The sharp tug on my awareness was sudden, wrenching my attention away from the floating inferno and to the west. I leaned toward my húskarl, attempting to get a better view.
Tyrin noticed and followed my gaze to a dinghy bobbing on the waves. “The wolves?” he asked.
“I assume so.” The relief was immediate, flooding my chest with a warmth I refused to examine. My treasure was not sinking to the ocean floor, which was the source of my solace. The only source. I drew myself up. “Regardless, the artifact is on that vessel. I am certain of it.”
Below, a slaver shouted, pointing at the dinghy. The leader shouted orders, and two of his slavers scrambled back aboard the ship alongside him. The remaining two hurried to untie the lines.
They intended to pursue.
I lunged forward.
“M’lord,” Tyrin began.
But I was already off the ledge.
Cooling the air currents, I drew Silentium as I drifted from my perch, landing soundlessly on the concrete pier between the two slavers untying the ship. They spun to face me. The orc reached for his blade with admirable speed. I froze the air in his lungs before his fingers could close around the hilt. He gasped and clawed at his throat, while Silentium relieved him of his head.
The human attempted to flee. Ice slicked the pier beneath his feet, and he slipped, slamming his head against the concrete. Like all slavers, he deserved to suffer, but I had three more to dispose of, so I beheaded him quickly.
The commotion sent their leader to the railing, his sword drawn, to investigate. With one look at me, his face drained of color, and he took a step backward, calling for his minions.
My húskarl dropped from above in his flight form, landing on the ship’s deck behind the cyclops. His axe bit into the enormous male’s neck, spurting blood from the wound, but not fully severing the head. Tyrin swung again, completing the job as the hovering male rounded on him with a wand.
The captain held his ground, which I might have respected under different circumstances. Muttering an Arabic curse, he gripped his rapier and charged.
I met his attack. Steel clanged as I blocked his strike. He recovered and attacked again. I sidestepped, but he was much faster than he looked, and he nicked my forearm. I parried his next thrust and then drove the tip of my blade into his thigh, piercing the artery. Blood welled, filling the air with its coppery scent. He cried out in pain, and his eyes filled with desperation as he lunged. I batted the strike away and sliced his chest from shoulder to shoulder.
He collapsed to his knees releasing his rapier to clatter against the wooden planks of the deck. “Mercy.”
I scoffed. “What would a slaver know of mercy?”
“Please, I?—”
I had heard enough. With a blast of magic, I froze him to the ship and checked on Tyrin. He had already dispatched his opponent and was battling two more sailors who must have been below deck. Tyrin ended both before I could even reach him.
We descended into the hold, finding no more sailors but several more cages, these with runes scratched into them to contain magical beings. All were empty, yet my mind flickered to Jameson and the torture he hadendured.
The world was full of cages.
“Your orders, m’lord?”
“Sink it.”
“Gladly.”
I returned to the deck. The thud of his axe biting through wood followed my footsteps. Seawater gurgled as it flooded the hull. The vessel began to settle almost immediately, listing to port as water claimed the lower deck.
Abandoning the ship, we stood on the pier to watch it take on water. The deck disappeared first, then the kneeling, frozen captain, then the cages, and finally, the mast.
Once the last of the slaver boat slipped beneath the waves, I closed my eyes and followed the thread to my treasure. It was southwest now. The wolves had made landfall and were heading for the interior.
Toward the valley.
A shiver traced down my spine. Whatever slept in that valley had called to something deep inside me last night, and the thought of the wolves reaching it first set my teeth on edge.
“South,” I said. “On foot, so they will not see us coming.”
Tyrin grunted his acknowledgment and quickly cleaned his bloodied axe blade on the grass before we collected our things from our resting place.
