The head guard shook his head, and then realized they probably couldn’t see him in the dark. “You know the rules! What’s the password?”
Gareth let out a clearly audible sigh, and yelled, “Lizards rule, mammals drool.”
The three guards along the gate suddenly stood a little straighter, and tried to look busy. The head guard was especially concerned now that he knew the two people below them weren’t the night patrol after all. The password they had given was one reserved for pirates holding the rank of captain or above. Something must have happened to one of their airships, causing these two to have to hike all the way back through the jungle. “Sorry, sir! We’ll have that gate open at once!” the head guard yelled back. He spun to face the closest guard, and shouted, “What are doing just standing there?! Open the damned gate before I bury my boot up your ass!”
In the rainy gloom, the guards couldn’t see Henry look up questioningly at Gareth who was pretending to half carry him. Gareth met his eyes, and shrugged his shoulders. He had no idea why the guards were suddenly falling over themselves to help them. They both looked back at the gate, and continued their charade.
The head gate guard came running out into the rain, and put Henry’s other arm around his shoulder. He led them past the gate, and to a small shack that kept out most of the rain. When they finished closing the gate, the other two guards joined them in the shack, eager to be the first with gossip for a change. Once they were all in the shack, the head guard lit a single candle, and said, “Sir, I’ll send one of the boys to let the higher ups know you’ve returned.”
“NO! I mean, thank you for the offer, but I want to make sure my friend is seen to first,” Gareth replied hastily. “Let’s set him down in that chair over there,” he suggested. Keeping his left arm under Henry’s shoulder, Gareth slid his right hand under his cloak. Using the slight commotion easing Henry into the chair provided, Gareth slid the Void Rod out of its holster, and hid it behind his leg.
As they eased the wounded pirate down into the chair, the head guard’s nose came right up next to the person’s waxed cloak. He nearly gagged at the smell he had become far too familiar with on this latest job. “Gods! You smell like a wet Chim!” he swore. The person in the chair turned so the head guard could look under his hood. Needless to say, the guard was quite surprised to see that a wet Chim was exactly what he was dealing with. Before he could react, pain exploded from his nether region after the Chim kicked him square in his pirate danglies.
The guard closest to the door turned around, and tried to bolt out so he could raise the alarm. A quick tap at the base of his skull with the Void Rod dropped him to the ground. The last guard standing was slow to process what was happening, and was smacked in the face with a frying pan before he reacted. He too slid to the ground unconscious. A second swing of Mr. Smashy, and the head guard was mercifully knocked out as well.
Gareth took a second to watch Henry wipe off the blood and snot from his favorite frying pan. “Please tell me you don’t cook with that thing as well,” he implored. Instead of saying anything, Henry just stared unblinkingly at Gareth. “Right, better off not asking questions I don’t want answered. Forget I said anything,” Gareth requested.
Henry slipped off the waxed cloak, and pulled out some rope from his backpack. Gareth propped the three guards up with their backs to one another while Henry first tied their hands, and then wound the rope around all three of them. Having a bit of rope left over, Henry gave into his playful side and finished off with a large bow the likes of which was found on wrapped presents. Gareth tore the sleeves off of the guards’ shirts, and used them to gag their new prisoners. Henry put the waxed cloak back on in case they still needed the element of surprise.
Gareth opened the shack’s door a few inches and peeked out. His feelings about the downpour flipped 180 degrees once he realized the heavy rain was keeping most of the pirates inside, trying to stay dry. He opened the door all the way, and the two friends made their way deeper into the canyon on their way to the main camp. While they were skulking about, Gareth looked up at the crevice above them. While it was rather narrow down where they were at, higher up it opened wide enough to allow easy access for airships.
The crevice in the rock ended in a large, circular depression large enough to comfortably fit a few buildings, numerous tents, and several large cages lined up on the opposite wall. Being the adopted son of a Dwarf, Gareth had picked up more than just a passing knowledge of geology. He recognized the huge depression as being the caldera of a dormant volcano. Judging from the vegetation growing along the crater’s walls, the last eruption had been quite some time ago.
Henry tugged on Gareth’s arm, and pointed over towards a row of buildings that led towards the cages were the slaves were kept. Gareth nodded, and they dashed towards the nearest building. At the second building they came to, Gareth nearly ran into a pirate who was hurrying to get inside. Luckily for him and Henry, the pirate was too focused on getting out of the rain to look at the two men shivering under the eaves. Had he done so, the pirate probably would have wondered why one of them had orange fur sticking out from his cloak’s sleeve.
The last building in the row was a good 60 feet from the slave pens. More wretched bastards who had displeased their reptile superiors were walking back and forth in front of the cages. They were split into two pairs, which were staggered so the front of the cages were watched at all times. The pirates had no need to worry about the back of the cages, since they butted up to the solid stone of the crater’s walls.
Gareth took two long breaths to calm himself as he watched the guards march back and forth. “All right, now we wait for Izzy’s distraction,” he whispered to Henry.
The Chim creased his eyebrows, and looked back towards the entrance to the caldera. He whistled and hooted softly at Gareth.
“Of course I think her plan will work. I have every trust in Izzy, even if I have no idea how she is going to pull it off,” Gareth replied.
Henry rolled his eyes, and chuffed under his breath.
Gareth managed to hear him anyway. “No, I’m not saying that just because I fancy her. Izzy is a brilliant engineer. If anybody can figure out how to pilot two airships from the wheelhouse of just one of them, she can,” he assured Henry.
Much to their displeasure, the rain started to taper off quickly. Glancing around to find a better place to hide and wait, Gareth saw the Glorious Dawn being towed into the caldera by the pirate ship they had captured. The pirate ship gave a loud blare from its steam horn as it slowly approached the other three dirigibles moored a quarter of the way around the crater wall. The blare was loud enough to wake the entire camp, and had everyone looking up at it.
Chapter 23
Pilot crouched behind the wood railing of the Glorious Dawn’s wheelhouse, and pulled a series of cords to adjust the pirate ship’s direction a few degrees to starboard. “Captain of the Glorious Dawn, remind me the next time your sister the engineer tells me to trust her, I should ask more questions,” Pilot complained. He was being forced to pilot another ship using a bastardized marionette system for steering and throttle control. To make matters worse, he had to use a series of mirrors to see where in the hells they were going, since they didn’t want anybody to be seen on deck of the Glorious Dawn.
Elizabeth gave Pilot one of her few smiles. “Come on Pilot, after this, your people can refer to you as the pilot who flew two ships at one time,” she said trying to lift his spirits.
“Technically, Captain of the Glorious Dawn, I am only flying one ship at the moment. We are being towed by the dirigible,” he corrected his Captain.
Elizabeth shook her head in frustration, and used her own pocket mirror to see how close they were to the trio of pirate dirigibles. “Turn about 4 more degrees to starboard, and standby on the throttle, we’re almost there,” she told Pilot. She uncorked a speaking tube next to the wheel, and spoke into it. “Izzy, we’re almost in range, and Pilot is making the final course
adjustments,” she told her sister.
“Got it, Elizabeth. I’m setting off the fireworks… now!” Izzy stated, as she pulled on a line that ran from the pirate ship’s boiler room to Izzy’s engine room. The line was attached in a way that when pulled, it brought the engines up to full steam without channeling any of that power to the propellers. Prior to leaving the pirate ship, Izzy had removed the glass covering of the main boiler’s pressure gauge. She knew that after switching the engines to full, the pressure would spike soon, and cause the needle to move very quickly. A simple match was glued to the needle with a strike plate mounted at the 3 o’clock position on the gauge. At the 4 o’clock position was a fuse that ran straight into the powder magazine for the pirates’ cannons.
Elizabeth softly counted out loud to 20, and then made a slashing motion to Pilot. Nodding in understanding, Pilot pulled back full on the string that controlled the other ship’s throttle. The pirate dirigible propellers spun into high gear, and the airship steamed straight at the other three pirate ships at full speed.
Elizabeth pulled on the cord she was responsible for, and swore creatively when it didn’t move. Her cord was attached to a quick release mechanism Izzy had rigged up on the tow cable. Elizabeth yanked two more times before the pin fell out to let the pirate ship steam on without them. She quickly yelled down the speaking tube, “Izzy, burn some Aetherium so Pilot can stop us. We don’t want to drift right into your surprise!”
“Hey Lizard Breath, how about you leave the engineering stuff to me. I already have some burning. Pilot can stop us whenever you want,” Izzy replied tersely. Pilot didn’t need the actual order, and pulled the lever that shifted how the Aetherium gasses moved through their propulsion tubes. They all felt a jolt as the Glorious Dawn came to a rapid and complete stop.
The pirates on board the other vessels began to get worried when their fellow airship started to accelerate, instead of air braking like was proper during a docking procedure. Several curses were shouted when the rogue ship pushed into the middle of their formation, causing their decks to rock with the sliding impact. Those pirates standing on deck closest to the ramming ship had a moment to wonder why there were barrels lined up along the deck. A moment was all they got as the burning fuse finally reached the powder magazine. The expanding explosive shock wave ripped through the barrels, spraying a sticky mixture of tree sap and naphtha in every direction. While part of the mixture made it onto the other ships’ hulls, most of it sprayed across the gas sacks keeping them aloft. A split second later, burning shrapnel from the powder magazine set the mixture alight. In less than a minute, the only airship aloft was the Glorious Dawn.
Pirates from across the compound, including all of the slave pen guards but one, came running with water buckets to try to fight the strange, sticky fire. This was done more out of self-preservation than anything else. The burning wrecks had landed atop of the camp’s munitions stores.
Elizabeth and Pilot sprung up from where they were hiding, while Sheldon ran up from the cargo hold. He quickly manned their single cannon. One eyestalk sighted along the barrel, while the other gave directions on muzzle elevation. The first cannon shot slammed through the roof of the largest building. Sheldon reloaded the cannon, and took aim at another building as far away from the slave pens as possible.
“And that would be our cue,” Gareth said, impressed by Izzy’s pyrotechnic display. “Get Teesh, I’ll watch your back,” he ordered as they sprinted across the open ground to the slave cages.
The lone guard left to keep watch on the slaves was knocked to the ground by an orange ball of anger and muscle. A furry hand shot over the guard’s mouth and nose to keep him from calling out. The same hand bounced the guard’s head off of the ground twice to make sure he wouldn’t being saying anything anytime soon. Henry patted down the unconscious guard, and came away with a set of iron keys.
Henry and Gareth ran past several empty cages before they found one that was occupied by recently acquired slaves. Like the captured pirate captain had said, the slavers had just made a shipment, and were just starting to replenish their stock. The single occupied cage had young girls of various species crammed together. All five of the girls were wearing far too revealing clothing for kids their age.
Henry softly hooted and waved his arms to get the attention of the girls. Not a single one of them looked over at the soft noise, the spectacle of the pirate ships and the munitions stores going up like a Dwarven firework display was so much more interesting. After trying increasingly loud hoots, Henry put two fingers in his mouth, and gave out an ear splitting whistle. This time, all of the girls turned to look at him in fear, not knowing what their captors might want now.
“Mr. Fuzzy Bottom?!” Teesh asked, afraid she was hallucinating. When Henry didn’t fade away and nodded instead, Teesh ran to the cage door. “I knew you guys would come!” she cried out as she recognized Gareth’s form from the back. To her astonishment, the rod Gareth carried shifted in his hand, and became a six foot long staff. Henry finished unlocking the cage door, and turned around to see what Gareth was doing. He saw flashes of purple surround his friend’s hand. Looking beyond Gareth, Henry saw a score of pirates running towards them. Wanting to spare Teesh from seeing what came next as the pirates overwhelmed Gareth, he put his furry hand over her eyes. The child who had spent over half of her life on the street, rolled said eyes and pulled Henry’s hand down so she could see what was going on.
Gareth took one look at how the pirates had dressed Teesh, and he had to turn away before he fully lost control of his anger. He didn’t even turn around when Henry whistled loudly. From where he was standing, Gareth had a perfect view of the 20 pirates who filed out of the barracks, and started running towards the cages. A smile, the likes of which Death himself would be proud of, slipped across Gareth’s face as outlets for his rage presented themselves. Letting the righteous anger wash over and through him, he sensed his Void Rod become a staff once again. Recognizing the feeling of the strange magic he shared with the Void Rod, Gareth opened himself fully to the seductive strength it offered.
The pirate leading the pack slid in the mud as he tried to stop from running into what to his mind could only be a demon straight out of one of the scarier hells. The demon wore the flesh of a man, but had purple flames were his eyes should have been. The terror was quickly extinguished as the press of bodies behind him forced him into the demon’s reach. A staff, blacker than the stormy night sky above them, slammed into his neck, dislocating his second and third vertebrae. The pirate was dead moments after hitting the ground.
The black staff whistled through the air, and ended the life of two more pirates in the same amount of seconds. A cannon blast slammed into the rear ranks of the pirates, sending bodies and shrapnel flying. One of the pirates watched in terror as a piece of shrapnel tore a long gouge in the cheek of his brutal opponent. Instead of blood, purple fire poured from the wound. As he watched, the fire extinguished itself, leaving no trace of the wound that had caused it. The pirate turned around where he stood, and ran back towards his barracks. He would much rather face cannon fire than the demon slaughtering his bunk mates.
Henry could only stop and stare at what his best friend was doing. Instead of being run over by the pirate troops, Gareth had utterly destroyed them with the help of the Glorious Dawn’s cannon. Henry was in so much shock, he forgot to keep his hand in front of Teesh’s eyes. For her part, the young street girl admired how thoroughly, and systematically, Gareth was taking apart his opponents. The same men who had less than a day before reviled her with stories about what the rich men were going to do to her, were now lying dead at her protector’s feet. She made a solemn vow to herself that she would stick with Gareth and learn everything that she could from him.
The final pirate facing Gareth sat on the ground, and tried to scoot back from his executioner using his arms and his one good leg. The other leg had its knee shattered by the merciless demon released in their midst. The pirate'
s sword lay forgotten underneath a pile of his dead cohorts. He shrieked in absolute terror as the purple flames meant to be eyes searched across the grounds looking for an opponent, and ended up resting on him.
Gareth strode through the bloody mud with a singular purpose, kill all those who threatened the people he cared about. He took two large steps forward towards the fool who was trying to scoot away from him. The fact that he was injured and unarmed didn’t even enter the equation of whether or not the man’s existence should be snuffed out like a candle. Gareth raised his arm to strike a killing blow with his staff, when he felt a hand placed gently on his shoulder. He spun around, ready to destroy this new threat, and stopped his arm just in time from bringing his staff down on his best friend’s head.
Henry jumped back in fear from what Gareth looked like. His oldest friend’s eyes were gone, and in their place were twin pools of purple, churning fire. The fire faded away to reveal Gareth's real eyes as he wrested control of himself away from the power of his Void Rod. Eventually, Gareth broke the magical connection he had with the weapon, and sagged in exhaustion. Gareth was able to mutter a quick, “Hi, Henry,” before his restored eyes rolled back in his head as he passed out.
Teesh ran up to hold a trembling Henry’s hand. She looked at the devastation around her, and asked, “Do you think I can get Gareth to teach me how to do that?”
Gareth and th Lost Island Page 19