“”The ships in the harbor are the key,” Alec said. “If we could shoot some flaming arrows into the ships to set some of them on fire, everyone in camp will come to the shore line to watch. Then we can operate unmolested in the camp to do everything else: first free the horses, then fire the supplies, and on our way out take shots at the officers.”
“Is your bow that good?” Harbin asked about the ships.
“I’ll get in a small boat and go out into the harbor. Then the rest of you can head to the corral and wait for the show to start. We can meet at the supply depot and depart from there,” Alec proposed.
“Do you want to take Moines with you to help with the boats?” Harbin asked.
Alec looked at the unhandy and skinny Moines, who he suspected Harbin wanted to avoid retaining in his own group. “Sure, he can come with me,” Alec agreed more to placate Harbin that because he wanted help.
Alec and Moines left the other three and went down to the harbor, where no guard was stationed at the dock. They quietly climbed onboard a small boat, untied its lead, then began rowing out into the harbor, facing backwards as they rowed. The gently lapping waves of the harbor were deflecting off dozens of ships in the water, evidence of the amount of material and men the Conglomerate had shipped up north to seize Krimshelm.
“We’ll go out into the center of the fleet, and try to find a small sloop,” Alec explained to Moines. “We can do more than cause a distraction if we do this right; we can really inflict some damage on the fleet, possibly even strand the Conglomerate force here with no easy way for them to return to their masters.”
Alec looked over his shoulder as they maneuvered among the hulking ships that were at anchor, and after several minutes, he spotted the ship he wanted. “We need to act like we’re drunk while we climb up on deck; they’ll let us on board, and then we’ll seize control,” Alec ordered. “Just follow my lead.”
He swung his paddles to steer an erratic course towards the small man-of-war he wanted, then bumped forcefully into its hull, raising a cry from the deck. Alec grabbed a rope hanging over the side of the taller ship, and climbed up onto deck, where four men were watching him with hostile eyes. Moines tried to follow, but as his head appeared over the railing he lost his grasp and fell into the water below with a splash. Alec gave a curse and dove over the side, helping Moines to the ship and up onto its deck. The display of ineptitude had probably added believability to their portrayal of drunkenness, Alec decided.
A dozen men were watching them climb back on board, dripping wet, and Moines had acquired a bloody nose somehow.
“Sorry mates, we just had a drop of rum on shore and can’t find our way to our ship,” Alec spoke loudly and observed the predictable relaxation by the crew. He slipped Moines behind him to protect his companion, then pulled out his sword. “All of you into the cabin, and no one will get hurt,” he told them in sober tones.
Half the ship’s crew laughed. “You must be joking,” one of them said, and he started to step forward menacingly.
Alec pulled three knives from his bandolier and threw them in rapid succession at the three nearest targets, hitting them all in the shoulders, wounding and knocking them down, but not killing them. Healthy men knelt next to the wounded, and all looked up at Alec in astonishment due to the instantaneous battle he had delivered to them and won.
“Now pull the knives out, pick up your mates, and take them to the cabin,” Alec ordered. Stunned and sullen, the crew obeyed, and Alec slammed a bar down across the door to lock the crew in the cabin. “Moines, go find some tar in the hold, and heat it up,” Alec ordered, while he remained at the door to make sure there was no escape.
He listened to the stumbling of Moines on deck, and through the hatch he saw the light from the fire Moines had lit to melt the tar that Alec intended to dip his arrows in to keep them flaming. About the time he judged the tar to be likely to be hot enough, there was a wooshing sound, and a scream from the deck. Alec abandoned his post and ran up to find the hot tar and its small furnace tipped over, setting the deck ablaze, and Moines cradling a badly burned arm.
Alec stood momentarily in stunned disbelief, uncertain how to salvage the situation. He ran to Moines and dragged him away from the fire, then applied his healing powers to sooth the wound and deaden the pain.
“How did you do that?” Moines looked at him in amazement.
“I’ll tell you later. Stay here,” Alec ordered. He ran back down to the cabin and threw the door open. “The ship is on fire; everyone out! Go to your boats!” he ordered, then dashed back onto the deck. He used his sword to slash the ropes holding the sloop’s pinnace in place, and watched it splash down into the water below. “Get in there,” Alec ordered the ship’s crew. He ran to the other side of the deck as the men began their escape.
“Dip these arrows in the burning tar and bring them to me,” Alec said as he handed a half dozen arrows to Moines. “Don’t hurt yourself,” he added with a meaningful look.
Alec looked out towards the mouth of the harbor, where the largest ships were anchored. A new plan was starting to form in his mind, one that was dangerous but also potentially more disruptive to the fleet than his earlier plan. The sound of splashing oars told Alec that the crew was fleeing to safety, salving his conscious somewhat, ironically, even as he prepared to harm a great many more sailors and soldiers.
Moines arrived with the flaming arrows. “Good, now go do the same with these,” Alec ordered.
“Don’t we need to escape too?” Moines asked anxiously.
“We’ve got time. Go light more of the arrows,” Alec ordered, and he began to rapidly fire the burning arrows he had on trajectories that were far and high, aiming them so that they’d land in the canvas sails of the largest ships that blocked the harbor entrance. With all six arrows making bright streaks across the sky, Alec dropped his bow, cut the ship’s cable to the anchor, and started pulling ropes to raise one of the sloop’s own sails. As he did, Moines reached him with the next set of arrows.
“Here, raise this sail,” Alec ordered him. The flames on their sloop were growing frenetically, leaping across the deck towards new fuel, and the two men were brightly lit with hellish hues from the fire. Alec lofted the second set of arrows, then dipped more arrows on his own, and fired them outward as well.
“Tie that sail cable in place,” Alec shouted, as the crackling of the flames rose. The heat was dramatically increasing as he ran to the tiller and set a direction for the sloop, whose sail was catching just enough breeze to give it mild impetus. Alec aimed the sloop towards a large congregation of ships in the inner harbor, knowing that the flaming sloop would be seen as a deathly threat that would send them all scrambling to try to avoid catching the flaming contagion the sloop threatened to spread, that Alec hoped it would spread.
“Our dinghy is gone,” Moines shouted fearfully, joining Alec in the rear of the ship. With the sloop underway, the heat and the smoke from its deathly flame were being blown back towards them, and they were both coughing heavily. But Alec saw an opportunity to direct the sloop into a watery alley between two larger ships that would be sure to result in spreading flames to both of them, and he needed to keep the sloop on course for just a few more seconds to assure the spread of destruction.
“Climb on my back,” he shouted to Moines. “Do it, now!” he screamed. The sloop’s promise of spreading destruction to more ships was now secure, as its hull grazed against one, and then another. Men were screaming wildly from the nearby ships, cursing and ordering and trying to prevent the unstoppable destruction Alec had set in motion. He felt Moines grab him. “Hold on!” he shouted, and turned to look past Moines, over his shoulder at the small flickering flames that he saw were starting to grow and bloom far across the harbor in the high sails of the larger ships. Then, satisfied, he engaged his Traveler powers, and they trans-located to the supply depot, where he dropped Moines on the ground.
Alec switched from his Traveler power to his healing p
ower, and he addressed the many small burns that Moines carried, as well as his still scarred arm, then he healed his own many small injuries.
Moines looked up at him in amazement. “What did you do? How did you do that? Who are you?” he stuttered as he asked, staring open-mouthed.
“I was sent by the Princess Esmere to help Krimshelm, and I will do all that I can. I have special abilities, given to me by my God,” Alec answered. “For now, tell no one of what I’ve done,” he added, sensing that prudent anonymity was the best course for now.
“I won’t tell anyone if you say so, but that was fantastic! You just set the whole Conglomerate back all by yourself,” Moines stood up and waved his arm at the waterside horizon, where numerous blazing ships were casting extraordinary amounts of illumination that reflected off the water, the nearby mountains and the overhead clouds.
“Thanks for your help,” Alec replied. “Here come the others,” he added, as three men came running through the otherwise empty camp.
“We did it!” Harbin announced. “We took out three sentries, then opened every gate in the corral and drove the horses out into the open. There probably isn’t anyone yet who knows the horses are gone.
“By the Mountains of Ely, you did a pretty job out in the harbor! I wasn’t sure you’d be able to make it back to land after we saw the fires you set burning,” he added. “Now let’s get this lot going, and head out of camp.”
Alec and another soldier began pushing together the most flammable items, as a third man went to grab a torch. They set flame to several locations in the large assembly of supplies, food stuffs, and weapons, then began to leave the camp.
“There isn’t a single officer in sight to assassinate,” Harbin complained as they began trotting away from the supplies. “You’ve really messed up tonight, Alec!” he said, then he laughed and even gave Alec a friendly arm around his shoulder to show his real pride. The small team, full now of the camaraderie of success, headed towards the gap they knew they had created in the picket line, and half an hour later they were climbing into the hills above the camp to spend the remainder of the night.
“We have to spend the night here,” Alec insisted. “In the morning we’ll be able to see how things look in the harbor.” As he spoke he and everyone else faced downwards towards the camp, where the supply depot had become a roaring conflagration that mirrored the still blazing ships in the harbor. Moines took the first shift of the watch, while Alec was excused, and so he fell soundly asleep and slept through the night.
The next morning he was shaken awake by Harbin. “It’s a beautiful morning to take in the view,” he told Alec brightly, and when Alec rose from his blankets he understood the guardsman’s glee. The coast of the harbor was littered with smoldering hulks of burnt wrecks, and as Alec guessed at the number of ships that had not made it to shore, he concluded that a third of the Conglomerate shipping had been destroyed. While they could make out few details of the presumably empty corral, the supply depot on the far side of the camp smoldered on, contributing to the ugly yellow haze in the harbor, and was surrounded by a circle of black, the remains of tents that had burnt from the intense heat.
“What will they do now?” Alec asked Harbin.
“They won’t stay here,” another soldier interjected. “There’s too much bad luck for them here now. They’ll have to leave, although with this mess it’ll take them a few days to get ready.”
“So they’ll be heading towards Krimshelm?” Alec asked.
“Not well-supplied or well-armed, but yes they’ll move to Krimshelm,” Harbin confirmed.
“Let’s go find the best place to ambush them,” Alec suggested.
“We don’t have the forces to carry out an ambush on an army like that,” the other guard said.
“No, the countess doesn’t have enough money to hire the army she needs for that job,” Harbin agreed. “We’re all three months behind in pay as it is.”
Alec thought again for a moment about the gold he had stolen from the city.
“Let’s go look anyway, so we can tell Major Perry about the option,” Alec suggested.
They scrambled down the hillside to the trail they had used on their way to the harbor camp, and began following it back towards the city. After an hour they turned down a game trail to their left, and stopped at the top of the ridge that looked down on the broad path the Conglomerate army would have to take. “If we follow this path, which they will follow,” Harbin said as he pointed below, “there’s a canyon about two hours away that they’ll have to use to climb up over the hills. We’ll follow this road and show you,” he said, and they traipsed down a narrow path to reach the Conglomerate force’s expected route.
By noon they were well into the canyon, and two hours later they began to climb upwards, following the canyon road’s rise up to the plains beyond. “This is the place to ambush them,” Alec said. “They won’t have many horses, so they’ll be tired from carrying their supplies and climbing.” He looked at the rim above the canyon, and envisioned archers shooting a withering fire of arrows into a densely packed Conglomerate force.
“That’s a good theory,” Harbin said. “We’ll see if the Countess can afford it.”
The rest of the trip was uneventful, and they walked back into the castle slightly before sunset. “I’m proud of what we did, men,” Harbin told the squad as they entered the castle gate. “You’ve all earned the right to thump your chests and wet your whistle.
“I’m going to go talk to Major Perry; you stay available,” he told Alec in particular, and then he went his own direction.
Alec meanwhile walked about the castle, trying to find his way to return to Menard’s office. When he found it, the major domo was absent, so Alec squatted on the floor outside and waited.
“Our illustrious regal visitor is here waiting for me?” Menard spoke as he came down the hall and saw Alec outside his office. “Are we not treating you satisfactorily? Would you like a better suite in a castle tower?” he asked.
“No,” Alec replied as the official opened his door. “I’m happy with my bed. But I think you need a bigger army in a hurry.”
“That’s not news,” Menard said, standing in his doorway, apparently impatient to return to his work there. “But it’s impossible to address. There is no more money available.”
“If I deliver five thousand golds to you tomorrow, will you pay your back pay to the army, and then hire every man in the city as a short-term mercenary? If you can give Major Perry a thousand more archers next week, we can beat the Conglomerate,” Alec said in a quiet, but forceful tone.
“If you can deliver five thousand golds tomorrow, I’ll have you married to the Countess by the end of the week!” Menard replied, starting to step into his office. “But there isn’t that much cash available in all of Krimshelm. Take your fantasies and go help the Major,” he answered, and he closed the door behind himself.
Alec snorted in angry disgust. He breathed deeply to calm down while he walked away; he reflected as he climbed the steps that perhaps if he were confronted by a stranger who offered wealth and riches, he would be just as cynical.
Back in the dining hall he sat down by himself to eat, when Macon the page came running in to join him. “I heard you burned the Conglomerate fleet! Was it exciting? Dangerous?” the boy asked.
Alec grinned at his youthful enthusiasm. “Why don’t you and I go practice with swords, and I’ll tell you about it,” Alec suggested to the young boy.
“Can we? Really?” Macon asked, bouncing in his seat.
“We can, but we need to go now, because the sun will set soon and it’ll be too dark,” Alec told him, and the two of them raced off to the practice hall.
Alec fitted Macon with a practice pad, then gave him a wooden sword, and soon they were moving through the traditional motions that had been drilled into Alec as a young member of the Guard in Goldenfields. “When will we start stabbing and slicing?” Macon asked after he grew bored with the repe
tition.
“You seem to be learning fast, so maybe only another year,” Alec told him with a straight face, then laughed as the boy’s jaw dropped.
“You teach a different way than I learned,” Perry said, standing behind Alec. “Page, you’re dismissed. Alec, come with me,” he turned and walked away.
Alec unstrapped his own pads and put them away, then went to Perry’s office, where Harbin stood waiting. “So you had an adventure and tweaked the Conglomerate’s tail, did you?” Perry asked.
Alec studied the man, then used his Spiritual powers to grasp the emotional atmosphere in the room. Perry was angry, and Harbin was worried.
“We gather information about them, and slowed down their prospects of attacking Krimshelm,” Alec replied.
“I don’t think you slowed them down. It sounds to me like you forced them to attack us,” Perry replied. “You were told to go observe, not launch your own bloody war.”
“The only reason they’re here is to attack. We didn’t force them to do anything they’re not going to do anyway,” Alec replied. “The Conglomerate isn’t going to spend the money to ship thousands of soldiers up here, and then just ship them away. They were going to attack. Now they’re going to attack more slowly, with less equipment, and with more fear in their hearts about what we can do to them.”
He stood still and awaited Perry’s reply. “That’s all absolutely true,” the officer surprised Alec by agreeing after several seconds of silence. “But we’re still never going to have the forces to defeat them. Now they’re just going to be more angry when they do win. And they will win in the long run.”
“If I can get the money to hire new archers, to set up an ambush, would you put them in place at the canyon we scouted?” Alec asked.
Ajacii and Demons: The Ingenairii Series Page 3