His eyes shifted down to the two unconscious men on the ground, and he nodded once more. I let his mouth go, and though his heart rate and breathing were like being near the speakers at a party, he didn’t scream.
“What’s your name, human?”
“Tr… Trent, sir.” He whimpered, his lower lip quivering pathetically. “I swear I won’t tell nobody you did this, I swear it on my auntie.”
“Hush, human.” I leaned on my monstrous side to intimidate him into silence. When he was quiet again, I glared down at him. “You are going to go home and stay there until a crier comes to deliver the good news. You get any people who aren’t part of the navy that you can into their homes, and you do so quietly. Can you do this?”
He nodded, either because I had said to do so quietly, or he didn’t trust himself to speak.
“Act as if nothing happened and leave this alley in one minute.” I released my hold on his shirt and shoulder gently so as not to hurt him and rushed down the alleyway toward the house at the opposite end. I whipped around the corner into a sailor who had been drawn by the noise and decided that nothing was wrong since he was busy urinating on the side of the building. I rolled my eyes and leashed the beast inside me so that I didn’t accidentally turn him and waited until he was at least finished peeing to attack him.
Look, it’s not really out of any kind of respect, because clearly, he had none for the city he was in. It was more so he didn’t pee on me while I was trying to put him under. If he peed on me, I’d kill him. And I had a mission to do.
Finally, he put it away, and I was on him instantly, my palm on the back of his head and shoving it into the wall with a dull thunk and the sound of his body slumping down onto the ground. A little blood was all that remained of our interaction.
We have a problem, they’re starting to gather on the peanut butter, Bokaj’s alarmed voice reached us, and I closed my eyes as I tried to remember the direction they all were. I leapt into the air and shifted into my eagle form and lifted into the air, moving toward the market with speed. My claws found home next to Yohsuke in an alleyway.
Vrawn, James, Jaken, and Muu looked to be surrounded by thirty sailors with one of them pointing to Muu and shouting something in a language I didn’t understand.
There’re more of them on their way here, Balmur explained, and I saw him at one of the higher points of the area before he stepped back. Let’s get in there and help them but remember to avoid killing. Bokaj, crippling shots only.
An arrow severed one of the sailor’s Achilles tendons, and the group converged toward our friends. I surged forward, falling to my hands and feet, shifting into my belgar form as I moved. I kept my head high to avoid goring anyone. Though several bodies bounced off me, and a cutlass streaked over my armored skin just before I shifted into fox form. I pivoted and turned toward the group once more. My body enlarged, and my fur grew shaggier as I took ursolon form and slapped the taste out of a sailor’s mouth with the back of my paw.
I roared, spittle flung from my mouth into the face of a sailor before I crushed his foot with my paw and shoved him away from me. His howling was drowned out by shouts of anger from his friends as the melee fighters let loose.
Bodies flew away from Muu and James, their fists and feet moving rapidly and their strength leaving much to be desired from the sailors, their bodies unable to take the brutality being dished out. Vrawn refrained from using a weapon, simply punching and breaking limbs with her hands and feet. Jaken roared loudly, and his body took on a reddish hue as he called the sailors’ attention to himself.
Arrows whizzed past us and into feet, shoulders, and knees to keep people from moving. By the end of the thirty sailors, only James had taken damage, and that had been from Vrawn whacking him when he got too close.
“I am so sorry, James, please forgive me,” she earnestly begged, her frown and sorrow apparent on her face.
He rubbed his jaw, angrily. “I’m not mad at that, fuck. I’m pissed that there are more of these assholes coming. Come on, let’s go.”
Chapter Ten
Sure enough, there were another two full boats worth of sailors on their way. Yeah, we could take them if we were going to take it seriously and just massacre them, but that wasn’t the plan.
Anyone have any ideas as to what we can do to get these guys to surrender? Jaken asked wearily. Trying not to kill anyone had been taxing on us, even though we did make it look easy.
How about a combo attack strategy? I offered as we moved along the rooftop toward where the platoon-sized formation of sailors marched toward the market. The rest of the party glanced my way, and I continued on. My dragon form is black, right? With colored highlights, sure but it’s black. What if we were to have me fly in, and Yoh and Balmur manipulate the shadows for me? Like, try to scare them off with a type of dragon they’ve never seen before.
I mean, that could work. Muu grunted, a soft hiss leaving his lips as James shoved him aside, a small hole in the roof having almost swallowed his foot. Thanks.
If it will get them to lay down their weapons and surrender, I’m in. Yohsuke affirmed with a nod and glance at Balmur.
He nodded once, and I stepped away from the group, cracking my neck before I sprinted as hard as I could in the opposite direction they had been moving. As soon as I was next to a gap on the roof, I pushed myself into the air as hard as I could and shifted. My draconic wings and body felt much too large to be in the city, but I banked and turned toward where I would be needed.
To play up the theatrics of my appearance, I roared loudly as I beat my wings against the air. Dozens of men and women screeched, “Dragon!”
Luckily for me, none of the sailors appeared to have bows or crossbows as I flew above them, coming to a stop and landing in front of them with an earth-shuddering thud.
“Do you all mean to fight me?!” I howled in as draconic a voice I could manage, the men and women clearly taken aback by my sudden appearance and terrifying demeanor. “Surrender, and I will allow you to keep your pathetic, miserable lives. Scurrying about on the ground like mice.”
Some of the men laid down their weapons and ran, a few of them tripping over the others in their hurry. Others drew their weapons.
One of them actually stepped forward and scoffed, “You look to be about adult age for a dragon, you’ve got a lot of nerve acting high and mighty in front of a whole mess of men and women who could kill you. Black dragons are evil creatures, sure, but you don’t look so tough.”
My fangs flashed as I laughed and held my clawed arms out before me. “You think me merely a black dragon? I am Daedrona. I am the black death. I am the very shadows at your feet. Witness my power and quake in fear as I fashion a lance with which to strike you down!”
I prayed that Balmur and Yohsuke had been paying attention to what I had said and held my clawed arm up next to my head. After a second, I worried that they had missed the cue, but the stirring in the shadows around me was almost haunting. They made it look like the individual shadows under each man and woman was being taken like it was a soul, the coolness of it brushing their flesh and gathering just above my hand.
Six of the sailors fainted then and there, while the shadows coalescing in the air around me shot forward and speared the speaker through the chest, his body falling back and hanging on the shadow spear like an insect stuck to a collection box.
“I no longer feel so generous,” I hissed menacingly. “Put down your weapons and kneel, or I will eat some of you and feed the leftovers of your corpses to my shadows.”
Black streaks of void energy crackled down from my claw tips like lightning, and the energy of it swirled around my body like I was calling all the shadows in the city to me.
“We surrender!” A woman who looked to be in her mid-forties came forward and dropped her weapon before kneeling. “They don’t pay us enough to fight dragons and the shadows of hell. I’m done.”
Within seconds the whole force knelt, and the syndicate’s cleane
rs came through with irons and chains to take everyone away. Once they were all out of sight, I shifted back into my fox-man form and sighed.
A hand grasped my shoulder and swung me around, Yohsuke looking ready to kick my ass. “Seriously, ‘Daedrona?’ What the fuck was that?”
“It sounded like a decent dragon name, man.” My cheeks burned slightly as a blush set in. “Balmur, how goes the top-secret stuff from Calmyra?”
“The higher-ups are on a ship heading somewhere, they made to escape on their own.” He shook his head and motioned to the people around us. “He said that we’re good and that he would see that they kept their word and helped in Lindyburg.”
“Are they close enough to get to with me flying?” I stepped closer to him as he asked. “I can go out there in dragon form and sink those bastards.”
Balmur added that and waited. “Unless you can carry us and some of them, they said no. They have accomplished mages with them on a naval vessel, and the higher-ups are all a little stronger.”
“He did also say that thanks to this, the people can rest easier and that we’re always welcome here now. I have full rights within the syndicate, as well.” He grinned before looking at Muu and me. “He said to have some drinks on them, but that you two had to pay for yourselves since you want to act like idiots.”
We laughed, the people around us beginning to come forward with praises and words of gratitude. Children played in the streets a little more easily, it seemed.
Finally, Yohsuke sighed. “I’m tired, time for a bit of sleep. Wake me up when our ride is ready.”
We left the market and arrived back at Katja’s in time to feed Bea and wait for word. It took several hours of waiting, but finally, Scar arrived with word and to collect his fee.
Chapter Eleven
“Okay, no seriously,” Muu asked for the sixth time on our way from the barrel maker’s shop to the docks to meet our contact with the ship we would board to cross the ocean. “It’s called what again?”
“I’m not dignifying that with an answer,” Balmur finally said, then growled at the other man.
We’d spent the night after the warehouse explaining our findings to the others before sleeping. Balmur had spoken to Scar’s contact, who gave us the name of a ship and her captain crazy enough to take us to our destination.
We had been a little thrown by the name of our vessel, but it would sail, and the crew was reported to be one of the most competent to dock here in the city, so we couldn’t complain too much.
The ship was the only one currently in the bay, the others had left as soon as the tide was high enough to get away from us. Scar having offered what we could do and were capable of, he seemed to scare away the others.
The navy’s ships were gone as well, though no one seemed to know why.
But, back to the Pussy Willow. Yeah, no, you heard me right. The name of our ship was the Pussy Willow.
Naming conventions aside, the ship looked immaculate. From bow to stern she was cut fierce and lithe, the hull of her smooth and wet from the waves, with the sails tied tight above. The mast was thick, and the other, smaller masts, held smaller sails that spread wider than the mainsail to catch the wind.
On the dock before the ship sat a figure cloaked in green and gold, with bright yellow eyes watching our arrival.
“Be you Storm Comp’ny?” A voice sort of warbled across the distance to us.
“Yes, we be,” Bokaj answered amicably. “Who, might I ask, are we addressing in return?”
The figure stood and lifted the stool that had been beneath him in a smooth motion. “I’d be the first mate o’ this vessel and her crew. Mind your tone, and we’ll be fine. I’ll be your liaison between your group and the crew and cap’n.”
Ouch, I hope he didn’t think I was trying to be a dick. Bokaj seemed a little put off by the interaction. “Listen, friend, I didn’t mean to come off impolite if I did. We’re happy to be sailing with you and your crew.”
“Weren’t nothin’ impolite at all, boy.” The warble deepened, a small chuckle emanating from the hood. “That’s just the way o’ things. Respect goes far on a ship like this, and when someone untrained steps aboard, it be best to set expectations before that point. I’d hate to have to make any o’ our payin’ customers walk the plank for belligerent behavior.”
“Seems a good policy.” I nodded. “And how’s the pay we’ve offered?”
“If you pay half up-front and half upon completion of our venture, we have an accord.” The figure stepped forward toward us, twenty feet still between our group and him. “I hear tell that the lot of you can scrap? So long as you can hold your own in a fight and assist in protectin’ the ship, we’re good. Any of you sailors?”
James and I chuckled to ourselves, Yohsuke being hidden safely in my collar for now. James nodded to me and pointed a thumb at himself. “The two of us are trained in amphibious warfare.”
“You been on ship?” Muu raised an eyebrow at James, knowing my only stints on ships had been the USS Peleliu for a few hours and landing with helicopters for training. It was a wild ride for sure, but I had no real experience on ship other than being on them.
“Nope, but my training will see me through,” James asserted cockily. “There’s not a whole lot that we need to know, right?”
The first mate eyed us steadily, then, “Stay below decks when we’re making way out of the bay, and once we’re out to sea proper, I’ll shout you on to the deck. Introduce you to the crew.”
“Sounds good,” I spoke before anyone else could offer a rebuttal. The figure motioned us onto the deck, and we made our way over the gangplank onto the vessel. Clean and ready for sail, as far as my untrained eye could tell, the Pussy Willow looked ship-shape and ready for the sea.
The first mate took us to an entryway toward the rear of where a raised portion of it stood a door, “Guest cabins,” the man explained easily. “Two rooms, three beds. Just make yourselves comfortable as you can, and when we speak later, we can discuss watch and work schedules.”
“Work?” Bokaj raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Who said anything about work?”
“You did when you agreed to take the safety of the ship and crew onto yourselves as part of our agreement to give you passage.” The sailor seemed to have known this would come up. “It be nothing more than an assisted watch schedule. No hard labor unless you request it, or you’re ordered to by the captain as some sort of recompense.”
“Seems fair.” Jaken smiled his easy smile and nodded to the rest of us. “Let’s get to getting boys and girls. The day moves on.”
We all nodded and filed into the cabins, two rooms separated by a thin wall, were no more than ten feet tall at the rear and nine at the fore. The three beds—really, they were hammocks hung from the ceiling with two ropes on each side, so they were wider and a little more stable—were tucked into the back of the small fifteen-foot long room. At only about twelve feet wide, the rooms weren’t the largest, but Balmur had another plan,
“At night, I say we switch off on who has to be in the rooms and have the others go into the Happy Home.” He looked around at our surroundings with distaste. “This isn’t really meant to be where guests go, it’s the upper echelon of the crew’s quarters. Two people out at night, and if anyone needs anything by day, they can come in here to rest.”
“What about Yoh?” James asked as he tested one of the hammocks. It swung slightly but seemed stable.
“He can have his coffin over by the window, and we put a thick piece of cloth or leather over the porthole,” I answered after a second of thought to the layout of the room. We could make it so that his coffin was tied down in the day so it didn’t move, and then during the night, he could take it with him.
We settled into our individual rooms. James, me, Vrawn, and Yohsuke in the room on the right side of the door looking in, and the others in the left. It was what they had, I’m sure, but they would soon enough realize that we had other accommodations. To be complet
ely forthright, we could give them back a room and earn their trust and good rapport if we really wanted to.
“What if we have us all in here with that spell and just let them have that room?” I asked the others, who thought about it a bit.
“What would that accomplish?” Bokaj lay on his bed with Tmont snoozing lazily on his chest.
“We earn good rapport and save them the hassle of being cramped,” I offered with a convincing grin. “Not to mention, they learn that we’re powerful, and if they fuck with us, they die.”
“Chances are good that they want the payday.” Balmur coughed into his hand softly to clear his throat, then went back to looking over a small item in his hand. “They can try to loot our corpses, but they would lose a lot of lives over it, and that would leave them damned near dead in the water. If we can make them like us more, I’m all for it.”
“So then, we just wait until they bring us on deck to let them know we’re benevolent and then see what they say?” Muu asked as he fiddled with his work, trying to sew something together made of leather.
“Sounds good to me,” Bokaj smiled easily and closed his eyes. “Wake me up when they need us.”
It took about another hour and a half after that for one of the deckhands to come for us. A younger man with a bald head, he had tattoos everywhere of all kinds of fantastic beasts spoke, “First mate and the crew will be seein’ ye now sirs and ma’am.”
I gave a mental whoop to the rest of the gang, and we made our way into the bright sunlight. The ship rocked gently over the waves as we stepped out of our living quarters to come face to face with the crew. Thirty members of the large vessel’s crew watched us steadily, some of them covered in grime and filth, others seeming cleaner and more concerned with their hygiene. Some of them even watched us from above within the sails and looping ropes along the mainmast. One such older sailor smoked a pipe, and treated some of the ropes as a makeshift seat, almost like a recliner, and watched us with leisure.
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