For Ransom

Chapter 15: The White Death

Soraya

Soraya's genius, brilliant plan had been to swim. 

To swim to the princes' ship and figure out what she would do when she got there. If she even made it that far.

Swimming was the only way she could think of dealing with the ship-eaters that lay dormant in the seas surrounding the Land. The idea had come to her one afternoon, when she was loading the fish from the nets on board.

How did people on that island eat? Yes, there were those strange land animals that she had read about that they could live off of. But on the other hand, the sea was such a valuable source of meat that it was impossible to deny the possibility that the kingdom fished. And if they fished, that meant that the people of the island had some way of avoiding the ship eaters. Or perhaps the ship-eaters couldn't detect organic material.

Which meant they couldn't detect a human body. And therefore wouldn't be activated by a swimmer.

Or at least that's what Soraya was hoping for. She was the only person insane enough to try something as absurd as this, so Soraya had no idea if her plan would work or not. Too late to turn back now, she was already shooting through the water, her speed doubled by the fins Saireen had managed to snag for her at a trade market a couple of years back. But it was a gamble she was willing to risk. Whatever it took to gain the upper hand against an invincible kingdom.

Soraya tried to remember her training from the summer she had spent with the wild fishermen of the south. Swimming had always been easy for her, something that she had excelled at ever since she was young. But even Soraya had her limits. Even with her fins, Sorya did not know if she could cover the five-mile swim in forty minutes and still have the energy to engage in close combat with two full-grown men.

It didn't matter at this point. So Soraya forced one arm in front of the other as she torpedoed through the blue water.

The first ship-eater loomed in sight. She felt her body slow unconsciously, and as much as her mind screamed at her muscles to keep moving, the fright became all-consuming to the point that it crippled her. Soraya stopped moving entirely.

You must continue. Do whatever it takes to reach those twins.

Her legs kicked and she drifted closer towards the nightmare that lay before her. Her heart hammered in her chest, the pounding of her blood deafening. Soraya tried not to think about the gruesome death that would await her if her theory was wrong. Perhaps it was what she deserved for those she had sacrificed to make her dreams come true. Soraya had always been selfish. Perhaps this was her retribution. A death of teeth and metal, all alone in the middle of the ocean, her comrades helpless as they watched her drown in her own blood. It would be a fitting death for a person like her. No, she was thinking about it all too much.

She swam right past it.

And another.

And another.

Until she was cruising by every single one of those metal-faced monsters. These creatures that had kept the rest of the world at bay for thousands of years, providing the people of the Land with impregnable protection, that had allowed the Princes to continue this ridiculous ceremony for the sake of their own sick pride, didn't even twitch in her presence, their terrifying jaws remaining slack in their slumber.

Soraya wanted to whoop, wanted to roar in triumph, but she kept her head down and hauled ass towards that vessel, towards the kingdom that dared mock her and all those less fortunate than them. She would show them what they deserved for growing so arrogant, so comfortable in their little island. She would show them. Their reign was over.