“Rosh—” Willa began.
“Go!” He barked, stopping her protest and leaving her stunned. She nodded and hurried ahead, catching up to Dexter who’d already started moving again.
Rosh glanced back to see Logan waiting, staring at it a moment longer. The priest shrugged and knelt down. He took out a small skin filled with water and began to chant and pray while he held it above his bowed head. A few moments later he finished his prayer and removed the stopper from the skin. He threw it with all his might and smiled as it soared high into the grove. It bounced a few times off of tree trunks before hitting the ground with a dull thud.
Logan hurried to catch up with Rosh, not waiting long enough to see the smoke beginning to rise from the Garden as the freshly anointed holy water spilled out of the skin and onto the ground and vegetation.
*****
Jenna kicked her foot out to try and soften the impact of the stingray that Xander piloted up next to the protruding roots. Once it stopped she held tightly to the root, keeping the stolen ship from slipping away. The elven stronghold had suffered a few additional shudders as they came up to it, shudders so violent that it caused it to change course abruptly a few times. Jenna knew it couldn’t be additional aftershocks from what she had caused, but what did cause it was beyond her.
Bailynn hurried over and helped Willa as she slid across the root. She grabbed Willa’s prematurely shortened arm and helped pull her aboard. Logan came next, quickly behind her. Jenna waited, watching expectantly and then with a growing tightness in her stomach.
“Where’s the Captain?” She asked when still he didn’t appear.
“He heard something coming behind us,” Logan explained. “He and Rosh stayed back to make sure we wouldn’t be spotted.”
Jenna nodded, but it did little to quiet the butterflies in her stomach. “What about Zhirt and his people?”
Logan shook his head, uncertain how to answer her question. Finally he just began to tell her everything that happened since they split up in the tunnels. Jenna listened intently, even though she spent the time staring at the dark passage she kept hoping Dexter would emerge from at any time.
*****
“There ain’t nobody coming!” Rosh hissed, peering out the small tunnel and down the larger one.
He turned back towards Dexter. “Let’s get off this elf-cursed rock and-“
Dexter stood there, his sword drawn and the point now within a few inches of Rosh’s throat. “What’d he offer you?”
Rosh stared at the sword. He looked up at Dexter, dozens of excuses rushing through his mind but none of them making their way to his lips. Finally he nodded and let out a breath.
“My own ship,” he muttered. “Said I could take Willa with me too. That half-elf was feeding him the whole trip, he knew everything about us!”
“Goodbye, Rosh,” Dexter said, turning and walking back down the small passage.
“Wait!” He called out, knowing he had no right to expect Dexter to do as he asked.
Dexter did stop, surprising him. He turned and spat out, “My ship, Rosh, it’s my rules. I take care of you if you do what I do tell you, when I tell you. You screwed up.” Dexter paused a moment for effect, then added, “You don’t know Willa either. She’d not have gone with you once she knew what you done.”
Rosh stared, realizing that Dexter was probably right. He dropped his eyes again. “How’d you figure it out?”
“You had our weapons,” he explained. “I knew the elf was offering deals to everyone, and yours was the only cell that hadn’t been broke out of.”
“Alright, but… make something up,” Rosh said.
Dexter looked at him, eyebrows pushed together.
Rosh saw the look and added, “About me. Say we fought off the elves. Something. Anything. I won’t cause you no trouble, Cap, just don’t let them know what I done.”
Dexter stared at him for a longer minute than he meant to. “Why? I pay you good and we got money coming in. Why turn coat like that? Why not leave after that last job and take one of them ships?”
Rosh stared at him, his cheeks burning a brighter red. “It’s these elves,” he said, glancing behind him nervously at the larger passage. “They broke the strongest man I ever knew. Ruthless, them is,” Rosh added with a shudder. “Ain’t nothing they won’t do to get what they want. They made him work for them until it sucked him dry, then they cut him loose. I found him alone and poor, stashed in an alley on a border world.”
“Who was he?” Dexter asked, curious in spite of himself.
“Jaspar Highsail.”
Dexter stared at him for a long minute, remembering the old man at Deepingdale that had mistaken Rosh for the famed pirate.
“He was my old man,” Rosh admitted. “I told Willa, but only that I met him one time, when I was a kid still looking for a handout. Never told no one I tracked him down again couple years back. He told me his story then; told me not to screw things up like he done. Didn’t do much good I guess.”
He opened his mouth to say more but Dexter just shook his head. “You think of betraying me again and you’ll be wishing the elves had gotten their hands on you. Ain’t just me you’re working with, it’s everyone else on the ‘Hawk too. Don’t you forget it!”
Rosh nodded, somehow managing to look both properly ashamed and hopeful. Dexter turned without another word and hurried down the passage, dropping into a crawl when they reached the narrow section. Rosh followed silently but happily behind him.
They made it to the boat to see a very relieved Jenna awaiting them. She hugged Dexter in spite of the close quarters. Likewise Willa rushed to Rosh, who blushed an even brighter shade of red.
“What took so long?” Bailynn asked.
“Had to wait for the elves to pass,” Dexter lied.
Jenna looked at him, sensing something was amiss. He gave her a tiny shake of his head and she put the matter aside. In a few minutes they pushed away from the roots beneath Fort Prudence and started away, heading for a rendezvous with the Voidhawk.
“You ever heard of something called a Garden of Life?” Dexter asked Jenna as he sat near the stern, keeping an eye on the receding elven base for signs of pursuit.
Jenna looked at him, eyes wide and color visibly draining from her cheeks. “Gods!” She swore. “Yes, but they’re more often called Gardens of Death. Why”
“Zhirt and his people,” Dexter explained.
She gasped. “Logan told me about the trap – he left out the Garden though. They are evil creations the elves use when an enormous source of power is needed. The gardens are alive and sentient, after a fashion. Whatever comes into them is restrained and consumed.”
Dexter only nodded grimly.
“What about the elf in charge over there?” He asked.
“I killed a captain,” she said thoughtfully. “I don’t know who commands Fort Prudence.”
“He never gave me his name,” Dexter said with a sigh. “Didn’t see his body though, so I reckon we made another enemy.”
They continued making small talk, discussing the fort and the elves quietly while Xander, Logan, and Rosh sailed the ship through the Void. It was another hour before Bailynn, who was acting as the bow lookout, spotted the Voidhawk. The two ships closed quickly and, after identifying that the elven scout ship was friend, not foe, a happy reunion took place.
With the crew back aboard the Voidhawk, Dexter stood ready to cast off the ropes that secured the stingray. He looked at it then he caught Rosh’s eye. A meaningful glance at the ship caused the man a brief moment of thought, then he grinned and shook his head. He wrapped his arm around a surprised Willa and pulled her into a victorious hug.
“You barely escaped with your lives,” Keshira commented as she helped Dexter release the small ship. She followed it up with a question, “Why is it everyone is happy?”
“Some days being alive’s enough,” Dexter said with a mercurial smile.
Chapter 3 – The Gilded Cage
Jenna turned from him immediately and relayed the orders to the crew. Rosh and Keshira hauled on the lines of the mainsail, trimming it and turning it to capture the solar rays that pushed the ship through the void. Logan and Bailynn worked the smaller sails on the sides of the ship, orienting them to give the ship a little something extra.
Extra speed was what it needed. For days they had been sailing from Fort Prudence, deep in elven space. For the same amount of time they’d been running from the elven ships that chased them. The ‘Hawk was faster than the warships, but the scouts kept pace with them, though far enough away to stay clear of weapons and magic. They counted four of the scouts so far, though at different times and places so they could never be sure of the true number. Three elven warships had manned the blockade the Voidhawk had slipped through, firing on them but seeking to disable rather than destroy.
“An asteroid field?” Jenna asked under her breath after she had turned back from the tired crew.
“The ‘Hawk’s christening voyage was in an asteroid field,” Dexter said, though he remembered a similar flight he’d made running from pirates while delivering supplies to the ‘Hawk ages ago.
“I hope it doesn’t die there too,” she said, then turned back to assist on the deck.
Xander, the ship’s wizard, peered off the bow with eyes that were glazed over from fatigue and his use of magic to scry ahead of them. He was the one that found the asteroids, a large field that floated seemingly in the middle of the great void that Fort Prudence had sailed through. Jenna told them most elves stayed clear of it, and none sailed deep into it. Rumors abounded of ships and crews disappearing; the elves went around it, even though it added weeks to their voyages. That encouraged Dexter to turn in, heading deeper into the emptiness in hopes the elves would not follow. Such was not to be the case.
“How long?” Dexter asked.
“An hour, maybe a little more,” Xander said. “There’s something about it, Captain… something that blocks my sight. In the middle there’s something, something big. I can’t see it.”
“Keep trying,” said the Captain, then after a moment of staring, he turned and quickly marked the two elven scouts he could see.
The minutes flew by, yet to Dexter they crawled as he watched and worried. The scouts kept their distance for a time, then once the distant field of asteroids grew visible to the eye they began to close. Jenna and Jodyne ran to the stern, manning the ballista there, and readied it should one of the scouts choose to come within range. Even together the elven scouts stood no chance against the Voidhawk. Small and manned with only a crew of four elves, a few hits from the Voidhawk’s weapons would pummel them into kindling.
Dexter spun about when he heard Xander give out a startled cry. It was a sound of agony that slipped from his lips followed by nothing as he fell bodily to the deck. A trickle of blood seeped from his nose. The Captain checked for a pulse and found one. He dragged the unconscious man away from the railing and returned to stare ahead at the floating rocks.
“Jenna, get us through there and find a place to hide!” Dexter called across to her.
“Aye Captain!” She yelled back, then she began barking orders to the others while she sprinted across the deck and back to the forecastle. Rosh took her place with Jodyne, leaving Keshira to man the mainsail. Willa stepped up to help, but with only one hand she was of little use. Fortunately, the pleasure golem could handle the task as well or better than anyone on boat.
Dexter passed Jenna, Xander hanging limply from his shoulder, and headed down the stairs to the bridge. He dumped the wizard on the table, pushing the star charts out of the way unceremoniously, then glanced over at Bekka. The shaven-headed half-elf was also showing signs of fatigue from her position at the ship’s helm. They had been at it for days, with little chance to rest or sleep.
“We’re to find a place to hole up in them rocks,” Dexter told her, pointing out of the windows on the bridge towards the asteroids ahead. “Take them warships hours to catch up, I ‘spect,” he added. “Plenty of time to take care of those scouts or, if they’re not up for playing with us, we’ll get a little rest and be gone before they catch us.”
She smiled and nodded, then focused again on the ship as it began to close rapidly with the first asteroid. Dexter cursed and ran out, heading back up to the deck to be ready for whatever happened.
“Where’d they go?” Dexter asked, shocked to see the scout ships had disappeared.
“Fell back,” Jenna said, not sparing a glance from the growing rocks ahead. “Called back or they’re reporting what they seen.”
Dexter scowled. “The wizard said there was something big in the middle.”
“Didn’t like what he said so you hit him?” Jenna asked.
“What? No!”
“Why’d he fall?” She asked more softly.
Dexter realized she’d been trying to tease him to lighten the tension. Bad timing, considering, but he felt a little ashamed by his own reaction in spite of it. He brushed it aside and answered her question, “He’s a wizard, for all I know it was that or turn into a frog.”
Jenna smirked then called out a course correction, bringing them to port to slip towards a bigger opening in the asteroids. If their pursuers were not close on their heels she saw no reason to chance fate. “Did he say anything?”
“Yeah, he said there was something big in it,” Dexter said, shrugging. “Couldn’t make it out though.”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah,” Dexter said, then he stiffened. “No, wait, he said more…”
“What?” She pressed, glancing at him curiously before letting her eyes slide back to the rocky maelstrom ahead.
“Augh!” Dexter said.
Jenna looked off the bow, alarmed, then turned back and saw the twinkle if her Captain’s eye. “Augh?” She asked. “Really? He said, ‘Augh?’”
“Well, it might have been more of a, ‘Aieee!’”
She scowled and shook her head, which only made Dexter smile more. “Problem?” He asked her.
“No Sir,” she retorted quickly, “just looking forward to a little time behind the door of our quarters.”
Dexter chuckled under his breath. He could imagine the things his creative first mate had in mind for him. She had a way of balancing the scales of justice in the privacy of their own quarters. Such pleasurable thoughts were short lived; the first asteroid was passing them by on the starboard side. Ahead lay a great many more, some rolling and others twirling in space. They were all moving, promising what looked like an impenetrable screen of granite and dirt.
“Think you can do this?” Dexter asked her softly.
Without looking back at him she said, “You trust me in your bed, now trust me with your ship.”
“The bed’s replaceable,” he muttered. She ignored him and looked ahead. Dexter turned and jumped when he saw the ghostly image of Kragor standing on the prow of the Voidhawk, only a few feet from them. The dwarf glanced at him, eyes wide as if to tell him just how daft he thought their course was.
Jenna, unaware of the spirit of the former first mate so close by, began to rapidly call out orders to the crew. The Voidhawk slowed, then surged forward as they struggled to heed her commands. Dexter watched Kragor gesturing frantically, his movements usually echoed by the commands Jenna shouted, often with embellishments worthy of the most foul-mouthed of sailors.
Rosh joined Keshira while Willa and Jodyne both worked the rail that served as a rudder, allowing them to turn and twist through the rocks better. Twice Jenna had the ship roll, once halfway to starboard and the other time a complete twist to port. Smaller rocks pinged off the hull and one even managed to hit the railing inches from the anxious Captain’s hand.
Dexter, ducking under some smaller rocks that whizzed past them, watched with horror as a large rock the size of a w
agon came hurtling at them from the port. Jenna saw it and corrected, urging the ‘Hawk up and over it with another roll. Behind it a larger rock, this one big enough to smash the Voidhawk into scraps, awaited them.
“Jenna….” Dexter warned, his knuckles going white on the railing. He knew what he would do, and nearly took over, but she snapped off a fresh order, embellishing it with a few threats to anyone that fell short. Dexter opened his mouth to belay the order, but it was too late, the ship was turning and trying to skirt around the first boulder. Trying and, he knew, failing.
A sickening crunch accompanied the cracking of timbers and a shudder that passed from stern to stem of the ship, dislodging a great many things and even causing Willa to fall to a knee and a hand. The added momentum from the impact helped swing the ‘Hawk around, letting them shoot into an opening around the massive boulder that next threatened them.
Dexter stared, his lips open in disbelief. Ahead of them the field of floating and crushing rocks abruptly stopped. It was as though they passed through a wall. Before them lay nothing. Nothing except a great black sphere that was darker than the void it floated within. He glanced behind, as though sensing the asteroids would come for them. “All stop,” he rasped, his throat dry.
“Full stop!” Jenna bellowed, making him cringe even though he knew it was coming. Ropes were loosened and the sails secured. Bekka’s control of the helm helped the ship hold station within a matter of minutes. “Well, we made it,” Jenna said to him with a look that showed him and him alone how nervous she had been.
“Aye,” he said. “A fine job too, but we’d best be seeing what we’ve got left to fly with.”
Jenna nodded, blushing a little, and turned to go deal with the crew and assess damage. Dexter turned to stare at the sphere ahead of them, wondering what it could be, and he wished that Xander hadn’t gone and knocked himself senseless. “Damn wizard’s useless when I need him,” he muttered, turning and heading to investigate the damage himself.
Voidhawk: The Elder Race Page 6