A large, flat bottomed boat bobbed in the river’s placid waters as it made its way upstream, propelled by a large sail and the strong arms of six rowers who pulled their oars to the steady beat of a drum. She was an old vessel but kept immaculately clean and in perfect condition by her crew. She was over a hundred feet long and had been called many names over her long carrier plying these waters. Her current name was the Windrunner, and she rode low in the water, heavily laden with a cargo of grain.

Her captain sat in a padded seat on the quarterdeck with an experienced arm on the tiller. His name was Ednin, and at first glance, he looked like a child, standing as tall as an average man’s waist. However, his word was law on this vessel and his crew were quick to obey him. He was a gnome from Nindora, a land on the southern borders of the Shattered Empire and had spent most of his life on these waters. He was bald, and his skin was dark and weathered from a lifetime under the sun. He kept one eye on the clouds overhead and another on the waters ahead. It was early in the year, but chunks of ice already dotted the river before them. The ice formed in the mountains further upstream before being carried down by the river’s currents, and a light dusting of snow had fallen a few days before, making them easy enough to spot.

Most of the chunks were small enough that they could be crushed by the Windrunner’s hull without issue, but Ednin’s keen eyes already spotted a large floe that could potentially harm his vessel. Snow had piled up on it, forming several drifts. The Captain turned the tiller ever so slightly to give it a wider berth. One could never be too careful. There was a low groan of timbers as the Windrunner began to turn.

“Snow already this early in the year,” a stout man wearing ragged but clean clothes groused without taking his eyes off the rowers. His name was Navlin, and he had served as the Windrunner’s first mate for two seasons under this captain. He had been hesitant to serve under a gnome at first, but Ednin had quickly won him over. A competent and fair captain was a rare thing on the river routes where most were merely using it as a stepping stone for a more lucrative sea route and cared little for the welfare of their crew. “The river will be frozen over by the end of the month.”

Ednin knew the hidden meaning behind his first mate’s words and knew better than to dismiss his concerns. “This is an opportunity for us to do good for people who are in desperate need.”

The burly man peered over the side, and he shivered from the cold. “To think, I could be snuggled up warm in bed with my beloved Nara.”

“We are being well compensated for this run,” Ednin remarked as he turned his gaze to the hooded figure perched silently on the prow like a figurehead. “You can buy her something nice with your share.”

Navlin followed his captain’s gaze and grunted before declaring proudly. “If my Nara wanted money instead of my company, I’d still be running the sea routes.”

“Sorry to interrupt your conversation, boys,” Navlin jumped when he realized the hooded figure, who had been perched forty feet away just moments ago suddenly appeared next to him. “But I believe we are about to be attacked.”

Her features were obscured by the hood she wore low over her face, but she had a young voice. There was a betting pool going around the vessel as to how someone so young could be a member of the Arbiters of Ildurin, and it was Navlin’s job to find out what the truth was. However, the young woman had been unapproachable over the course of the voyage, confining herself to her cabin, or to her perch over the prow. All he could glean from her so far was her first name, Rhania.

Ednin raised an eyebrow before looking around theatrically. Snow covered flatlands stretched out as far as the eye could see on either side of the river and in the distance, off the boat’s starboard prow, loomed the jagged peaks of the Sawtooth Mountains.

“I don’t know if you noticed,” he said dryly. “But we are all alone out here.”

“It feels like we are the only ones in the whole world,” Navlin chimed in.

“There is an ice floe approaching us slowly,” Rhania replied. “It moved against the current to match our change in course.”

Ednin looked back at the floe and blinked in disbelief. She was right, the floe had changed course. Perhaps there was an eddy? No, the logical part of his brain told him. You’ve run this route enough to know there are no eddies on this stretch of the river. Still, his brain refused to consider the alternative.

“There are no pirates on the Arland River!” he protested.

The figure stood stock still as she looked at him before asking sardonically. “And what makes these waters so unique amongst all the waterways of Gelbrun?”

“So many communities rely on the river for trade that the penalty for piracy is death by drowning for the perpetrators and their families!” Ednin pointed out. “The communities along the river are small so any pirates would be identified quickly.”

A quiet sigh escaped the Arbiter’s lips. It was as though she was exasperated by the Captain’s naivete.

“He’s right,” Navlin said quietly. “Besides, all we’re carrying is grain. No one’s desperate to risk death for a little grain.”

“It seems that they are,” Rhania declared. “Arm your men and have them ready to defend themselves.”

“No vessels on the Arland are permitted to carry arms!” Ednin protested. He fell silent when he saw the Arbiter’s eyes boring into his from under the hood.

“Break out the weapons, Captain,” she ordered. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.”

“I find that hard to believe,” Navlin said dryly as he gave the badge depicting a set of gold scales pinned to her breast.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“I’m an Arbiter, not a Custodian,” Rhania replied. “I will help, but I might not be able to fend them off on my own. Prepare your men to defend themselves.”

“What do you think, Captain?” Navlin asked as they watched Rhania walk back to the prow.

“Ship oars, break out the weapons,” Ednin said at length.

His first mate’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Can we trust her, Captain? About keeping mum.”

“We’ll worry about that later,” the gnome snapped. “You know the penalty for piracy. If you were ever possessed to attempt it, would you leave any survivors?”

The colour drained from the stocky man’s face, and he whirled around to face his rowers. “You heard the Captain, ship oars and prepare to defend yourselves!”

Rhania let out a quiet sigh when she heard the first mate bark his orders. Most look scared out of their wits and would be a liability in a battle. However, at the very least, warning them gave them something to do besides panic. Up ahead, the ice floe seemed to pick up in speed. Then she saw them, oars protruding from under snowdrifts on either side of the floe, working furiously to propel them towards the larger vessel.

Meanwhile, the Windrunner’s oars had stopped working and the vessel began to slow. A few of the drifts shifted about, and Rhania’s keen ears heard panicked whispers coming from. She felt a twinge of relief. The Captain, though a competent master was unaccustomed to battle, and didn’t consider for a moment that his vessel would easily be able to outmanoeuvre their ambushers. It wasn’t that she was spoiling for a fight. Their attackers could be little more than desperate peasants after all. She had read up on the history of the region and knew that lush forests once thrived upon the snow dusted desolation that surrounded them. However, if they were anything but, it was important for her to know before she arrived in Vinton.

She unslung her bow and took a deep breath. Potentially killing starving peasants didn’t sit right with her, but these were desperate people, and she wasn’t about to put her lives in their hands. She glanced over her shoulder to see Navlin coming up the stairs with an armful of short swords and a pair of crossbows. The wide eyed looks the crew were giving him told her that they wouldn’t be of much use wielding them. Rhania took a deep breath. So it would fall to her. Better to keep the fighting away from the vessel. Or better yet, avoid a fight altogether.

“Would be ambushers,” she called out. “I am an Arbiter of Ildurin. You are about to commit a grievous crime. Stop this madness now, and I will be merciful!”

In the corner of her eye, she could see that Navlin and the crew had frozen in place, waiting and hoping against hope that the ambushers would heed her warning.

Snow covered blankets were cast aside, revealing a dozen white clad men. Before they could spring to their feet, a pair of arrows flew from Rhania’s bow, one after the other. Two men screeched as they fell to the ground while her third and fourth arrows thudded into the shields the others raised. They were crude devices made with bits of scrap wood, but they were enough to stop her arrows cold.

Rhania cursed. The shields wouldn’t have stopped iron tipped barbs, but she was carrying arrows whose shafts had been whittled down to a sharp edge. Rhania heard a faint fizzing sound and cursed again as she dropped her bow on the deck before leaping from the Windrunner over to the ice floe. She landed neatly on her feet and drew the large straight edged sword from its sheath at her hip.

The blade was heavy, but she was able to draw from the natural flow of energy flowing through the river to enhance her strength. With a single blow, she shattered the shield of a man who rushed her and crushed his skull. As he toppled over, she felt the ice floe they were standing on shift under the moving weight. Riding it easily, she quickly found the source of the sound she’d heard earlier. It was a lit fuse attached to a metal ball roughly five inches in diameter.

It was in the hands of a man positioned dangerously close to the Windrunner. She hurled herself at the shield bearer protecting him and knocked him backwards into the other man just as he was about to hurl the ball at the vessel. The man let out a warning cry as the metal ball fell from his hands and Rhania had just enough time to dive off the side of the floe and into the icy cold water when she heard a dull thud.

Rhania gasped as her head broke the surface, but her sword weighed her down and made it difficult for her to stay afloat. She was about to release it when a keen eyed member of the Windrunner’s crew threw her a line. She grabbed onto it and looked around to see that the force of the explosion had completely shattered the ice floe their ambushers had been standing on. Those who had survived the explosion were in the water, swimming for shore. She felt a jolt as oars bit the water, getting the vessel underway again.

“Wait!” she yelled as Navlin began to haul her in. “We need to take prisoners for questioning!”

“You can swim after them if you like,” came the captain’s voice from the rear of the vessel. “But I was paid to transport you to Vinton, not to fight pirates. Besides, they might have more of those bombs on them and there isn’t enough gold in the world for me to risk it.”

Soon, she was back on deck and swaddled in blankets. She stood on the stern next to the captain as the crew put their backs into the oars and watched their ambushers gather on either shore.

“Who do you think they were?” Ednin ventured as he scrutinized every chunk of ice on the river ahead of them, wary of another ambush.

“I have no idea,” Rhania replied. The adrenaline was wearing off and she began to shiver from the cold.

“I’m afraid I can’t permit any fires on board,” Ednin said apologetically. “You should get below decks, out of the elements.”

“I’ll stay where I am,” Rhania said. “What could they have been after?”

Ednin took his eyes off the water for a moment to give Rhania a sideways glance. “Well, they weren’t after our cargo, that’s for sure.”

Rhania raised an eyebrow. “You think they were after me?”

“They were organized and well armed,” the Captain shrugged. “I’ve never seen a bomb that compact and powerful. I’d wager they aren’t from these parts.”

“That was a dwarven powder bomb,” Rhania murmured as she looked at the mountains in the distance.

“Carried by men,” the Captain pointed out. “Trade with the dwarves was plentiful up until half a year ago.”

“They wouldn’t part with one of those devices easily,” Rhania remarked.

“It would have cost a pretty penny, then,” Ednin mused out loud as he looked at Rhania pointedly. “Their target must have been an important one.”

The Arbiter raised her eyebrows. “You think they were after me?”

The Captain smiled and shrugged before turning his attention back to the water. “Elves aren’t popular in Vinton, Lady Arbiter.”

It was then that Rhania realized that her hood had been pulled back when dove into the water and that her pointed ears were on full display. On the main deck, several of the crew were gawking at her openly as they rowed.

“The cat’s out of the bag now,” Ednin smirked when she hurriedly pulled her cloak back on.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Rhania muttered to herself. “Even if elves aren’t popular, why go to such lengths to kill one?”

Ednin shrugged. “I’m just a simple captain. Perhaps they were after an Arbiter.”

He paused and gave her a sideways look. “Why are you heading to Vinton, anyway? That place is a backwater.”

“To mediate in a dispute,” Rhania frowned. Only a handful of people from her order knew they were sending an elf, but it was unthinkable that any of them would have leaked information. Perhaps the ambushers were hoping to kill an Arbiter. But to what end? She would have to seek the answers in Vinton.

“It must be some dispute to require the attention of an Arbiter,” Ednin remarked.