While they flew, Fillo continued to train the crew. They were far from mastering everything, but were proficient and knowledgeable. Sajani was surprised at how much the gnome seemed to know. That is, how much he knew about the ship. His knowledge on the elves themselves was nonexistent.
Chass interrupted her thoughts. “We’re just inside their perimeter.”
“Good. Maintain silence. Get all hands on deck.”
“Aye captain.”
She made her way slowly up the ladders and causeways that led to the main deck. Thanks to the information Bean had given them, they already had a plan of attack. With Ginger’s information on the current placement of artillery and behemoths, they had a good grasp of what they were up against. Specific ground troop movements added just enough unpredictability to keep it interesting, without making it overly dangerous.
She arrived on deck and waited for the rest of the crew to assemble. Tess was in the act of making fun of her, as she walked out of the final hatch.
“Batten down the farthin’ things and bring that whatsit around!” She was saying in the Copper Wolf’s voice. The Lady of Rust’s flighty use of nautical terms was a light-hearted and harmless joke among the crew and as long as they obeyed and respected her, Sajani didn’t mind. There was light laughter in response, but nothing to worry about. They’d been on orders to keep the noise down once they crossed into Therfass. Tess caught sight of her and jumped down to greet her. The first mate’s wooden leg made a loud thunk as she hit the deck. “Hello, my lady,” she said in her own voice, “I was just talking about you.”
“So I heard,” she said. The comment didn’t seem to bother the first mate at all.
Chass came up behind them both and said politely, “That’s all of them, my lady.”
Sajani nodded at Tess, who then said, “Fall in,” just loud enough that all could hear her. The crew assembled into four rows. Officers, the healer, and technicians stood above her on the forecastle, except for Tess and ‘fang. The former stood in front of the crew and the latter stood behind.
Normally, if she was following proper wolf pack procedure (which she rarely did anymore), she’d have had each squad report. Instead she stepped towards Tess. The first mate saluted and she returned the salute. No sooner had Sajani’s hand come back from her shoulder, when Tess hobbled off at a run speed to join the other officers above them.
“At ease,” she said. The crew placed their hands behind their backs and spread their feet apart. The ship had made it much more possible to maintain military order than the loosely organized transports did. She liked that. Routine was therapeutic. Order and structure was reassuring.
“You’ve each been given your assignments and know exactly what is expected of you, so I have no intention of keeping you for long.” She said. “All we wait on now is the night. I don’t need to tell you how important this mission is for us. It’s our first combat mission with the Wisp, but more importantly, the future of nations hang in the balance.
“Vharkylia will survive with or without our leader, I have no doubt. It has survived worse. But we all know that the future is much brighter under the direction of Mr. Benayle. The policies he has championed have placed us in our rightful position among the people of Terah. And as sure as I know our country will survive without him, I know that it will be much better off with him to guide it.
“We will free him from the enemy. As Indira is my witness, I pledge it. For Vharkylia.” She wanted to shout the last words, but kept her voice down anyway.
“For the Copper Wolf!” Tess nearly shouted behind her.
“Dismissed.” Sajani said and turned to glare at the first mate, who only smiled back at her. “Officers and technicians to my quarters.”
The assembled group all wore stern and serious looks on their faces. The exception being Westa who looked very uncomfortable in a set of scale armor that looked a little tight around the waist. The poor fit made the dagger stuck in her belt look ludicrous.
Westa noticed the captain looking at her and said, “Well, I guess one child was too much for me.”
Sajani didn’t have an answer to that. There was an awkward silence as they waited for her to say something.
Ginger seemed to notice their healer’s discomfort for the first time and after only a couple of seconds of looking at the problem, pulled out a pair of wire cutters from a bandolier and made two quick snips behind Westa’s back. The armor seemed to fall into place.
That got a nervous laugh from everyone else.
“Thank you,” Westa told him. She sounded a little embarrassed.
“Well, with that out of the way…” Sajani began.
“Literally.” Westa interrupted.
“Yes,” Sajani continued. “Fenther and Simon, were you ever able to reconcile the difference in the intelligence you two received.”
“As a matter of fact, my lady, I did,” Simon answered. “That heathen pulp producer has absolutely nothing that could be called intelligence between his ears.”
“Now…” Fenther began.
Sajani interrupted. “I’ll take that as a no.”
“The people I get my information from give their real names…” Fenther made a second start.
“Will you two quiet it!” Mauro said testily. “If you don’t have anything new…”
Sajani motioned him silent and the dwarf dutifully obeyed. “I don’t have much to add,” she said quietly. “I wanted you all to know that I value all the input you’ve given on this and the hard work you’ve done helping Fillo here,” she nodded at the gnome, “train our crew.”
“Mushy mushy mushy.” Tess said, stamping her peg leg onto the deck a couple of times. “I’m waiting for the fight to start.” She changed into Colonel Lahnk’s voice and said, “I’ll take them all with nothing but this saber and my wits. Let loose the dogs of war!”
It made the Copper Wolf smile to know that at least one person seemed very confident in what they were doing.
“Speaking of which, my lady,” Tess added, her voice back to normal. Westa had come up next to the first mate. “About our assignments…”
Westa gave a quick nod.
“Keep on howling upwind,” Sajani replied. “You’re to keep the Wisp in position and help ‘fang lay down suppressive fire as needed. If you and Westa aren’t up here, it will leave Ginger and Fillo with only ‘fang and her crew to guard them. And those people will be busy keeping watch in case we need air support.”
“Chass can do that. He’s three vykati at least.”
“I need Chass on the ground.”
“What for? He can guard up here just fine.”
Sajani replied deadpan. “I might need a door removed or an ox carried. You never know.” The real reasons were that Chass wasn’t one to charge in when she wanted him to stay back. He had both of his legs. Also, Tess had grasped the basic mechanics of the ship much better than he had.
That decision was logical and tactical. The thing that was keeping Westa aboard was something else. As many times as Sajani had tried to approach Westa’s assignment the same way, she failed. It was the ten-year-old inside of her, still living in that day when she’d first met Benayle—she felt committed that the healer’s son would not know anything like that. Sajani would never allow it. Westa would stay up on as many missions as possible, starting with this one.
“If there’s nothing else to add,” she told them, “then we wait for darkness. While we wait for that, I’ll want the placement of their lighting, in case that changes anything.”
“I do have something to add,” Ginger said meekly. “The communications system didn’t have any information on lighting, but just before you called for all hands, it marked three locations on the map.”
“And what are they?” Sajani prompted.
“I haven’t had a chance to see it for sure, but based on a few other things I have seen so far…”
Sajani waited impatiently.
“…I think it’s their power relays.”
“Meaning…” this did get old.
“I can turn off their lights from here.”
“How long will it take you to find out?” She realized that was the wrong way to word it as soon as she said it.
“Well that depends…” the spark started.
“Check now,” she said urgently, “And get back here within the minute.”
“Might not be quite enough time,” he started, but he had the presence of mind to leave quickly.
“I’m not sure how much we can trust that information, captain,” Chass said as the spark disappeared out the hatch. “What if…”
“I don’t trust it either. So far, it’s all we have. But,” she added slyly, “if this latest does tell us how to turn off the lights, I’ll feel a lot better about what this person claiming to be Bean’s friend is telling us.”
Ginger returned, breathing like he’d been running for more than the thirty seconds he had been. “It’s right!” he said excitedly. “Bean’s friend was right!”
“You’re sure?” Chass said doubtfully. His comment prompted the automatonic cat to jump off the spark’s shoulders and paw at the second mate’s feet.
Sajani was already sure of the spark’s assessment. He hadn’t shown any doubt, so neither did she.
“Yes,” Ginger said. “It will be a little off the pattern we planned to get the behemoths and artillery, but any two of them should cut their power for a long time.”
That was good news. Sajani turned to Fillo. “I know I’ve asked you this too many times already, but you’re sure the cloaking holds when we fire?” It was very counterintuitive to what she knew of arcane spells. The captain was grateful for how patient their trainer was with all of them.
The gnome nodded. “Just keep moving, so they can’t figure out where the weapons are coming from and you’re set.”
“We’ll slow for each volley and then change direction and increase speed,” Tess said lazily.
“Then there’s nothing to do, but wait for dark and turn out their lights.”
“Indira is with us,” Westa said piously. “It’s a double new moon tonight.”
For Sajani, the night began in the torpedo room. It was the bottom-most section of the ship, right behind the helm. In the center was a large trapdoor that was kept closed except for loading. The ship had a full armament of torpedoes—long and skinny rockets, supplied by Benayle and Simon. Spaced out so that there were five racks of them on each side, they stood stacked seven high and pointing outward. Astern of each rack was a small screen with a chair in front of it—used for selecting a target and firing. Only five would be in use tonight and the crew using them would be switching around to throw the enemy off. For the moment, they were all port side.
Ginger had tried to modify the torpedoes at one point, so that they made use of his behemoth killing magic, but it was impossible to do while keeping the weapon a size that it could fit out of the hatches. For this reason, the spark was above deck with the gnome and four rockets. A storage compound this large and that was all the elves had left guarding it. Torpedoes would take out the four artillery and the power relays. They were also to stand by in case they were needed to provide air support for the ground crew.
The ship noticeably slowed. “Steady.” ‘fang called out and she looked up at Sajani, who nodded at her. “Fire on my mark. Three. Two. One. Fire.”
Sajani heard the torpedoes fire, but didn’t wait. She started through the hatch where Tess and the helmsman were waiting. “Ahead full. Hard to starboard,” the first mate was saying in a bored voice. Sajani tried to catch her glance, but Tess turned away from her and slammed her wooden leg against the deck.
No matter. The captain turned to take the ladder up to the next deck and continued on until she arrived at the main deck. The twelve crew who were to accompany her on the ground were already up there and waiting. It was totally dark. The torpedoes must have taken out the lights, just like they all had hoped.
Ginger was on the port side by the railing and Fillo opposite. She couldn’t tell if they’d fired a rocket yet or not, but she could tell they hadn’t fired all of them. Chass approached her. “One behemoth is down and two…” The ship slowed again. “soon to be all four of the artillery, are out.”
There was a flash of light beneath the ship and the hiss of rockets could be heard. The Wisp sped up and again began turning to the starboard.
An explosion, slightly behind and to the port of them, rocked the ship. “Did we miss one?” Chass asked. A few more explosions went off around them, but none were close.
‘fang’s head appeared from below them. “One rocket isn’t enough,” she said. “Tess is already bringing us back around. We’ll put two on each and see what that does.” The master gunner ducked back down before anyone could respond.
“That’s what it took to take out their behemoths before…” Fillo said as he fired off his rocket. The back blast nearly knocked the little guy off his feet, but he managed to stay up and let out a cheer when the corresponding explosion happened.
“Should we drop down now anyway?” Chass asked.
The darkness would give them cover, but Sajani was still cautious. “We can wait until the artillery is out.”
“What if they try to move him somewhere else?”
“Then we’ll have to hope we can find him anyway, but I don’t think they’ll bring him out in the open unless they have to.”
They waited.
Fillo and Ginger had managed to take out their targets and while there had been a few shots fired closer to the Wisp than Sajani wanted, the ship was still together and no one was hurt.
“Ginger, get below and check to make sure there are no re-enforcements on the way in.”
Just as he had disappeared down the ladder, ‘fang took his place. “All artillery is out, captain,” she said and without even waiting for a response, she dropped right back down again.
Chass was chuckling. “Our very own little ‘fang in a box,” he said.
“With vicious claws and teeth,” ‘fang answered, her voice fading out.
“We can get in position,” Sajani said.
The huge vykati leaned down the opening and shouted, “Phase point three!”
The ship tilted hard to the starboard. After a moment, it came to a stop.
“Are we ready for this?” Sajani asked Chass.
He placed his hand on her shoulder and answered, “Ready to die for Vharkylia.”
“But not today,” she said glibly.
“Onto the platform!” Chass ordered the others.
Ginger appeared on deck again. “All clear, captain. No airships yet, but I’ll keep looking. They never expected anyone to get this far in.”
The waiting troops stepped onto the steel grill that would carry them down to the ground—so did Sajani. Chass hit a switch that brought the platform up and over the railing. Another switch started it on its downward decent. With an impressive leap, the huge wolf bounded over the side and joined the rest for the trip down.
As long as they remained on the platform, the enemy could not see them. Sajani unslung her bow and nocked an arrow. Once on the ground, that pelt totally changed color. They were dropping down in an area on the outer edge of the compound, in one of the few open spaces that wasn’t occupied by a behemoth or artillery. They were behind a building that looked like a warehouse. It had a huge deck around it that was covered with crates. The building that Benayle was in was just beyond it, but she hadn’t dared drop down any closer.
The platform came to a stop and the crew started their drill immediately, fanning out to cover Chass and Sajani. Just a few seconds after the last of them stepped off, the platform sensed there was no more weight on it and started back up. They could hear it, but not see it. Sajani looked where it had been and said to her second mate, “almost like burning the ship behind us.”
Chass nodded.
The crew above would be keeping an eye out for them and an uncloaked platform c
ould return for them when needed, but for the moment…
They moved quickly to the warehouse and pressed their backs to its outer wall. Harg peeked around the corner and signaled them to move past him. Sajani ran all the way down the wall to the other side and peeked around the corner, she could see the building where Benayle was being held. It looked like a house, not a prison. There were two guards outside the front door. Nocking an arrow, she took careful aim at one of them. If she was quick enough, she could take out both silently without raising alarm.
She motioned Harg that she was ready and let loose the arrow. It hit its mark and the elf had not finished falling when the second arrow hit the next target. Neither of them, however, needed to raise the alarm. A squad of elf soldiers rounded the far corner coming from the opposite direction they had and one of them saw the second guard go down.
There weren’t many directions that the arrows could have come from and the elves were not stupid. They started at a run towards her crew’s hiding place. She ducked back behind the corner and signaled Harg that there were incoming enemies. He gave a couple of quick orders and one soldier rounded the corner, dropped prone and started putting down suppressive fire. The rest of the crew took up positions on the deck that surrounded the warehouse. Both sides were now exchanging fire.
It was chance that the captain happened to glance over at the next building and saw the three silhouettes, one of which could only be a vykati. The other two were elves. They had rifles slung over their shoulders and had just left the back part of the house. The vykati was having difficulty walking and his escort had to keep pulling him up.
“Indira save the terminally crazy,” she prayed. There was no time to move her crew that far without taking a huge chance, but a quick spell might allow her to scoot past unnoticed. She decided to risk herself. It only took a moment to cast the spell and then the ground beneath her seemed to blur as she ran across the open space between the two buildings. It was only a few steps to her and she was within feet of her quarry.
She let out a somewhat soft howl just before she loosed the arrows. Benayle dropped to the ground as they released him—in heed of her warning or an inability to stand, she had no way of knowing. The two arrows weren’t enough, but between being distracted by their prisoner and having to reach for their weapons, the three more arrows she got off were able to finish the job.
Wolf's Pawn (Sajani Tails Book 1) Page 30