The sounds of the voices above board were feral and aggressive, laced with violent undertones. Will and Sky stood by, tense as taut wires, waiting. Adrenaline and fear surged through Will's veins, the wood trapdoor to the hull and a deceptive Joel, all that stood between them and nine well-trained kinetic soldiers — and as many wyverns.
"Hide!" Joel had ordered Laina and the Winnifreds. But he'd looked at Sky and Will and said, "If it escalates, be ready to ..." They'd nodded before Joel had run back out to prepare.
"I can't use my magic to kill them," Sky said, "but I'll fight with you." She hadn't explained and Will hadn't asked. Instead, she'd rushed to grab a longbow and a fletch of arrows from the wall where Joel kept his weapons. And a sword, too, which she'd passed to Will.
The minutes stretched into what felt like hours as Will held his breath, afraid to make a noise, awaiting some indication of his need to intervene.
The floorboards creaked above them as someone marched towards the hull. Then the distinct clash of metal against metal rang out. Joel yelled. Will reacted instinctively, driving his shoulder up and into the hatch before he could think. He slammed it open and surged up the stairs, charging onto the deck.
Chaos erupted around him. Yelling men and roaring beasts; panic, violence. Will surveyed the battlefield: three soldiers on the boat, six still in the air, and Joel engaged with two. Sky blew past him taking an aerial position, now invisible, raining arrows from the heavens as she shot at soldiers and mounts alike.
Will heard the white noise fade into silence, his body moving as if in slow motion, the blood pounding in his ears. Each action was gruelingly lengthened, and nothing existed but the tip of Will's sword and the man in front of him. He rushed up towards the soldier and stabbed in a deep lunge, clacking against solid plate armor. The soldier retaliated, and Will batted the swing away, blocking successfully. Then Will executed a volley of blows. A mixture of raw excitement and terror sung in his very bones as he channeled it into his sword, moving quicker than the armored soldier, spinning and thrusting until he chopped at the man's unguarded neck. Blood gushed out of the narrow opening below his ear, seeping through fingers clasped tightly to the injury. Will rushed towards the man, sending him toppling over the gunnels and backwards to the sea below.
The man is dying. The man IS dead — by my hand, thought Will. But another soldier dropped from his mount to the space beside Will instantly, as if simply filling a vacancy.
This warrior was grizzled and wore a grim leer, even as he slashed at Will. The soldier swiped and caught Will's left arm, slicing a thin gash that left a line of beading red along Will's bicep. The combatant blocked Will's offensive with a buckler on his forearm, bringing his sword up and under to trap Will's blade against the small shield.
For a moment all was still.
"Say your prayers, boy," he spat in Will's face. But as he was saying it, an arrow arched from the heavens, impaling him through the temple. Bright blood laced his spit and Will's shaking hand wiped it off his cheek. The absurdity of the moment, of Will's shock, was amplified when he heard Olleander's voice as clear as a bell, "He should have worn a helmet. Always, always wear your helmet, Will." But he wasn't on Earth learning to ride a bike, Will was on a boat in a bloody battle. He wasn't wearing a helmet either, or any armor for that matter, but this time he knew a helmet wouldn't save him.
What would Olleander say if he knew Will had just killed a man? But he was fighting for his life. For a cause bigger than himself. That had to be enough.
Will had a moment of respite in the bedlam, so he scanned his surroundings. He noticed two furious looking wyverns without their riders, struggling against a ferocious wind as they tried to fly towards him. He looked over to the hold where three halo-haired heads were sticking out of the trap door, glaring at the beasts hovering over the water. Though they were hardly more than children, the Winnifreds' magic was all that was keeping the terrifying wyverns at bay and bottle-necking the influx of warriors.
Joel seemed to be flitting around the boat, trying to create distance between himself and the guard still left standing. He was mumbling something under his breath and a moment later, two buckets, some rope, and a spare folded sail joined the fight. The soldier was defending himself now against a barrage of items: the rope wrapped around the soldier's ankles, attempting to trip him, as the sail floated around trying to net him and the buckets wacked at his thick skull.
Joel, and his army of boat actroument, had everything under control.
Meanwhile, Sky was making quick work of the soldiers still in the air, zinging arrows at them left and right. But she was ineffectual against the scaly and hard hides of the wyverns. Will wasn't sure what to do when one beast fell behind the pack, out of reach of the magical windstorm. It peeled off and deserted, flying away towards the horizon with a soldier on its back. But before Will could react, another beast managed to battle the gale and came flying directly at him.
It was Will against a wyvern. Somehow, Will had always known it would come to this. His stomach roiled as he faced down his natural enemy. And then it was on top of him, its heavy wings beating the air above as it's talons reached towards his face. He swung at the front legs with full force, but it lifted up, out of reach. The wyvern's tail whipped around and lashed Will's back. The pain was muted. It should have been excruciating. It will be, later. If I live, he thought.
Will thrust his sword up and into the soft underbelly. The beast thrashed and screeched as it was impaled, falling half onto the gunnels and flopping back into the ocean with a splash. Simultaneously, he felt claws bite into his shoulders from behind as he was lifted by a second creature.
It was no use, but he struggled. He was dangling ten feet in the air: then twenty, thirty, forty, fifty. Reaching up, he planted his sword as an anchor in the Wyverns side. Then Will swung his body side to side, and rocked himself around as far as he could, gaining momentum as he pulled himself up and over. Talons ripped through the flesh of his shoulders. But now he was on top, riding the beast.
Pulling his sword out of the growling, thrashing wyvern, he leaned forward and wrapped his arms around its thick ropey neck, sawing the blade across the underside of its throat. They began to fall, fast, careening towards the hull of the boat. Will dug his fingers into the reptilian hide as the wyvern lost control. They plummeted. Will dove from the back of the beast, just before impact.
He plunged into ice-cold waves.
Is that the creatures' blood or my own? Clouds of diluted blood surrounded him.
Crippling pain and heavy water pulled against his muscles, dragging him down. His lungs burned and his body ached. He laboured to swim against the current of the ocean, as his strength dimmed. All was murky blue, and red, hazy and then ... black. Nothing but a cloak of chilly surrender seizing hold of his urge to fight, squeezing the air from his lungs.
Darkness.
***
Will woke to the feel of cold wet droplets splashing onto his bare torso. He felt like he'd gone a few rounds with a bear ... or a ... a wyvern. When his eyes popped open, his sister's concerned baby blues were staring right back at him, her hair sopping wet and dripping, a halo of light surrounding Laina from a lantern in the dim chambers.
"Sky, he's awake!" Laina called out.
Will tried to get up, but Sky swept into place above him and pushed him back down, her breasts inches from his face. Her hair was pulled up, gathered into a messy bun, a few wispy hairs escaping. She was carrying a cloth and bandages draped over her arm.
"Stay put. You've lost a lot of blood, Will," Sky admonished.
Will would have liked nothing better than to lie back on the pillows, letting her pamper him. But while he reclined, Joel fought beasts and soldiers, ones who could come barreling down the steps at any moment.
"But the figh—," Will began, once again trying to sit up.
"Is over," Sky insisted, pressing him back into his pillows. "And we won."
There had been so many of them. How? How had they won?
"Long story," Laina answered without him having to ask the question. "And no thanks to me. The damn triplets tied me up in the hold when I wouldn't let them leave." Will couldn't resist laughing, but when he did, he noticed his ribs ached, likely bruised during the action. Laina glared at him for his obvious glee at her expense and then her dagger eyes moved upwards, to the Winnifreds' general location, as if Laina could see through the floorboards.
"Little menaces. Though I have to say they saved the day ..." Laina turned pensive. "You weren't too bad, either, from what I hear. But maybe don't try and do the hero thing and fight a wyvern and then almost drown next time. 'Kay?"
"You fought well," Sky said, as her hands steadily removed and replaced bloodied bandages from his shoulders. "Bravely." Her ministrations were efficient, but gentle.
Will felt a glow of pride and for an instant, his body – the same one that had been beaten to a pulp not long ago – felt strong and glorious.
Laina continued to talk and talk. Sky had taken care of four of the remaining soldiers; shooting blind fish in a barrel. Joel had handled the last two. When Will was in the air on the wyvern, Laina had finally gotten free, only to enter the scene as Will was plummeting from the sky. When he'd hit the water and not emerged, Laina had immediately jumped in to save him. Which was why she was still soaking wet. Good thing she had her Bronze Cross for life guarding. The Winnifreds had sent a wave to wash Will and Laina back up onto the boat. Then they'd helped hold the wyverns in place with wind while Joel rained sweet, sweet lightning down on their ugly heads.
As interesting as Will might normally find all of this information, he was only half listening. His concentration was fixed on the woman now nursing him back to health, wrapping his bicep and tying off a bandage. Her hand accidentally grazed his chest and their eyes locked.
Will had almost just died, and he'd killed. Adrenaline and excitement mingled inside him, still surging through his veins. His exhaustion and pain had been driven away and replaced with need. Sky's eyes were dark with lust, he was sure. He quelled his urge to pull her on top of him, if only because his sister's voice, still unawares, droned on beside him.
Sky and Will had started something — something he wanted to finish. In private.
"Wish, could you give us a minute?" He interrupted his sister, indicating that he wanted to discuss something with Sky.
"Oh, don't mind me," Laina said. "I'm just going to read this Htrae book I found down here." She moved from beside his sickbed and tucked herself away on a chair bolted down in the corner. She sat in it cross-legged and read whatever she'd managed to sniff out, oblivious to any change in the mood of the room.
Will groaned. He couldn't insist, or Laina might get suspicious.
His eyes lingered on Sky as she finished up. Gods she was beautiful. An angel with soft bronzed skin, caramel eyes, and full pink lips.
"There. Done. All better?"
"Much," he answered.
"Anywhere else I missed?" she asked, serious as a doctor surveying her patient.
My lips could use your attention, he thought, knowing she wasn't following the humour in the situation. Instead, he thanked her.
Then she got still and quiet and sombre. "Will?" she asked hesitantly, and her eyes flicked over to Laina in the corner and then back to him.
"Yes?"
Her brows were knitted together, sternly.
"Please don't scare me like that. I —. It ... it was too close. I can't lose you yet." Her voice, usually so calm and even, warbled and betrayed her, taking on a pleading quality. He was touched that she cared; that his brush with death could move her so. "It isn't your time yet," she continued. "But please, please don't tempt fate."
With that, she turned briskly and moved out of the room and up the hatch.
***
Thanks for reading Wyrd! Please vote. And comment! Comments make my whole week. :) Do you think you could take a wyvern?