Sixteen
Scherie, Phaeacian Sea
A couple of priests, about two hundred and fifty soldiers, Suzona, and I were on something best described as a troop transport. We'd been shown a map of the rather large island, where the enemy soldiers were, and where my son Jordon was most likely to be.
They also had a map of the island Molnitus and his people had come from, a small island nation not all that far away.
"So what's your read of the situation?" I asked the troop commander as we looked over the map.
"We're dealing with a large incursion in the northern isles.
It's a recurring problem that comes back every decade or so.
That's where we butt up against one of our neighbors we're not on good terms with.
This has, of course, given Molnitus' people an excuse to come into our lands, take slaves, kill people, and plunder whatever they can get their hands on. "
"Aren't they worried about reprisals?"
"Obviously not," the officer said with a bit of snark. "Their island favors their position, and taking it would be a costly affair. Our biggest fear is that they'll gain a foothold on Katafygiou; its southern end could be fortified if they're able to secure it and hold it for any length of time."
I nodded as I looked over the map. Molnitus' people, the nation he was a god of, had landed to the west and were obviously driving in that direction.
"How much will removing my son from this help?"
"The Hepirots are not a unified people, and without a strong, central leader to lead them and drive them, they do not do well as an army.
While none of us think they'll fall apart overnight, we do believe that within weeks of losing what they believe to be Molnitus' blessing, they'll fall out with each other, units will break off from the main body, and desertions to return home will increase. "
"So a loss of morale and unit cohesiveness?"
"Yes. They'll become much more vulnerable to our attacks as the main body breaks apart."
"How long until we get there?"
"About four more hours."
"Thanks, I'm gonna go get some sleep. Wake me when it's time to leave."
"Of course, and thank you for your help. I think we all know this isn't really your fight."
I snorted. "My son is out there, and he's about to learn a couple of very hard lessons. I should have visited sooner. Maybe none of this would have happened." With that, I grabbed Suzona and found the small cabin we'd been assigned.
"Observations?" I asked her as we stripped and lay down on the bunk together.
"You need to get him to quit before you kill him, or he'll just come back."
"I know, I know. I'm going to send him to Fel. If he survives that, I'll do what I can to try to salvage him."
"Breaking him away from his god won't be easy, you know."
"Thanks to what went on at dinner last night, I'm sure that word of who and what I am has been making the rounds."
"Ah, so you're going to threaten Molnitus."
I nodded. "And I'll follow through if he doesn't fall in line."
Suzona laughed. "There are times I cannot believe I got a man like you."
"There are times when I think you and all the others are crazy for wanting me," I said with a chuckle. "Now, sleep. I think things are going to get very nasty, very quick."
I woke up when someone knocked on the door, feeling refreshed.
"Time to wake up, sir! We'll be landing shortly!"
"I'm up!" I called out as I sat up and stretched, watching appreciatively as Suzona did the same.
We donned the armor we had brought, which, for here, wasn't the best, but it was better than nothing.
Firearms did exist here, but smokeless powder did not.
So once people got to shooting, things got hard to see pretty quickly.
Also, automatic weapons were rare, and semiautomatic weapons didn't exist, as the powder they used quickly fouled them.
We packed up the rest of our stuff, but we left the packs on the bunk. We'd be going home from here, so there was no point in taking it with us; it'd just slow us down.
I went and found the ship's captain, who was going over the map with the company commander I'd talked with last night.
"So where are we?" I asked.
"We're coming into port here." The captain pointed at the map. "We'll be at the dock in twelve minutes."
"That's the enemy, right?" I asked, pointing at the markers just outside of the town.
The company commander nodded. "Yes. They're being held off by the town's defenses, but we don't know how long those will hold out."
"Great," I said, taking a moment to look at the docks, the layout of the town, and the best route to where the fighting should be.
"I'm good. We'll be off the ship as soon as it docks. I'm sure it'll take us a while to find where Jordon is."
"When are you going to attack?"
"As soon as we know where he is and can get to him."
"We have some extra armor if you want it."
"Sure, why not?"
"Lieutenant, take them by stores and give them whatever they want," the commander said, then turned to Suzona and me. "Good luck."
"Thank you," I said, and we all shook hands and followed the lieutenant out. When we got to the store room, we went in and looked around. They had what looked like flak jackets.
"I don't know about these," Suzona said. "They'll definitely get in the way of fighting. However…" She turned and motioned towards the rifles and pistols. The rifles were simple box-magazine-fed bolt actions, and the pistols were revolvers.
I picked up one of the rifles and looked at it. It wasn't anything fancy, but it was clean.
"How many rounds can you put through one of these before they start to foul?" I asked the lieutenant.
"Couple hundred. After that, it gets tricky. Some guys flush 'em out with water to get the worst of it off."
"What do they do if they don't have any water?" Suzona asked.
"They piss on 'em," the lieutenant said without so much as breaking a smile.
"One pistol each, with a holster and some sort of belt, and one rifle each, along with a cartridge belt for it with however many magazines they hold," I said, looking at the NCO who was in charge of the stores.
He just nodded and got out what we'd asked for. Grabbing it, we trotted out of there, because we could feel the engines slowing, so the dock was obviously close.
Coming up on deck, I could see the town drawing near and took a moment to put on the holster with its pistol.
It had extra rounds, like you saw on the old cowboy belts, though I didn't expect to be using them.
Slinging the cartridge belt was a little more involved; I knew I'd be shifting soon enough, and while my waist didn't get any thicker, my chest did, and I got a whole foot taller.
So I needed to make sure nothing would break.
Thankfully, my armor had a spot for my tail. I'd cut that out myself back on Ithaca.
"This way," I said to Suzona and led her towards the bow on the port side. We were slowing down and making straight for the dock. As we got closer, we could hear the sound of gunfire off in the distance. Hopefully, that meant the town hadn't been overrun yet.
We braced ourselves against the small handrail, and the moment the boat slid up next to the dock, we both vaulted over the side, landed on our feet, and took off at a trot towards the sound of the fighting, which agreed with what I'd seen on the map earlier.
"Let's slow down," Suzona said. "Maybe we can find a rooftop to get a better view from."
"Sounds like a plan," I agreed, and we checked out the buildings until we found a two-story that was pretty close to the edge of town and recently abandoned.
"Who are you?" a man asked as we came out onto the roof. He had a set of binoculars and a radio.
"We showed up with the reinforcements," I told him, burning a charisma cantrip. "I'm here to deal with their champion personally. Have you seen him?"
"Thank the goddess, and yes, he's off that way, at the center of their line."
He offered me the binoculars, and I took a look. It took me a few minutes, but I eventually found him. He was a young man who looked similar to Theo, though he favored his mother's looks more than mine, which I'm sure the women all appreciated.
I passed the binoculars to Suzona. "He's wearing a red cloak."
"What the hell is he wearing a cloak for?" Suzona asked, scanning until she found him.
"Probably to make it easier to be seen when he's leading them. Beats me. Well, might as well head over to that area." I turned to the spotter. "When a big, tawny cat appears, wearing this armor, that's me. Make sure nobody's shooting at me, okay?"
He snorted. "If you're taking on that bastard, no one's going to complain, trust me!"
"'That bastard' is my son," I said with a hint of a growl, "which is why I'm here to spank his ass and set him straight."
"Oh! Sorry!"
I sighed and shook my head. "Don't be. I should have checked up on him sooner."
"You know it's not your fault, William," Suzona said to me as we started back down the stairs.
"Yeah, I keep trying to tell myself that, but here we are."
"The king should have taken more of an interest in his welfare."
"The king didn't know I was more than some barbarian who got lucky and killed his champion."
"While wearing a silk suit and using a sword against a man in full armor."
I frowned. "Did I tell you about that?"
"Chari did. She said the moment she saw you win, she planned to take full advantage of their social mores to get you into bed."
"Oh?"
"Nobody had ever beaten that guy in a duel before, yet you made it look easy."
I shrugged. "My girlfriend wanted him dead; that was good enough for me," I said and winked at her.
"Jocelyn?"
I laughed. "No, Stephanie. Cenwyg was supposed to stay and fight, I gathered, but he ran off and left it to me. I honestly believe he hoped I'd lose. He was quite petty like that. Instead, I won, and, well, between that and other things, I suspect that's when he started hating me."
"I heard about you killing him."
"Yeah, he earned it."
"What about Jordon?"