Chapter Four Hundred and Twenty-Four — A Pirate's Life for Thee, But Not for Me
Chapter Four Hundred and Twenty-Four — A Pirate's Life for Thee, But Not for Me The Beaver plunged into a wall of clouds and came rushing out of the other side.We weren’t moving as quickly as we could, but at some point we’d taken a slight turn eastwards and started to drop a little. The act of dropping gave us a nice boost in speed to make up for the fact that our engine was off.The plan was simple to execute, and for the moment the Shady Lady was keeping up with it.I stood on the poop deck at the rear, my attention almost entirely on the sky behind us. We should have dropped to be at about the same level as the pirate ships had been at.In any fight, height was a major factor. It could be traded for speed, of course, but also the underside of airships were a lot tougher than their tops, at least in most cases. We could sling spells down a lot easier than we could send them up, in any case.“I can’t see them,” Calamity said as he came up next to me. He had his dwarven-made bow next to him, strung and ready to fire, as if the clouds would part and reveal a whole armada of pirates.“Good,” I said. “Hopefully we won’t be seeing them at all.”I glanced east, along our direction of travel, then had to shield my eyes from the horizon. The sun was rising on the other side of the Harpy Mountains, painting the edges in a bright golden hue. In a few minutes it would be high enough that we wouldn’t be in the mountain’s shadow anymore.When that happened, there would be no hiding from the pirates anymore. So I crossed my fingers and hoped really hard that they’d continued on straight and hadn’t noticed our turn.If we could make it to Mattergrove, then we might be able to avoid engagement. Or if we continued eastward for long enough.The maps showed that there was a big empty space with no notable cities from the north of Mattergrove (where Greenshade was) all the way to Smoulderglen. That was a big space that probably wasn't patrolled by anyone-a big space we were right in the middle of.The edges of Mattergrove might have patrols ... maybe. Awen’s home country wasn’t very rich, and their airships were apparently not the greatest. Plus, their northern border didn’t matter that much to them since there probably wasn’t much trade going this way.Our best bet, if we wanted to run into some help, was east. The harpies did have good patrols. Most of them would be on the other side of the mountains, but Amaryllis said that there was an important road that hugged the foot of the mountains which would definitely be protected. It was the trade route from Mattergrove and Deepmarsh all the way north, and since those traders paid the harpy tolls to pass there, the route had to be mostly free of pirates.It was only the ships that ventured further out and away from the mountains, in the place where we happened to be, that were at risk of piracy. In exchange, those same ships wouldn’t have to pay any tolls to the Harpy Mountains.At the moment, I wouldn’t have minded any amount of tolls just to have a bit of help in the skies.I took a deep breath and let it all out.“Stressed?” Calamity asked.“Yeah, a little,” I said.“That’s normal. I’m always a little worried before a big hunt. N’ya wouldn’t be normal if n’ya weren’t a little worried too.”I laughed. “Thanks, Calamity. I guess I am a little stressed. I think if it was just one ship, we could take them on. Two... maybe we could scare them off. But three? And... and it’s pirates. The bad kind.”“The bad kind?” Calamity asked. “Not the first time I hear n’ya say ‘the bad kind’ in relation to pirates. Don’t know if there’s a good kind.”“There should be,” I said. “Look, pirates are free, they’re people who aren’t tied to, like, a government or something like that. They can just go out and explore and see nice things. Like a family. Maybe they can fight bad guys and monsters and help people along the way.”“That doesn’t sound like pirates,” Calamity observed.“I know,” I said. I crossed my arms. “I’m not very mature, am I?”Calamity shrugged. “Yet everyone recognizes n'ya as the captain. Ya think I'd have stayed on if I thought n'ya were incompetent?” He gave a crooked smile. “Maybe you're a little less experienced than a captain ought to be, but I guess I wouldn't know! First ship I've served on, after all.”Ah, that was true, wasn't it? Calamity usually seemed pretty on top of things, so it'd slipped my mind.“But experience isn't the same thing as maturity, n'ya know? And I don't think you're immature. A bit naive, yeah, and n'ya have a weird way of seeing things, but bein' optimistic ain't bad.”I shared a smile with Calamity. “Thanks. I know the world’s not fair. It doesn’t stop me from wishing it was a nicer place. Look at the pirates. Three ships. That’s a lot of crew. A lot of people that all decided that what they wanted to do was hurt people for a living. That’s awful.”“People can be pretty awful.”“Yeah, I know. But I wish they were only awful when they didn’t have any other choice. If these pirates can be pirates, then they have the skills to be something better.”“I don’t know, some people just don’t care that much, or they don’t see the world the way you do, or maybe they don’t have a choice. I don’t know.” Calamity leaned onto the railing at the very back of the Beaver focus still on the skies behind. “I see your friends and I can’t help but think that I don’t quite fit in.”“Huh?” I asked. “Not because you’re a cat person, I hope?”Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.“Nyah, not because of that. The crew’s weird enough that I’m barely a blip.” His ears wiggled in the holes made for them on his hat. “But you’re all the sort of folk that stories are made of.”“I don’t think we’re that special,” I said.He looked at me. “You have two nobles, a princess from different nations, and a riftwalker, a crew of experienced sailors from the Harpy Mountains and... well, I suppose I might fit in with the Scallywags, but they’re just kids.”“I’m sure you’re just as special as any of us. It’s silly to think that you’re not at least a little.”Calamity grinned. “Oh, I know I’m special. I’ve known that for a good long while. But I’m not talking so much about the past of the folk here. It’s the attitudes. Even Amaryllis, as stuck up as she is, sees the world as either just or unjust, and she wants to make it more just. Most people see plenty of problems and might complain about them, but they don’t do much to fix them. This crew’s different that way.”“Oh,” I said.I supposed that was kind of true. But I wasn’t sure if we really did all that much to help. We could have done more before. We could do more now, but instead we were southbound to attend a wedding of all things. A wedding which might be foiled by someone mean, but still.“I don’t think we’re heroes. Or at least, I don’t think we’re choosing to be heroes or anything like that.”Calamity hummed, gaze still on the horizon. “Maybe not heroes... well, Abraham kind of fits the image, I guess. But you’re good folk doing good things for the right reasons, and I think that counts for a lot. I don’t think that way so much.”I gave him a hug, because it felt like the right thing to do at that moment, and Calamity chuckled, his arm twisting around to give me a pat on the back.“Thanks, captain. Do you feel better now?”I blinked. “Did you try to make me make you feel better so that I’d feel better myself?”There was an evil spark in his eye. “I’m a hunter, captain, I do what I need to get my quarry, even if that quarry’s the captain’s stress.”“I don’t know if that’s mean or not,” I said.Calamity laughed, then his laughter turned into a sigh. “Looks like being mean might be on the menu.” He pointed, and I followed to see something in the sky. Three somethings, I suppose.The pirate ships were about even with us, maybe a little higher. Either they’d climbed or we levelled off lower than they had. It didn’t matter. They were wheeling around into a wide turn in our direction.It looked like they were about three or so kilometres away. So we had gained some distance, but the clouds were parting and they’d caught sight of us. It was hard to hide a ship as colourful as the Beaver without night.I turned. “Stations, everyone!” I shouted. “Get the engine back on! Full speed ahead!”We had widened our lead, if only a little bit. But even that much would help a lot. Plus, they were still turning in our direction, which would give us a bit more time to get up to speed.The Beaver jolted as the engine kicked to life with a loud bang. The propellor at the back started to spin, at first lazily, but it quickly picked up until I could feel the wind being sucked into it from where I stood.I ran up to Clive. “Is there anything we can do to go faster?” I asked.Clive raised his head and let out a long plume of pipesmoke. It blew out ahead of him for a bit before pulling back towards the propellor. He nodded. “Wind’s at our backs. It’ll be at theirs too. Put out every bit of sail we have and we might catch some of it.”“Got it!” I said before turning towards the deck. “All sails to full! Deploy everything!”It wasn’t a bad idea, not just because it would give us a little boost, but also because the pirates would see the sails and might be tempted to deploy their own.That would make it harder for them to fight, or try something like a boarding action. At least, I hoped it would.I jumped out ahead and ran over to where Oda was grunting as he pulled on a rope. Together we managed to deploy one of the side-rudders until its canvas snapped in the wind.Soon every sail was out and I realized that I had nothing to do. I stood there, ready to act, but... there wasn’t anything productive for anyone to do. The Beaver would either outrun them, or it wouldn’t.Instead of fidgeting too much, I walked back to the helm and kept my eyes on the pirate ships. It was hard to tell, at first, but they were gaining on us.Minutes turned into what felt like hours as we strained our eyes at the distant trio of ships that seemed to grow larger. The sun was now high in the sky, giving away our position, while the golden light highlighted the black sails of our pursuers, making the already tense chase turn ominous.Caprica joined me, wearing her full military regalia and looking super imposing in it. She squinted at the pirate ships. “Roughly two hours,” she mused.“Two hours?”“Until we’re at the furthest range you could expect to land a ballista hit,” she said. “Another half-hour... less, and we’ll be within firebolt range. It probably won’t be that long, actually. Our engine’s at the rear, it wouldn’t be hard to hit the prop.”“Oh,” I said. The western edge of the Harpy Mountains was half a day away, at least, even with the wind at our backs and at the pace we were going. “If we can’t outrun them, then what?”Caprica's icy eyes narrowed as she considered the question. “If we cannot outrun them, then our only options are to outfight them or to surrender.”I really didn’t like those options.
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Chapter Four Hundred and Twenty-Five — Full Broadside
Chapter Four Hundred and Twenty-Five — Full Broadside “Hard to starboard!” I shouted.“Hard to starboard!” Clive repeated as he sent the wheel spinning.On the deck, the Scallywags and our harpy crewmates rushed to pull in the sails that we’d been deploying earlier.The Beaver took a hard turn to the right, the entire deck shifting underfoot so hard that I had to shift my stance to stay standing. Our turn was probably unexpected for the pirates chasing after us. We had slowly been climbing for a while, and the Red Wings had followed suit. It meant that our speed dropped a little and it meant that they’d have an easier time catching up.It sucked, but if we were going to fight no matter what, and if we had the choice, it was probably best that we decide when the fighting happened.Of the three pirate ships, one was quite large, twice as long as the Beaver and just as wide, with a massive balloon above it and a dozen engines sticking out on stalks along its sides. It had metal plates bolted to its sides and seemed like it had been in plenty of scuffles. The figure head at the front was a rather undressed harpy woman, her talons wrapped around a banner with the ship’s name. The Red Scourge.The Scourge was to the far left of the Red Wing formation, and our turn would take us away from it and closer to the other two ships.These were a bit more reasonable in terms of size. One was half again the Beaver’s length, but was much thinner, the Firestrike.The third, the Red Whale, was a little longer that the Beaver, a ship entirely contained within a single large balloon, with only some protruding decks on the side and a gondola on the bottom for the crew.They had something of a naming theme going on.“Get ready!” I shouted to the starboard deck even as I rushed over myself.Amaryllis, Caprica and Calamity were on the deck, all three looking very serious and ready for trouble.Then the floor shifted and Awen’s rapid-firing crossbow turret click-clicked out of the hold below and slowly turned to face our right.“Don’t put all of your power in your first shot, use it to range,” Amaryllis suggested.I swallowed. “Okay,” I said.Our turn, as hard as it was, still took some time to finish. By the end of it, we were perpendicular with the Red Whale, the ship on the far right of the Red Wing formation. Our kilometre-long lead was growing shorter every second. Clive knew what he was doing, though.I turned and looked past the other side of the ship. The Shady Lady was keeping even with us, using the Beaver’s balloon to stay out of sight.The plan was simple, and we were all pretty sure it wouldn’t work, but we had to try something.“Here goes nothing,” Calamity said. He nocked an arrow onto his bow, put a foot on the railing ahead of him, then grunted hard as he pulled the string way back. The entire bow creaked and bent from all the force he was putting into it.The Red Whale came a bit closer.Calamity loosed.There was a loud thwack as the arrow shot away so fast that all I could see of it was a faint blur. I squinted towards the approaching ship and caught sight of the arrow arcing down before it punched into the very front of the balloon.“Nice shot,” I said.“Mhm,” he said as he reached into his quiver. “Now we can start making it interesting.” He held an arrow up and stared at it for a moment. Then the tip started to glow.I looked closer, and realized that there were threads of mana wrapped around the head. A spell? But one that didn’t look entirely ready to cast. “What’s that?”“Nothing too special,” he said. “It’s just a spell for lighting campfires. But with a trigger so that it goes off on contact.”“Hmm, clever,” Amaryllis said. “A way to extend the range of a spell with a weak range. I wish I had time to study the trick.”“Maybe later!” he said before he pulled the string back again. This time I had an easier time keeping track of the arrow since it glowed faintly. When it hit the balloon there was a small flash, then I noticed a small wisp of smoke rising up and away from the canvas.“It’s probably treated to be fireproof,” Amaryllis said. “It’s an expensive treatment, and most civilian ships don’t bother with it, but since they’re pirates, it only makes sense.”“Is there a way around it?” I asked.“It’s an alchemical solution that’s brushed onto the canvas,” Amaryllis said. “Get it hot enough and it will burn regardless.”“Is it worth continuing?” Calamity asked.“Holes are holes,” Amaryllis said. “Punch enough of them into the canvas and the sacs beneath and they’ll start losing their buoyancy. Do you have other elements?”“I can make an arrow burst as an airball after piercing into something,” Calamity said. “We used to do that to make fruit explode. You can do it to something you’re hunting too, but it’s counter-productive. If you’re hunting you want the meat intact, not spread out over a dozen paces.”“Do that. If it goes off within the ship then the pressure may break some things,” Amaryllis said.Calamity nodded and cast a spell on another arrow.The Red Whale was still approaching, turning slowly as it went. It looked as if it was trying to turn hard enough that we’d be parallel when we inevitably came within closer range, but Clive was manoeuvring us so that we wouldn’t have to worry about that too much.It’s what came after we crossed their T that I worried about.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.Calamity’s next arrow struck and there was a faint and distant ‘paff’ sound. The arrow had left a hole in the canvas large enough that I could have stuck my head in it. “Nice!” I cheered.“It’s close enough,” Amaryllis said. She raised her dagger wand towards the ship, then started to murmur something under her breath. I felt the little hairs on my arm start to rise and took a slight step back and away from Amaryllis as her dagger wand started to glow. The air around her snapped and cracked, little flickers of static electricity going off.Amaryllis grinned, and I felt the mana in space around us rushing in towards her. “Close your eyes!” she shouted.I did what she said and pulled my ears down for good measure.There was a catastrophically loud crack and my vision went white even though my eyes were closed. The air warmed up around me and I felt all of the hair that had risen fall back down a moment before a wash of cool air came in to fill the gap.When I opened my eyes, I saw Amaryllis lowering her wand. It was smoking.I turned towards the Red Whale and gasped.There was a long, snaking line burned across its side, with hundreds of little capillaries moving out of it and spreading across the canvas. The thicker line eventually reached one of the long stalks sticking out of the balloon on which the ships engines were mounted.The engine was on fire.“The gondola acted as a lightning rod,” Amaryllis said simply. “We’ll have to keep that in mind if we try another spell like that. No sense wasting our power by hitting the same spot twice.”I blinked a few times. There were still spots in my vision, but they were fading quickly. The flaming gondola was an impressive sight to see, but it was far enough away from the main part of the ship that it didn’t look like the fire would spread from one to the other.“Nice hit,” Calamity said. “Think that’ll slow them down?”Amaryllis hummed, then started to count the engines on the side of the ship. They were much smaller than our engine, of course. “Four to a side, that’s eight small engines. I don’t have the mana for eight spells like that. Though I imagine only taking out a few more would cut their manoeuvrability in half. That’s the advantage of ships with multiple engines like that, there’s a level of redundancy that we can’t afford with just one engine.”“Right,” Calamity said.“Three hundred metres,” Caprica said. “We’ll be within the longer range of smaller spells soon.”“How’s your mana?” I asked Amaryllis.“Fine. That took out about half, but I regenerate quickly,” she said. “Don’t worry about me, I can pace myself.”I nodded. That had been an impressive spell, I was sure the pirates were rethinking how easy of a target we’d be now!It was time for me to do my part. I moved up to be closer to the railing, then looked at the distant ship. “I don’t imagine that Cleaning magic will help much,” I said.“It’ll save them some time cleaning the decks, maybe,” Calamity said. He nocked another arrow and let loose. He had a small stack of arrows to work through so there wasn’t any reason for him to hold back.I frowned, then used the only other spell I knew how to use fairly well, fireball! One day I’d get proper fireballs, with the huge explosions and everything, but for now I’d just pepper the pirates with little fist-sizes bursts of flame.I reached out towards the Red Whale and prepared my first brace of them, putting a little bit more mana than usual into the spell so that they’d cross the distance without trouble. Next to me, Caprica did the same thing.We fired at the same time, and I looked at her firebolts with a bit of envy. They moved a lot faster and were brighter. Then again, she probably had more training and time to practice with the spell than I had.The little balls of fire splattered against the distant ship, and it was hard to tell if they were doing anything.“You’ll have to hit the same spot a few times to burn through the canvas,” Amaryllis said.“That sounds hard,” I said. The airship was a big target, but it was far away, and when I’d fired my brace of fireballs half of them zipped right past the ship, missing it entirely.“There’s a psychological effect too,” Caprica said. “Those onboard will know that we’re attacking them and that we’re not stopping.”“Exactly,” Amaryllis said. “I’ll be at the bow, I want to see if I can’t get a better angle to the engines on the opposite side. If we dip lower, I might try to hit the forward gondola. It’ll give their crew a nice shock.”I paused between castings to look at the other ships. The Firestrike was turning, and it looked like it was going to cut in behind the Red Whale. The Red Scourge meanwhile, was only just starting to turn. A ship that large couldn’t be all that manoeuvrable.“Hey, what’s it doing?” Calamity asked.I focused ahead again, then blinked. A section of the canvas at the front of the Red Whale was opening up. It looked almost as if the ship now had a mouth, which was all kinds of strange. Within the opening was a deck, with a few crewmates and... “Oh no,” I said.A massive ballista was fixed within the ship, with the opening giving it a fairly wide arc to fire from, and it was aiming right at us.A loud thawng sounded, and I ducked by reflex as a ballista bolt shot past.It missed the Beaver going a little low, but it had come closer than I liked.“Stop gawking and keep firing!” Amaryllis shouted. “We need to take that thing down!”
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