Another streak of lightning came, then two more together, then one more, this one searing away the end of the wooden dock. Thunder boomed right overhead, so loud Cleve’s men held their hands over their ears.
The warriors on board the warship were running about, looking at the heavens, looking toward the men on the dock that was falling away beneath their feet.
Captain Torric yelled, “The ropes will break. Row to the dock and save the men. Quickly now, quickly!”
Rain poured down upon them. It had been silent and dry one moment, then the rain flooded over them. “Hurry,” Torric yelled. “Hurry!”
The men were rowing frantically, others with wooden pails were filling them from the bottom of the warship and tossing the water over the side, but the rain only came down harder and harder still in the following minutes.
“Aye,” Igmal said to Cleve, “see how they come to us. They’re like dead chickens that don’t yet know they’re dead. Soon now, very soon, and we will have Chessa back.”
But Cleve wasn’t so certain of that. He had seven men. There were nearly sixty men aboard the warship. What chance did they have even amid all this confusion?
Lightning struck the huge mast of the warship, tearing it in half. Men screamed in pain and fear as it fell on twelve of them, pinning them beneath it. It was then Cleve saw Chessa. She was standing in the entryway of the cargo space, staring toward shore, staring toward Varrick, whom all could see now, if they looked, his black cloak billowing out behind him, standing tall on that higher ground, which seemed even higher now than it had before, theburraheld in front of him, his head flung back, his throat working. Cleve knew he was speaking, but the words were low, nearly a whisper, and blown away by the wind that was now whipping the warship closer and closer to the dock. It would crash into it. The warriors on board were praying to Odin, to Thor, to Freya. They were terrified. Both Kerek and Torric yelled at them to row back out to sea, but the wind was shoving them harder and harder toward the dock and the shore.
Chessa stood there, smiling.
Turella ran to her, the wind so strong she could barely remain upright.
“You’re doing this,” she screamed at Chessa. “I can see it in your witch’s eyes. You’re doing this. Stop it, damn you, stop it before we’re all dead.”
“Aye, I am doing it. I won’t die. When the warship strikes the dock, the men will flee in terror. Then, Turella, I will leave you, and I hope never to see you again. If I do, I will destroy you. You think this storm is strong? I haven’t stretched my powers yet. This is only the beginning.”
Suddenly, the warship struck the dock. The sound of rending wood sounded through the night, so powerful the crash that it was heard even over the wind. Men screamed and leapt from the warship, jumping onto the remains of the dock and running as fast as they could toward shore and safety.
“Cowards!” Turella screamed after them, but her voice was smothered in the wind, her mouth filled with the thick rain that poured down over them.
“Stop it, Chessa.”
“Nay, Kerek. You’d best save your queen. As for Ragnor, I believe he is still unconscious from all the mead he drank. I’m leaving now. I wanted to call you friend but you wouldn’t allow it. I don’t wish you well, Kerek. Goodbye.”
He grabbed her arm. “I won’t let you go.”
It was then Cleve said, “Release her, Kerek. She’s right. It’s over now.”
Chessa said quickly, “He knows I brought the devastation, he just doesn’t want to accept it. I will bring more if you don’t release me, Kerek, that or Cleve will kill you.”
Kerek dropped her arm.
“Save your pathetic king,” Chessa called back to him even as Cleve lifted her into his arms and lightly tossed her to Igmal, who stood on the dock.
But Kerek shook his head and ran toward Turella. He grabbed her and pulled her over his shoulder. “We will survive this,” he said, and jumped to the dock. He slipped on broken planks and dropped her. Both of them went down, knocking the breath from each.
Then, as suddenly as the terrifying storm had begun, it stopped. The air was quiet. The blackness no longer weighed so heavily. There was no more rain. A single bolt of lightning slashed through the black sky, but it was nothing, really, just an afterthought of the storm the demons unleashed during those endless minutes.
Turella sat up. She shook her head. “She could have killed us,” she said to Kerek.
He was staring after Cleve, who had reached the dock and now carried his wife in his arms. The rest of Turella’s men, those who hadn’t run for shelter into Inverness, stood on the shreds of the dock, just stood there, panting, not understanding what had happened, thankful they were still alive.
“The princess did this,” Torric said. “I don’t want her in York. She will kill all of us next time.”
“Aye,” the men said.
“She’s a witch.”
“The night was darker than an old man’s teeth. Now the moon is bright overhead.”
“We must leave.”
