Diving down, Ian inhaled, ignoring the voice in his head that screamed at him not to breathe underwater. The harmony-infused oil had indeed created a bubble of air around his nostrils. Keeping his mouth closed, he focused on long, slow breaths as he swam below the surface.
As he moved, his body began to produce its own heat, and the water clothing around him captured and held that heat. His hands and face were still exposed, but they quickly also succumbed to numbness. For a while, he was warmer than he had been all night.
Finally, Aizel popped her head out of the water. Ian and Sol followed suit. In the near distance, he could make out a large shadow that obstructed the stars from view. They were close. Nele and Lane bobbed up out of the water beside him. Lane tipped his head. Robin had instructed them to remain in the water as backup in case anything went wrong.
Ian nodded in response, then swam the final stretch to the nearest ship. Reaching it, Ian swam alongside the ship while he waited for the others to surface. The hull of the wooden ship was covered in a thick layer of barnacles. Ian used his legs to swim alongside the slowly moving structure and his hands to extricate a set of hand-sized wooden blocks from the many ties and belts around his waist.
The blocks—or “biters” as Robin called them—were specially devised tools made for climbing. A leather loop was connected to the side of each block. He slipped each looped strap overone wrist, so that the blocks were dangling close to his hands. The opposite side of each block had dozens of sharp iron points sticking out at a sharp angle. Robin had made him practice using the strange-looking tools to clamber up a tree.
Ian firmly grasped the flat end of either block. Then, he swung a block at the hull of the boat, swiping it against the barnacles so that the angled iron spikes would catch and hold.
The wooden block slid across the barnacles for a short distance before the iron spikes indeed caught, locking it in place.
Ian held on to the block, letting it anchor him to the moving ship. Aizel had arrived next to him, and he grabbed on to one of the straps around her back to hold her in place while she untied her own set of biters.
Sol swam up beside Ian, and they made quick work of anchoring themselves to the boat. Sol began the ascent first, swiping his biter higher up the side.
Ian followed his example, grateful that the leather shoes of the water clothing protected his feet from the sharp barnacles. With a little force, he was able to wiggle his first block loose in order to use it to continue climbing. While it was a slow process, the wooden blocks were especially useful in that they were fairly quiet; it was easy to blend their swiping grip with the creaking of the ship and the lapping of the waves.
They were about halfway up the side of the ship when Sol swung wildly above Ian. A loud splash sounded below as he dropped one of his biters.
Ian reached out to stabilize Sol, catching his flailing arm and helping to bear his weight.
Fortunately, Sol still held strong with his one hand, but he had no way to stop himself from twisting out as he swung from the single point of contact.
Footsteps sounded on the deck above them.
Ian tightened his grip on Sol’s arm to stop his motion. He pressed himself into the side of the ship as much as was possible, hoping the darkness would hide them.
Aizel, a few steps below them, did the same.
“What is it?” a voice called from above, further down the ship railing.
“Nothing that I can see.” This voice was clear and loud, coming from someone leaning over the side of the ship directly above them. “Bring the lantern.”
At this, Sol swung into action, righting himself and releasing Ian. “Go!” he whispered to Ian. “I’ll take one of Aizel’s biters and be right behind you.”
Using the energy that flowed through him from the surprise, Ian quickly worked his way up the side of the ship. Instead of digging the climbing tools deep into the barnacle-covered wood, he used them quickly, almost running up the side of the ship. As soon as light shone over the side of the railing, their element of surprise would be gone and the taskers would group up and outnumber them.
When Ian reached the top of the ship, he saw the glow of a lantern bobbing down the deck toward him. He kept the wooden blocks attached to his wrists, letting them dangle from the leather loops as he grasped the ship railing with both hands. He gave himself the space of one inhale to crouch low onto his feet and launch himself over the side of the railing.
He had no time to look back and see how far Sol was behind him. He was going into this alone, and he had to trust that his new brother and sister would be there to back him up.
As his body swung over the railing, he took in several things at once from the light of the lantern.
The ship’s layout was familiar to him. They had chosen to climb up near the back, where most of the deck was taken up by the captain’s quarters, creating a small alleyway between therailing and a wooden wall. This space had the lowest visibility to the rest of the ship. They had hoped to sneak around on deck from here and assess the location of the nearest taskers and Majis.
But even if they had lost that moment of surveillance, this was still the ideal spot to get into skirmish as only two people could fit in the alleyway at a time. And it was only two people that Ian could see in the brief moment that he was in the air.
Directly in front of him stood the guard that had peered over the railing and called for the lantern. And perhaps six paces to Ian’s right, the second guard walked along the railing carrying said lantern.
Ian’s eyes captured this information as his body swung over the railing and slammed into the closer guard, knocking the guard backward and off his feet. This broke Ian’s fall and effectively took the first guard out of the fight.
Unfortunately, it also meant that Ian could not land on his feet, and he stumbled forward.
“What is going on here?” the lantern-carrying guard cried out as he rushed forward.
After pushing himself off the temporarily unconscious body of the man he had landed on, Ian tried to get into a fighting stance on the rocking deck of the ship before the lantern guard arrived. Ian fumbled with the biter hanging from his wrist, pulling it up into his hand to use as a blunt force weapon since he did not have time to unstrap the dual short swords from his back.
