Corsair

He was just about to order his archers and arbalesters to test the range when Kraken Queen began to lift out of the water. “What in the world?” Andurth muttered beside him. Other cries of alarm and consternation echoed from the soldiers assembled on deck. As the moonlight fell on the pirate ship, a silvery radiance seemed to grow around its black hull and scarlet sails. Luminous fins or sails shimmered into existence from the hull like the gossamer wings of an enormous dragonfly. Moment by moment the pirate galley rode higher in the water, until it barely skimmed the wavetops. And then, astonishingly, it climbed skyward, soaring into the air. It banked gently to the port side, looking for all the world like it was heeling over in a strong breeze, and Geran saw the dripping rudder shift in empty air. The corsair ship came around, passing Seadrake a few hundred yards to the south and high enough to sail over the highest of the Talons, and steadied with her bowsprit pointed toward the moon in the southeastern sky.

“Now that I did not expect,” Hamil murmured in astonishment. “I suppose we know how Kraken Queen appeared and disappeared.”

Geran stared at the airborne ship, watching it soar faster and faster as it climbed away from the sea. Far beneath its black hull the moonlight danced in a silvery road across the dark sea. He and the rest of the crewmen on the quarterdeck were so amazed that the bow lookout had to shout three times to get their attention. “Rock dead on the bow! Turn the ship! Turn the ship!”

Andurth wrenched his eyes from the spectacle of the receding pirate ship and looked forward again. With a startled oath, the sailing master leaped for the helm and spun the wheel to the right. Seadrake heeled sharply, and as her bow crossed into the wind her sails flapped loudly. But the ship missed the jagged fang of stone Kraken Queen had almost led her onto. The hull grated for one awful instant on submerged rock, but it was just deep enough and far enough to the port side for Seadrake to bounce away rather than rip herself open. The impact was still enough to knock crewmen off their feet and bring a cascade of loose stays and tackle from the rigging. Then Andurth turned the helm the other way, using the last of the ship’s momentum to recapture the wind as the deadly rock passed down the port side.

“The black-hearted bastard did that on purpose,” the dwarf muttered. “He tried t’ lead us right into the thick o’ it and hid that rock with his own hull until the last moment.”

The swordmage breathed a sigh of relief and clapped a hand on the dwarf’s shoulder. “Well done, Master Andurth. That could have been disastrous.” He stared at Kraken Queen, still climbing into the night sky. “Steer us clear of the Talons and then bring us around to the southeast. That seems to be the way Kraken Queen is headed.”

“How exactly do you propose to follow her?” Hamil asked. “At the rate she’s going, I don’t think we’ll keep her in sight for much longer.”

“I don’t know,” Geran answered. Mirya and Selsha were aboard that ship. No matter what happened, no matter where Kamoth fled, he meant to follow them. He refused to abandon them to whatever fate Sergen and his father had in mind for them. “I’ll find a way. I have to.”

EIGHTEEN

10 Marpenoth, the Year of the Ageless One (1479 DR)

The cessation of the ship’s sounds woke Mirya sometime after sunset. She’d had two days to learn the noises of the ship: the steady rushing of the hull through the water, the creaking of timbers and spars, the ruffling of the sails in the wind, the footsteps and voices of the crew. Now those sounds had changed or simply ended, rousing her from her sleep. She could still hear the crewmen as they moved about the ship, but something was very different. The pirate vessel no longer rocked with the swells, and the sound of the wind had died away. The cabin in which she and Selsha were locked canted noticeably from forward to aft, as if the ship were aground on some sandbank or shoal.

She sat up, peering at the gloomy cabin. A fresh tray of food and a new waterflask had been set on the floor near the cabin door. Moving carefully to avoid waking Selsha, Mirya swung her feet out of the cramped bunk and stood up. She could feel the ship rocking side to side and the deck under her quivered. We’re still moving, she realized. But that made no sense. The deck remained inclined as if the ship were climbing over a wave, but it never seemed to reach the top and began to sink downward again. And it had grown cold too, startlingly cold. Her breath steamed in the air, and she shivered. Fortunately the drawers beneath the bunk held several spare blankets; she took one to wrap around her shoulders and another to cover Selsha.

“Where are we?” she murmured to herself and went to the cabin’s single small porthole to look. It was a thick piece of poor glass, green and bubble-pocked, and dirty on the outside as well. Through it she could tell night from day and perhaps discern the vaguest impression of coastline outside, but now all she could make out was darkness with what seemed to be a surprisingly bright moon low on the horizon. If she hadn’t lost track of the time, it was the second night since they’d left Hulburg and perhaps the third or fourth night since the wizard in the brown robes and his gigantic servant had broken into her house and carried her and Selsha away.

“Why didn’t I go to the harmach right away?” she murmured, berating herself once again. As soon as she’d heard Lastannor plotting with the Cyricist and speaking of an attack on the city, she should have done exactly that. But she’d been badly shaken by the discovery that Hulburg’s Master Mage, a member of the Harmach’s Council itself, was dealing with vicious Moonsea pirates and violent Hulburgan gangs. She’d lingered too long, listening on as she tried to decide what to do with what she’d learned. Then, after she’d been discovered and had made her escape from the inn, she’d found the streets of the Tailings filled with Cinderfists, all too clearly searching for her. She’d decided to head home to change out of the dingy hand-me-down garb the Three Crowns servants wore, hoping that a change of clothing might throw the Cyricist’s servants off her scent. But after she’d picked her way back to her house, dodging down dark alleyways and creeping through empty buildings, she hadn’t dared to set out again until she was certain she could reach Griffonwatch without meeting any of her pursuers.

It had seemed wiser to wait for morning to venture into the streets again, when the streets would be full of honest folk going about their business … but Hulburg’s enemies hadn’t given her the few hours she’d hoped she had. “What a fool you’ve been, Mirya Erstenwold,” she told herself angrily. She’d discovered the seriousness of her error when that … creature of Lastannor’s had wrenched her door off the hinges and seized her in its huge, clammy hands. Then the wizard had fixed his eyes on hers and had whispered a sibilant spell, the last thing she remembered before waking with Selsha in this tiny cabin a day-or was it two days? — ago.

Lastannor means to silence me by sending me away from Hulburg, Mirya thought unhappily. Like as not, Selsha and I are to be sold into slavery in some distant land. She supposed she should be grateful that the mage of House Marstel hadn’t settled on a more immediate and permanent method for silencing her, but then again, there hadn’t been any reason to take Selsha too. That was the one thing for which she absolutely could not forgive herself in this entire fiasco; through her own foolishness she’d managed to endanger her daughter’s life as well as her own.

Selsha stirred in her sleep. She sat up and whimpered when she realized Mirya was no longer in the bed. “Mama?” she cried.

“Ssshh, I’m right here, my darling,” Mirya said. She sat down on the edge of the bed and put her arm around the girl’s shoulders. “I’m here.”

“I dreamed of the big gray man again,” Selsha said. “He was chasing me. I couldn’t get away from him.”

“I know, Selsha. He’s one I’ve seen in my dreams too.”

“The ship stopped moving.”

“I’m not so sure of that. I think we’re still moving, but in a different way. How, I can’t imagine.”

Selsha nodded. She could feel the deck’s gentle motion too. “Where do you think they’re taking us?” she asked.

“I’ve no idea.” That mystery puzzled Mirya sorely. If she was right in her reckoning of the time, they could be anyplace in the Moonsea. They might even be passing down the River Lis to the Sea of Fallen Stars. But the coldness and clarity of the air felt more like the mountains to her. Perhaps they’d sailed into some secret passage