by Jamie Davis
He stopped laughing as his answer took a serious turn. Rodrigo looked around to make sure no one else was nearby before continuing.
“You’ve seen the way the killing weighs on her, Stefan. It’s like every death she causes takes a little part of her soul. She knows it, too. It’s why she doesn’t like to join the boarding parties unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
Stefan nodded. There was nothing more to say about it. They both worried about her.
He lifted the latch and opened their cabin door, and stepped back to let Rodrigo enter first.
Rodrigo gave him a quiet thank you and stepped into the familiar confines of their cabin. Stefan entered and closed the door behind him.
“So,” Stefan said. “I suppose we go back to the original agreement and make sure we do everything we can to keep her on board the ship and away from personally taking anyone else’s life.”
“It’s the least we can do. We may not be able to save ourselves, but we can save her.”
“Agreed,” Stefan said, holding out his hand.
The two men clasped wrists and shook to seal their agreement once again.
“Get out of those rags and get in your bunk. Helen will be by soon. It looked like Cari only needed a few stitches, so Helen will be along soon to check on you in a few minutes.”
Rodrigo nodded and started to pull the shredded and torn clothes off as Stefan left him alone in the cabin. A hand drifted up to his neck where the noose had left a scrape of rope burn against his throat.
A chill passed through him at the thought of how close it had been. He owed Stefan his life and he wouldn’t forget it.
Chapter 9
Cari stood and pulled on a fresh shirt before donning her coat. As she twisted, she felt the pull of the stitches Helen had placed to close up her wounds, but the pain was less than it had been thanks to some willow bark tea the woman gave her to drink.
It was an awful, bitter drink but she had to admit it helped with the pain.
“You do good work as always, Helen.”
“I’d be happy not to have any work to do at all, Cap’n.”
“It’s always good to be needed, isn’t it?”
“Not when the need is always cleaning up the mess of a fight. I’d be just as happy to return to the days of dealing with a fever now and then or setting a broken bone for someone who tripped over a bucket on deck.”
“If we can free the raider families being held nearby and get them out from under the Duke of Charon’s control, maybe we can all return to a quieter life.”
“But in order to do that, we have to do more fighting, right?”
“I’m afraid so, Helen.”
The other woman nodded as she closed up her sewing kit and placed it back in her surgeon’s bag.
“I’m afraid there will always be another fight to have. Violence breeds violence. At some point, you have to step back and say there’s got to be another way.”
“I didn’t pick these battles, Helen. Someone has to stop the Duke from his secret conquest to take the Empire for himself. We have to keep going.”
“As you say, ma’am. All it means for me is more stitching to do. That reminds me, I should check in on the Lieutenant. He looked a little battered when we picked him off that scaffold. I’m sure he’ll need some tending to as well.”
“You do that. When you’re finished come up and tell me how he’s doing.”
“Aye, Cap’n. I’ll report as soon as I’m done tending to him.”
Helen left and Cari buckled her belt around her waist, settling the dagger on her hip. She slipped the baldric with her sheathed sword over her head and grabbed her hat. It was time to make sure they escaped this harbor alive.
Reaching the quarterdeck a few minutes later, Cari scanned the ship and then looked out to the open water of the Great Southern Sea beyond the headland that marked the opening to Lyden Bay. All they had to do was pass by the fortifications and cannon mounted on that rocky outcropping and they’d be free to continue on their quest.
* * *
Quest accepted — escape the bay
* * *
Her hopes that the Sultanate troops manning the fort had not received notice of their daring escape were dashed as the first belches of dark gray smoke billowed out from the gun emplacements on the promontory above the narrow outlet to the sea.
The Vengeance was still out of range and the cannon balls splashed into the ocean hundreds of yards away. Cari thought their firing early a colossal mistake. It gave away their intentions and offered Cari an opportunity to plan a way to evade their guns.
The problem was the fort’s cannons were trained to guard the safe sea lanes in and out of the bay. Any ship that wished to come or go passed right through a potential gauntlet of cast iron and fire.
Unless…
“Percy, fetch my spyglass.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
A few seconds later, the boy passed the telescope into her hands. She slid the extensions out and held the eyepiece up to gaze through it.
Engaging her seamanship and navigation skills, Cari examined the arrows and lines representing currents and winds superimposed on her view. The open channel in front of the fort’s guns was apparently the best, clearest path of travel out of the bay.
Cari shifted her gaze to port, staring at the water beneath the cliffs supporting the fort far above. Rocks and treacherous reefs jutted up from the shallow water there. Even with the tide in, there was no clear passage, at least not one any sane captain would try to navigate.
Yet as she gazed longer at the maze of rocks and reefs, she saw a faint tracing of a green line representing a current leading through them. A glance upward at the sails confirmed her decision. The wind was favorable, steady and coming from the south. Her plan might work, but they were going a bit too fast.
* * *
New navigation challenge course marked
* * *
“Mr. Bowcott, Mr. Dawkins. Take in a quarter of the sail aloft.”
“Take in our sails, ma’am?” The bosun asked. “Speed’s the only thing that’ll get us past those guns before they shred us to bits.”
“He’s right, Cap’n,” Mr. Bowcott added. “If anything, we should put on more sail, even at the risk of cracking the mainmast.”
“I see your point, but I don’t agree it’s our only option,” Cari said, moving over to the ship’s wheel. She tapped the helmsman on the shoulder. He stepped aside and she took the wheel, gripping the spokes and spinning the wheel to turn the ship to port towards the rocks.
“Take in the sail as ordered, Mr. Bowcott.”
The first mate gulped as he stared at the reefs ahead of them. There was more than one old, decaying shipwreck on the narrow beach at the base of that cliff.
Cari saw them, too, but she shrugged it off. They couldn’t see what she could see.
“Be quick about it aloft,” she ordered. “If we don’t slow down, I’ll never be able to make the turns.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Orders were relayed aloft and the sailors in the rigging scrambled to pull in sail they’d only just let free.
Above them, the fort’s guns bellowed once more. This time, their sudden change of direction caught the gunners by surprise, and the cannon balls splashed down harmlessly all along their previous course.
Percy whistled next to her.
“One of those shots would have struck us for sure, Ma’am. Good thing you changed course.”
Cari spared him a glance and winked at him when he looked up at her.
“At least you trust me, Percy.”
“Always, ma’am.”
Cari returned her concentration to the shoals ahead of her. Her navigational skill showed her the course. Now her seamanship skill came into play. On either side of the twisting path laid out before her, a series of outcroppings and knife-edged rocks jutted up from the sea.
At each turning point, she could see a sort of glowing beacon. Those would in
dicate either a turn to port or starboard to her as they approached. There was still a good chance of them running aground if she failed to anticipate the markers and turned too late to bring the massive vessel about to each new heading.
“Mr. Bowcott, Mr. Dawkins, send extra crew aloft. We’re going to have to take in and let out sail as we move in quick succession to make this work. Be ready to relay my orders as soon as I give them.”
Both men stole nervous looks towards the bow and the approaching rocks.
“Don’t worry,” Cari said. “There’s a way through there. I promise. Think of it this way, at least we will avoid being riddled with holes by the guns.”
Neither man said a word and Cari smiled. By sailing so close to the cliff, the cannons in the fort above were unable to aim low enough to have an angle on the escaping ship. Of course, that wouldn’t matter if they smashed themselves on the rocks to be dashed apart by the crashing waves.
The beacon in her vision to port flashed and Cari spun the wheel, bringing the ship around.
Nothing this large turned fast, but the current and the receding waves pulled the bow around. The Vengeance slipped deftly between two huge rocks poking up from the shallow sea floor.
“One down, and about eight more to go,” Cari muttered to herself. She was already looking ahead to the next course correction, and she realized they were going too slow to make the turn at the necessary speed to beat the next cycle of waves rolling in towards the cliff.
“Let out some sail on the foremast, Bosun,” Cari called out.
“Aye, ma’am.”
Men and women moved through the rigging above like tiny spiders scuttling along after flies caught in their web.
The ship picked up a little speed and Cari prepared to take the next turn.
This time the beacon to the starboard side flashed in her vision and she spun the wheel in the other direction. At the faster speed, the ship responded quicker and the bow came about, rounding a reef hidden just below the water’s surface, hidden from all but Cari’s enhanced vision.
The fort was directly overhead now, and a booming crash announced the next broadside from the guns above.
Once more, the cannonballs splash harmlessly in the open water of the mid-channel. Each was much more massive than any cannonballs the guns on the Vengeance fired. They would cause a lot of damage if one of them struck home.
Cari forced her attention back to the task at hand. The next course change was coming up a second one followed right afterward. Somehow, she was going to have to zig-zag through there and shoot out the other side.
“Gentlemen,” Cari called out to the bosun and first mate. “I’m not going to have time to call out the orders. You’ll have to judge it for yourselves. As soon as I round the hard turn to starboard, I have to bring the ship back to port while at the same time slowing down to allow us time to come about before going through the second gap in the rocks. Be ready to take in a lot of sail, understand?”
Both of them nodded, and Cari had no more time to plan because the next turn was in front of her. She turned the wheel to starboard and the ship turned, pivoting around the rocks on the right side of the ship.
Orders sounded, and the crew started pulling in sail as fast as they could. Cari spun the wheel back to port. The bow wallowed for a few seconds, as if unable to make up its mind, then it slowly started coming around to port.
Cari winced.
It was going to be terribly close.
A loud scraping crash sounded to starboard and the ship lurched as it continued forward.
The Vengeance moved away from the rocks it struck, shifting back into the channel between the two sides again.
“Percy, run below and check with the ship’s carpenter to see if we sprung any leaks.”
“Aye, ma’am.”
That last one had been too close.
She was through the worst of it, though, having passed through the point that lay closest to the cliff face. Now they moved away from the headland. The rocks were spaced farther apart on this side of the channel.
“Put on more sail, Mr. Bowcott, now we run for it. As we leave the last turn, the fort will get off at least one shot at us. I’d like to present them as short a firing window as possible.”
“Agreed, Cap’n. We’ll be ready to add as much sail as the masts will bear.”
Cari nodded and proceeded to take the next three turns in quick order as the Vengeance picked up speed.
Their increased speed made the final maneuver a bit tricky, but Cari pulled it off with a final turn of the wheel.
* * *
Navigation and seamanship bonus achieved
+1 level to each skill
* * *
Cari smiled as they shot out from the narrow and seemingly impossible channel at the base of the headland and into the open sea. A final volley of cannon fire came too late as the Vengeance picked up speed and sailed out of range.
They made it.
* * *
Quest completed — escape the bay
15,000 experience
* * *
They sped out to sea, and Cari called up her stats page and examined her new ship-handling stats while they set a course for the compound holding the raider families.
* * *
Name: Cari Dix
Class: Duelist
Level: 11
* * *
Attributes:
Brawn: 12 - +2 to hit/damage
Wisdom: 10 - +1
Luck: 10 - +1 to all saving throws
Speed: 22 - +7 defense
Charm: 16 - +4 personal reaction
Health: 84/110
* * *
Skills: Two-Weapon Combat, Acrobatic Dodge — 2, Multi-Foe Tactics — 2, Feint — 2, Taunt, Bladesmith — Master, Prescience — 3, Ambidexterity, Seamanship — 3, Navigation — 3
Master Duelist Bonus — Projectile Dodge (50% chance of activation)
Experience: 252,000/300,000
Chapter 10
“I don’t like it, Cap’n,” Mr. Bowcott said, stabbing a finger down on the map. “This takes us directly into the lagoon in plain view of the raider hostage compound and any guards. They’ll see us coming as soon as we enter the inlet. It makes more sense to land a shore party quietly over here and cross this stretch of desert and make the rescue from the landward side.”
Cari shook her head. “That will take an extra day. Even if we arrive at sundown and the shore party marches inland all night, they’ll arrive just before dawn and still have to make the trek back to where we’re anchored. We don’t have time to be fancy with our plans. The Sultanate officials knew our cover story for coming here. They have to figure we still have to deliver our message from the Duke. They’ve got to at least try and look for us here. Our only chance is to strike fast and hard and get away just as quickly.”
“It’s risky,” Helen said as her finger traced the coastline on the map. “Still —”
Cari had come to trust the woman and asked her to come join the rescue planning. She wanted the healer’s opinion on the proposed plan.
“Go on, Helen. I asked you here because I want to hear what you have to say.”
Helen cleared her throat before continuing.
“I was going to say, yes it’s risky. It’s also our best plan if speed is our biggest concern. Cari is right. If we anchor where you propose Mr. Bowcott, and then send more than half the ship’s crew ashore, we’ll likely return to a ship captured by the naval vessels which must be chasing after us by now. There won’t be enough of the crew left to both man the guns and sail the ship in a running fight. They’ll have no choice but to surrender or abandon the Vengeance and take their chances ashore in a strange land.”
She paused, and Cari nodded for her to continue.
“If we plan our attack for the middle of the night, we can enter the lagoon after we send our two longboats ashore first. They’ll land with enough crew on board to remove any guards who might be watching the sea ap
proach. Once they signal the all clear, we sail in, and the rest of the crew disembarks and proceeds with the rescue.”
Stefan smiled and said. “I like it. It has the best elements of both plans, and we’ll be in and out fast enough we won’t get trapped up against the coastline if any pursuers arrive earlier than expected.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Cari said. “Well done, Helen. Your plan is a lot better than the one I came up with.”
“Thank you, ma’am. It seemed like a compromise approach was needed.”
“Agreed,” Cari replied. She turned to her other officers. “If we can rescue these families and return them to the Cairn Islands, we pull the teeth from the Duke of Charon’s whole western strategy. That means we can’t afford to fail here. Our biggest problem is we have no idea what kind of resistance to expect. There have to be some guards, but there’s no reference about how many. I tried to trick the Governor and Captain Rashesh into letting something slip, but they either didn’t know or opted not to share it with me.”
“It can’t be that many,” Rodrigo suggested. “How many guards do you need to watch over a group of women and children?”
“Raider women and children, Rod,” Stefan corrected. “That and the risk the raiders would find them would lead me to station a large contingent of guards here. We should be cautious.”
“There’s a certain caution in boldness,” Cari said. “What I mean is if we strike hard and fast in the middle of the night, they won’t be able to coordinate a response in time to stop us. We’ll be long gone by the time they even know we were there.”
“What plan of attack did you have in mind, ma’am?” Mr. Dawkins asked.
“First, I’ll have you prepare more of those small casks of gunpowder with fuses so they can be used to open any gates or blow a hole in the compound wall if needed. Plus, I have an idea for something from back home called a grenade. I think I can craft at least a few of them from the stores we have on the ship. We’ll also distribute the few flintlock muskets and pistols we have to help hold the harbor against our return. Mr. Bowcott, you will take command of the contingent holding the harbor. The rest of the shore party, led by me, will storm the compound, blowing open any gates or obstacles we encounter. Once we gather the captives, we’ll return to the harbor by the fastest possible route. If we’re lucky, we’ll be back at sea before sunrise.”