Flash Fiction: Island Dream
Heart racing, sweat running down his face, Captain John Hicks slapped the water again with his magic, getting a pure tone, and listened for the echo. They might be invisible to his magic and eyesight, but not sound. They weren’t that good, and he heard the echo his enchanted sand-table showed.
Damn, four raiders, not the two as he’d thought. But sonar, even a magically created one, could be traced. He might know their exact location now, but they damn sure had his. But how in the hell had they even known he had contraband aboard? Knowing their position, he cast another spell to increase his speed and turned his sloop hard to port. Maybe this time he would shake them.
He dearly wished he dared call for help, but just the thought of a dragon and rider finding his contraband sent a shiver down his spine. He did not want to spend the rest of his life building up some brand-new colony. It had to be that cargo that those pirates were after. The Island Dream might be a one-of-a-kind collector’s item, but they could hardly sell it. No, they were not looking to steal and sell his boat. As impossible as it was, these men knew about his cargo. And just as worrying, if they did, so would others.
As the water just to his right boiled from a power-packed heat spell, and massive amounts of steam rose from the waves, John nearly crapped his pants. Damn it, that heat spell had just torn through where his beautiful Island Dream would have been had he not turned, and pushed it further along with a spell. That settled it. It was his cargo. The bastards were willing to wreck his beautiful, one-of-a-kind boat to get it. Being no slouch as a mage, he pictured his own shields expanding to cover the entire sloop. He could cover the ship for a week or more if he had to, and no damn heat spell was getting past his personal wards.
No, damn it, he thought, stopping himself just in time. That’s exactly what the bastards wanted. It would be screaming to them right where he was. Without a doubt, getting him to overreact was why the bastards had sent that spell. But he could attack them too. Nothing so direct, but there were ways.
Raising his hand and his barnacle scraper and swim goggles came flying out the cupboard. He may not have made it into The University, but he’d still been a hell of a lot better than average before he’d enchanted the Island Dream. After building that, there were few people in this part of the ocean better mages. Using so little power as to make it nearly undetectable, he pulled water from the sea into a head-size globe. Sliding both the goggles and the scraper into it, he activated the two. The water elemental came to life, and he grinned. He’d always had to be damn careful cleaning his haul this way or he would tear his whole bottom out. With a gesture, he sent it over the side and toward the closest pirate to clean their bottom, then grabbed the wheel and made an adjustment to the rudder and locked it into place.
His grin had vanished by the time he had the cushion off the bench and was pulling the kite-board out of its storage. Unlike normal ones, since he had too many charters that didn’t really know what they were doing, this one too could be remotely controlled. He added another spell to it, triggered the kite, and a moment later, the court snapped tight, pulling the board off the deck, and he changed course again. Two minutes later, disappearing into the haze of Kara, the board slapped the water with a pure tone.
According to his sand table, they hadn’t adjusted to his change, and he had a couple minutes before one ran into his elemental. Once more he adjusted his course, this time heading to pass close to one of them. It was the last thing they would expect, and if it didn’t work, they would have him. He began taking all the safety off his message stone and adding more power to it as minute by precious minute passed.
Two things happened nearly as one, his elemental started to clean, and his kite-board sounded again. John leaped back to the sand board, and yes; there it was, the closest ship between him and the one being cleaned. He released the message stone.
The explosion when the stone hit the ship in between them was far louder than he expected as every bit of kinetic and magical energy in it was released in an instant. Relief and pain flooded him. With both closer ships disabled, and the others on the wrong course, they could not catch him. But someone had likely died in that explosion, If the other two ships didn’t stop to help the damaged ships, more would. He needed to be far, far away from here by then.
Captain John Hicks is a minor character from the first chapter of my novel Renegade on Kara: The Great Basin that I thought could use a story of his own. A serial version is available on Substack, and the e-book or printed copies are available on my site Store