Page 75 of The Sea of Zemira (The Zemiran Chronicles 1)

Mazie jumped to her feet.

“Best you keep your tiny little asses on that raft, will you,” Raven said boldly, ignoring Lincoln’s order. “We’re just headin’ out.” She swallowed down her nerves. “No harm done.”

Dammit, Mazie!Lincoln thought, tightening his jaw.

The two gnomes were no bigger than the size of Lincoln’s forearm. Their eyes were bright red, warts covered their scaly skin from their bald heads to their toes.

No,Nola thought, they look nothing like my father described when I was a little girl.

Mazie trembled as the two tiny beasts boarded their ship. She quickly placed her hand on the cold metal of her pistol, ready to draw her weapon and shoot.

A grim little gnome stepped forward, and Mazie’s brows crinkled as it mumbled something in their tongue. His rheum eyes twitched as he spoke with what sounded like low, raspy jibberish.

“Sorry, I don’t speak ugly little vermin,” she berated.

Mazie’s shoulders stiffened as the little being crinkled its pointy nose.

“Mazie!” Nola whispered from behind her, but Mazie only waved her hand in the air to brush her off. Then the other gnome spoke, but that time he shouted, pounding its fist in the air.

“I said, I have no idea what you’re jabberin’ about, but sounds to me like a threat!” Mazie fumed. “Captain?” she called. “May I?”

“Aye,” Lincoln said, “blow the man down.”

“No!” Nola shouted again, but her warning was too late. Mazie closed her finger over the trigger, her eyes glowing with excitement as she extended out her hand. The black-eyed pirate fired off two shots at the gnomes and watched their tiny bodies fall backward into the water. The sound of gunfire echoed loudly through the cave.

Lincoln watched as Nola covered her mouth, preventing a wail. The siren girl backed up, then looked out and around the cave as if she were looking for someone.

Boots peered further over the edge. “Well, it’s a good thing we got our water already. The sea is turnin’ red now.”

The buccaneers looked up and scrunched up their faces at him, but then their attention drew to Nola, who cried out.

“What have you done, Mazie? Why didn’t you listen? Why did you shoot them?”

Mazie rolled her eyes, placing her pistol in the holster at her hip. “When you are a pirate, Nola, you shoot your enemies first before you ask questions,” she explained distastefully. “If not, we’d all be feeding the fish tonight.”

“But,” she started again, her voice trembling, “They were letting us go.”

Mazie huffed. “So, you speak gnome all the sudden?”

Nola looked at Lincoln, whose eyes darkened, his brows knitting together.

“Wha...you didn’t understand them?”

How could they not?She thought.

Nola had heard everything they said as clear as her own thoughts.

“They told us we could leave and that they’d forgive us for taking their water if we just left without sailing through their city.” She ran her hand through her hair. “They were letting us go.” A feeling of terror rolled within her stomach.

The captain’s face paled. “Bloody hell! Listen.”

A loud bell rang from a distance, echoing through the cave.

“Great, now we’ve started a war.” Lincoln turned to Kitten and Boots. “Weigh the anchor, heave ho!”

The crew fanned out across the deck, preparing to leave but not before gathering up the weapons needed for combat. As Lincoln steered the ship to the right to exit the glacier, he pitched a fearful glance over at Mazie. Their faces blanched watching another ship enter the cave. It was a smaller vessel but stocked with cannons and tiny gnomes. Their artillery pointing right at the Sybil Curse.

“Well,” Mazie said. “Looks like we’re goin’ to have our war sooner than expected.” The black-haired pirate winked at the siren girl.

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