The Nextworld Invasion and the Death of Magic - 35. Chapter 35 - Unguarded

It was night.

Five Earthian buccaneers were approaching their target. The ship they intended to commandeer was docked at the river harbor of Rogodo. They had seen its small crew disembark, and it was clear that no one else remained onboard. Under the cover of darkness, the ship-thieves approached.

The five men did not use their real names. The leader of the group was a Noktar who the others called Commodore. With him were two Urcai, the first mate, who had picked up the nickname Tick, and the group’s cook, who they simply called Cook. There were also two Rothian brothers who referred to each other as Silver and Gold.

Commodore leaned toward two of the men and whispered, “Cook and Silver, the bow.” He turned to the other two. “Tick and Gold, the stern.”

The men walked in either direction along the dock away from him, and Commodore approached the boat on its starboard side. He glanced over each shoulder to make sure no one was watching him, and he heaved his grappling hook up to the railing, where it snagged. He brought a boot to the exterior of the hull and climbed the rope as he walked up the side.

Once onboard, he hunched down and snaked the rope onto the deck so no one who happened to walk by would notice it. His fellow crewmen would be aboard momentarily, and Commodore went straight to the captain’s quarters. He knelt by the door, pulled his lockpick from his pocket, and began working the internal mechanism with his tools.

Nature around him sounded perfect. The water of the river was gently lapping against the hull of the boat. There were night birds calling quietly, and frogs were chirping along the banks. Even the groaning of the buffers that supported the ship leaning against them added a comforting feeling to the sounds.

The lock clicked, and the door’s hinges creaked as Commodore pushed it open.

The primary chamber where the captain of this ship resided was dark.

Commodore drew a small candle and a match from his pocket, and as he struck the one to light the other, he let out a villainous chuckle.

The captain’s chamber was lavish.

“I’ll be comfortable here.”

He could hear the footsteps of his men clamping around near the bow.

“Good, Cook and Silver will have us free from the dock any minute, and Tick and Gold will pilot us out. Oooh!” the Commodore cooed as the glow of his candle illuminated an open treasure chest. It was small, but it overflowed with oversized and gaudy jewelry. They may have looked costumey, but the Commodore inherently knew it was all real. “You’re mine now,” he growled in satisfaction as he picked up a ring with a massive green stone. He slid it on his finger and said, “Well, isn’t that nice?”

There was a loud thump at the stern of the ship, and Commodore’s eyes shifted in the direction of the sound.

“What are those idiots doing?” He turned from the treasure chest and approached the door again, but he was startled to hear running footsteps go from the port to the starboard side of the ship.

One of the men shouted something, and there was another brief series of thumps. It sounded like someone falling down stairs, but other than the staircase that led below deck, there were only a few steps to a raised platform where the ship’s wheel was slightly elevated at the stern. The only other stairs led below, but the noises were coming from above deck.

Commodore pulled open the cabin’s door, but all was silent and still outside. He did not call out for his men, but he peered through the gloom. Where are they? he thought. What on Earth is going on?

He slunk out and made his way toward the stern and the wheel of the ship, but there was no sign of Tick or Gold, nor any indication of what could have happened to them. They were supposed to be manning the wheel, and yet it was still locked in place. The pair was not keeping guard at the back of the ship.

“We’ve done this a hundred times,” Commodore grumbled in exasperation. “Why are they screwing up now?”

“Commodore!” one of the men shouted from the bow, but his voice cracked, and Commodore could not discern who it was.

“Now what?”

Commodore stayed hunched as he walked along the deck, but he stopped in his tracks. What he found at the front of the boat shocked and horrified him.

A chain had somehow become wrapped around Cook’s neck, and he had been hanged by it when the chain was drawn up toward the crowsnest, but he could see no one in it. The chain was part of a winch system, and the death seemed like a complete freak accident, but to Commodore’s terror, he realized the chain was still being pulled, and it was getting tighter. It was stuck and would not raise Cook’s corpse any higher from the deck as it continued to tighten around the dead man’s neck.

Too late, Commodore realized what was about to happen. “No,” he whispered, and with a hideous ripping of flesh, the metal links tore Cook’s head from his body, which crashed down to the deck at Commodore’s feet, spraying his boots with blood.

“How… how did… how…” he stuttered, unable to come to terms with the brutal reality, and he rushed to the ship’s railing, vomiting into the river. He looked around and groaned to no one, “Where’s Silver?

The next thing Commodore found was a green hand. It was not attached to an arm. There were dark green tattoos across the knuckles, and he immediately knew who the hand had belonged to, his first mate.

“Tick!” Commodore hissed into the darkness.

A heavy object suddenly came flying through the air and slammed into Commodore’s chest. His arms wrapped around the sticky thing, and it went limp in his grip.

“Argh!” he cried, realizing the thing that was thrown at him was Tick’s opposite arm with its hand still attached. Commodore dropped the limb and staggered backward. “This ship is cursed,” he whispered.

Something from the far end of the deck appeared to quickly come scuttling toward him, but as it drew nearer, Commodore realized what it was. It was not an animal, and his knees gave out; he dropped to the wooden planks of the deck, and the severed head of Tick came rolling to a stop a few feet in front of him.

“What is this monster?” Commodore breathed, shifting his gaze this way and that in the darkness but seeing no sign of what kind of beast could have done such severe damage to the two men. “Silver, Gold! Where are you?!” he called out as loudly as he dared.

There were only the sounds of nature.

Commodore rose on unsteady feet, and he crept to the top of the stairs that led into the hold of the ship. “Silver! Gold! Are you down there?” He heard what sounded like running footsteps from much deeper below, and he backed away from the stairs. “I thought this ship was empty.”

He quickly made his way to the bow, but there was no sign of either of the two other men. Commodore heard more thumping from below, which sounded like multiple people.

“Did they go beneath?”

He returned to the top of the stairs, relit his candle, and called out to the men again, but he still received no reply. The noises below now sounded like several people were shifting very heavy objects, and there was something unnerving in the thumps.

“This was a mistake,” Commodore breathed, and he turned to leave. “I’m getting out of…”

The dead body of Silver came crashing down onto the deck mere inches in front of Commodore. He was shocked and appalled by the state of his companion. Silver’s unfocused eyes stared at nothing. His head was twisted too far around, and there were lacerations all over the exposed skin of his long limbs and exaggerated face.

Commodore then almost screamed as the enormous explosion of a cannon shattered the quiet stillness of the night. In the silence that followed, his hands trembled, and his heart was pounding inside his chest in rapid fire. He could barely catch his breath. The pieces of his three dead men surrounded him, and there was still no sign of Gold. Commodore did not wait to find out what happened to his fourth man, and he raced to the railing and dove over it.

The dark water of the river appeared to be rushing up to meet him, but whatever temporary hope had entered his heart, it was dashed just as quickly. Something had snagged his ankle and stopped his descent. He was dangling right above the rippling surface of the water, and looking up revealed nothing, but whatever had him by the ankle was very strong; its grip was tight. Commodore was slowly dragged back up, and the water below moved further from reach.

Pulled onto the ship again, his legs did not seem to work, and he slumped to the deck. His fear was overwhelming.

“Commodore!” rasped out the voice of Gold, and his leader spotted him.

Gold was at the far end of the ship, sprawled on his stomach with one of his very long arms reaching forward, and he was trying to crawl toward Commodore. Gold’s exaggerated features twisted in pain, and he let out a bloodcurdling shriek. Commodore watched Gold seemingly yanked by invisible forces to the top of the stairs that led into the hold of the ship, and Gold let out a second scream as he was pulled beneath.

Everything became deathly silent.

Commodore’s panting breaths sounded like hurricane-force gale winds in his ears, until a crash like a load of chains being dropped to the deck came from the far end of the ship, and Commodore held his breath.

There was silence for a moment, and the sound repeated. Again, it was as if someone had released a huge armful of metal.

Commodore peered into the gloom, but he saw nothing and no one.

The horrible crash of metal went off again in the silence, and the noise felt like it was getting closer to the final man.

“What is this madness?!” he growled.

The smash of metal on wood reverberated through the quiet again, and Commodore stepped backward. He did not know what he was backing away from; there was nothing coming at him, but the chain crash rattled through the darkness again. Then he saw what was making the ruckus.

“What on Earth?”

A tangle of twisted chains was floating through the air in his direction, and it dropped to the deck with the horrible metal noise.

“This is not possible.”

Commodore’s eyes were fixed on the now motionless lump of chains, and to his alarm, he realized a second one was also impossibly drifting through the air toward him, and it also dropped to the wood of the ship with a brutal clatter. The first pile raised up and levitated in his direction, crashing down a few feet away from his boots. The second rose from the floor, approached Commodore, and dropped right in front of him. Neither pile of chains moved again. They remained motionless, and the quiet returned and remained.

“Wha-what is thi-this?” Commodore stuttered.

All at once, a cacophony broke out! The deck of the ship creaked and groaned as pullies screeched and riggings rattled. The noise was chaotic, and Commodore looked all around him, but he could not determine what was causing the racket.

The two piles of chains launched themselves at him, and he screamed as they coiled around his limbs. He was lifted bodily from the deck, and the chains pulled in different directions and ripped Commodore to pieces.

In the ancient past, the Mermonster took part in glorious and devastating sea battles, and it had relished in the brutality at that time. Over the ages, it learned to appreciate other things. Besides the way people kill each other, the Mermonster also experienced many ways that people love each other, and it grew to enjoy a more peaceful existence.

With Kilial and the new crew, the Mermonster was happy. It was very happy. Even being dragged across the sea in a single night by Uall Island had only increased the ship’s wonder about the world. The Mermonster liked being happy, and it had not been about to let five buccaneers ruin its happiness.

The river harbor of Rogodo where the ship was docked was silent again.