Part 12 (1/2)

d.a.m.ned fox could sleep through the end of the world.

Twelve.

The Giggling Wind ”I want those cannons operational now!” Bonny roared. And I truly finally understood why she had such a dragon bellowing voice. You needed it so your orders could be heard over the chaos of s.h.i.+p battles.

The entire craft jerked again as she turned to me and pointed out into the clouds around us. It startled me slightly to realize this was an airs.h.i.+p, not a water s.h.i.+p. No wonder Bonny was Pirate King, Air s.h.i.+ps were rare these days and incredibly expensive.

”Get out there! Do something.” She commanded of me, with a completely different atmosphere and tone from minutes earlier.

”Yes ma'am.” I mocked and would have snickered if it hadn't been such a serious situation. She darted off to yell at a couple more soldiers, before a brisk and fierce wind ruptured through the s.h.i.+p, rocking it again. I started to glance around trying to find what we were being attacked by. But there was no sign of anything other than clouds and lots of condensed moisture on the s.h.i.+p.

I turned around just in time to catch Ettie bursting out from the below deck stairwell. She clasped two silvery pistols in her large hands. She was a pillar over the majority of people das.h.i.+ng around on the deck well before she was even fully up the stairs.

”Where's Han?” I asked quickly as the s.h.i.+p jerked again, nearly knocking both of us off our feet. Luckily we both had gripped the nearby wall.

”He went ahead of me since I had to errr... dress in something else.” She explained, looking away from my eyes as she finished. I glanced around briefly as well but I didn't see a thick roll of a man or a ma.s.sive hound anywhere, so I didn't worry about it for now.

I would get back to the comment about what Ettie had been wearing previously, later on. For now she was in a low-cut blouse and thigh length cargo shorts, with her gun belt fastened around it. She had the legs to pull off short shorts like those.

I hooked the long-handled hatchet on my right shoulder, holding it like a woodsman, my eyes falling on Ettie again. ”Any idea what it is?”

”Not a clue.” She crisply stated as we both rocked again with the jerk of the s.h.i.+p. A few buccaneers around me tossed on the floor or against the railings. I turned around and sighed.

”Great. How are we supposed to fight something when we don't know what it is?” I breathed shallowly as Ettie pa.s.sed by me, totting her guns out in front of her. A single punching roar erupted from one of her hand cannons with a fierceness I hadn't expected.

I realized why, as I saw the burst of bright light rocket through the air catching a nearby cloud in a draft of purple fire, leaving only a wisp behind. They weren't a normal firearm, they were magical weaponry. She was getting better with her offensive magic. Sooner or later she would be one fey of a force, but by then the faeries would be all over her.

Guns could work the same way a wand or a staff worked for wizards and mages of all types, only she was channeling magical energy through a barrel instead. It seemed like more mages were using a firearm instead of a staff these days. I knew one wizard that fired healing and cleansing spells from a magical gun. Staring down his barrel was a good thing.

I felt a swell of pride for a moment over seeing Ettie rocket off another shot, a light purple smoke curling from the chamber of each of her weapons as she rushed on further to the upper deck, likely to get a better vantage point.

My pride was quickly crashed to the floor though, when my feet were whipped out from under me and I dropped like Humpty Dumpty on the wooden floor. I heard the shamble of a childish giggle erupt as wind stretched pa.s.sed me.

Midnight Magic!

Sylphs.

No wonder we couldn't see them. They might as well have been the b.l.o.o.d.y wind, for all anyone knew. But I would never forget those laughs. I had a terrible run in with Sylphs in the past, they weren't nasty or anything, they just loved playing their pranks, they were like little troublemaking children.

Of course the last time I had dealt with them was around Gabbi. So it could be possible that this was her doing, if she still managed any sylphs. She had the power to invoke them and other wind like effects; it was how she pulled off her Huff and Puff in the legends. I'm still not sure where she got that ability though, since she couldn't use magic.

It wasn't from me.

I groaned, pus.h.i.+ng the long hatchet into the ground along with my fist to thrust myself into a stand. But before I could, another sweep of wind arched through, slamming into my feet and hands. My arms buckled underneath me and my head slammed against the head of my hatchet. I was instantly sprawled against the wooden floor.

I hate sylphs. But it was okay, the feeling is mutual. I might have allegedly blown some of them up a couple of years back.

Allegedly.

Still, this was just cruel. Not even letting me get a chance to fight. Then again, that was the thing about sylphs. There wasn't a lot that could be done to fight them. Fire burned them up, but only magical fires and that was only if the entire sylph was caught in the blast.

I gripped my hatchet up by the head and tucked it into my body, before rolling a few feet across the wet wood floor and popping up all at once to dash against the nearest wall, just as another swift strike of wind came soaring so close I could feel the crisp and sharp breeze on my legs.

There wasn't really a lot I could do and I hated being useless. I heard the first explosions of cannon fire echoing around me, and a few more shots from Ettie's guns through all the thick yelling and the loud rumbling of the winds and clouds.

I straggled myself along the wall, working my way toward the steps to the higher deck. But I stayed at the bottom of the stairs, as a few bandanna-clad buccaneers came darting down the path, firing basic one-shot gunpowder pistols and attempting to reload them.

A slapping sound broke next to me, as I saw a pirate flip right on their back. Sylphs really needed new tactics; tripping was their favorite, but that just made them expensive banana peels really.

I made sure the hatchet head was pointing away from me, as I made a dash for it once the next breeze pa.s.sed over me. Without so much as a gentle push of wind against my face, I reached the mast pole in the middle of the s.h.i.+p, still on the lower deck. I wasn't risking my neck on those steps yet.

Once there, I gripped on the pole as best I could. I probably looked like some kind of scared little girl at the moment. Thankfully Ettie was distracted for the time, so I wouldn't have to hear about this later.

”Bonny!” I called, glancing around the moist pole I held. ”We are dealing with sylphs. Your people are just wasting their ammo and time.”

Despite yelling as loud as I could, I wasn't sure if she had heard me. Fey, I wasn't even sure Bonny was over here. I glanced around a few more times, feeling the brisk wind slapping against me a few times, trying to buckle my legs. Some of my hair had come out of the high ponytail I had fas.h.i.+oned in haste, and was slapping against my face, annoying me further.

b.l.o.o.d.y wind...

I s.h.i.+mmied around the pole, probably looking like a total idiot, while trying to glance through the thick clouds and condensation that was rolling in even faster.

Nothing was still in my sight though. Well, plenty was in my sight, including my damp hair that looked like fresh blood now. There just wasn't any Captain Bonny around that I could see, or Ettie, or Han.

”What?” I heard shouted right behind my ear. Which made me jump before glancing back to find the captain slip right up next to me, with some rope in one hand pulling at the sail. She was trying to get it down, so we wouldn't be blown severely off course while in the middle of all these heavy winds. Talk about a level head.

She was thinking way further ahead than I was. I was only concerned with surviving the next few minutes. I repeated myself, ”They are sylphs. The shooting is doing nothing unless you've got magic cannonb.a.l.l.s.”

”What else do you suggest we do?” Her roaring still managed to somehow be louder than the fiercely blowing wind, especially right up against my eardrums.

”Exactly what you are doing. Just without the shooting, and getting your people safely away from the sylphs. Leave them to me and Ettie.” I yelled back, trying to provide justice for what would likely be me going deaf from her voice.

”Trust an unknown witch and a magic-less former faerie to save my s.h.i.+p?” Her voice was toned down, maybe she caught that I had been annoyed by it being so loud. She skewed a single eyebrow up at me, and I just rolled my eyes.

”You don't have much of a choice, considering Ettie is really the only one on the s.h.i.+p that can eliminate the sylph.” I finished, feeling my argument was already complete as I started slipping back around the pole.

Bonny stopped me though, with a clawing grip on my left shoulder which nearly made me buckle as bad as the sylph had been attempting to do. I glanced back and she nodded to me, with the shadow of a smile. I grinned despite the look, and nodded back before slipping around the pole, while she went back to her business.

I was just about to run across the empty flat toward the stairs in an attempt to get to Ettie, when I saw a hound fly pa.s.sed me and slam vigorously into the wall of the cabin I was staring toward. Not a clue came over me of where he just appeared from. But looking around I did notice the clouds had sunk in more in some areas of the s.h.i.+p, making it practically impossible to see entire areas, like a thick miasma.

I heard whimpering from the hound, as I felt another dash of wind, and ran across the expanse as quickly as possible. Only this time they had been prepared, and instead of rocketing to strike my legs to knock me down, just one of them filtered swiftly through one ear and out the other.

I managed to slam the hatchet head and my hands against the cabin wall, as the sensation the sylph had caused made the world spin upside down and in fourteen different directions all at once. I practically staggered drunkenly as I reached the cabin and moved closer to where the hound was whimpering and clumped on the floor.

I was ready to puke, and the scent of sickly sweet brimstone coming from Han right below me wasn't helping things any further. Though, the scent did smell oddly familiar as well as revolting.

I gripped my head with my free hand, like I could stop the world spinning by doing so, since closing my eyes only made me feel worse. So I just tried to focus on the hound as I gripped at his fur.