Slip Away

Hobnail and his men escape their make-shift prison as Muld, Syndi and Aloea prepare to be rescued.

17.

Slip Away

 

The night was long and cold for those sleeping on the deck of the pirate airship, but the numerous heavy furs kept them reasonably warm.  

The posted sentries stood watch on the only door out of the hold, but there was no activity… at least that they knew about.

They had waited, first for the ‘ghosts’ to come after them, but when they didn’t arrive, they began to think rationally.    Hobnail quickly realized that they had been tricked, but he also knew how foolish and dangerous it would be to try to storm up the stairs and attempt to give battle.     There would be more arriving by now " more of either Muld’s people or even King Eleazar’s men.  

But Hobnail knew a few things of which none of his adversaries were aware.   First, the hold of the ship not only had a magically powered cargo door that opened slowly and quietly outward.    Second, that the ship (as did most merchant airships) had several levitation platforms for moving cargo in and out of the hold.   

With his chief wizard, Nygrais’ help it was a simple thing to open the cargo door, load up his men on the levitation platform and slowly lower it down to the mountain top below them.

Since the airship’s cargo door was at the very bottom of the ship, none of them on deck could see their descent, especially in the dark.

Upon landing on top of the mountain peak (which thankfully wasn’t one of the taller, snow-capped peaks in the string of mountains) they simply slipped down the side of the mountain.   It was a dangerous undertaking in the dark night, but the tall pines concealed any activity.

By morning light they had descended the mountain and had followed an animal trail through a valley between mountains until Hobnail had deemed it far enough.   Then Nygrais used his miniature scrying crystal to contact the dwarf captain’s brothers.

“We’re going to change things, “  Hobnail told his kinsmen after telling them about what had transpired, “Things are too hot here.    Have the Ebony Falcon  come and pick us up.   But while it is in route, I have a lot of work for you to do.  We have twelve airships, but only four are battle ready.    I want the supplies, our loot and our people loaded up and eight of them are to head south to our old hideout at Grumman’s lake in the swamps southwest of Heliopolis.   Have them ready to sail as soon as we arrive.”

“What about the other four ships?”   One of his brothers asked.

“Take three of the damaged ones; make them appear as if they are battle ready and man them just enough to steer them.     I’ll use the Ebony Falcon as my command vessel.”

“Why?   What have ye in mind, brother?”

“We are going to give one last parting shot to Marksylvania, King Eleazar and the damned Practical Magician’s Guild.”

“How?”

“Well, I know from our spies that Eleazar’s men are occupying the floating city of Windhaven.     But ‘tis badly damaged from Gelden’s attack upon it and they are slowly moving the city southwest until it reaches Westmark, where they will rebuild it, probably for that damned Muld’s use.   ‘Tis halfway to Westmark already, and it should arrive over the city in several days time.    They will likely anchor it over the royal shipyard and that is in the heart of the city.”

“Is that important?”   His brother asked.

“Aye, it is vital!   You see, I intend to feign an attack on the city with the three damaged ships to give time for all of our wizards to cast a joined Dispel Magic spell that will send the floating city down upon Westmark!”

“Are you insane?  Brother, that would take at least twenty wizards chanting the spell together and it would take them an hour or more to cast it… if it even is powerful enough to neutralize the levitation magic of Windhaven’s core!”

“Then ye had best ‘recruit’ some more spell casters and get them ready, for I intend to try before we move to safer skies.    Don’t bother me with the details, just get to work on making it happen!”   He had yelled through the crystal ball, and his brothers had bowed before his temper and hurried off to try his plan.

“We’ll make them damned elves regret ever crossing swords with Hobnail!”  The pirate had growled with an evil energy in his eyes that told his men that he would certainly get his way.

 

***

 

An hour before sunrise, Rick’s sentry duty watching the door to the hold ended and he shuffled across the deck exhausted and cold. In the dim light from the fire pots that they had moved onto the deck to keep everyone warm, he saw someone beckoning to him and he slumped down to find Shel waiting for him.

“Move closer and I’ll throw this wonderful fur over you " I don’t know what animal this is made from, but it is extremely warm.

Rick was too cold to consider what everyone else around them would think, instead he slid over next to her and she threw the heavy fur over both of them.

“When is my turn to watch coming up?”   She asked as he slipped down onto one of the pillows they had pulled out of the captain’s cabin.

“Don’t worry about it, Shel.”

“I want to do my fair share, hon.   When is my turn?”

“Your turn just ended a few minutes ago.”

“A few minutes ago… you took my shift?”   He could see her yellow eyes gleaming in the dim firelight.

“I wasn’t very sleepy anyway,”  He lied and she knew it.    Suddenly she was cupping his chin in her hand and he felt her warm lips against his.   It was a ‘thank you’ kiss, but Rick at once lost all his weariness.

Shel slid down next to him, resting against his shoulder and adjusting the fur slightly, “It’s about an hour until dawn, try to get some sleep.”

Rick didn’t think he could slumber, but he was jarred awake an hour and a half later by a very excited Halfling.

“Rick!”  Tadd shouted, poking him with his toe, “They’ve escaped!”

“Escaped?   Who?”  He said, coming out of a sleep fog confused and unsure for a moment where he was.

“Hobnail and his men!”  Tadd exclaimed, “When the sun came up, we could see that the cargo bay door was open!”

“Cargo bay door?   But they’d fall to their death!”

“No, listen; there were those levitation platforms that they used to raise and lower freight into the airship.    Jevon thinks they used that to go down to the mountain below.”

Rick looked up, finding his friend standing beside the Changeling girl.   Both looked very frustrated.

“I never even noticed them,”  Jevon told him, “We were held down there, but I didn’t even see them!   We could have escaped that way.”

Jevon glanced over to Ant, who was frowning, “I didn’t see them either.   I should have kept scanning for their thoughts telepathically.   But I was so tired while on sentry duty that it took all my effort to just keep awake.   How careless of me!”

“Don’t blame yourself, Ant.    Maybe they didn’t go far.”

Ant shook her head, “No, they’re gone - I can’t hear any of their thoughts in my head, so they aren’t nearby.”

“Still, they couldn’t go far on foot in these mountains.”  

“They may have some of their other ships nearby.   If their wizard has a way to contact them, we could be in a serious situation by staying here too long.”

“It’s too dangerous to try to look for them and they outnumber us anyway, so I vote that we scrap our plans to go to Losahome and instead head back to Westmark,”   Mutt suggested.

Rick nodded, “Yeah, let’s not press our luck; if Hobnail has hooked up with some of his other ships, they’ll think we’ll head for Losahome since it is closest.   They may be planning an ambush, and I’ll wager Lord Deryck arranged to have the few Losasidhe airships tied up some place else before he joined Hobnail, so they won’t be anywhere nearby to help us.   There weren’t any around when we dropped off The White Buck in Losahome, and none of the elves had any idea where they were. ”

“You didn’t have any other airship accompany you for your scheme?”  Ant asked with a displeased look.

“We didn’t want to make Hobnail suspicious.    He has eyes everywhere, and even one other well-hid airship might have raised his suspicions.     It was risky, but we wanted it to look good.   There’s really no point in arguing about it now.    I think heading back to Westmark would be smartest - Marksylvania has more airships patrolling the northern borders so I doubt Hobnail would try to pursue us.    Let’s vote on it.”

A quick vote was unanimous and so shortly, they began recharging the vacuum engines for the trip back home.

“I’m sure we’ve not heard the last from Hobnail,”   Mutt commented as they got underway, and it was a feeling that all of them shared.

 

***

 

It was difficult for the three of them to rest and wait for their rescuers, but Muld, Syndi and Aloea tried their best.

The Lizard-woman sat with her hands around her pregnant belly, staring intensely at the pool.    She had cast the ‘Enabling’ spell upon it as soon as they had finished speaking to Sophia’s group and seemed more anxious to be rescued than Muld or Syndi were.

They watched her for a while as they rested, and Muld wondered about her anxiety.    Perhaps she knew about the extent of Calarom’s power and was worried about it.

Syndi seemed to notice too and leaned over to whisper in his ear, “She’s worried about her baby.”

“How do you know?”

“Trust me, I know.    She knows we’ll most likely need her help when the airships arrive, but she’s fearful of something happening to her baby.”

“Maybe we won’t get any resistance from Calarom and his people.”

“I doubt we’ll be that lucky.”

“If we can take him by surprise, perhaps we can minimize Aloea’s exposure to danger.”

“That may be impossible to do, Muld.”

“We’ve got to hit hard and quick when the time comes, my dear.    If we can take out Calarom, his followers may back down or run off, especially if they see the power of Lady Sophia’s group.”

“So what do you suggest that we do?”

Muld leaned back in the sand and told her his strategy and for a long time they made battle plans while Aloea just sat alone and stared into the pool of water.

Then, slightly more than four hours after they had spoken to their rescuers, Aloea began making excited chirping sounds,  pointing to the pool.    It glowed a dim blue in color that was increasing in intensity.

“I think our rescue is at hand,”   Muld commented, jumping up.

 

***

 

Soon they were contacted and plans were formulated.     They spent a short time casting protective spells around them before they swam to the surface.     Aloea cast a water-based spell upon the three of them but did not have time to explain what it would do, only writing the word: PROTECT in the sand in response to Syndi’s query.

Syndi cast a ‘Repel Magic Missiles’ spell around them that would keep magical missiles from hitting them, though it also prevented them from using any missile spell against their foes.   It would last half of an hour.

Muld thought carefully and selected an advanced Practical Magic cantrip called ‘Fetch’ that enabled him to draw things to his hands from afar like a magnet to iron.   But the items pulled to him did not have to be metal; they only had to be something that was light enough for him to carry.   Syndi’s spell would not affect the magic of the Fetch spell.  It was used by Practical Magicians to fetch needed items while at work without have to pull away from something to get them.

All he would have to do was to aim his hand at an object and open his palm wide to grab the item when it was sent to him.    The range of the spell was his line of sight and it would last for an hour.

 

 

The signal came from Sophia via the pool; it was time.    Aloea, Syndi and Muld looked at each other for a moment, but they each knew of the feelings of their companions and so without a word, the three dove into the pool.