“Dammit, Barcos, would it have killed you to tell me Khikall was a former pirate?” I complained as I sat down in the command room.

Khikall grunted but Barcos just shrugged. “Wasn’t my place to say, besides, I don’t see how it changes anything.”

I rubbed my temples, “of course it changes things. Maybe not with the crew, but it changes how I need to go about our efforts in this region. And what’s your story anyway? No, wait, let me guess. You’re some wayward lord, found adrift or sent into exile.”

I had meant it as a joke but I caught the quick gaze from Barcos to Khikall and the subtle shake of his head in return.

“Oh for fuck sake, you're kidding me right?”

“Well, not a lord, but I guess there’s no point keeping it under wraps any longer.”

I sank into my chair and groaned as Barcos told his story.

“So, I’m the fourth son of a house. They tend to call the oldest son of the house a prince but I never much liked the title. My father was referred to as a sovereign and along with four other sovereigns, ruled over the Protectorate.”

With every word, it felt like a lance was being driven into my skull and my mind went back to those damning words that Stygian Order man had said to me. Here was another example of events of significant importance swirling about me. I mentally sighed as I tuned back into what Barcos was saying.

“After my years with the Legion, I was sent to Hylatty for rest and recuperation. They were probably right to do that, I was bitter and angry at the time. But after a year, I needed off the island. I gave the outgoing Legion captain my formal request to return and to be relieved of my post. When months went by and I received no response, I tried again.”

“Let me guess, no response again?” I interrupted.

“None. Not even a “you will have to wait while we locate a candidate,” which I found odd. Two more years went by before I heard any news, and that came from a pirate that visited. He laughed at my predicament and I was impotent to do anything about it or harm him unless he harmed me first. Finally, Khikall visited the island. The bastard charged me a king's ransom to deliver my message, but deliver it he did. A month later I got a response that a replacement will be sent out shortly.”

Khikall chuckled at this part.

“Except it never came?” I asked.

“Except it never came, correct. By this time I had pieced together some of what was going on and who was behind my exile. It was my older half-brother. I never learned the why though and soon no more Legion ships arrived at the shores of Hylatty. Even the pirate ships dried up as it wasn’t even a good place to stop and restock supplies, leaving me alone with nothing but time and booze to soothe my mind.”

“So you want revenge against this brother, is that it?”

Barcos shook his head. “What would be the point? I get nothing out of killing him, except maybe a swift execution afterward. I even gave up my position within the Legion so now I am no longer tied to a Legion that abandoned me for a decade to rot. I just wanted off that damn island. You can’t imagine how torturous it was to hear the same jokes day in and day out for ten fucking years. I would have jumped off the island seven years ago if I had been physically able to do so and not stopped by my oath.”

I had to do a doubletake as what Barcos said sunk in. The man burst out laughing. “Oh man, you should have seen your face, that was worth getting off the island by itself,” he said, sucking down the last of his bottle.

Khikall was also chuckling.

“So, was that all true or all bullshit?” I grumbled.

“All true,” the man said with a burp, “all except the joke part. Could you imagine how conceited I would have to be to consider suicide because of something like that? Fuck no, I wanted off because the alcohol and company sucked. You try being around people for ten years that have all given up on life. It’s fucking depressing.”

“Ok, so you’re off the island, why stick with me?”

“Oh, that’s easy. I expect you are going to make some huge waves and I want to be around to get in on the action. I’m a bit of a thrill-seeker if you hadn’t guessed by my level,” he replied with a wink.

I groaned, eliciting another round of laughter. “Fine, as long as I don’t get pulled into some scheme to topple the Protectorate, you can remain aboard. I got enough shit to worry about without that becoming a reality.”

Barcos chuckled. “No worries there. I wouldn’t want to rule those shitheads anyway, I never was much for politicking. Gimme a blade and point me where you want me to stick it and I’ll be happy.”

I nodded as I tuned Barcos and Khikall out as they chatted about old times. So far the crew was working out but I knew we could use at least one more crew member. The problem is I had no clue where to get one. I suppose Barcos or Khikall might know, seeing as they are knowledgeable about the area and probably know people that would be interested and not cause issues.

“We still need one more crew member, got anyone to recommend?”

The two stopped their conversation and looked at me in consideration.

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“What about Diylia?” Barcos asked Khikall.

He shook his head, “killed by pirates. Vashess is still alive though.”

Barcos winced. “Yeah, hard pass on him, he's a psychopath.”

The two went back and forth, naming half a dozen people before they settled on one name. A female Ilixian by the name of Em’ah. I had to ask what an Ilixian was. Apparently, they were a semi-gelatinoid race. Again I needed clarification on what the hell a semi-gelatinoid was.

While the Ilixian had a gelatinous outer body, they still had bones of a sort. This limited the forms they could take but this Em’ah was said to be a highly sought-after spy as she could change her appearance to match most humanoid species. The two didn’t say if this was due to her class or her race though.

I asked the next logical question. “Ok, if she is so good at blending in, how the hell are we going to find her?”

“That should be easy enough, I can contact my old Captain from when I was in the Legion. He owes me a favor and should know where Em’ah is currently working, and also her cover identity.”

“You sure he’s going to hand that over since you no longer work for the Legion?”

Barcos shrugged, “He won’t know that yet. I will send out a message to him at the next port.”

Somehow I doubted this was going to turn out as quick and easy a process as it was when we retrieved Sha’Stis but I kept those thoughts to myself.

***

We arrived at the next port and Barcos sent off his message. This was different process than the message plates I had used in the past, more along the lines of a face time request through a mirror. That reminded me, I still had that broken mirror from when the dwarves had attacked me. Khikall said it was the same sort of item but was useless without the counterpart fragments, well, not useless, but you would only be able to communicate with those other fragments.

I decided to take a hard pass on that, not wanting any of those dwarven remnants to know I was still about and kicking. I did head onto the deck when I had a minute and simply dumped the mirror overboard and into the ocean. If they hadn’t tracked me down with it yet, they probably wouldn’t but it was better to be safe than sorry. I didn’t fear them coming after me, I just didn’t need the additional headache at the moment.

We remained in the port for three days before Barcos received a reply. His old commander said if he wanted to talk, that he had to meet at the Legion stronghold he was currently commanding.

“Feel’s a bit fishy,” I said flatly.

“Probably is,” Barcos replied.

“Any other way to find this woman?” I asked.

“Nope, not if you want to find her this decade anyway. Besides, I can handle my old captain. As long as you two can handle the ship, we should be fine.”

I set the device I had been tinkering with down on the galley table. “And if they force my hand?”

Barcos shrugged, “do what you have to do, Captain.”

I frowned slightly, “this woman better be worth all this damn trouble.”

“She will be, I worked with her in the past and she’s good at what she does,” Barcos replied with conviction.

“Barcos isn’t wrong, Captain. She may be a spy by trade but she is loyal as long as she is treated right,” Khikall added.

I wanted to bring up the fact that she was like the fourteenth name they had discussed but decided not to open that conversation. As with Khihall and Barcos, I would reserve judgment. I just wish they didn’t make it so damn hard. I only grunted in affirmative as Khikall left the room to prep the ship.

The trip to the Legion base was through a dense area of small floating rocks, almost like dense asteroids. There was no real way to bypass the area on this side of the Isles. It extended down toward the ocean surface and farther into the sky than the Retribution was capable of flying without solid ground underneath. And the rocks were too small to give the ship any added lift to maneuver above the debris field. This was made all the more difficult as the rocks tended to move and collide with others. Oh and did I mention, we got to this field of rocks just as the mist was rolling in. Yay us!

It was slow going, to say the least. The shields got a workout though as there were always a few pebbles bouncing off of it along our path. The only advantage we had was the fact that the Retribution was quite a bit smaller than most airships. It was also sleeker, allowing us to slip between rocks with large gaping holes in them.

We did get attacked by a flock of large pterodactyl-like birds called Shikas at one point. But they were rather low-level beasts and the weapons aboard Retribution were enough to kill a few and chase the others off.

The entire trip took two weeks and during that time the fog had rolled in and out three times, slowing our progress with each wave. I didn’t know how Khikall dealt with the stress, I wasn’t even piloting and I was a nervous wreck.

Finally, we cleared the field and saw the Legion base’s island in the distance. It was like being in the eye of a rocky hurricane but I could understand the reasoning for building a base in such an inhospitable place. Especially if you wanted to protect something important. Barcos had never been to this base, so he didn’t know what was so important about it, not that it mattered.

Through the command room’s view, I could see over twenty Legion vessels patrolling the space around the island. As we came around the island, three of the smaller ships shadowed us.

I hadn’t seen these types of vessels before so I asked Barcos about them. “What kind of airships are those?”

He looked over and quirked an eyebrow. “I’m not sure. Fast attack ships maybe, they weren’t around the last time I was aboard a Legion vessel.”

As we got closer, I got a better look at the ships. They were a double-deck design, with the second deck being the top deck. I only counted sixteen guns out of each side of the vessel, making them considerably less armed than any pirate ship we had encountered so far. But gone was the easily visible balloon used on most ships of the Protectorate I had seen so far. They also didn’t sport the smokestacks of the Jerboan vessels.

I could tell the wood was armored in some sort of metal though. Thinner than the plates that made up the Retributions armor but it made sense if it was just to absorb the initial impact, the wood would do the rest.

There was also a slight blue glow emanating from under the ship but it was hard to see unless you were close enough. It almost resembled heatwaves but in reverse. I assumed it was caused by whatever enchantments they had used to replace the standard balloon.

I found the design quite fascinating, a cross between a large sailboat and an internal combustion-powered ship. The closest thing to my ship that I had seen so far.

As we got closer to the massive port – set within a large cove – I could see why the place was so secure. It was a massive shipyard. Enormous cannons, mounted at the entrance to the cove tracked the Retribution as we made our way inside. I didn’t even want to consider what would have happened if we flew over the island or under it, it didn’t seem like the Legion was taking any chances here. I assumed they only let us get this far without challenging us because they knew we were coming, or I hoped that was why.

After seeing the guns, I wanted to turn around, but seeing all the ships, I’m not sure how far we would get without the mist to cover our escape. Also, Barcos had a bored expression on his face so I figured if he didn’t feel it was an issue, then neither should I, except I did and my hackles were all the way up. But we were locked in now.

I did run escape scenarios through my mind as we approached, and none were very encouraging. There was one possibility, I just hoped it wouldn’t come to that as I hadn’t tested the ship for those conditions.