by P. D. Kalnay
“Ten thousand gold leafs, and the same again for the girl. The message came by moth to me da, but he never told nobody.”
“Who’s your dad?”
“He’s chief o’ the whole city.”
Twenty thousand or even ten thousand gold leafs was a fortune. I still had a lot to learn, but I knew it amounted to more wealth than the common folk of the First World might hope to amass in a hundred lifetimes of hard work. It represented an extravagant bounty. That the Houses sent messages across the world, to places like Felclaw, spreading the news, boded poorly for Ivy and me.
Benkar’s answer explained why the city guards had listened to a street urchin and let us off with a fine. It begged another question.
“Why aren’t you trying for the reward yourself?”
“That was my original plan—until I saw yer hammer.”
The two crowds of shadowy figures crept closer.
“You recognise this?” I asked.
The Arath hadn’t been out in the world for over a thousand years, so I didn’t see how that was possible.
“I got a fortune told, a year ago, but it didn’t make no sense til ya arrived.”
“A fortune?”
The open space on the road continued to grow smaller. I was running out of time for chit chat.
“From Vagral, a gutterhag who lives on the Bloody Row. She’s mad and won’t sell a fortune at any price, but when she foretells—she’s never wrong. I was just walkin by when she grabbed me leg and started soothsayin.”
“What did she say?”
“She said ‘Beware the Blackhammer’s wrath, lest death find ya before yer next name day.’ That’s an unusually specific and clear spoken fortune. I saw the hammer lyin in yer boat, so when Uncle Briknal arrived, I helped ya instead o’ turning ya in. My next name day is tomorrow.”
“You called the guard?”
“Yup. Sent fer em at least.” He looked up and down the street. Hundreds of the town’s—I assumed—scummiest residents, surrounded us. “I might a’been of more help if I’d a’gotten ya arrested.”
The sailmaker closed the door to the shop on our backs, and I heard a bolt drive home. I set down my hammer and pulled a handful of coins from my pocket.
“Here,” I dropped the uncounted coins into Benkar’s hand. “This definitely constitutes danger. You should go now. Will you be able to get away?”
“Easy. No one in Felclaw would dare touch me, but I can’t get ya past em.”
“Thanks for your help. Which way is it from here to the tower that hangs out over the sea?”
“Ya remember how to get to the sailor’s market?”
I did, “Back that way, right?”
“Keep goin along the same road on the far side o’the market and don’t turn til ya reach the sea. Ya’ll be able to see the Hang Claw from the end o’the road.”
It was a straight run with only a hundred thugs blocking the way, and I didn’t want to keep my companions waiting in the dangerous surf.
“See you around, Benkar.”
“Can ya fight em all?” he asked.
I hadn’t considered that. None of the thugs looked individually dangerous compared to enemies I’d fought before, and my hammer was horrifically effective. I cringed at the image of the hammer smashing and tearing through the crowd.
“Probably, but I don’t want to.”
A bloodbath, crushing hundreds of people under my hammer, wasn’t my first—or my tenth—choice. Thankfully, I had other options. The separate groups had edged forward until they were only a stone’s throw apart.
It was past time to go.
I dashed toward the market and towards half of my would-be captors. Most of the buildings on the street were three or four stories tall, but a flat two story rooftop waited on the other side of the road. I gathered air under my wings and jumped, just making the stone roof. I figured my shield’s enchantments would attract any projectiles, and once I jumped up to the next roof, I’d have a stretch of clear running.
Or so I thought.
Before I had time to make the second jump, I heard scratching and scrambling at the eve of the roof. Two satyrs had made the jump and pulled themselves up to join me. I needed time to collect myself and jump another two stories straight up, so I kicked the closer guy in the chest, knocking him back and sending him plummeting to the street below. The second satyr had already found his feet, and drawn a short sword. I had no choice but to use my hammer. Still, I didn’t want to kill anybody if I could help it. My attempt at gently swatting the guy from the roof, with the side of the hammer head, threw him halfway across the street before he fell.
A section of the gathered crowd broke his fall amid shouting.
Another jump took me up to the steeply sloped roof next door. A few roof tiles cracked and slid out from under my foot before falling to the street. My wings provided extra stability, offsetting the awkward bulkiness of the sail. Human Jack wouldn’t have made it twenty steps along the peak of that roof, but my wings—together with light touches of thickened air—made it doable. If I hadn’t needed to stay by that road to find my way, I might have lost most of my pursuers in no time by jumping across to the next street over. No lamps lit the dark streets, and I relied on the stars and the moons to light my way across the city, leaping over the narrow cross streets with ease.
As long as no roof collapsed under me, it looked as though I’d make it.
Feet and shouts pursued me below, but I quickly left them behind. Then I smelled something. It was a terrible smell that I’d smelled before, somewhere. I remembered where at the same time the wind from the first harpy’s wings buffeted me. Three stinky, winged monsters attacked together, surrounding me in darkness and stank.
Lucky for me, they got in each other’s way in the race to get a piece of Jack. Minus the sail, and on flat ground, it would have been an easy fight with my hammer. My first wild swing crunched into a harpy and nearly pulled me from the roof. The hammer’s spike buried deep in its chest and my near weightless hammer suddenly weighed as much as a dead harpy. Desperately, I wrenched on the handle trying to free my weapon as I slid down the roof. I also tried to block with my shield without losing the sail. A talon sliced my cheek, and hot blood ran down my neck. The dead harpy’s body was under foot, tripping me. There was no way around it—I let the sail fall, and it slid away, disappearing over the edge.
The heavy bundle landed with a dull thud on the street below.
Between the screeching, the stink, and the buffeting from the harpies’ wide wings, I barely kept from following the sail. Without thinking about it, I formed a pillar of thickened air rising up around me. It wasn’t a neat or consistent pillar like I’d learned to create for successful jumping, and covered too much area to be powerful. The amount of wind I generated wouldn’t have pushed back a person standing on the ground, but the harpies were light for their size and had loads of surface area. It bought me a few seconds of breathing room as they tumbled up and away with startled screeches.
I gave my head a shake as I found my footing and raised hammer and shield. What was I doing? Stopping to fight was what I was trying to avoid. I only came back into the city for the sail, which lay on the street below, and I’d have to go get it now, anyway.
I could see the bundled sail lying in the middle of an empty alleyway. Before the harpies could make another try, I stepped from the rooftop and glided. It was some pretty good gliding too, though I bumped one wall and landed hard. I looked up at a frustrated screech from above. The harpies couldn’t follow me into the narrow space, and after a quick glance around, I squatted to collect the sail.
Something heavy and wet splashed across my neck and between my wings, driving me to my knees. The projectile was uncomfortably hot if not dangerously so. The smell on the other hand… I’d smelled a freshly road-killed skunk—harpy poop was a thousand times worse, making my nose burn and my eyes water.
Another screech came from above. It might only have been my im
agination, but I thought the harpy sounded satisfied. Given my aroma, stealth was no longer even a theoretical option. I heard footfalls approaching—it was time to run.
What I wouldn’t have given for a bath.
A long sprint took me the rest of the way to the market square. The vendors had wheeled their carts away for the night, and nothing except a few empty booths and the iron cage remained. The road Benkar told me about beckoned on the opposite side.
I stopped to catch my breath by the cage.
“Ahk! What is that stench?” the maigur said.
My nose had shut down in protest at some point.
“Harpy,” I said. “It’s worse over here.”
“Blackhammer,” the maigur said.
He was on his feet and squinted at me through the bars. In the darkness his eyes glowed red. It occurred to me that random chaos left in my wake might make my escape easier. I moved to the cage’s door and the huge padlock.
“I’m letting you out,” I said. “Whether you take your freedom or seek revenge is up to you.”
“Why?”
“It’s the right thing to do,” I said. “People shouldn’t need extra reasons to do what’s right.”
The heavy lock cracked on the first strike and it flew off into the distance with the second. I lifted the latch and took a few steps back. The maigur shouldered the door wide as rusty hinges gave a terrible squeal, escaping the cage that had held him prisoner for longer than I’d been alive. I raised my shield and hammer.
Then I glimpsed the dark silhouette of a harpy circling high above.
“I don’t have time to screw around,” I said. “There are a lot of people chasing me.”
“Do you serve the Dragon Lord?” he asked.
Not a reaction I was expecting. I heard the mob’s footfalls back the way I’d come. Simple honesty seemed like the best bet.
“He’s my friend, and I’m trying to help him, but I don’t serve anybody.” Maybe that wasn’t totally true. “Well, maybe I serve Ivy, in a way—it’s complicated.”
I was rambling, and it was time to leave.
“Who is Ivy?”
He made no move to attack.
“She’s my… a girl. It’s complicated.”
The maigur snorted, “Such things always are. I shall buy you time, Friend of Janik.”
Before I could say anything else, he bounded off towards the sounds of my pursuers. The ground shook, and, for guy who’d spent decades locked-up, the maigur moved quickly. Ivy and Falan waited, so I ran too.
***
I stuck to street level since it allowed for faster running. My journey from market to cliff was an uphill climb, and I was tiring quickly. I figured with all the time spent at sea, sitting in the boat, I’d gotten out of shape. The sound of pounding surf grew louder as I ran, and I was sure I’d almost made it when I heard another, nearer sound. Three loud pings rang out from my shield in rapid succession causing me to falter in my race.
The shattered remains of short arrows or long darts lay on the paving stones at my feet. They were as long as my hand and I thought fletched in black, but was hard to tell in the dark. I’d heard nothing and sensed nothing as I ran—only my shield’s enchantments had saved me.
After a quick look up and back, I saw no sign of the shooters, so I ran again while trying to sense the shifting air around me. Unfortunately, my winathen abilities didn’t cooperate, and I couldn’t manage it. Then I tried with my metalsense, seeking refined metals in the surrounding area.
I’d learned that petrathen made incredible miners thanks to their ability to sense where the richest veins of ore lay. Ivy said they rarely did any actual mining themselves, using others for the labour and acting in a more… managerial role.
I’d barely begun my search when I felt steel at my back—right at my back, and I dove to the side, dropping the sail to avoid a backstabbing. A shadowy, robed figure crouched where I’d been a half second before. In the starlight, the only detail I could make out was the darkened blade in his or her hand. Two more shadowy figures raced silently up the street, and none of their footfalls made the slightest sound.
It looked impossible to avoid a stand-up fight, so I sprang at the first guy with an overhand swing and crazy shout. I’ll call it a battle cry because that sounds more heroic. My opponent jumped back with impressive speed, and the hammer shattered a paving stone with a deafening crack. Shards of stone and an actual shock wave spread from my failed attack. A few of the shards cut into my legs, but I think the other guy was fine.
Before I could make another try, the three would-be assassins dashed away up the street and disappeared into the shadows. My new friends seemed more of the poison arrow, backstabbing variety, than the duel in the street type, so I collected the sail, turned, and ran as fast as my feet would carry me toward the sound of the surf.
***
Up ahead lay the outcropping of rock and the broken tower I’d seen on our approach to the city. It hung out on a spit of rock high above the churning sea. I stopped at the cliff edge below the tower and scanned the dark waters for my friends. The boat floated right below me and it wasn’t alone. A small fleet of longboats chased after it through the smashing surf. Further out to sea, I saw the silhouettes of at least ten of the big ships that had been at anchor when we arrived.
Ivy’s and Falan’s departure hadn’t gone unnoticed.
A fair number of feet pounded the street behind me, and with no time left, I leapt from the edge. The sea breeze gave me a little extra lift, and I used every bit of my limited wind magic to stay aloft for as long as possible. I almost landed in the boat, and did manage to get sail, shield, and hammer over the side. Then I let them go and hung on for dear life.
“Jack, stop fooling around and get in!” Ivy shouted.
The boat rocked like crazy, and the water tugged at my wings and legs. I was exhausted from running my race, and a tiny part of me thought it might be nice to slip back into the water and take a long, wet nap.
“JACK!” Ivy tugged at me with a hand hooked under each armpit. “Hurry!” She made a wrenching sound. “What is that smell?”
I sensed a hesitation, as though she considered letting me fall back into the waves. Then Falan left the tiller and together they hauled me over the gunnel and into the boat.
“We need to get out of this,” Falan said.
He returned to the stern, and I lay across the boat with both feet hanging over the side. My hammer dug painfully into my ribs, but I didn’t have the energy to move. Vaguely, I sensed Falan take the pump up to six symbols worth of power and drive us away from Felclaw.
***
I woke at dawn when the boat left the water at the crest of one wave and smashed into the trough of the next.
“What the–” I began.
“They’ve divided, trying to flank us!” Falan’s shout cut me off.
It had come from up above. Falan clung three quarters of the way up the mast and Ivy manned the tiller. She had the pump at full speed and wore a look of tired determination.
“When are they going to give up?” she asked.
“Nothing on board is worth this much effort,” Falan said.
I grabbed the gunnel as we became airborne again.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“They have chased us through the night,” Falan said, “and there is no sign they intend to stop. Most of the ships in Felclaw are chasing us and have spread out to block escape. It makes no sense.”
It made sense to me.
“The bounties on Ivy and I are big,” I said.
“How big?” Falan asked.
“The Houses are offering ten thousand gold leafs each.”
“That would explain it,” Falan said, as he slid down the mast. “They can’t keep pace with us at this speed.”
We headed toward the rising sun.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Due east, out to sea,” Ivy said. “We didn’t want them following us a
long our true course, so we are trying to escape the ships before turning south again. They have proven persistent. Change your clothes and throw those over the side. It’s been a long night of smelling you.”
My proximity to the harpy poo had completely closed my sinuses.
“I’ve only got two sets,” I argued. “I’ll drag these behind the boat when we’re out of danger.”
My hope was the sea would eventually clean away the smell. Ivy frowned, but she was too busy steering the speeding boat to argue.
***
For most of the day we kept that pace and left our pursuers behind. Falan and Ivy had hesitated to use the boat’s full speed in the darkness of night. They were also concerned that rumour of the boat’s enchantments would travel ahead of us and had tried to escape without showing its true capabilities. We took turns at the tiller because driving at full speed required constant vigilance and was exhausting. It was also jarring, and a weaker boat might have broken apart from the smashing.
***
“Have we lost them?” I asked Falan.
We’d slowed, and he was up the mast again, searching the horizons.
“I see no ships in any direction, and none could have matched our pace. We’ve travelled far to the east and will soon approach the Western Ring.”
We’d moved a long way off course.
“We should turn south then,” Ivy said.
“Agreed,” Falan said. He looked at me. “Perhaps, you could attempt to clean yourself and your clothing?”
It was his polite way of telling me I stank.
Chapter 22 – Necromancer
Falan soon sighted the distinctive light-green waters of the ring current. The journey from current to shore had taken five days while towing the Starburst, but less than one without it. If I correctly remembered the charts, we’d travelled much further to return.
Ivy healed my minor injuries while I’d slept, and I changed out of my fouled clothing, washed as best I could, and took command of the tiller to give her and Falan an opportunity to rest. I was taking us south and away from the ring current, and when I glanced back I saw something on the northeastern horizon; a dark speck, riding the current, growing steadily larger. The current moved almost as fast as my boat with the pump set to five symbols.
