Stormlands ( Book 2 of the Torrent Skies Saga)

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Grass Is Always Greener, Pt 1

Despite the pouring rain and the gigantic waves visible to Katerin in the distance, her mouth was dry. The storm was a savage one, pitching and rolling the ship to its whim. The black and shining waves were capped with white tops and the glint of the ships lights on the water was dim enough she could not see other members of the crew unless she paid careful attention.

Everyone on board was working tonight. Even Huen, who was no longer under constant watch. Now the dwarves treated him as another set of arms, and worked right beside him without hesitation. Sometimes desperation brought a strange unity to people, she supposed, thought she was more than a little miffed that they would only accept him, now.

She could hardly hear Jon and Magrum as they shouted, and she shook uncontrollably. Not from the wind, but from the fear that gripped her. She could not tell whether sweat or rain coated her face and with every movement of the ship, her stomach lurched too. Her only experience with the Currents so far, had been much more pleasant. It had been terrifying to her then, but the storm and magical waters she had crossed to make her way to Itrea were nothing compared to the tyranny that this storm held.

Most ships would only chance crossing the currents in places where they knew the magic was weaker, but here with barricades of churning frigid water, wind that snapped the ships sails so viciously that she wondered if they might crumble, and rain and lightning to rival the power of the god of storms himself, she finally understood the true fear and power of the undisturbed magic in the world.

The Mynyrri groaned under the strain of its work, and she could watch splinters sprout from the deck. The crew swarmed around her, heeding every order their captain gave, and struggling to stay aboard when the ship tilted to sharp and heart-squeezing angles. Katerin wished desperately to help them, but it required her every once of focus to do her part in willing the Mynyrri through this storm.

Her only job was to hold enough wind in the sails, so that when they snapped they would not be torn asunder by the force of the battling winds. It was no advantage, but a matter of survival. She ran across the uneven and splintering deck, never letting go of the ship, nor her hard won control of a very small element of the winds.

"Jon!" she called, blinking as a curtain of water splashed onto the deck, and drenched them all. "Are we going to make it?" She scanned the deck to watch as one dwarf had his legs swept out from under him as a wave over took the ship, and went sliding aggressively for the tilted edge, over the railing. Another dwarf, this one with a rope looped around his chest, grabbed his fellow crewman and hauled him back to his feet, holding out the length of rope that everyone used to stay aboard.

Jon let out a yell that was very close to a scream of panic, though it was drowned out by the pounding of the waves. "Of course we will! But you better find a gods-dammed solid hold!"

"Now!" Magrum bellowed in the distance.

And the two other sails on the ship dropped catching wind and turning the ship so quickly that Katerin lost her footing, landing on her back and knocking her head into a plank as the ship tilted again, and she slipped across the smooth deck to slam into the railing. She blinked her eyes to the pain in her head, and cast another spell, willing the wind back into the sail she was to control.

Now Trunk, Arjiah, and Moki—the ships druid, were busy trying to coax the ship through the currents with as much magic as they could muster. With every lurching gust of wind and jarring impact of the waves, panic threatened to overwhelm Katerin, causing her breath to catch in her throat, and her vision to lose focus. Her eyes darted back and forth, between Brazen and Fykes as they worked. She watched as Jon and Fykes shouted to each other, though she could not hear their words. Fykes gave Jon a disdainful look, and Jon grimaced as they glanced up towards the mizzenmast, to behold the boom that held it in place had cracked, and now waved in the winds.