Ring of Solomon, page 15
“You should know better than to make assumptions about a person’s height,” he said, shooting me a glare scalding enough to melt steel.
As the boat stopped tilting, I stumbled to my feet. “Ash, do you see the sword?”
He looked around, clearly befuddled. “Weren’t you holding it?”
Ugh, he could be so frustrating! For the king of demons, he was about as smart as a sack of potatoes. Scrambling over the slippery boards, I searched desperately for the sword.
“Zach, over there!” Naomi said and pointed across the deck. A flash of steel caught my eye.
Quick as a striking rattler, the Leviathan lunged forward, its smooth silver body rippling through the storm-gray water. I snagged the sword just as the beast reached us, raising the blade only to find myself confronted by an empty space where the Leviathan had been mere seconds before.
The boat rocked and shuddered as the water rose around us, displaced by the Leviathan’s moving body. Sandra and Naomi staggered to one end of the vessel and I to the other, and Ash took flight, circling around us.
Where were the fireballs or lightning strikes? Talk about underrated!
Sandra aimed the harpoon gun at the monster and pulled the trigger. The harpoon whizzed through the air, missing it by a good ten feet.
“Sandra!” I groaned.
“Excuse me,” she snapped back, reloading the gun. “I’ve seen you in gym, Zach. You’re an even worse aim than I am!”
She had a point. I turned to Ash. “Can’t you do anything?”
“I can’t,” he admitted, landing on the railing.
My mouth dropped open. “Wait, a minute. You can’t?!”
“As long as I’m in this wretched form, I can only channel a minuscule amount of my true power,” he explained through clenched teeth. Each word came out strained and forceful. “I’m stuck like this.”
“Why couldn’t you have told us this before?” I demanded.
“I didn’t think it was important.”
“You—”
Before I could finish, the Leviathan burst from the ocean mere feet from the boat. Its head was a bulbous mass of silvery-gray flesh lined with a nestful of needle-sharp teeth, its whirling round eyes as bright as lanterns. A glowing orb hung from a stalk on its forehead, reminding me of an anglerfish’s lure.
In a blur of spines and scales, it coiled around the boat like a snake strangling a mouse, the railing bending beneath its muscular tail. The boat shuddered in its grasp, tilting so violently to the side, I feared we would be cast into the water. I darted to the side, sliding beneath the Leviathan’s head as it lunged toward me, jaws wide open. Hundreds of fangs brimmed from its cavernous mouth.
The monster’s breath rushed over me in a hot wave, making me gag on the nauseating reek of rotting fish. It would have been enough to knock out any ordinary person, but Ash actually staggered back as though struck, losing a few feet of altitude in the process and coming to a crash-landing on the deck.
“Aim for its head,” Ash shouted, lurching onto his hands and knees. “The light is the center of power.”
The Leviathan rippled across the deck, making a beeline for where Naomi cowered against the captain’s seat, sobbing uncontrollably. I raced forward, nearly sliding across the rain-drenched boards. I barely felt my legs beneath me, and my vision narrowed until the only thing left was her tear-streaked face and that monstrous thing surging straight toward her.
I took a running leap, aiming for the glowing bulb that bobbed from a slender stalk in the middle of the Leviathan’s forehead. My aim fell short, and I plunged the flaming sword into its neck instead, high enough up that my toes barely scraped the floor. The blade cut effortlessly through the scales and flesh, and I was met by a brittle snap as it cracked the bone beneath.
I expected the Leviathan to go limp, maybe spew out coins like in a video game, or explode into a gorefest worthy of a horror movie. Instead, the monster jerked suddenly to the side, sending me crashing into the railing. I gripped on to the sword for dear life as the Leviathan’s head reared back, hoisting me into the air eight feet above the deck or more.
“Ash, just do something!” I shouted, squeezing my eyes shut as sparks fanned from the sword’s edge, sizzling out on my life vest. The blade had to be buried a good ten inches into the creature’s neck, so why weren’t the flames affecting it?
The Leviathan writhed, its head twisting toward me. It snapped at my stomach and caught a mouthful of my life vest instead. The garment deflated in an instant.
Before the Leviathan could try to take a bite out of me a second time, I lost my grip on the sword. With a wild cry, I plummeted. The sky whirled overhead, and then I slammed into the deck hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs.
At the other end of the boat, Sandra struggled to reload the harpoon gun. Drawn like a moth to a bug lamp, the Leviathan devoted its full attention to me, snapping at me in viper-quick lunges. I rolled out of the way, flinching as its teeth sank around the railing, taking out a chunk of it in the process. If the Leviathan could do that to an inch-thick metal bar, I hated to think what it would do to my arm.
As the beast coiled back, preparing for another strike, a soda can struck it in the jaw, followed by a small tackle box.
“Over here!” Naomi shouted, and the Leviathan’s head swiveled toward her. No, no, no. Now wasn’t the time for her to play the hero!
“R-run, Naomi,” I croaked as I rolled onto my stomach, still hacking for breath.
The Leviathan reared at her, its jaws widening until I could see the spine-lined crevice of its throat. Just as it reached Naomi, a flurry of black feathers split through the air and Ash seized hold of the sword still embedded in the monster’s throat. With the same brutal strength he had used to drop-kick the Behemoth, he wrenched the sword upward in a graceful flourish, beheading the Leviathan almost as effortlessly as he had decapitated my limited-edition Frankenstein action figure.
27
A noxious-smelling black mess spewed across the deck, and the Leviathan’s head crashed down with enough force to splinter the wood.
“Yeah!” Sandra pumped her fist in the air as the Leviathan’s writhing body sank into the sea.
“Ash, I take back what I said about you being weak,” I said, staggering to my feet. Naomi rushed to my side, her fingers tugging at my shirt.
“Are you okay, Zach?” she blubbered, and I managed a small smile and ruffled her hair.
“I’m fine, Naomi. Thanks for saving me.”
Breathing heavily, Ash landed on the deck and dropped the sword. Wisps of smoke trailed up his arms, and before he curled his fingers inward, I caught a glimpse of angry red burns spreading across his palms.
“Ash, your hands...” I tentatively stepped forward. “You’re hurt.”
“Don’t concern yourself with my welfare, human,” he said aloofly, furling his wings. “As I have told you before, I am no ordinary sheyd.”
Hesitantly, I touched the sword’s handle. It was only slightly warm, the kind of soothing heat that reminded me of drinking hot cocoa. As I picked it up, Ash’s expression hardened.
“Looks like it’s not over yet,” he murmured.
Swallowing hard, I followed his gaze to the severed Leviathan head at the other end of the boat. Raindrops evaporated the moment they touched the smoldering remains. The scaly skin began to crack and burn away, just as the Behemoth had disintegrated into chunks of charred flesh. Only this time, the Leviathan’s neck and jaws twitched as it burned, and to my horror, it suddenly occurred to me that there was something in there. Something beneath its spines and scales.
“The Behemoth’s core of power was in its stomach,” Ash said. “When you drove the blade in, it was ruptured in an instant, before it had a chance to transform. This will be a bit harder now.”
I gulped. I had played enough video games to know that the boss form was even scarier in phase two.
Slowly, a form rose from the mound of smoking meat and bone. If it was a human, its entire body was covered in a spiny exoskeleton, spikes emerging from its shoulders like a knight’s pauldrons. The head was concealed beneath its own horned shell-like armor, bright gold eyes gleaming through the narrow grate of cartilage that helmeted it. A third eye opened in the center of its forehead, the place where the anglerfish-like stalk had been on the Leviathan’s original form. My stomach did a flip-flop. This was a demon in all its terrible glory. This was what Ash truly was, or what he could become.
As Naomi ran behind me, the Leviathan regarded us, pale teeth gleaming through the grate of its helmet. If it could build armor from its own bone and scales, I hated to think what else it was capable of.
“It’s been a few thousand years, hasn’t it?” the Leviathan said in a voice as soft and hissing as rain on hot blacktop. It bared its fangs in a grin. “When did you become such a pip-squeak, Ashmedai? I almost didn’t recognize you.”
“It’s a long story,” Ash said, not smiling. A lightning bolt split across the sky, illuminating his tawny eyes, which glowed brighter with each passing moment. His nails lengthened into claws.
“It is fitting for you, brother. Tell me, since when did you start working with humans?”
“Ever since a meddlesome king enlisted me to build his temple,” Ash said, and the Leviathan laughed.
“Ah, yes, I heard about that. I suppose you answer to these children now.” The demon’s gaze shifted to us, and its smile only grew. “Don’t fret, dear brother. I will free you of your servitude.”
Reaching down, the Leviathan buried its clawed hand in the still-smoldering ruins of its original form, and from the nasty pile of gunk and scales, retrieved a pike of bone. The spear’s tip terminated in a lethal point.
Not good. Not good. Thinking quickly, I snatched up the flaming sword from where Ash had dropped it and lunged at the demon with a wild cry. As I swung the sword down, the Leviathan’s foot shot out, and in the blink of an eye, I found myself propelled across the deck. I slammed into the railing hard enough to make my teeth rattle. Groaning, I sank onto my butt, the sword clattering to the floorboards beside me.
“Zach!” Naomi cried, rushing to my side.
“Take this, Fish Breath,” Sandra shouted, and raised the harpoon gun. During the midst of the Leviathan’s transformation, she had smartly reloaded. The harpoon whizzed through the air, only for the Leviathan to catch it in one hand and crush it into a twisted lump of metal.
“I’ll deal with you three later,” the demon said, fixing its gaze on Ash. “For now, our king and I have some unfinished business.”
“Humans, get out of here,” Ash told us through gritted teeth. His face had drained of color. “However you can, go now.”
“We’re not leaving you!” Sandra said, fumbling with the last harpoon. If not for my breathless coughing, I would’ve wholeheartedly agreed with her. It wasn’t like we’d be able to abandon ship anyway—to reach the bright orange inflated lifeboat, we’d have to make it past the Leviathan first.
Ash opened his mouth to respond when the Leviathan lunged forward, thrusting its bone spear toward Ash’s stomach. Ash darted out of the way, folding his wings against his back to avoid a second wide swipe.
With each moment, the downpour grew heavier. Lightning bolts touched down in the ocean around us, filling the air with trails of steam and making my hair stand on end.
Still wheezing for breath, I reached for the sword. My fingers splayed across rain-drenched wood. Stupefied, I looked down. Oh god, no. Had it fallen into the water?
A flash of fire caught my eye. Naomi ran across the deck, the sword gripped tightly in both hands. The weapon was only three or four pounds, but it was practically as tall as she was, and I wouldn’t have trusted her to run with a pair of scissors, much less a pair of scissors on fire.
“Naomi, put that thing down now!” I shouted, staggering to my feet.
The Leviathan turned toward the sound of my voice. Naomi swung the sword erratically at the demon, and with the nonchalant boredom of swatting a fly, the Leviathan shifted its spear to block her blow midswing.
The moment the two weapons clashed, sparks rained down upon the deck. Whether made of bone or something far stranger, the spear was no match for the very sword that had once been used to guard the gates of Eden. Cracks spiderwebbed up the spear, and the tip fissured in two. The Leviathan’s cocky smile disappeared into a bared-tooth grimace.
“Where did you get that—” the demon began, but its words were drowned out by the enraged snarl that tore from Ash’s mouth. Ash lunged forward and locked his arms around the Leviathan’s waist, his talons sinking into the demon’s exoskeletal armor. Cracks spread up its sides.
“Pip-squeak or not, you were a fool to underestimate me!” Ash’s wings flared out, sending a powerful wind blustering across the deck. “Now, Sandra! Aim for the head!”
A blur of silver split through the air. This time, the harpoon met its mark.
28
The Leviathan reeled back against the railing, pressing its hands over its face. As cracks spread through its shell-like helmet, the demon released a shriek so shrill and piercing, it made even my ancestors wince in their graves.
Beneath my feet, the boat’s deck trembled, and the sound of splintering wood filled my ears. Then a blinding light swamped my vision, and it was as if the entire world had gone head over heels, the floor no longer beneath my feet, the sky no longer overhead—just a tumbling whirl of light and sound and color, like I’d gotten trapped in a giant kaleidoscope. Until I hit the ocean’s surface.
Dark water enveloped me in an instant. With my life vest busted, I struggled to stay afloat. Waves crashed against my head and shoulders, filling my mouth with salt water and driving me under.
Sputtering, I kicked back up to the surface and blinked the droplets from my stinging eyes.
The burst of magic had torn the boat nearly in two, scattering the water with fragments of wood and metal. As I watched in horror, the boat rolled onto its side. Waves flooded the cockpit in an instant, and in the blink of an eye, half the vessel was underwater.
“Naomi! Sandra!” I searched for them in the whirlpool, gagging and gasping for breath, my throat shrunken into a pinhole. I was Naomi’s big brother. I was supposed to be the one who protected her!
Drawing in a lungful of breath, I hollered Naomi’s and Sandra’s names until, midword, a wave smacked me in the face. Through the screen of water droplets, I caught a glimpse of a bright orange safety raft bobbing away from me.
It was the raft that had hung on the side of the boat. Inside it, Sandra and Naomi clung on for dear life.
“Zach!” Naomi reached her hands out for me even though by then she was a good twenty feet away.
“Just wait, Zach,” Sandra shouted as she struggled to unhook the paddles from the raft’s sides. “Just hold on. We’re coming.”
But the waves pushed them back toward shore. As they drifted farther and farther away, I tried to shout Naomi’s name. A wave struck me, driving me back and under. Down. Down. Down. I sank lower and lower into the watery abyss, the world blurring overhead and drifting in and out of focus. My lungs strained for breath, and I struggled against the undertow that dragged me deeper. As my vision began to blur, a dark form shifted overhead. I reached out, and just when I thought my lungs were going to burst, my fingers closed around a warm hand.
Ash drew me to the surface. Wings sodden and floating loosely over the water, he dragged me over to the boat, or at least what remained of it. Only a few scraps of the boat’s deck had survived, and we clambered onto one of the floating sheets of timber. The flaming sword protruded from the wood, where it must have landed after Naomi dropped it during the Leviathan fight. The blade was too wet to ignite, but wisps of steam curled from its edge the moment I grasped on to the handle to haul myself up farther.
Exhausted, I collapsed onto my hands and knees. As I wiggled the sword free and rested it slantwise across the shelf of wood, something slowly dawned on me. “Ash, you saved me. Why would you do that?”
Ash didn’t answer, but from his stare, I could tell that my question had taken him aback. He clambered all the way onto the flotsam and tried to flap his wings. The feathers were sodden, and all he managed to do was throw off a cold gust of air that cast my sopping hair over my eyes.
“What can I say?” He shrugged. “It would be a shame to let you drown before I got Solomon’s ring back. Besides, what is a king without his loyal subjects?”
“Oh, don’t lie.” A grin spread across my face. “It’s because we’re friends, isn’t it?”
Ash sputtered for a response. “Excuse me? F-friends?”
Before I could offend him further, a red light blinked ahead, pulsing through the pounding sheets of rain. Wiping the salt water from my eyes, I squinted. “Is that...?”
“A boat,” Ash whispered.
Ash’s wings dissolved from sight as the vessel neared, and the searing radiance of his eyes diminished into just a spark. The boat glided through the water, so glaringly white that it glowed like a beacon. Just as it dawned on me that it might be a mirage, a man’s voice blared from a speaker: “Hey, there! Hold on, we’re coming!”
My shoulders loosened in relief, and I pressed my cheek to the slick wood of the rubble we clung to. “Thank god. I thought we’d become shark food. I hope Naomi and Sandra are okay.”
The boat pulled up alongside us, and a man hurled a life buoy our way. Once I grabbed onto the doughnut-shaped float, he tugged it over by its rope.
“There you go,” the man said, hauling me over the railing. As I skidded across the wet floor, he grasped on to the straps of my life vest and helped me regain my balance. Once Ash joined me on the deck, the man offered us a weak smile. His blond hair was plastered to the sides of his face, the kind of too-yellow shade that you could tell had come from a bottle, and so thick that I wondered if it was fake. “You kids are lucky we happened to be passing by. What happened?”
