The Fifth Empire of Man

by Rob J. Hayes

Zothus narrowed his eyes. “Drake don’t much like slavery. Neither do I.”

  Keelin held up his hands. “I purchased them to free them, Zothus. We need folk back in the isles. Folk to sail, fight, and work. They’ll be delivered as slaves, but as soon as they’re handed over, I want their collars removed.”

  “And you want me to direct these ships and free folk back to the Pirate Isles?” Zothus said. “Why not you?”

  “I have another stop to make first. Might be a while, and the isles need reinforcements sooner than later.”

  “Send them my way.” Zothus nodded. “I shall deliver them to Drake as safe as the sea allows.”

  It wasn’t far to The Phoenix from the Bloody Bride, and Keelin hadn’t expected any trouble, which made it all the more confusing when he realised he was sitting in a busy tavern with a drink in front of him and a man dressed in a white robe on the other side of the little table.

  “How did I get here?” Keelin said as he looked about himself and recognised the tavern as one very close to the docks.

  “I brought you here,” said the white-robed man in a soothing voice. “I am sorry for the method, but I needed to talk to you and I did not want to rouse any attention.”

  “Right,” Keelin said, still fighting the fuzzy feeling that clouded his head. “But how did I get here?”

  “You walked, Captain Stillwater. Just not under your own volition. I suggest you drink. The feeling will fade very soon.”

  Keelin looked down at the mug in front of him. He smelled alcohol, and strong stuff by the whiff of it. Looking up, he found the white-robed man regarding him with deep yellow eyes. Keelin had never seen yellow eyes before, and they were unnerving to say the least. The rest of the tavern seemed to be going about its normal business as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Folk drinking, boasting, singing, drinking some more.

  “Who are you?” Keelin said. He knew he should be angry, or worse, but something about the man set off a warning in Keelin’s head and he knew without a shadow of a doubt that no matter how quickly he might draw his swords, it wouldn’t be fast enough.

  “I am the Oracle, Captain Stillwater.”

  “Drake’s Oracle?” Drake had mentioned the man a few times.

  “The very same. And now you know I am not without power. I hope it will go some way towards convincing you that I am no fraud.”

  “Right.” Keelin picked up his mug and sniffed at it. “What is it you want from me?”

  “Right now I wish to tell you a story. The story of this city. Did you know Larkos was once part of the Dragon Empire? Long ago it was the sister city to the capital of the Dragon Empire, Soromo.”

  Keelin took a sip; it was rum.

  “The Dragon Empress ruled from her floating city of Soromo while the Dragon Emperor ruled equally from here. Under their combined government the Dragon Empire flourished, as did their dragons. These were true dragons, mind you, not the drakes that fly the skies these days. Pale shadows of their former selves, but I will get to that.

  “This city was a happy place, and most of Larkos’ citizens were content with their lot. Ruled by the fear of dragons in their skies. The authorities held little sway over the goings on in the streets; their power stemmed from the dragons, and those creatures could not traverse the intricacies of human settlement without destroying all around them. Gangs appeared, and lots of them, each carving out a portion of the city and ruling the crime within those portions.

  “When the Dragon Emperor heard of these gangs, he directed his will towards crushing them, driving them out, and restoring order to his city. He succeeded only in causing chaos. The gangs lived in the streets and the underground, where the Emperor’s dragons could not follow them.

  “Eventually the Emperor gave up. He realised that the gangs did a better job of upholding order in the city than his guard ever could. He asked each of the twelve major gangs to send him a representative in order that he might negotiate with them. A deal was forged. The gangs would police the city for the Emperor, and they would each pay him tribute for the privilege of being allowed to exist.”

  The Oracle smiled, his eyes distant. “It was the Emperor’s grandest folly, and it cost him both his life and the future of his beloved dragons.

  “You see, dragons are strange creatures. In order to breed true dragons, there needs to be both a matriarch and a patriarch. Otherwise, all that will ever hatch will be drakes, and while drakes can breed more drakes, they can never breed a dragon.

  “But I digress. The gangs were pleased for a while with their new legitimate authority, but it did not take long for them to realise they were paying the Dragon Emperor for no reason. They did not need him. He took from them and gave nothing back. But he had given them something in the beginning. He had brought them together and given them peace. He had stopped them warring among themselves over territory and prestige.

  “So the gangs met in secret and devised a plan to rid themselves of the Dragon Emperor. They took the gate and the wall, and they turned the city’s weapons of war inwards. They waited until the Emperor’s dragon took flight, and they brought the beast down. The Dragon Emperor could not live without his dragon, and soon after he was found hanging.

  “But the dragon patriarch had left no heir. No one had seen the treason coming, and all now knew that the dragons’ time upon the world was ending. The Dragon Empress was enraged, and she threw her armies against the city of Larkos. Men fought and died. Dragon Princes rode their beasts into hails of ballistae, and the city held. No one thought it possible, but the gangs held the city walls and the city docks.

  “Larkos was scarred, but it survived, and the Dragon Empress was forced to retreat before all of her dragons were lost.

  “The gangs renamed themselves guilds, and they carved the city into new districts and laid down a series of laws to stop them clashing ever again. They had stood the test of war and dragon fire together, and they had come out the other side stronger, more resolute, and more unified than ever before. Eventually they added a thirteenth guild, so that no disputes between their council could ever be tied. Larkos survived and grew, and prospered into the city it is today.”

  Keelin sat still, waiting for the Oracle to signal he was finished with his story. He had no idea why the man had decided to tell him the tale, and he was just as unsure about what he truly wanted, but every one of Keelin’s instincts was telling him not to anger the Oracle.

  “Why tell me that?” he said eventually, when it seemed the man would say no more.

  “It is an interesting story, don’t you think, Captain Stillwater?”

  “Uh… sure.”

  “The guilds owed their peace and their unity and their existence to one man, the last of the Dragon Emperors. Yet they removed him from power and killed his dragon – and, as a consequence, the Emperor himself.

  “I cannot see the past, only the future, but I believe had they not rid themselves of the Emperor, they would have torn themselves apart. Or perhaps he would have torn them apart.”

  Keelin sighed and looked down into his mug. “What does…”

  He looked up. He was standing outside the tavern, facing the docks. The Oracle was gone.

  Chapter 29 - Starry Dawn

  Elaina wandered up the gangplank onto The Phoenix and looked around at her temporary home. In the daylight it looked as clean a ship as it had ever been. She had a few more scars than when Tanner had given her to Elaina, but scars were just evidence that there were stories to be told.

  “Ain’t as sleek as the Dawn,” Alfer said sadly.

  “Bigger though,” said Pollick.

  “Needs to be, with her fat arse.”

  “Now now, lads,” Elaina chastised. Some of the crew had gathered around, and pirates were notoriously defensive when it came to their ships. “This here’s our new home for the time being. All comparisons to our Starry Dawn can wait ’til after we’ve got her back. Right now let’s be appreciative that these fine folk are giving us the g
race of their ship.” Diplomacy seemed to be mostly about flowery words and empty compliments.

  Elaina handed her pack off to Alfer. She didn’t have much in the way of possessions these days – almost everything she owned had been stolen along with the Dawn – but she’d picked up a spare set of clothing and a few other essentials.

  “Get those stowed away on a bunk, Alfer,” she said.

  “With the rest of us, Cap?”

  “Where else would I be staying?”

  “Well, with the Cap’n of this ship and you, I figured I had to ask.”

  Elaina gave her quartermaster a grin and a shake of her head, and the man set off with Pollick towards the nearest hatch. Pavel continued to hover nearby, his faded crimson robes making him stand out aboard the ship.

  “Reckon you’ll be bunking with the crew as well, priest,” Elaina said.

  “What in the name of Rin’s leaking tits are you doing here again?”

  Elaina turned to Keelin’s little waif with a wide grin. “Haven’t you heard? I’m ya new shipmate.”

  The waif’s face went from anger to confusion, then back to anger. Elaina struggled to stop herself cackling at the woman.

  “Keelin… uh, the captain agreed to this?”

  “Aye,” Elaina said cheerfully, stepping forward to look down on the smaller woman. “Jumped on the idea when I suggested it, actually. I think he wants a real woman on board, just between me and you.”

  To her credit, the waif didn’t back down despite being horribly outmatched. A number of the crew had gathered around to watch the confrontation. She didn’t care one drop for the attention herself, but the more folk Elaina could get on her side, the more likely the bitch would jump ship at her first opportunity.

  “Back to work,” Keelin roared. “Now! I intend to be under way before midday.”

  “Not everyone’s had a turn ashore, Cap’n,” said Smithe, appearing from the shadows of the main mast.

  “Then those that ain’t can blame those that have,” Keelin growled. “Some have been ashore talking about our big score. We’re leaving now, before folk start asking questions.”

  “Big score?” Elaina said with a smile, still staring at the other woman.

  “I thought you didn’t care,” Keelin said coldly, brushing past her and steering the girl away from the confrontation.

  Elaina watched the two walk away, noting that the woman looked far from happy. After a very brief conversation she pushed his hands away and leapt up onto the rigging, scurrying quickly up towards the nest. Elaina would have been impressed if she hadn’t been so focused on being rid of her.

  Keelin’s shoulders slumped, and even from behind he looked weary. Elaina swaggered up beside him and gave him a friendly nudge with her shoulder, hoping the girl was watching from above.

  “Anything I can do?” she said.

  “You’ve done enough.”

  Elaina snorted. “All I did was walk aboard.”

  “I know.” Keelin looked like he was about to say more, but he shook his head. “Don’t go giving any orders aboard my ship, Elaina.”

  She grinned mischievously. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

  Part 3 – X Marks the Spot

  The war will awaken old enemies said the Oracle

  Got plenty of those to go around said Drake

  She will come for you said the Oracle

  Chapter 30 - Fortune

  The ship drifted on its anchorage. Clouds covered the sky, and the moon was little more than a sliver, providing almost no light. Drake ordered every lantern on the ship doused. It wasn’t the first time the crew of the Fortune had worked in near complete darkness, and they were brutally efficient in such circumstances.

  The ship creaked and the waves lapped against her hull. Drake caught a whisper on the breeze as one of his crew relayed orders to another, but there was little other sound. Silence, or as near to it as possible, was as important as dousing the lanterns. Sound had an odd way of travelling across water, and Drake didn’t want any hint of their presence reaching land.

  He strained his eyes, but all he could make out of the islands was a dark blur. They were just around the headland of the bay, and the other ship was anchored close to the beach to obscure their presence. The Drurr didn’t want anyone to know they were there. But Drake knew. He’d sent ships all over the isles, scouring his kingdom for their presence, and now he’d found them on Churnon.

  New Sev’relain was once again under the protection of Captain Khan. Drake had wanted to bring the giant pirate along for the slaughter, but Khan’s ship was a leviathan, larger than any other that had ever been built. It didn’t lend itself to subtlety and stealth. Besides, Drake needed to leave someone of authority in charge, and there was no one in the isles more feared and respected these days than T’ruck Khan. The good folk of the isles, along with the pirates, had branded the captain a hero for his exploits.

  Beck stood beside Drake at the railing, silent as the rest of the crew. Drake felt her presence keenly. Since their night in her cabin, which now seemed so long ago, she’d been refusing to let it happen again, and Drake couldn’t figure out why. The Arbiter was mostly healed from her brush with death back at the battle for New Sev’relain. Her right hand still trembled a little, but apart from that she seemed healthy enough.

  He glanced at her. With her hair cut short after the fire and squashed down under a tricorn hat, her plain brown trousers and bleached-bone blouse, and the leather jerkin holding six of her pistols, Beck looked more pirate than witch hunter. Drake felt himself stir, and had to look away lest he make an unwanted advance. The situation was even more maddening now she’d given him a taste. He wanted more, and he was fairly damned certain she did too, but the woman was holding back and he couldn’t fathom why.

  “Lower the boats.” Drake’s voice was a quiet growl. Princess scurried away to relay his orders, and the Fortune’s dingies were lowered into the water silently.

  “Is this wise?” Beck whispered. “We don’t even know why they’re on this island.”

  “I know,” Drake said. He wondered how many men he would lose to the monsters.

  “As much as I enjoy your cryptic crap, Drake, would you mind filling me in?”

  Drake ground his teeth together and let out a sigh. If he told his crew what they were likely to come up against, they’d be far less likely to follow his orders to go ashore, but if they didn’t know how to deal with it, they would all likely die fighting it.

  “When we sailed past the bay earlier, did you use one of your blessings to catch a glimpse of the ship there?” he said.

  “Yes,” Beck said. “I couldn’t see it well though.”

  “Did you happen to spot the two big wheels on either side of the ship?”

  Drake saw Beck’s hat move up and down next to him in the darkness.

  “Water wheels,” he said. “The Drurr fit them to their corsairs. They use them sort of like oars when they need to chase ships down. Those wheels are lowered into the water and then turned real fast, and it speeds up the corsair a little.”

  “How do they turn the wheels?”

  Drake sighed. “With trolls.”

  The silence from Beck was telling. Drake doubted anyone else on board had ever even seen a troll, let alone fought one. There was no way his crew of pirates with their cheap swords and short bows could ever kill one of the monsters.

  “You have a plan?” Beck said.

  “I always have a plan, Arbiter.”

  The Drurr camp was set up in a rocky clearing just beyond the beach. They had a fire good and going, and Drake could smell the faint odour of roasted shrooms in the air. It brought back a mess of memories that he’d rather have forgotten, and he forced them away, concentrating instead on the task at hand.

  There were tents arranged around the rocky clearing, and many of the Drurr would be inside them. Most of the bastards couldn’t abide the sight of the sky when they were trying to sleep. Their race had spent so long undergrou
nd that there were generations born, grown old, and died without ever seeing the sun, moon, or stars.

  Drake sent ten men into the water under the command of Ying. They would paddle quietly up to the corsair and wait for Drake’s signal, then climb aboard and murder the crew left there as quietly as possible. Drake hoped the troll wasn’t there, or those ten men were already lost. He was almost certain the monster would be on the island somewhere; it was most likely why the Drurr had stopped on Churnon. There was only so long a troll would remain cooped up aboard a ship without snapping and instigating a rampage. Every few weeks Drurr corsairs would stop at an island and let their trolls roam free for a few days to sate their natural desire for destruction.

  The rest of the crew crept slowly along the treeline, keeping as low and silent as possible. Drurr vision excelled in the darkness, but if they weren’t expecting an attack, they wouldn’t think to look for one. The pirates moved closer, and Drake heard voices on the wind.

  Thirty men had accompanied Drake and Arbiter Beck on the island assault, and he wagered the numbers would be more or less even. He hoped the element of surprise would count for another thirty.

  The smell of roasting shrooms was stronger now, taking Drake back to the great caverns full of the rubbery fungus beneath Darkhold. He shuddered, and a moment later found Beck’s hand on his shoulder. She gave him a reassuring nod – and he did feel reassured with an Arbiter by his side.

  From what he could tell, there were few Drurr on watch. No doubt some were out foraging while others were asleep, and more still were sitting around a fire sharing stories, jokes, and songs. The Drurr were very similar to humans in that regard and, Drake had to admit, in many others too.

  He nodded to Beck, and the Arbiter took a small chip of wood from her pocket and snapped it between her thumb and forefinger. Out in the bay, Ying was holding a similar chip, and that piece would respond by snapping in half to signal the attack.

  Drake’s group waited. It would take some time for the pirates in the water to scale the side of the Drurr corsair and start murdering any and all folk they found aboard. They waited some more. He didn’t bother keeping track of time; it would only make the wait more nerve-wracking.