Bone Lord 4, стр. 48
“I’d like to see you try, you fat, pompous bitch,” Elyse shot from beside me.
I burst into laughter. “You heard the lady. Fuck off back to your fleet now, and enjoy your last few hours alive as a human being. Because after I slaughter you all, I’m going to have you serve me forever as zombie slaves. That’s a promise.”
“You will regret this, heathen!” the Grand Commander yelled as they unfurled their sails and started to turn their sailboat around. “By the Lord of Light, you will all regret this terribly!”
“Bring it on,” I said, then I turned my whale around and headed back to my fleet.
Elyse was practically trembling with rage. After hearing of her excommunication, she couldn’t wait to go into battle against the Transcendent Sails.
“I can’t believe that they want to burn me at the stake!” she gasped, her knuckles white as they grasped the handle of her mace in a death grip. “Me! One who has served the Lord of Light with such faith and dedication, who rooted out the corruption that Nabu infected the church with, who did away with slavery in Erst, who—”
“Save your energy for the fight, Elyse,” I said gently. “I know it’s real shitty, what they’ve done to you after everything you did for the Church—but hey, at least you’ve seen what they’re really like now. Channel your anger into the fight. Burn away the rot those assholes have infected your faith with.”
“You’re right,” she said. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do today.”
We got back to the warship and climbed up the ropes onto deck.
“How did the parley go, Lord Vance?” Rollar asked.
“As well as I expected it to,” I answered. “They gave me a ridiculous offer, and I told them where to stick it.”
“So we are to fight them, then?” he asked.
“Damn right,” I answered. “Everyone, get your weapons ready and prepare for battle. No quarter will be asked, and we sure as hell won’t give any either.”
Chapter Seventeen
I stood near the prow of my warship with Rami-Xayon beside me and Percy behind me. In front of us, the Transcendent Sails Fleet was spread across the horizon like a landmass. Fifty huge warships all coming straight for us.
This was the time to fly Talon up into the clear afternoon sky and get a good look. Through her eyes, I saw they had arranged their ships in a sort of bull’s horns formation, with two horns of ships coming quickly toward my fleet, while the bulk came on a little more slowly. They would pass the flanks of my fleet with the horns on either side and encircle my ships, surrounding us completely. Then, like the pincers of a gigantic crab, they would crush us.
At least that was how they thought things would go. The Church of Light had paid dearly for underestimating me before, and they would pay a heavy toll again.
My commandeered warships were spread out and arranged in an arrow formation, with mine at the point. In front of this arrow was the fireship, and on each side of the arrow were the other two pirate ships. I needed my pirate ships outside the Church fleet, and they needed to move before the advancing horns of the Church Navy hemmed them in and surrounded them.
“Pirate ships, out!” I roared.
Rami-Xayon next to me was providing gusts of wind to help the ships sail as fast as they could. She pointed each of her arms out, one stretched to the left, one to the right, and summoned two howling gales of propelling air from each hand.
The pirates on the ships were ready and waiting. As soon as these torrents of wind buffeted their sails, they raced off from our formation, speeding outward in opposite directions. I watched them racing against the forerunner ships of the twin horns of the Church Navy, and smiled, observing that my pirate ships would easily outrun the warships and break out from the encirclement attempt. Once they were racing along the outer flanks of the Church fleet, my skeleton and zombie archers and crossbowmen could begin their deadly work with their fire arrows.
I needed the enemy fleet to think they had me trapped, though. I wanted them to come on recklessly, and pack their ships together close, believing that they really were about to crush me. Then my fireship could be sent into their midst and begin to wreak havoc.
I watched on either side as the horns of the Church fleet—who were ignoring the pirate ships, no doubt thinking the pirate ships were fleeing the oncoming slaughter—passed around the sides of my fleet. As the minutes passed, the two horns started to close formation behind us, encircling us. Little did they know a kraken floated mere yards beneath the surface, hungry to rip their ships apart. I wasn’t going to release it yet, though. Not yet.
“We should attack now, Captain Chauzec,” Percy said nervously.
“We have to let them get a little closer, Percy,” I said. “Patience, my friend, patience.”
The lead ship in the body of the Church Navy had the Grand Commander on it. I would spare them until the end; I wanted the old fool to witness the destruction of his entire fleet before I killed him. I could see the ballista operators of the leading Church ships, and those on the vessels that had flanked us, taking aim at our ships.
“Uh, maybe now, Captain Chauzec?” Percy said. “Once they let fly with them ballistas, our ships—”
“Not yet, Percy. On my signal, not before, no matter how dire things look.”
We were almost in ballista range, and the circle of Church ships had closed a hundred yards behind my fleet. We were now surrounded, and all the enemy had to do was close their fist of warships and crush us—or so they thought.
“You know what, Percy?” I asked.
“What, Captain Chauzec?” he asked. Sweat oozed