Chapter 204: Eruption

Chapter 204: Eruption

Woodrat was at the tiller. They had managed to fix it temporarily with some shark hide strips and wooden pegs. The shattered railing, and decking were piled on the uneven deck, along with any other scrap wood they still had. Ozzy had to stay on the left side of the ship to keep things balanced until they could repair the damaged supports on the right that the shark had splintered.

"I've been meaning to ask you, where did you learn about hunting sharks and woomeras and such things? You even seem to be getting along with porpoise and talking to them. But I remember you saying that you had never spent time on a real ship before, and watching you move about the first couple of days convinced me."

Ozzy thought about how to explain things. Might as well start with the big question. "Do you have gods here in the smoke?"

Woodrat spat overboard. "Of course, we have gods! What kind of question is that? They aren't friendly, and they don't care if we live or die, but a man has to have a god to pray to when things get bad. I've heard there are quite a few, but I only know of some of them."

"There's Evergreen, she lives on the Islands and tends to the growing green things that live there. I saw one of her processions once. Seven priestesses camp walking down from her temple with little trees growing in wooden pots. There was some song and dance, and then a lot of food given out. That's why me and a few friends were there. They all got on a ship and sailed off to take the goddesses blessing to somewhere they didn't have trees. I don't remember much more, but the food was good."

"A scary one, Jack Firebeard, has dominion over heat, and takes a special interest in the people who get too hot. Some of the pirate clans worship him as The Burning Ma. His priests are said to have beards and eyes of fire. He incites ships to go to war, where tempers burn hot and warriors burn so bright, they burst their furnaces. They say he gathers in their souls as fuel, to clean up the world and get rid of anger and hate."

"Let's see, there’s Palaimon, beloved of shipwrecked sailors. He gets a lot of prayers and sometimes sends a current to put a man in the path of a ship to rescue him. At this point you'd think I'd be pretty friendly with him, and maybe I am. I've been lucky a time or two."

"Old Smoke is who made this whole place. The legends say he was a creature of fire that got lost in the Skye and breathed in too much air. Unhealthy stuff. He coughed and coughed for an age and created the smoke. Every time he breaths out we get more smoke, and he gets a little smaller."

"Aeto'le is the goddess of hunting, especially whales, sharks, and kraken. She has an enchanted Harpoon that always returns to her after she throws it. She's worshipped on all the big hunting ships, especially when they go after kraken."

"There's a few more, but I don't spend time on the islands much, so as far as gods go, I'm pretty much just for saying prayers to Palaimon when I can."

Ozzy listened as Woodrat told him about the gods in the smoke, then continued his own tale. "Well, in the Conjunction, we have a goddess of the hunt named Artemis. She blesses hunters who go out to kill beasts in the forests, either for protecting their village for food. I helped to restore one of her shrines. The shrine would grant a hunter new skill for completing hunts of the beasts in the forest. Shark Hunting and Woomera were two of those skills, but I never had much chance to practice them until now."

Woodrat scratched his head. "Sounds a little like Aeto'le, although I only half understand that story. But you should sacrifice that heart we cut out to your Artemis then. A good heart is tasty, but a blessing is probably a bitter thing. If she's like Aeto'le, she'll appreciate it."

Ozzy doubted he was going to find a shrine floating in the smoke. "A little difficult to do. How do you sacrifice to Aeto'le?"

Woodrat pointed at the heart. "Take that, and add heat until it glows. Think of something you want, and throw it into the sky. Supposedly the farther your throw it, the better the chance of getting your wish."

Ozzy did as Woodrat suggested, and wished to hell he could go home. A few points of heat made the heart glow brightly, and he threw it as far as he could. The little speck of light went high in the air and flew out of sight. Neither Woodrat or Ozzy could tell where it came down. Ozzy felt a little let down when nothing happened. Woodrat saw his face and clapped him on the shoulder. "The gods don't answer that quickly lad. Maybe something happens, maybe it doesn't. But it’s always good to offer up a prayer, you never know who is listening. Now, let's get back to work. You've got sharkskin to work with and I've got some wood to fix.

The sharkskin had turned out to be ideal for hide crafting. There was nothing like tanning here in the smoke, the shark hide was essentially already tanned. It was tough as an unsplit hide of cured sedge beast leather. Ozzy spent some time making himself a butcher's apron from the hide to gain some armor from it, and a pair of paints to replace the set he was rapidly wearing out. The rest he rolled up for future projects or cut up into long strips that were useful for temporary repairs to the ship.

Dinner was shark, as would for the next few meals. It was better than most other fish, and saved them time fishing. With nothing distracting him, Woodrat was able to get most of the repairs done in a day and they sailed onward, Woodrat navigating by some system of reading the currents of the smoke that Ozzy simply couldn't grasp. He chalked it up to one more thing he didn't understand about the smoke.

Woodrat said there were islands in the direction they were headed, he just wasn't sure how far. An Island meant a place to rest, better food, cold beer and a place to trade and buy things. "Might be we find a larger ship we can sign on with. I'd hate to not have my own ship, but some of the big hunting ships use smaller, faster ships to scout for them. Or maybe we sell that Void Core for a ship a tad bigger than this one, take on a few crew and make some coin on our own. Lots of options when we finally get to an island."

"But right now, I think I'll take the option of a long rest. The helm is yours until morning, Mr. Ozzy." Woodrat laid back on the deck and was almost instantly asleep, a talent Ozzy couldn't match. He was barely sleeping these days, making all the time into one long continuous experience. The monotony was starting to get to Ozzy. He was used to working, but not to just holding a tiller or staring into the smoke for what was going to attack them next. He made an idle wish for something a little more exciting to happen. Unlike his other wish, this one came true very quickly.

The sound hit them first. A massive explosion that shook them to their bones. Both men had been fishing and were knocked prone by the blast and their ears were ringing. The smoke was riled up, with four-foot swells and small waves. Their sail was destroyed from the force of the sound tearing through the air.

Ozzy saw a ball of light that had to be a miles away come up from the deep smoke. When it got to the surface, fire and light shot into the air hundreds of feet high and then fiery bits came back down, falling all around the plume of fire. It reminded Ozzy of a fountain...no, a volcano! It was like a volcano in the smoke, a place without land. And then as a dark peak thrust up out of the smoke, with rivers of fire running down its flanks, Ozzy revised that notion. Somehow that really was a volcano!

"They may have a bigger ship Mr. Ozzy, but we have the faster one!"

Her Majesties ship Dauntless was in trouble, and Captain Cavendish wasn't sure for how much longer they could keep her together. The first blast had taken out half of the sails and knocked men from the rigging to be dashed on the unyielding deck, or lost into the smoke. The crew has scurried to do what they could, hampered by most of them being partially deaf.

Cavendish sent some thanks to Evergreen that they hadn't been broadside to the blast. They had been sailing almost directly away from where the eruption point was and that had saved them. "Where the hell is the messenger, I asked for? We don't have time to waste!" A painting midshipman came running up the steps holding a glowing lantern. Cavendish took the lantern and looked at the small ball of light within. The Willowisp was fat and healthy, well fed on heat from many of the crew. Now it was time to earn here keep. "I charge thee with delivering this message, and release your bound when done. "From William Cavendish, Captain of Her Majesties ship Dauntless, to her Majesty, Liana, Queen of the Nine Isles. Eruption on the 47th day of our cruise, 2 days out from the Great Sargasso. Survival is doubtful. Magnitude of eight or higher. Firewalkers sighted. May Evergreen find out souls."

He wanted to say more. To commend his crew and ask for promotions so their families would receive a higher death payment. To say something to his father and wife. But there was no time. "Fly, little one, Fly." He smashed the lantern with his hands and the wisp shot away, flying to safety and hopefully all the way to the Queen.

"Sir! Captain! Off Starboard and behind." The lookout shouted through the loudspeaker down at him and pointed.

The captain looked and saw a bizarre sight. A massive whale was coming up beside them, running from the same threat as the Dauntless, only much faster. Few things could match the size or the speed of a Gnarl Whale. This one was titan of its kind, centuries old. And as grand a sight as the creature was, it was what was riding the whale that had every man staring.

A small two-huller was sitting on top on the whale, held in place by a giant of a man whose chain hand snared the leviathan. Daringly, he turned and waved with one hand. More daring was his Captain. The smaller man in captains coat and tri-corn hat leaped to his mates shoulders and sketched a salute to Dauntless with what had to be a flaming sword. Cavendish drew his own sword and saluted back. His eyes turned to the wake of the huge whale. It was so massived that it was flattening the smoke and creating current behind it.

Cavendish grabbed the ships wheel and guide Dauntless into the path the Gnarl Whale had gifted them. Any little bit of speed was a blessing. "Did anyone get the name of the ship?"

One of the lookouts with a spyglass had managed to identify the ship. "Aye sir. That was the good ship, Splinter, Captain Woodrat commanding."

"If we find our way clear of this, I owe Captain Woodrat and his pet whale a drink."

The Dauntless fell behind as the whale raced onward. Porpoise, sharks, and other creatures were being towed in its wake, drafting behind the behemoth and trying to survive.

Ozzy took a glance behind them, not seeing the large ship at all, just the rolling smoke and the volcano in the background. Then the horizon turned red, and once again the volcano exploded. Nothing was left of it, and a wave of heat poured out across the smoke, pushing the smoke and heating it, creating titanic waves. Ozzy tore his eyes away, and paid attention to the whale. Would it dive deep? Did the smoke provide any cover from the heat?

Woodrat yelled and pointed. "Ships ahead, several of them. What the bloody hell?"

Ozzy looked to where he pointed. He saw several ships, but they looked like dark hulks, with no sails and few masts or spars. Many sat too low or were tilted at angles. The area around them didn't look like smoke, and there were no waves.

"Salad! Dammit. That's a Sargasso. A sea full of Salad and dead ships." Woodrat wasn't happy to see it.

The whale was though. It turned towards the dark mass floating in the smoke as if it was going to ram into it. "What the hell do we do, Woodrat?" The whale was going faster and faster, and it was all Ozzy could do to hold on.

"She'll dive deep! The whales going to go under and use the salad for cover. It grows deep in the center of the Sargasso. When she starts her dive, you need to let us loose or we'll be dragged under as well and the hungry kelp with strangle us for sure."

Sure enough, as they approached the graveyard of ships, the Whale started down. The chain between them changed angles, and Ozzy released the Trammelian Chain from the harpoon. What had been a chain became smoke that wrapped around his arm and became a tattoo once again. The Splinter was back on the smoke, skimming along faster than they could ever go with sails.

"Let out some chain Mr. Ozzy, and moved to the back of the boat, we have to shift the weight, and make her lighter up front!" Woodrat had made his own chain and moved back to the edge of the railing. Ozzy did the same. He felt the boat shift, its front coming up from the smoke. As they hit the mass of sargasso weed growing tightly packed in the smoke, the catamaran's pods lifting up and the Splinter skidded across the top of the Sargasso, slowly losing speed. Woodrat tried to use the rudder but it broke off as it caught on the heavy weeds. The ship bucked as they hit debris, and then came to a shuddering stop. Around them, tendrils of salad began crawling towards them.

The first wave of heat was nearly upon them, a huge wave of glowing smoke sweeping across the ocean of smoke. Ozzy grabbed Woodrat and threw him on the deck, covering him with three layers of sharkskin before laying down on top of the smaller man. The captain took offense to being manhandled. "What's the meaning of this, you bug lug?!"

"Begging the captain’s pardon, but I'm trying to save your damn life. In the Conjunction I can ward off fire from myself. None of your here have the skill. You need the fire. Except when a damned volcano shows up. I might survive, you won't."

Ozzy tried to remember how he had used his Active Fire Resistance. It was like a man missing an arm trying to flex it. He was still trying as a wave of fire roared across them, killing the top layer of salad that was even now sending tendrils up to grasp the Splinter and strangle its two crew. A moment later another wave followed the first, and then a third. The Sargasso burned, and the graveyard of ships became an island of ash and charred wood.