The Shadow Master by Craig Cormick - sample chapters

tent. He wanted to see what the Lorraine vessel behind them would do. Undoubtedly their Capitano was standing on the foredeck with his mouth agape like a triple-inbred Umbrian peasant. Which he probably was. Oh, that was a good one, he thought. He’d better remember it. But before he could even set eyes on the rival ship he felt the deck shake under him. It felt like they had struck something. But that was impossible.

There were no rocks on this side of the maelstrom.

“Capitano!” his mate called out, still up in the rigging.

“It’s… whales!”

“What?” he asked, as if not comprehending. He strode to the ship’s rail and looked over into the waters below. It had to be a Lorraine trick. But it was whales. At least three of them.

He looked at their dark rough-skinned backs, looking like some leather-clad machines of Leonardo’s, under the water there. But these were alive. Each as long as the ship’s width, and they were attacking the Windseeker, nudging it backwards towards the maelstrom. “No!” he said. It was as impossible as…

He searched futilely for the metaphor that might make it too incredible to be really happening. But the whales rammed the ship again, knocking him off his feet. A cry of panic ran up from the men at the oars as some took up their talismans in both hands while others tried to follow the order to row, so that the oars quickly became tangled with each other. They had lost forward movement and the ship started drifting backwards.

Capitano Manzoni started ranting in panic, not unlike a triple-inbred Umbrian peasant might, and he called to the first mate to try to regain order with the slaves as he tried to rush back to the tent with his instrument case. But his fingers were so stiff and clumsy and he knew he knew he would have no time. No time! The crew at the back of the ship were already