A Second Tyranny

Dangerous Waters

PEARCE

"What's going on?"

"What the hell's wrong with this ship?"

Pearce had been chatting to Byron, Edwin and Jeff in the lounge on the fifth floor when Nightwind lurched.

Titus came up frantically and asked, "Do you know what's—"

"Out of the way!" shouted Pearce, shoving him roughly and carelessly aside.

He squeezed through the witches and wizards gathered in between the columns of bunk beds and fought to reach the door. He rushed up the flights of stairs connecting the levels three at a time.

WHAM!

A force collided hard against the hull. The ship tilted. Pearce lost his balance on the steps and fell. He got up hurriedly. He swerved around a girl going in the opposite direction and pushed past two boys and an adult before emerging out of the trapdoor and onto the deck. Whit and Elsa were lying prostrate on the floor. Pearce approached the starboard bulwark and looked down at the restless sea. Beneath, a thick, very long snakelike neck slithered.

"My goodness!" Elsa said to Whit. They had gotten up and seen it as well.

"It's a sea monster," Whit gasped in horror, glancing at Elsa and Pearce. "We're being attacked!"

"Not just by one," Byron responded from the port, "Looks like there are several of them!"

"What?!" Whit yelled in disbelief.

People were coming up on deck and lining the bulwarks. Words concerning "water snakes," "assault" and "sea monsters" spread rapidly from lip to lip as each of them glimpsed the convoluted, slithering beings in the water below. Pearce ran to the port and leaned out over the side. Byron was right. There was indeed more than one snake. The deck was filling up with more and more magicians.

"No, no, no, this is impossible," said the captain. "I have sailed through this part of the sea many times, I know it extremely well, and I swear that there are no creatures in these waters!"

Wisty asked, "You've never encountered any of them?"

The captain shook his head fiercely. "Not once, not ever!"

WHAM!

"Are you sure?" Wisty asked.

"Absolutely, a hundred per cent sure!" The captain begged, "Please, you guys have got to believe me. If I had known that a monster dwelled in this area, I would have told you. Listen, I'm serious, I would've told you!" His ten crew nodded vigorously in agreement.

"All right, captain, we believe you." Whit held up his hands in a soothing gesture. "Chill, OK?"

Elsa said, "If nothing deadly lives in the sea, then where did this creature come from?"

The witches and wizards looked at each other questioningly, but nobody answered. Pearce reflected at the bizarre moment before he got on the dragon ship, and realization dawned on him...

He said quietly, "Hans."

The utter silence was deafening.

"Come again?" said Whit.

Every single person was gazing at him. Pearce looked into their faces and repeated with clarity, "That sea monster was sent to us by Hans."

A boy with curly chestnut hair named Edwin retorted, "It can't be."

"That's preposterous!" An adult shouted from the crowd.

"Ludicrous!" Beric cried in assent.

"It's downright absurd," stated Byron. "There is no way, no way Hans could have known we were coming."