by Tom Gallier
“I hear the watch,” Tessa said. “Coming from both directions.”
“We’re trapped,” another man cried, and everyone started cursing.
Tessa tightened her grip on his hand, and stealthily backed them up to the burnt out shop. Then she ducked into a dark window, pulling Alex in after her. Someone cried out, and the others rushed toward them. Alex took control, leading Tessa through the burnt and broken debris to a back door. He had to kick it open, but that dumped them into a dark alley.
“The watch is blocking the other end,” she whispered.
Alex looked all around, frantic. If he was arrested, how long would he be in jail? Swift Wind would not wait for him long once the repairs were completed. Maybe Kaaki was right, and he shouldn’t have gone into town.
Spotting an open second floor window, he helped Tessa up. She vanished inside, amid male and female cries of surprise. A moment later, Tessa lowered a blanket that Alex quickly climbed up. An elderly couple stood in the corner, with the old man wielding a small knife in their defense.
“Just passing through, Old Man,” Alex said as watch bells arrived below the window.
Men and women cursed and shouted. He heard a few meaty thumps and grunts of agony. That’s all he needed to know. Alex and Tessa headed for the stairs, and then the front door. They heard bells ringing on that street, too.
“Follow me,” Tessa said, and ducked into another alley.
The alley was the narrowest, trashiest yet. Alex found himself constantly tripping over the debris of civilized life, and a few passed out drunks. At least he hoped they were just passed out.
“Up and over,” Tessa said, stopping below a ten foot stone wall.
“Where are we?”
“Temple of the Sea God,” she said. “Safe haven.”
Good enough for him. Alex helped Tessa up and then did a running start to leap up and grab hold of the top edge. They hauled themselves over into a manicured garden, full of fruit trees and flower beds. The marble temple loomed above it all.
Alex slowly entered the temple, all crouched over like a thief in the night. Tessa walked in like she lived there.
“Stop acting creepy,” she said. “The temple is open all day and night. No one will suspect us of anything, unless you act all guilty.”
The Temple of the Sea God was an open-air affair. Alex found himself standing in the center of the round structure, with a marble dome held high by fluted columns. The floor was a multicolored deck, with a dozen small alters evenly spaced around the perimeter. Color was the rule there. The altars all had painted statues of the very naked god, and even the fluted columns were painted a deep aqua blue. The domed ceiling remained mostly white marble inside, but an epic sea battle was painted upon it.
And then, “This is a map of the world.”
“Part of it,” Tessa said. “The best part.” She walked over to a spot on the Southern Land’s northern coast and laughed with evil glee. “This is where Lord Kalis lives. Tal Keer. So this is where he’ll put his enslaved princess in her proper place. And good riddance.”
Tal Keer? The map indicated a city at the base of a coastal mountain range. Princess Thaleia was there? And what did Tessa mean by “enslaved?” For some reason, Alex felt anger welling up. Why should he care about the fate of some pampered princess? Yet…
Chapter 13
“Have fun, friend Alex?” Kaaki asked.
Alex paused after stepping off the gangway to look the Nagu witch over more carefully. The lizardman was short and stout, with grayish green scales. He wore the same undyed pants as the other sailors. Except for Captain Jacobi, none of the crew wore shirt or shoes. Kaaki was one of seven lizardmen in the crew of twenty.
“Actually, I did,” he admitted. “What’s not to like? This is my first flying ship trip, and I just got lucky in town with a wild tavern wench.”
The rest of the crew was running around to get the ship ready for departure. He spotted a pair of tugs out in the harbor making their way toward Swift Wind. It was still quite early in the morning, yet he got back just in time.
“I don’t suppose Captain Jacobi was planning to wait for me.”
“Perish the thought,” Kaaki said with a laugh.
Sailors hurried up to unlash the gangway, while others freed the moorings. Swift Wind began drifting away from the pier, and a moment later the tugs arrived. Alex and Kaaki stood together and watched the tugs pull the ship out to the middle of the harbor. Trumpets sounded, and the tugs released their lines.
Captain Jacobi shouted orders, and Vivi relayed them down into the hold. Alex glanced at Kaaki.
“Shouldn’t you be down there lifting the ship?”
“My junior witch is doing it today,” he said. “She needs the practice more than I do.”
Looking down into the city, Alex found the Temple of the Sea God. That reminded him of the previous night. A plan already lay half-formed in his head. Take passage on ships like Swift Wind to Tal Keer. Study the situation. Rescue the princess. Be rewarded by her and her father, in their own different ways. Isn’t that what heroes did?
“Do you know much about Kandos?” Alex asked.
“A little,” he said. “I am married to a Kandosian woman for thirty-one years, after all.”
Alex wondered if lizardmen could get children off human women. Then he remembered the slaver Pyotr, who had to be at least half-human.
“So, do you know Lord Kalis?”
“I don't know him, but I know of him,” Kaaki said. “He is a nobleman whose House is second in line to the kingship. He was exiled and went to Tal Keer last year.”
Alex smiled, a thrill rippling up his spine. Perfect. The map in the temple showed Tal Keer about halfway down the coast of the southern continent. He had no idea of the map's scale, or its accuracy.
“Why was he exiled?”
Kaaki shrugged, glanced down to look up and down the coast.
“Kalis was engaged to marry Princess Thaleia, but they say he conspired to overthrow the king,” he said. “If I understand it correctly, once married and his claim to the throne strengthened, he planned to kill King Talos and declare himself King of Kandos.”
“Is he a mage?”
Alex had learned that witches were different from mages. A mage wielded a greater variety of powers, and could create talismans. Witches could not create talismans, and mostly had power over natural things. Mages were very unnatural.
“Not that I know of,” Kaaki said. He shrugged. “But you don't have to be a mage to use talismans.”
Exactly what he thought. It meant if he could acquire some talismans, then he'd have magic to use in a fight. Somehow he knew talismans weren't going to be cheap.
They were soon flying southward, just below the cumulus clouds. Not that there were many clouds, but they were thick, fluffy looking white clouds. Alex really liked it when they passed between two of them. For some reason, he found them fascinating.
For hours he leaned over the rail, squinting at the cities far below. Seeing cities from above was almost as interesting as exploring them on the ground. They were approaching an especially large city on the coast of Qûm, though it didn't look like the captain was going to land. Swift Wind had only landed at a city once, and neither side had been happy about it.
It was hard to judge the city’s size from that high up. He could see docks and shipping along the shore side of the city, with three lines of stone walls surrounding the other three sides. All of the structures within were whitewashed. One sprawling structure was so massive it could only be a royal palace. A palace full of… Princesses?
And they all dream of being swept away by a tall, dashing barbarian like me, he thought. Yeah, not likely.
He wondered just how grateful Princess Thaleia would be when he rescued her from Lord Kalis. Hell, just saving her from the slavers back on Kandos had her practically ripping his clothes off. Yeah, it was going to be epic.
“Pirates!”
“What?”
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Alex's eyes followed the pointing hands. A crimson and gold painted ship was dropping out of a cloud. It was only a couple hundred feet away.
“You have sky pirates?”
Kaaki was already gone. The crew was scrambling about, some with swords in hand, others following the captain's shouted orders about the sails. Looked like they were going to run for it, but from what little Alex had learned, more sails meant more speed, and the pirate ship had three masts to the Swift Wind’s two. Alex estimated it had twice as much square feet of sail.
“It's Captain Tiana's Wraith!” Captain Jacobi called.
Everyone froze, eyes incredulous. Alex did a double-take on the ship, too. Then the crew doubled their efforts.
Helene’s ship? he thought. No wonder she didn’t want to talk about it. She’s a pirate.
Now that he thought about it, pirate witch was the perfect job for Helene.
Alex moved over to the starboard side to get a better view of the pirate ship. He estimated the crimson-hulled ship to be a hundred fifty feet long, with forecastle and sterncastle. The sails were all red and white striped. Instead of eyes painted on the front of the hull, Wraith had a figurehead under the bowsprit. The ship's figurehead looked like an armed and armored woman warrior.
There were no flags flying to indicate nationality. All Wraith flew were long, narrow pennants to show wind direction.
“If it had cannons and a Jolly Roger, then it would be straight out of seventeenth century piracy,” he muttered. He was starting to wonder if this was a dream again. Flying ships? Magic? Dragons? Sounded like a dream, but what a dream. “Why don't they have cannons? Why don't they fly pirate flags?”
He wasn't a hundred percent sure, but thought a big part of a tall ship's design was based on the need to carry cannons. History wasn't his strong suit.
As Wraith descended, Alex was able to see men on her deck. They were armed to the teeth and looked eager to fight. And there were a lot more of them than Swift Wind carried. He spotted black men, white men, brown men, and lizardmen. There were even a few women among them, also carrying swords.
Wow, I'm dreaming up an equal opportunity world, he thought. It amused him, since there wasn't a politically correct bone in his body. That ought to be worth a couple PC points when I wake up.
Swift Wind began to descend so fast he felt very light. Just a little jump could send him over the railing to plunge to this death. Alex leaned over the rail, holding on tightly, and looked at the city below. That was probably the captain's destination. He wondered if the city would send up any warships to chase off the pirates.
“What the hell!” Alex cried, leaping to the side.
A five foot long iron “arrow” slammed into the side of Swift Wind, directly below him. Another couple feet up and he'd be dead. For a second he thought it was a steel spear, but it hit the ship really hard. And who made spears out of metal?
“What is that?”
“A ballista bolt,” a sailor said.
Alex never heard of a ballista. For just a second he envisioned a young barista making coffee and throwing spears. Then another bolt ricocheted off the deck about ten feet to his left.
“Hard to starboard!” Captain Jacobi cried.
Swift Wind turned to fly under the pirate ship. Alex wasn't sure that was such a good idea, since Wraith was dropping a lot faster. Of course, it ended the bolts coming down on them for a moment. The pirates turned to port, and just missed striking the top of Swift Wind's main mast.
“Do we have any of these ballistas?” he asked.
“No,” a sailor said. “But Wraith is known to have eight.”
Alex moved over to the port side as the pirates came down. He scowled at them crowding the rails of their starboard side. It wouldn't have surprised him if pirates vaulted over the side to drop down on them, but it was too late for that now. Then he spotted the large wooden devices and realized they were ballistas. There were four on the starboard side, evenly spaced on the main deck. They looked like giant crew-served crossbows to him.
Thunk!
The sound made him duck, and just in time. Four six-foot long iron bolts slammed into the ship. One bolt skewered two sailors before sticking into the main mast. Another impaled and swept a sailor completely off the ship.
Wraith was so close now he could hear the tat-tat-tat of the pirates cranking the ballistas back for another shot. He moved back towards the mast, looking back and forth across the pirate's main deck. So many of them. And those damned ballistas were being loaded with more bolts to shoot death into his ship again.
And I was peeved that they didn't have cannons, Alex thought. My bad.
“Kaaki!” Captain Jacobi shouted.
The pirates started climbing up on the rails. Alex knew they were going to leap over at any second. He already thought they were close enough. Some of the pirates were holding grappling hooks. His mind filled with scenarios of battle, what he should and should not do. And before he realized it, Alex pulled his sword and took off running towards the railing and used it to help propel him across to the pirates.
“Take the fight to them!” he cried.
For a second, he wondered what came over him. Why was he leaping to what was effectively his death? Just seconds before it seemed like the right thing to do. And then he was coming down upon the surprised pirates, and all doubts were gone.
“Hai!” he cried, bringing his sword down upon a pirate.
“Release!” Captain Jacobi cried, sounding desperate.
Alex's sword cleaved that hapless pirate's left shoulder and arm cleanly off. He smashed into their mass a second later, and hit the deck rolling. He turned towards the rail, thinking it would be a good idea to leap back across before they swarmed over him. And to his shock and horror, Swift Wind just dropped straight down and out of view.
“Damn,” a pirate said. “Captain Tiana! They released their lift spell!”
He didn't hear what was said next. Alex was attacked from all sides by pirates. It was all he could do to fight them off. He parried, thrust, and kicked in all directions, desperation starting to set in. If Swift Wind found a way to escape that meant he was all the pirates had to vent their anger and frustration upon.
Another brilliant decision by me.
The barbarian warrior had nothing to lose. He attacked with a vengeance. Men fell to his blade and the deck grew slick with blood. None of them had the skill or ferocity to stand before him. Alex was starting to feel good again, full of confidence and battle joy.
And then everyone stopped and stepped back.
The crowd opened before him. He froze, looking upon a gorgeous warrior woman. The tall redhead held a sword and dagger, her emerald green eyes blazing as her full lips curled into a wicked smile. Alex wasn't sure if he was aroused or frightened. She looked wild and savage, wearing a one-piece black leather “teddy” that laced up the front, matching bracers on her forearms, and over-the-knee boots. Her waist-length fire-red hair was loose and whipping in the wind.
Her ears, neck, and arms were loaded with gold and silver jewelry. Indeed, her outfit was bejeweled, and even had a silver and gold dragon's head over her lower belly. The hilts of her sword and knives were gold and silver and bejeweled as well.
“Captain Tiana?” Alex asked.
“The one and only,” she said, her voice deep, kind of raspy, and bedroom sexy.
“Wow,” he said.
“Alex?” Helene said, stepping up beside the captain.
She wore a red halter now, with black leather pants and red over-the-knee boots. Like the captain, she was dripping in flashy jewelry. Helene was the only one visible not wearing a sword. Like almost everyone on the ship with long hair, hers was pulled back on a thick braid. And she had a very concerned look on her face.
“You really are a pirate?” he asked, gawking at her. “And a sexy one at that.”
“Um, yes. Thank you, I think,” she said. “What are you doing here?”
Alex barked
a laugh. “You’re the one who attacked the ship you put me on.”
The surrounding pirates stirred, looking uncertain. Even their sexy captain had a furrowed brow as she listened to their conversation.
“This is the barbarian that saved your life?” Captain Tiana asked.
“Yes. He is Alex of Jarn,” Helene said. “I think he'd make a good crew member.”
Tiana's eyes narrowed as she looked him over again, eyes lingering on his broad shoulders. Then she looked at the man missing one shoulder and arm. Yeah, he was dead, lying in a pool of blood. Alex realized he had butchered that poor fellow, yet that knowledge had little effect on him. Once again, he had to question if it was dream or reality.
“He killed Lykos,” Tiana said. Really, it was more of a snarl. She caught and held Alex's gaze. “Lykos was my lover.”
“Well, that sucks greasy goat balls,” Alex muttered.
Captain Tiana lifted a brow, looking just a little amused. Sword still in hand, she slowly walked around Alex, looking him over like a woman buying a new horse or some other beast of burden. He remained still, facing Helene. His only thought: show no fear.
“Captain, the merchantman's lift spell is up again. She's making for Nikaia,” another pirate said. He was a tall, slim lizardman. “Looks like three Nikaian warships have lifted.”
“Helm! Take us due west,” Captain Tiana shouted, without breaking her gaze with Alex. She stepped up close, staring him straight in the eyes. “You, Helene's hero, have a decision to make. Join us, or learn to fly.”
Alex looked at the clouds just a few hundred feet above them. How many thousands of feet to the water below? None of the sailors aboard Wraith knew, or cared.
Didn't matter, since there was no way to survive the fall.
“I have to be a pirate?”
She smiled roguishly. “Yes.” Tiana took a step closer, eyes filling with dark lust, and continued, “And you have to replace my Lykos in every way.”
Alex stiffened. He glanced at Helene, who he thought would be jealous. Helene was standing with another pirate now, who had a possessive arm around her shoulders. She worried her lip, eyes huge. Was that worry for him? Or worry about what her shipboard lover would do? Perhaps her lover was the jealous type? Maybe she didn't tell them everything that happened after he saved her?
