Overboard!

by Michael White

  “So what next Mister Neep?” spat Blade. “You are still chained to the wall. True the keys are within your grasp but you would have to put the pistol down to undo your shackles. Not a perfect solution I think you will agree.

  “Move away from her!” shouted Neep and Blade smiled.

  “Very protective of your captain, aren’t you?” He said. “Fine chest too, don’t you think? Or perhaps you have not noticed? Oh Daisy, I think the boy is smitten with you.”

  “I am not a boy.” snarled Neep. “I am man and pirate both!”

  “You are neither!” snarled Blade and with a leap he threw himself to one side, tugging at the door. But the stone was heavy and slow to move. Blade’s shoulders slumped as he realised his ruse had failed.

  “Just a child. Any real man would have shot me by now. Daisy, Daisy where in the name of all things do you get them from?” He snarled.

  “I am not hesitating.” Said Neep, his face drawn of colour, “I just wanted to make sure I did not miss.” the pistol was still outstretched towards Blade, his hand still shaking slightly.

  “Ah to hell with this. You are nothing more than just a babe at arms! You will learn the hard way not to tangle with Nick Blade!” he growled and threw himself at Neep.

  Time slowed.

  “No Neep, no!” he heard Daisy scream as Blade flew across the room to seize the pistol from him.

  Neep held the pistol firmly however and with a scowl of concentration he bit his lip, closed one eye and squeezed the trigger.

  There was a loud explosion, a white cloud of smoke and Blade’s head exploded.

  Chapter 22

  ~ A View from a Bridge~

  The dark figure moved across the city roofs easily, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, his long dark cloak trailing behind him like the wings of a bird of prey. His eyes never left his destination, for it was towards the docks that he was headed. He reached the apex of a large bridge that ran across the city walls and out to the quays, the platform across which now few carts or carriages passed far below him. He rested on the stone column, peering across the docks.

  The moonlight would make him visible to any who looked up, but he knew that few did. Those who had fleetingly seen him saw only the shape of a giant bird or bat, and they would cross themselves superstitiously in fear and be on their way as quickly as they could. He crouched atop the stone column and pulled from his belt a small object which he quickly extended and placed to his eye. HIs cloak draped about him, a small black mask covering his set square jaw. He was a large man, yet he also had a lithe look about him. He gave the impression that he could move quickly and easily if he needed to. His clothes were all of black for he found it helped with his concealment. Upon his head he wore a black gaucho hat, his swords placed carefully in a low slung belt around his waist. The belt contained other items too, though few would garner their purpose. The two flintlock pistols resting carefully balanced at his side however brooked no confusion. A bandolier rested upon his chest and a further two pistols hung there too.

  The man scanned the horizon, the night concealing most things though he was able to see a large ship at anchor just outside the bay, and as he moved the telescope down he saw a small rowing boat heading in its direction. He waited patiently for fifteen minutes or more, never moving until the boat reached the ship. There was a further wait of no more than five minutes and the sails on the ship were unfurled and the craft turned, heading quickly out to sea. The man pressed a small button on the side of the telescope and the ship zoomed into view, the craft bearing the name, “Torta Di Frutta”. Someone was clearly departing the city in a rush.

  The man stood on the column thinking for a while. The Beak had over-stepped his mark today. The house of a noble was sacrosanct, and yet he had sent in a veritable small army into the masquerade ball held by himself. To the nobles of Nine Wells this was an outrage. He had invaded the home of one of their own. Generally speaking, the nobles were all in favour of preserving the status quo, as long of course as the status quo favoured them. Yet clearly The Beak had gone too far, and he had to be taught a lesson. He had known this when he saw the reaction of the nobles at the ball, there being a general outpouring of disdain towards The Beak’s actions.

  He cared little about the thoughts or feelings of the noble houses, though now he knew that he had enough of an excuse to use the current situation to his advantage. He smiled to himself. It was a situation he had spent a great deal of time waiting and preparing for.

  The Beak had to be taught a lesson. The noble families would understand this. He had been reluctant to intervene before, for in all things most nobles were conservative by nature. It was in the name after all; noble. Yet now he felt he had an edge. He collapsed the telescope into a small square and placed it back in his belt. He turned to face the city and his home to the northeast along the wall and then inland. Even from here the house lights of his mansion shone brightly. He moved his view to the tower of The Beak, The Black Tooth a little to the east and saw few lights there. It was a place of darkness and foreboding he found, even in daylight. At night if not for the lights at the gatehouse of the building it would be invisible almost. The tower straddled the city wall and the man’s eyes strayed slightly further east and out to sea. He was surprised to see a small ship there, sailing perilously close to the rocks that surrounded the city walls at that point.

  “What th-” he began, and drew the telescope from his belt again, expanding it to full length with a flick of his wrist. He placed the scope to his eye and began to focus when suddenly the night caught aflame.

  There was a deep boom from out to sea from the direction of the ship, followed by a short pause and then the wall of The Black Tooth erupted as cannonballs struck it! The ship billowed clouds of smoke and a second volley was fired. The eastern wall at the top of the tower crumbled and as the man watched fell down over the cliffs and into the sea. Even from here calls of alarm could be heard as the tower’s outer wall fractured and collapsed. The man gasped. The Black Tooth - and therefore The Beak - was under attack! He collapsed the telescope hurriedly, stowed it into his belt. With a leap and a bound he jumped from the column and then a rope swung from his arm as he fell, catching a building nearby, swinging him over the city wall towards the conflagration as fast as he possibly could, for already dawn was clawing its way onto the horizon and soon it would be light.

  Chapter 23

  ~ Riddle Me This…

  Riddle Me That…

  “Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Bat?” ~

  Daisy sat stunned as the smoke cleared in the room. Neep sat open mouthed on the other side of the cell, and as she watched the flintlock pistol fell from his hand and rattled to the floor. The old man was still unconscious on the far side of the cell from her and the corpse of Nick Blade was sprawled between her and Neep who was covered in blood and green and grey matter. Daisy spat and noticed too that she was also covered in blood and worse. She tried not to look. Time was short and the gunshot would bring attention to them. The Beak’s men would be here soon no doubt. She had to act fast.

  “Neep.” she whispered. The tall thin red haired man looked completely in shock, his eyes wide and his mouth open. There was no response. Daisy looked at the cloak at Neep’s feet upon which he had dragged the belt towards him. A set of keys sat there tantalisingly out of reach. “Neep!” she shouted this time. “Pull yourself together or we will both be dead by sunrise!” Nothing.

  She grabbed a palm full of sand from the floor and threw it at his face, but again Neep did not move or even make any sign that he had even heard her. “Neep!” she shouted yet again. Suddenly she had a plan. “Neep! What does the SOPE manual say about fast escapes or tight scrapes?” Neep’s eyes flickered.

  “Pages four hundred and twenty-seven to thirty-eight. “Don’t get caught” seems to be the main message.”

  “Good.” said Daisy. “Neep, we are in danger of getting caught. Throw me the keys from the belt.” Neep was still glassy eyed b
ut he seemed to at least be listening now.

  “I killed…” he began, but Daisy cut him short.

  “Don’t think about it.” she said. “Don’t look at the body either. Just concentrate on what we have to do to escape.” Neep nodded glumly. “Look at me, Neep.” Neep swung his head in Daisy’s direction, his eyes still wide but now just a little more focused. “Throw me the keys, Neep!” she said and she smiled as Neep leaned to one side and grasping the belt removed the keys from it and threw them to her.

  “Good.” she said, catching them and trying each key on the chains until she had freed herself. She stood, unsteady on her feet and stepping over the corpse between them reached down and unchained Neep. He stood, swaying slightly, but did not move. Next she unchained the old man who was still unconscious and dragged him as far away from the window as she could. Then she moved to the heavy cell door which was still hanging slightly open where Blade had tried to open it and failed. She heaved it open a little more and peered outside. A set of stairs ran both up and down on a landing outside. From below she could hear calls of alarm as the guards rushed to discover what the gunshot was all about. She could see torches flickering against the dark walls of the keep, getting nearer. With a yelp she tugged the door shut and locked it from inside, leaving the key in the lock so it could not be opened from the outside.

  “No escape that way.” She said, and so she crossed to the window and untied the red scarf from around her neck and hung it out of the window, securing it so it did not blow away by tying it to the old man’s now unused manacles. Neep still stood unmoving on the far side of the room watching her carefully. Daisy raced to the wall and pulled him to the ground. She dragged the old man to them and shouted to Neep.

  “Cover your ears!” she said, putting her hands over hers, trying to make herself as small as she possibly could in the small cell. “All hell is about to break loose!” From somewhere near but also quite far away a loud explosion could be heard. There was silence and then Daisy flinched as a huge explosion hit the side of the keep, tearing the wall away in front of them. The floor of the cell lurched forward as the stone crumbled, and the far side of what was once a wall disappeared down below, smoke and dust filling the room until they were unable to see at all. There was a pause and a second blast shook the floor and they fell forward, the stone groaning and falling around them as the walls collapsed. There was a slight feeling of falling as rocks, stone shards, dust and smoke rose all around them and then there was a strange silence. The world seemed to have turned to smoke and dust.

  Beside them the old man suddenly sat up, his face a look of complete consternation.

  “Oh my word!” he shouted, anger filling his voice. “I fall asleep for a moment and you have redecorated!” He looked around what was left of the cell, noted the corpse on the floor and nodded as if in agreement to seeing it there. “I don’t like the new window though.” he said testily. “Bit too open I think. Though apparently such things were once all the rage in Virapcastia.” He sniffed loudly, brushing the dust off himself. “Or so I am told.” he finished.

  Daisy however seemed to have other things on her mind, ignoring the old man completely she surveyed the damage to the keep before yelling, “Good shot, Mister Boom!” yelled Daisy, her ears ringing. She was not sure if she was shouting because the explosion had deafened her or because she was pleased. Either way Neep stood white faced as the smoke cleared. The outer wall of the keep had disintegrated. Before them lay the sea far below, the edge of the cell now a precipice of cracked rock that even as she watched began to crumble and fall to the ground far below.

  “The red scarf was a sign to the Magpie and Mister Boom.” said Daisy. “Just in case we became incarcerated in here. The red one meant fire thirty feet above it.”

  “What about the blue one?” asked Neep slowly.

  “Suicide option.” smiled Daisy. “Zero feet above.” Neep gulped loudly.

  “I like to have all angles covered.” Daisy edged nearer to the edge of the cell and looked down. “Good job that it is a full moon. Hardly any clouds too!” She peered down below before sniffing loudly as she inspected the drop below. “Too far to jump into the sea.” she concluded. “The rocks look too close to the wall.” She looked to her right and saw the wall crumbling a little below them. “Come on Neep.” she said. “We can jump from here to what’s left of the floor below and make our way down the wall floor by floor I think.” She peered of to the northeast and below. “If we can make our way to the wall we can escape via the docks, but we must be quick! The entire keep will be searching for us now, and quite frankly the wall looks as if it isn’t going to standing for much longer!”

  Daisy held her hand out to the old man. “You too.” she said. “I am not leaving you here.” The old man just shrugged and nodded his head.

  “Bit fed up of the gristle anyway.” he said, smiling, and the three of them approached the edge of the cell, looking down to the shell of the wall some twenty feet below.

  “Bit of a big first step though.” said the old man, frowning.

  For a moment Daisy paused at the edge and then silently moved back inside the room where the corpse of Nick Blade lay. Her face showed distaste at the gore covering the body but slowly and deliberately she moved forward, and hovering over the body spat on it noisily.

  That is not for what you would have done to me.” she whispered. “But for what you have done to Neep.” She composed herself and moved back to the gaping hole where the keep wall used to be.

  “I will go first.” She shouted and leapt from the room, falling neatly onto the crumbling keep wall below them. The stone creaked and several flurries of shale and fist sized debris fell down into the sea. “You next, Neep!” she shouted up to them and Neep fell from the room, landing clumsily on the wall next to Daisy, his whole frame shaking as he looked at the ruined wall that was their only way to escape. The old man was next and though he needed a little persuasion and his jump was awkward he soon stood swaying next to them on the crumbling ledge that sloped down to the next destroyed wall below.

  “This way!” yelled Daisy and they carefully made their way along the ledge that sloped slowly downward, following her. At the end of that wall there was another drop, though only about fifteen feet this time and slowly one by one they found their way down to the next ledge and then followed the wall again leading downwards, zig-zagging along the ruined keep as they made their way slowly down. The next drop was slighter still, and as they rested for a second Daisy could see the Magpie resting out to sea, her sails billowing in the light of the approaching dawn and still as of yet untroubled by any ships that the Beak would send to engage it. She knew that would not last forever, and that soon the ship would come under scrutiny.

  Daisy calculated they still had approximately ninety feet of the wall to negotiate in a zig zagged pattern, but she took stock of the piles of debris littered at the foot of the city wall and beyond that a number of small warehouses and then the quay itself.

  “Five minutes.” said Daisy, urging them downwards even faster.

  “Five minutes for what?” asked the old man, gasping as he followed behind them as fast as he could.

  “Until my ship destroys that quay.” she said, pointing to the docks lying between them and the Magpie. “We must move quicker!” As she said this she noticed red clad soldiers massing at the base of the wall, pointing upwards.

  “Damn!” she said. “We are too slow!” They are waiting for us!

  “Do they have pistols?” asked Neep, peering down and as if in response a plume of smoke rose from below and a rock just to the right of Daisy’s head exploded, showering them all in splintered rock.

  “Looks like muskets.” Said Daisy. She looked about frantically and then slowly untied the blue scarf from her neck. Neep went pale.

  Daisy however had a plan. She pulled the scarf out as long as she could make it and leaned forward. It drifted slowly down below, floating on the breeze, spiralling away from the
wall as it fell, down towards the soldiers below.

  There’s a challenge for Mister Boom.” she laughed as another pistol shot cracked the wall behind them. Any further shots failed to materialise however as the cannons on the Magpie flamed again. They held their breath and then there was a massive explosion from below, screams erupting from the soldiers as the cannonballs hit. The wall lurched and Daisy grabbed the old man and Neep. A splinter of stone underfoot began to slide down the collapsing wall and they steadied themselves on it as it began to fall downwards, sliding as if a piece of scree flying and skipping through water.

  “Hold tight!” yelled Daisy as they fell and then the broken circle of stone upon which they stood began to skip across the rock, sliding down until the roof of a collapsed warehouse drew nearer, the falling rock crushing half of the roof, but the wooden front edge of it somehow remained standing.

  “Jump!” screamed Daisy and as one the three of them leapt from the rock, landing on the warehouse roof which collapsed under their weight, and they fell inside into darkness and came to a stop.

  They lay coughing in the darkness as dust flew around them, and then Daisy saw light shining through a crack in the warehouse door and she opened it, light streaming through from outside, mingled with smoke and the dark tinny smell of blood. Dawn had broken yet it was obscured by smoke and dust and destruction. Daisy, Neep and the old man stepped out into the dockside, as yet untouched warehouse rising all around them, heading a short way off to the docks.

  “My that was fun.” said the old man, smiling. “Beats spit in your coffee any day of the week. Do you think we could possibly have another go?”

  “I think not.” said Daisy. “Shall we go? We have a ship to catch.”

  The warehouses between them and the quay were many, yet to make their way through the band of storage houses was but a short trip as the line of warehouses ran from north to south. Their path however led west. Daisy appeared to be counting under her breath as she, Neep and the old man ran down a narrow lane, bordered on each side by long storage buildings.