The Broken Sphere

just stood there.

It took Teldin a moment to realize he was waiting for further orders. 'Uh,… that'll be all, Dargeth,' he muttered. With another tug of his forelock, the half-ore turned and scurried back down the ladder to the main deck.

Shaking his head, Teldin followed at a more sedate pace.

There's more to being a captain than I thought, he mused. He didn't want a ship aboard which his crew treated him with awe-though he did want them to follow orders, of course. What he really wanted was a ship like the Probe had been with Aelfred Silverhorn as captain, where the feeling had been relaxed, yet everything got done efficiently. Maybe when the ship was underway he'd be able to discuss the matter with Djan and his other officers. At the moment, though, he had other things to think about. There was more to getting a ship underway than he'd ever thought, more details that could be handled only by the captain. Djan's probably thought of another one, the Cloakmaster thought wryly.

He was right. 'I'm sorry I didn't know earlier, Captain,' the half-elf explained when Teldin met him on the dock, 'but'-his voice took on a sarcastically officious tone-'the masters of ships departing from Compact harbor must get official permission from the harbormaster's office.' He shrugged. 'I think that's the last outstanding issue.'

Teldin sighed. 'Can't somebody else handle it?'

'Officially, it's got to be the ship's master,' the first mate stressed again. 'Sorry, Captain.'

The Cloakmaster nodded resignedly. 'I'll handle it.' He looked around. 'Which way's the harbormaster's office?'

*****

Once he'd set off along the wharfside walk in the direction Djan had indicated, Teldin found that he was, in fact, glad for an excuse to get off the ship for one last time before they set sail. The decks and compartments of the squid ship were still scenes of chaos, as the crew gamely struggled to get everything shipshape for departure. The consequence of the last-minute work, however, was that there was nowhere quiet where the Cloakmaster could go and wrestle with his thoughts.

Things were different ashore. There were plenty of people around at this time of day-an hour or two before highsun-feast-but none of them required anything of Teldin Moore, captain of the as-yet-unnamed squid ship. The Cloakmaster found himself thoroughly enjoying the stroll. The sun was warm on his skin, and the breeze blowing onto the shore was crisp and refreshing, carrying with it a fascinating melange of odors-tar, woodsmoke, and other scents that Teldin couldn't identify.

The harbormaster's office was half a dozen spear casts around the curving harbor from where the squid ship was moored. It was a low, stone building, little different from the warehouses, suppliers, and taverns that lined the docks. Totally unprepossessing, the building's only feature that set it apart was the small gray flag bearing the white crescent-and-star emblem that Teldin had first seen on the wasp that had intercepted his approach to the world. As he drew nearer, Teldin took a deep breath, bracing himself for another run-in with frustrating bureaucracy.

'What's that?' The cry came from somewhere nearby, and was followed immediately by a female scream of panic.

Teldin looked wildly around him. Gray-clad passersby were staring up into the blue sky, some of them pointing. The Cloakmaster looked up, too.

Something was burning its way across the sky, a teardrop shape of fire leaving a turbulent trail of white smoke behind it. For an instant, Teldin thought it was a shooting star, a space rock that had plunged into Crescent's atmosphere and was now burning up. But then cold realization struck him. He'd seen this before-months ago, on Ansalon, on the last night of his old life. It was a crippled spelljamming vessel, on fire and plummeting to earth.

As he watched, the ship hurtled overhead, now so close to the ground that he imagined he could hear the rushing of its passage and the roaring of the flames. It was definitely near enough that he could make out the kind of ship-a wasp, painted a familiar light gray. The angular ship was crippled-only one wing remained, and Teldin was sure the keel was shattered-spinning and tumbling wildly. If the crewmen were still aboard, if they hadn't abandoned the stricken vessel before it entered its final dive, they were doomed. To punctuate that realization, the burning vessel drove into the surface of the lake about half a league offshore, bursting into splinters on impact.

The people around Teldin were stunned into momentary silence by the terrifying violence of the impact. But then the yells began again, and people again pointed upward.

More ships were rising into the blue sky-three more gray-painted wasp ships, clawing for altitude. Something serious had to be happening above the planet's surface, the Cloakmaster knew. The wasp that had crashed was definitely part of the Crescent Peace Force-maybe the same ship that had intercepted him-and now three more official vessels were heading for space. Just what in the hells was happening here?

Well, whatever it was, the Cloakmaster decided that Compact's harbormaster could go whistle if he wanted any more paperwork filled out for the squid ship. Regardless of the details, Teldin didn't like the new turn of events, and he figured he'd feel happier aboard his ship and well out into the void. He turned and ran back toward his vessel's berth.

Panic was spreading along the docks as he ran, dodging knots of people. He was almost back at the squid ship when screams of dread rang out again, redoubling in volume. Teldin looked up.

A bloated black shape-no bigger than his smallest fingernail held at arm's length but nonetheless threatening for that-hung in the sky over the city. The Cloakmaster had seen that shape before, too, more times than he cared to recall. Even at this distance, it was impossible to mistake a neogi deathspider….

As he watched, two much smaller dark specks-presumably Crescent-based wasps-swooped down onto the spider ship's stern. One blew apart into fragments, probably shredded by the neogi vessel's aft-firing jettisons. The other continued its attack run, and a small fireball bloomed, bright red against the black of the deathspider.

The Cloakmaster turned away from the spectacle in the sky and sprinted for his ship. He could see Djan on the sterncastle. 'Cast off!' Teldin screamed at the top of his lungs. 'Get us out of here now!'

Teldin raced up the gangplank and onto the squid ship's deck. Behind him, two crewmen dragged the gangplank aboard the instant he was off it. 'Get us spaceborne!' he cried.

'The helm's manned, and we're cast off.' Djan's pale and pinched expression belied his calm and controlled tone. 'We can lift any minute.'

'Port regulations say we've got to clear the harbor area before lifting off,' Dargeth pointed out.

'To the Abyss with the port regulations!' Teldin snarled, and he saw the half-ore quail before him. 'Djan, get us into space as soon as possible.' He looked up at the fight in the skies above them, and shivered. 'Sooner.'

*****

Neogi! May what gods there be damn them to hells everlasting!

From his window, Grampian glared into the sky. If those foul creatures had interfered with his plans, if they'd driven the subject off Crescent before Grampian's own stratagems were fully in place, they'd pay. Grampian would make sure of that, one way or another.

*****

Teldin sighed. Apparently his ship had managed to avoid the neogi entirely. With no sign of the bloated ship, the Cloakmaster grew ever more confident that he and his crew were safe. Either the Crescent vessels had crippled or destroyed the deathspider, or they'd simply kept it too busy to pursue as the squid ship made its escape. Teldin didn't really care what the truth was. All that mattered was that there were no neogi on his tail. The Cloakmaster was free to take the next step in his great quest.

Even after more than a day underway, the main deck still seemed to be in chaos, as the new crew members struggled to get used to each other and their duties. He knew this was necessary, a normal part of getting a new