by Hylton, PT
The Magistrate had put out the call for a volunteer militia, and these were the people who’d answered. Benjamin had done his best to outfit them with weapons from his storeroom, but there hadn’t been enough for all of them. Some carried daggers, rusty old swords, and—in one case—a pitchfork. The lucky few who wore armor looked uncomfortable—it didn’t fit them well, having been left behind by some relative who’d died or retired from a life at sea.
The Magistrate had placed Syd in charge of preparing the volunteers, and she’d somehow roped Abbey into helping her.
Looking at the group, Abbey put their average age at about forty-five, but that didn’t tell the whole story. Most were either under eighteen—therefore too young to work on the stormships—or they were so old the Storm Captains no longer wanted them aboard. There wasn’t much in between.
Still, as Syd had said, they’d showed up.
The Magistrate had put out a proclamation declaring Captain Tor, Dahlia, and the crew of Thunderclap enemies of Holdgate. The people of the city were understandably shocked. Many refused to believe Captain Tor could be a Storm Raider, and even those who believed it weren’t eager to volunteer to fight him and his crew.
These were the exceptions. They didn’t look like much, but Abbey reminded herself these people had courage, and that was a damn good start.
“Abbey!”
She turned toward the voice and was surprised to see Olaf, the boy she’d fought the day of the festival, standing in the front of the line, a goofy smile on his face. He was proudly clutching the sword Benjamin had made for him.
Olaf leaned over to the boy next to him. “She kicked my ass in her father’s shop last week. It was awesome.”
Abbey paused, a confused smile on her face. Hadn’t this guy refused to shake her hand the last time they’d met? But if he was here to fight on their side, she wasn’t about to turn him away.
“Oh, hey, Olaf,” she said. “Ready to fight some Storm Raiders?”
Olaf rolled his eyes. “Please. Thunderclap is overrated. I’ve always been more of a fan of The Foggy Day.”
Abbey laughed. “Whatever you say, man. Glad you’re here.”
She went back to walking along the line with Syd.
Syd spoke too softly for the militia members to hear. “If all goes well, we won’t even need to use them. They’re our last resort in case things go badly.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
They’d spent the last two days planning for Thunderclap’s attack on Holdgate. They had no idea how much damage Abbey’s fires had caused the ship. She’d set fire to a sail and to a bulkhead below deck. The results could have been catastrophic. Or, with a well-disciplined crew that moved quickly to put out the fires, it may have been something they could fix in a matter of days. The leaders of Holdgate didn’t know, but they had to assume Tor and his crew would get Thunderclap operational quickly.
Opinions of when Tor would attack wildly varied, even among those who knew him well. Many of the Storm Captains thought he’d treat it like a normal Storm Raid and attack by night, using storms and heavy fog to obscure his approach. It made a certain type of sense, especially since Holdgate had a wall around it manned by Storm Callers. The less they could see you coming, the better.
Others believed Tor would want to demonstrate his power in a more brazen daylight attack, perhaps involving an invading Barskall army as well as Thunderclap’s assault by sea.
Round and round it went. Some believed Tor would attack as soon as he could, while others felt he would wait a few months and try to catch them off guard. Some believed he would travel to the Storm Wall and try to recruit some allies, while others thought he would want all the glory for Thunderclap.
In the end, no one knew for sure, and that uncertainty was putting everyone on edge.
Syd drew a deep breath. “Well, should we get started?”
Abbey nodded, then turned toward the gathered militia.
Syd addressed the crowd in a loud voice developed by years of shouting orders over the clamor of crashing waves. She greeted the volunteers and congratulated them on their courage.
“I don’t expect all of you to be expert warriors,” she told them. “The one thing I do expect is that you’ll listen to my orders and that you’ll carry them out quickly and to the best of your ability. Over the next few hours, I’ll give you all your assignments. If the alarm bells ring, I don’t care if you’re in bed or off hunting in the woods; you get to your assignment in no more than five minutes. Lives could depend on it.”
She stood straight and proud as she spoke, somehow managing to look even taller than she really was. “I’ll also assign you a partner. You stick with this person no matter what happens. When the fighting starts, look for two-on-one opportunities where you and your partner can corner one enemy. Fighting two people at once is difficult, I don’t care how tough you are. And speaking of tough, I want to introduce you to someone.”
She turned and gestured toward Abbey. “You’ve probably seen Abbey around town over the years. Maybe you thought of her as nothing more than the blacksmith’s daughter or the Arcadian girl. But I’ve seen this woman do things over the past few days that I never would have thought possible. She fought Barskall Warriors. She battled hardened sailors. She snuck aboard Thunderclap and set the damn thing on fire.”
Abbey forced herself to remain still as all these people looked at her.
Syd continued. “The point is, a week ago, she’d never been in a battle in her life. But the opportunity arose, and she stepped up. Now, I’m not saying you will do the amazing things she’s done. But some of you might. This battle won’t be easy, but it will be a chance to test yourself against some of the best and see what you’re made of.”
She took a step forward, hands on her hips as she surveyed the militia. “I can show you how to fight. I can show you how to form up to give yourself the best opportunity for victory. But what you do when the fighting starts? That’s up to you.”
Chapter Thirty
The alarm bells rang an hour before sunrise the following morning. No one had seen Thunderclap, but the sudden emergence of a thick fog was enough of a tip-off that the watcher on the wall began ringing his bell, and the others throughout the city quickly picked up his refrain, echoing him with their own chimes.
Everyone got to their places with impressive speed, mostly because the key people were sleeping near their stations. Every Storm Caller in the city—all seven of them—were sleeping in homes next to the wall, and five minutes after the first bell rang, they were standing at their places, their staffs resting in seawater.
The volunteer militia responded almost as quickly, getting to their designated places in well under the five minutes Syd had allotted them.
Abbey and Benjamin were sleeping in a boathouse near the docks along with the crews of The Foggy Day and a few of the other stormships. They quickly ran to their small boats when the bells rang.
As they waited to release their lines and begin rowing, Benjamin touched Abbey’s arm. “Hey, I know this isn’t a normal father-daughter activity, and it might sound strange to hear me say this, but I’ve dreamed of fighting by your side since the first time I saw you hold a sword.”
Abbey smiled at her father, genuinely touched. “That is strange. Awesome, but strange.”
There were twenty small boats, each with ten sailors. The idea was to row out to Thunderclap as it approached Holdgate and overwhelm it, attacking with hooks and boarding as quickly as possible. The boats were just one small part of the plan, but the idea was that Dahlia would be so distracted by the larger threats that she wouldn’t pay attention to the small boats rowing toward her.
The three-quarters moon gave a surprising amount of light to see by, or at least it would have if not for the unnatural fog.
They waited for ten long minutes, then the nose of a massive ship appeared through the fog.
“Go!” Captain Roy shouted from one of the other boats
. A massive wave, created by one of the Storm Callers on the wall, swept them up, surging them toward Thunderclap.
Now, two other stormships came into sight, one on either side of Thunderclap. It was Undertow and Wave Break, the two biggest ships currently in port. Their Storm Callers would keep Dahlia busy while the sailors on those ships as well as those on the small boats attempted to board.
Abbey held tight to the edge of the boat as it sped toward Thunderclap. She couldn’t wait to board the ship and pay those Storm Raiding assholes back for what they’d done to Bode and who knew how many other cities.
A few moments later, they were at Thunderclap. The fog was so thick, it was impossible to see what was going on up on the deck, but the big ship was still moving toward Holdgate.
All around Abbey, sailors were throwing their hooks, trying to catch the rail. She looked at Benjamin. “Ready to do this?”
Benjamin just smiled and hurled his hook into the air. It immediately caught, and he started climbing.
Abbey quickly followed. There was no way she was letting her father beat her to the deck.
Halfway up, she glanced toward Holdgate. Though she couldn’t see them, she knew the Storm Callers were standing on the wall, waiting to make their move.
Abbey felt a twinge of pride as she reached the top of the rope. Despite all Holdgate’s problems, they had come together to face this threat, and they were doing a mighty fine job. Soon, there would be more than two hundred fighters aboard Thunderclap, and there would be even more once the sailors from Undertow and Wave Break boarded. Tor and his Storm Raiders might be tough, but the combined might of Holdgate would be enough to take them down.
They might have been able to repair their ship from Abbey’s fires, but they wouldn’t be able to recover from what was about to happen to them.
She hauled herself up and threw her leg over the rail. Swinging her weight forward, she slid onto the deck, then hopped to her feet and drew her sword.
Then she stopped, confused.
Her father and the rest of The Foggy Day sailors looked just as perplexed.
The deck was empty but for the men and women who’d just boarded and five men kneeling near the mast.
Captain Roy stomped up to the kneeling men. “Who the hell are you?”
One of the men, a short, fat man with a patchy beard, smiled up at the captain. “We’re the crew of Thunderclap, sir. As the ranking officer, I’d like to humbly offer my full surrender.”
Captain Roy blinked hard, confused. “Where are the rest of you? Where’s your captain? Your Storm Caller?”
The man shook his head sadly, clearly struggling to keep the smile off his face. “I do not know, sir. We simply woke up yesterday morning, and they were gone. I suppose they abandoned ship.”
The captain grabbed the man by the shirt. “Of all the bullshit I’ve ever heard, that’s about the least believable.” He turned to his crew. “Search the ship. See if there’s anyone else hiding aboard.”
Worry gripped Abbey like a vise. All the best fighters in Holdgate were either on Undertow, Wave Breaker, or climbing the hull of Thunderclap. And every Storm Caller in the city was standing on the wall, facing the sea.
She ran up and grabbed Captain Roy’s arm. “We have to go back.”
“What? Back to Holdgate?”
Abbey tightened her grip. “Captain, they’re just trying to distract us. They don’t want to raid Holdgate; they want to conquer it. We have to get back there and fight. They’re already in the city.”
* * *
Dustin stood on the wall, gazing out at the sea. If there had been more than seven Storm Callers on that wall, he might have felt more confident, but the best and brightest of the fleet were in the north fighting Barskall, in the south protecting trading ships, or in the west maintaining the Storm Wall. So it was up to Dustin and six others to defend the city.
His old mentor, Harald, stood to his right, and a Storm Caller named Audrey stood to his left. Audrey had been silent since they’d taken their places, gazing out into the fog, a look of concentration on her face.
Harald had not.
He nudged Dustin and pointed into the fog. “The thing you’ve got to understand, boy, is that Dahlia’s a genius. Perhaps an evil genius, but a genius nonetheless. That’s why we send the expendable ones first.” He gestured down toward the crew of The Foggy Day in their small boats.
“Expendable?” It was difficult for Dustin to keep the fury out of his voice. He gripped his staff, the new one Benjamin had given him, and tried to ignore the man. He’d put up with his mentor’s dickishness for twelve years. He could do it for one more night.
Harald held up a hand. “Now, don’t get me wrong. I know that’s your crew. But there’s one thing I tried to teach you that you never understood. The crew is just a tool. We use them to raise the sails, and steer the ship, and cook our meals, but they’re not like us. Not really. We have a connection to the sea that they’ll never understand. If not for us, they wouldn’t survive a day out there on the open sea.”
Dustin turned to his mentor. “And yet, other places sail without Storm Callers. You told me that yourself.”
Harald scoffed. “Sure. If you want to call that sailing. There!” Harald pointed at the nose of Thunderclap emerging from the fog. “That’s the old bitch now.”
“Go!” The voice belonged to Captain Roy. He was calling from one of the small boats on the dock. The ones Harald had called expendable.
“I’ve got this,” Harald bellowed. He closed his eyes, and a massive wave swelled up, carrying the small boats forward. Harald opened his eyes and smiled. “You see, boy? Pay attention, and you might learn something today.”
Harald shook his head as the boats surged toward Thunderclap. “I almost feel sorry for them. They won’t last long against the Storm Raiders, but hopefully, they’ll buy us enough time to mount our real defense.”
Dustin couldn’t hold back anymore. He spun toward Harald and put a hand on the man’s throat. “Those are my friends, and I won’t have you talk about them like that. I’m not your apprentice anymore. I’m a damn Storm Caller, same as you. Now, shut up and concentrate on the task at hand, or I swear I will call down a wind so strong it will knock you off this wall.”
He let go of Harald’s throat and turned back toward the sea.
Audrey chuckled. “Seems like you’re the one who’s learning something today, Harald.”
Harald rubbed his throat, but he didn’t respond.
Dustin glanced at Audrey. “Isn’t it a little weird that Dahlia hasn’t done anything but call some fog?”
Audrey nodded. “I was thinking the same thing.”
A sudden shout came from behind them, and Dustin turned. The fog was too thick to see much of anything down in the city.
Dustin swallowed hard. “Um, why is the fog thicker in the city than over the sea?”
Not even Harald had an answer to that.
“We have to go down there,” Dustin said, his eyes searching, desperate to see through the fog. “Something’s not right.”
Audrey hesitated. “What good would we be without seawater?”
Dustin cursed softly. “Right. Then stay here. See what you can do about dispelling that fog. I’m going to check it out.”
He grabbed his staff and dashed down the stairs and into the city. As he went, he heard more shouting. The fog was even thicker now that he was down in it. He could barely see where he was going.
He had a choice to make. Either he could stop and try to dispel the fog, or keep going and blindly attempt to find his way through it. He hesitated for a moment, then decided to keep moving. He’d be more effective with his Storm Calling if he knew what he was fighting.
Besides, he was almost sure he smelled smoke.
The shouts were getting louder now, and he hurried toward them. He rounded a corner and stopped dead in his tracks.
The street was full of Storm Raiders. Syd and her militia were doing their best to fi
ght them, but they were greatly outnumbered. It had to be the entire crew of Thunderclap here in these streets. Who the hell was on the ship?
And behind them, Dustin saw the source of the smoke. The Magistrate’s building was ablaze.
Dustin hesitated again. He felt so helpless. Should he join the fight or try to put out the fire? Either way, his most effective move would require him to Storm Call.
He stepped into an alley and touched his staff to the cobblestone below his feet. First, he’d call the rain; then he’d do what he could about the Storm Raiders. He closed his eyes and pulled in all the energy he could hold, drawing it in with a desperation he’d never had before. The sky cracked with lightning, and rain poured from the heavens.
When Dustin opened his eyes, the fog seemed to have lifted a bit. He could see the people fighting in the street more clearly. He even saw Abbey’s old friend Jarvi joining in the fight, using some kind of metal rod as a weapon. Everywhere he looked, he saw Storm Raiders standing over fallen Holdgatesmen and women. Syd was still standing, fending off an especially fat Storm Raider with her two swords.
“Isn’t this interesting.”
Dustin spun toward the voice, and saw a wagon parked in the shadows on the edge of the street. Dahlia stood in it, her eyes alive with magic. She took a step forward, and a bit of seawater sloshed over the edge of the wagon and onto the street.
“Young Storm Caller,” she said. “It seems you are in a great deal of trouble.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Dahlia glared down at Dustin. “I know you’re new at this, but you did pass your Testing, right? You do know that your primary usefulness in a fight is Storm Calling? And that Storm Calling requires seawater?”
Dustin looked around, scanning the ground and seeing fallen militia members everywhere. Anger boiled up inside him. How many people had Dahlia, Tor, and their crew killed this day? How many decent Holdgaters had met their end because of these greedy bastards?
