I stop for a moment with both hands on the door and catch my breath. But what now? The creatures are outside; at best I could take them on one at a time. Staying here, at least for a moment – until they move on – seems to be my only option for now.
At least they can’t manage a door handle, but I realize I’d better lock it just in case. I reach for the key in my pocket.
As I do so, I realize that I opened the door without unlocking it. I glance around behind me, only to see that I am not in my own cabin after all. I must have taken the wrong door in the dark.
* * *
The cabin I find myself in is very large. I certainly didn’t get the best room, it appears! This one could easily belong to the captain, or else to someone else high ranking or one of their wealthiest guests. Coruff’s name crosses my mind, but then I dismiss that idea; she is certainly a person of some importance, but doesn’t strike me as one to put her own comfort ahead of that of her travel companions.
My own room must be a door or two along, but given that I am pinned in here by the horde of rats, I have no choice but to wait. I take a moment to look around the dingy chamber.
The room is wedge-shaped, roughly square but smaller at the side near the door. The bed, off to one side, is king-sized and covered in luxurious-looking furs and silk throws. The dim morning light is entering via a twin porthole opposite the door, below which sits a writing desk. There is also an unlit oil lamp on a small table, and I walk over to it. Beside it is a tinder box, and after a few strikes, I manage to ignite it, providing much more light to see by.
I move across to the desk, and pick up one trinket after another – an ivory statue of a bald monk, a silver knick-knack with twisting rings, a copper dragon figure. None of these things would be remarkable in the real world, but here such objects suggest that the occupant has a certain level of disposable wealth. I put each one back where I found it.
I am no thief.
My gaze next falls on a pen and a bundle of pages – a journal or captain’s log, alongside one or more loose letters. I prod at the book, then turn it over, and see that it says “First Officer” inlaid in golden letters. So. This is Tan Darville’s cabin.
I push the book aside and reveal the letters, which are written in multiple scripts, ink types and handwritings. They are small and curled up, suggesting that these are incoming missives or instructions that have been carried by a messenger bird of some kind. I cast my eyes across the first few lines of the topmost page, which is written in distinctive, spidery writing:
Any witches and their accomplices that you can find at the docks must be delivered straight to the master. I have now made contact with Vekrio, and he will join you to lend his skills against these foul, despicable people.
I am sure that this work will make you proud as a patriot and loyal subject of the Emperor. However, in terms of payment, I will provide…
My heart is pounding as I flick through the next few pages. Most are unrelated, but I see another page, dated a few days after the first:
… bring them not to Varia, but continue your planned voyage to Sefindarg City. The Knights of Dawn are active there, defeating enemies of the state. Two in particular, named Valizor and Barzolk.
In the city you will be met by our agent. Hand any prisoners over and speak to nobody about our arrangement.
I break off from reading. This is a trap. The people who run this vessel are working against us, and will take us not to our friends and companions in Kamarok province, but to the Knights of Dawn. And surely this unnatural attack must be a part of the plan.
And I realize something more: Coruff, as a coven member, is especially in danger.
I turn the handle of the door and kick hard. When the door swings open again I am ready for my beastly enemies; I lurch forward and smash at the nearest giant rat, pinning it against the opposite side of the wall; it falls limp – dead. Others are approaching from both sides. I didn’t see Coruff, Lugg or van Turk on the main deck, and so I turn right and run into the bowels of the ship. It’s imperative that I find them before our enemies are able to carry out whatever they are planning.
I am still holding the lamp from the cabin, and the pool of light it casts makes me feel much more comfortable in the gloomy passageways. I successfully kick two more giant rats out of my way, then turn and thump a further one that had been pursuing me from behind.
Increase in weapon skill level: Mace and Chain level 23 (Strength +6)
Individually they are little threat, but the real danger is the way they come at you from all angles at once. Another leaps towards me, seemingly from nowhere; I back up against a wall, and smash downwards towards the floor. I miss, but it recoils. I swing out at the creatures once more and then run further. I don’t know how many are pursuing me.
Too many, that’s for sure.
Progress is slow as I run, stop, swing at the vicious vermin attackers, and then run a little further. At last I reach a ladder leading upwards towards the area under the quarterdeck of the ship. It rises from a rounded area with another set of doors – four in all. With one further swipe towards the pursuing rats, I place the lantern down and leap upwards, beginning to haul myself up the ladder. They are large and ferocious rodents, but I sincerely hope that they can’t pursue me this way. Two further bites find their mark as I climb.
- 2 hit points (19 remain) - 2 hit points (17 remain)
I have hardly pulled myself clear of the ladder when I am faced by a total blockade of fizzing magical energy. But my heart leaps when I see Coruff’s face on the other side. She recognizes me, and with a simple gesture, her spell is dispersed.
“Daria. I had no idea where you were, and feared the worst. Are you all right?” She leans on her staff, giving me a hand to help me up.
“Yes. There are… rats…” I say, sounding stupidly incoherent. I notice that Coruff is soaking wet, and she shakes her head slightly.
“Yes. I know.”
She strides forward and aims a deft kick at a rat that has managed to scrabble to the top of the ladder, sending it back down to where it (and I) came from. “The question is why,” she adds.
We stand together for a moment, staring around. “Is it safe here?” I ask.
“For now. I made it here from the rear of the ship, after diving into the water to get clear of attackers,” she says. “We can get back to the aft through that door,” – she points behind her – “but I think that van Turk is trapped at the forward end of the vessel. We need him, but it’s too risky to go that way. That means we are stuck here.”
“These attackers – was it more of these giant rats?”
“Yes. Unlike you, I don’t have the weapon skills to defend myself against them.”
“Then it’s good that we are back together. But we need a plan.”
She nods. “And I also need to figure out what is causing this. It’s not natural.”
I look at her again, and notice – perhaps due to her clothes being soaked and hanging down lower than usual at her throat – that she is wearing an armored chestplate beneath her tunic. I can only see the top of it; it looks intricately carved, with small white gems in a gold setting. The metalwork reminds me of something, and I take the opportunity to ask her about it.
“It’s a valuable object that I wanted to keep safe,” she says. “It belonged to an ally of our coven who sadly died around a year ago. An adventurer – reckless, but a good man.”
“What happened to him?” I ask.
“Now’s not the time for sagas,” she replies shortly, with a brief frown in the direction of the ladder. And sure enough, another one of the rats has scrabbled to the circular gap that marks the top of the ladder down to the cabins. Coruff points her staff at it, and a blast of blue-white magical energy emerges from the tip. The rat’s fur sizzles, and it falls back through the gap, landing with an audible thump a second later.
“Time to restore my barrier,” she says, then begins to cast the magical barrier incantation tha
t I have seen her use before to good effect.
“Wait!” I say, and she pauses and looks at me.
“There was a letter. In one of the officers’ cabins down there. I’m not entirely sure, but I think it was referring to the coven. It talked about a sorcerer… Vekrio, I think the name was? And it talked about taking witches to the capital, to be delivered to the Knights of Dawn. Their companions too, it said.”
She growls softly. “So, Captain Hitch and his crew have betrayed us. Then we definitely need to get to van Turk quickly. We need his protection. And we need to tackle our foes before they can do any more damage. Hopefully this information will allow us to act swiftly and in a way that they will not expect.”
With this, she steps towards the door that she had indicated, then looks back at me. “Come on, Daria. We’ll have to take our chances with the rats.”
Together we pass through the door. It leads to an internal set of steps that I haven’t seen before, and from there it comes out onto the highest level at the rear of the ship – the quarterdeck.
I look around. A small set of external steps leads down to the mizzen, where the secondary mast of the ship is rigged and from where the captain typically steers, and then from there another goes down to the main deck. I can now see that Lugg is with van Turk, and they are indeed among several small groups of people that are still pinned back towards the extremities of the ship by ravening packs of giant rats. They and an elven sailor have joined the two dwarves on the bowsprit at the very foremost point of the ship, and are desperately fending off the relentless waves of attacks.
From this vantage point, it is also very clear to see that the rats are only on the main deck and the front areas. There are none here, or ahead of us on the mizzen. There, Captain Hitch stands beside a half-orc sorcerer with yellowish skin and brown robes, and a human warrior with a bow. The captain is yelling at the sorcerer, however, and we immediately get the impression of a spell gone wrong. Perhaps Captain Hitch has been misled, or knew nothing of the plans that I read.
Before I can react, Coruff is running ahead of me, muttering another incantation. She reaches out as the orcish sorcerer turns and places one hand on his shoulder. The creature’s eyes bulge for a moment, and then he collapses into a magical sleep. The warrior raises his bow towards Coruff, but I am faster; I leap directly down onto the mizzen, rise, and thump him across the temple with the wooden handle of my morning star, and he slumps down, unconscious.
Increase in attribute level: Agility level 12 (+1) Increase in skill level: Acrobatics level 15 (Agility +3)
Coruff only pauses for a second before raising her staff and stalking towards the dwarven captain, her cat-eyes intent. He backs away, mumbling.
“Traitor!” she calls, raising her staff above her head.
“I’m not… I mean… this wasn’t…” he begins.
But I don’t have time to hear more. On the main deck, things have moved on rapidly. Perhaps due to the downing of the orcish sorcerer, the rats appear to have completely lost their earlier ferocity, and are now running around chaotically, apparently terrified and looking for ways to escape from the light and the armed humans.
Van Turk quickly breaks free from the bowsprit and comes running across the main deck. But before he can reach us, he is blocked by two muscular soldiers, each flanking the First Mate himself. Tan Darville. And all three of them have weapons drawn.
I don’t have all the information I would like. Is Darville really conspiring against us? Was he behind the rat swarms? It would be best to give him a chance to explain himself at least.
But then, sometimes you just have to make a call. With my heart thumping, I grab the bow and a couple of arrows from the fallen warrior at my feet, and nock an arrow. The string of the bow twangs as the missile flies straight and true towards the treacherous seaman.
Chapter 14: Pursuit
An hour on from the rodent attack, we find ourselves sitting in the cabin that previously belonged to Tan Darville, the ship’s First Mate, but which has since been allocated to Coruff as part of Captain Hitch’s apology for the attempt on our life.
“We need to put in at a safe port,” I say to Coruff. “Tan Darville’s letters seem to suggest that two of the Knights of Dawn are waiting for us in Sefindarg City.”
The captain has taken full responsibility for the attack that was orchestrated by his First Mate. In the aftermath, he told us that he will do anything he can to make up for the attack. I know that he is probably more worried about the harm that it has done to his reputation than he is about us, but I’ll take it.
Coruff now sits at the room’s writing desk with van Turk standing to attention to her side, and Lugg and I perch on the edge of the bed. Captain Hitch is standing inside the closed door of the cabin, and it has been necessary to fill him in on the essentials of our plan – meeting with our comrades and evading the Knights of Dawn.
“If the knights are there, then our friends are in danger,” Coruff replies. “We should go there directly and seek to help as best we can.”
“I don’t think so, Coruff,” I say, shaking my head. “Arriving by ship like this is exactly what the knights will expect. We’ll easily be captured.”
Van Turk does not say anything, but gives a brief nod.
Coruff sighs, a high-pitched and sonorous sound. “Very well, then. What say you, Captain? Could we instead make a stop elsewhere on the coast? That would allow us to enter the city by road and remain undetected.”
“I… would have to look at the charts to be sure,” says Captain Hitch in a gruff voice.
Coruff sniffs. “Well, might I suggest that before putting in at Sefindarg City, we stop at the Imperial city state of Llandra. We must pass fairly close in any case.” She turns to me. “Do you know it, Daria? It is closer. And from there, there is road towards the capital that passes close to the southern fringes of the Great Swamp.”
“Then I say yes – let’s do that. And from Llandra, could we send a messenger to reach the coven members who have already gathered in Kamarok province?”
“Leave that to me.”
I remember Coruff and her fellow coven members’ affinity for communicating by magical messengers in the form of birds, and feel slightly foolish.
The talk of messages briefly reminds me of my communication with Connor Champion. I told him that I would be arriving in Sefindarg City. Well – that situation can be resolved another time.
Coruff tries to get a bit more of a firm commitment from Captain Hitch, but the dwarven officer is being evasive. “Llandra is not too far out of our way, right enough,” he says, frowning. “That is well known. We are already making our way northwards to the continental mainland, and within four or five hours we will be hugging the Unicorn Coast as we make our way to Sefindarg City. However, putting in to another city before that would lose us valuable time, and most likely make me late for my final destination. That can lead to a fine from port authorities.”
We both look at him in silence for a moment; Coruff’s eyes are narrowed even more than usual.
Looking at her, the captain splutters slightly, and then continues, “But of course, I’ve said I will help you however I can, and I shall keep my word. It’s a matter of honor. We will put in at Llandra. I will tell the crew forthwith.”
With this, Hitch turns on his heel, opens the cabin door and strides out, and within moments he is yelling at some sailors again in his resonant voice.
Van Turk walks over to close the door behind the captain, and in his absence, Coruff looks back at the First Mate’s letters. I have already read the most damning sections, however, and we are still little further on in understanding exactly why we were betrayed, or who Tan Darville was conspiring with. Darville didn’t survive my shot, and the orc sorcerer is now locked in the hold, magically restrained by Coruff, and has not been answering any questions.
“It says ‘any witches and their accomplices that you can find at the docks’,” says Coruff. “That’s some
thing. It suggests that even if they knew of our presence in general, they hadn’t infiltrated our network more deeply, and didn’t know names or plans for departure. There’s no indication that they knew which ships Maleki and the others would be travelling on.”
“Let’s hope not,” I say, and van Turk grunts slightly. I recall that he was in charge of the security arrangements, and the latest events must be weighing hard on him. And then there is Josa…
“It sounds like Josa and the others got lucky,” I say to him, trying to sound confident. “This was a matter of chance that they managed to get onto our ship. There is no mention of other vessels leaving the same day.”
“Thank you, Daria,” he says.
“More concerning is the mention of the Knights of Dawn being active in Kamarok province,” says Coruff. “That far from the Imperial capital, we had hoped things would be safer.” She turns the letters over in her paws, and then hands them back to me. “There may be further clues to be discerned, but it sounds to me like the knights are targeting all magic users, not just our own coven.”
“And at least they are not yet in the Great Swamp,” I say.
“No. Not the pair mentioned in the letter, anyway,” she replies, not adding the obvious – a further two Knights of Dawn are still alive and at large.
I stand. “I’m going to head back to my cabin for a bit,” I say. “Hopefully some rest will help heal up these rat bites. Speak to you up top in a little while.”
* * *
When I emerge onto deck once more, the weather is fine and relatively calm. When I briefly check the time and my own health via the ‘status’ command, I see it is still early:
The Call of the Coven: A LitRPG novel (Shadow Kingdoms Book 2) Page 9