Across the Sorrow Sea by Anthony Ryan

Author:Anthony Ryan [Ryan, Anthony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy
ISBN: 9781645241553
Google: w-LZzwEACAAJ
Amazon: 1645241556
Barnesnoble: 1645241556
Goodreads: 142199905
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Published: 2023-09-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

The Ravenings

Within moments, the Serpent’s crew had begun to form a tight defensive knot around the mainmast. Fynch, the stocky helmsman, tarried too long to retrieve his axe and was jerked from his feet by a long tentacle that lashed over the port side to coil itself about his neck. Guyime severed the monstrous limb before it could drag its prize overboard, but it was too late to save Fynch. He lay still upon the planking, neck twisted at an impossible angle and eyes empty in death.

Seeing Lexius and the others emerge from the hold, Guyime rushed towards them, pausing to hack down a barnacle-covered figure that heaved itself over the port rail, lobster-like claws snapping and an obscenely long tongue darting from its mouth.

“Draw your blades,” Guyime instructed, coming to his companions’ side. “And don’t staunch. The time for discretion is over.”

Lexius was the first to respond, swiftly drawing the Kraken’s Tooth and unleashing a bolt of lightning at the deformed mob now thronging the starboard bow. The air ripped with a cacophonous blast as the branching beam of pure energy shredded several creatures at once, a stench of roasted flesh and salt drifting across the deck.

Guyime staggered as Lorweth sent a whirlwind spiralling towards the stern, casting a dozen creatures up into the air to tumble away. To Guyime’s left, Seeker’s bowstring thrummed and he glimpsed a creature, seemingly mostly composed of coral, fall dead with her shaft skewered through its stony head.

“Get aloft,” Guyime told her, jerking his head at the rigging. “You’ll do more damage from there.”

Seeker nodded, pausing to loose another shaft at a multi-limbed, crab-like monstrosity clambering over the port rail, before sprinting for the mainmast, Lissah bounding in her wake. Her arrow jutted from a gap in the crab creature’s carapace, but it skittered towards them across the deck with undaunted eagerness, pincers snapping whilst emitting a hungry hiss. Before Anselm stepped forward to hack its forelegs away, Guyime fancied he saw two eyes gleaming in the dark recesses of the thing’s shell.

Scanning the deck, Guyime saw the monstrous horde now cresting the deck on all sides. Shavalla’s encircled crew battled the onslaught with impressive resolve, but in the space of seconds, he watched as two sailors were dragged down and butchered.

“Anselm!” he snapped, pointing his sword at the embattled crew. The knight glanced up in the act of dispatching the crab creature with a thrust of the Necromancer’s Glaive, the cursed blade piercing its carapace with ease. Nodding in understanding, Anselm jerked the green glowing blade free and drew his longsword before charging to the sailors’ aid, steel flashing.

“If I may, your highness.”

Guyime turned at the touch of Orsena’s hand on his arm. The Ultria had drawn the Conjurer’s Blade, stained black with the blood of a slain abomination that lay twitching nearby. She pointed it towards the prow, grimacing in frustration whilst the blade flickered beneath the dark gore. “I need to get closer,” she said.

“Lexius!” Guyime said, capturing the scholar’s attention as he sent another bolt at the starboard rail.

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