“Hold, Onkar!” Diran raised his hand high and a silvery glow began to emanate from his palm as he summoned the holy power of the Silver Flame itself to repel the vampire. Onkar averted his gaze, but he held his ground.
“Before you do that, priest, take a look at the cart.”
Diran, Ghaji, and Yvka looked at the bodies of the men and women who remained in the back of the cart. They were covered by a squirming, writhing blanket of rats, as were the victims lying on the ground.
“My little friends are just crawling right now,” Onkar said, “but if you make even the slightest move against me, I’ll tell them to start biting. Do you know how long it’d take that many rats to strip the flesh off their bones?”
Diran glared at the vampire commander, silvery light waxing and waning in his palm, as if it couldn’t decide whether or not to be born. Finally, Diran closed his fist around the silvery spark and snuffed it out.
“Not long,” the priest admitted and lowered his hand to his side.
“That’s right,” Onkar said. “Don’t any of you try to follow me. My furry friends will keep watching you long after I’m gone.” The raider commander inclined his head in a mocking manner. “A good night to you all.”
The vampire turned, and with an unconscious Makala still slung over his shoulder, he began walking away. Though Onkar didn’t appear to be hurrying, he moved far more swiftly down the street than he should have, and then the vampire turned a corner and was lost to the night.
Ghaji turned to Diran, intending to ask his friend what they should do next, but the priest was staring intently at the mound of vermin crawling over the unconscious men and women who remained in the cart. The rats seemed to stare back at Diran with their beady black eyes, and Ghaji wondered if the creatures truly would still bite now that the vampire had departed or if Onkar had been lying to them, in which case they were letting him get away for nothing.
“The rats are under evil’s influence, though they are but pawns,” Diran said. “The situation has some distinct parallels to possession, though it isn’t precisely analogous. Even so…”
Diran raised his hand and this time the Silver Flame instantly blossomed forth from his palm. The power of the Silver Flame blazed outward, casting its bright blue-white light onto the squirming pile of rodents. The rats screeched, squealed and began scuttling frantically over the raiders’ unconscious captives. At first Ghaji feared Diran’s ploy hadn’t worked and the vermin were even now beginning to gnaw hunks of flesh from their victims’ bodies, then the rats’ exertions began to lessen until finally the small beasts stopped moving altogether and became calm.
Diran closed his hand into a fist and the silvery flame went out. A moment passed, then one by one the rats began jumping down from the cart and fleeing toward whatever shadows they could find. When the last rat was gone, Diran ran forward to examine the people remaining in the cart.
“It worked,” he said with obvious relief. “Now for Makala!” The priest took off running in the direction Onkar had taken, Yvka following. Ghaji paused only to retrieve his axe and then hurried to catch up.
Diran was standing at the end of the dock when the others got there. The priest was covered with sweat and breathing hard as he stared out to sea, shoulders slumped in defeat. The Black Fleet had set sail, the ships visible only as a trio of shadowy shapes melding with the darkness as they drew away from Port Verge.
They were too late.
Of the Diresharks there was no sign. If the Sharks didn’t get on the water soon, they’d never be able to track the raiders. Makala, and everyone else who had been taken, would be lost forever.
“The question before us now is how best to give chase,” Diran said. “Do we charter a ship, and if so, with what funds?”
“Maybe we could wrangle a berth aboard one of the Dire-sharks’ vessels,” Ghaji said. “They’re bound to set sail in pursuit of the Black Fleet, and they might want to have a priest of the Silver Flame along with them when they finally catch up to the raiders, especially once they learn that a vampire commands the raiders.”
“Perhaps,” Diran said, “but there’s a good chance Kolberkon will prefer to send a priest of his acquaintance along. He’s bound to be distrustful of strangers after tonight’s raid, so it would take some effort to convince him.”
“I have a ship,” Yvka interrupted.
Both Diran and Ghaji turned to look at her.
“She’s not that large,” the elf-woman said, “but she’s fast.”
“Fast is good,” Ghaji said.
Waves crashed against the rocks, sending sprays of seawater into the air. The footing was treacherous, and it didn’t help that they were laden down with full traveler’s packs. Ghaji had already fallen a couple of times, once cutting his forearm on a sharp outcropping so badly they’d been forced to pause for Diran to heal the wound. The half-orc was soaked from head to toe, and the wind coming off the Lhazaar Sea made him shiver. Both Diran and Yvka were equally as wet, and presumably equally as miserable, but neither of them showed it. The elf-woman picked her way carefully over the slippery rocks, moving with a steady confidence as if she wasn’t concerned about the possibility of falling. Diran followed right behind her, and though as a human he couldn’t match the elven grace with which Yvka moved, he too seemed confident, as if he scampered over wet jagged rocks every day.
Diran carried his blow slung over his shoulder, and his quiver of arrows nestled next to his traveler’s pack. Given Diran’s almost complete lack of proficiency with the weapon, Ghaji wouldn’t have been concerned if Diran had chosen to leave the bow behind. He’d almost suggested as much to Diran before they left town, but the priest was determined to master the weapon favored by his order, and Ghaji knew he wouldn’t listen.
Before long, Ghaji was breathing hard, and he wanted to ask Diran and Yvka to slow down a bit. After all, he’d been born and raised in the Shadow Marches, not the Lhazaar Principalities, and he couldn’t scuttle over wet shoreline like some sort of giant crab. He was too proud to say anything, so he continued struggling along behind Diran, trying his best not to fall and hurt himself again, inwardly cursing the day he’d decided to give up his job as guard for a house of pleasure and accompany Diran on his journeys.
They traveled along a portion of the shore to the east of Port Verge. Here the ground was rocky and uneven, as the smooth sandy beaches of the town gradually gave way to the stony cliffs that dominated the far eastern side of the island. Ghaji had no idea how long they’d been negotiating the irritating terrain, but it was still night, though much closer to sunrise than it had been when they’d stood on the docks watching the Black Fleet disappear into the distance.
In between puffs of breath, Ghaji said, “Tell me again why… you keep your boat… hidden in a cave instead… of tied to the dock like any… sane and rational being would?”
Yvka called back over her shoulder. “My vessel is valuable, and I have no wish to tempt thieves by leaving her at the town docks.”
“Nothing personal, but how… valuable can she be?” Ghaji’s right foot slipped and plunged into a small tidal pool. Cursing, he extracted his foot and kept going. “From what I understand, juggling, while amusing enough, isn’t exactly a profession that makes one rich.”
“The craft is a gift,” Yvka replied. “More of a loan, actually, which is an additional reason I’m so concerned about protecting her.”
Ghaji ground his teeth in frustration. Diran had an exasperating tendency to, as the Lhazaarites put it, dive in head-first without bothering to check how deep the water was. Ghaji usually followed, despite his better judgment. He wasn’t at all certain that they should trust Yvka. She was obviously hiding something. It was clear enough to Ghaji that the elf-woman wasn’t a simple traveling entertainer, but what exactly she was he didn’t know. Ghaji hated not knowing. It was more difficult to fight something-or someone-if you didn’t understand your foe. Lack of knowledge had probably killed more men and women in the history of Eberron than all the swords that had ever been forged. Ghaji decided he’d simply have to keep a sharp eye on Yvka and watch for any hint of betrayal.
“Not much farther now,” Yvka said.
Yvka continued to lead them along the shore until they reached a small cove. It was so small, in fact, that
