“Figure it’s better we keep an eye on her, too,” He said. “Besides, maybe we can get some work out of her.”
Jenna rolled her eyes, but moved ahead towards the waterfall and the tunnel behind it. Dexter waited until Tasha joined him and then made his way across the slippery ground as well. Tasha, resplendent in her golden hued metal armor, crossed the treacherous terrain without incident. Dexter noted her position may not have been entirely based on lineage alone.
Xander struck up a trio of lights in the palm of his hand, courtesy of some magical spell. He motioned and they flew up to circle about his head, casting enough light to let the rest of them see their way through the tunnel. Rosh took the lead, followed closely by Keshira. Even Dexter and Tasha only took a few moments to cross the water soaked passage and find the new opening caused by Rosh’s excavation.
What they found was another tunnel, though this one seemed more of a crevice or ravine for the walls stretched away into blackness above them. Below the level of the breach Rosh had caused water still lay, dark, cold, and depthless.
“Now what?” Rosh called back.
Jenna made a hissing sound and pointed. Rosh and Dexter looked but could make out nothing until she pushed Xander back deeper into the tunnel, towards the waterfall. Without his lights fouling their vision they could see what her eyes had picked out. Light. Distant and dim, there was nevertheless a source of light to their left an unknown distance.
“Now what?” Dexter wondered aloud, repeating Rosh.
“My Lords, what-“ Tasha began, trying to find a way to get in their position to see what they saw.
“Shut your hole,” Rosh growled at her, silencing her instantly.
Dexter nearly commented on how that treatment had never worked for Rosh with Willa. Only the realization that Willa was gone, and that Rosh had been moodier than usual of late, stopped him.
“It’s coming closer!” Jenna observed, her eyes squinting in the darkness.
Dexter stared for a long moment, but could only share the shrug that Rosh offered. “We wait here then. We’ve a way out, if we need it.”
“Good choke point,” Rosh observed, tapping the rocks that formed the archway of the opening.
The wait lasted nearly half an hour until even Dexter and Rosh could tell that the light was coming closer. It grew more distinct as well, soon showing itself to be multiple lights. It was at their level and moving smoothly towards them. Either some sort of sea creature or a water-bound boat, Dexter mused. He shuddered at the thought of either.
“There’s people, four of them,” Jenna hissed after she pulled her head back into the tunnel.
“People?” Rosh echoed. “How’d they get in there? They swimming?”
“They’re on a boat I think,” Jenna said. “I can make out their figures from the lights they’re holding.”
They came closer and the others quickly saw the light split into multiple lights. It lit them up and confirmed there were several people on a small boat of some sort, but they remained too far for details.
Jenna hissed, sucking breath between her teeth, even as Dexter cupped his hands and called out in the darkness to them. “Don’t be coming too close right yet,” he said. “Who are you and what business are you on, sneaking about in the dark and all?”
“Captain!” Jenna said. Dexter held up a hand to make her wait but she only grabbed it. “It’s-“
“Captain? Is that you?” A distant voice echoed.
Dexter stared, squinting his eyes, then turned to see Jenna, who was grinning from ear to ear. He looked at the others, who shared his open eyed stares of disbelief. “Is that Bekka?” He asked softly.
Jenna nodded enthusiastically.
Rosh stuck his head out and stared. “That all of ‘em?” He asked. “Willa too?”
“Rosh?” Willa’s voice called over the dark waters that separated them.
Dexter waved his group to silence, then called out again, “Hurry yourselves up, there’s some explaining to be done.”
The next ten minutes took an eternity to pass. Logan was manning one oar, Jodyne another, and Bailynn was at the stern of the small raft using a wooden plank as a tiller. Bekka and Willa were at the front, keeping an eye out for rocks or other threats as well as offering directions.
Willa was the first to step off the raft and onto the wet rocky passage. Rosh grabbed her arm to help her, then pulled her completely off the ground and wrapped his arms around her. She squeaked in surprise at first, then returned the embrace as best she could. Finally she had to beat her arm against him so that he would let her down.
“You was strangling me!” She gasped, grinning even as she sucked in several deep breaths.
“Sorry,” Rosh muttered, blushing as he saw everyone was looking at them. “You looked like you was gonna slip on the rocks is all.”
Dexter laughed, then took Logan’s hand to help him off the boat. With all of them reunited, he turned in the small passage to survey them. They all looked worse for wear, but the missing members of his crew were worse yet, by far.
“What happened?” Dexter asked. “Where’s my ship?”
Jenna rolled her eyes at Dexter and gave Willa and Bekka hugs welcoming them back. Even Jodyne she wrapped in a hug, which caused the dwarven woman to grumble and sniff. Dexter frowned, wanting answers, but he could appreciate the moment of relief.
“I’m sorry,” Rosh mumbled to Willa after she had exchanged hugs or smiles with everyone and turned back to him. “I…well…”
“Shut your mouth,” she said to him, wrapping her arm around his midsection and pulling him to her so she could kiss him. “We thought we was done for… trapped by a bunch of frogs. I’m sorry too.”
“Frogs?” Xander asked, perking up. “Giant frogs, I hope?”
“Frog men,” Logan said. “Never heard of their like. They looked like a cross between a man and a frog. They slapped this seaweed around our faces and it turned the water to air so we could breathe, then they took us to an underwater cave that was filled with air and let us sit in it for a bit.”
“A bit? We been away more than 12,000 years!” Dexter said.
“12,000 years?” Bekka and the others echoed. She nodded after a moment. “That explains the strange lapse. We were fighting the frogs one moment, then there was this… heartbeat. A pulse. It felt like we had blinked our eyes because suddenly everything was different. The frogmen were gone and we were alone.”
“That sounds about right,” Xander mused. “You were caught up in a temporal stasis. It seemed we did not belong in that time. As soon as Rosh destroyed the elven temporal lock that bound this world to that time it returned, holding us safe until we could resynchronize with it in the current time.”
The blank stare that met him stole the grin from his face.
“The wizard means well,” Dexter said, breaking the awkward silence. “But that don’t explain why the ‘Hawk ain’t where we left her.”
They looked to one another, everyone sharing a blank look. Dexter frowned and turned back to Tasha, who was kneeling on the floor with shock and, finally, a look of belief upon her face.
“Who’s this?” Willa asked, noticing Tasha at the same time.
“Her name’s Tasha, she’s been sent to keep an eye on us and make sure we don’t cause no trouble,” Dexter said, introducing the dark skinned woman.
“I am Tasha Wyndamere, My Lady,” she said, bowing her head deeply. “I am known as the Golden Lady, leader of the Claws of Rosh, and rightfully descended from Lord Rosh himself.”
“Rightfully descended?” Willa asked.
Rosh’s eyes widened and he looked to Dexter pleadingly.
“Rosh?” She asked, turning on him. “What’s she talking about? I thought you said your name was Highsail?”
“We was fighting,” he mumbled frantically. “You’d left me… We had to… I mean…”
“Your bed wasn’t even cold! You son of a bitch!” She hissed, then reached out with her good ha
nd and slapped him. She turned to Tasha and glared, fighting over the words she couldn’t seem to spit out, then she turned and stormed back to stand near Bekka and Logan.
“Come on!” Rosh exasperated. “That was 12,000 years ago!”
Dexter coughed, fighting the sudden laugh that threatened to burst from his lips. He shook his head and stepped between them, holding up his hands. “You can fight later, we got to figure out how to find them elven ships first.”
“We found them,” Logan said. Suddenly he was the center of attention. “They’re in there,” he offered, pointing back towards the underground lake. “The water was higher, but we noticed it started going down. When it finally stopped we grabbed a life raft off one of their ships and lowered it to the water, then started looking for a way out.”
“The frog men had them?” Xander asked.
Logan shrugged. “Jodyne found us a way out of the cave we were trapped in,” he said. “The passing years had opened some fissures in the stones and we came out into a great cavern with the elven fleet stored inside it.”
“I guess that’s better than having them on the bottom of the lake,” Jenna mused, reminding Dexter that Sandis had said his fleet had been flooded when the other elves damned the river to make the lake.
“How do we get them out?” Dexter wondered aloud.
“We’ve already started, Captain,” Xander pointed out, staring at the tunnel. “We need only widen this tunnel so that the largest vessel can fit through it, the waterfall will not damage or destroy a void ship.”
Dexter nodded, staring at the rock overhead. “Rosh, think you can…”
“Hell no,” Rosh grumbled. “Not without braces and someone that knows where to put ‘em.”
“Pansy,” Dexter muttered under his breath, which drew a growl from Rosh. “Fine, we’ll find an engineer. First let’s catch up proper like over some ale. I’m itching to hear more about you all being taken off the ‘Hawk… and why you disappeared on us, priest.”
Logan pursed his lips then nodded. “I’ll tell you everything, Captain.” Bailynn, Bekka, Jodyne, and even the still glowering Willa shared a knowing look that Made Dexter raise his eyebrow.
“Aye, I expect a good tale,” the dispossessed Captain said.
* * * *
Willa was, once again, refusing to speak to Rosh. He worked non-stop, pausing only to eat, drink, and sleep. Word spread through the village of not only the work, but also of the presence of the Claws of Rosh on an unusual mission. They were preventing anyone that wasn’t working on the project from coming close, turning away even the mayor of the city and his personal guards.
Tasha addressed them, invoking the power she had as a Wyndamere to keep them at bay, though she admitted that she suspected it might not last for long. Tarin avoided her whenever possible, though she acted as though she ‘d forgotten his past indiscretion and ignored him accordingly.
Rosh and Keshira toiled side by side, widening the passage and putting in braces where Xander seemed to think they would serve them best. A search for an engineer had proved exhaustive and pointless, thus the wizard had volunteered his services. His search for a magical solution had been postponed.
The days stretched into weeks. Dexter helped where he could and also had Logan and Bekka show him the elven fleet. He searched through it, hoping against hope that he’d find the Voidhawk as well, but only the long silent elven ships greeted him.
On the second week after reuniting the crew, Dexter sat with a few of them at a table that in the inn that Tasha had commandeered for their purposes. “I expect we’ll be able to get the elven ships out in another week or so,” he mused, staring at his ale. “Jenna, I’ll be needing you to go get Sandis and his folk. Take Willa with you, she could use some time away, me thinks.”
“Captain! I-“
Jenna reached over and grabbed Willa’s hand, silencing her. She smiled at the woman. “It’s okay,” she said, “you’ll like this.”
Willa frowned, then nodded even as she looked away. Bekka, who was also at the table, seemed troubled by something. Dexter stared at her until the sorceress finally frowned at him. “Captain, can I-“
“Aye, go, have fun,” Dexter said, interrupting her. “I’d tell you to take Logan too, but I fear he might be running for the woods again.”
Dexter had taken the news of Logan’s lycanthrope well enough, though it did concern him. Still, the man had come through for him time and again. Once they got off the planet he expected the priest would be fine. As it was, he kept glancing at the night sky with increasing concern in his eyes. The moon was waxing and going to be full in a week or less.
He thought about his crew and their oddities. Dexter was no stranger to working with peculiar individuals; he’d served with some of the oddest types in the Federation Navy and, before that, run with some peculiar merchants and privateers. But his crew, now they were truly special. He had a werewolf, a pleasure golem, a warrior who couldn’t be killed, and a little girl who was as deadly as any of them. He took a drink of his ale and smirked to think that Willa, his one armed shipwright and carpenter, was probably the most normal of his crew.
Of course having a crew without a ship was a bit a complicated. He wondered how much longer he could keep them around. Even getting back into the void on an elven ship was a far cry from having his own ship. Owning another ship just wouldn’t be the same; it wouldn’t be the Voidhawk.
“Captain, Logan can control his change,” Bekka said, frowning a little. “He said it’s better underground too, easier for him to manage.”
“That’s why he’s been working more and more in the tunnel, I know,” Dexter said, waving his hand. “Just do me a favor while you’re gone, keep an eye out for Kragor.”
“Kragor?” Bekka asked, confused.
Jenna closed her eyes and nodded, then smiled when she opened them. “We’ll leave now,” she said. “Should be back in time to fly some ships out.”
Dexter nodded, smirking a little at how he expected he sounded. Sure, Jenna believed him, but he had no right expecting anyone else to believe that Kragor’s ghost still stuck around the Voidhawk. Willa had seen him, once, but that was a long time ago now. He waved them away, drinking his ale as they got up and went to go and get their things.
Thinking himself spared for a few moments, Dexter groaned into his mug when Tasha showed up next to their vacant chairs. “My Lord, may I-“
Dexter waved to the chair. “Why not, and stop calling me that.”
“My Lord?”
“Yes, that, knock it off,” he grumbled.
“But… what…how should I address you?” She asked, confused.
“Dexter or Captain Silverhawk will do,” he said. “Though I’ll not be much of a Captain without my ship.”
“This Voidhawk you keep mentioning?”
“Aye, that’s the one. She’s a beautiful thing. No maiden, to be sure, but who is?” He said, making sense only to himself.
“A ship that flies through the skies and the heavens above,” she pondered aloud. “That must be a wondrous thing.”
Dexter nodded, spilling a little of his ale. “Truly wondrous,” he said. “But it’s not the heavens, just the void we sail through. From world to world, doing what needs doing.”
“What needs doing, Captain Silverhawk?” She asked somewhat awkwardly.
“Captain is fine,” he said offhandedly, then he straightened up and grinned at her. “Truth is, I owe you much the same, Captain Wyndamere.”
Her eyes widened and, after a moment, she allowed herself a soft smile. “You do me much honor My…er… Captain.”
Dexter chuckled. “What needs doing?” He asked, repeating her question. “Depends on what you’ve a mind for. We do things here and there, helping out when it’s needed, making a living just by doing what we can. We freed this one world, small little place, from a wizard that had everybody thinking they was living in the most perfect place in the void. He was just using them as slaves. Cattle,
doing what he needed done to make his life the way he wanted it. We stopped it and they wanted to make us the new governors.”
Her eyes shined at the story, clearly anxious to hear more.
“He wanted Jenna, you see. Needed her so he could take her body and use it as his own,” Dexter grimaced, then took a drink as though he could wash the taste out of his mouth. “I put a stop to that though. Damn near got me gutted, but it was worth it. That Jenna, she’s a fine woman. Finest I ever set eyes on.”
Dexter smiled and let his eyes rest on Tasha. He sputtered a little, spilling some ale, and quickly added, “ No offense meant, Captain. You’re a fine site for void-weary eyes yourself.”
Dexter could not be sure, given her dark skin, but the way Tasha looked away quickly he thought that she might be blushing at the praise.
“Tell me more, Captain,” she pressed a moment later.
“Um, well, I mean… you’ve got a pretty face. Nice eyes and, I guess you’ve-“
Tasha laughed, the sound light and not something he would have ever attributed to the strong and commanding woman. “No no, I mean about your travels through this void.”
It was Dexter’s turn to blush. He hid behind his mug and found it empty. A wave brought a bored barmaid with a refill quickly.
“Well, we’ve lots of run ins with elves. The bad ones, like Jenna, not like the ones we’re rescuing. Wait! Jenna’s not a bad one, mind you. She was born the wrong race is all, she’s got a good heart,” Dexter fumbled his words and nearly sighed with relief when he saw Jenna, Bekka, and Willa emerge from the stairs that led up to their rooms. Jenna gave him a wicked smile that included the mischievous twinkle in her eye he knew all too well.
“There they are now, off to help rescue them elves, the good ones,” Dexter said.
Jenna and the others came over, a muted version of the smile on her face. “Why Captain, you’re not trying to have your way with Captain Wyndamere, are you?”
Dexter’s jaw dropped. “What? No! I was just telling her stories. Things we done.”
Voidhawk: The Elder Race Page 26