Читать книгу Dragon Ship - Natalie Yacobson - Страница 3
Pirate
ОглавлениеPatricia ran down the path of fire. It left burns on her body. She was running away from both the fire and the horrible truth the seer had shown her.
There was a swamp ahead. Even it was better than a solid wall of fire. At the sight of the mire, Patricia felt relief.
Wet hands clutched at her hem.
Oh, it’s the boggarts! Muddy green swamp fairies with beautiful faces and rotten teeth pulled their webbed hands toward the girl.
«Don’t get on board! You won’t get off it alive, unless you become a member of the crew. And only a magical creature can join the crew. You’re not a fairy. You can’t survive on board.»
«Thanks for the warning!»
But there’s still nowhere to go. Sparks of flame are following her.
«The dragon is looking for you!»
«I see it!»
«He kidnaps every girl who looks like his runaway wife, and you look just like her.»
«Is she a dragoness?»
What a surprise! The sparks are multiplying and keeping up. The only way to escape is into the sea. It’s no longer fiery here. The water in the bay is murky but cold.
The ship in the bay was full of magical creatures. Alas, Patricia only noticed this when she climbed up the cracked gangway.
«Look! She’s got fire kisses on her! The dragon didn’t burn her!» The eerie, hoarse voices of a whole company of fairy creatures came.
Patricia’s leg was stuck in a hole between the broken boards like a dog’s mouth. Blood trickled down her ankle. Patricia felt dizzy from the blood loss. It felt like the ship was drinking her blood. Isn’t that funny?
«Ah!» Someone shouted so loudly that the sound carried over the entire ship.
Patricia’s blood somehow ignited on the planks and immediately went out. The girl pulled her leg out of the trap with difficulty. The hole in the deck immediately disappeared. What the hell!
A team of creepy creatures was closing in around the girl. Patricia instinctively grabbed the first thing that came to hand. The rusty hilt suddenly shone with newness under her fingers, and the weapon soared into the air, threatening the infernal creatures. They backed away, even frightened. What a miracle! It turned out that Patricia had found a saber on board that turned out to be magical. It was throwing itself to chop down any human or goblin nearby, even the one who found it, but Patricia was able to hold it back.
«Now you are the owner of the saber, and we are your team,» The wounded goblin said. He was the most formidable and huge monster on board.
«And whose ship is this?» Patricia asked.
«It is nobody’s.»
«It sounds like it’s an independent living creature that drinks the blood of the unfortunate girls who boarded.»
She seemed to have hit the mark. The monsters looked at her with reverence, as if she were an all-knowing sorceress.
«The ship belongs to nobody, and so does this saber,» the goblin lowered his eyes guiltily. «So far, no one has been able to take it, but it has harmed everyone. The ship is also named after the saber.»
«You mean a saber?» Patricia was surprised.
«No, it is a bloodsucker.»
«That doesn’t sound nice.»
«Well, the ship isn’t going to a beauty contest, but to a pirate heist.»
«Since you have a handsome captain now, you’ll have a handsome name.»
The Wicked One is squirming.
«You should go back to land, pretty girl!»
«It is too late. I’m with you now. Whoever went aboard will never come back alive unless he’s your captain. That’s what the swamp women whisper.»
«Do you hear them? Swamp women! Oh, come on! You’re not a fairy yourself, are you?»
The fiends hopped around Patricia on the deck. Some claws even felt her back for wings.
«She is not a fairy!» A troll said disappointedly.
«Don’t worry! I’ll be a good captain.»
«I see, or you wouldn’t have the saber,» said the ugly duergar.
Fate is whimsical. She almost got burned by dragon fire, got on board with the wicked! But with a crew like this, you can get your revenge.
«Let’s go!» Patricia commanded.
«Where is it to?»
«Head for Opal.»
«Are we going to look for food for the ship?» The goblins became animated.
Did they say food, not profit? Did Patricia hear what they said?
«Does the ship feed on gold?» She asked.
«No, it feeds on the blood of captured men who have fallen into the water. There’s a reason it’s called a bloodsucker.»
«I would have called it «The Light», the name of my ship when I was a noble lady.
«And what are you now?»
They couldn’t tell whether she was a peasant or a lady by her dress. Patricia thought it unnecessary to explain her social status. She wasn’t sure she had retained her title and manners. She had been wanted as a rebel for a week now. To hide, she’d been stubbornly playing the role of a commoner.
«We will avenge my kin,» she said dryly.
«If you want to burn all of Opal, you’d better summon a dragon ship. He can do it in one swim,» said the clever trolls.
«He’ll burn us, too. We can do it ourselves!»
On the way, they captured a pirate ship and ate all the pirates. «The Bloodsucker» really did feed on people. Perhaps we shouldn’t have changed its name as it exactly matched the behavior of the bloodthirsty vampire ship. The ship couldn’t have been named more accurately. Its ropes, like living snakes, stretched out and caught game. The sails swirled cocoon around the captured humans, and for a moment the bloody stains on the sailcloth were visible. The deck greedily absorbed the blood, making sucking sounds. You don’t need to wash a deck like this, you just sprinkle blood on it and it’s clean. The stains are immediately absorbed.
Patricia cheered, realizing that luck had come to her in the form of a magical ship and its crew. No one could handle goblins, swamp elves, and trolls in battle. A crew of the unholy is just what you need to take revenge on powerful enemies.
