Page 59 of The Sea Witch (Salt & Sorcery #1)
Alys leapt out of bed, and Ben did the same. The furious, outraged animal roaring reverberated in Alys’s gut as terror climbed
up her back.
She dressed quickly, and strapped on her cutlass. Ben pulled on his clothing, concealing his markings, which still covered
his skin. He grabbed his blade. The walls of the manor shuddered so violently that cracks spread through the plasterwork.
After using magic to push the chest out of the way, Alys pulled open the door to reveal pirates in all states of dress crowding
in alarm along the catwalk. Chunks of ceiling and wall slammed down onto the tile floor, shattering it and barely missing
fleeing buccaneers. Panicked yells joined together in a cacophony as people screamed.
Alys joined Ben on the catwalk. He reached for her hand, and she took it. Together, they wove through the throng. When she
stumbled over a pile of rubble, Ben steadied her and helped her to keep moving. They, along with the crowd, headed toward
the stairs leading to the ground floor.
A crashing noise made her turn. The manor’s outer wall cracked open and split apart, and a pair of huge claws ripped the wall
away. The head of a massive creature pushed its muzzle into the manor, right by the room Alys and Ben had just been in.
“Holy fucking stars,” Alys gasped.
The beast was a cross between a feathered bird and a scaled lizard, with a gleaming sharp beak at the end of a long reptilian
face. Golden eyes glinted with rage.
A man tried to spring past the creature, but a stone falling from the ceiling knocked him down. The beast snatched the pirate
in its beak, then tossed him aside.
Alys froze as the beast turned its yellow eyes to her and Ben.
“It’s searching for something,” she breathed. “Some one .”
A man bellowed, “ You. ”
She turned to face Lambert. Her hand went to the grip of her cutlass. “Me?”
Their host advanced, his face twisted in fury as he blocked their path to the stairs. “Magic seeks magic.”
“There are dozens of mages here,” she countered.
“The monster wants you , witch.” Lambert pointed at her. “ You brought it here.”
Drawing their swords, six pirates collected behind Lambert. The other guests surged down the stairs, buccaneers and women
running.
“We should give it what it wants,” one of the pirates with Lambert shouted.
“Push her back! To the monster!”
Alys and Ben glanced at the creature behind them, ripping out more chunks of the building, and the armed angry pirates ahead
of them. She and Ben shared a look, coming to a silent agreement, and pressed toward the pirates.
A pair of buccaneers moved in front of them, a square-set man facing off against Alys and a tall man against Ben.
Her opponent struck first, and she blocked his strikes. Knocking his guard low, she then punched him in the face with the
bell of her cutlass.
With quick decisive strikes, Ben drove his opponent into the railing at the edge of the catwalk, where the pirate then teetered. He glanced behind him nervously as he nearly fell over the balustrade, the floor fifteen feet below.
Before the off-balance pirate could fall, Ben grabbed him by the front of his coat. The man tried to jab with his cutlass,
but Ben spun, throwing the buccaneer toward the creature behind him. The pirate scurried to a corner, cowering as the beast’s
claws narrowly missed him.
All the while, the creature continued to roar and tear down the walls in its search. The floor juddered and everyone battled
to keep standing.
Lambert and four more pirates remained, blocking Alys and Ben from reaching the stairs.
“Straight down the middle,” she commanded Ben.
“Aye, aye, Captain,” he answered.
She and Ben attacked with a flurry of slashes.
Gritting her teeth, Alys traded strikes with a pirate, and their cutlasses rang out above the creature’s roars. As she fought,
Lambert attacked.
Ben stepped between her and Lambert, wielding his blade.
With all the force of her body, Alys kicked her opponent in the chest. Cursing, he crumpled.
Ben pushed Lambert back. There was just enough room to give Ben and Alys access to the stairs.
She raced down one section of the stairs, until she reached a landing. Reaching deep into herself, she summoned the destructive
force of an earthquake. She turned to launch the spell at the stairs.
Yet Ben was still on the steps, fighting with Lambert and several of his men.
“Get to the landing!” Alys shouted at Ben.
He was a whirl of steel and fury as he attacked Lambert, fierceness in his eyes and his movements. It wasn’t pretty, his combat,
but it was beautiful.
Lambert and his cohorts edged backward in an effort to dodge Ben’s strikes. With enough space to move, Ben leapt down to the landing.
With Ben now beside her, Alys cast her spell, pushing the force from her body as she groaned from the effort. The marble stairs
between the landing and the catwalk shuddered and then shattered, breaking into pieces that rained onto the floor below.
She and Ben sprinted down the remaining steps. They reached the ground floor of the main hall. The long feasting table was
abandoned. Plates and goblets and cutlery were scattered across its surface and over the floor.
“The key,” Alys called to Ben.
The glint of gold was everywhere, but a pointed item near the head of the table caught her eye.
“That’s it,” she cried.
The house shook again. More stone fell as the creature broke through the wall on the opposite side of the hall. Its scaled
arm reached through the hole and its claws dug trenches in the floor as it struggled to reach them. Hot green breath gusted
around the chamber.
The table lay between them and the beast. With one of its talons, the creature punctured a hole in the wooden surface and
began to drag the table toward it.
Alys leapt aboard. She fell to one knee as the creature pulled the table toward its snapping beak, but with her experience
on rocking ships she regained her balance and stood.
She dove for the key, and her fingers wrapped around the handle. The beast’s claws swiped just above her arm. She pulled back
with the knife in her hand, and she rolled off the table to land on her side. Ben helped her to her feet. She tucked the carving
knife into her belt.
“Run for the beach.” She kept her voice low so only he could hear.
At his nod, they sprinted out of the main chamber and into the corridor that led to the front door. The manor shook as the creature continued to tear at the walls.
The front door loomed ahead. As she and Ben sped toward it, Janssen blocked their way, along with a duo of guards.
“Damn it,” Alys groaned at the prospect of facing off against the majordomo and his ruffians.
“You and your filthy witch magic,” Janssen snarled, raising a cutlass. “Ruining my master’s home. We should never have let
you cross his threshold.”
“There’s no knowing what the creature wants,” Ben answered as he and Alys both stood with their blades at the ready. “It could
be your master, Janssen.”
“His family’s been here for generations, and they’ve never faced an attack from a monster. Not until tonight. Until she came here.” He glared at Alys as he advanced on her.
“You want filthy witch magic, Janssen?” Alys shot back. “Choke on it.”
She flung out her hand. A torrent of thick dark sludge sprayed as she conjured up the foul-scented muck that collected in
bogs and ponds at the end of summer. She sent it spewing all over Janssen and his brutes.
The men fell back, clawing at themselves and retching. The smell nearly made Alys gag, too. Her eyes watered. Ben made an
agonized sound.
As the men heaved, Ben shoved them out of their path. He and Alys leapt out the front door and hurried down the steps, darting
into the forest.
Roaring sounded, far too close. Birds took flight as the trees suddenly splintered apart behind them. The monster had turned
its attention away from the manor.
It chased them.
Alys and Ben sprinted through the woods.
She chanced a glance behind her, to see the creature relentless in its pursuit, scuttling after them.
Trees crashed and there was a terrible thundering of the beast’s beating wings.
Yet the wings seemed incapable of giving the creature flight as it continued to scramble toward them in a serpentine motion.
They burst from the tree line to tumble out near the pier. The jolly boat was still tied up, and together, they ran full out
for the vessel. The pier rattled beneath their boots.
“I’ll row,” Ben shouted as they reached the jolly boat.
They both leapt into the small vessel. He hacked at the rope with his cutlass. The creature emerged from the forest, its feet
slamming down on trees and breaking them apart like they were slender reeds. The beast was fully visible now. It was the length
of three horses, with a powerful body, a beak that could easily swallow an entire human, and a long tail topped with spikes.
Its eyes blazed with wrath. And it headed straight for them.
“ Now , Ben,” she yelled.
With a snarl, he dropped his cutlass and grabbed the oars.
Summoning the swiftness of dolphins, she imbued the jolly boat with their speed.
The stars protect them if the beast could swim.
They shot away from the dock just as the creature reached the end of the pier. The beast snapped at them. It nipped the stern,
rocking the boat.
As they sped toward the waiting Sea Witch , the creature crouched on the pier, roaring and shrieking at the nighttime sky. Frustrated, the beast slashed its claws through
several of the tied-up boats. Shattered timber flew into the sky and splashed in the water.
When they were a hundred yards away, the beast gave one last bellow of anger before slinking away. It disappeared into the
darkness, its tail lashing out and felling trees.
“By all the tides,” Alys breathed as they neared the Sea Witch . “I’ve aged a hundred years this past quarter of an hour.”