by K Hanson
Devrim, Limbani, Nereyda, and Jax all gathered in the captain’s quarters on the Morgiana. “Limbani,” said Devrim, “why don’t you go over the plan?”
“So, this is what we’re going to do,” said Limbani. “We can’t have their ships launching to face us, not with the possibility of the western fleet coming after us. With that threat looming, the pirates are going to land first and make their way toward the base. Once they get close enough, they will sneak in and cripple as many enemy ships as they can and take out any guards in the towers if possible. The rest of the troops will march behind them and attack at first light.” She turned to Nereyda and Jax. “Get as much damage done as possible before then. If they get enough warning to mount a serious fight, we’re going to be in real trouble.”
“We’ll get it done,” said Nereyda. “It’s not too different from Antalia. Sneak in and cause as much trouble as possible. We’re all good at that.”
“Glad to hear everyone’s on board. Devrim and I will share the plan with the rest of the crews and troops.”
“When do we go ashore?” asked Nereyda.
“Tonight, at midnight. We’ll drop you on the coast, and you’ll make your way to the base. Since it will be a long and late night, I suggest that you and your crew get some rest before the attack.”
“Perfect. We’ll do that.”
“Remember,” said Devrim. “We win this fight, and this war is ours. Lose, and everything we’ve worked toward goes away.”
The hard night hike left Nereyda’s legs tired. The distance from their drop zone to the base felt like it stretched on forever. They trudged through a dense forest of towering trees. Scattered logging camps fueled the shipbuilding and maintenance of the nearby shipyard. Finally, a flicker of light from a watchtower came through the trees.
“Okay,” whispered Nereyda, “our primary goal is to take out any ships that we can and clear out any guard towers. Jax, I’ll take my pirates to disable the ships, if you want to take your people to go for the guard towers.”
“We can do that,” Jax said with a nod.
“Good, let’s go.” Nereyda waved to her pirates to follow her as she approached the edge of the woods. She glanced up at the guard tower.
The on-duty soldier sauntered around the tower. He proceeded in a counterclockwise patrol pattern, wandering around the perimeter of the tower, pausing at the corners. Based on his relaxed body language, he had done this way too many nights. He seemed quite inattentive as he gazed up at the night sky and went through the motions to get through his shift. This was about to be the most exciting shift of his life. He probably didn’t figure anyone would be crazy enough to attack the main Imperial naval base.
Too bad for him that the Empire’s enemies were as ambitious as they were determined. Nereyda waited until he headed toward the other side of the tower, then dashed across the open field to the cover of a nearby building. When she reached it, she glanced back around the corner. Two Islanders had reached the base of the tower. She held up her hand and signaled to her pirates that they should wait a moment.
The Islanders snuck up the tower. A few seconds later, a pair of arms wrapped around the guard, and a knife slit across his throat. Guilt weighed her heart for half a breath as she watched the life snuffed out of someone who was obliviously doing his job. Still, they had their own job to do.
With the guard out of the way, Nereyda waved to her half of the crew. While they ran toward her, she peeked around the building she was using for cover. No other guards. Where were the other soldiers? Shouldn’t they have more guarding the shipyard?
When her pirates had gathered around her, she spoke in a loud whisper so that they could hear her. “Okay, crew, we’re going to split up to cover as much ground as possible. Remember, we only need to prevent these ships from being able to sail at a moment’s notice. We don’t need to completely destroy them, especially since we want to use them once this war is over. If you run into trouble, shout or whistle for help, and we’ll come to you. But whatever happens, we can’t let them get their ships out to sea and catch our fleet.”
Everyone nodded as they listened to her orders.
“Good, let’s go.”
She waved to a handful of pirates and had them follow her as she separated from the larger group to find a side street to make her way toward the docks. They clung to the shadows and padded in crouched stances through the alleyways.
A couple of times, groups of soldiers passed them. From the way they chatted and laughed though, it didn’t seem like they were on official patrol. Still, they could alert the base if they detected the intruders.
The pirates made their way around the buildings and found the huge expanse of docks that made up the majority of the shipyard and base. Several large dry docks and a number of smaller ones sat at the southern edge of the base. Along the coast, there were warehouses and wooden cranes for keeping the eastern navy properly supplied in a timely manner. As large as the western fleet was, the eastern fleet was the pride of the Empire.
A sign creaked in the wind. Waves splashed against the docks. No voices. No footsteps.
They crossed the remaining distance to the docks and picked a row of ships to disable.
Nereyda snuck across the deck of the nearest ship and cut the rope between the helm and the rudder. It would be an easy enough fix, but it would slow the Imperials down so that they couldn’t sail out and fight. Her team did much the same on other nearby ships.
As she went from ship to ship, she reached a part of the harbor full of mismatched ships of varying sizes and configurations. Bobbing at the edge of one dock, Nereyda spotted a familiar silhouette of two masts standing over a sleek seventy-pace-long brig.
The Storm Raven.
She should have known it was a possibility, but she had forgotten that the eastern naval base was where they held seized ships.
Her heart swelled, and she struggled to resist the urge to sprint toward it. They needed to finish their job of disabling the Imperial ships. She ordered her team to stay focused, then hurried through the last few ships.
At last, time to retake the Raven.
As quietly as they could, her team hurried toward the Storm Raven. The urge to sprint tugged on Nereyda, but that would produce too much noise. Instead, she padded her way over the dock, a bounce in her step.
When they finally reached the gangway that stretched to their old ship, Nereyda paused and smiled. Stepping across, she laid her hands on the railing as she walked to the aftercastle. The grain of the wood against her hands and the creak of the deck in just the right places told her she was home. She climbed the stairs and stood before the helm, feeling the handles as she gripped the wheel. It was worn in all of the spots she remembered. They weren’t ready to sail yet, but they would be soon.
Once the rest of the crew arrived, Nereyda gathered them on the deck and spoke from the aftercastle above. “Okay, we’ve disabled all the ships we could find in our part of the harbor. Head out and steal supplies from the ships around us. We don’t need anything other than ammunition and powder. Food can wait. We need to sail out and join our fleet.”
While they were carrying supplies down the dock, a gunshot rang through the air. The doors of the warehouses around them exploded open, and Imperial troops poured out.
The garrison had been alerted.
“Quick, finish loading everything,” she ordered.
Her crew rushed as they hauled everything on board. Meanwhile, the Islanders dashed up the dock onto the ship. The rebels under Limbani’s command poured into the base, responding to the sounds of gunfire.
“Leave it all on the deck,” she said. “Get to your stations, and we’re going to pull out.”
She had hoped for a bit more time to enjoy piloting the Raven for the first time in ages, but she’d save the proper reunion for later. She ran up to the helm and had the crew shove off from the dock. As she turned them out to sea, she heard cannons echoing from outside the harbor, in the sea.
“Full sail,” she said.
A cloud drifted over the moon above. After the arduous hike from the landing zone, they probably had a couple of hours left before dawn.
The Raven sped across the water of the harbor, toward the opening. The mouth of this harbor gaped much wider than the one at Antalia, though it also was much more heavily fortified. Two large stone towers, with the same dark look as the walls of Antalia, stood as sentinels on the north and south sides of the opening. Each tower had a hint of a slit on the side that was closest to the water. Something with a metallic glimmer dangled out of each hole.
A chain.
Mechanical clicks sounded from each tower as they reeled in the chain and raised it as a barrier. The Storm Raven wouldn’t have time to get through the gap before it finished raising, and they would crash into it, tearing their hull.
“Hard to port!” she ordered. “Raise the sails.”
She dropped the helm wheel hard to the left, spinning the ship hard as they slowed down.
“Drop the sails a bit.”
Once they were turned, she set the ship to cruise at a slow pace around the harbor. On the shore, the soldiers prepared artillery to bombard them with.
“Load the starboard cannons,” she ordered.
She kept them at a slow cruise as she waited for the crew to get the guns ready. Over on the docks, the Imperial soldiers continued to rally and prepare to both resist the incoming rebel troops and launch a cannon strike at the Raven.
“Ready,” she heard from the gun deck below.
She turned the Raven so its starboard broadside was pointed right at the north tower.
“Fire,” she said.
The Storm Raven’s cannons blasted a full broadside at the tower. Each shot roared toward the solid stone wall . . . and struck it with a sad clunk, then rolled off and landed with a poof of sand on the beach below. A few scattered chunks of rock broke away, and some cannonball-shaped dents dimpled the solid structure, but other than that the tower had sustained no visible structural damage.
“Our guns don’t seem to be getting the job done,” said Jax.
“I’ve noticed,” Nereyda said. “Nik, take the helm.”
“Aye, Captain.”
“What are you doing?” asked Jax.
“Watch and find out.” Nereyda yanked her boots off and stuck them under her belt, then sprinted across the ship and leaped off the side toward the north tower.
Shouts rang through the air at her from her crew, but she ignored them. She needed to get that chain lowered so the Raven could get out of the harbor. They were useless as long as they were stuck in this watery prison, and it would only be a matter of time before the cannons on the shore got their position right and pounded them with a barrage.
She pulled herself through the water, popping her head up to keep her eye on the tower she was swimming toward. She didn’t see anybody on the coast near it, or even waiting outside. Still, she knew that it would be occupied.
She got close enough to the shore that she could wade the rest of the way. Nereyda trudged through the water and onto the shore. The wet sand squished between her toes. She paused and held her breath as she listened for any signs that she had been seen. Nothing nearby; only the distant shouts of the Imperials across the harbor and her own crew working on the Raven.
Nereyda wrung the water out of her hair, letting it drip onto the beach, then sat down and slipped her boots onto her feet. She wrinkled her nose at the gross feeling of her wet sandy feet going into the boots. No time to clean them now. She’d have to ignore and deal with it.
Standing up, she strode across the beach toward the tower.
A door stood open at the bottom of the stone building, with a soft torch glow pouring out of it. Nereyda drew her cutlass. She paused at the entrance. The hum of a couple of voices came from above her.
Cannons erupted on shore. The Imperials had gotten their cannons ready. She only hoped that the crew on the Raven could keep evading them long enough for her to open the way out of the harbor.
Nereyda pushed herself into the tower, glancing around the room.
Torch sconces along the walls provided an orange light. The bottom of the tower was the living quarters for the guards, with a couple of cots along one wall and a table in the middle, with plates of half-eaten meals on it. A couple of dressers stood near the beds. Around the perimeter of the tower, a staircase spiraled its way up along the walls, in a square-shaped arrangement. The voices she had heard had come from the top of the tower.
She ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time.
Left panting as she summited the staircase, she was face-to-face with two guards who stood near the opening in the wall with the chain running out of it. A large wheel with the harbor chain wrapped around it sat next to the opening, hooked up to some sort of mechanism. Torches flickered in the corners.
One of the guards nodded to her. “We have a visitor.”
“So we do,” said the other guard.
“How did you find your way up here?” the first one asked.
“I’m looking for a new place to live, and this seemed like a good place to try. Nice and remote and has a great oceanside view.”
The cannons in the harbor sounded again.
“I don’t have time for this. Just drop the chain, and I can be on my way. My ship would like to leave the harbor.”
“Yes, we saw that. And we won’t let you leave since you clearly aren’t authorized to take that ship.”
“It’s my ship. I am the one who says I’m authorized to take it.”
“We’ll see about that.”
Each guard brandished a large two-handed sword. As opposed to the normal uniforms of Imperial soldiers, theirs featured gleams of metal from armored chest pieces.
“Have you ever faced the Imperial elite before?”
“Yeah, I killed one of you in Trabizan.”
“One? We fight in pairs. The two of us have been fighting together since we were children.”
“Good. Then you should leave so you can continue fighting with your childhood buddy. I’d hate to break up a beautiful friendship by killing one or both of you.”
“We’re ready to die together, as well. That’s what we do.”
“Then let’s get you on your way to your destiny.”
She pointed her cutlass at her two enemies, walking herself around them toward the middle of the room. It would be an interesting place to fight. On three sides of the room, the floor dropped off to the staircase below. A wrong step and she could fall off. Only the side with the hole for the chain didn’t have a gap. Aside from the gap for the stairs, the other features were a couple of chairs and a small table. Another short staircase led up to the very top of the tower.
As she paced around them, her two opponents split and made their way toward either side of her. She didn’t want to let them surround her. Instead, she wanted to use them to get in each other’s way.
She rolled to her left, bringing her cutlass up in a quick jab at the nearest guard.
He swept away the strike, and Nereyda stepped again to her left, leaving the guard she faced standing between her and the other guard.
Her back was to one of the sides with the gap.
Her opponent swung his sword up and brought it down in a heavy chop. Rather than try to block such a blow, she sidestepped it and let it pass just to her right. She felt the air rush by her cheek as the sword pushed through the air.
She aimed a glancing blow at his right arm, but he blocked it again.
She couldn’t stay rooted to the spot she was in, with her back to a precipitous drop. While putting one guard between herself and the other prevented them from engaging her at the same time, her position also limited her ability to maneuver.
Opting to gain some mobility, she spun around the guard with a flurry of blows aimed at his torso. They all glanced off of his armor, but they had the necessary effect of distracting him as she brought herself to the middle of
the room.
She kept each guard in her vision.
They each went for a strike, one high and the other low.
She used her cutlass to block the low strike as she ducked down.
As the high striker on her left brought his sword over her, she swung out her leg and swept his feet from under him. As he tumbled to the ground, she charged her shoulder into the other guard, pushing him back.
Her shoulder ached from where she had hit his armor, but at least she had bought herself some time. She spun around him and backed herself toward part of the edge.
She kept her distance from the guard as he swung angry chops at her. She let the strikes kiss off her cutlass, just touching them enough to deflect them without taking the full force in her arm.
Cannons sounded again outside.
The guard smiled as he pressed her toward the gap.
He raised his sword for a strong strike down.
As it fell, she rolled forward and to the right. As his momentum carried him down, she gave him a shove in his back. Dropping his sword in surprise, he tumbled down the gap in the floor, smashing into the staircase and tumbling farther down, stopping on one of the landings, his neck at an unnatural angle.
She turned around to look at the remaining guard, who had risen from his fall.
She dashed toward him and exchanged sword blows with him.
When she sensed an opening, she slashed her sword along his left elbow.
He let out a cry of pain and tried to keep hold of his sword as blood poured down his arm and stained the fabric of his uniform. But without the strength of both arms, he couldn’t lift his blade.
He let it fall to the ground as he drew a smaller rapier from his belt.
Nereyda smiled. This would be more her speed.
He held his left arm close to his body, protecting it from further harm.
That threw him off balance.
When the guard made a misstep, she brought her cutlass down and cut a slash along his leg. He fell to the ground, his leg not able to bear weight.
“Just kill me,” he said.
“Why? I have better things to do.” She walked over to the mechanism that operated the harbor chain and studied it.
