Part 20 (1/2)
Om grinned and cranked back the catapult for a second shot, and the dracons quickly loaded a second pile of the gnome's lethal bolas into the weapon.
By the time the swan s.h.i.+p shuddered through the atmospheric boundary, most of the ragtag fleet had been destroyed. The ”battle” was over in minutes without casualty or damage to the swan s.h.i.+p. Teldin should have been pleased with the ease of their victory, but he felt restless and uneasy. Something was wrong. The orc and goblin s.h.i.+ps all appeared -to be heavily armed, but not one of them had so much as fired on the Trumpeter.
A deep foreboding filled Teldin, and he sprinted toward the bridge.*****
For the third time in a millennium, the magical alarm on a man-o-war patrol s.h.i.+p sounded.
The only living occupant of the s.h.i.+p's bridge, a bloated tertiary Witchlight Marauder, aimed an incurious stare at the pulsing disk suspended over its head. The monster reached up toward it, and two of its swordlike fingers bracketed the thick mithril chain. With a casual, effortless snap, the creature brought the blades together and severed the chain. The disk hit the floor in a shower of spraying fragments. The tertiary marauder picked up a large splinter of crystal with dexterous foot claws and tossed the shard up and into its gaping maw.
It crunched, considered, then spat. Silently the monster directed its rapacious appet.i.te back to its preferred food, and the bodies of the s.h.i.+p's captain and battle wizard quickly disappeared.
Over the monster's head, the image of a ragtag goblin fleet and a battered swan s.h.i.+p slowly faded from the crystal panel.
Chapter Eighteen.
Teldin burst onto the bridge. ”Hard astern. Get us the h.e.l.l away from here!” he shouted at Celestial Nightpearl.
Surprise registered in the dragon's elven eyes, then understanding. ”Tiamat's talons!” she swore to the G.o.d of evil dragons. ”Those s.h.i.+ps are leading us, aren't they?”
The captain gave a grim nod of confirmation, then sped down to the upper deck. Gaston Willowmere rushed past with an armload of crossbow bolts, and Teldin grabbed the elf's shoulder. ”Don't bother. We're breaking off the attack.”
”You're letting them get away? We're retreating? the first mate asked, not bothering to hide his disdain for the human captain.
Teldin faced down the elf. ”When you can recognize an ambush, perhaps you'll be ready to give orders. Until then, don't question mine.”
Gaston shot a glance toward the port rail, where Vallus Leafbower stood with the s.h.i.+p's battle wizards. Vallus confirmed the order with an almost imperceptible nod, and with a final, frustrated glance toward the fleeing goblin s.h.i.+ps, the first mate spread the order to stand down. Vallus spoke a few words to the other wizards, then came to walk alongside Teldin.
”They did not return fire,” the elf commented as they walked down the stairs to the main deck.
”You noticed,” Teldin said. ”I wonder what was waiting out there for us.”
”Scro, no doubt. The Armistice orcs got their s.h.i.+ps somewhere, and who else would supply them?”
”What about those bionoids?” Teldin suggested.
Vallus stopped short. ”That's impossible,” he said flatly. ”The bionoids obviously want to get their hands on your cloak, but why would they serve orcs? They are elven weapons.”
Anger flashed in Teldin's eyes, but he kept his voice even. ”You probably can't understand this, Vallus, but you just answered your own question.” Not trusting himself to say more, he turned away and went off to check on Hectate.
Had he looked back, Teldin would have been astounded at the effect his words had on the elven wizard. Vallus Leafbower's stunned face suggested a soul who had glimpsed himself in a mirror and had been deeply disturbed by what he had seen.
Needing time alone to think over the troubling insight, the elf turned to the solitude of his cabin.
Since writing usually helped him sort through his thoughts, Vallus went to the locked cabinet that held the s.h.i.+p's log and automatically his fingers began to rehea.r.s.e the spell that released the lock.
He stopped in midspell, puzzled, then leaned in for a closer look. It appeared that someone had attempted to open the lock-physically, not with magic. The signs of intrusion were subtle: the tarnished metal around the keyhole was slightly brighter where a key or picking tool had been inserted.
Vallus sped through the unlocking spell and s.n.a.t.c.hed up the log. He leafed through it rapidly, checking sequence and dates to ensure that no pages were missing. To his eyes, the book did not appear to have been disturbed, and he exhaled in a slow, relieved sigh. Not that the log would have yielded much information. As was required, all of his entries were made in a unique, magical code that he himself had devised, so that the log was impossible to read without powerful spells.
Of course, there was always the possibility that someone strong enough to break the magicallock could also, in time, decipher the code.
The elven wizard returned the book to the cabinet, which he locked and reinforced with additional spells and wards. That accomplished, he began to go through the motions of preparing for sleep. He strongly suspected that his dreams would be haunted, not only by Teldin Moore's accusing blue eyes, but also by the echoes of his own words, so full of blind confidence in elven right and reason.
Vallus had thought himself beyond thoughtless bigotry, and he was deeply disturbed to learn otherwise. Not long ago he'd congratulated himself for his open-minded acceptance of half-elf Hectate Kir, but the moment he'd learned that the half-elf was a bionoid, Hectate had ceased to be a person. He was simply a bionoid, and all the elven prejudices and reluctant guilt concerning that race had completely pushed aside any other perspective. No wonder the scro were finding ready allies against the elves. What other races, Vallus wondered, felt they had reason to rebel against the elves' arrogant dominance of wilds.p.a.ce?
It was ironic, Vallus thought as he crawled onto his cot, that such thoughts should come to him now, when he had good reason to suspect that Hectate Kir was a spy.
Teldin Moore, of course, would never believe this. In his current frame of mind, Vallus himself felt inclined to disregard the facts. Yet, they were there, and too numerous to ignore.
Someone with access to elven technology had stolen a cloaking device for a bionoid clan. It was likely that the bionoid shrike s.h.i.+ps tracked the Trumpeter using information obtained from someone on board, and who knew the swan s.h.i.+p's course better than Hectate Kir, the navigator?
Whoever had tampered with the locked cabinet was no thief, but someone who knew exactly what he was looking for and where to look. Other, more accessible valuables in his cabin-spell components, rare books, a few bottles of rare elven spirits-had not been touched. Finally, there was Hectate's mysterious disappearance during the bionoid attack. It could not have been coincidence that the half-elf turned up on Armistice in a crashed insectare vessel, which was almost certainly the same vessel that had taunted the swan s.h.i.+p during the battle. And, according to the healer, there was no reason why Hectate Kir should not have regained consciousness.
What was he up to, and what did he want with the s.h.i.+p's log?
Vallus could not shake the feeling that Teldin Moore's cloak was not the primary issue in this mysterious plot. When the bionoids attacked, they easily could have slain every elf on board the swan s.h.i.+p and captured Teldin, but the creatures broke off the attack when victory seemed a.s.sured. Why? Vallus puzzled over this until he drifted into a restless slumber.
Much later, his troubled dreams were interrupted by a loud knocking at his cabin door. Gaston Willowmere, who, as first mate, was acting as the third watch commander, stood at attention, and his angular face was deeply troubled.
”Captain, we've spotted one of the Imperial Fleet patrol s.h.i.+ps.”
”Ahh.” Vallus spoke the word on a sigh. ”Well, it had to happen. I'm surprised we haven't been called into account long before this for violating the Armistice net.”
”They don't want our report, sir,” the first mate said. ”The s.h.i.+p appears to be in trouble. It's adrift.”
”A man-o-war, adrift!” Vallus said sharply, and Gaston nodded. A familiar, icy feeling crept through the elven wizard, the same nameless dread he'd felt on Lionheart upon hearing the tale of the armada ghost s.h.i.+p. A force that could overcome an armada or a man-o-war-without leaving a trace!-was a terrifying prospect. He hadn't heard the results of that investigation, but he wondered if he was about to confront the mysterious foe himself.
”Have you alerted Captain Moore?” he asked Gaston.
Vallus's question clearly took the first mate by surprise. Without waiting for a response, Vallus instructed him to get Teldin to the bridge immediately. The wizard quickly dressed and made his way to the bridge. He instructed the third-watch helmsman, Kermjin, to make a cautious approach to the man-o-war.
Teldin came to the bridge only moments later. His sandy hair was rumpled and his clothing bore wrinkled testament to several restless hours in a hammock-he'd given up his own cabin to Hectate Kir, so that the half-elf could recover in comfort and privacy. Vallus quickly explained the situation, and, when the swan s.h.i.+p came close enough to the drifting man-o-war, Teldin trained his looking gla.s.s at the deck. He recoiled in horror and swore an oath that would have done credit to a drunken dwarf.
The elven wizard s.n.a.t.c.hed up a second looking gla.s.s and peered through it. On the deck ofthe man-o-war was a roiling pack of gray, hideous creatures, engaged in what appeared to be a feeding frenzy. So quickly did the monsters move that only flashes of silver and red betrayed the ident.i.ty of their feast. The elf s bile rose, and he lowered the gla.s.s with shaking hands.
”If we're to save any of those elves, we'll have to move in fast,” Teldin declared.
Vallus shook his head. ”There is nothing to be done,” he said in a dull whisper. ”There is nothing left to save.”
Teldin's face darkened, and Vallus wearily supposed that the human would argue the matter as usual. But the young captain took a closer look at Vallus's stricken face, and his wrath dissolved. Although his blue eyes held many questions, he merely laid a steadying hand on Vallus's shoulder.
The elven wizard nodded his thanks, and Teldin turned away and directed the helmsman to give the doomed man-o-war a wide berth. Vallus was grateful for Teldin's unexpected empathy and his good judgment. At the moment he himself felt overwhelmed with despair, incapable of speech or action.