“Fool,” Gil said with a shake of his head. “That was a rookie mistake.”
“Yeah, and an incredibly expensive one at that. It’ll be god knows how long it’ll take him to level back up. That puts the Gloom Knights a man down, and he was our war mage. Markos sure as hell isn’t going to step up to the front lines.”
“Well, looks like we need to recruit some new blood. We now have two empty seats to fill.”
“Let’s worry about that later. Let’s get off this accursed island first,” I said.
“I like that plan,” Levi said and bounded forward.
Levi was a brutish man, in every sense of the word. Short brown hair and dull brown eyes. He was only a few inches shorter than me, but he outweighed me by an order of magnitude. Decked out from head to toe in the heaviest plate mail he could get his hands on, he was a real beast of a man. Absolutely nothing could get past that shield of his.
Following his lead, we set off back down the mountain.
Over the next day, we climbed down the rocky mountain and sheer cliff faces, back to the perpetually wet and sad gray stretch of beach where we’d landed our rowboat. Though it was less miserable-looking than when we’d arrived. The storms that gave Stormstruck Reef its name peeled back to reveal bright blue skies.
I nudged Gil and pointed up. “Think the dragon was the cause of the storms?”
“That’d be my guess, but I think we have more important matters to deal with right now.”
I followed his gaze out towards the Delilah, the ship we’d chartered to ferry us out here, and I knew what he was getting at. “Captain Avery isn’t going to let us walk, not when he thinks we have the dragon’s hoard.”
Levi spat on the ground. “Fucking pirates.”
“My sentiments exactly. Well, let’s get this over with,” I said and climbed into the rowboat and set back to the ship. The Delilah was a rough-looking ship, its name painted on the side of the vessel in neat letters, which stood apart next to the worn and somewhat rotted planks that comprised the hull. A brace of cannons lined the deck, with several more protruding below from the gun deck.
As we climbed aboard the brigantine, we were met with a ghost ship. Not a soul was on deck, which only confirmed what we’d suspected. They’ll ambush us when we leave the captain’s cabin.
From a look, I knew the others were thinking the same thing, but I was confident we could handle anything they tried to throw at us, so I sauntered forwards to the cabin without a care in the world, acting like a bumbling fool. “Avery, we’re back,” I called too loudly as I thrust open the door.
Avery’s cabin was what tipped me off in the first place; it was too well decorated for a simple merchant ship. Expensive wooden furniture and a black drake leather chair dominated the cramped space; it was a marvel he could move around at all.
The cabin was empty, and knowing what awaited us, we filed out of the cabin and found ourselves surrounded.
Nearly a dozen men, all dressed in mismatched clothing but all bearing the same hungry scowl as they stared us down. Captain Avery was in the middle of the crowd, leaning against a large wooden crate.
Avery was a snake in human clothing with thin, sour features and weak, villainous green eyes. He couldn’t have looked more sinister if he’d started twirling his thick mustache. He cleared his throat as we approached. “All right, you lot. Hand over everything in your possessions, and I may just let you live.”
Normally, I’d have just tried to barter, work out a deal that would benefit the both of us, but fresh from the death of one of my friends, I had no mercy to spare. “Gloom Knights, to war,” I whispered to the others.
Without waiting for their response, I bolted ahead to the nearest pirate, a thick man with chestnut tanned skin who wielded a length of pipe. He swung carelessly with the rusted metal, slow in his meaty hands. I sidestepped, parried his arm, and pivoted, bringing a right hook to his cheek, sending him to the deck and the pipe spinning out of reach.
Two others rushed in, one unarmed, the other held a wicked fillet knife. I flicked my foot out, catching the unarmed man in the side of the knee and shattering it. He fell to the deck, screaming, clutching his ruined leg.
The knife entered the edge of my vision, and I took a single step back. The blade passed an inch from my face. I shot my left arm under his to grip his wrist, and my right on his tricep, just past his elbow. Pushing with one and pulling with the other, I snapped his arm at the crook.
Taking the knife from his limp grip, I slid it across his throat, turning his screams to a gurgling death rattle.
I ducked the arterial spray and kicked the unarmed man with the broken leg in the face. With him stunned with a broken nose, I jammed the stolen knife home in his eye.
Blood sluiced across the deck and down the side of the Delilah in rivers.
In the minute it’d taken me to dispatch those three, Gil and Levi had torn apart the others, leaving only Avery to contend with.
He shook with fear and dropped his sword, staring wide-eyed at us like we were devils. “Please, spare me. I’m sorry.”
I shook my head. This trip had brought up too many old memories, and I was out of forgiveness—for him or myself.
“Ask the gods for mercy. You’ll get none from me.”
***
I cleaned the blood off my knife using Avery’s coat and stood up from beside his corpse, careful not to step in the pooling blood.
With the crew dead, we set about looting their bodies and the ship. It seemed Avery was a highly successful pirate, as the cargo hold was filled to the brim with chests of gold and items, though it paled in comparison to the dragon’s hoard.
Gil whistled long and slow as he took in the sight. “Well, looks like we still came out ahead during this trip after all.”
“Seems so, but we now have the same problem as before. How the hell are we going to move all of this back home?” I asked, searching for an answer. “Lake Gloom is halfway across Nexus, and none of us have leveled up Sailing.”
Levi just nodded along, not helping the conversation in the slightest. Gil perked up, before groaning.
“What?” I asked.
“All we need to do is hire a crew to sail her back to Lake Gloom…” he trailed off, leaving me to put two and two together.
“Not a bad pl—oh, son of a bitch.”
“Yep.”
“All right,” I said with a sigh and climbed the steps back to the upper decks. “Let’s go talk to Miguel.”
He’s on the other side of the isle, though. Looks like we’re burning our teleportation scrolls. They were incredibly expensive, but we’d made more than enough gold to cover the cost. We teleported to the gate on the outskirts of Arroyo, which lay just outside the borders of the West Kingdom.
The unmistakable odor rising from Causwick Bay was especially pungent when we stepped out of the gate.
“Must’ve had a good haul today, judging by the stench,” Gill said, breathing through his mouth.
On the many docks that lined the port, seven of them held large fishing vessels, and most of them had a steady stream of workers unloading the day’s catch. We walked past the docks towards the center of town, past a slew of worn and rotting wooden buildings. The salt and moisture in the air played hell with the buildings year-round.
“Shit,” Gil said, pointing up ahead. “We picked the wrong day to show up.”
A fleet of armored stagecoaches and wagons rode past, filled with dozens of armed Alliance soldiers.
“Long as we stay out of their way, they have no reason to notice us.”
The coaches headed to the edge of the docks, and the soldiers began loading up crates by the hundreds to the wagons with practiced efficiency.
“Looks like they’re loading cargo to take back to Central, so let’s get to the Cask before they get done,” I said.
The Gray Cask was the only stone building on the street, and it stood out next to its shoddy wooden neighbors. The loud drone of its pat
rons bombarded us as we walked down the steps to enter the tavern.
If the stench was bad outside in the open air, it was repugnant inside. We were assaulted with a pungent mixture of smells. Ale, wood smoke, and roasting meat mixed with the sour stench of sweat and the rawness of the sea and its bounties.
I tried to ignore the smell and sat down at the nearest empty table. Knowing that we’d be here for a while, I ordered a round. We sat, nursing our drinks for over an hour. I tried to keep my number down, but after the second, I didn’t give a shit anymore. Just as I downed my fourth ale, the guest we needed to see swaggered in.
Miguel was a cocky ladies’ man, or he styled himself like one in his skintight black tunic and leather pants. I couldn’t deny he certainly cut a handsome figure, built with the lean frame of a swimmer, with his jet-black hair and dark skin giving him an exotic air. He looked to be around the same age as myself, give or take a few years, though, in fairness, none of us were as young as we looked.
He didn’t even glance in our direction as he entered. He knew we were there; he also knew that we needed his help. No one came or went without him knowing about it and making a profit on the info. He sauntered over to the bar, grabbed a bottle of top-shelf brandy, and took a large swig before setting the bottle down. The bartender didn't so much as a glance in his direction as he walked off; Miguel motioned us to follow him, and we had no choice but to comply.
Down in the basement, Miguel walked over to the far wall and pressed a hidden button on the wall. A false door swung open to reveal a rather spacious and well-lit office. Which was just for show since Miguel didn’t need to hide his criminal dealings; he paid his dues to the Merchants Guild like everyone else.
He sat down in a chair behind a large, expertly carved wooden desk, which was more of a work of art than a piece of furniture. “What can I do for you boys this time?” he asked the three of us with a sarcastic tone, though his eyes never left mine.
I suppressed a sigh at the superiority in his voice, and I couldn't even be angry at him. Much as I hated dealing with him, he got the job done every time. “I require your delivery services.”
Miguel wore a slightly smug smile on his face as he spoke, “And what, pray tell, is it that you need to be delivered? It must be quite important for you to have come to me.” His gaze shifted to one of abject greed. “Did you finally figure out a way to quickly produce more Gloom shrooms?”
I shook my head. “Unfortunately not, I even asked Alistair to try expanding the cave with earth magic, but from what he told me, if we excavate any further, we risk the structural integrity of the rock. Given the location of the cave, a few more gold in my pocket isn’t worth having the ground beneath our home crumble out from under us.”
Miguel’s face fell at my words, and he stopped himself from cursing. “Oh, well. Might actually be for the best right now. Since the demand is so much higher than your supply, we can charge an arm and a leg for each dose, raking in gold hand over fist.”
I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms, staring down Miguel. “That’s the first I’m hearing of price gouging. I didn’t think our product was selling that fast from the coin we’ve been getting. You wouldn’t undercut your supplier, would you, Miguel?”
Miguel froze for a split second but covered it with a fake smile. “Of course not, my friend. It’s just grown increasingly popular this past month or so. Your share will reflect the increased profits, have no fear of that. Now, what was it you kiddos needed from me?” he asked quickly.
I let him change the subject and sat back up in the chair, propping my arm under my chin. “I‘ve recently come into possession of a ship. It seems the former crew left it abandoned. I was hoping you’d be able to lend us the services of one of your crews to sail her back to Gloom-Harbor.”
“Oh, if that’s all you need, that shouldn’t be too difficult to arrange,” he said, fumbling at a drawer under his desk for a moment before pulling out a rather large map of Nexus. Miguel unfurled it across the smooth mahogany surface.
”Where is this ship of yours located?”
I leaned forward in my seat to get a better look at the map. ”I’m not sure the exact island we landed on, but somewhere around there,” I said, pointing at Stormstruck Reef, located near the edge of the map.
He whistled at that. “Morrigan’s Feathers! How’d you end up way the hell out there?"
I told him about our hunt for the dragon and of Alistair’s death.
“My condolences,” he deadpanned.
“Can you do it or not?”
He didn't answer right away. Instead, he reached across his desk and took hold of a small wooden pipe, taking ample time to light it. “Oh, I can do it, but I would need to send two crews out on one ship. Keeping that plus the distance in mind, this won’t be cheap.”
“How much?”
Miguel took a long draw from his pipe, blowing the smoke straight at us. ”Let's call it eight hundred gold for services rendered.”
“Done.”
I pulled out the heavy bag of gold and thrust it onto his desk. The thump of gold caused Miguel's eyes to light once more. The three of us stood up from our chairs, and Miguel and I shook hands. As I turned to leave, Miguel asked one last question.
“Just out of curiosity, what’s the name of the ship you acquired?” he asked, putting heavy emphasis on “acquired.”
“The ship's name is the Delilah.”
He laughed deeply at that. However, underneath his laughter lurked some unpleasant nastiness. “You managed to wrangle Old Avery’s ship out from under him, eh?” he said with another chuckle.
“Something like that…is that all?”
Miguel stood up, sudden enough that he knocked over his pipe, sending still-lit ashes tumbling across the wood.
“Hold up a moment,” he said. His voice echoed with what sounded like desperation. “I don’t think you kiddos know what you’ve gotten your hands on here.”
I was intrigued, though I wouldn’t let it show on my face. As far as I was aware, the Delilah was just a rundown ship in need of some serious TLC, but it wasn’t that at all if Miguel wanted it so badly. Odds were good that he was cooking up some scheme, and I just knew that if it involved Miguel and either plotting or scheming, he would try and cheat us on the deal. I turned to him and tried my best to look as unreadable as I could manage. Getting the better of Miguel was something I rarely achieved, but I would be damned if I let him screw me on this.
“Well, then, why don’t you illuminate us on that fact?”
He smiled deepened, and I knew what was going on inside his head. I’d just told him that I didn’t understand the value of the ship, which couldn’t be helped. He was currently thinking of the best way to take advantage of that.
“Well, you see, Captain Avery was…I guess you could call him a former employee of mine.”
“He ran smuggling routes for you is what you mean,” I interrupted.
Avery had been a sailor and a crook, so the only business Miguel would need someone like that for would be to run goods up and down the coasts of Nexus. Miguel blanched at my words. So used to lording over us, he could forget I could be clever when the occasion stuck me.
“Which makes the Delilah a smugglers’ ship and not the simple brig I took her for,” I continued. No wonder he wants it. Smugglers’ ships are rare and incredibly expensive. Though why the rush, Miguel? Trying to avoid the heavy taxes from the Merchants Guild?
“Yes, that’s it exactly.” Miguel finally noticed the mess he had made on his beautiful desk. The embers of ash singed the edges of the map, causing smoke to fill the room. He swept the whole mess off in a rush before the small fire could spread, and ran his ash-stained fingers through his ink-black hair. “So, you can see why I want her back.”
“She was your ship?”
“She was indeed. I paid a king’s ransom to have her built by an artisan who specializes in such things. I was also paying Avery a great sum of money to sail her
for me. The risk in hiring such characters is that one day, his greed got the better of him, and he absconded with my ship and its cargo." He spat on the ground at the thought. “Cost me a fucking fortune, he did.”
My heart went out for Miguel there. Really, I promise.
“You want the ship? Well, let’s hear your offer?”
“Five thousand gold, plus let’s say two hundred silver for the bounty that I had on Avery.”
“Hmm,” I said. That’s not chump change, but it’s also a pittance compared to the money Miguel stands to make running goods up the coast. It’s a bad deal, so how about a counteroffer? “I’ll give you the ship. It’s yours, but I want ten percent of all the money you make running cargo with her. Plus, the two hundred silver for the bounty. I did earn that, after all,” I said, smiling at him.
Miguel paled at the thought of losing so much money. “That…that simply isn’t possible,” he stammered. “Duran, be reasonable.”
“Take it or leave it, Miguel, and hurry up. I haven’t been home in months. I want to leave.”
He thought about it for a minute, sitting back down in his chair, his hand propping up his chin. “Five percent,” he countered.
“Nine.”
“Seven.”
“Eight,” I said.
“Done," Miguel agreed.
We all stood up from our seats again, the wood creaking as we rose. Miguel proffered me his hand once more, and we shook on our new deal.
“You can send the first payment with the rest of our profits when you come to pick up the next shipment,” I told him. I picked up the bag of gold I had placed on the desk. While I wasn’t thrilled, it was the best possible outcome. We all turned and headed for the door when a thought struck me. “Also," I said, turning back to face Miguel, “You can keep the items hidden in the compartments of the ship, but the gold and the items that are in plain view belong to us.”
“Of course,” he said, flashing his trademark grin. “I would never cheat my best clients.”
Right, of course, you wouldn’t. We left Miguel’s office through the crowd of patrons in the Cask, exiting into the bright sunlight. Once we were outside, we headed back to the teleportation gate. It was about twice as tall and wide as a standard door frame, comprised of polished white marble that gleamed in the sunlight. I’d always found them pretty, even if they didn't match any of the surrounding buildings.
Hive Knight: A Dark Fantasy LitRPG (Trinity of the Hive Book 1) Page 3
