Chapter Nineteen – Raid
Fake returned from his secret mission to Altair Island, the former home of the Prestles. “I went to their home; I talked to the island guard who first arrested him; I talked to the warden who watched him wait in his cell, nothing,” said Fake disappointedly. “He had dark hair and an expressionless face; that’s it, that’s all I got. They weren’t even sure what color his eyes were,” he lamented.
The illusionist continued his frustrated rant, “The only thing anyone seemed to agree on was the feeling that everything was simply going the way he knew it would. Like he had planned to kill the family, wait to be caught, and sentenced to die in the void. A strange sense of self-control, was what one of the guards said about the killer.”
Andin wrote a handful of short notes in his journal about the man – he had never seen Fake flustered before and was enjoying the novelty of it. Fake kept at it for a few more minutes before wearing himself into acceptance, “Damn he’s good.”
Andin knew it was okay to speak now, “We still learned something about him; you did well.”
“Did anyone ask why you were looking into the case?” asked Andin.
“I was disguised as a Naval Official; no one asked hard questions.”
Perc walked in and ended the secretive conversation. “Good, you’re awake, the ship leaves in an hour. Let’s eat breakfast at the pub.” Fake’s absence was nothing unusual to Perc. At the Academy he would disappear for hours or even days with no notice. The illusionist was near impossible to keep track of.
The courier ship took the trio back the transit hub at Carmen Island. A second ship took them to The Hinge. The winds were uncooperative and the journey delayed. The sun was rising again when they arrived. They stood at the edge of the massive grotto. “That’s big,” said Andin.
“It’s not filled with water?” noted Fake perplexed.
“Some parts deeper down are flooded, but the grotto itself isn’t connected to the ocean,” answered Perc. Huge rock features like this reminded Andin of Kato. He couldn’t resist waiting on the edge. He picked up two stones and leapt into the pit. He shrunk into nothing as the grotto swallowed him.
The fire prince let gravity pull him as long as he dared. The stones in his hands then pulled him to a gentle stop. When he returned to the surface Fake and Perc looked at him dismayed. “What are we supposed to do?” asked Fake.
Andin looked at Fake, “You can’t use your sand?” Then to Perc, “And you can’t use a container of water? There’s water down there too, you could just use that.” Both looked unconvinced. This was a skill foreign to both of them. Andin was well practiced from his time in Kato.
Perc pointed at the lift on the opposite wall of the grotto. Andin responded by slicing a platform of rock from the ground, “I’ll take us down.”
“Slowly, you’ll take us down slowly,” said a nervous Fake. At Andin’s command the stone platform levitated and descended into the grotto.
They were down for only a moment before a shower of splintered wood fell near them accompanied by the wail of the island’s alarms. “Andin take us up!” shouted Perc. The three jumped back onto the stone slab and the prince lifted them back to the surface. They heard screams and clashing swords.
“It’s a raid,” said Perc. They reached the surface; the boardwalk circling the grotto was crawling with pirates with curved swords. Andin saw a young man cut down in front of him, he drew his sickles in fury. Fake’s jacket melted into an orbiting star of black sand.
They ran to the boardwalk ready for battle. “Don’t get cornered; take one at a time,” said Andin as he overwhelmed his first foe with ease. Fake’s star careened toward a filthy pirate’s face knocking him hard to the ground.
“Keep moving, we’re going to the docks,” said Andin forcefully cleaving another pirate. The pirates regrouped sending razor discs filled with water towards them. Fake vanished; but Andin couldn’t dodge all of the flying blades and was cut badly. Pillars of stone crushed the pirates controlling the discs.
Fake reappeared behind two pirates; his sand reformed into the star and battered them down. Fake saw Andin’s blood staining the boardwalk, “Andin?” he asked worried.
Andin grimaced as he cauterized his own wound, “It’ll heal soon.” They ran to the docks.
A great horn bellowed from the largest pirate ship, signaling the raid was over. Pirates throughout the boardwalk ran from homes and businesses. Some clutched jewels or fine cloth, anything of value was taken. Women and children shrieked as they were bound and slung over shoulders.
A woman managed to cut her bindings and stab her kidnapper in the back. The scoundrel threw her down and crushed her neck in anger. Andin locked his feet with stone and lit him on fire. Fake stopped to watch the horror and violence unfold, it was incomprehensible. A fleeing raider stabbed the illusionist through his waist.
Andin ran to his maimed friend, “Stay here, I know it hurts, you’ll be fine in a few hours.” Fake didn’t answer – he couldn’t look away from the gash in his belly. Andin ran on cutting down pirates where he could. The first of the three raid ships began throwing lines to shove off.
The vastness of Pelagos meant this would be the only sure chance to stop the fiends. Raider after raider tried to kill the fire prince, none could contend with his burning fury. He reached the docks; the second ship began to shove off. Ten massive pirates stood in his way. “You die today Beldurian,” taunted the largest of them.
They loosed their harpoons at Andin. He drew a wall of stone from the ground to protect him. The docks were over shoreline, not the rocky foundation around the grotto. Andin’s protection turned up a thin wall of sand. Harpoons pierced through his wall, then his leg. The pirates heaved the connected chains and slammed the rag-doll prince into the docks.
The pain was excruciating; Andin sent desperate sheets of flame in all directions burning the docks and the pirates equally. The pirates abandoned the fight and boarded the last ship. Unable to walk from his injuries Andin crawled down the docks in dogged pursuit.
He sent flames to the third ship still near enough to attack. The pirates put out the fires easily with their magic and laughed as the ship moved into the harbor. With one final effort he launched one of his sickles towards the mast of the mainsail. It cut clean through the mast and the sail fell into the water.
The first pirate ship made it out of the harbor. A small figure stood on the rocky jetty built to protect the harbor. It was Percaphia; her eyes burned a brilliant aqua as she worked to cast a summoning spell. The golem manifested in the water and unleashed its watery tentacles on the pirate ship.
The power of the beast broke the spine of the ship. The monstrous squid grabbed pirate after pirate hurling them into the air. Percaphia could maintain the creature no longer and it vanished beneath the waves. She fell to the rocks, finished from the effort.
The second and third ship left the harbor uncontested. The marines and magi stationed on the island reached the prince at the docks. One of the officers in charge stopped at the prince eyeing his wounds. “I’ll be alright; I cut the mainsail of the last ship,” strained Andin.
“We saw; their ship movers won’t be able to keep her at speed without the mainsail, we’ll catch them,” assured the officer as his sailors boarded their warship. The naval vessel cast its lines to hunt the raiders down.
Andin, Fake, and Perc were utterly spent. Andin lay flat against the dock staring at the sky. He couldn’t hear anything; not the sobbing of the locals or the hurried footsteps of the marines and magi. Smoke joined the clouds from where the fires had gained foothold on the boardwalk.
In that brief moment the three were united in their removal from the world. Time ticked onward but not for them, they had become unstuck in the furious devastation of battle. It seemed inconceivable that any of them would ever again stand, speak, or continue living.
Finally, Andin clawed his way back to reality and rolled to his side. Moments before the prince hamst
rung a pirate warship, now the effort of standing seemed insurmountable. The prince fought himself up to his feet, swaying as if he would topple over at any moment.
Step by step he worked his way through the ruins of the boardwalk to where he had left Fake. When he managed the journey, Fake was missing. Worry filled the Beldurian. Where is he? Andin wondered. He was yet unsure how Fake’s body would handle such a wound.
Andin heard a bright and familiar voice say, “It’s okay; they’re gone now, you’re safe.” Opposite a small group of shops was the illusionist, clutching his stomach with one hand and comforting a sobbing girl with the other.
She was a homely girl, covered in filth with blood between her thighs. Between heaving sobs she told Fake, “They, they just laughed when they saw me.” A shaking fit interrupted her, “Th- then they took my sister.” Andin hobbled over to the girl and knelt.
“Many of the enemy were slain by my own hands, most of those kidnapped were on the ship I disabled; the Navy might save your sister. But do not put needless stock in hope, trust your own strength; you are strong.” Andin held her hands and looked into her eyes.
Ignoring his own pain he pulled the girl to her feet, “I need you to start looking for survivors, help them in any way you can.” She sniffled and with a tight lip nodded at the prince. The girl walked to the makeshift triage the magi had built in the plaza.
The two friends looked at each other as if many years had passed between their last meeting. “Have you seen Perc? I need to find her,” said Fake.
“I know where she is, she was alive last I saw.” The two staggered back to the docks.
“I don’t like fighting,” said Fake rubbing his stomach.
“It’s necessary sometimes – if you’re like me that will heal in a few hours.”
“Good, I didn’t know something could hurt so badly.”
The walk took an age for the battered fighters. A feeling of defilement poisoned the air of the town. The Hinge hadn’t been attacked in years, and never so badly. Perc had made it back to the docks. “Are you hurt?” asked Fake.
“No, just exhausted,” she answered.
Reunited, the three sat down at the edge of the jetty. “It’s a rare thing to see a mortal able to create a golem such as yours,” said Andin.
She drew a long breath before replying, “My parents were killed by pirates when I was a student.”
“How does vengeance feel?” asked Andin.
She replayed the splintering of the pirate ship in her mind – with satisfaction she answered, “It feels good.” After half an hour the three got up to help the locals put back together what pieces they could.
Fake entertained a crowd of children with his illusions. Andin retrieved bodies that had fallen or been thrown into the grotto. Perc helped repair the boardwalk. The sun set, the night watch was doubled, and the three friends curled in their beds at the inn.
In the morning the pursuing warship returned loaded with rescued women and children. They received a hero’s welcome. Andin gave a short statement to the officer writing the incident report. Neither he nor his friends wished to stay at the Hinge any longer. They boarded the afternoon courier ship.