Chapter 6 - Part 5

“It jumped from her body to his,” the psiforged said, fear creeping into his voice.

“It?” Delegado asked, drawing his sword. “Who is ‘it’?”

Grappling hooks fired from crossbows flew over to their railing, catching on the rails. Equilibrium gestured, flicking his hand at each one. They undid themselves, flying off, but then the lead soldier lifted a crystal-tipped wand and fired. A bolt of amber energy wrapped itself around Equilibrium, shaking him and then dropping him to the deck. Equilibrium moaned, but did not get up.

“Fifty feet!” Dennis said, as the other soldiers manually tossed ropes with grappling hooks attached, preparing to board. The halfling let fly his acid flasks, and killing one of the soldiers horribly, but six remained, including the one with the wand.

Hal finally came running up on deck, but the wand fired again, knocking him head over heels. The potion bottle rolled out of his stunned hands and fell into an open hatch to the crew’s quarters. From the crow’s nest, Dennis threw his last flask, but he was too desperate, and it landed far from the mark.

“I’m out,” the halfling yelled, switching over to stones. He leaned over the edge of the crow’s nest to better aim at the heavy infantry who were pulling the two ships together close enough to board.

One of the enemy soldiers was starting to thread a grappling line through a winch, but he paused to fire a crossbow bolt at the now-exposed halfling. Dennis flinched back, and the ships drew closer together.

Delegado had sheathed his sword in the meantime, grabbing the crossbow Belliose had left on the deck. He ignored the man working the winch, aiming for their leader. His shot hit the wand-holder in the side, punching a small hole in the man’s armor. The wand-holder grunted, and his next wand shot fizzled.

Delegado dropped the crossbow and pulled out his sword again as he ran to the railing. There were four grappling lines attached to the Small Potatoes, and he cut the first one quickly, cleaning snapping the rope with his adamantine blade.

The leader of the Riedran soldiers barked a command, and he and his men were surrounded by a buzzing sound, as some protective energy danced within their skin. Dennis popped up again to hurl another stone at one man, but it glanced off of the summoned mental energy, leaving only a small bruise. Delegado ignored all of this, and cut the second and third line.

The Riedran leader glanced at Delegado, his eyes glowing. Delegado stopped, his sword hand wavering. The ships were now scarcely ten feet apart, and the Riedran holding the one line still attached jumped, bracing both of his feet against the side of the Small Potatoes as he landed.

What? What I am doing? Delegado wondered. Tendrils of doubt were reaching into his mind, stroking his brain, shutting down his functioning ability. He began to drool. Where am I? Where is supper? Who did – green is tasty – I am – why? Fourteen? Some part of his mind saw men in chainmail throwing more grappling hooks, while the one who had been on the winch prepared to swing from his own rigging line onto the Lyrandar vessel.

“Del!” Belliose said, getting to her feet, her fiery rapier out. She ran past him, attacking the soldiers who were now beginning to board her craft. The two half-elven soldiers ran forward with daggers. Dennis began to scamper down the rigging with a knife, unwilling to hurl stones too close to his shipmates.

I have to help them! Delegado thought, trying to make his muscles work. But he couldn’t connect intent with action.

Two of the soldiers were cut down, their dying bodies on fire. The protective fields that their minds had conjured lessened the impact of Belliose’s weapon, but not the flame within it. Their deaths bought time for the others to board, however. Two flanked her immediately while the third began to make mincemeat out of the dagger-bearing half-elves.

“Delegado, shake it off!” she yelled, parrying one blade, even as another bit into her shoulder. She clenched her teeth to avoid screaming. One half-elf sailor was supine on the deck, and the other was dropping after a blow to the midsection.

“Filth!” Dennis screamed, dropping onto the soldier who had just gutted the two sailors. The halfling had a small dagger in his hand, and he jabbed it forcefully into the side of the man’s temple. The Riedran soldier twitched once and then dropped. Dennis rolled to the side and jumped up next to one of the men harassing his captain. “Jak, forget the rudder and get up here!” the halfling roared. Whether or not Jak could hear the Second Mate from two decks away was unknown.

The leader quit concentrating on Delegado, jumping over the railing and smoothly landing on the Small Potatoes to menace the halfling. Behind him the Riedran ship slowly drifted free.

Delegado reacted faster than their leader had expected, moving as soon as his mind was his own again. He raised his sword and moved in from the side. Rather than swing at the Riedran leader and the unknown force within him, he cut at the man’s weapon. The adamantine sheared the crystal-like steel of the Riedran’s blade, shattering it. Delegado’s follow-up swing gouged the man’s stomach.

Behind the half-orc, Belliose screamed. The two soldiers had cut her down, and her dying body joined the bodies of her crew. They were now beating Dennis back, and the halfling’s neck was bleeding.

“No!” Delegado yelled, turned away from the wounded, weaponless leader. He waded into the two men, swinging wildly. They returned attacks, cutting him, but not badly. First one fell to the furious half-orc, then the other. Dennis slumped back against the mast, holding the side of his neck together with his hands. His fingers were drenched in red.

Delegado then turned back to the leader, tears running down his face, and Riedran blood running down his blade. “You and me now,” he began to say.

A bolt of light erupted from the man’s forehead, slamming into Delegado. The half-orc fell backwards, the Riedran’s oddly glowing eyes the last thing he saw before slipping into darkness.