The captain was trying not to focus on the leviathan’s shadow. But it was impossible. There was a chance she and her five crew members in the landing boat would all be swallowed and destroyed by the beast in the light of day.

  “Captain, we’re turning too much north,” one of the crewmembers called over the splash of water.

  Zora looked down to where her hand was dipped into the sea. The water churned and frothed between her fingers, propelling the boat toward the shore. But there, between the foam and choppy water were small, bright, and fizzing sparks. Her fear was creeping in.

  And it seemed noticing it was making it worse. The sparks began leaping up and out of the water, and the smell of ozone was noticeable. The boat began to slow.

  “Captain, let me,” one of the others said. She was a young girl, but one of the best coxswains Zora had ever seen.

  “Sure, you take the wheel, then,” Zora muttered, embarrassed as she swapped positions with the girl. She continued to watch where she believed the shadow to be. And she watched as they picked up speed and zipped toward the beach. She kept her eyes on the shadowy spot despite the jumps and splashes the boat took as they crossed over the break.

  It had let them pass.

  Zora put on her most serious face as the boat began to slow, this time intentionally. She looked up and down the coast line for the entrance to the tunnel.

  “Captain, the rocks over there,” another crew member said, pointing toward the cliffside south of where they would be landing. The tops of Dawnbreak’s buildings could barely be seen over the bluff. A small stream of water was trickling through the sand into the sea, and Zora traced the stream back toward the cliff where she could just barely make out a break in the wall.

  There was a hiss of sand and sea spray as the rowboat mashed against the beach. “Go!” Zora commanded. “Quietly, though. The cave’s there.” One by one the six leapt from the rowboat and began to run through the sand, their cutlasses jangling with the movement.

  This was it! Zora was tensing her entire body to keep from grinning. Dawnbreak, once Tidus helped her take it, would be her and her crews’ sanctuary from that monster hunting her. They would have everything they needed in this fortress of a city, and she would call in every favor she had to keep it safe. From mortals and from gods.

  She would offer asylum, too, to anyone who needs it. Dawnbreak would have peace and safety for anyone and from anything! The sanctuary she had been looking to build was before her. Loamy, Gavundar’s city of reformed thieves and refugees, would be a slum compared to what Zora would build.

  Her daydream ended when there was a flash of blue light and a yelp from one of her friends. Looking back, Zora saw the sailor hovering off the ground, his feet at her eye level. One of his arms was covered in bright blue light and slung upward as if some invisible giant were holding him by it.

  The man stayed admirably silent as he struggled, letting the pirates scout the area. “Hey!” came another pirate’s shout. Her cutlass, cloaked in gold, whipped from its scabbard and splashed into the sea.

  “Dammit!” Zora roared. “Find them and kill them!” The three still-armed pirates rushed toward the cave as the one who was disarmed took a deep breath. A tendril of water slipped up from the ocean and formed an orb around her hand. Once it took shape, she joined her allies’ charge.

  And she was the first to engage one of the Coastal Dispatch paladins. The armored man had been crouching behind a rock and stood up while the attackers were still several paces away. Revealing his helmed head to the shaman was his final mistake.

  She flicked her wrist in his direction and the orb of water focused a long, thin tentacle in his direction. It surged around his throat, forcing the paladin to let out a choked scream before she pulled hard on the rope of seawater and brought his head, exposed face first, down on the boulder he had used for cover. Blood soaked into the sand as the armor clattered.

  Two more paladins leapt out to meet the other pirates. Zora observed, keeping her distance for a moment to allow her crew to prove themselves. Golden lights clashed with her pirates’ own magics and personal strengths.

  Groans and yelps brought a smug grin to Zora as these elite fighters were being outmaneuvered by a handful of brigands. “Captain!” the dangling sailor shouted.

  Zora looked up just in time to see the blue light disappear and the sailor fell into the sand. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, the guy that did it, though. He’s there!”

  Zora followed the man’s pointing finger to see a robed figure step out of the washway. He was tall, and even still the robes were too big for him. She could not see his hands from the end of his sleeves. All she saw was a faint blue glow.

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  There was a gurgling scream as the throat of the third and final paladin was slit. Zora’s sailors turned to look at the robed man. “Hold it.” Her command was short and sharp.

  “Captain Dimatova,” the robed man said. He sounded excited.

  “Who on Chael’s list are you?” Zora barked back.

  “My name is Cayd. Cayd Zahid.” The man pulled his hood down to reveal a dark skinned, shaved head.

  “Zahid? What’s that? Grassland region of Gavundar? Kudurran?”

  “How flattering. Usually people make that guess by my skin.” Cayd laughed. “But yes, ethnically, the Zahid family is from there. I am Academy educated, though.”

  “Far from home.”

  “I could say the same,” Cayd nodded toward the sea where Zora’s ships were bobbing just over the horizon line.

  “Dawnbreak has better restaurants.” Cayd guffawed at the pirate’s joke, and Zora grinned. “You know,” she added. “I don’t often flirt with the men I’m about to kill.”

  “Oh, that’s what this is?” Cayd asked.

  “Well, I need to get in that waterway.”

  “I meant I am surprised to see this is what passes for flirting for you. Your time with the Laughing Buccaneer must have dulled your taste.”

  The sailors looked in shock at their captain, who was instantly flush. “Who in Trufflim’s trough do you think you are to talk to the Sea Witch like that? Boys?” The crew readied their weapons in Cayds direction, and Cayd responded by pushing his sleeves up to his elbows.

  Intricate tattoos wound up and down his forearms, layered on one another and, just where one stopped, another would start. Zora saw him look the crew up and down, his eyes darting from one another as they began to dash toward him.

  Then he clenched a fist, turned it toward the sky, and opened his hand again. An orb of blue light began to form in Cayd’s hand.

  Zora watched in amazement as her crew, still advancing, stopped moving forward, and somehow, began moving upward. Their feet fell higher each time as though they were ascending steps.

  The shaman with the orb of water, the smallest of the bunch, began shrieking as she ascended quicker and more drastically than the others. Cayd turned to look at her, opening his free hand. As he watched, his eyes twinkling with something like concern, the woman’s ascent slowed.

  “Well that is impressive.” Zora said, looking up at her distressed sailors. “But I’ve seen sorcerers work before. That’s got to be mentally taxing, huh?”

  Cayd didn’t answer. He could not. If he stopped running the delicate calculations keeping himself convinced that these men and women were safely breaking laws of gravity, they could rocket skyward, or be slung back to the ground. Either way, Cayd was not looking to take lives on this beach.

  “Mister Zahid. I asked you a question.” Zora looked at her hand and thought of the beast in the sea. This Gavundari magician was standing in her way of finally escaping it. She allowed the fear to return, just a bit, in order to grasp its power. Sparks danced on her fingers. Zora was going to gamble on this man’s humanity. “When I ask a question, Cayd, I usually get an answer.”

  The bolt of lightning leapt from her fingers. It was small, but boisterous. The crack of thunder echoed off of the bluff and roared out to sea as Cayd’s eyes went wide. Quickly he estimated some sort of slow fall to let the pirates down. But their weights were too varied.

  What worked as a good rate of descent for the lighter pirates, for some reason, was much faster on the largest pirate. It was a mixed blessing that he tried to break his fall with a locked out arm. His head did not strike the ground, but the crack of his arm breaking was definitely audible, even with the thunder.

  With the pirates on the ground, Cayd reckoned the energy at work inside of Zora’s lightning. She had conjured it in a flash, and it was travelling slowly, all things considered. He glanced at one of the tattoos on his left arm. It said something about equal and opposite forces with a formula full of variables.

  Cayd did his best to calculate a barrier, and a bright blue bubble formed just before the bolt struck. The static in his arm felt surreal as the lightning bolt whipped across the bubble and surged into the sand. Beads of glass in the beach were all that remained.

  “Quick thinker,” Zora shouted with a laugh.

  “Risk taker,” Cayd said as the bubble disappeared.

  “That’s leadership.”

  Cayd scoffed at that remark. He did not need to read his tattoo on force projection. It was basic, and it was simple. Two hands forward, and the pulse to the air ripped across the beach. Sand was kicked up as it rushed in Zora’s direction.

  Zora spun, calling the wind as she did. The force of the gust spun her out of the way of the pulse and left Cayd wide open to another bolt, but Zora wanted it to focus. As she drifted in the air, Zora drew her cutlass and pointed it in Cayd’s direction. The static tingled as she called the electricity to her blade.

  Another crash and the bolt was off. Cayd noticed it just too late. With a shout he tried to summon another barrier, but was slow.

  But the lightning did not strike him. Cayd, surprised by how hard he was flinching, pried his eyes open to see a scepter hovering, level with his chest, glowing white hot with the energy of Zora’s attack.

  He looked over to see Maribel, her hand still following through with the javelin-toss styled throw that had saved his life. Boldbounty was behind her, but looking into the sky. He slung his golden hammer through the air sending a ribbon of light skyward.

  Boldbounty had led his shot, and the still floating pirate captain, confused as to why she had missed her mark, fell against the ribbon. The golden light wrapped around her body like cloth and tore away the inertia she had from her gale powered leap. Her restrained body fell onto the beach with a thud.

  Paladins poured from the washway as Maribel rushed to check on Cayd. Boldbounty moved immediately to Zora. When he arrived at her, Boldbounty was relieved to see her still conscious. The High Sergeant wanted so badly to make a remark about how she was older than he had expected, but she had a look. Not anger at her capture or failure, but a discomforting blend of sadness and fear.