Leslyn could barely move when he rose from bed in the ship’s cabins the next morning. Not only was he in pain, he was sullen, even when Koben regaled his bravery to the crew. Leslyn nearly punched the man when he approvingly slapped the boy’s back.
What had started as an instinct to protect the girl had blossomed in a terrifyingly sudden manner into a valiant, fighting spirit. It chilled him to the bone each time he thought about it. What had possessed him to throw himself at such a suicidal task?
Erin barely left his side that day, and the days after. She was strangely quiet, and spent a lot of time staring mournfully at her injured leg. She started to relax into what seemed to be her usual self a week or so into the voyage, when her limp was nearly gone.
She suddenly appeared in the middle of lunch that day and snatched Leslyn’s hand. She dragged him out of the galley, and he saw that the ship had come up alongside another cliff. A platform like the one from Wrath’s forest island was on its way down. Erin took him across the deck to port side, where they had a good view of the massive trap door to the hold, now opened. “They’re bringing her up,” she said breathlessly. “I wanted to help, but they kicked me out of the hold.”
“Quit cowering Moley, you infant!” someone shouted from below. “Hetz, get your mitts on the handles, not the bars, if you want to keep them!”
“We don’t need your yap, Dolb. Shut up and pull!”
A few dozen crewmates grunted and snapped at each other on the ramp as they wrestled with the massive wood and metal cage. To keep it from sliding back down, a giant winch that was built into the deck for such purposes had been attached to the bars with the thickest chain Leslyn had laid eyes on. Koben manned the winch with a triumphant smile, throwing his full strength into its turning.
Inside the cage, Wrath let out a guttural bellow that could be felt through the floorboards. Erin covered her ears, but couldn’t contain the grin that split her face. Leslyn’s own expression was one of continuing dejection and horror. As if he hadn’t seen more than enough of that griffin already.
The men paused at the daunting sound, but at a cheerful shout from Koben, they rallied themselves and pulled even harder than before. That burst of effort took the cage the rest of the way up the ramp in seconds, bringing the beast’s full mass of bright blue feathers into view between the metal bars.
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She’d spread her wings as far as the cage allowed, filling nearly every bit of space. As the cage lurched flat onto the deck, Wrath screeched and threw herself at the crewmen who quickly retreated to the starboard side, tucking her head and ramming the bars with a shoulder. The cage tipped dangerously sideways, but then fell back with a thunderous slam. Half of the crew and both of their guests were knocked over as the ship rocked violently toward port side and soundly collided with the rock face—very close to where Leslyn and Erin were.
This is it, Leslyn thought as his chest hit the deck to the sound of splintering wood, we’re going to die for sure this time.
Though he’d been clinging desperately to the winch to keep his feet, Koben let go long enough to slap a palm over his forehead and drag it roughly down his cheek. He glared at something above, then left his post, sprinting past Leslyn and Erin toward the cliffs. He put a booted heel on the railing and vaulted up onto the slow-moving platform Leslyn had seen earlier, when it was hundreds of feet higher. The blond man set to work loosing a large hook from the platform, then let it hang down from its chain while he went to the next.
As the griffin bellowed and struck at her prison again, Leslyn realized what Koben was up to. With a quick glance at Erin, he pushed himself up and attempted a similar climb as the larger man, having only small difficulty as the platform had fallen still lower by then. He joined Koben, who acknowledged his presence with a curt nod, and together they released the remaining four hooks as the platform finally came to rest upon the deck.
Koben took four of the chained hooks around his arm and left one for Leslyn, and as one they quickly crossed the deck back toward the griffin’s cage. The big man gave a shout of “Leslyn, up!” and knelt just in front of the bars where the beast raged. Leslyn understood immediately and stepped up onto his back. Koben stood to launch him upward as he jumped, just high enough to painfully catch his knee on the edge of the top of the cage. He let out a sharp cry, but managed to ram his hook between the slats and squirmed his way up, then turned to reach down for the rest of the hooks.
One by one, he put them on each corner of the cage, then the last in the middle. As he worked, the griffin below unnervingly followed him, craning her head and turning about in order to keep a piercing green eye on him at all times. When he was ready to come down, Erin surprised him by yelling and waving, drawing the beast’s attention away. He clambered down to hang from the edge, then dropped the rest of the way. As he straightened, a hand yanked him aside by the shoulder, just in time to avoid being gutted by a deliberate swipe of the griffin’s wing-talons.
She stared through the bars into Leslyn’s eyes with complete focus, and he felt for a moment that she was somehow trying to speak. I’ll get you for this, was his guess. Just as that thought crossed his mind, she opened her beak and screamed in his face.
“Good work,” Koben said, giving the now-petrified Leslyn an approving shake. “Let’s get her off my ship, before she sinks it. And here I was so worried about a silly little seabeast...”