by Jeff Sproul
"Yeah, he was dead," said Jerem. "Whatever disease he was afflicted with had control of him."
"Was it from one of the merfolk, do you think?" Chaxin asked. "Because I was attacked by one of the warriors, an alpha, I think they called it, and I have this rune magic on my chest, which stops it, but it calls it poison. Is there a difference?" It was then that he pulled the buttons apart on the captain's tunic to reveal a stab wound, which had been hidden by both the jacket and tunic.
Chaxin turned to look at Jerem as he revealed the dark, encroaching mark on the captain's chest.
Jerem shook his head. "That looks like a single blade pierced near the captain's heart. Something, or someone, stabbed him. It wasn't merfolk claws, but it could've been a merfolk weapon. I've heard that some of the shamans use disease and other corruptive properties. But to answer your question, I'd say that while it looks similar, I'm pretty sure what you got from any of the warriors is different than what afflicted the captain here."
"Here, take the torch back," said Jerem as he leaned forward, moving closer. "I'll tear up his tunic for a bandage. Go check his desk." Jerem pulled his sword from its scabbard and used it to rend long stretches of the captain's tunic.
Chaxin sheathed his own sword and took the torch back before Jerem set about his work.
With torch in hand, Chaxin circled around the desk. He pulled on the drawers. The first one was locked. The other two were empty.
"I need a key to open this drawer," said Chaxin. He looked over to Jerem.
Jerem pulled on a necklace that the captain was wearing. It had gotten stuck around on his back, unless that was where he always kept it. He snapped the chain off and held up the prize. A small iron key. "This is probably it," he said, and tossed it to Chaxin, wincing with the effort.
The key landed on the desk, and Chaxin promptly snatched it up and used it on the lock for the drawer. After a turn and a click, Chaxin pulled on the drawer and saw two tomes inside. "There we go." One was smaller, about the size of his hand. It was far more ornate than the other and had runic-etchings on the cover. The other book was more ordinary, and larger.
"Two tomes," said Chaxin. He pulled them out one at a time. He opened the more ornate one, assuming it was what they were after. But the pages were blank. He flipped through it with one hand, still holding the torch with the other. "Useless," he murmured, before he let the book close back to its cover. He then opened the more normal-sized tome, and his eyes lit up immediately after seeing columns, lines, and quantities. "This looks like what we're after," he said as he looked back to Jerem for confirmation.
Jerem started to wrap the stretches of cloth around under his armpit and over the bite, just to the side of his neck. He wrapped it tightly, and then tied it in a firm knot. He pulled his tunic and leather vest back into place and stood up. His gaze went to the tomes. "Is that—" he breathed, before cutting himself off.
"The manifest? Yeah, I think it is," said Chaxin. He pushed the tome over towards Jerem. "It has all sorts of things listed. Crew, cargo, and—"
"No, that!" said Jerem, pointing at the smaller tome. "You don't even know what that is, do you?" he said as his lips curled, shaking his head.
"What? This?" asked Chaxin, as he opened the smaller tome up. "It's all blank."
"Did nobody tell you what a grimoire is?" asked Jerem.
"Grimoire? Wait, this is a grimoire?" Chaxin asked, giving Jerem a skeptical look. "But this thing is small enough to fit in my pocket. The grimoire in town is huge. I'd need both hands to carry that thing."
Jerem sighed. "That's what we call a pocket-grimoire. It works the same way as the large version, but you press your thumb to the page, and it activates it. It's a bit more expensive than the large version. Usually people who own shops or guilds, or just people with a lot of money, have them. The big ones aren't entirely hard to come by. Usually a town has a couple dozen, depending on the shops and vendors. Kamber only has the one, since we're a pretty small town and we're in some pretty bad times right now, with all the attacks."
With the pocket-grimoire opened, Chaxin pressed his thumb to one of the pages. Upon removing it, dark ink welled up and text appeared.
"Wow, this seems pretty useful," Chaxin murmured as his stats appeared. There wasn't much change. He was the same level, and the percentage bars on the right page had shifted slightly, if he remembered correctly. He then turned the page. His eyebrows lifted when he saw a new entry under 'kills.'
'One Human.'
He stared at the two words. "But he was diseased. This makes it sound like I murdered someone," he spoke and looked up to Jerem.
Jerem stepped in closer to the table and looked down at the page.
"Yeah," said Jerem. "The grimoire doesn't care if he was no longer himself. He might've been consumed by the disease and under its control, but he was still human. I remember I was in Grittin a while back. I wasn't there long, but I was interviewing for a guard position. They were paying well, and I really wanted some stable income instead of resorting to adventuring. The guard captain asked me about every kill on my grimoire page. I had some human ones as well. I'd killed three bandits when a caravan was attacked. But to the guard captain, all he knew was that I'd killed three people, and he had to take my word on it. I ended up getting the position; I guess he believed me. Which he should've, since it was true. But things didn't quite work out with me and guard duty in a large city, so I ended up out here in Kamber… and look where that's got me now."
Jerem shook his head and picked up the manifest. He paged through it. "Yeah, this looks like what we're after. Let's join the others. This room is creeping me the hell out," he said, as he took another glance at the bloody and diseased captain on the floor.
Chaxin closed the pocket-grimoire and stuffed it into his pocket. "Right," he agreed. He was curious about Jerem's past, now that they'd had some time to speak with each other, but there were definitely greater and more pressing concerns. Perhaps he could inquire further, once they’d secured the cargo hold.
Jerem winced as he shifted his torso. He placed a hand against the wound he was now covering up. He tugged at his tunic and vest with his free hand, while holding the manifest in the other.
With torch in one hand, and his fingers around the pommel of his sword, Chaxin followed Jerem out into the hall.
After a few seconds, Chaxin spoke up. "Should we check the other rooms for survivors?"
Jerem immediately stopped and turned his head. The burning crimson glow of the torch illuminated his face with the contrasting faint glow of Deloris's torch several dozen feet away at the entrance to the crew hall. Jerem shook his head and brought a finger to his lips. "Shh." Then, he kept walking.
Chaxin stood there for a moment and stared at one of the nearby doors. Could there be more diseased in the crew quarters, just waiting to be awoken? Shouldn't they at least check and attempt to clear them out?
He looked back to Jerem and slowly followed after him. Perhaps it was best to leave them alone, for now.
Kaiz and Deloris looked expectantly at Chaxin and Jerem, as the two came towards them.
"That it?" asked Kaiz, his eyes set upon the tome in Jerem's hand.
"It is," said Jerem, who promptly handed it off to Deloris.
"Let's see what we have here," said Deloris, who accepted the tome, her weapon sheathed. She cracked the book open and began to read.
"What was that commotion we heard?" asked Kaiz, looking between Jerem and Chaxin.
"There was a—" Chaxin began, but was quickly cut off by Jerem speaking up.
"A diseased man attacked us," said Jerem. "Took us by surprise. We dealt with him, no problems."
"Tricky bastards," Kaiz murmured. "Just the one?"
"Yeah, just the one," Jerem confirmed.
Jerem looked to Chaxin, who was holding the red-burning torch on the opposite side from him. He gave Chaxin a nod, but Chaxin wasn't sure why. All he could do was nod back, unsure if it meant anything. Jerem had made the
situation sound… simple. Perhaps that was all that needed to be told?
"Lots of goods and supplies down there," said Deloris, who flipped a page of the manifest. "Some weapons. Crystals. Two sarcophagi. Six cages with unspecified exotic creatures. Food stuffs. Metals. Woods. Potions." Deloris scanned the rest of the entries and then closed the manifest. She handed it back to Jerem. "Hold on to this," she said. "I doubt any of that is going to be problematic. Doesn't sound like there's anything volatile down there. No alcohols or oils. We'll see if the exotic creatures are of any import."
"There'll be more room down there, so I'll lead," said Deloris. "Jerem, you're behind me, then Chaxin. Kaiz, bring up the rear."
"Aye," said Kaiz, who shifted to make way for Jerem and Chaxin, as he and Deloris had mostly been blocking the stairway.
Deloris pulled her sword out. Her shield was still ready on her arm via a pair of straps, which allowed some freedom for her hand. She closed the visor on her helmet, but then paused for a few seconds. She then lifted it back up. "Probably gonna need the visibility," she murmured to herself, before walking and heading down to the cargo hold.
Jerem was a few steps behind her, with Chaxin just behind him.
The stairway wasn't comprised of many steps, and only took a few seconds for them each to descend. The cargo hold was at least twice the height of the deck they'd been on. There were wooden crates of various sizes, along with stacks of wooden barrels. Some of the crates were fully enclosed, while others were missing their tops.
Deloris looked around, her sword at the ready. Her lamp was still hanging on her hip, and didn't cast its glow at the best of angles.
Chaxin's burning torch was held above his head to help illuminate as much as he could.
Shadows danced all around. Chaxin found himself staring at some of them, making sure they weren't actually merfolk in hiding.
With the placement of the cargo, there weren't many places a merfolk could actually hide, unless they were inside one of the larger crates, and even then, they'd need to crouch.
"Doesn't look like the merfolk came down here, and if they did, they didn't toss it and loot it," said Deloris.
Some of the crates had broken edges or cracked sides, but nothing looked pillaged.
As the group continued to walk, they saw a series of metal cages. There were six of them total, with three of them stacked on top of the others.
Deloris's gaze went to the cages only for a couple moments, before her attention flit around the hold. "Shit," she whispered, glancing around more, turning with her blade.
"What is it?" Jerem asked, coming around from several stacked containers, only to see what Deloris had spotted. "They're empty?"
"Whatever was in those cages, sure as hell isn't in them now," said Deloris.
The six metal cages sat idle, their doors wide open, empty.
"Maybe the creatures got out and off the ship?" said Jerem hopefully.
"The manifest didn't say much of anything about them," said Deloris. "They could've been birds that managed to fly away, or something far more terrible."
Chaxin came around, just behind Jerem. "The captain was stabbed by some sort of blade," he said. "What if the fire… these opened cages, and the captain's murder, was because of one of the crew and nothing to do with the merfolk?"
"Hmm," Deloris murmured. "Could be, but without someone to question, we can't get any real answers. It's possible that the merfolk were planning on attacking regardless, and had nothing to do with the ship. Or that the ship disturbed them enough to come and attack. No way of knowing. But it doesn't look as though there are any merfolk down here."
Chaxin looked around some more, and noticed something he couldn't explain. "What are those?" he asked, pointing to a pair of ornate metal containers. They were easily seven feet long and several feet high. They appeared to be made of gold, with runic symbols written all over. The top looked to be some sort of lid, with the outline of what could be classified as a humanoid figure.
"Those are the sarcophagi the manifest mentioned," said Deloris.
"Sarcophagi?" asked Chaxin.
"They're like caskets," said Kaiz from behind him. "Usually people are buried in wooden crates. Sometimes, people are buried in nicer crates, such as those over there. I've never seen any so fancy before. They look unnecessarily expensive. Not sure why you'd put rune magic on a sarcophagus, either."
Deloris approached the sarcophagi and looked them over. "Very strange," she murmured. "Lots of scrawl on them."
"What's any of it say?" asked Kaiz.
Deloris continued to study the ornate construction of the sarcophagi. "Preventive enchanting. Shielding enchanting. Protection from elements, corrosion."
"Anything dealing with time?" Chaxin asked.
Deloris shook her head. "Nothing dealing with time. But a lot of crystals were consumed in the enchantment of these two constructs."
"Can we open ‘em?" asked Jerem. "Just take a peek inside?"
Deloris stepped around to the side of one of the sarcophagi and inspected the locking mechanism. "This one looks damaged. Lots of scratches and dings. Someone was trying to get into it, but it doesn't look as though they had much success."
"Now I really wanna know what's inside them," Jerem remarked.
"Well, we came here to secure the cargo, and we have," said Deloris. "Let's get to the top deck and hail Kalo, tell him everything's secure, and one of us can return to Kamber."
"Isn't a group coming directly from Grittin?" asked Kaiz.
"Yes," confirmed Deloris. "But there's no reason to keep three horses here when they can be better used to help evacuate Kamber. We've got to watch over the cargo and make sure nothing creeps aboard. In the meantime, we can send someone back with the horses, and they can help with escorting people to Grittin. The caravan from Grittin won't get here till closer to morning."
"It'll be dark soon," said Jerem.
"Let's get up top and coordinate with Kalo," said Deloris. "Everyone keep an eye on your surroundings. Plenty of dark corners still on the ship. No telling what was in those cages, so eyes open."
Everyone nodded their agreement, and once again, Deloris led the group. They retraced their steps, heading back through the cargo hold and between the many crates. One by one, they ascended the stairway, not wasting any time on the crew deck, before heading right up to the top.
The sky was already darkening by the time they reached the upper deck. Clouds still hung high in the sky, obscuring sight to the thread-like gray presence beyond. But the light that reached the surface of Wake seemed to be waning.
It just so happened that Chaxin was following directly after Deloris. The two of them reached the edge of the deck, facing out towards the shore. The tide continued to creep and ebb against the sand, leaving remnants of foam in its wake. The dead village beyond the shore remained silent and eerie, a stark contrast to the paleness of the shore itself and the white sand.
But more noticeable than the scenery was one prominent fact.
Kalo and the three horses were nowhere to be seen.
Chapter 12: Nightfall
Chaxin was the first to speak. "Where's Kalo? And the horses?"
"They're gone," Deloris murmured. Her eyes scanned the shore. She leaned over the edge so she could see down against the side of the ship. "Hmm," she murmured. She quickly strode across to the other side of the ship and peeked over the deck on the other end. Chaxin was still looking all around from his vantage point when Deloris spoke up again. "They're not around the ship."
"Kalo wouldn't have left us!" said Jerem. But the shore was quite visible, and there was no good line of sight into the far-off village. There was nowhere in sight for Kalo and the horses to be hiding. They were simply nowhere to be seen.
"Well he must've gone somewhere," Kaiz growled.
"Could he have come up on the ship, maybe?" asked Chaxin, who then turned around to face the others, just as Deloris was walking back to join them.
"Doub
tful," said Deloris. "We would've run into him. He'd have seen our lights. Something must've happened, but he had the horses, so maybe all he could do was ride back to Kamber. He might've taken the other two horses with him, or they scattered."
"So what're we going to do then, just sit on our asses and wait?" asked Jerem.
"That's exactly what we're going to do," confirmed Deloris. "We can't go searching for Kalo. Not if we want to keep the cargo secure. Even if you go running off to search for Kalo yourself, whatever caused him to retreat might still be out there. We need to keep an eye on things up here and prevent anyone from getting to the ship."
"But Kalo could be out there. He could be in trouble!" said Jerem. "What if he's injured?"
Deloris gave Jerem a stern look.
"I could head down there and check the tracks," said Kaiz. "See if there's any telltale signs of an assailant. The tracks should still be good, if there are any."
"No, I need you up here," said Deloris. "You're the only ranged combatant we have." She then murmured under her breath, "Wish Tiris and Vol were here."
"Well they're not," said Jerem, easily able to catch what Deloris had said. "It's just the four of us, and Kalo could be dying out there for all we know. Just let me head down there. I'll keep in eyesight. I'll check the tracks and be careful. If I don't see anything, I'll come right back, and you'll see me the entire time."
Chaxin looked to Deloris, who averted her attention to the darkened village. Even Chaxin could tell that in the minutes they'd spent on the deck, their surroundings were getting darker.
"Fine, make it quick," said Deloris. "But don't leave sight of the ship." Deloris looked to Kaiz. "Keep an eye on him."
"Aye," Kaiz murmured. He stepped up to the side of the deck, gaining the best view he could of the nearby area, where they'd last left Kalo.
"Here, trade me," said Jerem, as he held the manifest out to Chaxin.
"Um, alright," said Chaxin. It wasn't his torch to give, but it seemed as though they only had two light sources, and it was unlikely that Deloris was going to give up her lantern. He handed the still-burning torch to Jerem and accepted the manifest.