Herera - Stories of The Purple Pearl

8. Get my crew back

As we followed the current between the rocks that formed the Thunder Isles, all around us was quiet.

Very quiet.

Rhea had picked up on Catharina's power at some point, and was taking another stream with Mitsu. They'd promised to stay within our sight for as long as possible.

Idir was changing glances from the water below us to the boat behind us, not wanting to leave Yui out of his sight for more than two seconds.

"I don't like this idea of us splitting up the moment we found our crew," he finally said.

I knew that.

"You don't think I can handle him myself?" I tried to lift the spirit a little with a small joke.

He turned to me, lifting a brow. "I know you can handle him. Too well, maybe."

I looked away, blushing in spite of myself.

"That was... long ago," I tried to defend myself, but I was betrayed by my heating cheeks. Idir noticed. As if to prove his trust in me, he turned his back to the boat behind us and stared at the eels passing under and beside us.

They called this stream the Shockwave, because of the electrical shocks you could feel if you fell into the water. There were even some rumors of people who died because they were touched by too many eels and didn't get on land or on a ship in time.

Only one job. Don't fall in.

That was no problem until I heard a loud thudding and the sound of splashes from where Rhea and Mitsu were rowing. Before I could see what was going on, a large boulder fell between our boats, followed by another one that scratched the back of the one Idir and I were sitting in.

People were throwing and shooting whatever they had at us from the rocky isles.

"Those aren't Hachi's," Yui yelled from behind us.

"No," I said, "but they're probably bribed by them to attack whoever got too close."

"The bastard always had too much money," Yui shouted.

Idir tried his best to steer both our boats between the isles and the falling boulders, while Yui, Elias and I fended off flying arrows and... pebbles? They were shooting pebbles at us from slingshots?

Some arrows scratched my arms and shoulders and some little rocks found my face.

Idir and I both threw one of our fog bombs. Eryk had excelled himself once again. As our attackers were running for their lives or jumping into the water, we managed to get through.

Right before I saw Rhea and Mitsu disappear, I saw them creating a large shield above them that made the boulders crumple before they could even touch them.

"We have to stop doubting if they can handle themselves," Idir said. I agreed.

We pulled our boats on the shore of a small isle and started walking around it. Hachi's ship was still in the same spot as Elias and Yui had found them on their scouting trip.

I went in first. The magical barrier surrounding the ship immediately fell off. Then I threw the coin – the one Kraken had found on Moonblast Island – to Idir. If everything went according to plan, he'd need it to leave the ship as well, preferably with our saved crew.

"That's the only thing we need to get in and out of this ship?" He asked as he was investigating the coin between his fingers. "Then what was he making such a fuss about?" He nodded at Yui.

"Because, first of all, we only have one," Yui answered. No one asked how Yui and I were going to get out. "And because that coin is an old one. Hachi will have many rooms enchanted with new spells. And we still don't know how we're going to enter those."