They were clinging along the coast, following the ocean currents that swept southward along the straight sweep of the continent before swinging out to sea. The pirates they were after would likely stop and make a few more raids before the autumn storms drove them home. The sky threatened to spill its tantrums upon them, but Schneider kept it at bay, allowing nothing but the steady, strong winds that filled their sails.
Three days out and he was already tired of the ship. It might have been more interesting if they'd had pirates to fight, or sea monsters or Kall hadn't been so sea sick he didn't want to do anything but wallow in his own misery. Schneider felt a twinge of it. It got worse when they passed over deep water. When he could no longer feel the intrinsic pull of the solid earth beneath him he lost his equilibrium. Not so bad as Kall-Su -- not yet at any rate - but it was there. The floundering weakness that made his stomach lurch and his head swim. Oh the power was there, the power of the storm and of the wind and all the things connected to them that were his forte', it was just a little harder to concentrate on calling them up when one's stomach threatened to toss up lunch. He didn't know what Kall had expected to be able to accomplish, indisposed as he was. But Kall hadn't been thinking straight in some while. Kall did not used to be so contrary.
Deep water and wizards didn't mix. That was the old adage. He hadn't believed it at one time, he still wasn't quite certain he trusted it entirely, but he did know that every wizard he knew had a certain intolerance for prolonged sea voyages. Unfortunately that included himself, even though his tolerance was relatively high. The last time he'd sailed it had taken over a week before he joined Kall-Su and Arshes Nei at the rail.
He was annoyed that they hadn't seen sight of their quarry yet. With his winds they should have been making exceptional time. The old captain didn't understand it either. Yoko was going to have fits. He'd had the sense to jot down a letter to her and send it along with his horse via one of the town's teenagers. A gold piece and promise of another when the letter reached its destination and his ire if it did not, had the lad eager to do his bidding. At least she wouldn't bitch at him for running off and not telling her. She couldn't complain about what he was doing, even if he did. It was exactly the sort of thing she would encourage enthusiastically. Gara would have too, having become wretchedly moral in his middle age. Arshes might have retained a bit of common sense, despite her poor taste in men, though he couldn't be entirely sure. Kall was just messed up from the whole Prophet business so one could expect no rationality from him. All in all the people Schneider most cherished would have frowned at him had he not decided to add his presence to this little pursuit. So really what was one to do?
A day later they were approached threateningly by two bulky, Alliance of Southern kingdom frigates who thought they were nothing so much as what they seemed in their captured pirate vessel. Schneider didn't sink the ships, though he was tempted when they were hailed and commanded to surrender or be boarded. He despised ultimatums. The old captain and his crew full of clearly non- foreign sailors convinced the two frigates that they were friendly. Schneider leaned against the rail indolently while the shouted conversation took place. It seemed the frigates were in pursuit of a pirate vessel that had just plundered a coastal town. Hot in its wake in fact. Descriptions were passed. He supposed the old captain had some clearer sense of what the vessel's they were pursuing looked like than Kall did, for it was soon ascertained that the alliance's pirates and their pirates might very well be one and the same. The pirates it seemed were headed out to sea and the alliance frigates could only pursue them so far, before they had to turn back to patrol the coast.
Kall-Su staggered up on deck as the ships were drifting apart. He looked miserable and wan, pale hair in as much of a disarray as Schneider had ever seen. The circles under his eyes told that if he'd been sleeping he had not been getting much rest. The tense line of his lips made it clear that the nausea had not subsided. He misjudged the distance to the rail and stumbled against it. Schneider put out a hand reflexively to steady him
"What was that?"
"You're a little late getting here." Schneider said sweetly. "Trouble navigating the steps?"
"I hate you." Kall snapped, glaring blearily at the other ships in the distance. "Who were they?"
"You don't hate me. You love me. You're just agitated because I was so right and you were so wrong. They're some of Larz's toy soldiers. Sailor soldiers. Whatever. They're after your pirates too. We're heading out to sea to track them. They won't do it. Can't leave the coast or some such nonsense. Its not as if they're doing a decent job of protecting it or we wouldn't be out here in the first place. If you fall over the rail, I'm not fishing you out."
Kall-Su leaned over his elbows, head bent, hair falling over his eyes. "I don't understand --" he said hoarsely. "How I can still want to throw up if I haven't eaten anything in days."
"What? You haven't partaken in any of that poisoner they call a cook's fine cuisine? Why just today he concocted this shapeless slop that might have had beans and some sort of pre-chewed gristle which I shudder to guess where he found ---"
Kall-Su gagged and fled from him. Schneider chuckled, but the amusement didn't last. Even with his air spirits filling the sails they didn't catch the pirates that day. The frigates dropped back and turned around early in the afternoon. The shelf of land that clung to the coast dropped off sharply the further out they got. Schneider felt it in a lurch of the gut when they began sailing over deep, fathomless water. His head began to swim a little at unexpected times, and he had to fight the steadily rising nausea. He began cursing by nightfall when they still hadn't seen the outline of a ship on the horizon. He went below decks, to escape the smell of the sailor's dinner. Kall-Su was curled in a fetal knot on the narrow bunk of his small cabin, sweat drenched and as good as unconscious, he was so debilitated by the sea sickness.
With no one to witness his weakness, Schneider allowed himself to slide down the wall and sit at the foot of the bunk. He rested his head on his forearms and stared bleakly at the rough planks of the floor. He gave himself another day before the sea began to have its way with him too. At that point he didn't care what Kall-Su wanted, this ship was turning about and heading home.
The ship tossed, rocked on a particularly large swell and Schneider's stomach did a echoing lurch. Bile trailed up his throat, leaving a nasty taste in its wake. He shut his eyes and tried to magic the nausea away. To a certain degree it worked. The worst of it subsided but the sickness lurked in the shadows, not even close to banished. It wasn't entirely physical he thought. It was something of the ocean -- of the deep, true ocean that held a power of its own. Which did not blend at all well with sorcerous constitutions. The concept might have intrigued him some other time. Safe on solid land, say. At the moment it was an annoying hypothesis shoved to the back of his mind as soon as the ship lurched down another great swell and the nausea rushed back with a vengeance.
He couldn't stop it this time. He dared not even open his mouth to curse. He made it to the bucket that doubled as a chamber pot, and thanked all the gods it was empty, before spewing up his guts into it. Afterwards he cursed. Long and loudly and amazingly explicitly. Tears of rage glinted on his lashes.
Unacceptable. Completely and entirely unacceptable, that he be debased so. There was filth in his hair. He hissed and weakly summoned a spell to banish it. He shoved the bucket away and glared at Kall-Su. Kall had opened his eyes a slit, awakened by Schneider's blasphemies.
"This is your fucking fault." Schneider hissed. "Next time you want to go do something stupid, remind me to fucking let you."
"I'm sorry." Kall said miserably, barely a whisper. "Why'd you come in the first place?"
Schneider just glared at him, not in the mood to frame an answer.
"Its different now." Kall-Su observed. His voice held a little bit of a slur, as if he'd been drinking, which Schneider knew he hadn't. "The ocean. Its --- stronger."
"We're well and truly away from coastal waters." Schneider said. "Deep water. There's some force to do with the sea that's clashing with our powers. Figures, I guess. You ever know a wizard who could control ocean elementals?"
"They're not controllable." Kall said softly. "Too powerful. Too wild."
"Territorial?" Schneider theorized, settling his back against the bunk so he could see Kall's pale face. Kall blinked at him, befuddled mind tossing that notion over.
"Territorial enough to want to repel any other type of power?" Kall had a head for this type of thing. The scholarly bisection of theories. He had a half hundred books on mythical ideology that he knew front to back, most of which bored Schneider to tears.
"You ever seen an ocean elemental?" Schneider hadn't and he'd been around far longer than Kall-Su.
"No. Maybe." Kall chewed the inside of his cheek, trying to pin down a thought. "Yes." He finally changed his mind. "The thing that slapped me down the night the pirate's attacked could have been one."
"Really? Tell me about it."
"It -- it was more cohesive than ice, or air, or fire elementals. Not fickle. I think, if I were to describe the sense of it and I didn't have the chance to really study what was being thrown at me -- I'd say it had the feel of a collective."
"It's all connected. The water." Schneider twined a piece of hair about his finger absently. "One big elemental force?"
Kall shuddered. "God, I hope not."
The younger wizard clamped his teeth shut, bracing a hand against the wall as the ship tilted precariously. It was becoming noticeably rougher. "Is there a storm coming?" Kall asked, because Schneider had a feel for such things. But his senses were not as sharp as usual, not with the queasiness and the ocean working against him.
"Maybe. Maybe."
Kall-Su groaned and threw an arm over his face. Schneider forced himself up. He staggered against the door frame as the ship rocked and had to lean against the wall of the narrow passage to work his way above deck. The sky was gray and spilling rain. It had been clear when he'd gone below decks. His elementally summoned winds were no longer the predominate source of power feeding the sails. He was drenched within moments. His knowledge of ocean sailing was limited, but the darkness sweeping up on them from the south seemed unsavory. He wondered if he ought to attempt and stave it off, and went aft to the wheel to ask if the old captain thought it necessary.
"Can you?" The old man asked both brows riding high on his wrinkled forehead.
Schneider wiped arm length tendrils of wet hair back from his face. "If I have to."
"These flash squall's can be the worst." Arag said. "Might not hurt, with this crew of fishermen to veer it away from us, if it's possible."
Schneider stared into the approaching storm bank. Flashes of lightening could be seen piercing the dark wall of cloud cover, the distant booming of thunder seemed to shake the ship. The ship dipped almost perpendicular as it went down the side of one great swell. There were a few cries of surprise as men lost footing and scrambled for purchase. Schneider just lifted off the deck and into the air. The wave was taller than the ship. It took him a few seconds to clear it as it rolled past. Just being off the rolling deck was a relief.
He headed into the storm bank, getting a feel for the natural powers that stirred within it. The ocean might be rising up to match it, but the storm itself was his element. It was still an odd mixture, wilder than land based storms. Less responsive to his control. To his surprise, he couldn't make it dwindle. It was a fight to convince it to turn away and it did it only grudgingly. The sea raged still beneath him, not so easily swayed. The waves still bashed the ship ruthlessly, as if in retaliation for the theft of the storm. The sea was not as fickle as the storm, it would take a while before the turbulence subsided.
He was tired when he sat down. The deck lurched out from beneath him when he'd been expecting its solidity. He stumbled, off balance. Something dark welled over the port rail, spewing cold wetness across the deck. The wave hit him broadside and the only thing that kept him from going over the other side with it was the deck house, who's bulk he was slammed into with a force. He lost breath and equilibrium. He grasped at wood for a hand hold, blinded by water and hair. He felt of a sudden as if he were spiraling downwards, sucked into fathomless darkness by the sea. He couldn't concentrate to fashion a spell.
The ship rocked again and he clung to his safety. The turbulence decreased by measures. Someone put an hand under his arm, trying to haul him up. One of the plain faced fishermen, who was wet as he was, but enviously stable with the ship dancing under him.
"You should ride it out below decks, milord." The man suggested, as if he thought Schneider might prefer to be lashed by the waves out here. He shrugged of the helping hand, then regretted doing it when he discovered a sudden inability to walk properly. He used the deck house as crutch and made his way to the portal leading down. The passage was drenched with water. The ceiling was dripping with it. He found a shoebox cabin, with a bunk and collapsed onto it, wet clothing and all. He shut his eyes and the world swam. He barely leaned over the side of the bunk in time not to mess clothes and sheets with vomit. He was a little better afterwards, but not much. Maliciously, he thought, at least he wasn't as bad off as Kall, then wished a little extra misery on the younger wizard for getting him into this.
He shut his eyes and something happened. A timeless, meandering dizziness that might have cloaked sleep and might have only been the brief span between breaths. Shouts from the passage made him open them again.
"A ship. There's a ship on the horizon."
Schneider blinked haze out of his vision. He got up and felt an overwhelming nausea that made him double over half way between bunk and door. He cursed between dry heaves. He managed to get himself functional and out into the passage.
"Kall." He snapped, pausing by Kall-Su's door. "We've got your ship."
Kall blinked at him blearily and made an effort to sit up. Schneider didn't wait to see if he succeeded, rather doubting he had the capability to make the deck.
The sky was dark again, only this time it was from the onslaught of dusk rather than storm. He had slept then. The horizon glowed blood red. He shielded his eyes and looked in the direction old Arag indicated. He could just make out the dark silhouette of a ship, sails unfurled against the sunset. The sea was still choppy, but it was possible to keep his feet if he clung to the rail. No great waves washed over the sides, threatening to take men with them.
It seemed to take forever to close the distance, but eventually they did. The other ship, aware of the pursuit turned to face them. It was of the same design as the one they sailed, but it seemed to undulate through the waves like a serpent. It was eerie, how it steadily ate up the distance between them, yet its sails were not full of wind urging it in their direction. In fact the wind was against it. It should not have been making the headway it was.
"Its up to you." Old Arag said. "We've not the numbers to face them."
Schneider didn't answer. A humorless smile crossed his lips. Ba Co Raven. He whispered the words and lifted off the deck. It was odd, the sea seemed to pull at him. He fortified his concentration and ignored it. He covered the span of ocean in a few heartbeats, leaving his ship behind. Sinking the pirate vessel would make this whole miserable experience worthless, so he had to work a little more delicately and merely disable it. Start with the main mast and a little fire on the deck.
He spoke the words to a Strike spell and a finger of lightning formed out of the air over his head and zig zagged down to hit at the base of the main mast. With a splintering crack the great spear of wood toppled, trailing sails and rigging as it went. The rigging was the only thing that saved it from crashing into the deck. It tangled in the lesser mast and lay there at an awkward, wounded angle. Men ran about the deck in a panic, small and inconsequential from his height. He spoke the words of a fire summoning. It was sluggish responding to his will. He frowned and redoubled his efforts. Reluctantly almost, flames sprang to life along the deck.
And were instantly smothered. He frowned at that, searching for the source and not able to find it. On the deck, men started yelling, pointing skyward. He was spotted then. He could have cared less. The attention of the pirates was not a thing that worried him. Their flimsy arrows he brushed aside like stray thoughts. He mouthed the words to a another strike spell and wood along the prow shattered.
There was a rushing sound, a sudden intake of air, the tingling sensation of power being put into play. He looked down in time to see a conical tendril of water snaking up from the sea towards him. He put up a shield -- barely -- but the thing still batted him aside a good twenty feet, then arched around like the waving tentacle of some deep sea monster and tried to chase him down. He hissed the words to an energy blast.
The sinuous body of the thing exploded, spraying water. A moment later and it had reformed. It took another high impact blast for him to realize it just wasn't going to work. The thing had the limitless resources of the ocean to draw upon. Whoever was directing it was on that ship. Get the water wizard and this fight would be over. He flew down close to the deck of the enemy ship, past startled pirate archers, looking for the unique power trail of a magic user at work.
And saw him on the raised deck at the aft of the ship. Just a glimpse of a thick, black bearded man, before he slammed an Exodus spell home. It hit with a blinding flash of light and a deafening boom. And then the sea rose up and took her revenge. It swept over the deck and snared him right out of the air. He went over the side and down into the depths, tangled in bands of current that were stronger than steal. He swallowed lungfuls of the stuff before he was able to erect a shield. But there was no air to trap within it. All he could do was try and force the water away -- to keep it from crushing him. Even that was becoming difficult, totally immersed in the watery element, where no air or storm or fire could reach.
He couldn't get to the surface. He was drowning and he despised the feeling. A huge explosive spell and the water frothed around him, but he was deep enough so that all that happened was a bubbling expulsion of air and turbulence on the surface.
Try another route, then. Search for the elemental force that was carrying out the water wizard's spells. Overwhelm it if he could. He let himself sink into cold, blackness and searched out the nature of the thing.
And found enormous, ever changing -- never changing rhythm. Enormous power. Solid and steadfast and relentless in its task and its loyalty. It was not a defeated, enslaved elemental. It chose service of its own will. It served something of its own.
It crushed what threatened it. He stopped fighting. Drifted aimlessly, teetering on the verge of blacking out. Something swam by him, huge and sinuous and patently invisible in the murk. He started, surprised out of lethargy. He was nudged. Teeth fastened to his leg and almost gently he was shaken. He put hands out and felt a leathery surface. Energy radiated through his fingers. He felt the flesh shatter under his hands. There was the warmth of blood in the water around him. For a moment he thought it belonged to the creature he had destroyed, then it occurred to him that more than likely such a creature would be cold blooded. He reached and felt at his leg. Numb, beyond feeling from the cold, but his fingers discovered ripped flesh and the sharp feel of broken bone.
Wonderful. Completely charming. His thoughts were beginning to splinter. He couldn't concentrate enough to perform a healing. Then something else, dark and massive drifted by him. This time it was no living thing. This time it was several tons of wood and canvas, sinking towards the undefined ocean floor. It shifted in its descent and the trailing mast slammed against Schneider's back. Then it was gone. Unfortunately it took the rest of his consciousness with it.