Chapter 20
Twenty
We’d hurried from the Under Slump and then stuck to the edges of the more reputable districts rather than passing directly through them.
Taking the wide avenues would’ve been faster, but we were a large, armed band, obviously up to no good, and the Core City Watch had no patience for fuckery in the peaceful parts of town.
Even if what we were doing wasn’t—strictly speaking—illegal, it was questionable, and we couldn’t afford to be detained while some watchmen figured that out.
The morning was cold. The sky was filled with heavy grey clouds.
Snowflakes kept sticking to my face. I really couldn’t understand how people lived through this gods awful winter nonsense, as they called it, but my fellow hotlander turned longtime Core resident, Wilma, had assured me I’d get used to it eventually.
Despite hood, cloak, scarf, gloves, and coat, I remained freezing.
It was so cold that air-realmer Azarin had even put on a sweater.
It felt like the only thing keeping me alive was the warmth generated by the briskness of our pace.
We’d have run the whole way if that wouldn’t have drawn a watchman’s attention.
Well, that and I doubted the short-legged Morton or Rufus could keep up, and Bognar was rather fat and easily winded.
Yet we set a brisk pace, because the appearance of Gerzog and his boys was surely a warning of things to come.
Even rumors that there might be time magic treasure involved would bring all sorts of unscrupulous sorts down upon us.
I wished Carcalla would have warned me what we were dealing with, but frankly, I doubted he cared what happened to us. If we were murdered, and the lamp was real, he’d simply buy it off our killers. If the lamp wasn’t real, this expedition had cost him nothing and his curiosity would be satisfied.
Once we reached the docks district, I went straight to the tavern where I’d listened to the local fishermen tell their stories after I’d helped them unload their catch.
I left the rest of the Outcasts outside to be harassed by the squawking white ocean birds.
Being so early in the morning in an honest hard-working part of town, there were very few people inside, but I picked out the least drunk among them to see about hiring a boat.
Ten minutes and a bit of haggling later, I’d rented us two row boats.
Unfortunately, since the owner demanded to know where we were taking them, and I’d admitted we were going to the notorious Korthican’s Warning, I’d been forced to leave a significant deposit, because he doubted we’d survive to return his boats.
I intended to get my deposit back.
As we walked down the dock to where our small wooden boats were tied, I asked, “Any sign of Dathka yet?”
Azarin shook her head no. “That Latro skag is going to be furious.”
“It’s not her anger I’m worried about. It’s her boss.”
“It’s not your fault she was derelict in the duties Cutter Joran assigned her. Some spy she turned out to be! Ooh, maybe he’ll be so disappointed in her failure to keep an eye on us that he’ll have her murdered.” Azarin giggled. “So tragic.”
“Tragic will describe our fate if Carcalla decides we ditched her so we could rip him off. My note said where I’d try to find us a ride. Maybe we should wait here a bit.”
“There’s miles of docks and hundreds of boats around this bay. Every second we delay, an unknown competitor might be catching their own ride, assuming they didn’t leave last night and are already there stealing what should be ours.”
Azarin was right, but angering the Latros was a deadly gamble. “Then we’re screwed either way.”
“Ahem.” From out of nowhere, Morton appeared at my side.
Gnomes were unnerving like that. “If I may be so bold as to offer a suggestion, Mr. Carnavon and Lady Garzade, what if I were to stay here to greet Ms. Walker upon her arrival? However long that may take. Then I will promptly explain the entirety of the circumstances which forced our hasty departure, and then we shall procure transportation and follow after you.”
“Oh, come now, Morton!” Rade exclaimed. “There’s no opportunity for glory waiting on a dock!”
“It’s not about glory, Lord Tartaros. It is about diplomacy and the mitigation of risk.
Leaving a representative of our academy is more respectful than some mere note, and surely this show of courtesy will assuage any irritation Ms. Walker might have at being left behind.
With luck, you will arrive before our challengers, and we will arrive by the time you’ve finished slaying all the monsters and defeating all the traps.
As long as you wait for Ms. Walker to be present to observe the opening of the secret chamber, then no harm will have been done to our relationship with the Latrocinium. ”
I knew this was just a ploy to keep his own skin out of danger, but Morton’s plan wasn’t half bad. “I’m fine with that.”
Rade and Azarin both shrugged. It wasn’t like leaving the little guy behind was going to cost us much fighting ability on the shore.
“It’s settled. Morton stays, everybody else aboard.”
The gnome breathed a sigh of relief.
“I don’t know what you’re happy about,” Bognar said. “I’d be more scared of the Latro’s murderess than the monsters.”
“Yes,” Sifuso hissed. “Leave Bognar instead of the gnome so she can poke out his other eye.”
“Don’t laugh at me. It still hurts.”
With four in each boat, we set out. I was cold and uncomfortable.
I’d ridden in a water boat once before, but that had been on a lazy deadland’s river.
The bay was more of an angry, bouncing, crashing mass that kept soaking my clothing with freezing droplets of saltwater.
Rade and Rufus both came from places with bodies of water big enough to require boats, so they were our captains, each trying to teach the rest of us how to use the oars to row.
I’d tried to hire a crew to ferry us, but no one in the tavern was foolish enough to risk landing on the island.
Don’t worry, they’d told me. You’ll be fine. It’s not far at all.
That proved to be a lie. This was not fine.
Rowing turned out to be a terribly inconvenient way to travel.
The island was in sight of the shore, but when you had a bunch of people with no idea what they were doing, on a violently churning sea, where the waves kept pushing us in the wrong direction, our meager progress was taking an agonizing long time.
Every time we rode up a big wave, coming down the other side made it feel as if our tiny boat might flip. If it did, we’d surely drown.
The shore was shrinking in the distance and Korthican’s Warning was growing, but at this rate, by the time we got there, our arms would be too tired to fight.
“Anybody got a spell that could speed this up?” Bognar shouted as Danny vomited over the side.
“I’m afraid not. This is a fine example why we have to keep studying,” Azarin called back cheerfully. Despite being from a realm of absurdly tall mountains and endless skies, Azarin didn’t seem in the least bit seasick. It must have been from all that riding about on giant birds.
Danny was sitting next to me, and the poor kid looked so grey, it likely wasn’t just the nausea killing him. Suspecting he was overcome with nerves, I leaned over and told him, “It’s alright to be scared.”
“It’s not that…” He looked like he really wanted to tell me something, but then he looked away, ashamed. “No matter what happens, I appreciate you guys giving me a chance.”
“You’re not going to die, Danny. Being scared when you’re doing something scary is normal.
The only person here who’s not at least a little afraid is Rufus.
” I nodded toward the other boat, where our dwarf captain had taken up a bawdy rowing song.
“And I think that’s because he doesn’t know any better. ”
“It’s not that… It’s just… Never mind.”
“It’s going to be alright. Cheer up.”
“I will, Mr. Carnavon.” Danny just gave me a determined nod, like he got it, though I suspected he was faking that temporary courage. He didn’t say anything else for the rest of the trip.
There’d been no sign of Trax yet, then at one point, a grey fin popped out of the water and passed swiftly between our boats. “Oh, there he is.” Except the fin was far too big, and it’d kept going.
“That’s an actual shark.” Then Rade added for my hotlander benefit, “It’s shaped a bit like our dear Mr. Bloodtrail—facially at least—but a shark is merely a big dumb fish, bereft of hands, feet, or decorum.”
“Does it eat things like Trax does?”
“Oh, very much, yes. They’re voracious toothy bastards.”
Now I really didn’t want this stupid boat to flip.
Luckily, a short while later, another fin appeared, and this was accompanied by a mental greeting in the Squalo picture language.
“Hello, Carnavon. I have been observing as instructed. Now I am observing that human water transportation is cumbersome and inefficient. You should learn to swim.”
“That’s a great idea, buddy.”
“The humans who have settled the upper parts of my realm to harvest the element you know as Blue use spells to propel themselves at great speeds through the water and to breathe beneath it.” He even helpfully sent me an image of wizards far more powerful than any of us performing those great feats.
“You should get better at magic and do that.”
I got the whole thing; everybody else got weird pictures, flashing letters, or a bit of a headache.
“What did Mr. Bloodtrail say?” Bognar asked.
“He said you’re bad at rowing… Hey, Trax, any chance we could toss you a rope and you could pull us there faster?”
“I shall do so. Watching you flounder about so pathetically is depressing.”
After we got a pair of ropes secured to the boats, we tossed them to Trax, and in short order, he got us moving quicker than the rest of us put together could row. That really was kind of sad.
“Did anybody else get to the island ahead of us?”
“Yes. A small group of humans arrived a few hours before I did.”
“Dammit.” I shouted toward the other boat where Rufus sat, “Your big mouth has brought us more trouble.”
“Do not worry, Carnavon. The invaders were promptly eaten.”
“By you, or the monsters?”
“By the monsters. You asked me not to eat any people until you arrived. I am good at following instructions.”
“What about the monsters?”
“They are chewy.”
To be fair, that was on me for telling a Squalo to use his best judgment. “How many of them did you kill?”
“Only the ones who swam out to challenge me.”
“Trax…”
“I slew four. I only ate one, though. The other bodies sank before I could, and I would not abandon my post in pursuit of flesh. I am very responsible. I could not identify the creatures from your earlier description, as these are not native to my plane. However, I believe these are mutants. A combination of human, mollusk, and other unknown species. They are likely a leftover experiment from a prior age.”
“Can we communicate with them?”
“You would waste your words. They are very noisy but do not speak. From their mind pictures, they are of minimal intelligence. Perhaps a bit dumber than ratlets even.”
Trax mostly thought of ratlets as convenient snacks. “How tough are they?”
“Their meat is rubbery and tastes similar to squid.”
“I don’t mean to chew. How physically tough are they? Can we kill them?”
“Yes. They seem vulnerable to normal wounds.”
Finally, some good news.
Trax must have read my thoughts, because he immediately brought me back down, “I smell approximately fifty more of them.”
I sighed, then raised my voice so both boats could hear me over the waves. “Trax says they’re some kind of mutant, probably an old wizard’s experiment, but our weapons should work on them just fine. Issue is, there’s a bunch of them.”
“Approximately fifty,” Trax sent just in case I’d not gotten the number the first time.
“You’ve got to dole out bad news slowly, so you don’t overwhelm people.”
“Fascinating. Then when I have bad news for a human, I should deliver it gradually. This is good to know. There… are… too… many… monsters.”
I shouted, “Trax says we’re badly outnumbered. There’s at least fifty of them.”
Most of the Outcasts grimaced in fear at that, except for Rade, who got excited at the opportunity for heroic swordplay, and Rufus, who counted on his fingers, before saying, “Aye, each of us only has to slay three of them! That’s an easy battle.”
I exchanged an uncomfortable glance with Azarin, because Rufus was appallingly bad at math. “It’s a good thing he’s handy with an axe.”
“Just be sure once you get your three to keep swinging to make up for the slower students, Rufus,” she shouted at him, before muttering to me, “He’s got molasses for brains, but you can’t fault his enthusiasm.”
With Trax’s aid, we were rapidly approaching Korthican’s Warning.
It wasn’t much to look at, just a lump of rocks encircled by sand, with the remains of the lighthouse in the middle, which was nothing but scattered brick piles and a few crumbling walls.
A hundred yards away, another boat had been pulled up onto the sand, and mangled bodies of other would-be treasure hunters were turning the surf around them red.
A weirdly shaped figure was crouched on top of the tallest boulder on the island, obviously on look-out.
It turned its strangely shaped head our direction, stared at us with its huge eyes that stuck way too far out the side of its head, before opening its black beak to let out a terribly loud hooting noise.
“They know we’re here now.”
As I said that, a dozen more creatures rose from among the rocks.
Let the adventure begin.