Powder And Shot

by Dragon Cobolt

  And the fucking money.

  One of the downsides of being Free Lord. He had to count every coin that had been sent to the bottom by one bomb.

  “I now understand half of the war on terror,” he muttered.

  Dia hissed. “Your ships, they look like Greek ships.”

  “They have some advantages over the Greek ships you’re remembering,” Liam whispered back.

  “I hope so,” Dia said. “Though, such ships were enough for Troyus.”

  Liam would have immediately asked for more information when a resounding boom echoed behind him. He craned his head around, but could only see the sturdiness of the mast and the bronze chains tying him too it. Voices cried out in alarm from the crew of the ship, and pirates started to rush about. Quinn bellowed something in response to a question: “It’s some kind of mass geomantic foci, similar to the event horizon created by the-”

  A blast of hot, humid air rushed across the Kiss’ deck. The sails strained and several ropes snapped like gunshots. A few crew were bowled over. An elf, who Liam had seen scampering around as if they were perpetually worried about being kicked, was sent pitching over the railing to splash into the waters with a screech. When the blast of wind faded, Kailey bellowed.

  “Bring us about! Now! Now! Now!”

  The ship started to spin.

  And Liam saw what had come behind them.

  A storm – already beginning to disperse in the air, the fog banks spreading outwards and growing thinner – had swirled up. But in its heart were five triremes, each one painted the brilliant gold and harsh black of Ares and his Monodeists. At the head of one of the ships, standing on the ram, beside a pair of glittering cannons, was a Paladin. Sword raised above his head, and his voice booming impossibly loud.

  “Ahead! Ahead! God wills it!”

  The Monodeist ships surged forward on the waves.

  The Babylonian ships rushed forward.

  And the Morrigan’s Kiss was caught in the middle.

  “What do we do, Cap?” a pirate shouted.

  “Kailey!” Liam shouted. “Kailey!”

  The Captain – who was looking between the two fleets that rattled towards one another – snapped her head around to glare at him.

  Liam glared right back. “You might be a pirate. But Ares is a goddamn fucking lunatic,” he said, grinning. “And, as Free Lord of Babylon, I can offer you something way better than a measly five thousand gold coins. I can give you a Letter of Marque and free reign.”

  Kailey looked at him, her brow furrowing. “A what?”

  “If you help us kick their asses!” Liam snarled, jerking his chin at the onrushing Monodeist fleet. “You get half their loot.”

  “Two thirds,” Kailey shot back.

  “You’re bargaining now!?” Dia shouted, sounding appalled. “They’re right there!”

  “Two thirds.” Kailey had to shout over the boom of the cannons. The Monodeists had clearly not fought in naval combat in some time, or at least, they had not learned how to use cannons in it. Their guns fired far too soon, and the cannonballs skipped over the water before sinking harmlessly beneath the waves.

  “Fine, two thirds,” Liam said. “But cut me free at least!”

  “Quinn!” Kailey said, already starting to grow. Her deck hissed and steamed under her feet. “Get them free. And get the collar off Anubis.”

  Liam tensed as Quinn rushed forward and undid the latching on the chains. As she yanked it free, Liam jerked away, rubbing his wrists with a hiss. He then immediately leaped to the rear of the ship, where the rudder and the flag was flapping. He grabbed the flag, using his greater height to be able to reach out and snag the far corner. Looking at the Babylonian ships, he yanked the flag down, then up, then down, then up.

  Signaling in semaphore: King Free.

  He saw the faint glint of a telescope. Then a signal flag winked back. They were using the old cipher – and he read it out, muttering under his breath.

  Orders?

  He flashed.

  Join battle.

  The Babylonian ships started to break formation – moving so that two would skirt around the rear of the Morrigan’s Kiss, while the slightly larger one would head around the prow. As their sails belled out and their rowers started to hit the sea with determination, Liam swung his head around, trying to get a feel for the Monodeists. They were still rushing closer and closer.

  He’d need to get Tethis onto figuring out how they had managed a mass teleport. Likely used the same ‘storm power generation’ system as Brax the Golden had used during the war. But then Thaddious stepped up to him and under hand tossed him a pistol, then a sword. Thaddious looked grim.

  “I hear you’re on our side now,” he said. “Listen. You may be King of Babylon. But right now, you do what Kailey says. Got it?”

  Liam snorted. “I don’t got any choice, do I?” He checked the pistol and tried to not cringe at the quality.

  “Good,” Thaddious said. “Now-”

  And his voice was lost in the unending roar of the broadside. Cannons leaped, one after the other, as their crews fired them at the onrushing Monodeist triremes. Smoke and flames leaped from each cannon’s mouth, filling the air with a bank of black powder clouds that were almost as thick as the teleportation storm had been. The winds blew, almost lazily, taking tufts of the smoke and pushing them up and to the side. Some trailed from the sails, others blew into Liam’s face directly.

  Then the cloud was gone and, through the clear air, they could see the Monodeist ships approaching.

  Utterly unharmed.

  “You cack-handed lubberly twits!” Kailey bellowed – her form expanding as she grew larger. “Aim your bloody cannons! Aim! Aim! Aim!”

  One of the guns had been knocked ajar, the mounting shaken loose by the force of the gunpowder. Kailey stepped forward and grabbed onto the cannon, then lifted it, seeming to not even notice that the crystal was still sizzling hot from being fired. Then she set it back in the cradle and bellowed.

  “Reload!”

  The Monodeists had reloaded their guns and come all the closer. They fired.

  A cannon ball whisked through the rigging of the Kiss. Another hit the railing about fifteen feet away from where Liam stood – filling the air with a shower of wooden shrapnel. A pirate woman sprawled next to Liam, her eyes wide with shock. A chunk of wood the size of his thumb stuck out of her left eye, pointing at him. Almost accusing. But not all of the cannon balls were aimed at the Kiss. Several of the Babylonian ships had taken damage.

  Then the Babylonians fired. Their guns roared and boomed and cracked. Liam watched as a Monodeist’s ship had five of their oars smashed to kindling by a single lucky shot.

  “Ready!” a voice rang out.

  “Ready!” another one joined in – then another. The cannons were being loaded. Kailey shouted orders to the helmsman, who started to bring the ship between two of the Monodeist ships. One of them was turning to bring its ram to face their ship. The other was the one who had lost several oars at once. Both were slightly too slow. And then, before Liam’s eyes, the cannons started to glow a pale golden.

  He looked back and saw Dia. Her eyes were closed and she radiated a pale golden light. Quinn stood beside her, looking stunned as she watched a god at work – the null-collar in her hands.

  The cannons roared.

  Smoke shrouded the Kiss.

  Cleared.

  And the cheers that started were damped into pure confusion. Every single cannonball had struck the enemy, as if guided by the hand of a god. They glowed with the same golden light that the cannons did. But rather than sinking into wood and shattering planking, the balls had frozen, half an inch away from both ships. Liam looked from one to the other, at the hovering balls. Then the golden light faded and the balls splashed into the ocean.

  “God wills it!”

  The bellow came from both ships – slightly offset, as it came from two throats. And two Paladins emerged. Both were heavily armor
ed and armed with silvery longswords. Liam’s heart jolted.

  No.

  No, that’s impossible, he thought.

  But the two were springing across the distance between the ships as the two Triremes rushed forward under oar and sail. A ram smashed along the side of the Kiss, causing everyone aboard to flail to try and keep their footing. The other didn’t strike, but simply bumped up against the edge. Hellenic marines swarmed over both sides of the railing, swords raised.

  But the Paladins were all that Liam could focus on.

  Both were clad in…

  Armed with…

  Steel.

  Tempered, battle-hardened steel. He watched as one Paladin hacked down two pirates in a single brutal swing, his sword cleaving through them as if they were nothing. Liam shook himself and lifted his pistol. He pulled the trigger – and the gunpowder fizzled. He glared at the pistol.

  “Piece of pirate crap!” he snarled as a Hellene – fortunately, armed with bronze and armored in leather – rushed him. He blocked the sword blow, clubbed the man in the temple with his pistol, then thrust his sword through his neck. He looked around, and saw that Quinn was using her magic to fire bolts of energy desperately into Hellenic marines that rushed towards her, while Dia was trying to use her magics to stop enemies from overwhelming them from the other side.

  Kailey was shouting: “To me! To me!”

  Liam launched himself forward. He threw himself at the men rushing at Dia and Quinn. His shoulder smashed into a man who was lifting his sword to bring down on Quinn’s head. The man went sprawling and Liam swung left, then right. He didn’t kill anyone, but he did drive Hellenes backwards, opening a momentary hole that Quinn rushed through. Dia sprinted afterwards, lashing out with her palm. She slapped a man with a bolt of godly energy that turned him into so much red mist. Then the men were hemming them in, surrounding them as Liam put his back to Kailey. His living foot skidded along the water slick deck, but the metal of his artificial foot remained rooted, giving him a better stance as he swept his gaze about the deck.

  The rest of the crew were either dead or raising their hands in surrender.

  A great deal of Hellenic swords pointed at them.

  “I picked a great time to work for you, didn’t I, Vanderbilt?” Kailey growled.

  “Lord Vanderbilt!”

  The voice that boomed from across the deck was only slightly muffled by the helmet. The Paladin in question had his sword resting on one armored shoulder. Liam had to admit, he was an awe-inspiring sight. For the longest time, he had thought the only steel that had been on Purgatory had been his old longsword. Then, after said longsword had been sucked out of the hole that had been blown in the skin of Purgatory by the death of Sysminor, he had resigned himself to working with bronze and crystal and wood.

  This man was armored from head to toe in steel plate. It wasn't the same as European plate mail. Rather, it looked like someone had taken a Greek hoplite and recast them in steel and leather and chain. His face was covered by a scowling mask that looked like it had been transplanted from Feudal Japan. Behind it, he was gloating.

  “So, it was as we suspected. You were the one behind stealing the cannons,” the Paladin chuckled. “Such a cunning blow, to come to such an ignominious end.”

  Liam glanced at Kailey. She looked offended, but didn’t speak up.

  Liam looked back at the Paladin and called back: “It’s not over yet.”

  “God has offered fifty pounds of gold for your head,” the Paladin said, aiming his blade at him. “So, I believe it has.”

  Liam glanced up and away, looking to see if the rest of the naval battle had turned one way or the other – but the other ships were too shrouded in fire and smoke for him to see anything but the faint motion of hulls and sails. They could be either Babylonian or Monodeist, friend or foe. He bit his lower lip, then blinked. He pointed.

  “What the fuck is that?”

  The Paladin snorted. “This? Is this the best the Godkiller could manage? The look behind you t-”

  The javelin slammed through the Paladin’s helmet, exploded out of the eye-hole of the mask, and thudded into the deck with a splinter of wood. The Paladin stood stock still as a statue of living clay soared from the heavens in a curving parabola. Wings exploded from the back of the statue, shattering clay apart in a spray of dust and smoke. Tile chunks – still glowing with magical runes and crackling with the residue of magical transference – clattered into the deck and splashed into the seas.

  The Paladin’s lifeless corpse went flying through the air and smashed into the mast with a crack as loud as a cannon shot. Then it tumbled down and landed, face first, before Liam.

  Megaera Vanderbilt, the First Lady of the Free City of Babylon, rolled her shoulders as she stood from her landing, her wings fanning outwards. Her chest was clad in a gleaming bronze chest-piece, while her left arm had a shining buckler of smooth and polished crystal strapped to it. Her right was already hefting up her second javelin as she beamed.

  “Who’s next!?”

  Eight

  The Hellenes stood in shock. Hell, Liam was in shock. He had traced the line of Meg’s flight and it looked as if she had started from Babylon, shot past the sun, and swung behind the Paladin in a single smooth motion. He knew that valks had long dreamed of making a ‘straight shot’ - flying from one side of Purgatory to another - but the heat of the sun had made that an impossibility. Well, an impossibility to someone who wanted to survive.

  But Meg had done it.

  And as he stood there, she threw her javelin. It shot across the deck with a crack, its course ending with an unmusical clunk. Liam whipped his head back in time to see the other Paladin charging forward, his sword gleaming with flames, the javelin clattering to the ground beside him. Meg threw again – and again, the Paladin parried it.

  Meg beat her wings and soared upwards as the Paladin swung. His sword smashed into the rear of a cannon, knocking it off its carriage and sending it rolling across the deck. Several marines were sent tumbling to the ground, screaming in pain. As Meg soared overhead, Liam heard Kailey bellow – a wordless scream of wrath. She picked up a pair of Hellenic marines, squeezing their necks and then hurling them into the mass of the enemy.

  The pirates who hadn’t been slain charged from cover, swords flashing.

  But then Liam had to focus entirely on the Paladin who was rushing for him. He moved with astounding speed, armor or no armor. Liam ducked underneath his sword swing, then stepped backwards. His feet skidded along the blood slicked deck and he lifted his sword to parry the backswing. Sword met sword and Liam’s blade simply dropped to the deck in two pieces.

  “I hate not having the nice sword,” Liam hissed. He stepped backwards again and his thighs bumped against a cannon. He glanced away from the Paladin – who was carefully stepping over corpses. That armor would make tripping and falling a real bad idea. The cannon, though, was loaded and primed, the crew sprawled in death around it.

  Liam sprang backwards.

  The Paladin stepped up, sword swinging.

  Liam yanked on the cannon’s firing cord. Flint sparked and the gunpowder went off, sending a cannon ball right into the deck of the docked ship beside the Kiss. But, more importantly, the cannon bucked into the Paladin and sent him sprawling onto the deck. Liam looked around for a weapon – but then Meg landed beside him with a grunt. She hurled her javelin and the Paladin swung his blade around, despite being sprawled on his back. The javelin struck the blade and shattered into pieces.

  “This guy just won’t-” Meg snarled.

  The Paladin lifted his left hand up. “Smite her, my Lord!” he bellowed.

  Liam slammed his shoulder into Meg’s and the two of them sprawled on the deck as a bolt of golden light shot from the Paladin’s palm. It clipped the corner of the forecastle, exploding wood and sending up a spew of smoke into the air. Meg groaned and sat up.

  “The fuck was that?”

  “Dia!” Liam started t
o stand. “Your collar!”

  Across the deck, standing next to Kailey – who stood atop a heap of bodies and was surrounded by increasingly terrified marines – was Dia. She put her hand to the collar that Quinn had removed from her neck. It hung loose around her shoulders, dangling there. She under-handed it to Liam as the Paladin staggered to his feet, golden flames writhing around his shoulders. His sword seemed to glow.

  “Deus vult!” he roared, charging at Liam and Meg.

  Liam caught the collar, and snapped it around the Paladin’s wrist. The collar clicked home.

  The golden flames vanished like a light switch had been flicked. The sword remained steel, but it no longer glittered as if it had been coated in raw magic. The Paladin staggered and stumbled to the side, as if his strength had been shut off with the golden light. He looked around, then down at his wrist.

  “God?” he asked. Plaintive, like he expected a response.

  “He ain’t listening,” Meg growled, yanking her last javelin from her pouch and hurling it in the same smooth motion. The javelin smashed into the man’s neck, tearing through the thinner chain, and finishing its flight by burying itself up to the grip into the mast of the Morrigan’s Kiss.

  The Paladin clutched at the blood fountaining from his neck, seeping past his articulated gauntlets. He staggered and collapsed to the ground. Liam slowly relaxed as the remaining marines raised their hands in surrender. Liam leaned against Meg, nuzzling her gently.

  The Paladin began to gurgle out a laugh. He lifted one hand, weakly, then sprawled back on the deck.

  Liam and Meg turned, wordlessly.

  The Monodeist fleet had rallied and the Babylonian ships had joined them. New Monodeist flags flapped on them, and the decks of the Babylonian ships were slicked with blood. The Paladins and the Hellenic marines that thronged on their decks could not hope to sail them. But in the current stillness of wind and wave, they didn’t need to. They simply had to load the cannons. Liam groaned.