Malspire

  Chapter Seven

  I was nervously gripping the hilt of my cutlass just as those that were not rowing were hugging their muskets. There was a spine tingling coldness to the place, a dread and gut fear now setting in. The men rowed the craft to the beach and at once we could see by the lamp light that something was amiss.

  It was dark and eerily quiet with a thin layer of mist flowing like a river from the higher ground. There was the crunch as the launch hit the pebble beach, and men jumped out to pull the boat ashore, stumbling on the loose stones, trying to find footing enough to haul the heavy craft up. The wooden wall, made white as bone by the salt, wind and water was perhaps twelve feet high and looked solid enough, but a single large gate at its centre was wide open. The pebbles carried on up behind the gate and as we got closer, I could make out the line of beach where it met tufts of rugged grass and wooden walkways made of crude planking. Behind the palisade was a small settlement that climbed the end of the gorge. It was a fishing village. The boats were laid up on the beach inside the simple defences. Nets hung from poles, and baskets lay scattered about. Crab shells, and fish bones littered the beach line.

  "It stinks," grunted Jodlin.

  "Nobody here," I said in a hushed tone, unsure of how to proceed. Something felt instinctively wrong. Was it a trap? I now noticed how the gate had been smashed and broken.

  Sergeant Lamtak stepped forwards. "Let me take some men in, sir," he said.

  "Do that. A reconnaissance, Sergeant. Remember that we're on their side now, so down with the Empire, and glory to the Calandian rebellion."

  "Aye, sir." The sergeant took five men and moved off into the gloom. The others and I waited by the gate.

  Some minutes passed before Harl hissed in alarm. "Up there!" He pointed up to the right where a lantern appeared on the cliff top. "Someone's up there."

  "Lamtak couldn't have reached that far so quickly," I said.

  In the darkness, all we could see was the single lamp. Down here on the beach, we would be easily spotted with our many lamps. The light on the cliff vanished.

  "Probably saw us, sir, panicked and hid his lamp."

  Damn. What was going on here? I was about to call for the sergeant to return. There seemed no point in whispering or hiding anymore, when suddenly there was a scream followed by running footsteps. One of the seamen clad marines appeared, white faced and crying. "They're dead! They're all dead. Gutted. Gutted like fish!"

  "What did you see man?" I growled. "Calm down! What did you see?" The others soon followed him. They too were pale and shaken.

  "Sergeant!"

  "Captain! The place is full of dead people, sir. It's a massacre! Blood, guts… The flies!"

  "Where? Show me!"

  We all made our way into the small fishing village. The single roomed houses were all weathered wooden constructions built on poles with steps leading down to steep, slippery wooden paths.

  The stink was rich with the sweet smell of decay, and now there was the deep droning of vulture flies, which, disturbed by the movement and light took to the air in swarms. Some of the men wrapped scarves and cloths around their faces to block the smell and bites. Doctor Eebel, grim faced, seemed unaffected by the stench. Sergeant Lamtak went to one of the first doors and kicked it in. Shining a light into the gloom, a new flurry of flies emerged from the darkness where I saw to my horror, the rotting remains of what looked like a family of three, gutted and dead upon the floor, their bodies, now melting, lying in a sickly pool of blood and putrid liquids where maggots swam. Men turned away to vomit. The sergeant grimaced. Harl whispered a silent prayer. I was speechless.

  "It's the same all over, Captain," said Lamtak. "All dead, all gutted."

  "What the hells happened here?" I muttered. "Who would do such a thing?"

  "Evil!" said the doctor. "Only evil could gut women and children, then leave them to rot. The dark gods have been at work here. Vulture flies!" He shivered.

  "You're too late!"

  We all span round, drawing swords and levelling muskets, held in shaking hands.

  "Too late!" screamed a wild haired woman. She was holding a lantern and standing further up the wooden road. She was dressed in ripped and faded clothing and covered in mud, cuts and grazes. "We called for you weeks ago. We begged for help, and now you come. Now when they're all dead!" She was obviously mad. She was screeching her words and tears fell to clear clean paths down her grubby cheeks.

  "What happened here?" I demanded.

  "They came," she said, pointing out to sea. "They climbed the walls. They climbed the cliff face. They came from behind." The woman turned to point inland.

  "Who came," asked the doctor.

  "Sealorns!" she screeched and dropped her lantern. She began to pull at her hair. "Sealorn demons!" She fell to her knees sobbing. The doctor moved to her side, mumbling words of comfort as he went. Finally he placed his large coat round her shivering body.

  "Who are Sealorns?" I asked.

  "Creatures," said Harl. "From the sea. Ain't seen one myself, but tales tell of men with the heads of fish, hundreds of teeth and claws."

  "Creatures? Demons?" I shivered at the thought. "Surely she is mistaken. Pirates must have dressed in fish cloaks. She's mad."

  "No, Captain. They exist." This was Sergeant Lamtak. "They don't like the land but they have been known to come ashore when they have good reason. I met a few lads who fought them up on the northern shores. Swore they did, sir. Terrible things, nasty things."

  I considered this for a moment. If this was true then perhaps we were all in danger. Perhaps the ship was in danger. "Why did they attack you?" I asked the woman. "Did they have reason?"

  She was now hidden in the coat, but her bright, crazed eyes looked up sharply. "Oh, they had reason. They had reason, and I warned the folk. I told them we would be cursed, but they didn't listen to me."

  "Well?"

  "A sea hag was caught in the nets. Ugly foul beast! I told them to throw it back but did they listen? Greed got the better of them. Oh yes. Greed killed us all."

  I had heard of sea hags but knew little about them. Yet another tale to scare the young and gullible.

  "Cut its head off they did," she continued. "So she couldn't escape, then put it in the cave." She pointed back down to the darkness of the beach. "The sea hag was forced to bring fish to the waters, and we had plenty. We ate like kings and queens. It brought crab and lobster. The sea is its to control and we controlled it, but then it brought the sea demons too. Oh yes. It summoned the Sealorns, and that was the end of us. I begged them to kill it, but the men wouldn't give up such a prize. I begged them to throw it back to the waves, but they were too greedy."

  "Is it still here?"

  "Oh yes. Oh yesss!" she hissed and looked wild eyed round her. “They will be here soon. They will have seen you."

  "Why is the sea hag still here if the village was overrun?"

  "I saw it. I saw it. It laughed at me when I went to kill it once and for all. They cut the head. She's cursed this place and all men. She stays for revenge on any and all men. You and your men are doomed! They come at night. Doomed, all of us!"

  Suddenly there was the crack of musket fire from the bay followed by the distant shouts of alarm.

  "To the ship!" I cried as I set off down the road.

  There was more gun fire, and distant shouting. I had to be careful not to lose footing on the treacherous planking with my bad foot. I heard a man go down behind me with a shout and a curse. When we reached the gate, we all stopped in terror as we saw the shadowy figures emerging from the depths. There was the crunch of pebble under foot, and the glint of moonlight reflected off bulbous sickly eyes.

  "Dark gods dominion!" I cursed when we saw the awkward shapes of the creatures. Truly half man and half fish. I could just make out the silhouette of a fight on the ship, and saw that there was no way to reach them now.

  "Defend the gate!"

  At once, Sergeant Lamtak began to issue orders
. He posted two men above the gate with muskets, and had the rest fetch baskets, wood and anything else they could find to barricade the entrance. The men on the palisade opened fire, then reloaded and fired again. The shots hit home and Sealorns fell to the rounds. I was pleased to note the Marine's professionalism under pressure. The Sealorns were not fast creatures, but it only took a minute for them to reach the hastily built barricade. I was horrified by the shape of these beasts. They had the bulbous heads of fish with row upon row if tiny, sharp teeth in wide gaping mouths, yet they had the arms and legs of pale, bent men or apes but with large webbed claws and webbed feet and scales. Each of them carried what looked like a long blade made of bone with a wickedly serrated edge, perfect for gutting people. They stank of rotting fish and screamed rancid screeches over the defences which they began to pull apart as my men and I started to hack and stab at them. A marine fired point blank into the mouth of one then stabbed with the bayonet at another. Jodlin roared as he leant over the barricade and crushed the head of a Sealorn. I slashed my cutlass to try to force them away from the defences, but I saw that it was only a matter of time before the Sealorns took it apart and swamped our small party.

  "Kill them!" I called desperately. "Kill the bloody lot of them. Don't let them through!"

  It was tiring work. The men fought like banshees and the marines up top kept up a good rate of fire, now shooting straight down upon the bulbous heads of the sea creatures. The doctor at the back fired a pistol. Harl spat and slashed at them, cutting a webbed hand clean off at the wrist, pallid blood spraying him. The other men fought hard with a combination of determination and fear plastered on their faces. Perhaps we could hold? But for how long? I turned as I heard a distant scream from behind me. It was the mad woman, and my heart froze at the sound and implication. As I feared, I saw shadows moving down the wooden paths of the village. The Sealorns had before learnt to take this place by outflanking the wall, and now they were doing it again.

  I was near panic. We were about to be surrounded, hope was fading, and in desperation I sought an answer. The cave! The woman had pointed in the direction of the beach wall. It was too dark to see, but if there was a cave there, we could defend that without being outflanked. Without knowing where it was but seeing no other option I stepped back from the fight.

  "To me! Fall back and follow me! To me!" I half ran, half stumbled along the inside of the wall towards the eastern side of the gorge. It was hard going on the pebble beach. "Follow me!" I called again, and heard the others hot on my heels panting and cursing. "Find the cave. It must be here somewhere!"

  As we got closer to the cliff face, a yawning black hole emerged in the shadows and although too large to defend the entrance, it must surely narrow further in. I turned to one of the men and grabbed the lantern he was holding, and then dived straight into the blackness. It was a natural cave with a pebble floor, and after only a few yards it narrowed enough for four men to defend the width.

  "Here! Sergeant Lamtak, make your defence!"

  Lamtak ordered four men with muskets and bayonets to form a wall. The others stood behind them and reloaded pistols and muskets, and gathered their strength.

  "There are too many!" said the doctor. "We can't hold long."

  "I know! Did anyone see how the Lady Ocean was fairing?"

  "Still fighting when we ran, Captain," said Harl. We could hear the distant sound of shot and ring of metal.

  I looked round, desperate for a solution. This part of the cave was used as storage, and pulling crates and nets aside I soon found some fishing harpoons. "Take them!" I called out. "Use them as pikes. Hold the abominations off. Use the crates." I started to throw the crates forward to be used as a new barricade. Others took over. Harl gathered up the Harpoons and handed them out.

  "I'll be back." I turned to the darkness. Again that cold chill, and I hesitated. This was our only chance so I began to make my way further into the cave.

  "I'm coming with you," said Doctor Eebel, joining me.

  I did not have the time to argue, and just held out the lantern before me and carried on. A volley of musket fire deafened us, marking the arrival of the Sealorns to the cave's entrance. The cave quickly narrowed into a tunnel that would only allow one man at a time to pass through. The screams and shouting of the men began again as the enemy fell upon the human wall of spikes and blades. They would not hold long. I had seen how many Sealorns there were and they did not seem to fear the blade nor shot. Soon the sounds dimmed as I went further and further into the belly of this cursed land. The doctor was just behind me, but before me was a tunnel that ended in utter darkness. The darkness suddenly enveloped us as we entered what must have been a large cavern. Continuing through the darkness, we could just make out the hint of walls and as my eyes grew accustomed to the dim room after holding the lantern before me for too long I saw that the space was empty but for a stone pillar at the far end, and upon this pillar was a head.

  We crept closer. My breath misted in the unnatural cold. The lantern did not shine in all directions but was shuttered to shine only ahead, so our weak cone of fire light fell upon the stand and its gruesome fisherman's trophy. We both edged closer still. It was the head of an old woman, seemingly dead with pale blue-green skin and long green and grey hair that fell down around the skull like matted string.

  "It's dead. It must be," whispered the doctor, more in hope than anything.

  I was not so sure. I had a dread feeling. It was pitch-black all round us and silent. Even the battle was unnaturally muted by this place. I could hear my own breathing and felt my heart hammer in my chest. Looking closer, I noticed a trickle of water coming from the head's mouth. I got even closer.

  The eyes opened.

  Both myself, and Doctor Eebel fell back on the pebble floor, kicking to get away from the head that now stared at the two of us with a malice and hatred that I could physically feel. It opened its mouth and out gushed foetid seawater and seaweed. The stench was horrendous. It laughed. It was not a pretty sound but a cold and merciless, bubbling cackle, that chilled the bone. "Run away. Go and play with my children!" Its voice was that of an old lady but mixed with the water to come out as bubbling and croaking and mocking.

  I got to my feet, and gritted my chattering teeth. I had never known fear like this. It emanated from the hateful creature and infected my very soul. I shivered. The doctor too got up and back away.

  "Malspire!" it hissed. How did it know my name? "Lord Malspire Ardalrion, the cripple," it leered at me. "Come to die in a cave, far from home."

  "How do you know my name?" I finally found my voice but discovered that I could not move.

  "I know many things," it cackled. "You have come to play games with the rebels. You are in here to beg for mercy, to ask me to call off my children. You had thought perhaps you could destroy me if I did not agree but now you are frozen with fear. So sad, so pathetic."

  "No. You will die. How can I abide such an abomination?" I said defiantly but still could not find the willpower to make my muscles move.

  She smiled. It was nearly a friendly smile, a sympathetic smile, but it was somehow worse than the leer. I could hear the distant, desperate fighting and did not know how long my men could hold the creatures at bay. I knew I was under some kind of spell. The terror was very real, but it came as an infectious wave from the sea hag. She was truly horrifying but the terror was her making, like being trapped in a nightmare. The villagers must have somehow overcome this, but I could not. I tried again and again to move. I wanted to raise my cutlass and bring it down upon her. Simple, yet impossible; a nightmare indeed. I shook and sweated with the effort, a cold sweat, but instead cried out in desperate frustration.

  The sea hag laughed again. "You so want to kill me. It thrills me to feel such anger and terror. You are a treat for an old lady, cripple, but sadly it must end soon. My children are hungry and I have promised them more man flesh. They will be here soon and you will be but food for the fish. The Cripple wil
l fall, the Thirteen Emperors will shine, the Ruin will rise and I shall be a witness to the event."

  "Release me, damn you!" I said. "Release me and I will spare your life."

  "Spare my life? I am five hundred and eighty six years old, cripple. I have been swimming the seas most of that time and I have seen nations come and go. I have seen the great rise and fall and you, young mortal, think you have the right to take my life? I squash men like you like shrimp."

  "It was simple fishermen who trapped you," I pointed out to which see looked annoyed and sneered. "Release me. Release us all and I will throw you back to the depths to be with your children."

  "Why should I? I have you all where I want you. I hate men and I enjoy seeing you suffer. It pleases me. It feeds me and my children and our hunger has yet to be sated. Once we have finished playing with you, we shall add you to our village larder to mature before sucking out your sweet fluids. The gods are watching, young Malspire. They see the cripple is done for."

  "Cursed sea bitch!" I growled. "You're just another one of the maggots that feed on humanity. Servant of the dark gods! Were you not human once? Do you have no sense of the crime you have committed here?"

  The sea hag looked serious for a moment then said, "I was human once. I was pretty and gay and young. My name was… Belvire, I think. I loved a man don't you know? I even thought I would be married and live in a fine house by the sea with children and cats and dogs, but things change. Things don't work out as we plan them, cripple. I was thrown into the cold waters and drowned, but before I could leave this world, I was given a choice and I took it. I do not regret it. I had my revenge and found that it was wonderful. Playing with men and feeding on them is what I do. I crave it. It fills me and we all have to eat."

  "Dark gods be cursed for your appetite. Damn your life and bugger your needs!"

  "Gods? What gods? There are no gods Malspire, only scared children, hiding from the darkness. Ha! I could do this all night long. I love to watch you squirm, but alas our time is running out. All our time is running out," she added. "But yours a lot sooner than mine. Now where are my children? Feasting on your men no doubt. Perhaps I should kill you now?"

  The doctor groaned. The muted battle went on. My mind raced for a solution but found none when all of a sudden the doctor gasped with disgust or effort and managed to cast the contents of his hip flask away. I saw the liquid fly past me. Only a drop managed to reach her face but it was enough. Enough to make her scream. The grip on me faltered. I saw the drop of liquid burn and bubble on her cheek. Haltingly, I managed to move my foot. The sea hag looked back at us, but her mind trick was spent as I now reared up above her, my body no longer shackled in fear. A flicker of fear passed her eyes where I saw my grim smile in the reflection, a smile that even shocked me.

  "You wouldn't harm an old lady would you, Malspire?" she croaked. "A feeble old woman who was cast aside in life?"

  I thought of the dead villagers. She was no woman but a savage monster.

  She instantly tried another tack. "All your life, you have been scorned. All your life others have looked down upon you. I can change that. I can make you great and tall in the eyes of your Empire."

  "How do you know so much about me?" I was buzzing with the lingering fear mixed with rage. Every time I saw the now pitiful eyes I had to remind myself of the dead outside.

  "Oh, I know about you and your brother, poor soul," she leered again.

  "Poor me?"

  "No. Your brother!"

  "What are you talking about? He's perfect. He does no wrong!" My ire was rising again. First the doctor and now a sea hag was telling me that Ajator's future was somehow troubled.

  "He is doomed, Malspire. He is doomed, for the cripple is abroad!"

  I raised the blade. I would not hear any more lies and treachery from this witch of the oceans. I was briefly tempted by the idea of letting her go, but then remembered again how things had gone for the villagers. She was reading my mind, and it offended me. It was time to force an end to this.

  "Call off your creatures, hag! Call them off now or Creators witness I will destroy you!" With a sudden moment of lucidity I realised that I felt pity for such a creature as this. The sea hag was a vile and vicious thing, but she had been trapped and forced here against her will. She was a predator, but so where sharks and yet sharks where seen as a necessary part of nature. I now saw the hag as an unfortunate part of creations work. I no longer felt that I had the right to judge her and so offered the hag this opportunity to live. Suddenly I was the one in power. I held the blade and as captain I was both judge and jury.

  She looked angrily at me. "No!" she screamed and with that scream came a fresh wave of terror that simply rebounded or flowed around me like water. Her eyes widened with shock at the impotence of her assault. I saw that she had thought to break this new strength of will of mine with a full blast of her willpower, but it was like throwing pebbles at a castle wall. She had miscalculated and now she saw her end in the dull gleam of a cutlass reflected in her watery eyes.

  I brought the blade down with all my strength upon the hag's head. I saw sadness and fear in its eyes just before I struck. Death was obviously not to the hag's liking. However, I did not manage to cleave it. It went deep into her skull and lodged fast. The hag screamed in agony and putrid water gushed from her mouth, nose, ears and eyes. The strike had left it with a dead, glazed eye staring at an odd angle, while the other was fixed on me. I raised the blade again, but the head came with it, still screaming and now spewing stinking water all over me. I flicked the blade hard and the head flew across the room to hit the cave wall with a thud. Still it screamed and, pointing the lantern at it, I could see the gory mass of rotting brain and matted hair where the blade had struck it. Stepping over to the head, I brought my boot down on her skull. Still it gurgled and screamed. I was about to do so again when I stopped.

  She cried now. Not loudly, but quietly like a child hiding under covers, afraid of the unseen things in the dark. It instantly spoke to my heart which suddenly ached at the sad sound. In a second I had gone from anger to sympathy and found myself again trapped by some force I could not overcome. The force this time however was not of the Other however, but a more natural source. I told myself again and again to kill the unnatural creature, but could not bring my boot down.

  Doctor Eebel heard it too and edged closer to my shoulder. Shivering with mixed emotions, I was near to tears from my exertions. Was this another trick? I did not think so, so put my boot down. All I could see of the hag was a quivering mass of bone, flesh and pallid blood, no face.

  The crying died and she whispered something.

  "What?" I said, fearing some spoken charm.

  "Let me go, Malspire, son of Ajorion. I shall no longer call to my children. I shall leave this place." Her voice was pitiful and cracked. There was no strength nor defiance, but a resignation and sadness.

  "Why? You are not natural. You have killed a village."

  For a moment she sobbed again, and then said, "They wronged me. I have done wrong in turn. Let me go and I will hide myself away until the Ruin finds me. I want to care for my children, and all I have done is brought them here to die on your blades and shot. Let me go."

  The noise of battle flooded back to us. Whatever spell that made the witch’s cavern silent was now broken. Still, I hesitated.

  "She's done for, Captain," said Eebel as she began to cry again.

  "So be it, hag. Call them off."

  "They will go soon. They can no longer hear me."

  "If you lie, I will return and no amount of pleading will save you."

  "I am broken, Malspire. You have bested me. There is a strength in you that I did not see and you have won," she croaked. "Go now and leave me. Leave us to our fates and we will leave you and your kind alone."

  I still hesitated.

  "Please, Malspire. Now I beg. I have not begged for my life in a long, long time, but I do so now. Leave me and I will grant you a
request."

  "A request?"

  "I have powers over the seas. Should you require it, you can come to these waters and I will answer your call."

  The fight was gone from me now. I could not kill this sad creature. I backed away as far as the entrance with Eebel by my side, and then turned and we both headed back to the exit, shaken by what we had seen and done.

  "How did you know to break the spell?" I asked.

  "I didn't. I panicked. I found the strength to take a drink before we died, but I forgot that I had filled the flask with water. It was water when I needed spirits, and I threw it in shock. Fresh water. That was all."

  "Thank the creators that fresh water is anathema to her dirty soul. We were lucky and I owe you Mister Eebel."

  We could only hope that she would keep her word and the creatures would leave. As we reached the rest of the men, Jodlin gave a great battle cry and charged out of the cave into the darkness. The others followed him apart from Willan and Harl. Willan was sitting against the wall nursing an injured arm, and Harl came to me. I was relieved to see that Willan's injury was not serious. The lad grinned sheepishly.

  "They broke, Captain! One minute they were about to overwhelm us and the next they just fled."

  There was a line of dead Sealorns marking where the defenders had held them off.

  "We found the sea hag, Harl. We broke the head from the beast and now they flee! Come on!" I said.

  The doctor, pale and shivering from his experience stayed with Willan, while Harl and I charged after the fleeing enemy. The Sealorns were slow and had lost the will to fight. I used both my cutlass and gutting knife to hack and stab as we caught up with them.

  "Kill them all!" I was calling. The hag had probably released them but I was taking no chances. It was hard to see where everyone went but I made my way towards the gate, and found the others had done the same.

  The killing continued beyond the gate, and only stopped when we reached the waterline. None dared set foot in the water, but there was a cry of joy and relief when it was over. The scarred moon was now high in the sky. Crabs were already feasting on the dead creatures. The Sealorns were gone. The men were alive and as far as I could tell, none of my away party had perished although most had taken wounds. I only hoped the same could be said of the crew on the Lady Ocean.

  It was a risky choice to return to the ship. Nobody wanted to get into the launch and be at the mercy of the Sealorns in their own element should they return, but nobody wanted to stay either, so we took the chance and hoped the creatures had gone for good. To our great relief, we made it back to the ship unmolested, and I found Mister Olvan with a cut to his head, but otherwise unhurt together with a grim faced Sudlas.

  "They came out of the depths, Captain. Hundreds of them!" said Olvan.

  "I know. How many wounded?"

  "Two crewmen dead," he said sadly. "Others with cuts and bites that the doctor will need to see to."

  "Who are the dead?"

  “Potlan and Ogelo. They were dragged down to the depths, sir. Gone."

  "I see." I did not know the men well, but remembered their faces.

  "What are your orders?"

  “The Sealorns seem to have lost the will to fight. We still need to paint the ship, so we stay.”

  I desperately wanted to weigh anchor and be off as did Olvan by the look on his face, but I equally did not want to risk being caught without a full disguise. We had been lucky so far, and that luck was sure to run out soon enough. I knew that an enemy force may be on the way to this location to answer the villager's call for help, but it was a slim risk to take. The enemy navy had probably ignored the request as this was just an insignificant hamlet.

  "I want a skeleton crew and the injured to get rest now. The rest of the crew will stand guard throughout the night. If they come again, we will be ready."

  There were no more attacks that night and as soon as the sun broke, I ordered the painting to begin. In the calmer waters it did not take long to paint the old name of the ship back onto her hull. The rest of the day was spent resting the men, seeing to the injured and preparing the ship for her on-going mission.

  Harl was a clever man and I was impressed to see how he had dried the paint with a burning stick which caused it to bubble and crack. Harl then took a wire brush, borrowed from the engine room and scrubbed it down. The effect was to age the paint, and it looked very authentic from my view from the launch. I nodded at the old sailor in approval of his good work. By late afternoon we were ready to go again. Nobody wanted to spend another night in the gorge, and although I was acutely aware of the fact that we were probably entering even more dangerous waters the further west we steamed, we had come too far to turn back now.