Page 75 of Scourge of the Shores
The tension and silence in the moment that followed were out of nightmares. Cain dove again, taking two more ships with him—vanishing beneath the waves just as another round of cannons fired and Danna returned to attack range.
The sea swallowed Cain whole. Silence followed—unnatural and thick, like the breath held before a scream. The black waters stirred, hungry for more.
CHAPTER 19
The Double Cross
Danna loaded harpoons into the swing cannon—a short-barreled gun bolted to the ship on a pivot rail and suspended by rigging. Smoke and the stench of death choked her lungs, but she grabbed the attached matches and, with the roll of the ship, swung the cannon around to aim at Cain. But he was nowhere to be found. Survivors climbed aboard floating ships. A few brave sailors ventured out in rowboats, trying to pull the injured to safety. The dead floated on their bellies or not at all. Debris floated in the water before plunging below the churn.
A gulp of waves preceded the eruption of Cain between Robert and Danna once more. The wave hit hard and threw her ship back. The damaged rigging securing the cannon’s base faltered, and the side of the mount cracked under force. The whole gun slewed sideways and the iron breech smashed into her belly as she fell, driving the wind from her lungs. She screamed, clutching her side where the iron had struck, matches still in hand.
Cain turned his good eye toward her and snorted steam.
Her breath came in ragged gasps. He’d knocked her to her knees. The taste of salt filled her mouth, and she could feel the sting of other wounds she hadn’t noticed in the heat of battle. If the heavy cannon fell on her, she was as good as dead. She eyed the fraying rope and the still-secured side of the mount, straining to hold, creaking more with each passing moment. Her gaze shifted back to the plague that had tormented her life for the last thirteen years.
Cannon fire from the Pirate Kings bounced off its scales, causing its snaked tongue to shrill in an ear-splitting shriek, but nothing would deter Cain from its primary target.
The dark circles under her eyes were as black as the waves. Her belly trembled with trauma as she placed a hand on the swing cannon to aim it. This would be her last stand. Either Cain would take her life, or she would take his.
His unhinged jaw stretched wide as he slung his head back and forth, enduring the cannon fire. His war cry twisted into a guttural death knell from Tophet. He lunged—vaulted—toward Danna, arching in a death strike.
As the dark tunnel behind Cain’s fangs readied for its morsel, the scent of salt and blood blurred with a memory—her father’s laughter at the bow, her mother’s scream, Robert’s whisper at her ear. The sea demon always took what it wanted. But this time, she refused its hunger.
“Die, ye cursed beast!” Danna roared back in raw survival. She lit the fuse, still on her knees. The cannon exploded, knocking her arm and sending her flat on her back with her legs taken out from under her.
The harpoons shot clean through his open maw, whisking past the broken chains and embedding deep into the flesh of his throat.
Cain tottered. His massive neck crashed into the ship’s side, and his snout caught in the main mast’s rigging. The galleon groaned beneath the weight.
For a moment, she thought he might still live. But then—his movements slowed. His long, spiny tail gave a single, shuddering twitch. His blinded eye was an arm’s reach away from Danna as the scaled lid blinked.
In one last attempt to kill her, its snaked tongue whipped the frayed rope, knocking the swing cannon loose. Its heavy metal frame soared over Danna’s head from the force; its landing just missing the target. The crack of wood reverberated in her ears from the thick thunk of cannon meeting deck.
Her breaths shook her belly. Her heart pounded against the agony in her ribs. Her arm throbbed.
Danna rolled out from underneath its head and crawled closer to the stern over buckled planks, suppressing the pain out of sheer survival. She flipped onto her back to see harpoons stuck through its mouth and emerging from the back of its head. The whole ship leaned sideways from Cain’s weight.
Her belly pulsed in agony, and her knees were weak. Hot tears filled her eyes as she gasped for air. Her fingers dug into her aching side.
The great sea dragon exhaled a final burst of steam. His long tongue lay in a loose pattern on the deck.
A hollow stillness settled over the battlefield.
And then, the mast broke. Cain’s head pummeled the deck before slipping off into a watery grave. Its monstrous mane whipped in the wind one last time before disappearing into the black depths. The sea accepted him without a sound, just the quiet pull of the deep, as if the DeepMother had been waiting all along to reclaim the child born of her magic.
The old tales spoke of sea dragons rising again only when the prophecy tied to their relic neared fulfillment.
But there had been no relics. Everything from Cain—his spikes, teeth, and spines—went to the deep. He’d never rise again.
And Danna’s eyes burned with unshed tears of joy at the thought.
A lifetime of fighting and surviving. A lifetime of fear. And all it took was a single cannon shot through the beast’s head. She didn’t care. He was gone. If her stomach would let her, she’d breathe easy.
“Cain’s been gutted!” Danna shouted to the detriment of her own belly. Afraid the words weren’t real, she rested her forehead on the broken deck, feeling the cracks on her fingertips. Her vision swam. Her stomach twisted with exhaustion and pain.
“Cain’s dead,” she whispered again, but her voice broke on the last word. Her body trembled. Her fingers shook against the wood. A quiver latched onto her bottom lip that rose at the corners.
Her heart raced, and the shouts of victory rang in her ears. A low laugh bubbled up from her belly, raw and unhinged, not knowing what else to do. Her stomach wrenched in a guttural plea to stop moving. Laughter turned to a choked sob as the beast’s death didn’t fill the hole he left, and she curled in on herself. Her hands pressed hard against the agony in her core as she struggled to breathe.
