Lightning flashed through the sky, striking the rod erected near the center mast of the ship. The vessel shook as the lightning traveled down, catching along the many cords laced across the ship as the disrupted currents hit the secondary engine, pushing them forward. The very storm that could kill them was the only thing keeping them afloat.
Sheena put her entire weight onto the wheel, fighting both the wind and the rain pelting against her face. She wiped at her goggles furiously. The small cluster heading towards the railing of the ship drew her attention. Two people were struggling to pull someone closer to the center.
“Take the wheel!”
Sheena heard a shout before she took to the stairs, heading towards the commotion ahead. A man and woman were attempting to pull Siri, her second mate, back with them and failing as the rain beat down on them. There was little footing as Siri dragged them forward with her, the taller woman reaching out to the storm for something she wouldn’t find.
She intercepted them, tackling Siri back from the edge. The sudden force must have surprised her, for she stopped struggling forward long enough for the three to gather their bearings. Together they managed to pull her into the belly of ship.
Almost a third of the crew was below deck, either strapped to their hammocks or locked up in one of the many storage rooms, scratching at the doors of their temporary prisons. Even Siri had tried to claw her face off as she dragged the screeching woman from the edge of the deck. She kicked and screamed the entire way to her room, where Sheena finally received assistance from her unaffected members. As a few struggled to subdub her, another came to Sheena’s side, wrapping the bloody arm that the bigger woman managed to ruin. She brushed off additional aid, heading back topside away from the wailing of her crew locked away. The burning down the nape of her neck worsened with every turn of her head. She pushed the mop of hair from her face, dreading the scene she was walking back into. They were dropping like flies. At this rate there’d be hardly anyone left to help run the ship. They were close. They just had to make it past the storm. Sheena went back to the wheel, assisting their navigator as he kept the ship steady. She had to scream to be heard over the thunder booming around them.
“Take us in! We need to get to the center!”
“Can’t! Any closer and it’ll rip us to shreds!”
“Get us closer!”
He looked at her like she was mad. And maybe she was, to have dragged them to the edge of the continent with little to no warning. There was a pull on her heart she couldn’t escape, even if she wanted to. And she didn’t. Somewhere in the darkness, it was waiting for them. They just had to reach it before it brought them down.
“Captain! To our left!”
Sheena turned and was met with more clouds. She squint her eyes ahead of her, taking advantage of the weakening storm. She could make out a dark mass among the blacken clouds, moving slowly beside them. If they had been any closer they might have ram right into it. It towered over their ship, nearly triple its size.
“The hell is that?”
Sheena didn’t answer. She pulled the goggles off her eyes as the vessel breached the clouds.
The rain tumbled off the ship in cascading falls, washing away the wood and cloth of wrecked ships caught among its jagged, outer shell, falling to the earth below. The woman carved at the bow was serene, face peaceful as her lips opened in song. At this distance, Sheena could make out the pointed teeth and slitted pupils under hooded eyes. If she stared long enough, Sheena noticed black eyes watching, waiting. Hair wove through the hull in waves before cracking into overlapping scales, red steam pumping between their openings and staining whatever color it used to be. The humming from the ship vibrated through the air, stirring her heart with a hunger she didn’t want to control.
The wails below quieted, matching the low song coming from the passing ship. Sheena lift her head skyward, her song rising above voice her crew and the song of the siren soaring through the air. The ship stilled, body creaking in protest of its abandonment. And then, a crescendo that carried her heart high and her song even higher. She could hear those poor, lost souls crushed beneath the waves eons ago, their screams a symphony of pain clawing for a stolen future. Loving hands on a straining throat and the water to bind them forever. Lifeless eyes, just for her, and the hunger burning in her veins.
It was her everything.
And then there was nothing but the hunger and clearer skies.
They watched as it sailed past, continuing its journey to gods know where. Sheena followed its length along the railing until she reached the front, the tail barely missing spot where she stood. Lengthen nails broke through skin, the blood collecting in her fist. She needed more.
“Captain?” Sheena faced the remaining crew, eyes hungry, waiting. They knew her answer but waited for the words to be spoken aloud. Words to a song that would never end. Never again.
“Full speed ahead,” Sheena said as she placed the goggles, stained red, atop her head. “We’re heading home.”
Reading Rites 