Siren’s
fleet raced across the water with all engines at full power, leaving a set of
long thin wakes, like streamers laced across the surface of the black
waves. Heads turned nervously now and
then to look back towards the horizon and the point where they had left the Dusk Raider, but no sign of that ship now showed.
After what they had just experienced this only seemed to increase their
paranoia, rather than lessen it.
Gulliver, Toby and Ellis remained
silent as they ploughed through the ocean.
Ellis couldn’t help but relive the moment when the Dusk Raider’s dragon figurehead had come to life, and to keep seeing in his mind’s
eye the jet of flame it had produced, killing several of their crew in the most
horrible way he could imagine. He had
seen many terrifying things since he had come to Shadow, from the deaths of the
Horne Brothers right through to the legion of eviscerated Stoneskins that
filled the Silverspire. He had even
died himself, or so he had been told, but this was the first time he had seen
such violence perpetrated on fellow humans.
The Horne Brothers had only suffered arrows. For some reason fire seemed so much more terrifying.
On top of that there were the lights
from the Dusk Raider’s cabin; those eerie dancing lights of many
colours. Just thinking about them sent
a shiver down Ellis’ spine. What could
have been making them? Just who was
captaining that galleon?
A third thought plagued the youth
from Larksborough as well, and he knew it must be on the minds of the rest of
crew, not least Siren. What had
happened to M. Marveille and Rockspark?
They had been in command of the remaining Shoalstrike vessels, the ones
fitted with the really powerful weaponry and they were supposed to follow the Raider and the Crest out of the harbour before attacking. They had never shown up and neither had the Crest. Were they okay? Did Harker set some kind of trap for
them? It didn’t bear thinking about,
and yet the alternatives were not much better.
Dragon. Lights. Missing friends. Ellis’ mind turned these thoughts over and over and thus passed
the journey of just over an hour to the Stonerib Shoals.
His first vision of the Shoals, lit as they were by the pale violet
moon, was a confusing, indistinct one.
They appeared as a pale line in the gloom ahead, a ghostly squiggle
above the waves, half-veiled in midnight mists. Siren, whose vessel still led the small and now somewhat ragtag
flotilla, called out from ahead and commanded her crew to reduce speed as they
approached. The deep thrum and whirr of
hypostatick engines faded instead to a low hum and Ellis found he was once
again able to hear the gentle whisper of the ocean waves against the hulls of
the Shoalstrike vessels as they cut through the gleaming jet surface.
Billowing clouds of mist drifted by and soon tendrils of vapour were
caressing each boat like spectral fingers.
Ellis watched as they moved over the water, catching the faint hints of
purple from the moonlight and becoming what he could only describe, however
unimaginatively, as ‘otherworldly’.
Certainly he would never have expected to see such a sight in a natural
setting on Earth.
As he stared ahead towards the Shoals and watched, sand banks decorated
with eerie formations of stone began to manifest between curtains of mist. Each was massive, rising twenty feet or
more, and curved and tapered like a talon.
Most were mirrored by an equal and opposite structure and they usually
proceeded in a series of gradually increasing or decreasing size, forming cages
like hollow cathedrals. It was easy to
see how the shoals had received their name.
“Be careful not to run aground,” Siren warned, her voice filtered
strangely by the moisture in the air and the odd shapes which were now looming
all around them, “stick to the channels between the sand banks. We want to be able to get deep enough
into the shoals before we make our next
move.”
There were a few distant-sounding Aye-Aye, Captains which
echoed for a moment across the Shoals and then all fell silent and even the
other vessels were lost to Ellis’ view as another wave of mist passed around
them. Ellis was left with only Toby and
Gulliver for company and the unnerving shapes of the Stoneribs marching
alongside.
“How did it get like this?” he whispered.
Gulliver was concentrating hard on controlling the tiller, so, after a
few seconds silence, it was Toby who answered.
“You haven’t heard about it before?” the youth asked.
“No. There’s still an awful lot
about Shadow I don’t know. I’ve only
been here two weeks, remember.”
“Of course,” Toby replied, sounding abashed, “I’m sorry.”
“So what’s the story?”
“Oh, you’ll like it, I think.
It was one of my father’s favourites.
He did a lot of research into it before… before he died.”
Toby hung his head and another veil of mist, thicker than any before
it, served to obscure him from Ellis’ view for just a moment. When it had passed Toby was staring back at
Ellis, a half-smile on his lips.
“It’s not a natural formation, as you might have guessed,” Toby
continued, suddenly sounding excited.
“I wasn’t sure, but I had thought it might not be.”
“Well, your suspicions were correct, then. Neither the rocks nor the sandbanks happened here through any
natural process at all, in fact. What
we are sailing through now are the last remaining pieces of evidence of an
ancient and terrible war.”
“A war? Between humans and
Stoneskins?”
“Oh no, it is far more ancient than that. The Shoals predate the rise of the human and Lithoderm races and
are, in fact evidence of a much older race.”
“Who were they then?” Ellis
asked, his interested piqued. The
Former Baron had never told him anything like this before.
“Well, that’s just it, we don’t really know a lot about them. They are usually just referred to as ‘The
Ancients’, which is a bit boring really and it’s likely there were more than
one race of them, which is what resulted in the war in the first place.”
“So, what do we know?”
“We know how the war ended, although only through the distorting lens
of legend, and what archaeological remains have been uncovered here.”
“Is this where it happened then?
The end of this war between the Ancients?”
“Something like that. The
Stonerib Shoals cover an area of approximately fifty square miles – that’s
fifty square miles that, before the end of that war, would all have just been
open ocean.”
“So it was a sea battle then?”
“Yes, between one unknown force of Ancients and what has come to be
known as the Stone Fleet.”
“Ah,” Ellis said, realisation flooding in, “those Stoneribs really are
ribs, aren’t they? The ribs of ships.”
“Indeed. We are sailing through
the wreckage of the largest, most impossible fleet ever to sail the oceans of
Shadow.”
“But, was it always made of stone, or was that part of the way it was
destroyed? I don’t see how a ship made
of stone could possibly float!”
“As far as we known the Stone Fleet was just that, a fleet of stone
ships carrying the last of one of the races of Ancients from their home on one
continent to the home of their enemies on the other. We think they were nearly there, that they would have landed
somewhere near Shalereef, but that they were stopped at this point by the use
of enormous amounts of hypostatick energy.
We’re still above the continental shelf, but even so this is a massive
amount of sand to relocate. Somehow the
Ancients managed it, stranding the Stone Fleet in an instant and leaving them
completely vulnerable to attack.
“Here, at the fringes, you can see how many of the ships were rocked
and capsized by that first, sudden shock and so we see the characteristic
‘stone rib’ appearance. Further in many
of the vessels are much more intact and the right way round even, albeit rather
badly weathered. It’s like a city of
ships in there, but it gets more and more difficult to navigate the further in
you go, so I don’t think we’ll see too much of it, besides – parts of it are
inhabited.”
“By who?”
Toby tapped his nose, “ now that would be telling wouldn’t it?”
Ellis was about to protest when Siren’s voice cut across the silence
and called all vessels to her position.
“Sounds like she’s found us a place to make land,” Toby commented, then
fell silent as he stared ahead into the mists, on the lookout for the rest of
the fleet. It appeared just a moment
later, clustering together along a small area of open sandbank between the
upturned carcasses of three massive stone ships. Siren could be seen on the shore, waving everybody off their
boats to join her in a huddle near the centre of the space. Beside the Former Baron was stroking his
chin. It was the first time Ellis had
really noticed the old Philosopher since they had left the harbour. He couldn’t recall seeing him during any of
the fighting, but he had no idea where else he might have been. Knowing the Former Baron, he could have been
up to anything.
There was a jolt as their vessel came to a halt at the shoreline and
then first Toby, then Ellis and finally Gulliver hopped ashore and made their
way over to where Siren stood waiting patiently.
“Is everyone here now?” she asked, surveying the group before her as if
tallying up exactly who was missing.
looking around Ellis realised that there were fewer of them than he had
been expecting. Even the numbers of the
Mosskind seemed greatly reduced. The
first part of the battle had clearly taken its toll.
“We’ve just suffered a defeat,” Siren began once she was sure they were
all accounted for, “an unexpected and tragic one, but this battle is not
over. Now, more than ever, we have to
strike back at the Dusk Raider and put an end to whatever horror is
controlling it.” She took a deep
breath, then continued, “Originally we were to lure her here if things were
going badly and use the layout of the Shoals to gain our advantage. That was not possible tonight, we were too
hard pressed and the Raider did not want to be led. Instead we have come here to recover, to
regroup and to decide upon our next move.
We can launch an assault from here and can continue to try to use the
landscape to our advantage, but whilst it is likely we have been followed – at
a distance - we do not know the current whereabouts of the Raider, so… though it pains me to suggest it, I think we have to spend the
night here, rest up, heal and repair what we can and then begin scouting for
the Raider at first light.”
There were sighs and groans from the remaining crew, but in their midst
there were plenty of stoic faces nodding slowly and soon it was clear that all
were in agreement. There was nothing
more they could achieve that night unless Rockspark and Marveille were to show
up with the heavy weaponry and that was an event which was increasingly
unlikely.
“We weren’t completely unprepared for this,” Siren added, “Miss
Barkcastle has ensured that each vessel is stocked with some basic rations and
equipment in case we had to spend any time out here in the Shoals. I suggest we all check out what we have in
our boats and then set about making camp.
Franck and I will do our best to attend to any wounded. Ellis,” she glanced over at him, “I’d like
you to help us with that too. Toby and
Gulliver, you can begin examining the vessels for damage. If you can report back to us when you’ve
checked them all we can order them according to priority and Franck can begin
supervising repairs.”
“Aye-aye, Captain,” they all replied and then everyone began scurrying
back to their vessels to sort through what equipment there was. Siren stayed fixed to the spot, however,
staring into space like a lost soul.
Ellis felt drawn to her side. He
took a few steps towards her as the crowds parted and then she looked up at
him. Her expression was one of
exhaustion, and Ellis realised that it was a look she would not have let any of
the other crew see, save perhaps for the Former Baron.
“This was not supposed to happen,” she said, her voice quavering a
little.
“I know, but… we have to make do, right? This was a war we were planning and we have to take the
consequences that come with that, don’t we?
Like this place.”
“Ah, did Gulliver tell you about it?”
“No, Toby did. It’s kinda
spooky, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but it’s our home for the night, so we’d better make the most of
it.” she sighed, “Oh, Ellis, what a mess this is becoming.”
He put a hand on her shoulder and tried to give her a reassuring
smile. He wasn’t entirely sure but she
seemed to flinch slightly at his touch, before settling into it. He tried not to make a big deal of it, but
it made him wonder.
They stood like that for a moment, in the pale moonlight filtering down
like violet rain through the swirling mist, the great ribcages of ancient ships
surrounding them like monuments to the kind of failure they were hoping to
avoid, then Siren pulled away.
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