Corsair

TWENTY-FIVE

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

Seadrake dropped down out of the moonlet’s black sky like a hawk stooping on its prey. The starry compass glowed with silver light in front of the ship’s wheel, its strange symbols spinning swiftly with the precipitous descent. Geran stood at the helm and grinned fiercely, feeling the sails fill with the strange winds of the dark moonlet and the deck trembling to the rush of iron-shod feet. He had no idea what waited for him below the battlements of the ebon keep, but he meant to meet it with fine elven steel in his hand and spells of ruin on his blade. Whatever else happened, he’d teach the Black Moon a lesson or two about preying on Hulburg … and if Sergen was somewhere in that dark fortress, he wouldn’t escape Geran’s wrath a second time.

“Lord Geran! We’re fallin’ too fast!” Andurth Galehand shouted in his ear. The bowsprit pointed directly at the midships deck of Kraken Queen, tied up alongside its wharf under the black battlements, and Seadrake raced down on the pirate ship with such speed that Geran’s stomach was left behind. “Slow th’ approach, I beg ye!”

“Speed and surprise are our best weapons!” Geran answered. He could see the pirate ship’s crew desperately running for their stations, even as others poured out of the keep’s gates or hurried to man the battlements. Seadrake was low enough now that she seemed to sail through the skies of this strange, small world instead of skimming across the empty blackness of the Sea of Night. The pirate keep stood atop a steep-sided hill overlooking the lake; strange-looking trees and thick, coiling vines in a dozen hues of red, purple, and blue crowded in close around the keep and the shore. A weird silver mist seemed to hang in the air, cool and humid, and tendrils of cloud seethed slowly through the low spots in the hills ringing the lake.

“There are ruins in the jungle,” Hamil said. He pointed at the closer shore of the glittering blue lake. Geran glimpsed crumbling towers of black stone half hidden in the vales near the lakeshore. “Do you think the Black Moon’s got allies nearby?”

“I don’t know, but the sooner we take the ship and get into the keep, the less likely it is that anyone else can interfere.” Geran spared a glance for Hamil. “As I said-speed and surprise.”

He looked back to Kraken Queen, and judged that they were indeed closing too fast. “Slow the descent!” he said aloud. The ship replied, lifting her bow a bit and leveling out. Seadrake’s company-almost seventy Shieldsworn and veteran mercenaries from the merchant companies plus almost forty more sailors eager for a fight-lined the rails, armed and ready to give battle to the Black Moon corsairs. “Grapples, stand ready!” he called to his crew. “Archers, fire as you will!”

The crew raised a ragged chorus of war cries and defiant shouts. Bowstrings sang and crossbows snapped sharply, sweeping the deck of the pirate vessel below. Sarth blasted a knot of pirates trying to ready one of Kraken Queen’s catapults with a crackling ball of green lightning. Geran held his course until the last possible moment before turning the wheel sharply and willing the bow up and the stern down. “Make ready to drop sail!” he shouted. “Brace for impact!” The ship veered wildly before alighting in the sapphire waters of the moon-lake with an immense splash. Despite Geran’s warning, fully half the hands on deck were knocked off their feet … but now Seadrake surged forward in the water, coming up alongside her quarry from astern. The Hulburgans leaped back to their feet, and deckhands swarmed aloft to lower the warship’s sails as Geran turned the wheel the other way to drive his bow alongside Kraken Queen. Grapple-throwers heaved their hooks across the gap. The Hulburgan ship came to a jarring stop, tangled up with the Black Moon flagship.

“Over th’ side!” Andurth Galehand yelled. It was unnecessary, since Seadrake’s company was already swarming across to Kraken Queen. Hamil vaulted up to the rail, seized a hanging shroud, and swung over to the pirate ship’s quarterdeck. Geran followed an instant later with his teleport spell, spanning the gap with a single, bold stride. He immediately found himself in the middle of a furious fray by Kraken Queen’s mizzenmast. Dozens of pirates swarmed up on deck from every hatch and companionway imaginable, desperate to repel the attack.

“Arvan sannoghan!” Geran shouted. The mystic words evoked a sheath of brilliant flame along his blade. He hurled himself against the pirates, great arcs of razor-sharp fire trailing from his sword strokes. He slashed down one man with a searing cut from shoulder to hip, took the head off a goblin creeping up on his right flank, and drove another pirate to the deck with his assault before finishing the man with a thrust to the midsection. Hamil fought beside him, a dagger in each hand, guarding Geran’s back or darting out to hamstring an unwary foe. By Kraken Queen’s mainmast, Sarth burned pirates down with fiery blasts from his rune-carved scepter or blasted them overboard with words of arcane power.

“We’ve got them!” Hamil cried.

“I think you’re right!” Geran shouted in reply. Seadrake’s sudden appearance had indeed caught the pirates off-guard; many of the corsairs were off inside the keep, leaving only half a crew on the pirate flagship. Those pirates who were on hand to defend their ship were disorganized and poorly armed. They wore leather jerkins or no armor at all, and many fought with boarding axes, belaying pins, or daggers. Against them the Shieldsworn and the merchant armsmen were fitted out in mail, with swords and shields. More to the point, the Hulburgans were spoiling for a fight. With Sarth’s destructive spells and Geran’s swordmagic to lead them, their disciplined ranks swept across Kraken Queen, cutting the pirates on board to pieces.

Geran found that no enemies were within sword’s reach and paused to take stock of the battle. Seadrake warriors held Kraken Queen … for the moment. But more pirates streamed out of the keep’s gate, hurrying to join the fight. And others took up positions on the battlements overlooking the docks, sniping at the invaders with crossbow fire. A Jannarsk armsman near him shrieked in pain and fell to the deck, hands cupped around a bolt quivering in his face, and a Shieldsworn grunted and staggered back when a quarrel punched through his shield and transfixed his arm underneath. Then the pirates from the keep stormed aboard Kraken Queen from the wharf.

“I spoke too soon-here they come!” Hamil said. He crouched down behind the gunwale, sheathed his daggers, and shrugged his shortbow from his shoulder. Then he popped up to send an arrow winging up to the battlement overlooking the wharf. A Black Moon archer cried out and tumbled from the rampart.

“They would’ve been wiser to turtle up inside their keep,” Geran said. He ducked down by the gunwale, trying to gauge how much the pirate reinforcements had changed the course of the battle. So far, the Hulburgans were standing their ground. “We don’t have any siege gear!”

“They can’t afford to let us take this ship. It’s their only way back to Faerun.”

Geran realized that Hamil was right; the pirates had to retake their ship, or else the Hulburgans could simply sail it off and strand them in their moon-keep. A sudden inspiration struck him, and he looked around the pirate vessel’s quarterdeck. Kraken Queen’s starry compass sat in a hooded binnacle just in front of the helm. It looked much like the one from Moonshark, although its color was more of a rich violet hue. He picked up a boarding axe from a dead pirate’s hand and wrecked the device’s frame with several hard strokes. Then he picked the orb out of the ruined frame. “There, that should do it. Kraken Queen’s going nowhere for now.”

Hamil raised an eyebrow. “Stealing Kamoth’s magic compass?”

“I don’t see why he should have one. If the fight turns against us, we can retreat, and he’ll be stranded here forever.” The starry compass would also make for a very valuable bargaining chip if Kamoth put a knife to Mirya’s throat. He couldn’t be sure, but he had to believe that the pirate lord would part with his hostages in order to get the device back. Geran handed the orb to Hamil. “Here, take this back to Seadrake, and put it someplace safe. It might prove very useful. I’m going to see what I can do about breaking this stalemate.”

“Done,” Hamil said. He tucked it under his arm and hurried forward, looking for a good place to cross back to the Hulburgan warship.

Geran turned his attention back to the fight. A crossbow quarrel ricocheted from the unseen wardings that protected him, spinning away through the air. The fight had grown more heated while he sabotaged the ship’s magical compass; scores of pirates in a howling, reckless mob fought to win back their ship. Kraken Queen was in Hulburgan hands, but the fighting had moved down to the wharf between the keep and the moored ship. Here Seadrake’s assault had momentarily stalled. For the moment, the numbers on each side seemed close, and if the Hulburgans had the advantages of armor and discipline, the pirates had the raking fire from the keep and fierce desperation on their side. Then he spotted a figure at the head of the pirate counterattack, a bearded man who wore scarlet armor worked in the shape of fishlike scales. Behind him, the Black Moon pirates hurled themselves into the battle with fresh zeal.

“Kamoth,” Geran breathed. He vaulted down from the quarterdeck to the wharf and threaded his way through knots of battling soldiers and corsairs. He parried or dodged several blows aimed at him as he darted forward to confront the pirate lord.

Kamoth led the way with a cutlass in one hand and a hatchet in the other as the pirates fought their way back toward their flagship. He cut down a pair of Hulburgan sailors who stood against him then whirled to face Geran’s attack. Their swords flashed and rang together in the furious melee at the foot of the gangplank. Geran attacked with a high slash at Kamoth’s face, but the pirate lord blocked it and countered with a vicious cut of his left-hand axe. He pushed forward, pressing Geran closely, keeping their blades locked as he tried to get Geran in reach of the hatchet. Geran gave almost ten feet of ground across the blood-slicked wharf before he freed his blade and opened the distance again. The two men circled each other warily while the battle raged all around them.

“I know you, Geran!” the pirate lord said with a fierce laugh. “But I remember you as a lad of fifteen or so. You’ve learned to be handy with a blade, I see.”

“I studied four years in Myth Drannor.” Geran was careful to keep up his guard. “This blade I won in the Coronal’s Guard.”

“Well done, my boy!” Kamoth said. He wore the same fierce grin Geran remembered from years ago, as if all that stood between them even now were a few boyish pranks he’d been caught at and hoped to laugh away. “I never had the benefit of much formal study in sword play. I had to pick it up as I went along.” He attacked suddenly with a furious onslaught. He was quick, and Geran saw where Sergen had gotten his speed from. His style was just as unschooled and unorthodox as he claimed. When Geran parried Kamoth’s thrust, the pirate lord hooked the curving blade of his hatchet over Geran’s sword, trapping their blades together, and nearly wrenched Geran’s sword from his hand. Geran twisted his blade sideways and pulled it free and then ducked under a wild swing at his head as they spun past each other and separated again.

“That’s Seadrake there, isn’t it?” Kamoth asked, breathing hard. “How’d you manage to follow me here, my boy?”

“I’ve got Moonshark’s starry compass,” Geran answered. He circled warily, looking for an opening. “And Narsk’s letters led me here.”

“Damn it all!” the pirate lord snarled. “It was you at Moonshark’s helm in Hulburg harbor, wasn’t it? You cost me three ships in a single night!”

Geran replied with a lunge at Kamoth. The pirate lord parried several quick thrusts, and when Geran repeated the same attack, he tried again to catch Geran’s blade with his own weapons. But Geran was waiting for him. The instant the blades caught, Geran snarled the words of a sword spell: “Ilyeith sannoghan!” Lightning flew from the elven steel, leaped to Kamoth’s cutlass and hatchet, and raced up the pirate lord’s hands. Kamoth howled and dropped his weapons, jolted by the sudden shock. Before he could recover, Geran lashed him across the face with the crackling blade. The pirate lord’s helmet took much of the impact, but the ringing blow sent Kamoth spinning to the wooden boards, streaming blood and wisps of smoke from the rent in the side of his helmet. He stirred feebly and fell still-dead or unconscious, Geran didn’t know.

“The High Captain’s fallen!” one of the pirates nearby cried out. Others took up the cry. Some of the pirates began to retreat; others hurried toward the scene to protect their fallen leader. Several rushed Geran all at once, and for a moment the swordmage was caught up in the middle of the melee again, fighting furiously. The press of the attack carried him back across the wharf again, until Sarth’s sizzling bolts of fire broke the last desperate Black Moon effort to retake their ship. Geran tried to battle his way back to Kamoth again as the Hulburgans rallied and drove the remaining pirates back to the castle gate. He caught a glimpse of several of the corsairs dragging Kamoth back toward the keep as the Black Moon gave up the battle for the dock. The wharf was littered with the dead and dying, most of them Black Moon men; he lowered his sword, panting for breath, and discovered that during the fighting he’d caught a shallow but bloody cut high on his left arm.

Hamil appeared at his side, his daggers bloody and a thin cut across his scalp. Geran hadn’t even realized that his small comrade had returned to the fray. “Mind the sharpshooters!” he said to Geran, pulling him down by a high stack of crates that offered some cover against the fire coming from the ramparts. “Kraken Queen’s compass is locked up in your cabin. Do we try to take the keep, or do we offer terms? The Black Moon men might not have much more fight left in them.”

Geran thought quickly. Mirya and Selsha were somewhere inside; if he didn’t get into the castle quickly, he’d find it barricaded against him. The Hulburgans had Kraken Queen well in hand, and they had control of the docks as well. The Black Moon leaders inside realized that too, and the gates of the keep were beginning to close against the attackers. He stood again and raised his sword over his head. “To the keep!” he shouted. He spotted Sarth near the pirate ship’s forecastle, and waved his arm at the sorcerer. “Sarth! Secure the gates!”

The tiefling glanced back and gave him a quick nod of understanding. He leaped from Kraken Queen’s deck, taking to the air as he did so. With blasts of fire and snapping arcs of lightning, he scoured the battlements overlooking the keep’s gate clear of foes then hurled a glowing orange bead through one of the arrow slits into the gatehouse. An instant later a tremendous burst of flame shot out from each of the gatehouse’s windows, and the tower shook with the force of the explosion. The gates below stopped moving. The sorcerer’s fireball had wrecked the hidden windlasses, and likely had killed the pirates furiously working them. The gates remained half open, and Shieldsworn began pouring through into the keep.

Geran looked around for any of Seadrake’s officers, and found Andurth Galehand manning one of the arbalests on the warship’s quarter rail. “Master Galehand! Keep half your sailors here and guard the ships!”

Seadrake’s sailing master scowled in disappointment. “I’ll do as ye say, Lord Geran, but only if ye promise me ye’ll save a few for me later!”

“You’re now standing on the Black Moon’s only escape from this place,” Geran called back. “Unless I miss my guess, you’ll see a fight before we’re done inside.”

“Aye, m’lord!” Galehand left his arbalest in the hands of one of the crew and began shouting orders to get his sailors in order.

Geran left the sailing master to take charge, and rushed toward the keep. Hamil followed a step behind him, while Sarth hovered in the air, systematically blasting any arrow slit from which a bolt or quarrel flew. Geran could hear the ringing of steel echoing under the walls of the pirate keep, the furious shouts and roars of men in battle, the screams of the wounded. In midstride he invoked his silversteel veil, the swirling silver aura that might save him from an unexpected thrust or a shot fired at his back. The air was thick with the reek of smoke and the strange sweet scent of the moonlet’s dark jungle. Overhead the Tears of Selune mounted to the sky like islands of shadow and silver light, drifting across a black sky ablaze with more stars than he’d ever imagined might exist. What a strange place to fight a battle! he thought. He’d fought in skirmishes on the Sea of Fallen Stars, ambushes in the shadows of Cormanthyr, and desperate frays in deep, foul dungeons where monsters lurked, but never had he fought in a battle like this.

“Follow me, warriors of Hulburg!” Geran shouted. He ran through the gates and into the moon-keep’s lower hall. At his back, armsmen and sailors charged in after him. A dozen or so of the Black Moon men tried to hold the hall against the attackers. Several crossbow bolts hissed past Geran, and one grazed his hip, catching in his leather jerkin despite his wardings. A Shieldsworn at his side stumbled and went to the ground, clutching at a quarrel in his belly-but then Geran was in among the keep’s defenders, with the rest of the attackers a step behind him. He cut down one of the crossbowmen and darted past the fellow to engage a burly half-orc mate who seemed to be leading the pirates in the hall. He traded only two passes of steel with the half-orc before a Seadrake sailor buried a boarding axe between the mate’s shoulder blades. The swordmage searched for another foe, but the keep’s lower hall belonged to the Shieldsworn-the only pirates remaining here were dead on the floor. The Hulburgans raised a ragged cheer.

“Where to now?” Hamil asked. “There must be more of these fellows skulking about in here.”

Geran studied the room for a moment. Several large passageways led away from the room, including a stair that climbed up from the gate. Like the castle of Griffonwatch that Geran had grown up in, the moon-keep was at least in part delved from the rock of its steep hill. Here at its foot, hallways led to subterranean vaults, while the stairs led up to levels and ramparts higher in the hillside. “We’ll split up and search the place,” he decided. “Master Worthel, take your warriors and ransack the lower levels. I’ll take a squad of soldiers upstairs. Look for captives, and take or kill every pirate you catch. Keep your lads together in case you run into opposition. Sergeant Xela, take your Sokols and the Marstels, and go with Sarth. I can still hear him outside. Brother Larken, keep the rest of the soldiers here and hold this gatehouse. You’re our reserve. Guard our retreat, and stand ready to help in case one of the search parties runs into strong resistance somewhere. Now go!”

The Hulburgans split up as Geran had ordered, some rushing down the passages below, others returning to the fray outside, while still others spread out to take control of the gatehouse and hold their conquest. Geran waved to the armsmen at his back and led them off into the keep. The main passage climbed a broad set of steps to a great hall, festooned with dozens of captured banners and standards. He could hear the distant ring of steel on steel from the other search parties, and shouts echoing through the stone corridors. The armsmen with him spread out to search the room; Geran headed for the first large passage leading out of the hall and peered down it, wondering just how big the keep really was. The portion built atop the hill was not very large, not much bigger than the upper bailey in Griffonwatch, but there was no telling how far the subterranean halls and vaults extended. Depending on just how long the Black Moon Brotherhood had held the keep and how industriously they’d worked, there might even be several escape tunnels hidden below, leading to secret exits in the jungles outside … possibly with smaller skyfaring vessels close by. Even now Kamoth and Sergen might be making their escape.

A call from one of the Shieldsworn interrupted his brooding. “Lord Geran?” he called. “We’ve found several people held captive here.”

“Mirya and her daughter?”

The soldier shook his head. “No, but a woman here says there are other captives in the dungeons.”

Geran hurried over to the fellow and found him standing by the entrance to the kitchens that served the great hall. Seven or eight people in threadbare servants’ garb stood in a confused knot inside, staring at their unexpected rescuers.

The soldier motioned to one of the freed captives. “Here she is,” he said. “This is Olana. She was taken captive four years ago near Phlan.”

A dour-faced woman of middle years stepped forward. “Long I’ve dreamed of this day, m’lords, but never I thought to see it with mine own eyes. You’re a welcome sight, you are.”

“We’ll take you home as soon as we’ve finished here, Olana,” Geran told her. “But first, is there a woman named Mirya Erstenwold here? She’s tall and slender, with black hair and blue eyes. She might have had her daughter with her, a dark-haired lass of about nine years. Have you seen her?”

“I did see those two, m’lord. I’ve brought them their food and water for a couple of days now, and Lord Kamoth had me bring them new clothes as well. They were held down in the lower dungeon. But-they’re gone now.” Olana fell silent.

“Well, where are they then?” Geran demanded.

“They’ve escaped, m’lord. I went by their cell to bring them their breakfast and discovered the bars bent wide enough for them to slip out.”

“When was this?”

“It was only an hour or two ago, m’lord. I don’t think the Black Moon men know she’s gone yet. I wasn’t about to tell, not until they’d had a good chance to slip away.”

“Good woman,” Hamil said in approval. “But where could they slip away to?”

The woman frowned. “I expect your Mirya and her daughter ran off into the jungle.”

Another of the servants, a stooped old man with a bushy, white beard, spoke up. “Beggin’ your pardon, m’lords, but I think they must have done just that. I was with a party sent to cut firewood this morning. We found the postern gate standing ajar when we came back in. I’d wager that’s the way your friends went.”

“Did the Black Moon pirates go after them?” Hamil asked.

“No, m’lord. They figured one of us had left it open when we went out in the morning. Besides, they only venture into the jungle in large parties, and well-armed at that.”

Geran gripped the hilt of his sword and turned away, teeth bared in pure frustration. If they’d only been an hour or two swifter, they might have found Mirya and Selsha before they slipped out of their cell. Now they might have the whole black isle to search! He took a deep breath to master himself and then looked back to Olana and the older servant. “I’ll need you to show me to the postern, and quickly,” he said.

Olana bowed. “Of course, m’lord.”

“Hamil, you take over here. Make sure we cover every inch of this keep, and keep an eye open for Sergen. He’s still around somewhere, and you know the sort of trouble he can cause.”

“My apologies, Geran, but I can’t do that,” Hamil said. “I’m coming with you. Mirya’s my friend too, and I’d fight a whole moon full of monsters to keep Selsha from harm.”

Geran started to argue, but thought better of it. He could use Hamil at his back, and things seemed well in hand with the pirate keep. “All right, then. Sergeant Xela, send messengers to find Sarth and Larken. Tell Sarth he’s in charge until we return. I trust you to do what needs to be done here.”

The Shieldsworn soldier nodded. “Aye, we’ll look after things, Lord Geran. As soon as we can, we’ll send some soldiers out after you and Master Alderheart.”

“Good.” Geran clapped a hand to the armsman’s shoulder and then looked back to Olana. “Show us the quickest way to the postern, Olana.”

The woman curtsied. “Of course, m’lord. I hope you find her-the jungle of the black moon’s no place to wander. It’s this way.” She hurried off for one of the servants’ stairs leading off the great hall. Geran and Hamil followed her into the mazelike passageways of the keep.