Accidental Raider

by Jamie Davis

  “Alright, people, here’s where we earn the big bucks. We’ve got a city to save. I don’t know how many enemies we’ve got down there so let’s be quiet and take our time. Hopefully, we can whittle any opposition down to size.”

  Cari pointed to Stefan and Rodrigo. “You two take the lead but go slow and watch for any traps or hidden guards. Helen, you will bring up the rear and watch out for anyone who might get behind us and hit us that way.”

  She considered the six sailors who’d accompanied them. Gary was the oldest and most experienced one in the group.

  “Gary, you, Westy, Bradley, and Killian will remain here to guard this entrance. There might be others in this warren of mine tunnels. Stop them from coming up on us from behind if you can, otherwise retreat back to us and warn us they’re coming. Francesca and Beau, you’ll stick with me. Be ready to jump in either direction to cover the rear or charge forward to help the lieutenants, alright?”

  The duo nodded. The matched couple were the youngest in the shore party, both close to her age. Francesca, a striking dark-skinned woman from some island chain in the southern seas, seemed most certain of herself. She stood calm and still, waiting for the order to move.

  Beau, a usually happy-go-lucky character with shaggy blonde hair, shifted back and forth on his feet with nervous energy ready for action. Though they were young, they were also both among the fiercest fighters in her crew and had distinguished themselves time and again in boarding actions.

  Cari nodded at the group. “Let’s go.”

  Stefan and Rodrigo both lit torches and squeezed through the narrow opening of the fissure and headed down the small passage deeper into the mountain. Cari and the rest followed, leaving the rear guard behind to watch their backs.

  They were in more of a system of caverns and caves now and not an area of worked stone with regular walls, floor, or ceiling. As a result, the going was harder for all of them. Cari figured getting even small casks of anything down here must have been a difficult task, requiring a lot of work and manpower. That meant there might be quite a few people down here ahead of them.

  At one point, they all had to cross a dark chasm that seemed to go on forever into the depths below them. A narrow bridge of wooden planks only a few feet wide spanned the gap with just a pair of ropes strung on either side to help steady any who crossed.

  “Don’t look down,” Stefan cautioned once he’d safely crossed. “It’s better that way.”

  Rodrigo followed, then Cari. As she stepped out onto the planks, one of them shifted under her by a few inches making her windmill her arms until she managed to grab the rope next to her.

  She found herself leaning out over the chasm staring down into the darkness.

  Heart pounding and ignoring the gasps from her companions, Cari managed to get her footing again and stood up on the planking.

  Despite her terror at almost falling to her death, Cari tried to put on a facade of bravado. She let out a little chuckle and shrugged. “That would have sucked.”

  “Good lord, Cap’n,” Helen said. “Try to be careful. We can’t afford to lose you in here. They’d never let us back on the Vengeance without you.”

  The first mate said the last with a wink at the others, attempting to defuse the situation. A few chuckles sounded signaling her humor worked.

  “Watch that first step,” Cari cautioned. “The plank isn’t secured.”

  The final three in their group managed to cross without incident, and they continued on. The cavern path continued heading down, deeper into the earth and Cari wondered how much farther they had to go.

  About an hour later, the sound of rushing water up ahead, along with the flickering of light alerted her they might be close to the end of the journey. Stefan handed his torch to Rodrigo and went on ahead to scout around the bend in the tunnel.

  Soon after he left the sound of voices shouting drifted back up the passage over the rumble of the water. They didn’t sound angry, so Cari was pretty sure they hadn’t discovered Stefan. She strained her ears to try and understand what the voices said, but it was too muffled by the other sounds in the cavern.

  Stefan picked his way back up the path to them and joined the rest of the group in a broader part of the tunnel.

  “Around the bend there it opens up into a huge cavern. I couldn’t see the far side in the darkness. A river runs through the center, though from the exposed high-water marks on the banks, it clearly used to have a greater flow than it does now. I think I know why.”

  He drew a crude map in the loose sand of the passage floor. “They’ve built some sort of dam at one end of the cavern to hold back most of the water, diverting the flow through a series of pools. That appears to be where they’re dumping the contents of their casks. There are about twenty assorted humans, orcs, and goblins down there. They’re all busy working to dump the latest load of casks into the river pools.”

  Cari looked at the map, trying to visualize what Stefan described in her mind. She pointed to the end where he’d marked the dam’s position.

  “What about the dam? Is there a way to open it or cause it to fail?”

  Stefan’s brow creased in thought. “It’s made of rock supported by timber braces. I suppose if you could knock out a few of the braces, the rest would give way under the weight, but you’d never get it done without the workers noticing.”

  “What if we distracted them with an attack at the far end of the cavern? What then? I’m looking for an opportunity to sneak one or two of us to the right to the dam while the other four go left and launch an attack from that end of the cavern.”

  “What, take on twenty of them with just six of us?” Helen asked.

  “Four,” Rodrigo corrected the first mate. “Two will be heading to the dam to take out the supports.”

  “Cari,” Helen said, using her first name in an unusual display outside of a private setting. “I know you’ve got some kind of magic mojo you can use during a fight to do a lot of things but four of us taking on twenty is a bit more than we can handle. What if we send back to Gary and the others back in the mine. They could even the odds?”

  “It’ll take too long,” Cari replied. “We need to do this now. The plan is to stop them from opening any more casks of the Starwort solution and hopefully flush the whole river system with the release of the dam.”

  “If we’re not careful,” Rodrigo added. “We’ll get flushed down the river, too. I don’t want to die on the end of a sword down here, but I like the idea of drowning in the dark of an underground river even less.”

  Cari pointed to the area of the map in the sand where their passage opened into the cavern. “Is it higher in elevation here than in the rest of the cavern?”

  “Yes,” Stefan replied.

  “Then, after we start the attack, we fall back here and make a stand in the narrower portion of the passage. That makes it harder for them to bring their superior numbers to bear. Once the dam is released, the others can hit anyone still willing to fight from behind and we’ll finish the last of them. I’d like to take a prisoner or two. It would be nice to have someone who might be able to corroborate my belief that the Duke of Charon is behind this plot against Tandon.”

  “Let’s survive the initial assault,” Helen suggested. “Then we’ll see if we can catch any prisoners.” She crouched and looked down at the map and then up at Cari standing next to her. “Who goes where?”

  “You and Stefan will take on the dam supports. You both are the closest thing we have to an engineer. If any of us can figure out how to take them out, you two can. Rodrigo, Francesca, Beau, and I will provide the distraction you’ll need to start your work once you figure it out.”

  “How will you know?” Stefan asked.

  “You’ll have to come up with some sort of signal for us to begin. We’ll stay near the cavern mouth and hide while we watch for it.”

  “I know,” Helen said. She held up the small powder horn she carried for reloading her two pistols. I’ll
light a small pile of this gunpowder with my flint and steel. It won’t explode, just cause a sudden flare in the darkness. No one will see it unless they’re looking that way.”

  “That should work,” Cari agreed. “I think we have a plan. Let’s get going.”

  The group moved forward down the passage and turned around the bend in the tunnel. As Stefan had described, the large cavern opened up before them. There were torches here and there beside each of the three small pools along the track of the narrow river. The torches were tied to long poles jammed into the sandy floor of the cavern, so they flickered at about head height.

  There was plenty of shadowy areas, especially near the entrance where they were. Cari pointed left in the direction where she could barely see the dam in the dim recesses of the cavern.

  Stefan nodded, and he and Helen started to work their way along the cavern’s upper edge toward the far end and the dam. Cari and the others crouched behind an outcropping of rocks beside the tunnel entrance and watched their comrades’ progress.

  Soon, Cari could no longer see her friends. They’d disappeared completely in the shadows of the far side of the cavern.

  “Beau, watch the area around the dam for the flash of light from the first mate.”

  “Aye, ma’am.”

  Rodrigo slid over next to Cari while she peered over the rocks at the people working below.

  “I suppose you have a clever plan for us, right?”

  “Rod, honestly, I’m making this up as we go, but there’s nothing wrong with that. I think we can pull this off. When Beau sees the flare, we’ll charge down into the cavern making as much noise as we can.”

  She pointed at a small ledge near the bottom of the path to the cavern floor.

  “We’ll stop there and prepare a pistol volley at the first group to come and engage us. After that volley, we’ll finish off any survivors and then retreat back up the path to this location. This is where we’ll make our stand.”

  “I wish we’d thought to bring along the muskets from the guards back in the mine. We could’ve used the extra firepower here.”

  Cari shook her head. He was right, but there was no sense in worrying about might-have-beens. They’d make do with what they had. Each of them had at least one pistol. Cari had two. That gave them five shots, which, if she planned their use carefully, could help them take out a quarter of their opposition in one volley.

  Cari’s hand fell to her belt pouch and she felt the ceramic flask of oil she’d stuffed in there when Helen handed them out. She’d forgotten about it when they discovered the trolls in the region weren’t their enemies.

  “Molotov cocktails,” Cari muttered.

  “This is hardly the time to think about alcohol,” Rodrigo replied.

  “It’s not a drink, it’s a weapon. Everyone get out the oil flasks the first mate gave you.”

  Cari took her dagger and cut a strip of cloth from her cloak, stuffing it into the flask to soak it in oil then pulling it part way out and replacing the cork stopper.

  “These can be used as homemade grenades, small fiery explosives that might help us win this fight. Everyone make your own, now. We don’t have much time.”

  While the others followed her orders, Cari lit one of the torches and laid it on the ground behind the rocks, out of sight. The fire at the head of the torch sputtered some when it touched the ground, but it stayed lit.

  “The first one back to this point picks up the torch and lights their flask. Then pass the torch to the next person until all the flasks are lit. We’ll throw them at the feet of those chasing after us. The ceramic will break and, if it works as intended, spray the flaming oil all over the attackers.”

  Understanding dawned on the others’ faces as they heard her plan. They set their flasks down near the lit torch, careful not to put them too close to the open flame.

  Her plan came together and her team was prepared to carry it out. All that remained was to get the signal from Helen and Stefan.

  They’d use their pistols and the burning oil to do as much damage as they could. After that, it would come down to cold steel.

  That was fine with her, she was perfectly alright with using her blades to fight her way through this. It was where she was most comfortable in a fight.

  “Cap’n,” Beau hissed.

  Cari snapped her head around just in time to catch the ending sparks of the gunpowder flare out of the corner of her eye.

  “That’s the signal. Everyone ready?”

  Nods from the others brought a smile to her lips.

  “Good, then let’s go.”

  * * *

  Quest completed — investigate the silver mine

  12,000 experience

  Quest accepted — clean the poison from the river

  Chapter 21

  Cari stood, a pistol in each hand, and let out a yell. “Get ‘em. For Tandon and the Empress!”

  She followed the battle cry with a whooping holler that sounded a little frenzied and insane in her ears. The shouts of the others echoed as they ran down the path into the cavern right behind her.

  It didn’t matter how crazy she sounded. Her primary concern was, what would the workers at the bottom of the cavern do.

  She needn’t have worried. As soon as her group launched their attack, the closest of the cavern’s occupants set their casks of poison down and drew their weapons.

  The first two groups to come at them merged into one cluster of seven. They shouted, brandishing their swords and axes as they ran toward Cari and her small party.

  She reached the small ledge and knelt down, leveling both pistols to point down the slope at the advancing enemy. Her crewmates settled in position on either side of her with Rodrigo to her left and Francesca and Beau to her right.

  “Wait for my order. Make it count!”

  The first cluster of men and women charging up at them consisted of two orcs, a goblin, and four humans, including two women and two men. None of them slowed as they crested the rise and charged at their attackers waiting on the ledge.

  Cari waited until they were only ten yards away before she gave the order.

  “Fire!”

  The five pistols fired as one, the lead balls punching outward and slamming into the charging enemy.

  Both of the ones Cari aimed at dropped and two of the others beside them fell to the ground as well. They’d managed to cut down more than half of the first group.

  * * *

  2,500 experience awarded

  2,500 experience awarded

  * * *

  The next group of ten or so gathered by the river basin at the bottom of the cavern floor. They were too far away to worry about right now.

  “Finish them,” Cari called out.

  She threw down her pistols and drew her sword and dagger. Her sword met the haft of a descending hand axe wielded by one of the orcs. He was huge, nearly seven feet tall.

  The force of parrying the blow shook her entire body and she struggled to slide the axe to the side along her blade while she brought up the dagger with her other hand and plunged it into the bulbous belly of the heavyset orc.

  Cari twisted the dagger and pressed inward, trying to do the most damage she could. She must have hit a vital organ. The orc spasmed once and fell to his side, clutching at the gaping dagger wound in his stomach.

  * * *

  3,000 experience

  * * *

  Cari turned to help her comrades, but they’d finished off the final two attackers. Shouts from below told her the rest of the work party was on their way.

  The crack of a musket sounded an instant before a bullet whizzed past her head.

  “Back to the upper position.”

  “Cari, we have time to reload,” Rodrigo countered.

  “No, we’re too exposed here, and they have some muskets. Back to the rocks and the oil flasks.”

  She grabbed him by the arm and pulled him with her. Francesca and Beau were already running ahead of them. Beau
’s hand was pressed to his side. He must have been injured in the initial fight.

  Two more gunshots sounded from behind them, and a bullet ricocheted off a boulder next to her. The shouts of anger grew closer and she knew without looking back the remaining cavern workers chased close behind them.

  Francesca waited with the torch in one hand and a flask of oil in the other. The cloth wick was already aflame. She dipped the torch towards Beau, and he lit his flask.

  Cari picked up a third flask and Rodrigo the fourth and final one. They each lit their wicks from the torch and turned to face the angry mob charging up the hill behind them. In the lead was a man in a tailored uniform coat with gold buttons on the lapels and cuffs, a fine rapier in his hand.

  He was apparently the one in charge.

  Cari aimed her flask at his feet. Her aim was true, but at the last instant, the man jumped in the air, hopping over her flaming missile. It crashed to the ground, missing the leader but spraying burning oil all over the two charging behind him. They fell to the ground writhing as the burning oil did its job.

  * * *

  2,500 experience

  2,500 experience

  * * *

  Screams followed as the others threw their Molotov cocktails down at their attackers. In all, their makeshift grenades knocked out six more attackers.

  The remaining seven charged in and Cari was once more caught up in the melee of a close-quarters fight.

  She tried to angle towards the leader, but he shifted to the right and charged in at Beau and Francesca.

  Cari found herself facing a pair of goblins armed with barbed spears. The longer weapons thrust in from either side and she batted the initial attacks away.

  Her opponents showed they were used to attacking in tandem and they coordinated their attacks on her, driving her backward until she was pressed up against the cavern wall.

  The first attack broke through when she tried to dodge to the side and her foot slipped on loose gravel, making her stumble.