Free The Mad Voyage of Prince Malock by Timothy L. Cerepaka Page B

make sure that the gunpowder and the guns
themselves stayed dry. So he figured they would at least shoot,
which was all he needed them to be able to do.
    Of course, Malock didn't have a gun himself. Guns
were the common man's weapon, after all, and Malock was certainly
no common man. Instead, he had brought along a Carnagian sword, a
special one of a kind blade designed by the best Grinfian
blacksmiths in all of the Northern Isles. Having received extensive
sword training as part of his education back home, Malock knew he
could defend himself if necessary.
    To conquer the beach more quickly, Malock split the
party into two groups of five (not counting himself). One would go
to the left end of the beach, the other to the right. They would
then meet back in the middle, right where the rowboats were landed,
and report what they found there. Malock stressed to the left party
(he was in charge of the right) not to go beyond the treeline, even
if they saw something, because they knew very little about what
lurked within the jungle.
    In case of emergencies, Malock gave the leader of
the left party, an aquarian named Danaf, a loud whistle he could
blow. The whistle was rather ordinary, aside from the fact that it
had been enchanted by a mage to increase its sound, which would
ensure that even the sailors aboard the Iron Wind would hear
it. So the expedition split up, agreeing to regroup in the center
of the beach in half an hour.
    Malock was at the head of the right party, his sword
unsheathed. He sensed the eyes of the men behind him, searching the
trees, the sand, the waves, the ikadori peaches; anything that
could possibly hide a threat. It was all so quiet and so still that
not even the wind was blowing, which only made Malock and his party
ever more anxious.
    The sun continued its slow, lazy ascent in the sky
behind them, its rays reflecting off the white sand. One ray caused
something in the sand to glint, causing Malock to raise his sword,
signaling to his men to halt.
    Without saying a word, Malock approached the
glinting object and knelt over it. The object in question was a
diamond, similar to the kind that decorated the Temple of Grinf
back on Carnag, except much smaller and duller, like it had been
there for a while. Malock was surprised that a treasure crab or
some other animal attracted to shiny objects had not yet taken it;
after all, it was right there for the taking.
    “What is it, sir?” said one of Malock's men, a human
named Forl Mas. “Is it dangerous?”
    Malock reached down and wrapped his fingers around
the tiny rock. “It's just a diamond. Possibly Grinfian, by the
look—”
    He stopped talking when he noticed how the diamond
refused to budge, even when he pulled, as if it were attached to
something deep beneath the sand. That didn't stop Malock, though.
He put his sword aside and, using both hands, tugged at the diamond
with all of his might.
    A loud pop preceded Malock staggering
backwards. Forl caught him before he could fall and said, “Sir,
what ... happened ...”
    Forl's words trailed off when he spotted the very
bony, very human remains of a hand sticking out of the sand, its
middle finger now missing.
    When Malock saw it, he looked at the diamond in his
hand. It was actually a diamond ring that he had pulled out of the
sand, a ring with the skeletal hand's missing middle finger still
stuck through it. This caused Malock to gasp and, without thinking,
hurl the detached finger into the bay. The finger landed in the
water with a small splash and sank out of sight.
    “You desecrated a grave, captain,” said another
sailor, a female aquarian whose name Malock could not recall at the
moment. “Do you know what that means, sir?”
    Malock shook his head, trying not to look afraid,
even though the sight of the skeletal hand still sent shivers down
his spine. “I don't care what that means, sailor. Dig the rest of
it up. I want to see if there's a whole skeleton under there.”
    The female aquarian