“It’s almost slack tide,” Captain Reed explained with a broad grin, “and the wind has picked up nicely and is now blowing due east; we will not need boats to tow us out today! We’ll be unmooring soon. Gentlemen,” he gestured for the two wizards to stand by the windward rail, “you are of course welcome to enjoy the sights, but please stay out of the crew’s way. That is partly for your own safety, and mostly because we are shorthanded and the crew are hard pressed to fulfill their duties.”
“Oh, um, certainly,” Paedris shuffled his feet awkwardly step aside, nearly tripping into Cecil as the two men back up toward the rail. “You look happy, Captain,” Paedris observed. To date, Captain Reed had shown two expressions: concern and anger, or perhaps concern and frustration. Mostly concern.
“I am!” Reed clapped his hands. “I’m going back to sea! I am a sailor, Lord Salva, Lord Mwazo; it’s in my blood, it calls to me. The sea is where I belong. Until you two came along, I despaired of ever feeling the deck move beneath my feet, except to ride at anchor.”
“You enjoy this?” Cecil’s skeptical tone was enhanced by the ship suddenly heeling over slightly as unfurled sails filled and caught the wind.
“To be master of my own ship, that is, I mean,” Reed added with an anxious look to Paedris.
“We know what you mean, Captain Reed. The crown princess may own these timbers,” he stomped a boot on the well-worn planks of the deck for emphasis, “but at sea, you are master of this vessel.”
“Yes, thank you,” Reed was relieved. “To be underway, feeling her sails catch the wind and her slip across the waves,” he closed his eyes for a moment. “It is the greatest feeling for a sailor. Now, if you will excuse me, your Lordships,” he said without a trace of sarcasm, “I must lend a hand. The crew will think me out of practice, it is time to show them I can still handle a line.”
The two wizards stood by the rail, with their backs to the wind, enjoying the cooling breeze and the crew charged to and fro in seemingly chaotic disorganization. Unlike almost every ship Paedris had been aboard, the crew of the Hildegard appeared to be universally happy to go about their duties, each man knowing what to do and anticipating the next order. Orders were still shouted, because traditions needed to be kept, and simply out of long habit. In response to shouted orders that were usually unnecessary, the crew laughed, and sang songs in unison as they readied their ship for an ocean voyage.
From the rail, Paedris could see similar activity aboard four other ships in the harbor. At the instructions of the court wizard, the royal factor in the port had hired four other vessels to set sail at the same time as the Lady Hildegard. Across the harbor, long-unused sails were being loosened and shaken out. Unlike the Hildegard, the four other ships had not been stripped of everything nonessential to speed their passage, and they had only been hired for a fortnight. Not being as ready for sea as the Hildegard, the four other ships were slower to slip from their moorings, gathered speed less quickly and were generally sloppy about putting to sea. By the time the Hildegard cleared the hills at the harbor entrance and the ship heeled over from the wind, with the water churning to white foam at her bow, the last of the four ships behind her was still unfurling canvas on her mizzenmast.
Even a landlubber like Paedris could appreciate how efficiently the Hildegard’s crew got their ship moving, and how their ship responded to the stronger wind outside the harbor entrance by fairly flying across the waves. Paedris could not fault the other four ships for being slower; most of those ships had crews hired only for the fortnight and were not used to that particular ship and to working with each other. Perhaps the slow response of those vessels was not entirely due to clumsiness by the crews; the captains of those ships knew their part in the operation was to act as bait for pirates, while the swifter Hildegard raced to escape through the pirate blockade of the port. Any pirate would note how high the fast-sailing Hildegard rode in the water and would conclude that ship was lightly loaded, while the other four ships were not only slow by comparison, but riding low enough in the water to signal they carried heavy cargo that would be very tempting to any pirate.
What the pirates could not know was the four decoy ships carried only a cargo of sandbags and water casks, and when the decoy ships were pursued by pirates they would dump that worthless burden overboard and race back to the safety of the harbor. Whether the decoy ships ventured beyond the harbor for the full duration of their contract, or only one day, made no difference as long as they drew the attention of pirates away from the Lady Hildegard.
“Ah,” said the sailor named Alfonze as he approached the two wizards, although Alfonze was busy coiling a line and securing it for later use, rather than watching the sights. “I see our friends in the Navy have decided to join the fun,” he pointed to the inner harbor, where a pair of ships were shaking out their sails.
Even to the inexperienced eyes of the wizards, the two Royal Navy ships were different from the five merchant vessels also making their way out of the harbor. The merchant ships had stout hulls designed for carrying cargo, and square sails that were easier for a small crew to handle. The Navy ships were narrow to speed their passage through the water, and the sails were rigged fore and aft to sail better into the wind. Navy ships had another advantage which explained why they had no need to rush when the merchant ships had slipped their moorings; the Navy ships had large crews not only for fighting, but also for manning banks of oars. Water churned on both sides of the Navy ships as their crews rowed them out to the middle of the harbor, where the surrounding hills sloped down and the water was exposed to the full force of the midday breeze. As Paedris and Cecil watched, the Navy ships set their sails and oars were raised out of the water to be stowed. The pair of warships overtook one, then two, then four merchant ships, leaving only the Hildegard unescorted.
The plan was not for Tarador’s Royal Navy to challenge the pirates offshore, although the naval commander was spoiling for a chance to fight. The mission of the two warships was merely to make any pirates think the convoy of four heavily-laden merchant ships were valuable enough to be given a Royal Navy escort; valuable enough to attract the full attention of any pirate ships in the vicinity.
As the wizards watched and the Hildegard’s deck heeled over from the stiffening wind, the last of the trailing merchant ships cleared the harbor and joined the other three to set course southeast, while the Hildegard skipped across the waves heading due south. The Navy ships took up position to seaward of their four charges, hovering near them like sheepdogs herding a plodding flock.
All went well for the Lady Hildegard until midafternoon, when three sails were sighted to the east, slightly closer to land. Through a spyglass, the two wizards could see the strange sails were triangular. They had to be pirates, for the only Royal Navy ships in the area were plainly in view to the northeast, and no fishing vessels had been foolish enough to venture more than half a league from the harbor since the pirates took control of the sea lanes.
“I don’t suppose either of your Lordships would care to go aloft?” Captain Reed looked meaningfully to the crow’s nest of the mainmast. Although he had spoken in jest, a part of him hoped one of the wizards would accept the offer, or challenge, and climb to where they could see better.
“No, I would not,” Lord Mwazo answered emphatically. Like almost all wizards, he was blessed with an uncanny sense of balance. He also had a good sense of self-preservation, and no desire to climb to the top of a swaying mast.
“I can see perfectly well from here, thank you very much for your kind offer,” Paedris replied with a tight smile.
“You can see the sails of those three ships we know of,” Reed pressed his two passengers. “If others are over the horizon from our view here on the deck,” he looked aloft again to emphasize the advantage of altitude, “they might be visible to a person higher above the waves.”
Paedris shaded his eyes and squinted up at the crow’s nest, which was moving to and fro wildly enough in the building
seas that it made the wizard slightly queasy just to think of the poor sailor up there. “And that is why you have wisely posted a lookout, eh?”
Reed bit his tongue, knowing it was useless and might even be dangerous to argue with a powerful wizard. With ordinary men, he could taunt their manhood, imply they were afraid to go aloft, but if his two passengers were merely ordinary men, he would not care for them to act as lookouts.
“Do they see us?” Cecil asked.
“Certainly,” Reed nodded grimly. “Our masts are taller; they see us before we see them. Unless our lookouts get lucky and we strike topsails just in time.”
Paedris looked up to study the canvas high above his head, seeing the material stretched and filled by the wind. “Should we do that now?”
Reed shook his head. “No, there’s no point to-”
“We don’t know they’ve seen us,” Paedris protested. “If you-”
Cecil touched his friend’s shoulder. “Lord Salva, just as you and I are masters of wizardry, Captain Reed knows his ship and the arcane arts of seamanship. Allow the man to do the job you hired him for.”
Paedris cringed slightly and made a very short bow to Reed, then straightened. “My apologies, Captain. Do as you think best.”
Whatever Reed planned to say next was swept away by a cry from the lookout. “One of those ships is coming about, heading straight for us!”
“Damn,” Reed cursed. “We-”
“And there’s two more ships with them. Only one coming our way,” the lookout called out to be heard, as his voice was partly carried away by the wind.
“Well, that’s done for. Blast!” Reed shouted. “I was hoping they would all go for the decoy convoy.”
“What now?” Cecil asked with a calmness that surprised himself.
Reed “Now? Now, we do exactly what we are doing already; we keep on this course.”
“And when the enemy gets closer?” Paedris inquired.
“Then?” Reed shrugged. “That depends on a great number of things. Chiefly, what the enemy does. If they mean to take us, we turn to run more to the west; with these sails we are best sailing with the wind. If the wind shifts direction, or slackens as it can do in the afternoon hours in this area, we could be in trouble,” he said the last with a raised eyebrow. Surely two powerful wizards would not allow the ship to be taken with them aboard.
The two wizards shared a look, then Paedris shuffled his feet uncomfortably. “I’m sure we are keeping you from your duties, Captain Reed.”
Reed’s irritation with his passengers was soon pushed to the back of his mind, as he had more immediate things to occupy his full attention. Climbing to the crow’s nest, he assured himself only one enemy ship was sailing in his direction, the others had taken the bait and were racing after the convoy. To his satisfaction and mild surprise, he saw the two Royal Navy ships were remaining with the merchant ships rather than charging out to meet the pirates. Earlier attempts at escorted convoys had inevitably resulted in Royal Navy ships breaking away from the convoy to tangle with pirate ships, leaving the merchant ships easy prey for other pirates. Perhaps Lord Salva’s harsh words to the Navy captains had served to focus those ship on their assigned duty rather than seeking glory or revenge.
Still, Reed thought to himself with a bitter smile, he would wait to see what the Navy ships did when the pirates were close enough to attack. Would those two captains maintain their discipline when pirates sailed close enough to shout taunts across the water?
Reed handed the spyglass back to the lookout and slipped easily over the side of the crow’s nest, forgoing the shrouds to slide down a line hand over hand, with the line clamped between his boot soles to slow the descent. Ultimately, what the Navy escorts did with the convoy was not his problem, and hopefully he would be over the horizon and out of view by the time the pirates reached the decoy merchant ships. Until, and unless, he survived to return to Tarador, the only view he would have of the upcoming convoy battle would be smoke wafting into the sky, and he would not know which ships were on fire.
“Alfonze!” He shouted as his boots touched the deck, wincing in pain from the rope burn to his left calf. Skylarking by sliding down a line was for the young, and he was out of practice. Reed gathered the leaders among the small crew. “We need to shift cargo,” he explained. “We’re lightly loaded and she’s too heavy toward the bow, she’s digging into the waves. You know what this will be like,” he searched the crew’s faces and could see people groaning inwardly. They did know what it would be like. Back-breaking work shifting the cargo around then adjusting sails as the captain experimented to determine the arrangement for best speed. “I know I can count on you,” he said with a meaningful gaze toward the pirate ship whose hull was now over the horizon and closing on the Hildegard.
Three hours later, after much frustrating trial and error, Reed was satisfied with the way his ship was responding, and the crew agreed their Lady was now moving much more gracefully over the waves. To test the ship’s ability to run straight downwind, Reed ordered a turn due west and held it only long enough to be satisfied he knew how the Hildegard sailed on that course, then returned heading west southwest. If he did need to run downwind, he did not want the pirates to know what his ship was capable of.
“Your Lordships,” he nodded to the wizards who had come back on deck, “the pirate ship will be within hailing distance well before nightfall. They have the weather gage, so,” he halted at the utterly blank looks from the two master wizards. “The pirate ship is approaching us from the direction of the wind,” he explained patiently and illustrated the action with his hands playing the part of the two ships. “He can sail downwind to intercept us, but we cannot catch him.”
“That is due to the shape of his sail?” Cecil asked insightfully.
“Partly,” Reed agreed then hurried to finish his thought before the wizards could delay him with amateurish questions. “Mostly it is because with our sails,” he gestured above his head, “we cannot point as well into the wind. Your Lordships, I must ask what you intend to do, if the pirates engage us.”
“I will not allow us to be captured,” Paedris answered with a frown. “Nor allow this ship to be sunk,” he raised his eyebrows to emphasize how obvious that last statement was. “You mentioned we might turn and run to the west?”
“We might do that, aye, that is no surety we will escape that way. I expect the wind to fall off in the evening. Lord Salva, that pirate ship is faster than the Hildegard in all points of wind, except in heavy seas. Do not trust to our escape, if the pirates wish to take this ship, they will attack.”
“And we will defend ourselves, if we are forced to, and only if we must. Can your crew put up enough of a fight to discourage an attempt to board us?”
Reed blinked incredulously. Biting his tongue to hold back a smart remark, he reminded himself the wizards had no practical knowledge of fighting at sea, or of anything to do with seamanship. “That is difficult at the best of times. With our reduced crew complement, that would be impossible, I fear.”
Paedris rubbed his beard while he stared at the approaching pirate ship, which was now close enough for his keen eyes to discern individual pirates standing at the bow. A glint of light flashed from the other ship. “They have a spyglass,” he muttered. “It is good we are not wearing our confounded robes, Cecil, or they would know we are wizards.”
“Or priests,” Cecil responded, amused.
Paedris turned his attention back to the ship’s master. “Captain, when that ship comes alongside to board us, I could set her sail ablaze.”
“That action would be more helpful at a distance, your Lordship,” Reed remarked. “For boarding, the pirates will likely trust to oars rather than their sail.”
“Hmmm,” Paedris was surprised and dismayed to hear that. “I can only throw wizard fire a limited distance, and into the wind?” He squinted and judged the strength of the breeze by ribbons attached to his ship’s shrouds. “Perhaps a hundred y
ards? It will be less effective the farther I have to cast the fire.”
Reed was impressed. “A hundred yards will do nicely, my Lord! Even if you do not burn their ship, you will certainly discourage them from trying to board us.”
“Yes,” Paedris said unhappily. “That will discourage them from boarding us. But it will encourage them to follow us. Any ship of Tarador carrying a wizard of power would be of great interest to the enemy; certainly any pirates in thrall to the enemy would have orders to track such a ship. Our mission requires the utmost secrecy, we cannot afford to have a pirate ship trailing us. No, if I am forced to act, I must sink that ship, and to be sure of doing that, it must come uncomfortably close.”
“That would be dangerous to us, and I do not need to remind you why,” Reed hinted darkly. “The enemy can hurl flaming darts from a considerable distance, this past Spring we were attacked by pirates and were very fortunate to escape with our lives. If we had not-”
“Yes, Captain,” Paedris cut the man off from what the wizard assumed wrongly would be an irrelevant recount of a previous battle. “If the enemy fires upon us, we must endure it until they are close enough for me to be sure of destroying their ship.”
Reed, knowing the discussion was over and he had been dismissed, bowed curtly and strode to the ship’s wheel.
Paedris nodded his head to the side, wishing Cecil to follow him farther away from the crew, where they could speak privately. “Before I am backed into a corner and must do something showy and dramatic,” the court wizard said with a sour expression, “is there anything you could do, to discourage that pirate captain from pursuing us?”
“What do you have in mind?”
“It would probably be useless to attempt sowing fear into the hearts of those pirates; they will fear the demon above all. No, I was thinking you could subtly remind those pirates that their fellows are pursuing a fair more tempting prize closer to shore,” he narrowed his eyes and peered toward the horizon, where only the topmast of one merchant ship could be seen, along with the triangular sails of four pirate ships bearing down on the decoy force.
Deceptions (Ascendant Book 3) Page 12