The dragon came from the south, behind the Avalonian ships. As it dove out of the clouds it let out another guttural roar that had all heads turning. With one great beat of its leathery wings, the black-scaled beast leveled off and flew toward the distant supply ships. They had followed the fleet to help with repairs, food, and other supplies and would prove integral in offering aid to the people of Frenis once the blockades were broken. They were large cargo ships with little armament.
They fell quickly to the dragon's flames.
The black dragon shot out a stream of red fire at the cargo ships, burning away their sails, charring their hulls, and roasting their sailors alive. Dozens, scores, and then hundreds of sailing men lost their lives in a few minutes of devastating violence. The dragon hovered in the air, beating its wings hard, fanning the flames and ensured there were no survivors. When all the ships were engulfed, it flew alongside them and slashed at their weakened hulls with its tail, gouging huge holes in their sides. Water seeped into the damaged hulls and before long all burning ships were sinking to the dark depths of the Cerulean Sea.
"It's her, isn't it?" Jack managed to ask Hook, his body growing colder the longer he stared at the massacre. "It's the empress."
Hook nodded, his face paler than usual. "It is indeed."
With the supply ships rid of, the dragon empress gained some altitude and surveyed the battle, which had paused at her arrival. Jack could hear the Noyran sailors cheering and, once they determined the dragon was an ally, the Swordenish joined them. Reinvigorated and feeling confident in their chances, the enemy ships resumed battle, blasting several unanswered volleys into Avalonian hulls. The Avalonian captains, somewhat recovering from their shock at the dragon's appearance, retaliated but they had lost their momentum and focus and many shots went awry.
That was when Empress Rhiannon attacked again.
Jack and Hook could only stand and watch as she dove toward the westernmost row of Avalonian ships. Neatly arrayed in a perfect line, she had to simply fly over them once to cover them all in flames. She dove over them a second time, her fiery breath engulfing canvas, wood, and flesh in moments. Black smoke rose behind her, darkening the sky and choking the breath out of the few survivors on the burning wrecks.
"We need to leave," Hook said. "We need to get out of here now!"
"We can't outrun her!" Jack argued, glancing at the dragon empress as she soared overheard, admiring the destruction she had caused.
"We can't fight her, either, Jack!" Hook then turned to his terrified crew and shouted to get their attention. "Listen up, lads! Tear your gazes away from that infernal beast and listen to me! We have the wind at our backs and we're only a few days sail from Frenisian shores. I say we open sail and get our asses out of here as quickly as we can. I know it feels like running from battle but we can either stay here and burn to ash or sail away and fight another day. What shall it be?"
Not a moment later, Hook's crew set about opening all sails available and setting the Julia's Revenge on a northward course toward Frenis. They'd pass through enemy vessels in their way but with the wind at their backs there was no other choice.
Julia's Revenge sliced through the water at top speed as battle waged all around them. Jack watched as three Noyran frigates surrounded a stranded Avalonian fourth rate and destroyed its hull with combined fire. The larger ship listed on her side and eventually capsized, sending all men overboard. A Swordenish sloop lost its battle against an Avalonian brig but it was avenged when a Noyran third rate fired a full broadside volley at it, the brig exploding in a fireball of death.
The dragon empress set her eyes on the easternmost line of Avalonian warships, the one closest to Hook's frigate. She roared, spread her wings wide, and dove, her golden eyes set on another neat row of doomed prey.
Jack and Hook turned their faces away as the dragon passed, her flaming breath leading the way, feeling its heat from where they stood, over two hundred yards away. Rhiannon rose into the air, turned around, and like before, dove for another pass. Some of the ships had broken away from their line and thus weren't as badly damaged from the first pass but the second one was slower and more focused. No one escaped her flames this time.
The empress had no need for prisoners.
****
Selvina held on with her life as Amalthea galloped at full speed through the crowded streets. The unicorn's mane clenched tightly in her hands, Selvina glanced back at her pursuers. Their horses were large and menacing and not as fast as the agile unicorn but were determined and still close enough to be a threat.
Especially once heir riders shouldered muskets and crossbows.
Selvina screamed as the muskets fired, puffs of smoke billowing into their shooters' faces, and flattened herself onto Amalthea's back. She heard the snap of crossbow string and watched as an unfortunate bystander was struck in the shoulder. The people of Corbeau were frantically getting out of the way but not all were swift enough. Amalthea made certain not to do anything more than nudge or bump anyone but the Swordenish riders pursuing her were not so considerate. Their horses bowled aside anyone too close and trampled over anyone in their way. The riders cared not for where their musket balls or crossbow bolts flew.
Tinkerbelle continued to guide the fleeing unicorn, turning sharply down a narrow side street. Agile Amalthea changed direction without slowing while her pursuers struggled to rein in their mounts and turn them. There was a brief dispute as the street was only wide enough for one rider to pass through at a time and each rider wanted to be first. Eventually, one shoved his horse through the others and galloped on. The others then struggled to be the first one to follow.
Selvina breathed a sigh of relief at the delay the petty squabble had caused. The pursuit was by no means ended but there was now a considerable gap between pursued and pursuer. She took the moment to ask Amalthea how she was faring.
My muscles are tiring but I will go on for as long as I have to, the unicorn replied, her voice speaking in Selvina's mind. If you weren't wearing the elf-arrow I could use some of my innate magic to increase my speed.
"Should I get rid of it?" Selvina asked, not like the idea one bit.
No. Leep it, Selvina. I have a feeling we will need it soon.
Once out of the side street, Tinkerbelle led them down a wide avenue toward a great wall and open gates in the distance.
Selvina's hopes rose. "We're almost out of the city!"
Amalthea put on an extra burst of speed and Selvina held on, wondering what was the rush. The riders were far behind them and salvation was near. Once they were outside of the city with open fields ahead of them there was no way the slower warhorses could catch up.
But then Selvina saw what concerned Amalthea and so soon after her hopes had risen, they were now plummeting rapidly. Far ahead, she could see that the city's gates were open but standing in front of them was Queen Svala. Accompanying her was a score of royal guard, heavy pikes pointed forward. Behind the pikemen were a dozen musketeers, their firearms leveled and aimed directly at the approaching unicorn.
To make matters worse, the pursuing riders had reappeared, galloping with all the speed their mounts could muster.
Selvina clenched her elf-arrow and prayed to whatever gods were listening.
****
Jack hung onto the topgallant's yard with his legs, dangling upside down, and secured the sail's severed rope. Julia's Revenge was speeding past enemy ships but that didn't stop them from firing cannonballs and chain shots. The cannonballs pummeled the hull and the chain shots were aimed toward the masts and sails, aiming to slow down the swift vessel. The frigate fired back, however, and was not so easily stopped.
After Jack finished securing the binding he then grabbed a dangling rope and swung over to the foremast and patched up a gaping hole one of the chain shots had done in the sail. He hurriedly pulled needle and string from the pouches at his side and went to work, cannonfire exploding all around him, occasionally accompanied by a dragon's roar. The battlefield was deafening but Jack didn't lose focus. Julia's Revenge needed to escape the chaos if he was to survive and see Selvina again.
"She's going for the admiral's line!" Jack heard Hook cry out. "She'll come for us next, lads! We need more speed!"
Jack worked faster, hoping that once this hole was patched up that Julia's Revenge could sail that much more swiftly. Any little bit of extra sail helped and right now everyone aboard this ship needed as much canvas as possible.
Finally, the patch was sown and Jack paused a moment to catch his breath. A sudden explosion nearly threw him off the yard and he quickly regained his balance like no one else could. Glancing to the side, he saw that one of the burning ships had exploded into tiny bits of flotsam, the flames having reached its gunpowder store. It had happened several times already but every explosion made the ears ring and created shockwaves across the sea that rocked Julia's Revenge.
He saw her then, the dragon empress. She had flown high above to the south and was diving down like a falcon, wings tucked against her sides and body arrow-straight. She had one more line of heavy ships to burn apart and the admiral sailed in that one. With that line destroyed the battle would effectively be over and Avalon's navy completely wiped out. Starting from the south, the admiral's ship would be the last to burn. Jack wondered if it was a sick sort of pleasure for the empress to allow Avalon's admiral the agony of watching every ship under his service burn from her fire before his met the same fate. The middle line had had time to break apart, however, and this attack would not be as simple as the others had been. Nevertheless, the huge, slow-moving vessels couldn't hope to evade the flames for long.
Rhiannon spread her wings and leveled off, flying over a hundred feet above the surface, just high enough to pass over the ships' tallest sails. She opened her mouth, her throat glowing with gathered flame, and readied to release the fire.
Suddenly, just as the first flames were escaping her mouth, eight massive tentacles stabbed out of the water and reached for the dragon empress, grabbing her legs, neck, wings, and body. She had just enough time to glance down at her attacker before getting abruptly and violently pulled below the surface in a massive splash.
The battle paused, only the crackling flames and the cries of the wounded and dying breaking the otherwise absolute silence. The ripples of the broken surface had not yet settled before the empress's draconic head breached the water, roaring in fury. One wing flapped out, slapping the water in panic, as a tentacle reached up to grab the empress's face. She blasted out a jet of flame which shriveled the tentacle into a blackened crust within moments. She snapped at it with her toothy maw and cracked it apart as it slithered back into the depths.
"Kraken!" sailors began to cry out. "Kraken!"
Jack heard another voice then, one that was calling his name. He looked down but could not find the speaker. As the dragon empress battled the Kraken Jack scaled down the mast and down to the main deck. He rushed to the side of the ship and searched the water.
"Over here, Jack!"
He snapped his head in the direction of the voice and his eyes widened at what he saw. Floating with their torsos above the surface were Eric and Ariel, the mermaid waving her webbed hand wildly. Rising above the surface behind them, his torso surrounded by a swirling cyclone of water, was the Lord of the Oceans himself, King Posanos. Jack remembered him from when he had parted the waters to return Bigbad and sailors that had fallen overboard while braving the hurricane that surrounded Skull Island. He had saved lives then and he seemed to be doing the same now.
"Your days of slaying the innocent are over, Rhiannon!" the king called out, his booming, baritone voice drowning out all other noise. In his hand he held a mighty trident and it glowed brightly. "Too many lives have ended by your flames! May the Kraken entomb you below the waves!"
The dragon empress disappeared below the surface then, the Kraken getting the better of her for the moment. Jack didn't hold his breath, however. The thrashing waves and furious splashing were signs enough that the empress would not be taken easily. Before long, she revealed herself again, her mouth opening wide to take in air before getting pulled below once more. Could the Kraken truly win?
"Jack!" Eric called out, pulling young man's gaze away from the battle. "We've been following this fleet for a while. Ariel said she had seen you on it and it turns out she was right. We know how important you are to Selvina and Lord Posanos tells us he received word that Selvina is of great importance to Faeryum."
"She is indeed," Jack said. "You did this for Selvina?"
Lord Posanos answered this time, his bearded face turning to Jack's. "We heard about Rhiannon's attack on Arababyl and all the innocent lives that perished that day and after the destruction her Black Knight caused to our people and the innocent creatures on Skull Island I had to retaliate however I could. My people and, indeed, all of Faeryum has suffered long enough from her devious machinations. Her end is now." Lord Posanos then lifted his trident and shouted, "Rise, Scylla! Feed upon the empress's minions! May they do her will no longer!"
Jack then watched as a great monstrous creature rose up from below the surface in the midst of several Noyran and Swordenish vessels. It resembled the hydra he had seen in the troll swamps but the four heads were more wolf-like and connected together to the abdomen of a woman with long, kelp-like hair and glowing blue eyes. She let out a loud, almost childlike laugh as her head-legs snapped at the sailors on the enemy ships, devouring many and shaking to death others. She giggled with glee as her wolf heads bit down upon and tore down masts and ripped sails to shreds. She moved from ship to ship, crippling them and slaughtering their crew.
One of the braver ships, a Noyran third rate, opened fire upon the sea creature, scoring several hits against the long-necked wolf heads. Scylla cried out in pain from the attack and Jack could see the men aboard the ship cheering. The cannonballs, however, had only wounded the creature and not injured enough to take it out of the fight. Now enraged, Scylla advanced on the last Noyran ship of the line and shoved her whole weight into it, shifting the ship over on its side. Her wolf heads bit down on the hull like extra hands and gripped the ship in their maws, turning over more and more until eventually it had completely flipped upside down. As two wolf heads kept the ship in position, two others, like a predator disemboweling its downed prey, gnawed at the keel, opening up a great hole. When the hole was wide enough, the heads dove inside, picking out screaming sailors and swallowing them whole.
In the water floated many Noyran and Swordenish seamen, some clinging to pieces of bobbing debris. Others had managed to flee inside longboats. Even they, however, were not spared. They served the empress, or were allied to her, and thus were enemies of the Lord of the Oceans. They met their end at the tip of merfolk spear, the soldiers of Posanos leaping out of the sea to assault those inside the longboats while those in the water were pulled under and drowned.
Then, when it seemed that it was over for the empress and her navy, Rhiannon herself emerged from the sea, her great wings flapping powerfully. Her scaled body was covered in cuts, gashes, and holes and one of her legs hung limply. She roared in defiance and turned her head to Lord Posanos, hatred clearly visible within the golden orbs.
The Kraken reached for her with its tentacles, now only five of them intact, but the empress had already flown too high. When she shot out a blast of flames at them, the sea creature pulled its appendages below the surface and disappeared. Its battle was over.
Jack felt his blood boil at the sight of the empress, alive and well. He had wanted her dead. He had wanted her gone forever to answer for all the lives she had ended and yet she had defied death itself. When she dove toward the Lord of the Oceans, still at the frigate's side, he acted.
Ignoring Hook's orders to stand down, Jack raced across the deck toward the main mast. He grabbed a coiled rope attached to a grappling hook on the way and slung it over his shoulder. He then pushed through crewmen watching in terror and scaled the mast as swiftly as he could.
Rhiannon was flying quickly, despite her injuries, and heading straight for the mermaid king. Lord Posanos held his trident at the ready, standing strong. In the distance, Scylla continued feasting on the enemy.
The dragon empress flew in at Julia's Revenge's side, her eyes on the mermaid king. Jack set foot on the main yard and started running. His experience in climbing and unwavering balance kept his footing even on the long wooden beam, despite his speed and the rocking of the ship. The empress's dragon head appeared just ahead, its maw open wide. Jack uncoiled the grappling hook and began spinning it with all haste just as flames burst out of the dragon's throat. They struck the Lord of the Oceans but he materialized into water and vanished in a splash. The empress's head was now directly below Jack as he reached the end of yard.
Rhiannon looked up at him.
Jack looked down at her and leapt.