The Long Journey Home (The Legend of Vanx Malic Book 8) by M. R. Mathias

Some of them were leaping from the water. They looked to be swimming through the air, until they splashed back down amid thousands of their chums. It was beautiful and amazing all at the same time, but something wasn’t sitting well with Vanx. Even though these were harmless creatures of the sea, they had surfaced for a reason.
    That thought sent Vanx into a panic. “Something is feeding on the school, from underneath. Row your arses off.”
    Chelda and Zeezle did just that. Castavonti, for the first time Vanx could remember, said something helpful.
    “If it was attracted to your light, Capt’n Vanx,” he said, “I can cast a similar orb of illumination a good distance away, and it will then be drawn to that, instead of us.”
    “Wait…until…we…have…enough momentum.” Zeezle finally quit rowing so he could talk. “Once we have enough momentum to glide the rest of the way to the ship, then cast the other light.” He went back to rowing. “Right now, these beauties are hiding the commotion of the oars just fine.”
    They were beauties, Vanx decided. These fish were as long as a man’s leg, and the colors racing across their skin were as captivating as the old wizard’s healing spell had been.
    It came as a great surprise when Poops darted to the front of the boat and caught one of the fish from the air.
    Vanx had to hold him by the leg until he could pull his catch all the way into the boat.
    The dog looked at Vanx proudly, but all Vanx could think about was the deep thumping sound the fish was making as it flopped around the bottom of the boat. He was about to draw his sword to stab it when the heel of Chelda’s boot found its head.
    The fish’s colors faded then, and its tail curled up one last time, then it flopped back to the bottom of the longboat and lay still.
    “There’s me and Poops’s supper,” Chelda grunted between oar strokes. “You dolts need to catch one for yourselves.”
    “If you two can eat all that meat, then have at it.” Castavonti said. “That’ll feed the lot of us for two days.”
    “Cast that light spell on the count of three,” Zeezle said. “Chelda, let’s put it all into these three pulls.”
    “Aye, Zeezy.” She let out a breath. The force the longboat lurched with each pull was startling.
    “One, two,” Zeezle said. “And shhh…” He hushed them instead of saying “three”.
    Castavonti didn’t cast the illumination spell, so Vanx whispered, “Three,” to him, and then he did.

Chapter Fifteen
    It is times like this that make me feel
    like I’m the king of this whole world
.
    You could be my queen, and I would cover you
    in diamonds, gold, and pearls
.
    T he next morning, they waited out a thunderstorm. When they pulled anchor, the island that should have been right there was gone. There was nothing but open sea in its place. Not even a trace of it was to be seen, by eye, or by glass. It was as if the whole thing had simply vanished.
    Vanx knew it hadn’t been an illusion, though, for there in the crate they hauled aboard last night was the dirt and turf he’d gathered. He didn’t dwell on the missing land mass, but instead directed the
Adventurer
toward Orendyn and spent the first part of the day constructing a shallow, square box to hold the dirt from the island. He laid the turf over it and set a barrel of fresh water aside to water the makeshift grass bed every day.
    Poops understood what it was. No sooner had Vanx finished than the dog squatted brazenly in front of them all and squeezed out a healthy, stinking shit.
    “I thought you were going to stop letting him eat fish,” Zeezle said with his fingers pinching his nose shut.
    “He caught the fish.” Vanx shrugged. “And don’t act like it’s all that bad. You should smell it with
his
nose.”
    “Well, where is the island?” Chelda asked. Her look was one that expected Vanx to have a perfectly good explanation.
    Ronzon was rattled, and so was Castavonti. Master Ruuk was hunched over,