by Hylton, PT
“And you know I am,” Dustin said. “Let’s steal their damn ship.”
Elliot nocked and loosed in one smooth motion, and the arrow flew true. The first guard fell.
The heist of the fishing vessel had begun.
Chapter Fourteen
“Would you like some food, dear? We have rabbit.” The old woman wore an expectant smile that made it clear she’d like nothing more than to feed a guest.
“Perhaps just a little,” Gideon replied. “You’re very kind.”
A part of him felt guilty for eating some of the elderly couple’s food, but another part, a much louder part, roared with hunger. That part drowned any moral qualms he might otherwise have had.
He still couldn’t believe he’d done it. He’d found a stone in the village they’d visited. He’d almost tried to escape immediately, but they’d watched him closely, both in the village and during the journey back to Baer Gigur. He’d hidden the stone, shifting it between his hands and his mouth as the situation dictated.
Then, when the leaders of both The Foggy Day crew and the Tall Grass Raiders retired to Elliot’s home for a meeting, he’d made his move. He’d almost had to stab Clemens, but thankfully that big idiot Olaf had tackled him, moving him away from Clemens and giving him a clear path to the woods beyond Baer Gigur.
But the most unbelievable thing, the thing he still couldn’t wrap his head around, was that he’d somehow avoided capture. Even though Elliot and his ekkja knew the woods and he did not, he’d managed to evade them.
He’d run all through the night, keeping his eyes fixed on the Crossed Stars, a constellation that would lead him south. Not long after dawn, he’d stumbled across a decrepit old home. He’d assumed it was empty, but as he approached, he’d heard voices inside. The old married couple, Albert and Soffia, had invited him in with almost no questions. He’d spent most of the morning sleeping in their home.
Now the sun was high; Gideon guessed it must be midafternoon. He consumed the rabbit that was offered to him with gusto.
When the final bone had been stripped of meat and placed back onto the plate, he leaned back in his chair. “Thank you both. You have no idea how much better I feel now that I have food in my stomach.”
Albert waved the thought away. “A stranger did me a service once when I was young. This was before the Stone Shapers came, of course. Back in the Time of Madness. Ever since then, I’ve tried to help people where I can. Besides, I haven’t seen a face other than Soffia’s in six months, not counting the damn Stone Shapers. It’s nice to visit with someone without lady parts.”
Soffia cackled with laughter. “Don’t lie. You love waking up to my face every morning. And my lady parts.”
“Let’s not be crude at the dinner table, dear.”
“You think that’s crude? I’m just getting started. Wait until I start telling him about your equipment.”
Gideon held up a hand. “I don’t think that’ll be necessary. Thank you both for the meal, and for letting me rest here. Tell me, how far are we from Nuur?”
Albert raised an eyebrow. “No more than a few hours, if you have a decent team pulling your wagon. But I wouldn’t recommend going there. They don’t much like anyone not wearing the black sash.”
“Aye,” Soffia agreed. “They’re likely to throw you in the stocks on some trumped-up charge and then sentence you to a couple months on their fishing ships as punishment.”
Gideon smiled. “You’re pulling my leg. It can’t be that bad.”
“Oh, it’s worse,” Albert replied. “Because once you’re in their labor force, you’ll never get out. They’ll accuse you of a minor infraction to extend your sentence, and they’ll continue doing so until you’re either dead or too old to be useful to them.”
Gideon nodded politely. He knew it didn’t work like that. Granted, his brother and his lieutenants in Nuur did sentence criminals to labor on the fishing vessels, but it wasn’t like they were describing.
Was it?
Albert leaned forward in his chair. “Point is, I’d avoid Stone Shaper cities if I were you. Hell, avoid Shapers altogether if you can, though that’s nearly impossible these days. They spread like rats, don’t they?”
Gideon struggled to keep his face even. “I suppose I wouldn’t know.” He’d known that some in the villages disliked the Stone Shapers, but he’d never heard it discussed so openly. He wondered what else he’d learn if he traveled more frequently without his black sash.
“You’re lucky then.” Albert took a long pull from his cup of brownish water.
Soffia stood up suddenly, her eyes fixed out the window. “Speaking of rats…”
Albert glanced out the window. “Sonofabitch. Already?” He turned to Gideon. “They come every week, take what little we’ve got, and call it a tax.”
Gideon stood and looked outside. Two men on horseback were approaching, and both wore black sashes.
A few moments later, the two men were at the door. They offered no greeting. One of them, a short fat man with a patchy beard, glared at Albert. “You know why we’re here. Let’s not dawdle.”
His gazed drifted to Gideon and settled there for a long moment. Then his eyes widened. “Wait, I know you. I saw you at court last year when I was getting my commission. You’re Gideon!”
Gideon had no memory of the man, but he nodded sharply. “Greetings.”
“Where’s your sash? What have they done to you?” He looked at Albert and Soffia, anger in his eyes. “You know who this man is?”
Gideon held up a hand. “It’s all right. They helped me. They deserve our thanks.”
Albert stared at Gideon. “You’re a Stone Shaper?” The hurt was clear on his face.
Gideon stayed focused on the two men in the doorway. “They fed me when I was hungry. Whatever taxes they owe, waive them for the rest of the year.”
If Albert heard, he gave no indication. “A damn Shaper at my table, eating my food. As if I haven’t given you bastards enough.”
The fat Stone Shaper scratched his head. “I don’t know, Gideon. We have quotas to meet. If we don’t collect the taxes—”
“Do you know who I am?” Gideon snapped, echoing the man’s words from moments before.
“Yes, sir,” the fat one said.
“Then act like it.”
A few moments later, they were ready to leave. Gideon tried to thank his hosts again, but Albert ignored his outstretched hand and Soffia spat on the ground.
It disappointed Gideon, but he didn’t have time to worry about it. He had more important matters on his agenda.
After all this time, he’d finally found the Tall Grass Raiders. He needed to tell Magnus the good news.
* * *
The three archers loosed their arrows and the two guards on the ship fell, one with two arrows sticking out of his chest.
Now that the guards were down, Dustin could begin his work.
Abbey set her feet, preparing herself. “Remember, we need a straight, hard wind at our backs. I’ll take care of getting us down. You just make sure the wind pushes us straight out.”
Dustin cracked one eye open. “Could you maybe not tell me how to do my job for once?”
She shrugged. “It’s worked out pretty well so far. Why mess with success?”
He shook his head and began stormcalling.
There was a bustle in the streets below as a passerby noticed the guard on the dock with an arrow in his chest and called to his friends.
The wind was stirring, but it wasn’t strong enough. Not yet.
“Come on, Dustin,” Abbey grumbled.
As if spurred on by her words, a sudden gust hit her in the back. Without even asking to see if he was ready, she grabbed Dustin’s arm and made them weightless.
They shot forward, and a thrill ran through Abbey as the now-familiar sensation of her feet leaving the ground took hold.
As they crossed the street, she increased their weight in tiny increments, causing them to descend i
n a smooth arc.
Their feet touched down smoothly on the deck of the ship, and Abbey immediately ran to the mast and went to work raising the sails.
On the docks, a small group was gathering around the fallen guard. Somehow they’d failed to notice Abbey and Dustin soaring over their heads and landing on the ship.
“Wait, he’s alive!” one of the gawkers cried. “We’ll get you help, buddy?”
“What’s he pointing at?” another asked.
The first man spoke again. “The bell. He wants us to ring it.”
At that, Abbey’s gaze shot to the end of the dock. Sure enough, there was a bell hanging from a post.
Ringing it would raise an alarm.
One of the gawkers trotted toward the bell. Abbey frantically tried to figure out a way to stop him, but he was too far away.
He reached the bell and rang it hard.
“Abbey, what are you doing?” Dustin asked. “Get that sail up fast!”
She went back to work. As she did, she glanced at the street. Two of the archers were rappelling down the rope on the side of the building. Elliot and the other archer were still on the roof. Squads of Tall Grass Raiders were running toward the ship from both directions.
The gawker kept ringing the bell, and Stone Shapers began pouring out of nearby buildings. The fallen guard and the crowd around him captured their attention first, but one of them quickly noticed Abbey and Dustin.
“Over there! What are they doing?” It was a tall Stone Shaper woman who spoke.
“Damn it!” Abbey considered charging at the man ringing the bell, but she wasn’t sure it would help at this point. Other bells up and down the dock were ringing now too as more took up the alarm.
The two rappelling archers touched down, and Elliot and the other archer started their descent.
The scene on the street was quickly devolving into madness. The Tall Grass Raiders pushed their way through the crowd, trying to get to the ship. Stone Shapers ran through the streets, futilely trying to identify the trouble that had caused the alarm to be raised.
The benefit of the chaos was that no one was fighting yet. Which was good, because the Tall Grass Raiders were greatly outnumbered.
One of the Stone Shapers pointed up at the building across from the ship. “Look!”
Dozens of eyes turned toward the building down which Elliot and the other archer were rappelling.
At that moment a wagon raced up the street and pulled to a halt, and ten Stone Shapers jumped out. These men were dressed in matching uniforms. The City Guard, Abbey thought.
A man with a slightly fancier uniform pointed at Elliot and the archer. “Enclose!”
Five Stone Shapers ran to the building and pressed their hands against it, and the building began to change. The wall shifted, reaching out and grabbing Elliot and the archer. It wrapped itself around their legs, and began to crawl upward.
Abbey decided she’d had enough of this. She stepped onto the dock. Luckily, every eye was on Elliot and the archer as the stone wall slowly enveloped them. Abbey pushed her way through to the street.
“Ekkja!” Elliot called. His voice sounded strained. The stone was up to his mid-thigh now. “Scatter!”
“Sink the ship!” one of the Stone Shapers called. “Don’t let them take it!”
A cry of delight went through the crowd, and people charged toward the hull and began punching holes in it with their stones.
Dustin jumped off the ship onto the dock.
Abbey reached the guards’ cart and grabbed the fancy Stone Shaper. Channeling magic, she reduced his weight and lifted him into the air with one hand. Her other hand held her sword, which she pressed against his stomach. “You’re dressed fancy and you’re shouting orders. Guess that makes you the boss.”
The Stone Shaper’s eyes were wide. “How are you doing that?”
“Tell your friends to stop crushing my friends. Now.”
His face hardened. “I am Captain of the Nuur City Guard. Unhand me or face—”
She pressed her sword into his thigh, and the blade sank in a half inch. “Seriously, tell them to stop.”’
“If you think—”
She sank the blade deeper and began to wiggle it.
The man grunted in pain. His face was beet-red.
“The next words out of your mouth better be ‘Release them,’” she commanded, “or I’m going to start cutting a bit higher.”
Beads of sweat stood on the man’s forehead. “Guards! Release them!”
The guards returned the wall to its original shape, then stepped back. Elliot and the archer dangled from their ropes, and after a moment they continued their descent.
Abbey suddenly realized that the street was quiet. Every eye was fixed on her. She glanced at Dustin, and he nodded. He began to stormcall.
Thick clouds began to darken the sky, and a heavy fog settled on the street.
Abbey spoke in a loud, confident voice. “We are the ekkja. Do not try to comprehend our power.”
Lightning crashed above them, punctuating her words, then the skies opened and rain began to pour down on them.
“Do not attempt to pursue us, or we will show you great and terrible things that will make this,” she shook the captain in the air, “look like a warmup. Seriously, we’re really bad.”
She looked at Dustin, Elliot, and the few Tall Grass Raiders who hadn’t heeded Elliot’s order to scatter.
“And now,” she said, “we go!”
On the word ‘Go,’ she threw the captain into the crowd, jumped off the wagon, and sprinted north.
She didn’t stop to see if her friends had done the same. She just hoped they all made it out alive.
Chapter Fifteen
Abbey made it to the pre-arranged rendezvous point south of town an hour after sunset.
The escape from the city had been difficult and nerve-wracking. Fleeing through a strange and confusing city knowing that stoneshaping guards were after you wasn’t fun. Every time she heard footsteps or when a door opened, she’d assumed her pursuers had caught up with her.
In truth, her biggest enemy had been her sense of direction. She’d gotten lost three times before she finally found her way out of the city.
When she reached the meeting place, she was relieved and delighted to find most of the group already gathered there. Most, but not all.
After exchanging greetings, she brought up the fact that some were missing. “Where’s everyone else?”
Hekla lowered her head. “They didn’t make it.”
They’d lost five people, all good, solid Tall Grass Raiders. People who’d once served a Barskall warlord and dreamed of conquest, but who had left that all behind so they could use their skills to help the villagers of Gren.
Thinking of what they’d given up for this ill-conceived plan broke Abbey’s heart.
Elliot’s voice was heavy with sorrow when he spoke. “I was arrogant. Because of our success in the villages, I assumed it would be just as easy in a larger city.”
Tragic as it was, it was also incredible they’d lost so few in what had been a complete debacle.
Abbey nudged Dustin. “Good work calling that storm. We wouldn’t have escaped without it.”
“I told you I knew how to do my job,” he said with a sad smile.
After they’d taken a few moments to think about their fallen friends, Syd spoke up. “I think our best option now is to head south across land.”
“To Ammaas?” Elliot asked.
“Of course. As soon as Gideon gets word to Magnus that we’re working with you, The Foggy Day is royally fucked. We have to beat him to the city.”
Abbey wrapped her fingers around the hilt of her sword. Just the thought of the trouble that Stone Shaper had caused them made her furious.
Syd continued. “We get down there as quickly as possible, then we have Dustin and Viktor call the biggest storm Gren has ever seen. Hopefully that will be enough to let us sail past those idiots on the pillar
s. We’ll head east, and never look toward Gren again.”
Elliot looked troubled.
“What is it?” Syd asked.
“I can’t do that. I can’t leave Gren, not in the state it’s in right now.”
Syd glared at her brother. “What are you talking about? That’s why I came all this way—to rescue you and bring you home!”
“I know, and I appreciate it. It means a lot to me, but that doesn’t change the facts. People are starving here in Gren, and it’s because of Magnus and his followers. I promised to help those people.”
“You did help them!” Syd’s voice was getting loud now. “You fed them for a year. You became an outlaw and lived in hiding. What more could anyone possibly expect of you?”
Elliot held up a hand. “I understand where you’re coming from, and believe me, I want to go home. For a long time, I dreamed of nothing else. But I have a responsibility. Some of my friends died for this today.”
Syd took a deep breath. “I know that. But if we don’t go to Ammaas right now, my friends will die.”
Something occurred to Abbey. She touched Elliot’s arm. “Maybe you’ve been thinking about this wrong.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“You’ve been trying to get the attention of the inland Stone Shapers, right? So you can let them know what Magnus is up to? Well, maybe you should take a more direct route.”
Elliot looked skeptical. “Are you saying we go inland and talk to them? We tried that once. It did not go well.”
“So you’re just going to give up? Try again! Keep trying until they either listen to you or drop a stone on your head.”
“You’re talking like someone dropped a stone on your head,” Syd interjected. “Once we free The Foggy Day, we won’t have time to talk to this supposedly kind Stone Shaper tribe. We are going to have to get gone, or we’ll face some serious consequences from Magnus.”
Elliot turned to his sister. “That’s why you have to leave me here.”
“If only we could be two places at once,” Olaf mused.
Abbey snapped her fingers. “That’s it!”
