Logan and Bailynn shared a look. Logan seemed surprised, Bailynn suspicious. “You’re not releasing her from service?”
“This ain’t about service,” Dexter said, staring at the tower. He cursed and looked back at them. “I’m not of a mind to share my thoughts, you can go back to the Hawk if you want, or wherever you feel like. I got something that needs doing and I mean to see it done.”
Nobody got up to leave, but Dexter had already dismissed them. He stared at the tower and then turned to Keshira. “I won’t order it, there be magic in that tower and I don’t know what it can do, but I’ll ask it. Can you break a hole in that wall?”
Keshira studied the wall very briefly then nodded. “I believe I can, Captain.”
“I learned better tonight, so I’m asking you, will you try it?”
Keshira smiled again, dazzling them with her beauty. “Yes, Captain, I will.”
Bekka looked at Dexter quizzically, but he ignored her. She meant to have a long talk with the man when this was all done. Meanwhile, Keshira led them back to the base of the tower. Dexter and Logan pulled the powder sacks away from it while Keshira looked for a weakness. Finding nothing, she set to slamming her fists into it, sending vibrations through the ground with each forceful thud.
It seemed a pointless task, but after a dozen blows had landed a crack appeared upon a block of stone in the wall. Another followed soon after, and then she truly made progress with the destruction of the wall.
By the time she had reduced a pair of stones to rubble, nearly enough room for Dexter to climb through, Constable Lorren shouted at them from the road to town. He hurried up to them and demanded that they stop, insisting they tell him what this was all about.
“Know a better way in?” Dexter asked him.
“What? Why?” The constable asked. “The tower accepts supplicants when the Lord of Deepingdale wishes it.”
“That’s not going to do it,” Dexter said. He focused on the constable and addressed him directly. “You seem a good man, but there’s one of you to all of us. Them’s not the kind of odds that lead to sharing stories with your grandkids.”
The constable gaped, mouth flapping like a fish out of water. He looked back and forth, and saw to a man they all looked deadly serious. Keshira continued to pound, breaking off parts of another block and clearing it out.
“Why is Jenna not responding to us?” Bekka asked him, stepping closer. “We are her friends.”
The constable, able to focus on something, blinked and nodded. “Please, please stop — I’ll tell you what I can.”
Dexter narrowed his eyes but, after a minute, nodded and turned to tell Keshira to stop. She had already ceased, however, and instead offered him a knowing smile that he nearly laughed at, in spite of the situation. He turned and nodded to the constable to continue.
“Thank you,” he said, taking a moment to wipe his brow with a rag he produced from his pocket.
“I was a boy serving as a cook’s monkey on a ship that came here,” he said. “The captain became the new lord — and after a few years I was given the job of constable.”
“Does every new arrival end up changing the Lord?” Logan said, interrupting with his question.
“No,” Lorren said, surprised at the question. “It always signals a festival, but at times the newcomers are not found worthy.”
“My captain is the Lord that is turning over his duty to your friend. You will find her different as she accepts her responsibilities.”
Dexter growled. “I don’t want her different — she’s my first mate, there’s no call for her to be tied to this place.”
“Did you not have dreams of what being Lord here would be like?” Lorren asked him.
Dexter opened his mouth to retort, but remained silent. He scowled. “Every man dreams,” he said at length. “And every man lives a life as best he can in spite of his dreams.”
Lorren sighed. “Well spoken, Captain — but it is too late. She put on the amulet and, as I recall, that signals the ascension to the position.”
“Aw hell,” Dexter swore. “That’s a load of voidrat dung! Constable, I’m going into that tower and I’m getting Jenna back.”
“I can’t stop you, Captain,” Lorren admitted. “By the time I could raise some men to come here, you’ll be inside.”
“Some friendly advice,” he offered with a resigned tone. “When you stand before her and find you can’t see your friend there anymore, ask yourself if such a fate is truly a curse.”
The constable stood a moment longer, then walked off back towards the town. Keshira resumed ripping out the loosened block from the tower. Dexter turned to the tower as well, while the others stared thoughtfully at the constable.
“Who was that old man at the festival?” Willa lay next to Rosh, using his shoulder as a pillow and running her fingers through the hair on his chest. She looked up at him and smiled, and he found her grin infectious.
Disarmed by her smile, Rosh could only half shrug. “Some crazy old man, I ain’t never seen him before.”
“What about Jasper Highsail?”
Rosh let his head fall back. He stared up at the stars above them, thinking. “Ain’t that funny,” he said, somewhat surprised. “I ain’t got the itch to get up there like normal.”
“I spend too much time in one place and it starts this itch in my neck. I got to move — keep going and find something new,” he explained to her. “This time I ain’t getting that. It’s like I’m happy here.”
“I’m happy here,” Willa said, slipping her arm around his chest affectionately.
Rosh laughed. “I didn’t mean that,” he said. “Sure, you put a powerful smile on my face!”
“So what about Jasper Highsail?”
Rosh sighed. He looked around a little, then stared up at the stars again. “Jasper Highsail’s a no good son of a bitch. He’s a pirate captain that’s got a legend for being a two faced double crossing…”
“Quite a reputation, it can’t all be true,” she said when he faltered and ran out of adjectives.
Rosh sighed. “It’s worse, he’s… he’s never let anything get in the way of him being number one.”
“It must be tough, having that sort of a reputation to deal with,” Willa said, sensing there was a lot more to it than this. “You know this man, don’t you?”
Rosh nodded. “He’s my father.”
“Go!” Logan called, standing beside Keshira and raising his mace to block the swing from one of the macabre statues that had suddenly animated as they passed through the entrance hall of the tower. Bailynn stood on the other side, her teeth bared and looking every bit as savage as the statues that came to life.
Dexter, sword in hand, hesitated as they held back the two animated gargoyles.
“If you love her, you must help her — dying here will do neither of you any good,” Bekka said to him.
Dexter nodded but still waited a moment. He knew what he had to do, but it still pained him.
“You’re not abandoning them,” Bekka hissed at him. “They are buying you time!”
“They might need help,” Dexter said. “Stick around and see that they get it.”
Bekka’s eyes widened and she looked ready to protest. A hiss of pain from Logan distracted her. Dexter bounded up the stairs, seeing that Logan had only a fresh bruise upon his arm. Bekka summoned her magic to aid the priest and the pleasure golem.
Dexter crossed through another room and came upon a closed double door. He stopped to study the magical rune upon it. With a shrug he backed up several steps and clenched his teeth with resolve. A running start preceded a feet-first leap at the door. With a flash of light and the smell of ozone the doors flew open.
Dexter fared only slightly better than the door, his legs in spasms and his teeth grinding against the pain. The shock that coursed through his body was over as soon as it begun, but it left his muscles constricted and his lungs unable to draw a breath. His gaze fell on Jenna sitting upon a throne showing no sign of awareness of his presence. Dexter moaned, forcing air into his chest. He made another garbled noise as he tried to curse.
Finally, when Jenna’s eyes flickered across him, he forced himself able to act. His legs cramped, refusing to obey, but his arms were his to control again and his pulled himself across the floor in her direction. The muscles
