Oracle (Book 5) by Ben Cassidy Read Free Book Online Page A

trepidation, Marley glanced back at the Ghostwalker.
    Kendril removed a massive, cannon-like musket. It was made entirely of metal, even the stock.
    Marley coughed, the thickening smoke agitating his throat. “That? It’s just a whale gun.”
    Kendril’s eyes gleamed. “I saw it first.” He grabbed a couple long steel darts from the arms locker.
    Marley glanced out into the corridor nervously. The flames were breaking through into the main passage with a vengeance. “You’re going to shoot down that flying abomination with…with a whale gun ?” He looked back at Kendril. “It’ll never shoot that far.”
    Kendril gave a lop-sided grin and headed towards the cabin door. “Then we’ll have to draw it in real close. Come on, Marley.” He pushed the startled sailor back out into the smoke-choked passageway and towards the stairs.
    Up on deck, the fire had already consumed half the ship in a blazing inferno. Smoke poured up into the night sky. The heat was intense, like a furnace. From somewhere above came the keening cry of the hideous beast.
    Kendril scanned the sky. He saw a flash of wings in the moonlight through the broiling smoke.
    “We have to get off!” Marley yelled. He started towards the starboard side.
    Kendril grabbed the man’s arm with his free hand. “Not that way. The breakwater. Let’s go.”
    Marley was too surprised to protest.
    Kendril dragged the man to the port side of the ship.
    Behind them part of the rigging collapsed onto the main deck in a fiery explosion. Sparks and embers swirled into the air like fireflies.
    Marley looked down at the jagged rocks of the breakwater, slimy and covered with barnacles. It was enough of a drop from the side of the ship to make him pull back. “Are you daft?” he yelled back at Kendril. “I’ll break my legs.”
    “Better hope not,” Kendril said. He gave Marley a determined shove.
    With a startled cry the sailor tumbled off the side of the ship.
    The forlorn screech of the creature sounded again, cutting through the cold air of the bay.
    Kendril glanced back over his shoulder.
    The harbor was in an uproar of confusion. Muskets flared off at random, people were shouting, screams sounded from the docks. Some of the ships were making desperately for the open sea. As Kendril watched two vessels collided with one another in a booming crack of splintering wood.
    Kendril threw himself off the burning ship.
    He hit the rocks below hard, slipping on the wet surface. A sharp angle of stone jammed into his leg side. He felt his knee twist painfully, and tried to catch himself with his free hand. Barnacles shredded the palm of his hand. His chest slammed into a rearing boulder.
    Kendril lay for a moment on the rocks, wracked with shooting pains. It was cold and wet underneath him. His left foot was entirely submerged in a deep puddle of seawater between two rocks. The overpowering smell of salt filled his nostrils, mixed with the stench of smoke from the ship behind him.
    Marley wailed a few feet to Kendril’s side. “Oy, my legs,” he cried. “I’ve broken both my legs.”
    “Shut up,” Kendril snarled. He pulled himself up, stifling a groan. His body felt like someone had run him over with a cart. Filled with logs. With three kids playing on top.
    Kendril’s knee stabbed in agonizing pain as he tried to stand.
    Three fat kids.
    He snatched Marley by the back of the sailor’s filthy tunic and dragged the man to his feet.
    “I can’t walk!” Marley wept. He rubbed his legs vociferously.
    “Stop your whimpering and die like a man!” Kendril was surprised by his own fury. He took the whale gun in his hands, then reached for the powder horn he had taken from the arms locker.
    A scream echoed from the far side of the harbor. There were more scattered gunshots. Bells were clanging all over the city.
    Kendril jammed one of the metal darts down into the barrel of the whale gun. The weapon wasn’t rifled, and the iron dart would probably have little