Thraysdee, the 13th of Frost, 768 A.E.
To Anthea, Rihyas seemed to be the best thing that had happened to her since she’d left Cenalium. They had been there just a little over a Dee before leaving, having needed a few minor repairs before they could set out in the Mueran trimaran that put them a little past Nishan’s departure estimate. Yet in that time, they had not had to kill or battle anyone, they hadn’t had to take up jobs to earn money for passage out of there, and they had not been forced to hide from authorities.
Already, that put it ahead of Miniya, which had until that point been the least trouble of their previous stops. Rummas and Maethlin had not been as kind to them, and Anthea for one was happy to leave an island in a conscious state again. Rummas had left her comatose for fifteen Dees, and she’d missed the last few Dees of the Faestivul. While Maethlin had only cost her four Dees’ worth of unconsciousness, she had woken only to find she had a three Dee walk ahead of her. Neither had been pleasant experiences.
So, all things considered, Rihyas was on top of the list of Anthea’s favorite places as the Mueran trimaran left port on the morning of the thirteenth and headed west. She sat in the morning sun and waved off insects that flew out to meet her from the ramshackle buildings thrown up along the shore – evidence that storms wiped out the shoreline frequently and permanent structures weren’t worth the effort. No, Rihyas wasn’t much to look at. Its buildings were drab and functional only, having no decoration. Even in their brief evening jaunt down the shorefront from the Ula to ‘The Chance,’ as Makan had named their ship, had not shown her anything aesthetically or culturally pleasing about Rihyas. The city seemed devoid of any spirit and beauty that she’d seen in every other city or village she’d ever been in, though that was an admittedly low number of places as of yet.
Bedros was holed up in the cabin built into the central hull of this family ship. Boarding yet another ship had not interested him in the least until they’d filled the better part of the larger stateroom with fodder and dried grasses. He’d burrowed into the pile of grasses and had set about eating. They’d not seen him in well over an Ouer, and Anthea had no doubt that he was doing his best to put a dent in the supply before they’d gotten out of sight of the island.
Nishan and Rolf were taking lessons from Makan in how to operate the ship, but as quickly as stocky, yet spry, man ran around the deck and checked everything over every few Mynettes, Anthea had no doubt that Makan could do it all by himself. Even after he had Nishan or Rolf check something, he’d double-check it. They both grew tired of this rather quickly, since they both had at least modest sailing experience, but Makan’s detailed and logical arguments staved off any fights in those early Ouers.
Yet for all his fiddling and adjusting and mothering of the vessel, he had not yet discovered Rolf’s joke. Rolf had scrawled ‘fourth’ and an arrow down between the words ‘The Chance’ that Makan had painted on the transom of the boat, making it The Fourth Chance. Anthea had laughed quite hard the first time Rolf had pointed it out, and part of her wanted very badly to see how Makan would react to the Kerathi’s joke about this being his fourth boat in a relatively short period of time.
To her surprise, it had been Nishan that had helped him carry out his little act of graffiti, not only providing the necessary paint but also by distracting Makan with a series of longwinded questions about the names of various lines and types of rigging. Makan had been so into Nishan’s shared interest of something he loved that he had not noticed Rolf hanging over the aft of the ship to deface the ship’s name.
It lightened her heart to see Rolf being able to joke after how serious he’d been just the Dee before. Not that she’d forgiven him for making his foolish oath yet. But seeing them all acting as a group made her less worrisome. It let her sit in the forward pulpit wrapped in wool blankets while the sun soaked into her face.
Sagira knew better than to invade Makan’s field of expertise; she remained below staying warm and bringing them all steaming beverages periodically. Anthea suspected that Sagira simply was not in the mood to be social when she was so near the source of her disgrace and her greatest pain. Her stories of Zaraig had been anything but pleasant and even seeing the island had brought a haunted look to her almond eyes that illustrated that time had not yet healed all her wounds.
Three Ouers out, they were rounding the cape south of Rihyas to head west when Anthea saw five vessels lying in a line across their path, barring the way for them. Anthea, being in the front of the ship, raised a cry. “Makan! There are ships ahead! Lots of them.”
“I can see that.” He called up to her.
Rolf went to the front of the boat, ducking under the boom to see for himself. Even Sagira came on deck, hearing the commotion. The ships ahead of them were still a couple Kilomes distant, but they were putting out more canvas while Rolf and Anthea watched.
“What is it?” Sagira asked, scanning the horizon. Her eyes almost immediately locked on the same five ships that everyone else was looking at.
“Pirates.” Makan replied coldly, but his tone was not for her, rather it was for the crew of the five ships ahead of them.
“What do we do?” She asked.
“We run, unless you’re spoiling for a fight.” Makan replied simply.
Sagira shook her head and cast a look of wistful revenge at the ships that grew closer with each passing Saycund. “I don’t like the odds, even if I like the targets.”
Makan laughed. “I can agree with that.” Then he became a blur of activity, checking lines, tightening up the shrouds, and turning the wheel hard southward.
Sagira looked over at Nishan, who stood frowning at the approaching ships. “So, this comes as a surprise?”
“Pardon?” Nishan asked, sparing her a moment’s glance.
“You were sold out.” Sagira replied. “They knew we were coming. Whomever you trusted when you bought this bought, your trust was unfounded.”
Nishan frowned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Even if the people I bought this from betrayed me, they didn’t know which way we’d go.”
“Unless they already knew because they were working with the Aureans.” Sagira replied.
“It could just be coincidence.” Nishan replied, but from his tone it was clear he didn’t believe it.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“It wasn’t.” Makan interjected.
“How do you know?” Nishan asked.
Makan smiled wryly. “Because whoever sold you the boat did a few small changes to slow the boat down. If I’d not been familiar with the design, I might have missed them and not have been able to correct them in time.”
“They damaged the boat?” Sagira asked, looking alarmed.
“And the weapons on board.” Makan added.
“Weapons?” Nishan asked.
“Mines. They float just beneath the surface of the water and explode on contact with a ship’s hull.” Makan explained.
Nishan pinched his chin thoughtfully. “Why are there any of those on the ship? I didn’t know Muerans fought battles at sea. I thought they always fled.”
Makan grinned. “Despite carrying Mueran weapons, you don’t know that much about us. Just because Muerans don’t have cannons on their boats, doesn’t mean they don’t know how to defend their ships and islands. We use mines to maim ships that are foolish enough to try to chase us.”
“Can we talk about this later?” Sagira asked, pointed westward. “Those ships are getting uncomfortably close.”
Rolf brushed by her and headed belowdecks. Nishan and Sagira began taking Makan’s orders, as he was convinced now that their help would be beneficial as they tried to outrun the pirates. Rolf appeared a couple Mynettes later with his long rifle and a box of slugs.
“What are you going to do with those?” Makan asked him.
Rolf glanced around, looking at the sail and the direction they were heading, and then asked, “We’re tacking right now, right?”
“Yes.” Makan nodded.
“Well, when they get closest to us, I’ll give them reason to back off.” Rolf said, grinning and brandishing his rifle.
Makan frowned slightly. “Or chase us even harder when you anger them.”
“That should make those mines you talked about even more effective, right?” Rolf asked. “Supposing you fixed them that is.”
“I did.”
“Well then, wish me happy hunting.” Rolf said.
“May Comrain guide your shots then.” Makan offered with a nod, approving the plan.
“Comrain won’t be interested. I’m not hunting animals.”
“You’re not? You could have fooled me.” It was Makan’s turn to grin.
Rolf laughed and climbed over onto the starboard outrigger hull, crossing the netting between the hulls to take up his post with his rifle resting next to a cleat that had humming lines tied to it. Anthea could do little more than sit and watch while the others worked the ship like a machine, pushing her for every iota of performance they could muster as they ran from the ships angling toward them on an intercept vector.
Things happened painfully slow, the enemy ships stretching out alongside them in a line that began to look more like a parallel course than an intersecting course, until they opened fire at least. The first cannon shot hit fifty Mayters off their starboard side. The splash of water and the explosive sound that followed right after it made Anthea duck her head and cover her ears.
Even still, she heard the report of Rolf’s long rifle answer their attack, but it sounded ridiculously puny after their cannon fire. She hazarded a look back toward him, and from the laugh Rolf released, she thought he must have hit something. Distantly, she thought she saw something, or someone tumble from the lead pursuing vessel, but she wasn’t sure.
If it was possible, more canvas seemed to sprout from masts of the front two pursuing vessels, which were leaving the other three behind. Each of the two dwarfed the twenty-Mayter Mueran Trimaran though, and either one would have enough boarders to handle the six passengers fleeing from them.
Watching them close the distance with each passing Mynette was nerve-wracking. Anthea started to get up to go find her box of flowers in case the enemy got too much closer. But as she started to work her way toward the aft of the boat where the hatch was, Makan motioned for her to sit down again. “Why?” She asked, shouting over the roar of water sluicing past the three hulls of the ship and the cold winds whipping at the sails.
“Don’t even think about it.” He shouted back.
She frowned and sat down. It was clear that he didn’t think she was up to doing another enchantment. For that matter, she wasn’t sure she was. She looked at her bony hands, hands that used to seem healthy, and for the first time she really saw how weakened the enchantment in Rummas had left her.
“I thought this boat was fast?” Anthea said angrily after settling back down to watch.
“Don’t worry.” Makan replied. “It is. We’re still picking up speed, and we’re baiting them in. They seem to want us alive anyway.”
Rolf fired again, and this time it seemed he missed. He busied himself reloading while a pair of cannon shots arced over their bow. One hit about eight Mayters off the starboard side of the vessel near the prow. The way it angled toward them sent a spray of seawater to soak Anthea, and the whole boat rocked a bit.
Makan ducked his head down into the hatch and shouted something Anthea could not hear. Then, he took the wheel and cut west, right across the path of the pair of pirate vessels no more than four hundred Mayters distant.
Bedros emerged from the hatch a Mynette later, carrying four small barrel-shaped yet sinister looking contraptions. Makan locked the wheel and stepped over to activate each of them and then pointed out where the Ox-Man should toss them overboard. The Ox-Man heaved them out directly into the path that the pursuing ships would be taking if they continued to give chase.
Rolf fired again, twice in rapid succession, daring them to follow. Makan took the wheel again while Bedros sat down heavily with his back to the handrail above the transom. Anthea held her breath and watched, and for once things seemed to happen fast. They were moving deceptively fast, something she hadn’t realized, when there was only an endless series of waves, and a now distant dark line that marked Zaraig on the horizon to use as reference points. Watching the mines stream away from them, dark shadows just beneath the roll of the waves shower her just how fast they were moving.
The first of the mines detonated early, before it had reached the vessels. The explosion was enough for the captain of the lead ship to order evasive maneuvers though, and as they turned the wheel hard to port, the second mine detonated beside its hull. The mine ripped a hole in the ship’s hull no less than three Mayters across right along the waterline. Debris clouded the air and the water as the ship listed toward its wounded side, as if it were cradling its wounded side where its innards were suddenly open to the water. Wind emptied out of its sails, and it shuddered to a halt.
The third and fourth mines missed as well, but only because the second ship had turned so sharply that they lost the wind from their sails and they had run afoul of the other ship, whose mast and rigging had come so unexpectedly across their path. The three trailing ships let the wind out of their own sails and approached with caution to aid their foundering comrades.
Makan laughed aloud. “They’ll bear each other down to the bottom if they don’t cut loose.”
Anthea carefully worked her way back to Bedros.
Bedros grinned widely in his Ox-Man way. He had his slate out and he scrawled on it, “Makan had me waiting.”
“You suspected that you’d need to do this?” Anthea asked, eyeing Bedros in surprise. He rarely found the reason to write, and that he was so proud of himself in this occasion seemed strange to her.
Makan nodded. “Like I said. The things they did to the ship were too strange. There was no reason to do them unless they wanted us slowed down.”
Rolf joined them then, nodding approval to Makan. “Clear sailing now, captain?”
The Mueran lifted his eyes to the horizon, and after a moment, he gave them all a nod. “Skies and waters will be clear all the way I think. We’re too far away from Elegius to see much else in the lines of vessel, and those pirates can never catch us now.”
“I am sorry if I have brought this upon us.” Nishan announced in shame. “I should have been more careful I suppose. I didn’t expect the greed of my associates to run so deeply.”
“Yet in the end, I’d have wanted this vessel anyway. I think we all would have.” Sagira reassured him, and in doing so she displaced the blame from him somewhat. “Zaraig is a friend to none, Nishan. Remember that in the future.”
“I think enemies lie in wait for us everywhere, and this just illustrates that point.” Anthea said solemnly. “The reach of the Aureans in Cenalium is far indeed if they are working to find us on Rummas and Zaraig.”
“And we are going right to them, for better or worse.” Rolf said under his breath, but despite the winds, everyone heard him.
He hadn’t needed to say that the Aureans in Aetheline might not be any better than the ones in Cenalium. Everyone understood the gravity of what they were going to do.
