Whalemoon (Wyrmwind Tales Book 1) by Dustin Porta

Author:Dustin Porta [Porta, Dustin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dustin Porta
Published: 2019-10-01T16:00:00+00:00

A Wetlung Pirates’ Chantey: Eel’s Black Road

“Oh, should the sun

sit bright and high

and the winds blow without end,

I’ll tie my line

to the tail of the wyrm

and I’ll sail the skies with him

but if the sun

should pass me by

and the winds flee from my ship

then I shall walk

the eel's black road,

upon the sea to swim.”

Tale of Blades

There were figures moving about between the burning huts, sailors by the haggard look of them, blood stained clothes, sun bleached beards. Each one carried a rusted cutlass as they moved from home to home, hacking their way inside and stealing anything they could find.

It was then that Phehl saw the rest of the villagers. Half of the people who had been at the feast were there, crowded onto the path behind her. They were just standing there and watching while the raiders pillaged their homes. Phehl stepped toward them.

“What are you doing? Why don’t you do something?” Phehl shouted at the villagers. But then she saw one of the men laying the ground, cut across his chest by a scimitar; a woman was cradling him in her arms. There were more injured villagers in back of the crowd. They had tried to chase off the raiders, but without swords, there was little they could do but cower in the shadows.

Next to the burning hut was a pile of whale bone, sacks overflowing with food and what little else Phehl’s people had to steal. There were children there also, bound with ropes and lying on the sand. One of the children was older, Kalwind’s sister Maiali. Phehl ran to them without thinking. No sooner had she entered into the firelight, than one of the raiders burst from a hut, his curved sword drawn.

“Another!” he shouted, and two more raiders came out.

“Leave my island!” Phehl said the first thing that came to her, raising the whalepike in the air.

“There’s a pretty trophy.” He smiled, teeth black and rotten.

“And the harpoon she carries, might fetch a coin too eh?” said the other.

The raiders laughed. Phehl looked at Maiali again, the girls eyes pleaded for help. But the raider stepped between them and raised his cutlass. There was blood on the weapon already. Phehl realized that she had not yet found her mother or father.

“You’d do well to put that down child.” He had a weathered face, and patched trousers. There was a hungry look to him, but Phehl worried he was stronger than he appeared.

“Where is my mother?” She realized as she said it that these men would not know her parents.

“She wants her mother.” He laughed again and moved toward her, Phehl stepped back but stopped at the edge of the firelight.

“Get off my island!” She pointed her pike toward the raider, and he rattled his cutlass against it. Then he knocked it aside and slashed at her; Phehl stumbled back and fell into the mangroves.

She tried to raise the whalepike, but his foot was on top of it, and she was wedged between two mangrove roots.

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