If Tidewater Keep was so crowded with all these new guests,
McCleagh grumbled to himself, why couldn't he find any of them? It was early morning, a time when most
pirates were snoring in their bunks, but from the looks of things nearly all of
them had risen early, belted on their weapons, and wandered off. At least their Captain was still in Lady
Smythee's rooms, a fact that did little to brighten McCleagh's mood. He suppressed bitter thoughts with the
efficiency of long practice. Lady
Smythee looked favorably on the arrangement, and that was all that should
concern him. Well, perhaps not all.
"I'm concerned about the safety of the castle's
inhabitants while they're about their duties," he told Chopper when the
man finally emerged in search of some breakfast.
"Seems you should be, aye. Are ye thinkin' there's a nest o' the fish
men hereabouts?"
"I'm not sure. They could be coming to attack from
miles away." McCleagh sighed. He hated to ask, but there was no doubt the
pirates were competent. "Could you
. . . keep an eye on the people?"
Chopper nodded without hesitation. "Course we can. Can send the Devil's Pallor out to patrol, as
well."
"Not at all, Sergeant. Your people are my people now. I
aim to protect my people." With
that in mind, Chopper grabbed some hard bread and cheese to munch on and set
off to locate his people. Feruzi was the
easiest to locate, perched on a rock where she could shoot at sea birds and
occasionally, by accident, at Rotgut the parrot, who seemed to be making a game
of interfering with her aim. She locked
her gaze on a puffin, arrow leading it as it dove toward the water, and then
there was a startlingly loud boom. The
bird exploded into a cloud of feathers and Ezikial, hunched behind a rock
further down the shore, blew the smoke away from his pistol with a satisfied
expression.
"I do not think we can eat it, now," Feruzi
commented.
"Might be, it's time to taunt some bleedin'
fishheads," Chopper told her.
"You know where the sahuagin are?"
"No, but they'll be back. Up to us to keep watch."
"Fair enough.
Not much worth hunting on this island, anyway."
Nightfall found Feruzi and Ezikial keeping watch among the
ballistae on the keep roof. It was an
excellent vantage to see the mob of sahuagin that burst from the cove and
charged the door, open to admit the goatherd and other groundsmen. Ezikial fired his pistol at them, striking
one and causing it to stumble. The
weapon's report was echoed a moment later by Reiko's enraged shriek as she
barreled into the sahuagin, following them over the stunned civilians and
through the doors.
Feruzi cursed. It
would take far too long to navigate the purposefully narrow stairs and ladders
to reach the ground floor, so she simply jumped off the roof, bounding down the
stone face for a distance and then collapsing into a heap on the gravelly beach
to absorb the force of the fall. Even
so, she felt her bones creak from the impact and knew she'd done herself some
damage.
"Are you all right over there?" Reiko asked.
"Fine," Feruzi insisted.
"Right, then."
Ezikial eyed the ground, but he was in no way prepared to
mimic Feruzi's stunt. He grabbed a rope
and slung it over the side, burning his hands on the way down. The Tidewater guards held the sahuagin at the
ground floor ladder while the three pirates assaulted them from behind. Finding themselves surrounded, they turned,
jabbing with ferocious tridents. One
caught Reiko in the gut as she charged but she ignored the serious wound and
cut it and one of its fellows to pieces.
Feruzi's arrows struck the one Ezikial shot earlier, finishing it off,
while Ezikial waded in with his shortsword.
Chopper appeared at the top of the ladder, nothing on his
person but his boots, axe, and the deep platinum necklace he now wore everywhere. One of the sahuagin shrieked in rage at the
sight before it, too, was cut down, ending the melee.
"So," Chopper asked casually, "Everything is
under control down here?" The
surviving Tidewater guard coughed and averted his eyes.
"Captain," Reiko said in a voice that could only
be described as strangled, "put on some pants."
"What?
Why?"
Reiko's eyes narrowed.
"Really?" she demanded.
"Weren't you supposed to be, uh, elsewhere,
Captain?" Ezikial asked, mesmerized.
"You fired a shot.
It was distracting. Be
quieter," Chopper told him.
"I find that unlikely, Captain. If you were doing it right you wouldn't have
heard a thing."
"Heh."
"What in blazes is going on down there?!" McCleagh called from the floor above. He climbed down and surveyed the
carnage. "Besmara wept!"
"No, I don't think she did," Feruzi told him.
"Not usually, no, but that's twice in as many days . .
. now . . ." McCleagh's voice trailed off as he noticed Chopper's state of
undress.
"Uh, hey, Sergeant.
Quite warm here at Tidewater this time of year? A-heh."
McCleagh's face reddened perceptibly and he quickly looked
away, spotting the fallen guard.
"Oh, Conor."
"We'll find 'em. And we'll make an end of 'em,"
Chopper said sincerely. Feruzi pushed
him toward the stairs.
"Be sincere with pants."
In the morning, they held a small ceremony to rename the
Devil's Pallor as Strife and sent it out with a portion of the crew to patrol
around Tidewater Rock. The day passed
without event, but toward evening it began to rain. And Rain.
AND RAIN. For several days,
raising an impenetrable fog. On the
third night, Ezikial was on watch aboard the Crisis when a pair of longboats
slipped into the harbor, rowing at full speed toward the doors of the keep.
"Rosie! Sound the alarm, All hands!" he growled.
"Aye aye!"
Ezikial swiveled the forward ballista and launched a bolt,
striking one of the longboats and sweeping two buccaneers overboard. A loud crunching sound echoed over the water,
indicating some damage to the longboat's hull as well. "BESMARA!" Reiko stepped out on the shore, arms crossed,
waiting for them to approach. Alerted by
the Rosie's furious bell-ringing, Feruzi stumbled onto the deck and peered
sleepily overboard.
"Whas goin' on?" she asked. Ezikial pointed out the longboats. "Hang on, imma shoot it." She drew her bow, still half asleep, and
managed to impale one of the attackers anyway.
"Ready the long boat. Step to it!" Ezikial
shouted.
"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!!!" Reiko bellowed from the
shore. Feruzi continued to shoot even as
the boats began to pull out of range, while Ezikial readied the ballista and
fired again. Then they both jumped down
into the lowered boat just as the longboats came in range of the shore. A cloaked figure in the second boat stood up
and fired a lightning bolt at the doors, rocking them violently and splintering
the wood. Feruzi gasped in horror and
redirected her arrows. The figure
screamed, revealing it was a woman, but she seemed more surprised than
hurt. She hurled another lightning bolt
at the doors, blasting them apart and revealing Chopper just inside.
"What the fook?!" he demanded. "Who blew down my FOOKIN' DOOR?!" He then lowered his head and charged the
ocean, running easily across the surface of the water to hack at the shocked
attackers.
"I want cannon," Ezikial growled as his pistol
shot went wide. Reiko hacked at the
buccaneeers who reached the shore, but they swarmed around her and through the
doors. The cloaked woman cast another
spell and vanished from sight. Feruzi
cursed and switched targets.
The fighting was brutal; Reiko and Chopper were instantly
surrounded and hard-pressed. With help
from Ezikial and Feruzi, they managed to retreat to the doors, where they were
able to dispatch the attackers remaining outside, then they climbed to the
guardroom to assist the three guards fending off a small horde of
buccaneers. By the time the attackers
were cut down, only one of the guards remained standing. Then a clap of thunder came from somewhere
above them, and a woman screamed.
Chopper bellowed and charged up the stairs. The third floor was empty, but they heard
commotion on the fourth, arriving to a horror.
Five people lay dead--burned to a crisp--in the dining hall: three
guards and Sergeant McCleagh. Lady
Smythee lay behind an upturned sideboard.
The caster sood in the middle of the room, grinning ferociously. She was nearly naked, her skin covered in
tattoos, and her teeth were hideously filed to sharp points.
Ezikial shot her in the chest. She swore in Aquan and hurled a lightning
bolt at him; he dove for the floor and managed to avoid being crisped
himself. Chopper charged her, grabbing
her around the waist and throwing both of them out of the smashed window. They crashed into the hardscrabble nearly
fifty feet below, Chopper landing on top, but the sorceress refused to die,
clawing at Chopper's chest in an effort to get at the necklace. Feruzi's arrow entered her throat just above
Chopper's shoulder and severed her spine.
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