by Noah Layton
Everything seemed to be in working order from what I could see. I wasn’t exactly well-versed in sailing, but the thing wasn’t sinking – not yet, anyway.
Fortunately for us, if we did happen to sink, there was a small wooden lifeboat set into a small frame on the portside.
Hopefully we wouldn’t need it.
‘What do you think?’ I asked Lara and Elera as they landed on the deck behind me. They moved much more gracefully than me; fortunately I had a little more brute-berserker strength to compensate.
‘It needs a little work,’ Lara said, ‘but I think we can make it work. So what’s the plan, we sail off into the sunset for a life of drinking and fucking?’
‘Maybe one day,’ I smiled, ‘right now it’s to start expanding our reach. We’re going to use it to start transporting goods downriver to other tribes.’
‘I have so longed to get back into the water,’ Elera said, moving to the opposite side of the deck and looking over the edge into the water of the cove.
‘You’ve longed to get back into it?’ Lara laughed. ‘All you do is bathe.’
‘This will not be bathing,’ Elera said with mock-sarcasm. ‘The rivers need to be mapped out, just like our husband said, isn’t that right Jack?’
‘Definitely,’ I replied, heading up to the quarterdeck. ‘We need to make sure that we’ve mapped out the rivers before we start sailing into uncharted territory.’
‘That’s true,’ Lara agreed. ‘Agraria’s river system is vast, and we cannot risk attack from outside forces.’
‘Right. Captain Archie told me that we wouldn’t run too much of a risk of attack, but if we stray into the more remote areas we could run into trouble, just like in the Black Patch. We need to know what’s safe and what isn’t.’
I crossed to the wheel of the ship and looked out over the vessel in its entirety. Others in the dock might have been bigger, but this was just a start.
‘Let’s check out what things are like down below,’ Lara said from the deck.
I crossed to the edge of the quarterdeck and looked down to the main deck. Lara was bent over by the hatch in the centre of the deck. She ran her fingers into the hatch lid, then heaved it open to expose the stairs that led to the hold below the deck.
‘What do you think’s down there?’ My nymph asked. ‘Any other gifts that the sun-elves may have offered us?’
‘I don’t know how much more generous they can get,’ I remarked, heading down to the deck to meet them and looking into the darkness below.
I led my wives down the steps into the hold, my boot-clad feet clunking down on the stiff wooden boards below the deck.
The open space was as large as that above us, and was scattered with barrels, crates and the occasional old chest. Despite being in good condition – apart from cobwebs and the dust floating through the air, riding beams of sunlight that slipped down from above – The Bastion looked like it hadn’t been used in a while.
‘Can sailors dock their ships here for an indefinite amount of time?’ I asked, turning to Lara. She had lived here for years and knew the cove like the back of her hand.
‘No. There are strict rules from the dockmasters. The sun-elves must have docked her here a few days ago.’
‘Artrix has been reluctant to get involved with dealings outside the borders of his land since the war. They must have had the ship docked along the rivers near their land for years.’
‘Well, now they finally have use for it,’ Elera commented. ‘Hopefully we can get this beautiful old thing up and running in no t-’
‘Hsst.’
Lara made the sound sharply and held up a finger. Elera and I glanced over at her in confusion as she held a finger up, lowering her head slightly and listening.
A second passed and she looked up at us both, pressing her finger to her lips firmly.
Then she turned and pointed into the depths of the ship’s bow.
‘There’s something back there,’ Lara whispered in a repressed, hushed tone.
She and Ariadne both possessed an uncanny ability to hear sounds that weren’t on my wavelength, thanks to years of hunting in the wilderness.
I unsheathed my sword slightly, readying it for an attack but knowing the scraping sound of metal would warn whoever, or whatever, was down here of our presence.
Elera readied a frost-filled hand, Lara silently retrieved her bow, and I walked towards the small room at the back of the hold, accessible through a wooden door that was hanging open on its hinges.
Either we had an assassin waiting for us or a stowaway.
I didn’t know which was more likely.
The hold was silent except for my creaking footsteps as I approached the door. Things were too dark for me to make anything out, and lighting a torch would immediately alert the intruder to our presence.
Deciding to go on the offensive, I elected to unsheathe my sword, sound be-damned.
I had hardly retrieved it from my waist when the attack started.
Something hard and fast struck me in the chest and knocked me flat onto my ass. I sailed onto my back, the force of the fall knocking the wind out of me.
Whatever had attacked was sat on my chest, and they were executing one hell of an attack. Something sharp kept striking at me, not in brutal slices but in sharp paper cut-like stings on my chest
I grunted hard and slammed a fist into my assailant’s stomach, releasing a guffaw of pain.
I wondered why Lara hadn’t given him an arrow to the head, right up until she spoke.
‘Get the fuck off him, you little shit!’
I felt the weight lifted from me on the off, as Lara grunted and booted my attacker onto the ground next to me.
She and Elera approached, an arrow drawn in Lara’s bow and a ball of frost-magic floating at the ready in my nymph’s hand.
The blue glow lit up the corner of the hold and shed light on my attacker.
From the strength of the initial blow and the hasty slicing I expected a well-trained assassin, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Clutching at her stomach and looking up at us angrily was a woman in her early twenties, wearing a tattered checkered dress and wrapped in a gown. Ragged pieces were hanging from her clothes, exposing patches of her tanned, smooth skin beneath her garments. She was scattered with mud and dirt, standing around five feet six, and looked as if she had been living rough for months.
She was a human adult save for three distinctive features; from the top of her head, a pair of oversized cat-ears drooped down over her forehead, standing up on end as her face grew more enraged and her large green eyes glared back at me. As she stood before me, her long and sharpened nails shrank back into her fingers. That was what had been slicing at me.
Then, from behind her back, a long tail flicked up and moved slowly back and forth in waves.
Its slick, smooth movements made it appear as if it had a mind of its own.
I reached for my sword and swung it around, pointing the tip towards her and holding it just a foot from her face.
‘Make a move and I swear to god I’ll slice that tail right off.’
The tail stopped suddenly and receded back behind her back like a terrified snake.
‘That’s better,’ I said firmly. ‘Now, who are you and what the fuck are you doing on board my ship?’
The woman looked between the three of us. She realized quickly that there was no way out, and her face fell to one of repressed frustration.
‘I didn’t know that it was your ship,’ she said affirmatively.
‘So you just assumed it was a freehold?’
‘No…’
‘Look, what are you doing down here?’
She paused again, gulping.
‘I’m… I’m hiding,’ she said reluctantly.
‘From who?’
A sudden thud sounded on the deck above as a pair of feet landed on the ship. Another pair followed, and then a third.
‘You see that bitch anywhere?’ A
burly voice grunted.
‘She’s got fucking cat-ears, dickhead,’ another voice said. ‘You don’t think she’d stand out?’
We all shot the catgirl a look.
Her eyes were wide and pleading, the angsty attitude that she had previously been displaying suddenly gone.
She was genuinely terrified.
I nodded to her to get into the back room where she had been hiding. She moved swiftly and silently, while I turned to my wives.
We had to position ourselves strategically, and fast.
Lara headed to the room where the woman was waiting, while Elera and I moved into the crevices either side of the stairs, crouching in the darkness.
Evidently the woman was telling the truth – I just didn’t know who it was that wanted to get to her so much.
A figure stopped at the height of the stairs, blocking out the midday sunshine. He was wide and burly, and the shadow of a broadsword’s handle stuck out from over his shoulder.
‘Hatch is open,’ the voice said, dangerously close. ‘Sailors don’t leave these unlocked.’
‘Let’s get down there and take a look.’
The first of the goons began his walk down, followed by a second. With every step that the first took I pushed back into the shadows, wondering how to approach this.
My strategy was always to end fights quickly by delivering fatal blows, and with every step that the goons took, my plan began to form.
We couldn’t afford noise, and we couldn’t afford having blood on our hands in public. The cove was a safe zone, but right now we were stuck down here. I couldn’t cry uncle and hope that it would be all right.
And there was still a third goon on deck.
Silence them both, then kill them.
I would deal with the third when the time came.
Leaning over the top of the stairs as the second passed by me just a few feet away, I caught Elera’s eye and motioned to my hand, then my mouth.
She scanned my movement, then nodded in understanding.
Both were now stood in the hold, looking to the back of the ship curiously.
‘You think she could be back there?’
‘Worth a shot.’
They were both large and formidable in stature, with the same tightly cut hair, ugly faces and identical broadswords holstered across their backs. Their uniforms were entirely black, and while they were facing away, I caught sight of a white symbol painted on the tabards they sported.
I could smell the sweat emanating from them in the midday sun, growing colder but still not cold enough to be dressed so heavily.
I nodded across to Elera.
‘Hello,’ she said simply.
Both of the goons turned in her direction. She fired a bolt of frost straight at the face of the second goon that was standing closest to her.
It wrapped over his mouth and nose, allowing a muffled, frostbitten moan of pain that I could hardly hear myself.
As the frost flew, I leaped forward and drove my blade straight into the first goon’s neck. Blood pulsed from his jugular, trickling against the metal, then pouring as I withdrew.
Just as I did, an arrow flew out of the darkness and slammed into the back of the frostbitten goon’s head.
He seized up and fell forward like a trapdoor being opened, hitting the ground at the same time as the first.
Smooth as silk. Damn, we were getting good at this.
‘What? What the fuck was that?’ A voice cried from above.
I readied myself to run up the stairs and drag the final goon down into the hold before he could cause a ruckus, but he didn’t turn out to be the brightest of bulbs.
The smart thing to do would be to take a look, realize your buddies had been killed by something really brutal and really efficient, and run off screaming.
Fortunately for us, this guy didn’t fall into that category.
He came thundering down into the hold, broadsword at the ready in his strong grip. He was just as large as the others.
Hired muscle. They had to be.
I nodded to Elera again, indicating the man’s legs.
She nodded and launched another blast of ice at his feet.
The shot this time was much more powerful. Rather than the sharp jolt she had thrown at the second goon, this was a pouring mass that wrapped around his feet, encasing them in ice in seconds.
Before he could even realize what was happening, our final attacker yelped out and crashed down into the hold.
I knew he was a second away from screaming like a moron after he realized that his feet were losing their blood supply.
I leaped up onto the stairs and dashed to the trapdoor, grabbed the handle and yanked it shut over my head.
The hold was encased in darkness. Then, a howling scream exploded from the third goon’s mouth.
I pulled up my inventory and ignited a torch. The orange flames illuminated the space around us, turning the pooling blood of the dead guards a blackened shade.
‘What the fuck?!’ The goon screamed. ‘What did you do to me?’
‘Shut the fuck up,’ I said, planting the heel of my boot down on his chest and pushing him to the ground, ‘or I’ll cut your throat a lot faster.’
‘Fuck you, sailor,’ the man groaned, ‘do you know who I am?’
‘I was hoping that you could help me out with that. You know, fill in the blanks, etcetera.’
Elera, Lara and the cat-eared woman gathered around the man. He was wearing the same black outfit and scabbard, the white symbol upon it now clear as day in the torchlight.
It was a closed fist with two items hanging from it, a chain and a noose.
Interesting.
The goon looked around at us all before doing a double-take on our stowaway and setting his sights on her.
‘You… You little bitch! I can’t believe you were down here this whole fucking time! I knew it!’
‘Did you miss the part where I told you to shut the fuck up?’ I repeated, holding up my torch and looking the man in the face.
‘Did you miss the part where I said fuck you?’
The man laughed despite the fact that his feet were going numb by the second.
‘That’s funny,’ I smiled back at him, nodding.
I sheathed my sword and started to laugh, looking around at the girls. They all frowned at my reaction.
I let my face suddenly fall flat, then delivered a sucker-punch square at the goon’s face.
His head slammed back against the wooden panels and he groaned out as blood started to trickle out of his nostrils.
Our stowaway laughed for the first time since we had met, chuckling heartily to herself.
‘What now?’ I said. ‘Willing to talk?’
‘Fuck y-’
Crunch.
Another strike. I felt the cartilage in his nose break completely. Already I could feel my knuckles bruising, but it was a satisfying pain.
‘Motherfucker…’ The man muttered, grasping his nose in his hand with a high-pitched moan.
‘Feel like telling me who you are now?’
The goon looked up at me with an expression filled with about as much anger as the catgirl had when she was attacking me.
‘We’re… Pocurers.’
‘Pocurers?’ I repeated. ‘Do you mean procurers?’
‘Yeah, that one.’
‘Procurers of what exactly?’
‘Whatever we get asked to hunt down.’
‘So, what, you’re like bounty hunters?’
‘I belong to the Hand of Chains. We’re a gang. Mercenaries. We complete orders given to us by tribe masters who wish to acquire things.’
‘Things?’
‘Slaves,’ the catgirl said. ‘That’s what he’s talking about.’
I felt my teeth grit, my jaw clench.
‘You’re a slaver?’ I asked sternly, my voice dropping into a low growl.
‘Not a slaver,’ the man said hurriedly, ‘a mercenary. I acquire individuals that s
lavers are interested in.’
‘For what? A price?’
‘Yes. And the more valuable the product is to the tribe master, the more they’re willing to pay, like this bitch.’
He nodded to the stowaway. She looked between us all and took a fearful step back.
‘Somebody was going to buy her from you?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Who?’
‘I don’t give up the names of clients.’
I spun to my newest power stone and held it up before him.
‘Know what this is?’
‘Magic. You shouldn’t be using that. It’s dangerous.’
‘Maybe. Not as dangerous as having a solid block of ice wrapped around your feet when somebody that’s seriously pissed off with you has one that can electrocute people in their hand, though.’
The goon gulped, looking between me and the stone.
‘The name,’ I growled.
‘… Garrison. He’s a slaver in the north. Lot of gold, lot of guards. Willing to pay a high price for somebody like her.’
‘Why?’
‘It’s not my job to wonder why people like what they like, but if I had to guess…’ The goon struggled, turning onto his front and looking up to the stowaway as she slinked back into the shadows, her green eyes filled with fear, ‘it would be so he lift that tail of hers up and fuck her raw.’
I had had enough. I pocketed the power stone, retrieved my sword and moved to stand over the mercenary, my feet planted firmly either side of his body.
‘What are you doing?’
I grabbed hold of his greasy hair from behind, lifted his head up, swung my sword around and drew the blade in a swift, deep slice.
Blood sprayed out from the mercenary’s neck and onto the boards of the hold.
He cackled and choked for several long seconds before his lungs were drowned entirely in blood. When he had stopped struggling I let him go roughly, dropping him into the red pool.
‘Thank the gods you did not waste one of your charges on him,’ Elera said, raising an eyebrow.
‘What the hell do we do with these guys?’ Lara asked, swinging her bow over her shoulder and placing her hands on her slender hips. ‘We leave them down here and they’ll start to smell fast, remove them and we’ll attract a lo-o-t of unwanted attention.’