Richard had to agree. Several points along portions of the walls he could see had large cracks. Some areas of the walls were toppled over in a jumble of jagged stones. From what he could tell, the breaks had been recent.
As the elves drew close to the city’s main gate, a rumbling filled the air. The ground shook, spooking some of the elves’ horses. Richard’s mare remained steady as a rock. The small earthquake lasted for a full thirty seconds. A weaker part of the wall a hundred meters to Richard’s left gave way, tumbling outward.
“What a dump,” Richard told Skylark who happened to be riding near him.
Like most of the lancers, Skylark had been trying her best to learn Richard’s language. She was getting pretty good at it too, considering the short amount of time she’d been under his tutelage, but in this case, she shrugged her shoulders. “I do not understand ‘dump.’ If dump means broken walls and aged stone, then yes, what a dump.”
Richard grinned. He’d come to like the lithe Skylark during their travels. She was dependable and had a good sense of humor.
“Close enough,” Richard said. “A dump’s a dump. What’s its name?”
“Name?” asked the elf. “New Hope.”
Richard laughed. “Looks more like New Dump to me.”
Apparently the joke was too subtle for Skylark’s grasp of his language because she just shrugged and kept riding.
Richard glanced at their surroundings. Both the city gates and the road leading up to it were choked with refugees.
The males in Mia’s party shifted positions to form a protective ring with the females in the center. From the strain on the faces of the females, Richard got the impression that being in close proximity to so many humans was anything but a pleasant experience.
“I calculate you are right,” said Nickelo. “New information that has appeared in my databanks indicates female elves are emotionally sensitive. Human males are not good at controlling their emotions. I calculate a ninety-nine point nine percent probability the females in the party are being bombarded by less than desirable emotions.”
Although not emotionally sensitive himself, Richard could still sense emotions of base lust from many of the human males in the crowd and among the guards. Although he hadn’t paid that much attention until now, he suddenly realized that even soiled as they were from their trip through the mountains, the elven females were quite good looking. He unconsciously positioned himself between Skylark and the closet human men.
I wonder why I didn’t notice how beautiful they were before, he thought.
A faint but warm emotion came through his ring. He forgot about the elves’ beauty as a hint of silver flashed in his mind. A sense of loss swept over him. He wasn’t sure why.
Derander and Freestrod spent several minutes in a heated argument with the sergeant in charge of the gate’s guards. Before long, one of the guards left. He returned a few minutes later with a well-dressed man in a blue robe. The man carried an elaborately decorated staff. After much bowing on the part of the man to Derander and Freestrod, he led the elves’ party through the crowded city streets.
The city itself was filthy. Raw sewage ran through the streets. The stones making up the buildings may have been white at one time, but they were grayed with age and had large blots of black soot from the numerous open fires warming the refugees. Several buildings were toppled over. Not all were recent.
“Geesh,” Richard told his battle computer. “Looks like they gave the maid the last few millenniums off.”
“No doubt,” replied Nickelo. “I detect the remains of magic in the building’s stones, but whatever the spells once did, the effects are long gone.”
After traversing the dirty streets for twenty minutes, they came to the gates of another wall. Passing through, Richard saw what appeared to be a palace. While better maintained than the rest of the city’s buildings, it was far from opulent.
The guards led everyone to an orchard of apple and pear trees. Once there, the man in the blue robe took Derander, Freestrod, Astradis, and Mia into the palace proper. They were gone for several hours. Richard spent the time helping the elves care for their horses and resting under the trees.
Near evening, servants carrying folding tables set up a dining area in the center of the orchard. Other men brought pots of stew, platters of bread and cheese, and clay pitchers of ale and set them on the table. Although plain fair, the elves ate like they were at a feast.
Nickelo laughed. “I calculate they were growing tired of your snake stew.”
“Can’t say I blame them. Snake’s not high on my list of gourmet meals either.”
It was well after midnight before Mia and the others returned. Following a short meeting with Sergeant Thornbriar, the elves began gathering up what few belonging they had. Strapping on his sword, Richard formed up with Tracer and the rest of his team.
A half-dozen humans smelling of animal sweat relieved the elves of their horses and led them away. The same well-dressed human in the blue robe came with a platoon of soldiers. The guards positioned themselves to the sides, front, and rear of the elves.
“Are they taking us prisoners?” Richard asked his battle computer.
“Doubtful,” replied Nickelo. “The elves do not appear too concerned. If I were a guessing computer, which I am not, I would say the guards are here for the elves’ protection.”
“Protection from what?” Richard asked.
It didn’t take long for Richard to find out. The well-dressed man led them out of the palace gates, into the streets beyond. Although well past midnight, the streets were packed. If anything, they were more crowded than they’d been earlier in the day. The people were also a lot less friendly. Some of their stares looked downright hostile. After traveling only a few blocks from the palace, a group of human men in the crowd surged forward when they caught sight of the elves. There was a lot of yelling and shoving, but to the guards’ credit, they held the crowd back.
Just as the crowd was on the verge of turning into a mob, a squadron of palace guards on horseback arrived and dispersed them. The cavalry formed up on both sides of the elves and herded them from one street to the next at a fast pace, taking several detours along the way to avoid other groups of vocal men.
Through it all, Richard noticed the females in the party hold their heads high and ignore the shouts of the human males around them. That is, on the outside they remained aloof. Although he wasn’t all that emotionally sensitive, he could still sense the females in their party cringe whenever some of the men in the mobs pushed too close.
Richard thought their ordeal had come to an end when they reached the port. A half-dozen merchant ships were anchored in the harbor along with two warships. A dock extending out into the water had two small launches tied off at the end.
“I calculate the launches are going to shuttle the elves out to the larger ships,” said Nickelo. “Based upon the mood of the crowd behind us, I think it was a wise decision by whoever’s in charge not to tie any of the ships to the dock.”
Richard gazed at the size of the growing crowd and the small number of ships in the harbor. It was obvious to even his untrained eye that there wasn’t enough space on the ships to accommodate everyone in the crowd.
The guards hustled Richard and the others onto the dock. They only made it halfway down the dock in the direction of the launches when the crowd surged forward and tried to follow. The guards formed a double line behind the elves with spears and shields at the ready.
“That should hold them back,” Richard told his battle computer.
He was wrong. The mob had grown to nigh on a thousand men, women, and children. Many of them carried packs or bundles of clothing and supplies.
“Refugees,” said Nickelo. “Desperate refugees, at that. I calculate they are not happy the elves are getting spots on the ships when they are not.”
The crowd began shoving and pushing in an attempt to get past the line of soldiers blocking the dock. A scream from the
front of the crowd drew Richard’s attention. He was just in time to see one of the guards pull the point of his spear out of a man’s chest. The soldier kicked the lifeless body off the dock, into the water below. Water splashed in the air as a large fin cut through the water.
Some of the men in the crowd raised makeshift clubs and began yelling at the guards. The crowd surged forward, forcing the soldiers back.
Sergeant Thornbriar shouted a command. His elf lancers formed into a tight group around Mia and the two elf mages. The well-dressed man in blue yelled something in Mia’s ear. The priestess raised her staff high in the air and waved it over her head as she shouted words Richard heard but quickly forgot. The blue gem at the top of her staff glowed bright enough that Richard was forced to turn his head.
The blue glow surrounded Richard, Amir, and all of the elves. Amir and the elves were lifted a meter into the air. The glow then began moving them off the dock and over the water.
Richard found himself on the stained boards of the dock with the blue-robed man and the guards. The blue glow that had formed around him sputtered and disappeared.
“Your natural resistance cancelled the effects of Mia’s levitation spell,” said Nickelo. “I hope you are a good swimmer. It is a long way out to the ship that appears to be the elves’ destination.”
Richard glanced at the hovering Amir and the elves already fifty meters from the dock and moving in the direction of an elaborately decorated ship with two masts located about three hundred meters away. Sailors in a rowboat were towing the ship with a long rope in an apparent attempt to turn her in the direction of the harbor’s entrance.
Shouts drew Richard back to his predicament. The blue robed man and the guards were making their way in a tight group through the crowd, in the direction of shore. As the guards withdrew, the crowd seemed to concentrate their ire on Richard. Two beefy men raised their clubs and shouted at the others around them. The men pointed at Richard. Backed up by the crowd, the two men began advancing toward Richard.
“Hmmm,” said Nickelo. “I calculate you are going to have to swim for it.”
Richard drew his sword and backed up to the end of the dock, hoping the crowd would be satisfied with taking the two launches. His hope disappeared like a puff of smoke when the frightened crews on the launches untied and began rowing furiously away from the dock.
Although the night was dark, the crowd carried enough torches to let Richard see the water. Just as he was on the verge of jumping in and making a swim for it, he noticed the light from the torches reflect off several large dorsal fins in the water. Part of a bloody arm floated past the dock.
“Uh, I think swimming is no longer a viable option,” Richard told his battle computer. “Do you have any other bright ideas?”
When Nickelo didn’t reply, Richard drew his sword and faced the mob.
“Barrel!” shouted a feminine voice in intergalactic standard.
Richard turned to see Mia surrounded by a blue glow, floating above the water a dozen meters away. She pointed at an empty barrel to Richard’s right. The barrel glowed blue.
“I think—” began Nickelo.
Richard didn’t need his battle computer to tell him the obvious. Forgoing whatever dignity he still possessed, he sheathed his sword and dove for the barrel as the crowd shouted and surged forward. As soon as most of his body was in the barrel, it rose into the air and began moving out over the water. By the time he righted himself in the barrel, the impromptu hover-vehicle was next to Mia. She said several words of gibberish and smiled.
“Thanks,” Richard said.
“You are welcome,” Mia replied in perfect intergalactic standard.
Grabbing hold of the lip of the barrel with her left hand, Mia pointed her staff in the direction of the main body of elves. They were supported above the water on a cloud of blue a hundred meters ahead. Richard sensed the frequencies of Derander and Freestrod in the glow.
In less than a minute, Amir and the elves were transported over the railing of the ship with the two masts. By the time Mia got to the ship and set Richard’s barrel down on the deck, the elves were arranged around the sides of the ship in defensive positions with swords and lances pointing out.
Glancing back toward shore, Richard spotted men in a dozen boats and makeshift rafts rowing furiously toward the elves’ ship.
Climbing out of his barrel, Richard drew his sword and joined Tracer and Amir on the ship’s railing. He needn’t have bothered. As soon as the ship’s crew lowered sails, Richard sensed Freestrod draw Power from his reserve and shout words he heard but quickly forgot. The Power turned to magic, filling the sails with a stiff wind. The ship shot forward, picking up speed as it went. The rowboats and rafts were soon left far behind.
Waving a hand to catch Amir’s attention, Richard pointed at the deck and said, “Name?”
“Mengaza,” replied the big man.
“I assume you wanted to know the name of this ship,” said Nickelo. “For all you know, he just told you his word for ‘deck.’”
“If that were the case, I wouldn’t remember the word,” Richard said, using logic to make his case. He looked at Amir and nodded. “Mengaza,” he repeated out loud.
The captain of the Mengaza wasted no time in getting his ship out to the open sea. Once they were well clear of the harbor, Sergeant Thornbriar began shouting commands. The elf lancers relaxed and left their defensive positions along the railing.
Richard took a final look at the lights from the city. He heard a rumble. Far off in the distance, he saw gouts of red shooting up into the sky. The rumbling grew louder. Some of the lights of the city disappeared.
Richard turned away from the town and looked out onto the ocean. It was dark. It was very dark. “I don’t know where we’re going,” he told his battle computer. “But it’s bound to be better than what we just left.”
Nickelo laughed. “Do you wanna bet?”
Chapter 31 – At Sea
____________________
Twelve days after they left the port city of New Hope, the Mengaza found itself caught in the doldrums. The only indication of a breeze was an ever so slight rippling of the single sail the crew had out. On top of the lack of wind was a sweltering heat from the noonday sun. Only an occasional wave rocked the nearly stationary ship.
Richard glanced up at the slack sail. “Too bad the mages and Mia used most of the Power in their reserves casting breeze spells the last couple of days. We could use a little wind about now. I’m hot, and I’m bored.”
“You get bored easily,” replied Nickelo, not sounding at all sympathetic. “You should try to relax while you can. I doubt the easy times will last forever.”
Richard doubted it as well. He glanced around the ship that was his temporary home. At forty meters from stern to bow, the Mengaza was a medium-sized sailing vessel with a crew of sixty-five counting the captain and his first mate. Relatively roomy for its size, the addition of their party still made for a crowd below decks.
“I told you before,” said Nickelo. “This ship appears to be the royal yacht of whoever was the high-muck-a-muck in the city. I calculate the addition of twenty-eight extra bodies on board was not what the designer had in mind. Just count your blessings your Mia left the three injured members of her party back in the city.”
Richard brought up an image of the elf with the broken leg they’d left behind. “I hear you. I’m trying to picture what the elf would look like hobbling around on the deck with her leg tied between two sticks. It’s not a pretty sight.”
“I doubt it would be,” replied Nickelo. “At least she and the other two are alive. The elves lost four of their own during the fight with the orcs. If they’d lived, the ship would be even more crowded.”
“I wouldn’t mind being a little more crowded if it meant they were still alive. Mia and the others took their deaths hard.”
Two sailors ran past Richard and began scrambling up the mast closest to him. “How do they do that? I have
trouble walking on the deck. They’re climbing that pole faster than a squirrel up an oak tree.”
“It is called a foremast. According to the information in my databanks, this ship is what would be termed a ‘brig’ on your home world of Earth. That larger mast toward the stern of the ship is the mainmast. After a week and a half at sea, you still haven’t bothered learning the nomenclature of the various items on this ship. For that matter, you haven’t found your sea legs either. I calculate you are not a sailor at heart.”
“Oh, I like sailing fine when it’s in a starship hopping from one planet to the next. It’s the bouncing across waves and depending on wind to get us from one place to another that bothers me. Truth be told, I prefer riding a horse to getting around on this floating piece of wood. That’s saying a lot since you know how much I hate riding horses unless it’s my spirit-horse.”
“Look at the bright side, Rick. At least you do not have to swim wherever the elves are taking us. Your swimming skills are enough to get you across a river or a small lake, but I think spanning oceans is beyond your capability.”
Richard thought so too. He leaned against the railing at the bow of the ship and gazed out over the water. There were only a few waves, and they were barely higher than the flat part of the ocean. Growing increasingly bored, he turned and looked up at the sailors he’d seen climbing the mast. They were busy lowering another one of the smaller sails. When the canvas was in place, it barely rippled.
Richard smiled. “I think the captain was a little too hopeful that he’d found a gust of wind. At least we had a little breeze yesterday to help us out. We’ve haven’t had any to speak of since the sun came up.”
Turning back to the water, Richard reached out with his passive scan. He detected nothing on or above the surface of the ocean, not even a bird. Below the water was a different matter. He sensed massive amounts of life forms both great and small. Every so often, a fin broke the surface of the water and circled the ship.
“How deep do you think the water is here?” Richard asked.
Wizard Gigantic (Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles Book 9) Page 28