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

better accuracy than a basic musket ball. That meant he needed the creature within fifty yards to even have a chance of hitting it. For an actual killing blow, and considering the darkness and speed with which the thing would undoubtedly be coming at him, that range should probably be reduced to ten or fifteen yards.
    Ten yards . The monster would be practically on top of him. Assuming he could even get that close to it.
    Kendril limped down the line of the breakwater, moving clear of the burning ship. He tripped repeatedly in the darkness, cursing like a sailor himself as he stubbed and bashed his toes, feet, and shins against the uneven rocks.
    A ship sailed past the end of the breakwater, its sails glowing in the moonlight. The crew bustled and scurried about in the rigging.
    Kendril gave them a contemptuous glare as they floated by. He snapped back the lock on the whale gun, testing with his fingers in the dark to make sure that the flint was still in place.
    “We’re going to die,” Marley babbled. He crawled after Kendril, like a moth drawn against its will towards an open flame. He looked fearfully across the harbor. “It will kill us all, it will. Did you see its eyes, its eyes ….”
    “Tuldor’s beard,” Kendril snapped, “of course I saw the eyes. Now shut up .” He took a pinch of gunpowder and between his fingers and primed the pan. At least, he hoped he had primed it. Even in the pale moonlight it was hard to see what he was doing.
    “There!” Marley screamed. He pointed wildly over the water.
    Kendril whipped his head around.
    It was there, across the water. Like a nightmare brought to life. Some obscene cross between a lizard, bat, and… dragon .
    It was unholy. Evil. Kendril felt as if he could smell its stench even from where he stood.
    As he watched it swooped down upon the docks. A fire had somehow begun in a quayside warehouse, and the flames glowed orange on the monster’s wings.
    It took longer than Kendril expected to get past the blazing wreck of the ship. He lugged the heavy whale gun, dragging his injured leg behind him. His knee burned with pain that occasionally exploded into a sharp stab.
    “You’ll never get it close enough!” Marley shouted. His voice was trembling, shaking. “We should hide, Mr. Kendril, get out of sight.”
    “Probably,” Kendril acknowledged under his breath. He turned, his feet planted securely on the rocks.
    Across the bay he could see the monstrous winged creature as it ravaged the docks. Small figures lit by moon and fire were fleeing in every direction.
    Kendril was tired. So tired. He had fought his way across half of Rothland, searching for a woman who had once again barely escaped from his grasp. Now here he was, standing on the breakwater next to a burning ship and staring death in the face once again. Like always.
    He was through trying. Done fighting. He just didn’t care anymore.
    “Please,” Marley begged. He waved urgently to Kendril. “Over here with me, sir.”
    Kendril stared with hollow eyes at the monster. Perhaps this time, for once, death would finally find him. He had meted it out to so many others over the years. Maybe today it was finally his turn.
    Kendril took a deep breath. “Hey!” he roared, his voice hoarse and strained. “I’m over here, frog-wings!” He lifted the whale gun in his hands. It felt reassuringly heavy, like a miniature cannon. Kendril didn’t even try to bring it to his shoulder, but just kept it at hip-level. “Come and get me!”
    Marley stared at him as if he had lost his mind.
    Truth be told, at this point he probably had .
    “Come on!” Kendril kept yelling, ignoring the pain that gripped every part of his body. “You want me? Then come over here and get some!”
    There was no way the creature would hear him. Not at this distance, not over the screaming and shooting happening all over the bay. And even if it did, there was no way it would actually leave all the chaos it was causing to come