Page 39 of Voices in the Stars
“What about your mother?”
“Dead.”
“Oh.” I didn’t know what to say. His smile dropped, his eyeslooking toward the ground. I placed my hand on top of his where it rested on the railing, giving it a gentle squeeze.
He smiled up at me. “It was a while ago. I was still a boy when it happened.”
“What happened?” I asked, taking advantage of his current openness. It might’ve been my only chance to learn something about him, and it suddenly felt like I wanted to know everything about the man in front of me.
“My father,” he grimaced, looking away from me. “He wanted more power. She tried to stop him.”
“Why are you talking to me?” My next question came out before I could stop it. I grimaced at the way I knew it came across. “I mean?—”
“I’m realizing that I might have been wrong about you,” he interrupted. A hand reached up to squeeze his horn, something I was quickly learning was a tell of his, alongside the shame that filled his expression. “I might not have been given the full story about you, Cece. I hope you can forgive me for that.”
“What story did you get?” I ignored the last thing he said. It was too soon to decide on forgiveness. There wasn’t enough to show me what side of him was true. The one who wanted to kill me or the man I saw now. Every part of me hoped I was staring at the true Atlas now.
He opened his mouth to respond, but there was a crack as something slammed into the side of the boat. We both cursed as I slammed into him, the boat rocking violently to one side. One of his arms wrapped tightly around me as the boat was hit again. I cried out as we rocked to the side again. This time was much worse than the first. The next hit came from underneath us. The front half of the boat was shoved out of the water, being held up by some creature I couldn’t see. Atlas grabbed onto the railing as we lost our footing. For a moment we were dangling from the railing. The only thing keeping us from a long fall was his straining arms. I wrapped myself around him with my arms and legs, squeezing my eyes shut to keep from staring at the water below us.
It felt like an eternity had passed when the boat finally slammed back into the water. Atlas grunted as he landed on his back with me falling right on top of him. Both his arms wrapped around me as hestood, picking me up. Wood groaned around us as the ship started violently rocking again.
“What was that?” I shrieked as Atlas stumbled back against the railing.
I tried to push myself out of his arms so I could stand again. Our fall had done some damage to him, I was certain. That hard of a fall would’ve broken something in a human man. Atlas just held onto me tighter, refusing to let me down.
“Wretched beast,” Atlas muttered, glancing at the water below us. “I’ll take care of this. You get back to the quarters,” he instructed before setting me down. He left before I had a chance to answer. I kept to the rail even as the ship slowed, keeping a death grip onto the wood as I watched him. He was making a frantic dash to the wheel where the captain was at. Even from across the ship, I could hear him screaming orders at everyone around him.
The crew was frantically running everywhere. Each one yelling louder than the one before. Canons were being loaded. Guns were brought up in crates as everyone rushed to grab one. Even I contemplated it, even without knowing how to use one. The sails were being drawn up until they were just a roll of fabric in the air.
Then everything stopped. No one made noise as we waited. I held my breath as I waited for something to happen. The crew looked desperately around every side of the ship.
Silence only lasted a few moments. Then the ship started frantically rocking again. I sent a silent prayer to whatever gods watched over this world. Water no longer was beating against the sides of the ship. Instead, it was cascading down on top of me. I sputtered as the sheer amount made breathing hard. I kept wiping water and hair out of my eyes. Blurred figures all turned toward me right before a piercing roar ripped through the air. With a slow turn, I looked directly into the eye of the monster.
A dragon.I stumbled back, falling to the floor as I scrambled away from the bright yellow eye. I had only read about creatures like this in books, which did nothing to prepare me for looking one in the eyes.
The creature lifted its head, calling out again. My hands covered my ears as the sound shook me to the core. Its body was made up of the same glistening blue scales. Fins stuck out from the side of its head, the webbing a transparent green. Its claws dug into the side of the ship, causing the wood to splinter and rip apart as the monster tried to keep itself out of the water. There was a massive tail that swished through the air behind it. I faintly recognized the fins that stuck out about halfway down the tail as what I had seen sticking out of the water. The entire creature was several times larger than the boat.
The boat tilted forward as the dragon pulled itself further out of the water. I dug the heels of my boots into the wood, trying to keep myself from sliding toward the snapping jaws in front of me. Even then, the rest of my body felt like it was frozen as I just stared. Each tooth looked like it was the size of my arm. Shouting started up from behind me again. Everyone started running around me again.
“This can’t be happening,” I muttered, watching the jaw snap at the crew.
A loud bang rattled the ship. There was a loud ringing in my ears as a cannon ball soared over my head, past the dragon, and splashed into the water. I glanced back to see the rest of the canons being rolled away from the mounts they had been locked on. I followed several more ballsas they went sailing into the air. Most went flying past the creature. A few hit it with sickening thumps.
“Cece!”
My name was screamed from somewhere behind me. I couldn’t force myself to tear my gaze away from everything happening in front of me. The tail came slicing through the air, smashing down onto the deck. Screams were cut short as it sliced through a group of crew members surrounding one of the cannons. Wood shards went flying as the tail wrapped around the ship. The ship rocked as it followed the movements of the dragon. I didn’t stop myself as I went sliding away from the creature. Nausea twisted as the cries from the injured rang out. There were a couple people near me who dropped to their knees, arms raised above their heads as they started praying. A set of arms wrapped underneath my arms, pulling me up to my feet, twisting me around so I was looking at him instead of the carnage.
“I thought I told you to leave!” Atlas’ eyes were ablaze as he screamed into my ear.
My mouth dropped open, but I just glanced back at the people screaming behind us before turning to him again with wide eyes. I was thankful I had him in that moment as I clutched at his arms where they were holding my waist. His gaze softened as it traveled across my face.
“C’mon, I’m getting you away from this.”
He grabbed my hand as we started running away. People were pushing and shoving at us as we tried to make it back to the raised part of the ship. Atlas shoved people out of his way, refusing to slow for even a moment.
A new wave of screams started right as the dragon bellowed again. My head whipped back as I slowed, tugging Atlas with me. The tail was sinking further into the ship. It looked like it was moments from splitting the ship in two. Chunks of wood had splintered off, sticking into the monster’s thick hide. The pain only seemed to be making things worse as the snapping jaws got closer to the crew. A sharp intake of breath hissed between my teeth as I saw hands sticking out from underneath the tail.
There were people trapped underneath it. Maybe it was foolish of me to believe no one had been caught by this thing already. Most ofthem still seemed to be alive, though. The hands dug into the ship as they tried to pull themselves free. One person was only caught by their ankle. Their fists beat against the creature as they yelled curses at it. As their head turned, I saw a flash of blue as they desperately looked around.
