“Have you ever seen what happens to the slaves of Mordred, priest?” Bonifast said getting back to the wheel to make course corrections again.
“They let demons have their way with them. They destroy their hope and their will. They drive them crazy, kill them, or possess them! My orders are very clear from King Stephen, Gideon. I’m instructed to sink anything I can’t take. And just like you pointed out, I can’t hope to board them in this weather. They know that too. And if they manage to use this storm to get back to the mainland, then the captives will be lost anyway. I wouldn’t wish that fate on anyone. This is the way it has to be.”
Gideon stepped away from the captain. Anthony lowered his weapon, staring at the young priest as he staggered back to where Ethan stood on the deck. The boy hoped to find his sister among the slaves. He was not going to like this.
SEA SHIFTING
“He’s going to do what?” Ethan shouted.
Gideon tried to calm him down, but it was impossible.
“But my sister could be onboard that ship!”
Sea spray peppered the two young men as they talked. Ethan glared at Captain Bonifast as he operated the helm. Anthony stood near, watching them with his musket in hand. Gideon put his hand on Ethan’s shoulder and said, “There’s a reason for it, Ethan.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Bonifast knows about the demons that are working with Mordred. He said his orders from King Stephen are to sink any slaver that can’t be captured. He said the slaves are given to the demons to possess them, if they can. The rest are driven mad by the experience, or killed.”
They both looked out over the sea between the Maelstrom and the slaver ship. The storm intensified. “Ethan, you know there’s no way we can board that ship in this weather. If we don’t sink the ship then we risk losing it and condemning those people to a fate worse than death.”
To anyone else such statements might have sounded like the ranting assumptions of a lunatic, but Ethan knew all too well that demons were real, that they conspired with Mordred in this war. Subjection to them was something he could not bear to think of happening to his sister.
He slumped down on the deck, completely broken by the turn of events. Ethan watched the slaver, a mere three hundred yards away from them now, as it rose and fell with the raging sea. Had he come so far only to see his sister destroyed by this accursed war right before his eyes? Unable to bear it, he began to weep.
A thought hit Gideon like a thunderbolt. There might not be anything Bonifast can do, but Ethan is an entirely different matter. Gideon dropped down in front of Ethan and took the fourteen-year-old by the shoulders. “Ethan! You could save her!”
Ethan looked up at the priest, bewildered. “What are you talking about?”
A cross wave smashed into the bow causing the ship to shudder under the impact.
“Of all of the people onboard this ship, you are the only one who isn’t constrained completely by this physical world. Use your gift, Ethan! Find out if she is onboard before Bonifast closes the gap between us!”
Ethan jumped to his feet and ran to the rail, his lifeline tether trailing behind him. “But Gideon, what do I do if she is onboard? How can I get her off of the ship?”
Gideon stammered for an answer. “I don’t know…but I do know Shaddai is with you.”
That was all the encouragement Ethan needed. He concentrated on what he wanted, whispering a prayer to the Almighty. “Oh, Lord, help me to know how to use these gifts you’ve given. I don’t know why you would use me, but I beg you for guidance and the ability to save my sister.”
Gideon watched his friend as he snapped out of the physical world. The lifeline rope fell to the ground. Ethan had disappeared.
Ethan stood on the railing of the Maelstrom. Gideon picked up Ethan’s lifeline, which fell to the deck when he entered the spiritual plane. Ethan saw Gideon, but the warrior-priest of Shaddai no longer saw him.
The world around him took on a different feel. No longer did the wind beat upon Ethan, or the sea pelt him with salty drops of water. He saw the blue Azure through preternatural eyes and felt the world with new senses. He sensed enemies onboard the ship across the raging ocean-demons were on that ship.
Even from this distance, Ethan saw the activity onboard the slaver vessel. Crew members tried to keep the ship afloat as they ran from the Maelstrom. But these men did not have the sort of well-oiled-machine approach to their duties like Captain Bonifast’s nimble crew. These men, dressed in the crimson and black apparel of Mordred’s army, were not storm riders like Bonifast.
Ethan scanned the rest of the vessel and found someone watching him. A demon was clinging to the mizzenmast. At least this was what Ethan supposed on first inspection. But a closer look revealed the creature actually standing upon the face of the vertical beam. Gravity held no sway over him.
Without hesitation, the demon let out a war cry, charging across the expanse between the two ships. Ethan had forgotten these beings could simply move about at will through the air. It was not exactly what he would term flying, as much as a gigantic leap from one ship to the other.
On pure instinct, Ethan’s blade found its way to his waiting hand. He bolted backward, his feet up on the face of the mainmast, as the creature touched down on the railing in exactly the place where Ethan had just been standing. Ethan somersaulted from the mainmast of the Maelstrom back at the demon with his heavenly blade in hand. The metal gleamed even in the dense shadow of partial night caused by the storm cell overhead.
The demon charged forward with his weapon. Their weapons crashed into one another, flashing like lightning. The demon fought in the appearance of a man. He was terrible to look upon and yet strangely beautiful at the same time. His skin was pale gray. And what appeared to be bluish capillaries pressed to the surface of his complexion. His eyes were feral and fierce, irises of yellow ringing wide black pupils.
Somehow, Ethan did not fear him. The image of this once heavenly being only angered him more as his thoughts flashed with visions of a rebellion older than time. These were not the monsters of so many children’s stories. They were betrayers of Shaddai, pure and simple.
Ethan struck at the demon again. It countered as the battle raged across the deck of the Maelstrom. The crew continued with their duties as Bonifast chased after the slaver. They were oblivious to the struggle among them on the spiritual plane.
Ethan hammered away at the demon with his sword. The demon gave ground, but then took it back from the boy each time. A burst of light flashed each time the supernatural blades struck together, sounding like a thunderclap.
“So this is the Deliverer of God?” the demon taunted. “I would have expected more than a mere boy from the Almighty.”
Ethan wasn’t sure what to say, so he said nothing, but his anger caused him to press the fight even harder.
“Tell me, son of man, how did you find your parents after we destroyed Salem?”
Ethan grew enraged, striking with all the fury he could manage. It was a foolish move. His wrath did nothing but hinder Shaddai using him. The precision he had known seconds before faded as quickly. Ethan faltered, trusting in his own anger to fight.
The demon batted Ethan’s strike away, kicked him in the head, and then kicked him again in the chest. The boy flew backward across the deck, landing in a crumpled heap near the mainmast. The demon ran toward Ethan, raising his sword for the final blow. “It happens every time you pitiful men think you have the power to defeat us!”
“Help me, Shaddai,” Ethan said as the demon’s blade dropped toward him.
Ethan regained strength. He felt power fill him to the brim. In a movement faster than the demon could compensate for, Ethan rolled out of range and to his feet. He met the blade mid-strike, countering with an elbow and fist combo to the face of the demon. The demon’s smile vanished as he staggered backward.