cleared the obstruction. Rushing to the railing, she peered down into the dark water, knowing the obstruction had to be underwater or the pilot and lookouts would have seen it.
Jaxx in the crow's nest sounded general quarters on the conch shell kept there for that purpose. The mournful wail filled the night. Men erupted out onto the ship. Many of them were half-dressed, and the night shift carried lanterns that threw dizzying ellipses across the deck.
"What in the three by three hells's going on here?" Tynnel yelled. He stood in the open doorway of his cabin under the stern castle, a cutlass naked in his fist.
"Hit something, cap'n!" Jaxx called down.
"What?"
"Don't know, cap'n. Didn't see anything then, and don't see anything now."
"Mornis," Tynnel shouted.
"Sir," the first mate called back.
"Get down into that hold and let me know what kind of shape we're in." The captain strode across the deck, glancing in all directions suspiciously. He closed on Sabyna. "I thought you kept a spell on this vessel that would warn us in the event of a possible collision."
"I do," the ship's mage said. "I renewed it this afternoon." She faced the captain with certainty. "Whatever we hit, it's less than thirty feet in length and underwater." The spell she'd managed to put on Breezerunner would notify them of anything bigger than that, or any stationary object above the water line. "Probably it's drifting as well."
Mornis reappeared at the top of the hold, gasping. He was a man in his middle years, his head shaved bald though he wore a forked gray beard. "We appear to be whole, cap'n, not taking on any water that I could find."
Tynnel waved him off, glancing briefly at the young sailor standing beside Sabyna, then back at the ship's mage. "I want to know what kind of shape my ship's in," he told her in a harsh voice.
Sabyna felt a momentary flicker of fire at the tone in his voice, but she pushed it out of her mind, clearing her thoughts so she could work her spells. She wasn't going to forget the treatment, and they would talk about it later. Just because she was occupying herself with company didn't mean she was letting down on the job.
She also didn't blame Tynnel for his gruffness; his ship was his life and his freedom. Without it, he'd be land-bound or working for someone else. Even independent ship owners relied on investors to a degree, and bringing a cargo in late or not at all risked financial disaster.
Pushing out her breath to further relax, she headed for the hold. The spell came easily to her lips and she took a one inch unflawed steel disk from her belt pouch that she kept with her. She rubbed it between thumb and forefinger as she descended into the hold.
"May I accompany you?" Jherek asked.
Glancing to her side, Sabyna saw the young sailor stepping in to match her pace. She looked past him, further down the stairs leading into the hold and saw Tynnel's face lit by the lantern he carried. The captain didn't look happy about what he saw there.
"Yes," she said. "That'll be fine."
A little bit of score settling now wouldn't hurt, she thought. She'd been doing her job and Tynnel would have to admit that. She seized the lantern one of Mornis's men held, then walked the prow through the narrow corridor formed between the crates and huge wine flasks they intended to trade and sell along their route.
The air inside the hold was damp and fetid. It always was this time of year and so near the Shining Sea. Moisture clung to the oaken beams in places, gleaming under the lantern light.
At the prow she passed the young sailor her lantern, then spoke her spell. At the end of it, she tossed the steel disk into the air. Instantly, it burst into bright, hot flame and charred to nothing. Even before it finished burning away, her mage's senses had increased. She could feel the striations and pressures within the ship's structure like it was a second skin over her own bones. Even the cool of the sea lapped at her, and the wind sweeping Breeze-runner's deck prickled along her skin.
She walked the length of the ship. When she reached the other end, her spell-enhanced senses died away. Perspiration trickled down her cheeks and her head hurt from the stress and strain. "The ship's fine," she announced.
Tynnel didn't look any happier. "What did we hit?"
"We could go back and look," Sabyna suggested. She was curious herself, and she hated not at least making the effort to find out.
The captain led the way back to the main deck and shouted out the order to change the sails and bring Breezerunner around. "Can you pinpoint the area?" he asked her.
"I can give you my best guess," Sabyna answered.
Slowly, the ship came around, working with the wind. After only twenty minutes' searching, one of the sailors called out, "Found it, cap'n! Sunken ship by the looks of it!"
Sabyna felt a chill shoot through her stomach. A ship sunk this far out from Amn, there'd be no chance for any survivors that hadn't made the lifeboats or a rescue ship. It was too far to swim and the ocean was filled with savage creatures. She followed Tynnel to the starboard side and gazed out at the water as Breezerunner slowed from a crawl to a gentle bob fully stopped on the ocean's surface.
Three men handled lanterns in the prow, lowering them over the side by ropes. As clear and as clean as the sea was, even the lantern light at full night was enough to reveal the outlines of the small cog listing nearly upside down in the water. The stern area wasn't visible at all.
Tynnel gave orders to lower a rowboat with Mornis in charge. Shrill squeals whined around the deck as the block and tackles were used. The first mate quickly picked his people.
"Probably a damned waste of time," the captain said angrily as he peered at the stricken ship, "but we've got to investigate and see if there's any potential salvage value."
"She's not resting on the bottom," Sabyna said. "She's drifting. That's why we passed over her instead of her ripping our bottom out. There won't be any salvage. I've never seen a cog less than thirty feet long, and if it was longer than that, my alarm would have sounded. What we're seeing out there is part of a ship. Something broke it in half."
"We'll see."
"I'd like to go with the rowboat crew," she said.