Nights across the oceans were cold as always. The stars blinked like white sapphires taking refuge in the embrace the dark canvas of the sky. The moon was nowhere to be seen
The wheel felt like an extension of himself. A part of the body you knew as much as the back of his hand. He felt the ship shudder.
'The rudder is struggling' Ramirez noted gravely.
That last storm had done a good amount of damage to it. If he kept the ship running at its current speed then they should reach Quescue with relative safety.
As long as the rest of the trip was as uneventful as it had been so far. Then all would be good.
The ship shuddered and the captain froze. He suddenly had a bad premonition.
A second tremor ran through the entire ship.
'That wasn't the rudder'
***
Liam couldn't sleep.
Something crawled at his nose. A scent. It was faint but it was there, so vague and yet as annoying as an itch that wouldn't go away no matter how much you scratched.
He sat up from bed looking up at the ceiling. Maybe he needed to take a small walk on the deck. He was just about to jump down from his bed when the entire ship shook.
"What was that?" Lad spoke from below.
The ship shook once more. This time more insistent. Liam fell from his bed but landed on the balls of his feet.
"That felt like something just hit the ship" Liam turned to Lad. "Come let's check it out"
The corridor was buzzing with the sounds of activity. Footsteps drummed and the shouts of men echoed.
The ship shook just as a crew member was passing by making him lose his footing. Liam caught him by the shoulders
"Hey Terry what's going on?" Lad asked.
"No idea. Right now we have orders to make sure the cargo is safe. Don't want what happened last time to happen again" Terry replied before rushing off.
Liam's heartbeat quickened. He turned down the corridor. As expected, the three Ushari were heading their way. Except their faces were stone and their eyes cold. It was a look he recognized. Even the air around them was affected by this intangible heaviness.
The heaviness of people ready to kill.
To kill what?
The floor tilted to the side, driving him into the wall. He winced, his shoulder stung but soon the pain faded.
Shay and Phay though were unaffected. They walked on the tilted floor of the ship as though it were flat land. They were using Aether below their feet to keep themselves grounded.
Ushanti caught herself just in time, while her control hadn't yet reached a level that allowed her to do what her tribe sisters were doing, her sense of balance was just as good. They all carried spears radiating an ounce of power that Liam could feel quite clearly.
Shay and Phay rushed past them.
Ushanti stopped beside them. They all shared a look.
"What's happening?" Liam asked.
"Something is attacking the ship" Ushanti said. "Something big"
Liam eyed her spear. "And where are you going?"
"On deck" she said.
"To do what exactly?"
"Help in what ever way I can"
"I don't mean to discourage you or anything but if something big is attacking the ship then I don't see how you can be of any help at all" Lad said with a pale face.
Ushanti shot a heated gaze at him. Lad flinched.
"I am not going to hide. Not again"
Leaving those words behind the princess stepped past them, following after the others no doubt.
"We have to stop her" Liam said.
Lad's face was pale. He trembled. "No. No. I'm not going to go out there" he shook his head left and right.
"But-"
"I'm not going out there Liam" Lad retreated into their quarters. He shut the door behind him.
Liam grit his teeth but made no moves to force open that door. He could tell, in the state that Lad currently was he could be of no help at all. It might even make everything worse.
He released a breath. "Its alright. I understand just stay here and stay safe then"
Liam turned and walked towards the deck.
The crew members were running past and scrambling to make sure the cargo was tied up right. He surveyed the entire buzz of activity but he couldn't see Ushanti anywhere. His heart thundered in his ribcage.
The ship took another hit.
What ever was attacking, it was resilient and it was attacking with even stronger conviction. The ground beneath him shifted staggering him towards the edge of the ship.
The guardrails assaulted him, knocking the air from his chest. His ribs were soar from that alone.
It wasn't the ground that was shifting...
'Its the entire goddamn ship' the realization hit him like a truck.
Just what kind of creature had the strength to knock an entire ship around as though it was a toy?
And just how long would the ship hold under such tyrannical force?
Liam's mind raced. Was there a solution to all of this? Could there even be any possible solution at all?
A blue eminence flared from the ship's stern. It was hidden by the large cargo crates but it was there nonetheless.
Someone was using Aether.
Shay.
Liam took off.
He didn't know what he was going to do there but he just had to be there. He needed to see what they were dealing with, maybe if he saw it he could have some ideas. He ran. The familiar surface of the deck he'd been running on for the past several days feeling extremely foreign with all the shaking and the constant shifting of bodies.
He passed by several faces he had grown accustomed to. Faces masked with the fear of uncertainty. A mask that must have been on his own face right about now.
As he made his way through the small maze of crates and containers. The ship shuddered once more. He caught himself this time. He was learning to keep his balance better.
Salt and moist hang in the air. Something else too. The faintest hint of honey with a whiff of iron.
The strange scent was back and it was stronger here than it was below deck.
'Honey?' he pondered. 'Why would honey even be here and how did it get here?'
Did one of the crates break open perhaps? Highly unlikely. Lad never mentioned anything about transporting large crates of honey. Lad would have pointed out such an oddity.
He shook off his thoughts and continued running.
There were more urgent matters than why he was smelling honey on the ship to begin with.
The ship shuddered once more.