Playing in the waves

We rode hard back toward Safeton. It didn't take us long to catch up with the herald.

"Milords!" he called. "And miladies! Please, I beseech you! Please hear me!"

I don't think I've every been beseeched anywhere. We stopped next to each other just outside the woods. There was nothing but grasslands and fields between here and Safeton. Behind the herald (who carried the colors of Safeton) I couldn't make out any smoke. Anna's eyes made an eagle look blind, but it also might mean the fire had died down or was put out (magic can do that quickly).

"What happened?" Audry asked.

"The manor," the herald said. "It...it is gone!"

"Lady Gold?" I asked. "The guests?"

"Some of the guests are dead, milord," the herald said. "Others are missing. Lady Gold herself is among the missing."

"We must see for ourselves," Marc said. He kicked his horse into a run. The rest of us followed.

----------------

The herald fell behind some time before, his horse nearly ready to drop. Our own horses were about driven into the ground. Thankfully, a cleric helped them. There was little else he could do at the manor.

The hulking manor used to be larger than my high school. Now it was a pile of rubble and burned timbers. Imagine an entire neighborhood having gone up in smoke and you'll have a close idea. Small fires still burned in parts of the manor. No one put them out, as there was little left to burn and they wouldn't spread. The gardens and part of the hedges that surrounded the compound had also been blackened by the enormous fire. The heat alone set off smaller fires some distance away. The end result was a wasteland that was once the most beautiful manor on the Wild Coast. The air reeked of charred wood with a hint of a sickly, sweet smell that could only have been burned flesh.

"How many bodies?" Saul asked. There was no emotion in his voice.

The cleric regarded the remains. "A few. We are using magic to identify them. It seems that most got out, but they cannot be found."

"Who survived?" I asked.

"I believe Madame Gold herself," the cleric said, "as well as some of her guests. I do not know for sure because they are not here."

"Where are they?" Audry asked. "In town?"

The cleric shook his head solemnly. "I fear they are kidnapped."

"What?" Audry said. "By whom?"

"They came by sea," the cleric said. "Two ships, a big one and a small one with purple sails. They came ashore disguised as merchants. They gave false papers to the harbor master and proceeded to the manor house." He lowered his head. "The rest of the story is self evident."

"They took the captives on the ship?" I asked.

"Safeton Marines attempted to board the ships," the Cleric said. "The ships departed before the Marines could board her. It appears they planned for this as they also had horses. They set several other fires on the way out of town. The Marines had the choice of either chasing the kidnappers or letting the town burn. They chose to save the town first. I doubt they will catch the kidnappers."

"Which way?" Saul asked.

"To the south," the cleric said.

"South," Saul repeated. "If we hurry--"

"Hurry?" Anna said. She patted Saul's horse. "The cleric may have healed our horses but he only kept them from dropping dead. If we chase we'll kill them for sure."

"So we should just sit here?" Saul said. "We have to do something."

"Agreed," Marc said, "but it should be something sensible. We don't even know where to go. There are dozens of roads and trails to the south. We need more information first."

"Then lets look for it," I said. I gestured toward the manor. "We can start here."

We went into the ruins of the manor. So much of it had been destroyed. Brick walls had been leveled. Siege engines could do that, but I didn't see the remains of ammunition. Likely it was destroyed by artillery spells. Fireballs work almost like a fuel-air explosion. The very air ignites, engulfing everything around it. Very little can stand up to them. It was unlikely we'd find anything, but there was little else to go on.

After about half an hour, Anna gave a shout. "Look what I found." She came out of the remains of what was once Dame's office. "That desk of hers is still there. Remember this?"

She held up the map Dame had showed us earlier. "Certainly could be useful," Audry said.

We kept looking. A map is good, but we still needed more. The smell of burning flesh is one you won't forget, and that smell was everywhere. I found a few here and there. Most were beyond recognition, but a few were recognizable. One appeared more or less intact. The body only had superficial burns. He likely died of smoke inhalation. I felt a sense of dread as I rolled the corpse over. I hoped it was no one I knew. Fortunately, I didn't know him. In fact, from the look of him, I was certain he wasn't one of the servants or a guest.

"Hey guys," I said. "Look at this."

Everyone gathered around as I dragged the body out of the fire. Soot covered him, but the corpse was otherwise intact. He wore what looked like a sailors uniform. His hair had been burned, but was left under the soot looked blond. Under one arm he held a sack. It spilled out on to the ground, revealing various pieces of jewelry and gems. He died gathering trinkets, something you can't take with you to the lower planes.

"One of the raiders, I presume," Saul said.

Audry gave a small prayer. "Greed did him in."

"Let's not be so hard on the greedy, eh?" Anna bent over, unperturbed by the corpse in front of us. She twisted is wrist around so we could see his forearm. "What is this?"

Under the soot on his forearm was a tattoo of a blue and orange fish. It looked fairly new.

"Father, have you seen anything like this?" Marc asked.

The cleric glanced at the tattoo, trying not to look at the rest of the body. "No, I am afraid not."

"Perhaps someone at the dock will know," Saul said. He bent over and opened the man's coat. "I wonder what other secrets he has to give up."

Audry watched irritably. Paladins hated disturbing a corpse. At the same time, she understood the necessity.

"Ah," Saul said. He pulled a small journal from under his coat. "It appears our friend is an aspiring author."

Saul passed it to me as he continued to go through the man's pockets. I opened it.

A lot of the entries were charred with soot, and in places the ink ran. A few were readable, though. Ten days prior to the manor fire it said, lv. pt. good wynds.

"Wynds, huh?" Anna smiled. "Guess that's why he gave up on writing and became a pirate."

"A mistake on his part," Audry said. "What else does it say?"

I continued reading. Five days ago there was an entry: water at Alrad, must stay abd.

"Alrad?" Marc said. "Elredd, perhaps? That was a town on the Madame Gold's map."

The last entry was for today: rd. tewday, cpt. say fyve day te water, fyve day tew port. Say few swords.

"What's rd?" Anna asked.

"Rained, maybe," Saul said.

The cleric shook his head. "No rain here, and none south to my knowledge. We could check with some sailors at port to be sure."

"Raid," I said. "I bet he means 'raid'."

"Probably," Saul said. "'Five days to water, five days to port. Say few swords.' Probably means there are few guards here."

"Which is true," Marc said. "It seems this poor fellow's Captain was well aware of who was here at the manor."

"I rather doubt the Captain planned this on his own," Audry said. "Whomever he works for must be in Elredd."

"So we're going to Elredd," Saul said. He looked at the Cleric. "Father, how far is Elredd from here?"

"About three hundred miles over land," he said. "Several days. It's faster by sea."

"Then we need to charter a ship," Marc said. "The game is afoot, as Sherdock would say."

"Sherlock," I said absently.

-------------------------

Saul contacted some people and we managed to charter a ship. While he was doing that, we got the third degree from the Safeton city guard. They also grilled His Excellency Derish of Safeton (much to his chagrin) and one Jack Knob, both of whom were guests. I was pleased to see they had survived. Marc managed to magically contact a mage in Mitrik so our people could tell Safeton's people that we were cool.

We also had to identify some of the bodies. There were a couple of servants I recognized. We also found Randallson the Neat among the dead, as well as Ko, the monk. He had several arrows in him. By all accounts, he continued to fight in spite of that fact. Damn. I really liked him.

Another body was that of Thaddeus, Dame's hired psychic investigator (and in this world, that's a big deal). He died from a sword wound from behind. He was assassinated, possibly before the actual attack. I found Anna outside sometime later. She wiped away her tears when she saw me. She didn't want to talk. I couldn't blame her.

I had no idea what happened to Joseph of the Light. I found myself hoping he was okay. Yeah, he was crazy hippy from the 70s, but he was from my world. I hoped he was okay. That night, I dreamed I was at a Led Zepplin concert with Joseph. He looked at me and said, "Can ya dig it?" It was a good dream.

We managed to charter a ship for the next morning, a small little tub called "the Ewe." We left at dawn. For some reason, I didn't get sick. Maybe I had too much on my mind.

On the second day, Captain Wolffe, commander of the Ewe, came down to see us. "Now look lads," he said. "I know ye signed on as passengers, but me little Ewe ain't so big as I can forget yer hands come the wind an' high water. Let me show ye the pumps, just in case I has to use ye, hmmm?"

The "pumps" was a pile of buckets. He demonstrated the technique of bailing to us as if it were some ancient lost art of the Ninja. He had us all practice and gave us pointers like he was Yoda or something. When he thought we had it down he walked away, snickering.

A storm approached, and Captain Wolffe ordered us into the storm. The waves tossed us about, sometimes swelling higher than the deck itself. The Captain shouted orders to his crew, all of whom struggled to keep the ship afloat.

"Hold fast, lads and ladies," he said. "We be lucky to survive this." He pointed at us. "Get down there! Start bailing before we sink to the bottom!"

We headed below decks and started the "pump." We bailed and bailed, and when we finally fished out all the water the ship would rock just enough to take on more water, and we'd start it all again.

An hour later it was over. My arms were ready to drop. We went above deck. The Captain and crew looked at us, and then busted it up laughing. It was a big joke. They new the storm was there and they brushed the edge of it to scare the blazes out of us. And it worked. I wanted to dump the whole lot of 'em in the drink. At that point, they broke out the real drink. Ale was passed around, and after a while I forgot what I was mad about.

The next day the Captain checked on us. "No hard feelings, lad," he said. He said he and the crew like to have there fun, but it was more than that. They do this frequently, not only to harrass the passengers but because it helps weed out who is who.

"Ye never know a good sailor until ye hit a storm," he said. I kept hoping he'd give a good "Argh!" or something, but he never did. "And we found ourselves a landlubber, we did."

"You mean besides us," Anna said.

"I do, lass," he said. "We took on a new crew member before we left. He not be knowing as much as he said he did. Scared him silly, we did." The Captain didn't seem amused. "Think we be cuttin' him loose in Elredd." He leaned closer to us. "Ye might want t' follow 'im."

Another storm hit the next day, this one out of the blue. The Captain cursed and swore, and no one on the crew was happy. We did bucket duty, but we did it for real this time. I had the dry heaves pretty hard. When the storm was done, the deck was trashed. Anything not tied down was now in the deep blue. That included three crewmen--including the new crewman. So much for a lead.

That night the Captain did a fix on the stars. "Blast ye all to the six hundred sixty-six lairs o'the Abyss!"

"Captain?" Anna asked timidly.

"We be off course," he said. "It will be a week or more before we be gettin' back t'port."

"Captain, that storm," Marc said. "Is that normal."

"Bloody hell no," the Captain said. "I ne'er seen the likes of it."

"Someone knows we are here, then," Audry said. "Someone who is trying to get rid of us."

"And assuming this new crew member was working with them," Saul said, "it's someone who cares little about their own people."

"You think they'll stop with just one storm?" Anna asked.

We all looked at each other, and at the Captain. He swore something in a dialect I did not know.

"Sorry Captain," I said. "If we had known we would have said something."

"Might even paid extra," Anna said.

The Captain gave a short laugh. "Aye, well, it not be yer fault, I suppose."

We continued on to Elredd. Fortunately, Anna was wrong. There was another storm, but it was manageable. The Captain felt it was typical given the storms in the sea and the time of year. I suspect that maybe they knew our location based on the new crew member. When he died, they might have assumed the ship drowned.

While we didn't have to worry about storms, Captain Wolffe felt it best to avoid the shore as much as possible--and to avoid any other ships. He thought we were too far south and too close to pirate territory. We went back to Elredd in a zig-zag pattern, avoiding other ships like the plague. Everything was fine up until this morning.

In the distance we saw another ship. Most ships passed us by without a thought. This one, however, changed course as soon as we were in sight. It lay near the horizon aft of us.

"Let me go look," Anna said. She climbed up to the crows nest like she had wings. She stayed there for several minutes before calling down. "Looks like she has purple sails."

"Great," I said. "How many ships have purple sails?"

"Only one I know of," Captain Wolffe said. "I not know her name, but I hear she belong to the slavelords."

Okay, that's a phrase I didn't like. I've never heard of the slavelords before, but I know what slave means and I know what lord means, so I can deduce who those crackers are like.

The Captain shouted orders to the crew. Anna stayed in the crows nest (something she had been doing lately--the vixen has sharp eyes like any good elf). Marc stayed on deck casting spells, Audry took the helm (something she learned pretty quickly), and Saul and I went below decks and started bailing water.

After a bit we were relieved by some other sailors. We went topside. Anna had come down from the crows nest. "We outran them," she said. "Fast ship."

"Aye," the Captain said. "The Ewe is quick when she needs to be. Sorcerer, what did you see?"

Marc joined us on the forecastle. "Very little, I'm afraid. The ship definitely had purple sails. It might have been the same ship."

"Any wizards?" Saul asked.

Marc shook his head. "Not that I saw, but that doesn't mean they weren't there."

"So, do we assume they know we are alive?" Audry said.

"Do they even know who we are?" Anna said.

"They might," Saul said. "Well, they definitely know this ship. If they smuggled someone into the crew then they can send word back to Elredd."

The captain swore again. "Aye, well we have cargo to unload and I have business there. I been to that infested city before. My face is known and they won't bother with me. It's you lads and ladies I worry for."

"What time do we arrive?" I asked.

"Should be there by tomorrow," Captain Wolffe said. "That only be if the weather holds. Can't control the weather, ye know."

"Someone can," Marc said.