Where Loyalties Lie

Chapter 50 - North Gale

“That’s a lot of masts,” Yu’truda said with a touch of awe.

“That’s a lot of ship,” Zole said with a touch of fear.

“I want her,” T’ruck said with a touch of greed.

They were all watching the monster of a ship from a very safe distance through monoscopes. With the Riverlander’s information, T’ruck had rightly guessed the invading fleet would stop at the island of Innikwell, an expansive isle with fresh water and trees and wildlife aplenty. It would normally make the perfect spot for a pirate settlement, only it was also widely known as a stopping point for navy ships from both Sarth and the Five Kingdoms. All ships needed regular supplies of fresh water, and the giant they were looking at now was no exception.

“That louse-ridden Riverlander said there was a fleet,” Zole complained as he scratched at something behind his ear that was likely a louse. “I only see the one ship.”

“And what a ship,” T’ruck rumbled. The vessel before him was indeed the largest he’d ever seen, and that made it the only ship worthy of T’ruck Khan, last of his clan. He wasn’t truly the last member of his clan, as Yu’truda and a dozen others had followed him into piracy, but he was the strongest of them all, and that made him the chief of what was left.

“We wouldn’t get close, Captain,” Zole protested. “I see weapons of war. Catapults, scorpions.”

“A fine prize,” T’ruck said, ignoring his first mate.

“Not to mention the crew,” Yu’truda said, agreeing with her husband as she often did. They were a fine match, but neither had T’ruck’s backbone. “We would be outnumbered three to one at least.”

“I love the odds. We have faced worse,” T’ruck said. “I would take any man or woman on this ship over a hundred Five Kingdoms cowards. They slither from their mothers’ cunts mewling and bowing to their king. We from the northern clans are born with fire in our hearts and steel in our hands.”

“Ain’t that many of us left, T’ruck,” Yu’truda said sadly. “Most of the crew are from the isles these days.”

“And we ain’t worth more than two or three of those Five Kingdoms soiled britches at the very most,” Zole said, agreeing with his wife as he often did. “Taking North Gale was a miracle, Captain. No chance we’re taking that fucker.”

T’ruck hated to admit it, but they were both right. He wanted the beast before his eyes, but they couldn’t take her. Not without a fleet, and even then the losses would likely be too high for it to matter. She was a machine of war from her size, from the metal ram on her bow to the scorpions and catapults on her deck, and it was more than likely she had trained soldiers on board, maybe even knights.

He made a decision. “Bring me the witch.”

“Captain?” Zole said, a note of panic in his voice.

“Now,” T’ruck rumbled in a tone that was not to be argued with, and Zole quickly scuttled away to carry out his captain’s orders. Yu’truda kept quiet. Her cold stare was disapproval enough.

A few minutes later a woman emerged from below decks. She was small and beautiful with long dark hair, darker eyes, and curves T’ruck would have loved to explore but didn’t dare to; he was far too scared of the woman. Three members of the crew escorted her onto the main deck, and all three were carrying sharpened steel pointed towards her. The witch walked with a casual grace, and the black dress she wore, though ripped in places and long past its prime, clung to her curves.

The woman wore a heavy iron collar much like the ones slaves wore, only she would never be slave to anyone. It was etched with ancient runes, and she wore it at T’ruck’s insistence; he held the only key. Crew members, men and women alike, scattered out of the way as the witch approached, but she kept her eyes fixed on T’ruck. He wanted to shrink from that gaze, curl up in a corner and hide, but T’ruck Khan showed no fear. Not even to devilish witches.

“How can I help, Captain?” she said with a lazy smile and a voice like honeyed poison. “Am I to scrub the deck? Coil a rope? Choke a man to death with his own hands?”

T’ruck attempted to master himself, but the woman was an oppressive force. Even with her magic kept subdued by the collar, she made the sun seem darker and the sea rougher, and every man and woman on the ship stank with fear.

T’ruck pointed at the giant ship anchored in the bay of Innikwell. “What can you do about that?”

The witch glanced quickly at the ship, and T’ruck felt as though a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Then her eyes were back on him, and her presence assaulted his senses again.

“If I were aboard it and free” – she tilted her head in such a way to show off the iron collar around her slender neck – “I could probably sink it. A sizeable hole in the hull is usually enough to sink even the biggest ship.”

“I don’t want to sink it.” T’ruck shivered. He never felt the cold, even in his homeland where it snowed all but three days a year, but the witch was under his skin, picking at his nerves. He almost regretted ever bringing her on board.

“You want to take it like you did this boat.” The witch nodded. She looked at Yu’truda, ignoring Zole as she always did. She had little to no respect for the North Gale’s first mate. “I assume you counselled against it?”

“I did, my lady,” Yu’truda said, not meeting the witch’s eyes.

“Then I suggest you listen to your counsel, Captain.”

“I brought you on board,” T’ruck growled. “Picked you clean from the Inquisition’s hands and hid you, kept you moving so they wouldn’t find you. Deal was you magic for me when I need it, woman.”

“I have a name, Captain.” The witch hissed the title.

“Sorry.” T’ruck hated himself for the apology. “Lady Tsokei. But our deal…”

“Was one of necessity. I am not a member of your crew, and I will not be spoken down to even if I am required to wear the jewellery of a slave. Do not mistake my placid demeanour as one of subservience, Captain.

“As I have already said. If you were to get me aboard the ship I could sink it, but I do not believe we would be allowed to get so close. Do you?”

T’ruck shook his head.

“Then I can do nothing,” she whispered.

As the woman turned and made her way back to her quarters, still escorted by the armed pirates, a shout went up from the nest. “Sail!”

T’ruck didn’t need a bearing; he could already see it, and that it was heading their way. He pulled his monoscope from his pocket and looked through it.

“Is it one of ours?” Yu’truda said.

“Can’t tell,” T’ruck growled. Something didn’t feel right in his gut.

“Captain,” shouted another crew member. “That monster is turning, laying on sail.”

T’ruck glanced up into the sky to check the position of the sun. With the big ship lying just south of them in the bay and the new ship heading their way from an easterly position, that left them the options of fleeing north or west, and fleeing was definitely the only choice. T’ruck couldn’t be certain the new ship was unfriendly, but he had the feeling they’d wandered into a trap.

“Turn us north,” he bellowed, “with every bit of speed we can muster.”

Yu’truda raised her eyebrows. “Captain?”

“I reckon those filthy Riverlanders have just fucked us.”

North Gale cut through the waves like a knife, speeding along as fast as her namesake, but the two ships giving chase were just as fast, even the behemoth. For half an hour they kept pace, matching both speed and course. The smaller ship moved a little further eastwards to stop T’ruck ordering a change in that direction. He almost ordered them further west, but he had a feeling that was where the bastards wanted him to go, and he wasn’t about to make it easy for them. If they could survive until nightfall they could douse the lights on board and pray to any god that would listen to cloud the sky and dim the moon. Under cover of darkness, assuming they didn’t hit any hidden rocks, escape would be easy. For now all they could do was run and hope they proved the fastest of the three ships.

When a third sail appeared to the north, T’ruck knew they were out of options. He wasn’t sure how the Five Kingdoms ships had coordinated the trap, but they’d pulled him and his crew right into it, and now their only escape lay to the west.

T’ruck stormed over to the wheel, where Gurner was looking as nervous as a virgin. “Turn us east,” the captain said, and the navigator stared at him with uncomprehending eyes. “I ain’t about to be herded into their trap. They think they have us? We’ll break free straight through their net. Turn us east.”

In the face of his captain’s fury, Gurner obeyed and set North Gale on a course for the smallest of their three pursuers.