Read Online A Dream of Mortals (Book #15 in the Sorcerer's Ring) by Morgan Rice - Free Book Online

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He prepared to stab him, but Reece stepped forward and used his halberd to kill
him.
    O’Connor let loose two arrows which went whizzing
by Thor, and Thor spun and watched two pirates, charging for his back, fall
dead. He spotted a pirate charging for Angel and Thor was about to chase after
him when O’Connor stepped up and put an arrow in his back.
    Thor heard footsteps and spun to see a pirate
charging for O’Connor’s back with a club. Thor lunged and, feeling the Sword of
the Dead vibrating, slashed his thick club in two then stabbed the pirate in
the heart before he could reach him. Thor then spun around, kicked another man
in the ribs, and, the Sword of the Dead leading the way, chopped off the man’s head.
Thor was amazed. It was as if the sword had a beating heart of its own, willing
Thor on to what it wanted him to do.
    As Thor slashed furiously in every direction, a
dozen men piled up before him, he covered in blood up to his elbows—when suddenly,
a pirate jumped him from behind, landing on his back. The mercenary raised a
dagger, bringing it down on the back of Thor’s shoulder, and he was too close,
and it was too late, for Thor to react.
    Thor spotted an object in the air, hurling at
him out of the corner of his eye, and he suddenly felt the man release his grip
and drop down to the deck. Thor turned to see Angel standing there, having just
thrown a stone, and realized she’d connected perfectly with the man’s temple.
The man squirmed at Thor’s feet, and Thor watched, amazed, as Angel stepped
forward, grabbed a hook off the deck, and raising it high, impaled it in the
man’s chest. It was the same hook the pirates had used to ensnare them in their
net at sea. Justice, Thor realized, had come full circle.
    He’d had no idea Angel had it in her; he saw
the fierceness in her eyes as she stood over him and he realized she had a true
warrior’s spirit and was much more complex than he knew.
    Thor turned and threw himself into the fray and
he and his men attacked relentlessly, all of them banding together, as they had
in so many places, a fine-tuned killing machine, all watching each other’s
backs. They fought beautifully together, knowing each other’s rhythms. As Elden
swung his battle-ax, Indra hurled her spear, killing those he could not reach.
Matus swung his flail, killing two pirates at once, while Reece used his long
halberd to kill three pirates before they could reach Selese. And Selese, in
turn, sprinkled the dust from her sack on their wounds, healing all their
wounds as they went and keeping them strong.
    Slowly the tide turned, as they cut down one
man after the next. The bodies piled high, and soon there remained but a dozen
of them.
    Eyes wide with fear, the dozen remaining pirates,
realizing they could not win, dropped their daggers and machetes and axes and
raised their hands, terrified.
    “Don’t kill us!” one yelled out, shaking. “We
didn’t mean it! We just went along with the others!”
    “I’m sure you didn’t,” Elden said.
    “Don’t worry,” Thor said, “we’re not going to
kill you.”
    Thor sheathed his sword, stepped forward, grabbed
the pirate, lifted him over his head, and hurled him overboard, into the sea.
    “The fish will do that for us.”
    The others joined him, driving the remaining
few overboard with their weapons, into the sea, and Thor watched as the seas
soon turned red, sharks circling and drowning out the cries of the pirates.
    Thor turned to the others, who looked back at
him. He could see in their eyes that they were thinking the same thing as he: victory,
sweet victory, was theirs.

CHAPTER NINE
     
     
    Erec bent over the rail and looked down in the
torchlight into a sea filled with Empire corpses. A dozen Empire soldiers lay
floating, all killed by Erec and his men, all pushed over the rail, and as he
watched, slowly, one at a time, they sank.
    Erec looked up and down his fleet of ships and
saw his men on all of them, all now free,