Chapter 18

The waves were choppy and boisterous today. Enormous clouds hovered in the distance, and he saw lightning flash. A mighty crack nearly split his eardrums and made his heart pound harder.

Rory loved the ocean in a storm; he loved the way the dark, molten gray of the sky seemed to suck up all the color from the seas and hurl it back into the sky. He loved the way the clouds towered above, like grand castles in the sky, ready to send their wrath to mortals below. But most of all, he loved the unity between the waters of the ocean and the water from rain, as they came together in sweet, violent unity. Waves twenty, fifty, sometimes even one hundred feet tall came crashing down and churned the water until it was as frothy as the foam from which goddesses were born. Swimming in those waves, he felt a mixture of exhilaration, danger, and freedom like nothing else could. It was when the storms came that he felt truly at home; storms were wild, unpredictable, inherently unstable.

And he loved them all the harder for it.

In this particular storm, he watched a poor ship in the distance get tossed about like dolphins playing with coral. She was trying her best to navigate through it, but the waves were much too high. As much as he loved the thrill that storms brought, this one was one of the wildest he had ever seen. As one wave crashed over the side of the ship, Rory heard a great crack! A mast broke off like a twig from a tree and smashed into the side of the ship. It wouldn't be long now before the ship went completely asunder.

Chaos reigned over the Trident; men were running everywhere, slipping on the drenched wood throwing up ropes and safety lines, and calling out to each other and their gods to save them.

Furl the mainsail and shorten the jib!" screamed the captain over the roaring wind. "Mr. Scott!"

"Aye Captain!" shouted the First Mate."Are we close enough to land to run before the wind?"

"No Captain! This infernal storm came too quick for us to make it. We're too much downwind to try it."

The captain cursed and held on to the railings as men scurried like ants to secure the sails and double-check the knots of the safety ropes. A wave crashed into the side and it felt like a boulder had struck, sending tremors through the floor and into their marrow.

"Captain!" Rani shouted as she scrambled up the steps. "Captain, we have to start throwing anything we can afford to lose overboard," she said.

"What do you think we can afford to lose?!" the captain bellowed.

"The cannons, the bounty, the ballast, any of it!" Rani looked around at the desperate men and knew they had to lighten the ship or risk utter destruction.

"The cannons are for protection against the damned Galliki, and I will not lose what I fought so hard for on this trip!" the captain had a steely glint in his eyes, hardened by time and disappointment.

"We will not be able to enjoy any of it if we are all dead!" she screamed.

"Aye, Captain," the First Mate said quietly. The ship plunged into a wave and all three fell before the mighty force of gravity. "We'll not make it if we hold on to anything absolutely vital."

The captain fell silent. He thought of the gold, the jewels, the precious Spanish silver from the New World, the finest wines from southern Afara and the silk from the Orient.

"Fine. Do it. Throw it all overboard."

The First Mate rushed to call out the orders.

In the end, no matter how much weight they threw overboard couldn't save them. The waves had a vengeance against the ship, smashing into and over the sides like a fist.

Rani thought she heard something over the roar of the storm; it sounded unbearably sweet, and she thought for a moment of throwing herself overboard to discover the origin of the song. A beam broken lose suddenly swung toward Rani's head and she ducked. That shook her free of any mad notion to jump into the sea. Men tied themselves to the ship, praying to any god that would listen for the storm to pass. Rani ran to and fro on the ship, helping to secure men who couldn't swim to masts, rails: anything that could be tied down.

Rani saw some men willingly jump into the ocean.

"What are you doing?" she screamed, even though she knew she couldn't be heard over the storm. Another flash of lightning lit up the sky and the accompanying thunder rattled her bones. She threw ropes out to the men who had already been swept away by the storm, or had jumped off in madness, trying to catch them like pathetic worms on a string.

At last the wave came to take her life away. The same wave that cracked the mast, that Rory heard from a mile away, swept over the ship like an unforgiving brick wall. Rani hurled over the side and into the ocean, where she was immediately swept under like a mote of dust caught in a broom's path. Salt and sea water choked her, burned her eyes and throat. Waves pounded over her head. Fear made her panic as she was tossed like rag. She instinctively kicked off her shoes and started swimming toward a piece of flotsam.

The storm had other, insidious plans.

Another towering wave brought the ship to its knees, as it keeled over on its side, like a dying animal. The momentum turned the ship round to meet Rani head-on, and a jutting piece of wood struck her on the head and knocked her unconscious.