by Gerard Bond
Dark considered his offer, she couldn’t think of any reason why not, so she nodded,
“Yes, you are welcome to join us.”
Vaughn smiled and dove to the back of the boat, from deep down under the bilge boards he produced a sword and scabbard of his own. Then he reached in again, smiling at all of them,
“This is my most prized possession.”
With a flourish he pulled out a beautiful gold inlaid crossbow of wonderful craftsmanship. They all looked on appreciatively and nodded their approval.
Justin spoke up while looking out of the porthole.
“Somebody seems to have taken an interest in us. There is a harbor patrol boat rowing this way.”
Dark looked out the window. There was no mistake, they couldn’t just jump out and head back up the underwater walkway, they would be easily seen, so what to do? Vaughn stepped in.
“Leave it to me, get out of the boat and stand on the platform outside, when I come out I will be coming fast, I have a small barrel of fuel oil here that I am going to splash about and when I set it alight, the flames and smoke will mask our escape.”
It was a good plan.
“Alright everyone grab your things and get ready.”
Vaughn had unstoppered the barrel and was already splashing oil around. The others moved quickly grabbing their weapons and new boots. Once outside it was only a few moments before Vaughn flew out the hatch. The patrol boat was getting near. This was cutting it close. An almighty flame roared out of the hatch of Vaughn's boat and immediately started belching black smoke. It was perfect, out they darted onto the submerged walkway and quickly made their way to the end.
Crawling up the ladder they stopped in the storeroom a moment to take stock. They strapped on their swords, boots and belts, then they were ready. Dark moved out and with the others following, scurried behind a row of large crates. From there they moved towards the open doors. It was then they saw soldiers moving along. More and more were appearing. This was no good, their escape route was closing off too fast.
Dark looked around and she spied a small barrel just like the one Vaughn had in the boat.
“Tell me Vaughn where did you get your oil?”
“Right here, all those barrels large and small are filled with oil.”
A plan formed in her head, it would work perfectly not only as a distraction but also would keep the troops occupied for quite awhile. Having instructing the others, they all moved out around the barrels each grabbing a small one and pouring the contents onto the floors. Oil was seeping and spreading over a very large area including the wooden crates, some of which were open with hay packing hanging out.
It was then Dark signaled to Vaughn to spark it. He bent down and using flint and a handful of hay got a little fire going. When they were ready, he touched it to the edge of the oil. It spread slowly at first but then accelerated quickly over an ever-increasing area. The fire began licking up the sides of the larger barrels and crates but beyond that it didn’t do too much at all.
This wasn’t quite as she had hoped for, Justin had been looking on as well and he tapped on Vaughn’s shoulder. Pointing to one of the biggest barrels, he started pushing on the side. Vaughn immediately joined in, the barrel tipping slowly at first then went over and started rolling. They gave it a kick to help it along and off it went towards the stockpile, the flames licking at the fuel pouring out of the hole in the top. Just as the barrel hit there was a huge whoosh! The barrel exploded in a sea of flames, shards of it punctured other barrels and they started leaking too. Now the fire was building into something a whole lot worse and a commotion started outside with smoke billowing from the doors, people ran about shouting.
The four of them broke cover and ran hard. As they exited the building further explosions started rocking it, the heat from the fire was on their backs. They ran just like others were and no one paid them any attention. The warehouse was becoming engulfed in flames and more explosions shot out flaming debris that landed among the stores on the jetties.
Now in peacetime the jetties would have been kept in an orderly fashion, not too much would have been unloaded at a time and all safety regulations would have been obeyed. But the occupying army had moved in and wanted stuff done fast. The jetties were full and the warehouses had no safety areas set between stores they had been unloading. To compound the problem, the water wagons once mobilized to deal with the fire couldn’t get through as the supplies were too closely placed together on the jetties to allow them to get by. So the fires burned mainly unchecked and in only fifteen minutes the roof of the first warehouse imploded sending out a huge gout of flame up into the sky.
From there it spread, sparks traveled on the sea wind and spot fires were starting all over the place with men madly rushing about trying to contain them. A second warehouse erupted too. It was holding a large stockpile of weapons and spares. This soon went the way of the first warehouse and only by luck did it not spread any further.
By the next morning there would be two full warehouses and numerous smaller buildings gutted and one supply ship sunk at its moorings. Not a bad days effort.. Dark didn’t know it but her spur of the moment improvisation would set the enemy back another full month in preparations and Warlord Aristeides’ promise to the Sorceress Madeira would be looking shaky indeed.
With all that commotion going on the four companions were able to approach the main city gates and seek safe passage through them for the cost of the bag of gold coins Dark still had. That night the four of them sneaked into a camp on the southern outskirts where they quietly took the reins of four saddled horses and holding their muzzles, moved off into the night. Now with horses and loaded with some supplies that were also quickly grabbed, they could make their two day journey immediately. They set off south just off the main highway not wanting any more excitement for now. They were happy enough with the reddish glow they were leaving behind them at Port Cholandra.
Six hours they decided to put between them and the port before they would take a short break. That would be the time to see if anyone was following them. Dark knew they had caused some damage and she was happy with the knowledge that they had hit back in some small way. She could now concentrate again on the job at hand and that was to get Wollfen back.
Warlord Aristeides was pacing up and down the room, barking orders, abusing adjutants and occasionally kicking pieces of furniture.
“I need reports now! I want to know how it started! I want to know how much damage there is! I want to know if those who started it are in custody!? I want to know if it was deliberate or an accident! I want to know what is being done to bring it under control! Why can’t anyone tell me anything!?” He roared, “I need to know now!”
Men were running up and down hallways, a general panic reflecting the conditions in the wharf area.
He stopped pacing for a moment and breathed deep, calm down, calm down, think more, no one else was going to take any affirmative action, A calm descended on him.
“Get me High Lord Demetrius.”
He would find out how all this had happened. Demetrius had a squad of hand picked men all rather sadistic and effective. Yes, he would send Demetrius out to ‘interrogate’ anybody involved and find out what was going on. Aristeides knew he would not leave any stone unturned in finding out every facet of what was going on. The adjutant returned,
“He has been summoned and is on his way sir.”
“Very good, also get me a leg of turkey and a bottle of wine, now be off.”
The adjutant nodded backing away and scurrying off. Within a few minutes Demetrius had entered the room and stood to attention just inside the doorway. Aristeides waved him over to the table,
“Sit down and grab a bit of turkey, there is some wine too.”
Demetrius sat and served himself a little amount out of courtesy.
“How may I serve, Warlord Aristeides?”
“As you know there is a fire at the warehouses on the wharf and it is obviou
sly an act of sabotage. I want you to go down there and find out how it started and under what circumstances it started by. Then after you have reported to me on your findings, I will ask you to deal out whatever punishment is necessary to those involved directly or indirectly. I hope I am making myself perfectly clear?”
“Yes my lord, perfectly clear, I know exactly what to do.” He replied. Demetrius had a small, cruel smile on his face, he looked forward to the assignment.
“Very well then be on your way.”
Aristeides sat back and settled in to enjoy his wine.
Demetrius immediately left the headquarters and went to a building next door where they had taken over the quarters for his own personnel. There he called Sergeant Kamas and gave him instructions to mobilize his hand picked men. They were to make ready the horses to move out in ten minutes.
He looked up into the evening sky, the glow from the fires was casting an eerie reddish hue on everything he looked at. He wondered if parts of the afterlife looked anything like that? There were no stars to be seen with that blanket of smoke spreading through the sky. He could taste the acrid air standing there, not too unlike the burning of the town halls with the local populace locked in them when they had hit the towns. Mind you, there was no cooking meat smell mixed in this time.
Within a couple of minutes the men arrived out front, Sergeant Kamas holding Demetrius's bridle out to him. In a fluid movement he pulled himself onto his steed and moved forward, turning at the next street and heading towards the fire in the distance. People were collected in the street watching the sky, making comments amongst themselves.
“Out of the way!” Cried Demetrius and as he called out he spurred his mount into a canter, people parting and some crying out as his troop went past. They moved on, sometimes turning down parallel streets. As they got closer the heat was starting to make him sweat, it felt like home, he missed his homeland but would never admit to it. He had the consideration of a woman he felt terribly enamored with, tall and buxom, not like most women. He found her intriguing, short hair and intense blue eyes, soft forgiving and loving. It wasn’t something he was used to, maybe that was why he was so attracted to her.
They arrived at the entrance to the wharves and focused again on the job at hand. The heat was searing even from here, there weren’t too many people around now, only those concerned with dealing with the fire. Looking about Demetrius spied a likely candidate to start with, a man directing wharfies back and forth.
“You there!”
Corbin turned and looked. An officer of the army was addressing him and he quickly walked over bowing his head,
“Your command sir.”
He wasn’t really sure how to address him as officers hadn’t come in here before but he figured it might work.
“You are in charge here?”
“I am duty officer for this shift sir. In effect everything is under my control.”
“Not very good control by the looks of it.” Demetrius scolded.
“Yes sir.”
“You will answer me quickly and concisely without hesitation. If you don’t give me what I want I will take you into custody and get what I want at my leisure, do you understand?”
“Yes sir, crystal clear.” Corbin wasn’t stupid.
“Have you any understanding of how this fire started and from who it originated?”
“No sir, but in consideration of your question I can offer that there was a bit of commotion on the wharves just before the fire started and there was a Sorceress and troops present.”
Demetrius sat there for a moment contemplating this information before going on,
“Are you saying that the Sorceress was present before the fire? Be clear on this, it is very important.”
“Yes sir, definitely before the fire and even after the fire had started they took no notice of it, it seemed as if they were after someone.”
“Very well off with you.”
Corbin bid a hasty retreat, he knew not to upset these soldiers in any way. He had seen a few beatings, give them as much as you could and get away.
Demetrius considered the information. So the sorceress was chasing someone or some person when the fire had started, but whom? He looked around,
“Sergeant Kamas, spread the men out and see what soldiers you can find here.” It didn’t take long, a few were helping out with the fire a bit further down and the sergeant ordered one to approach,
“Come with me.”
The soldier followed, the troop reorganized around Demetrius and he addressed the soldier in question,
“Were you here earlier before the fires started?”
The soldier didn’t have time for this; there was a fire to fight.
“Sure, but sir this fire really needs my attention.”
Demetrius nodded to his Sergeant who in turn pointed to two of his men, they dismounted and grabbed the soldier and pulled him to the wall.
“What are you doing?” he protested.
One of the soldiers drove his fist into the abdomen of the soldier being held. He went down in a whoosh of air, clutching his stomach.
“Now do I have your attention?” The soldier nodded, “Pick him up. Since you were here before the fire, tell me exactly how you got to be here and what happened after the fire started.”
The soldier paused and gulped a little,
“We were ordered out to accompany a sorceress after receiving information that three people of interest were to be found down at the wharves. We had a harbor patrol boat to approach from seaward while we approached from the jetty side, but before we could get into position they had set fire to their boat and made their escape into the warehouse. We were organizing to go in and search for them just as the fires erupted. After that it became mayhem and all we could do was stand and watch. The sorceress ordered us to stay behind and deal with the fire, she left under escort of a single soldier.”
He was as complete as he could remember, he hoped he didn’t get hit again.
Demetrius nodded to his Sergeant and again the soldier received a blow to the stomach and again he was pulled back up. Demetrius leaned forward in his saddle,
“I know you are trying but you aren’t trying hard enough are you? Where did this information come from?”
The soldier was panting now,
“An informant from a tavern in the slum district had come and sold the information to us. The sorceress told us that insurgents were operating out of a boat being used for sleeping quarters on the harbor, wait, wait! There is more, the informant was a boy whose father knew the owner of the boat.”
Demetrius nodded and once more the soldier was delivered a body blow.
“And which tavern pray tell is it?”
The man was almost crying now,
“Please, please, I can’t think of a single thing more, that is everything, please.” He sobbed.
Demetrius looked almost disappointed,
“I believe you, you have served your country well.”
Demetrius signaled and started moving off, the small column of men leaving the soldier lying in the street.
As they entered the slum area to search the taverns, Demetrius ordered they split up into three groups and fan out into two parallel streets to his own to cover more ground, whenever a squad of men had finished looking they would be able to signal each other at the end of each block, it was slow going but effective. They only had to do three blocks to find the right tavern and they all converged and entered the place.
Demetrius looked at the man seated in the chair in the middle of the room with two soldiers flanking him.
“What is your name?”
The barkeep looked about at them, all standing and watching, all eyes focused on him. He was intimidated but not afraid.
“It is Dreise.”
Demetrius grabbed a chair and turned its back to the barman and sat on it facing him,
“Dreise, I need some information. You sold it to some compatriots of mine and I nee
d to know it too.”
Dreise looked at this man sitting before him, he didn’t seem so unreasonable.
“It will cost you the same as it cost them, five gold pieces.”
Demetrius looked up and away and as he did, a fist crashed into Dreise's face spinning his head sideways and cutting his cheek.
“I hope you understand. I have no qualms about getting this information any which way I can. Please cooperate and you can go back to being an exemplary citizen of this city.”
Dreise glowered at him.
“Go spit.”
The fist crashed into his mouth this time, his head driven back. Dreise could taste blood pooling in his mouth. There was no feeling at first, but a numbness. Oh yes here it comes, his mouth came awash with waves of pain and throbbing. Dreise looked up at his ‘host’,
“Nope, sorry still five coins,” he quipped. Again the soldier hit him and again Dreise's head lolled to one side. “Okay, okay, stop,” Dreise looked around, “Lets make it only three gold coins.”
This time he copped a blow right on his nose and he felt it crush. Blood flowed from it, dripping down onto his shirt where it soaked and spread. Dreise looked Demetrius square in the eye and almost imperceptibly shook his head.
Demetrius sat up, let out a sigh, looked at one of the men and signaled toward the fireplace where a pot of broth was simmering, the soldier walked over and removed a poker from the fire and walked back, holding it in front of Dreise's face. Were these guys serious?
“We will start by holding your head and poking each eye out slowly, as the poker touches your eye it will boil the fluid in it until it pops like an egg does when it’s overdone. Then the poker will go in and cook what’s left.”
Dreise had a quick change of heart, this wasn’t worth three gold coins,
“There were four of them, two women and one man, one of the women was in charge, the fourth was Cadomedd, a local snitch. You can find him in the slum area one block across and one block up. He will be with his woman this time of day. Go to the third building along, he is on the second level. I don’t know any specifics as I left them to their devices when they arrived. It’s all I know, I swear.”