A Perfect Storm
“Get moving, you bloody bilge rats! She’s like to take the whole damn ship with her at this rate!”
It was a sentiment that he’d expressed more than a few times in the past, but this time there might have been more to Yngve Seastrider’s words than booting his crew into gear. The old, gray-bearded mongrel was pacing along the deck like a caged wolf, hungry and apprehensive at once. The ship’s helmsman, a boy by the name of Jari, was doing his best to follow the captain’s commands, but their quarry was proving a harder chase than most. It seemed like they’d been pursuing her for a full half hour now, and with precious little to show for it but a battered and beleaguered crew.
But then, that was how it went in the dragon hunting business.
“By Hjalti’s rotten carcass, take your shot, girl!” The old man had a way of snapping her back to attention, she’d give him that. Gargreth tightened her grip on the handles of her turret. It was one of four massive ballistae that Edja had recently installed on the Dancer’s upper deck, two on either side. With a grunt of exertion, she swiveled the weapon around to line up her shot. Malphenor had beat her to landing the first hit, as was expected. The elf had eyes so keen, she’d seen him hit a leaping fish midair from a dozen meters off. His own harpoon was now embedded firmly in their quarry’s right leg, and you didn’t have to be an expert to tell that the big lizard was none too pleased by it. The dragonbone tips in the arrowheads had been a nice touch, and just about the only thing strong enough to pierce those nasty scales. It was a shame that the resource was too expensive to make whole harpoons out of it.
“Well!” Seastrider didn’t seem too keen on giving her room to think. “Are you going to shoot the damned thing, or were you planning on staring at the damn sky while she burns my ship to cinders?”
“I’m figuring the angle!” she shouted back at him, not bothering to look over her shoulder and ruin her shot. At least Mal had managed to keep the thing anchored in one relative part of the sky for her.
“Well quit your figuring and start fucking shooting!”
“I’m doing it! Try not to piss yourself, will you?” He was right, though. They didn’t have time for her to be hesitating over this. Gargreth might not have had a Bosmer’s eye for accuracy, but she was willing to bet she could crank this damned winch about twice as fast as the scrawny little elf. A heavy thunk, as she felt the wooden mechanism lock into place. Now all she had to do was let it fly.
Gargreth braced herself. She fired.
The javelin thundered through the air, ripping through the thick membrane of the creature’s wing and hooking itself on the skeletal framework. She couldn’t have hoped for better. “Alright! How’s that, old man?”
“You’re a damn gift wrapped in a few hundred pounds of dead weight, that what you wanted to hear? Now put that green arse of yours to work and pull her in!”
Now this, this was the part she was good at. As the dragon shrieked and struggled against her, Gargreth pulled back with every ounce of strength in her frame, wrestling back the crank further and further, inch by precious inch. Growing frenzied now, the dragon launched a molten hot ball of fire at the Dancer’s hull, only for it to crash harmlessly into a wall of ice that seemed to materialize from the very air around them. Their priestess was pulling her weight, as usual. But Lakh-Bo would be tiring fast now, and the old woman’s magic would be growing weaker with every volley she was forced to deflect. They had to get this thing in killing range, and now.
None of them wanted to admit that taking on a target this size might have been a mistake, her least of all, but as the dragon battled back against her and her elven compatriot’s attempts to reel it in, she couldn’t staunch the impending worry that they’d bitten off more than they could chew. Since the outbreak of this dragon crisis, the Golden Storm mercenaries had been at the forefront of the dragon hunting business, Yngve had seen to that. But this latest exploit to assert their relevance was beginning to look like it might be their undoing.
As if feeding on her doubts, the red drake reared back and released another plume of fire. This time however, it wasn’t aiming for the ship. The flames engulfed the metal chain attached to the spear lodged in its leg, and with a jolt the tether snapped. Suddenly, they were back at a disadvantage.
“Blast it all! She’ll make off with both of our damned harpoons, assuming she doesn’t roast us all and leave us for shark bait.” She dreaded hearing the next words that came out of the captain’s mouth: “Get that second chain unlatched, girl. Jari, try to get us out of here!”
The Golden Storm had never abandoned a chase, but Yngve Seastrider wasn’t about to risk lives for the sake of his reputation. But maybe just one life wouldn’t be so bad.
“I can’t do that, captain.” Gargreth could feel her jaw locking up, her fists clenching and unclenching on anxious impulse. “I’ve got an idea.”
“Like hell, you do! You get that damn thing loose in the next five seconds or I’ll drop you off with some pirates like I found your sorry arse!”
She had to grin at that. “Don’t worry. Think I found an easier way for you to get rid of me, if this goes south.”
She pretended not to hear the concern in Seastrider’s haggard old voice. “Goes south? It’s already gone south, you thick-skulled idiot! Whatever you think you’re planning—”
“Get this thing unhooked as soon as I’m over. You hear me, old man?”
“Don’t you even think about it you stubborn—”
She jumped. For a moment she was falling through thin air, before thickly corded muscle stopped her descent. Gargreth’s broad hands wrapped tight around the iron links of the harpoon’s chain, and as soon as she found a decent grip, she was climbing.
“This?! This is your big plan?!”
“The chain, old man! Unhook the chain!”
She didn’t bother looking back at him, and she certainly didn’t bother looking down. There was just her, the dragon, and a few dozen yards of chain between them. Lakh-Bo said that the dragons weren’t wild beasts at all, but warrior-gods, looking for the strongest challenger. Gargreth didn’t know if she was the strongest, but at this point she was definitely the craziest.
It was obvious that her little stunt hadn’t gone unnoticed, either. The dragon was watching her ascent, almost as if it were sizing her up as she climbed. She felt a sudden release of tension, what she could only assume was Seastrider releasing the chain, and suddenly she was swinging freely through the air.
“Thanks for the warning!” she managed to shout back at him, unsure if he could hear over the crashing of the waves and the howling of the wind. Auburn locks of hair whipped at her face like wisps of flame, but it was the imminent threat of dragonfire that concerned her. Sure enough, as she continued to drag herself up towards her target, a near-blinding flash of heat came rocketing toward her. Maybe, just maybe, she hadn’t fully thought this through.
At first, she didn’t register anything apart from the sudden chill. When she realized that she was still alive, and watched the icy barrier dissipate around her, she breathed out a sigh that was equal parts tension and relief. She’d have to remember to thank the old battleaxe, once she finished this.
She was getting closer now, almost within striking range. She must have climbed her way into the old lizard’s blind spot. It seemed to have given up trying to fry her, and was now resorting to raging and writhing around in an erratic attempt to throw her. If she could just hold on, there was actually a chance she could pull this off. She just had to wait for the perfect moment.
The dragon soared higher, higher. Perhaps it was trying to cut off her air supply with the altitude. A warrior-god would certainly be smart enough to think of that. What it hadn’t thought of, however, was the spear jutting through its mangled wing, and the three-hundred-plus pounds of angry Orc throwing it off balance. It couldn’t reach much higher, she guessed. Unfortunately, it didn’t need to.
Oh shit.
Gargreth barely managed to hold on as she felt her chain suddenly jerking away from her. The dragon dove, pulling her down, hard with its descent. She couldn’t let go. Letting go wasn’t just death, it was losing. The Golden Storm didn’t lose.
Again, her opponent redirected, this time racing upward again. She felt an involuntary cry escaped her as the bone and muscle in her arms were suddenly wrenched by the brutal change in velocity. Something was broken, or torn, or dislocated. She could damn well feel that. She held on.
The dragon was slowing down, marginally, giving her just enough warning to guess that it was about to try diving again. She wasn’t going to get another chance, or a better one than this. As the two combatants reached the height of their arc, Gargreth released her grip, letting her own upward momentum send her throttling over the dragon’s head as it turned to descend. For a moment as she flew past its great, reptilian eye, she couldn’t help feeling as if both parties understood what was about to happen.
Well, it was a helluva fight.
The screaming pain in her arms warned her against even attempting to draw her sword. Were this a proper fight, she doubted she’d even have the power left for a killing swing. As she draw the heavy iron blade from its sheath on her back, however, she thanked the gods that gravity would be doing half the work for her. Still, this had to be a clean cut. It wasn’t like she was going to get a do-over. Even with the roaring wind and throbbing pain stealing the air from her lungs, Gargreth did her best to draw in a focusing breath. The Stormlord Sword Dance was a discipline based on precise footwork and keeping one’s balance. She doubted that the great masters had midair combat in mind when they designed it, but then, Gargreth had never been the most orthodox student, anway.
Her breath expelled itself in a primal cry, and she spiraled downward, the lethal edge of her blade biting into scale, then flesh, then the bones in the defeated champion’s neck. She felt something in her arms give out as she forced the cut deeper.
The last thing she remembered was a shower of blood, before both bodies hit the water and everything went black.