by Jamie Davis
“It is beautiful,” Mona commented, sensing her husband was reminiscing as he looked over his first home here in Fantasma.
“Yes, it is. I’d forgotten how much I loved coming here. Why’d we ever stop?”
“You know why. It wasn’t fair to Cari to raise her in two worlds like we were doing. We had to pick a place she could call home and stay there. Besides, we were going to invite her to come back with us after her next birthday. That’s why you restored the computer in the first place.”
“Yeah and look how that turned out.”
“We’re almost there, Hal. This is the last place anyone had word of Cari’s whereabouts. Let’s get down there before dark so we can find a place to stay. It’s been two weeks since we’ve seen anything resembling an actual inn with a real bed.”
“We had a nice visit in the Valley of the Sun. Shalush’s grandson was very welcoming when he realized who we were.”
“Sleeping on a pile of bear pelts in a goblin longhouse is not my idea of a bed. I want you to take me to the nicest inn we can find so I can get a hot bath and a decent meal. Then I’m going to settle into a nice down-stuffed mattress and sleep until morning without having to take a shift on guard.”
Hal laughed. “That actually sounds like a nice plan. Come on, the main gate is right down there. Let’s go and get a good night’s sleep. We can check in on the Duke in the morning.”
* * *
———
* * *
Hal ground his teeth and tried to hold back his temper.
“My good man, I assure you the document is not a forgery. That is the Empress’ seal and it clearly states who I am along with my position as an official emissary from the Crystal City.”
“I don’t care who you say you are, we take the memory of Prince Hal very seriously here in Tandon. The mere fact you’re pretending to be him is enough for me to have you jailed until we discover who you really are. I suppose this woman with all the tools on her belt is supposed to be Princess Mona? Everyone knows she always went out wearing a blue gown. It’s in all the stories.”
“I never wore a blue gown in my life. Hal, we don’t have time for this idiot. We have to see the Duke.”
“Look, kid. I don’t want to hurt you, but if you don’t pass us along to your superiors, I’m going to make you very uncomfortable in a moment.”
The young officer spluttered for a moment, trying to find his voice. “You can’t threaten an officer in the Duke’s guard like that. Sergeant, Sergeant, come in here and place these people under arrest. They have threatened me.”
The door behind Hal opened, and he decided he’d have enough of this idiot. He opened himself up to draw in magical energy so he could teach this kid a lesson. Once more, he felt the strange resistance holding the magical forces back.
He felt some power fill him but nothing like he’d been used to when he came here in the past. Kareena had told him magic no longer worked the way it used to. Being unable to open portals whenever he pleased and travel where he wanted was a pain.
He was still struggling to gather enough power to do what he wanted when a shouted warning from Mona turned him around. A butt stroke to the head from the guard sergeant’s musket had him seeing stars and his legs buckled beneath him, dropping him to his knees.
* * *
Health damage — health -18
* * *
Hal looked up through the haze cursing aloud as the magic slipped away from him. He guessed he’d have to do this the old-fashioned way.
Mona was already being held with her arms twisted behind her by two guards. Two others advanced on him, manacles ready to bind his hands. Hal reached for his daggers as he struggled to rise.
The sergeant growled another order and raised his musket ready to strike Hal with the wooden stock one more time.
Hal struggled to rise to his feet as he drew his daggers. The room spun around him as he fought to break through the dizziness of the first blow to his head.
The sergeant brought his musket down again, catching Hal on the back of his head and the world started to dim. He didn’t need the notification to tell him he was about to pass out.
* * *
Critical hit — health -26
Critical side effect — unconsciousness
* * *
The next thing he felt was a familiar peppermint taste in his mouth as his faculties returned. A familiar voice nearby shouted at someone.
“Why did you automatically assume his letter from the Empress was a forgery, you fool. You’re a fortunate young man I happened to be on my way to see the Duke on urgent business.
“Mr. Colin, sir, how was I to know this man was who he said he was. Prince Hal should be an old man by now. My gramps was a little kid when he was here last.”
Mona’s voice carried a chill tone Hal knew all too well. “You’re just lucky Colin had a healing potion on him. Your sergeant almost killed him.”
Hal’s eye’s fluttered open and he looked up at Mona’s face staring down at him.
“Take it easy Hal. They beat on you pretty hard with their musket stocks.”
Hal raised his hand to his head. It throbbed with a dull ache despite the healing potion Mona gave him. She held up her hand with a fresh flask.
“Do you want another?”
“No, I’ll be alright.” Hal smiled at his old friend. “Colin, it’s good to see you again. We haven’t checked in with you in a long time. I see you still come here.”
“I find it interesting to visit from time to time and see how things are changing. Imagine my surprise when someone showed up in my shop who I knew from back home.”
“Please tell me you’re talking about Cari,” Mona said.
Colin nodded. “She’s made quite a name for herself since she came here. It hasn’t been easy, but she’s done well. Based on what she set out to do last night, I think you’d both be very proud of her.”
Hal had so many questions swirling around in his head. One jumped to the top as he processed what the shopkeeper said at the end.
“Last night? Colin, please tell me you locked her in a room at the Outfitters. Tell me you kept her until you could send her home.”
“Why would I do that? Besides, you know my portal set up allows only me to travel back and forth. Tildi made sure of that.”
“Why—?” Hal paused as he searched for the words. “Colin, why wouldn’t you stop her? That’s our daughter. She has no business roaming around this place. She could get herself killed.”
“I think that would be harder to do than you’d think. Judging from everything she’s accomplished in the year since she arrived, I’d say she’s leveled up quite a bit. You know she’s the captain of her own ship now. She’s built quite the reputation for herself as the protector of the Southern and Western Seas.”
“Colin,” Mona asked. “Is she still in the city? We’ve come to take her home.”
Colin shook his head. “Nope. She planned on sailing with the evening tide last night. As far as I know, that’s exactly what she did.”
Hal’s thoughts turned right away to the ship he and Mona watched sail from the harbor the night before. Had they been that close, only to miss her by a few hours? Just thinking about it put a twisted knot in his guts.
“Hal, we have to get to the harbor. We need to get a ship to go after her.”
“I think you both should hold on a second. I have a message Cari asked me to deliver on her behalf to the Duke.”
“What is it? Tell us.” Mona ordered.
“Not here, Mona. This has to be done in private. Too many prying ears about for me to be comfortable talking here, even quietly. Come on Hal, get on your feet. You’ll want to hear this, I promise you.”
The young officer of the guard who’d ordered Hal and Mona taken prisoner stood by the door wringing his hands. He had a puzzled look on his face. He looked from Hal to Mona and then to Colin.
“Uh, Mr. Colin, sir. If this is truly Prince Hal and Princess
Mona, does that mean the Dread Raider Cari is actually the Lost Princess herself?”
“I’ll leave it for you to do the math, boy. You’re a smart lad. You’ll figure it out. Now get out of our way. The Duke is going to want to hear what I have to say. I’ve been delayed long enough this morning.”
Colin brushed past the lieutenant, followed by Mona and finally Hal.
Hal met the boy’s eyes and winked. “You’re lucky. I was going to turn you into a toad. Who knows? Maybe I still will.”
The lieutenant’s eye’s widened, and the blood drained from his face as fear of what Hal might do to him sunk in.
Hal laughed aloud at the look of horror on the kid’s face. Maybe he’d be a bit more polite to the next person who came in to get an audience with the Duke.
Chapter 25
Hal found himself surprised at the youthful ages of the Duke and Duchess of Tandon. They couldn’t be older than twenty-three or twenty-four. They were barely older than Cari.
When Colin introduced them and announced their reason for coming to Tandon, an astonished look crossed the young Duke’s face.
“I knew it. I knew there was something special about that young lady. The Lost Princess herself stayed under my roof and I didn’t even know it.” He smiled at Hal and Mona. “She saved my life, you know, and the life of Crown Prince Timron, too. Now I’m graced with the presence of the man who saved the Empire itself. I’m humbled beyond measure.”
“I’m just a guy like you, your Grace. I put my pants on one leg at a time like anybody else.”
“Please, Your Highness, both of you must drop the formality here in the palace. Please call us by our given names. I am Korran, named for my grandfather who you knew very well back in the day. My wife is Cecelia.”
“Call me Ce-ce, please. I insist,” the Duchess said.
“Good, I never had much use for all that formal talk. Only if you call us Hal and Mona, though.”
“Very well, Hal, now what is it I can do for you two? I’ll put the resources of my entire duchy at your service as soon as we resolve the effects of this horrible plague that struck us.”
“What plague?” Mona asked.
“Actually, it turns out someone was poisoning the underground river that supplies water to our wells. Cari, your very capable daughter, tracked down the source of the problem and stopped those who were responsible, though we are a bit hazy on the details. We only know what little she told one of our court physicians before she left the city.”
“I’m sorry for what befell your city,” Hal said. “I’m sure you’ll find a way to recover in good time. What I need is a ship, preferably one fast enough to catch up with Cari, wherever she’s headed next.”
“That won’t be easy, Hal,” Colin said, jumping into the conversation. “Her ship, the Vengeance, is a mighty fast ship. Based on everything I’ve heard about her, she’s gained some unique abilities having to do with navigation and sailing. Besides, she’s coming back here when she’s done. That’s the reason I was coming to see the Duke.”
“Well, here I am, Colin. Out with it,” the Duke said.
“She’s found a survivor of the shipwreck that killed Prince Hamilton and his whole family. We thought they all had perished when the ship sank. It turns out it wasn’t a storm. It was raiders, as many of us expected. The raider captain took the youngest child, Jaycee, captive as a hostage for use later.”
Colin continued relaying the tale of the little girl’s rescue and fostering here in Tandon. He finished with a shrug. “I think the best thing to do right now, Hal, is for you and Mona to stay here and wait. Cari plans on getting the girl back and sailing right back here to Tandon.”
“He’s right, Hal,” Korran said. “Besides, there are no ships in the harbor. Once we opened the city again, all those ships quarantined in the harbor took off for open water. There’s nothing larger than a fishing boat down there right now.”
“If you’re right, Colin, she should be back in a few days,” Hal mused. “I suppose we should stay and wait for her here, if you’ll have us, Korran.”
“Of course. We’d be honored to have you stay here with us.”
Cecelia cleared her throat, and when everyone’s attention was on her, she spoke.
“I wonder, Hal, since you’re a mage of such renown and your wife is known for her exceptional mechanical abilities, if you could be persuaded to assist Tandon in its recovery from this horrible poisoning. The temple priests and healing mages are hard-pressed to keep up with the needs for healing and the water supply is still slightly tainted with the residual poison. People are still getting sick, though not at the rate or severity as we saw before.”
Mona glanced at Hal. “I suppose I could get together with the local craft guild masters to look at building some sort of water purification system for the city’s wells. You could lend your earth magic skill to helping with the healing needed by the people in the worst health.”
Hal nodded. “You’re right. We’ve got nothing else to do while we wait for Cari to return. Put us to work, Korran. We’ll do what we can to help your city recover. It’ll help pass the time and keep me from worrying about Cari every moment of the day.”
The mention of her name brought her to mind again and Hal’s mind wandered off, trying to picture his daughter as a dashing pirate captain. He chuckled as he remembered the name the lieutenant had used to refer to her.
The girl always had a flair for humor, “Dread Raider Cari,” indeed. She had obviously been inspired by an old 2-D flat screen movie they had watched many times together. Hal liked how Cari continued his tradition of co-opting pop culture references for use here in Fantasma, even if she did it unknowingly.
Deep inside he was proud of what she’d managed to accomplish in her time here, but he also knew the toll that kind of heroism had on a person. She was still so young. He hoped she was holding up under the burden of it all.
Chapter 26
Cari awoke the day after leaving Tandon to sounds of increased activity on the deck above. She was about to leave her cabin to see what was going on when Percy knocked on her door.
“What is it?”
“It’s Percy, ma’am,” he called through the closed door. “Miss Doolan requests you on the quarterdeck. A raider ship is sailing up on us from the south. She’s approaching fast, and we’re clearing the decks for action.”
“Thank you, Mr. McShea. Advise the first mate I’ll be on deck in a few minutes.”
“Aye, ma’am.”
Cari got dressed while she tried to puzzle out what to do about the raider ship. While she’d made peace with the council of captains, the raiders formed only a loose partnership or confederation. There were multiple factions at play there rather than what anyone would call a true government.
She arrived on the quarterdeck and walked over to where Helen stood by the stern rail peering through the spyglass at a ship behind them. “What do you see, Miss Doolan?”
Helen handed her the spyglass. “It’s definitely a raider ship, though it’s a fast-rigged racing schooner. They’re flying the raider colors. I can’t tell if they’re friend or foe, though. They’re not a real danger to us. We could easily blow them out of the water.”
Cari saw the red and black checkered flag flying from the mainmast and shook her head. “Beats me. We made amends with most of the captains when we returned their families, but that didn’t account for all of them. There’s also the possibility of Raiders who don’t know the arrangement we made with Captain Wheldon and the other captains. This one would be a fool to attack us though. We’re twice their size and ship’s complement.”
“What do you want us to do?”
“Hold course for now and prepare for action but hold fire until fired upon.”
“That’ll give them the first shot, ma’am.”
“Or it’ll give them the opportunity to start a conversation before we fire at them. Do it. I’ll play the odds and see if they act aggressively first.”
“Aye, ma’am.”
Cari continued to watch the other, smaller ship while the Vengeance and its crew prepared for battle. She didn’t have time for a fight right now. She was itching to get to the fishing villages along the coast and try to find the missing princess.
A puff of smoke from the trailing vessel indicated a chase cannon firing before the sound of the distant cannon fire reached her. Strange that they’d shoot from so far away. There was no way they’d be in range for at least fifteen minutes.
Unless—
Cari squinted and tried to track the direction of the cannonball they fired. She saw none. “Helen, I think I’m right. Bring us about to let them overtake us. They just signaled us they want to talk and not fight.”
“Aye, ma’am. If you say so. Bosun, take in the sail. We’ll wait for our pursuers to catch up.”
Mr. Dawkins headed down to the main deck, calling out orders amidst the hustle and bustle of the cannon crews preparing their guns for firing. Other sailors headed aloft to haul in the sails and tie them off against the spars suspended from each of the masts.
Cari brought the spyglass up to her eye again and stared at the trailing ship. It was closer now, and she could make out more details. The other ship’s captain stood on the quarterdeck, peering forward at the Vengeance through his spyglass. He looked familiar.
The figure on the other ship waved. He must’ve seen her watching his ship. Cari waved back then looked at the man again.
It was Captain Hitchcock, the raider captain who escorted them into the harbor at Cairn Island with the freed hostages.
“Have the crew stand down, Helen. It’s definitely a friend. Have Cookie prepare light refreshments. We’ll be having company soon.”