Disgust curdled through me as my stomach rumbled in hungry response to the blood that gushed from the wounds. Clenching my jaw, I adjusted my stance and shut out the world around me. I became solely focused upon destroying these monsters that had taken almost everything I loved. The only thing that mattered right now was killing them.
***
Cade,
My hands rested upon the floor as I landed silently beside Jessica in the cavernous room. Like a waterfall, water from the river spilled across the floor and rushed toward us as the ship continued its precarious tilt. The watermelon sized crystals fell to the floor and clattered like marbles in a jar toward us. It had been grueling enough to keep our balance with the sinking ship, but trying to stay on our feet in the water while dodging the crystals was worse than trying to rake leaves in a hurricane.
"This way!" Jessica shouted over the growing racket.
The water was completely out of the riverbed now; the olinades became projectiles as they tumbled by us and smashed against the back wall. I was on my hands and knees as I fought against the pull of gravity. Scrambling to the side, I barely managed to avoid being taken out by a tumbling crystal. Grabbing hold of one of the crystal bases I pulled myself up against it and braced myself carefully. Something within the ship fractured with a groaning sound that momentarily drowned out the screams around me.
There was little that surprised or unnerved me, but the back wall ripping away with a wrenching groan and spiraling toward the ocean was a disconcerting sight. Fresh air rushed in around us, the salty scent of the ocean drifted up to me as my hair was blown back. Screaming Tintagelians plummeted past me; they spiraled out of control as they tumbled out the back of the ship toward the unrelenting sea fifteen thousand feet below.
Shoving myself off the base, I lunged for a doorway over my head and pulled myself through. Jessica and Craig were each holding onto a base, their feet dangling in the air as the ship continued its precarious roll. Leaning out the doorway to my waist, I stretched out toward Jessica and clasped hold of her hand. She held onto me, her feet kicking in the air as I lifted her up and through the door. I took hold of Craig's hand next and helped to pull him up as more Tintagelians plummeted toward their death beneath us.
I took a deep breath and leaned against the wall. Jessica's chest heaved with the force of her breaths, her coffee colored hair straggled around her flushed face as she tilted her head to look at the hallway that was now directly above us.
"At least we succeeded," I said as I wiped the sweat from my brow. This wasn't where or how I wanted to die, but no matter what happened from here on out all that mattered was that we had won.
"They'll be ok," Craig panted. "They'll be safe after this."
"They will be," Jessica agreed as she looked out the door to the open area now beneath us. "If we can somehow make it to the other side there are emergency shuttles designed to hold one Tintagelian at a time. I have no idea which direction they would be pointed in now, we could get to them only to discover we won't have enough time to keep them from plummeting into the ocean. And it's that way." She pointed at the hall now directly above us as the ship had rotated one hundred and eighty degrees.
"Who knew chopping down a tree would cause so much damage," Craig muttered as he ran a hand through his disheveled hair.
"It's what we came here for, to ensure their survival, to give them a chance. To give them the life they never would have experienced if we hadn't. They'll have some peace now," Jessica whispered. "I hope Leo finds happiness with it."
"He will," I assured her. "And so will Bethany."
I knew that eventually Bethany would find some happiness, but I also knew that she would forever be broken, as would I if something were to happen to her. That thought drove me back to my feet. It may be nearly impossible, but I wasn't going to go down without a fight for her. I grabbed hold of the edge of the doorway above my head and pulled myself up. It was going to be one hell of a climb, but if the ship remained steady until we were out of this hall there was a chance we could make it.
Rapidly climbing up by using the doorways, I made it to the closed door at the end of the hall and pulled the golden handle down. I just barely managed to dodge the door as it swung toward me and crashed against the wall opposite of me. Crystal from the door shattered and spilled over Craig and Jessica before it tumbled into the void below us. I pulled myself through the doorway and looked back, but other than Jessica and Craig I saw no one below us anymore.
We continued to climb swiftly through the hallways as we made our way steadily toward the back of the ship. My arms and back began to throb from the strain, sweat trickled down my back and plastered my hair to my face but I refused to give up, refused to be deterred. The last door opened into another hallway that thankfully ran parallel to the one we were in. Craig and I helped to pull Jessica through and fell back against the wall. I glanced down the hall to the empty space beyond as the ship gave another heaving groan that set my teeth on edge.
"Let's get out of here." I ignored the twinge of my arms as I shoved myself to my feet. "Which way?"
Jessica pointed to the right and we broke into a run. Our feet thudded dully on the crystal doorways we ran across as we dashed across them to another massive crystal at the end. "There's no handle!" Jessica panted from behind me. "I don't know how it's supposed to open but there's no handle for it."
"The Ancients would want to make sure that no one was able to get off of this ship unless they allowed it," Craig said.
I could only hope the bomb didn't blow a hole through the floor as I pulled one out and lit the fuse. We ran back down the hall and darted through a doorway before it exploded. Debris and smoke blew outward and flew past the hallway we were sheltered in. I found myself holding my breath as I poked my head back around the corner. My shoulders slumped when I saw that the massive door had been blown outward but only a small hole had been punched into the floor.
Returning to the crystal I stepped carefully around the hole in the ground. Wind rushed in from outside to whip the hair back from my face and plaster the damp clothes to my body. My eyes watered as I took in the vast expanse of ocean and sky spread out before us. We were supposed to be near the top of the ship; instead we were stuck on the side of it with nothing but the sea below and the sky above in a dizzying array of blue.
The small ships that Jessica had been talking about were strapped to the side of the main ship. They were pointed straight at the sky instead of the land they were supposed to be directed toward. It didn't matter where they were directed though; we had no other choice but to use them. Stretching one leg down, my foot searched for the first pod before I stepped onto it. I braced myself against the side of the ship as I bent to fumble for the button on the side of the smaller ship.