Voidhawk

by Halstead, Jason

  “Do you know how to use a club?” Jenna asked her after taking a breath to fight down the adrenaline coursing through her blood.

  Bailynn shook her head and looked at her hands instead, which were also smeared with the blood of her victim.

  “Okay, let’s hurry and find our friends,” Jenna said, understanding that she only knew how to be the savage killer that Jenna’s kin had turned her into. With a blush of shame coloring her skin, Jenna hurried down the hallway to the next door and peered into it.

  No sooner had she looked in when a shout came at them from down the hallway. Two more slavers approached, one of them carrying another bowl of what passed for stew. Another two hurried down the stairs behind them, with a third bowl. They set the stew down and drew their clubs, with the furthest on in the back rushing back up a set of stairs to get more help.

  Jenna cursed and turned to face them. “Open that door, I couldn’t tell if anyone was in there or not,” she said.

  Bailynn moved past her and shifted the heavy wooden beam out of the locks before pulling open the door and looking in. Kragor peered out, ready to spring into action himself in spite of recognizing Jenna’s voice and hearing the sounds of the scuffle. Behind him a strange man, Xander, stood and stared at her curiously.

  “About time,” Kragor said, hurrying out of the room and turning to move up beside Jenna. “Where’s Jodyne?”

  The slavers had advanced cautiously down the passage, pausing to glance at the two corpses the women had left in their wake before coming towards them.

  “Lynn, can you check the other doors?” Jenna asked, not daring to stand down from her position. She glanced down at the dwarf and found herself smirking in spite of their situation.

  “Not a word, elf,” Kragor growled at her, picking up the wooden plank used to bar the door to his and Xander’s cell.

  “Yes, Sir,” Jenna said, failing to hide her smile.

  Kragor scowled but dismissed it as the pirates approached them.

  “You throw down that club and we’ll go easy on ya,” one of them said, addressing Jenna.

  Jenna ignored him, and instead stood in her defensive position, club raised. The motley pirate crew snarled, spat, and insulted them before finally just rushing forward with the intent of overrunning them.

  The close quarters aided Kragor, for his was able to get inside the reach of their opponents and use his smaller size to his advantage. Jenna, though unfamiliar with the tips and tricks of wielding a club, gave better than she received, smashing into every unprotected attacker that presented himself to her. In a matter of moments Kragor picked up a dropped club from a fallen slaver and was able to provide a more dangerous opponent as well.

  Jodyne and Bekka hurried to join them; relief flooding through both dwarves to learn that the other survived. The matter of missing clothing was forgotten under the circumstances, although privately both felt embarrassed for the other.

  Bailynn was approaching the final door when something slammed into it from the other side, jarring it. She stopped and watched it, equally curious and nervous about it. The slamming came again and again, as though something was trying to get out. She glanced back down the passage at Jenna and the others – her friends? Bailynn shrugged and slid the plank out of the braces, allowing the next impact with the door to send it flying open and a surprised Keshira to stumble into the hallway.

  She paused, once in the hallway, and looked around. She looked to her right, where a set of stairs led up and down, and nearly headed in the direction. Several men came rushing down the stairs, blocking them and advancing forward. She looked back to the right where the others waited and quickly judged that they had things as under control as they could hope to.

  In a smaller hallway, with fewer assailants attacking them, it might be possible to fight the slavers off longer, she reasoned. Or at least long enough for Captain Dexter to make it back to them. She could feel him drawing closer with each passing minute. She turned back to the stairs on her right and ran forward, catching the pirates by surprise as she plowed into their ranks and actually drove them back.

  Bailynn, at a loss for what to do, decided to help Keshira. She had never spoken to the woman, and rarely found the pleasure golem speaking to others. Even now she had expressed no gratitude or greeting. Given the confusion she herself felt, Bailynn found herself wondering about the voluptuous woman easily overpowering the slavers that came at her. Besides, helping Keshira put her further from the confusing elf. Jenna was obviously at war with her own nature, and Bailynn wanted to be nowhere near her when the war ended, in case the elven side of her won out and found a way to imprison her again.

  They fought for what seemed like an hour or more. Their arms were leaden and their breath burned in their throats. The crew of the Voidhawk was bruised and bloodied many times over, but thus far only the bodies of the slavers cluttered the floor of the passage. A dozen, perhaps, had fallen, but still more filled the ends of the tunnel and sought to subdue them. A few times other weapons had entered the fray, instead of the simple clubs that the slavers used in attempts to subdue them. Jenna upgraded to wield a club in one hand and a dropped short sword in the other. A few daggers had fallen as well, though Jodyne was quick to acquire them and send them spinning back into the ranks of the slavers.

  Of them all Keshira alone fought tirelessly. She had disabled or killed several pirates on her own, and fresh ones were not so anxious to come against her. Their knives and swords had little effect on her, which astonished and terrified them. They could not understand how a woman so beautiful and soft looking could be so deadly.

  Bailynn grew tired herself, but if she needed a short respite it was easy to do by letting Keshira pick up the slack in the narrow corridor. She was covered in blood and felt as though she might never be free of the stink and the taste of it. It sickened her, but she knew this time she fought for herself, not for a Master.

  “He’s here!” Keshira said, pausing only slightly after having thrown a pirate into the wall and his comrades.

  Bailynn looked at her, wondering what she was talking about. She also noted the renewed frenzy that Keshira went into as she tried to force her way through the ranks of the slavers.

  Bailynn strove to aid her, fingers sinking into the hamstring of one of the few lizardmen slavers that tried to disable the pleasure golem. Bailynn yanked him towards her, with the surprised lizardman hissing in pain all the while, and then she dug bloody furrows across his face with her other hand when it turned to look at her. Recoiling in surprise at the savagery in the small woman, it was caught unprepared again when her next strike tore into its abdomen and pulled something bloody, fleshy, and important for continued survival into the open air.

  The crew of the Voidhawk heard some shouting in the distance, and only after the cry was taken up by others did they make it out. Someone was calling for the slavers to stop fighting. Another order came once both groups stopped, and they pulled back so that the exhausted prisoners could make their way, warily, up three flights of stairs and out onto the main deck of the ship.

  A pile of gear was being assembled on the deck, all of that which had been taken from the prisoners. Xander cried out in joy when he saw a collection of books spilling out of a sack on the decking. Standing up on the forecastle of the ship was Dexter and Rosh, the latter of which holding the cutlass wielding captain of the slave ship with a curved dagger to his throat.

  “Captain!” Keshira cried out when she saw him, a great relief in her voice.

  Dexter and Rosh looked at them all in shock. Even Rosh could only focus on the nudity of the woman for so long before he, too, had to show some shock at the exhaustion they displayed and the level of gore covering them. Bailynn, in particular, was nearly covered head to toe in blood. They put their clothing back on, although in Keshira’s case it had been torn so badly it was an impossible task.

  Dexter opened his mouth to ask who Xander was, but decided instead he would deal with that later. Inste
ad he growled some orders to the pirate Captain, who nervously called out for his crew to let the prisoners gather their things and cross the gangplank that had been set up between the pirate ship and the Voidhawk, which had been sailing alongside as further captured booty.

  Jenna and the others made their way across, though Keshira waited until Dexter motioned for her to go as well. Rosh and Dexter, dragging the slaver captain with them, made their way to the plank as well. They waited while Kragor and Jenna rounded up the pirates that had sailed the Voidhawk and they ushered them back across the gangplank to the pirate vessel.

  Halfway across Dexter bade them to stop and called across, “Kragor, who served as helmsman?”

  Kragor eyed them briefly and called back, “Fourth man from the front.”

  Dexter nodded and, without so much as a second thought, drew his pistol and fired it. The pirate helmsman staggered from the impact, then looked down at the growing red stain on his tunic. He looked up, mouth open in shock, and lost his balance. He fell between the ships, falling to the gravity plane and plunging through it, then falling back upwards to plunge through it again and again.

  The pirates jerked and started forward, but a slight shake of their captain and additional pressure from the knife at his throat and he bade them to stand back. They accepted, but many had murder gleaming in their eyes. A few, those who had fought in the passages, did not look so anxious to press the attack anew.

  Dexter waved the rest on and reloaded his pistol while they crossed. Once they were aboard they pushed the slaver captain across the plank, with Rosh and Dexter following closely behind him. The body of the pirate helmsman continued to bob up and down on the gravity plane between the ships.

  “Follow us and we’ll be killing every last one you. Cross our paths again, and the same fate be yours!” Dexter yelled over to them once they had crossed.

  “Rosh, let him go,” Dexter said, gesturing with his pistol for the slaver to cross the plank back to his ship.

  “You’ve made a mistake, Captain,” the pirate spat at him.

  “Won’t be the first nor the last,” Dexter said, gesturing again. “Now shut your mouth and get off my ship!”

  The pirate stepped up on the gangplank and started across. After a couple of steps Rosh turned to Dexter and said, “You really gonna let him live?”

  The pirate hurried his step and it was not until he was near the end of the plank that he turned, glaring hatefully at Dexter and Rosh. “You’ll pay for this, I’m going to-“

  Dexter’s pistol spat out a ball of lead at the same time that Rosh kicked the gangplank away from the Voidhawk. The pirate captain shrieked as he fell, reaching out for his ship and missing it. Dexter’s bullet drilled into his back, just beneath his shoulder blade, and turned the pirates shriek into a painful grunt.

  “Anybody else?” Dexter called out, reloading his pistol while Rosh stood with his in hand and aimed towards the assembled pirates on the deck. None made any threatening moves, although three humans were hurrying to the edge and trying to tie up a rope so they could reclaim their captain.

  “Good,” Dexter said, backing away and moving towards the forward staircase. When he was close he enough he called down it for best speed out of the rocks. His crew, exhausted from their ordeal, still leapt to action and hurried to tend their sails and rigging so they could get away from the slavers once and for all.

  Dexter kept a wary eye on them as they put distance between them. Xander stood nearby, watching as well. Dexter turned to study the man once they had put enough distance between the two ships to reduce its size to something that was easily hidden behind a rock in the asteroid field. By that time they were free of it and soon to return to cruising speed.

  “Who’re you?” Dexter asked tiredly.

  “Xander vonHelric, Wizard of the Void,” Xander said, grinning and bowing to the man. “I’m deeply indebted to you, Captain…”

  “Silvercloud. Dexter Silvercloud. This here’s the Voidhawk, and she ain’t much but she’s ours. I don’t reckon you can pay for passage, but you’re welcome to a bunk all the same and you can work off your fee till we get to our next port,” Dexter said, already turning back.

  Xander opened his mouth but Dexter kept going. “I don’t care much for slaving, so I’m happy to set you free. How’d you come to be their guest anyhow?”

  “That’s just it, they followed me from my last run for supplies,” Xander explained. “I led them to my home and they attacked it. No doubt they thought I would have riches a plenty for them to steal. Ha! Fools!”

  “Your home?” Dexter asked, eyes narrowing. “That tower was your home?”

  Xander nodded. “Yes, it was. I built it myself,” he said, puffing up his chest proudly. “Of course it’s destroyed now, so I’ll have to find a way to save up the resources to build another one.”

  “That trap in your tower, the room with the sand, that yours too?”

  Xander nodded, grinning. “Oh, was that you? The dwarf told me his captain was in there. I’m glad I listened to him! I’d have never gotten my spell books back otherwise!”

  “Your… you turned it off?” Dexter said, understanding why the sand sharks had departed just as they were about to escape them on their own.

  Heavy footing on the decking was the only thing that alerted either one of them to Rosh’s approach. Xander turned around just in time to catch the large warrior’s fist in his face, which sent him staggering to the ground. His hand went to his face and came away bloody from where his lip was split and blood ran from his nose.

  “Rosh!” Dexter said, stepping between the large man and the wizard.

  Rosh glared at Xander but stopped. “Your trap damn neared killed us!” He spat at him.

  “Well that’s what happens to thieves!” Xander said; rising to his feet and glaring contemptuously back at the man.

  “We wasn’t thieves! We was looking to help!” Rosh growled.

  “Rosh, mind the rigging,” Dexter ordered, his eyes matching his serious tone.

  With a final glare Rosh turned and stalked off, leaving the stern castle and returning to the main sail.

  “Thank you, Captain; that void whale is too stupid to-“

  Dexter’s fist cracked into Xander’s face then, sending him stumbling backwards into the rail.

  “He’s a member of my crew and while you’re on my ship you’ll be treating him right!” Dexter seethed. “You’re trap near did us in, but we had found a way out anyhow,” he said.

  “And we was there to help survivors,” Dexter continued. Then, to pour some salt in the wizard’s wounded pride he added, “and if there weren’t none, then we was gonna take whatever we found that we could use.”

  Dexter turned and walked away. Over his shoulder as he walked he called out, “you can bunk in the crew quarters in the aft, down those stairs,” he pointed at the circular staircase down. “I’ll have Kragor get with you to find out what you can do to help us out to pay for your passage.”

  Xander stared after him, not sure if he should feel outraged, hurt, shocked, or embarrassed. Ultimately he just stood there and watched the captain of the Voidhawk cross the deck and check on each of his crew to see how they were doing. He caught Rosh sneaking glances at him a few times, and felt the others were probably watching and laughing as well. Mustering up as much dignity as he could, once his nose stopped bleeding, he made his way down the stairs and found the room that Dexter had told him to use.

  Xander sat on a cot and sighed. His life had been going so well too, and now this. All of his research and experiments had to be put on hold, at least the ones that had not been destroyed. He shook his head and fought back the sudden wave of despair that threatened to settle over him. He was still alive, which was a good thing. He opened up the sack and pulled out one of his spell books, which brought a smile to his bruised face. He had his spell books too, and that was a great thing. He settled down in the bunk and opened up one of the books, intent upon memorizing his sp
ells and restoring his energy so he could show the captain of the Voidhawk just how useful he could be.

  Then the man would understand just how powerful and great Xander was. He would be sorry then for striking him like some common ruffian!

  Chapter 6: Stowaway

  “Rosh,” Jenna said with a smile on her face as she sat down at the table.

  “What?” The large man grumbled, assuming she was about to tear into him for something or other.

  “Just saying hi,” she offered, winking at Jodyne who brought a bowl filled over to her.

  Rosh closed his mouth and looked at her, one eye narrowed suspiciously. “You right in the head?” he asked.

  She laughed and nodded, then began to eat. He continued to watch her for a moment, then shrugged and worked on finishing up his own meal.

  Kragor came down the aft stairs with Bailynn behind him, planning on their own mid day meal. Bailynn paused when she saw Jenna and glanced around anxiously. She started to back away and turn around when Jenna turned and saw her. She smiled and motioned her over, swallowing a hot bite of food before speaking.

  “Plenty of room, Lynn, come and eat,” she offered.

  Nervously, the former slayer made her way over and sat down across from the elf. Rosh glanced up again, alarmed and confused. Jenna continued to behave abnormally, which was to be cheerful and nice towards their latest deckhand, and he had run out of stew to eat.

  He pushed his bowl away and stood up. “Somebody hit their head,” he muttered. “I’m thinking maybe it’s me,” he added, turning and heading aft.

  Xander emerged from the crew quarters he had been assigned and nearly ran into the large man. Rosh sneered at him and barked out a “Boo!” making the wizard jump back and away in fright. Rosh chuckled and headed up the stairs, feeling a little better that some things remained normal.