When we had finished burying the patrol, Grey got to work covering up our tracks. With a wave of his hand, fresh grass sprouted over the mass grave, concealing their final resting place forever. With another, the evidence of battle, including all of the blood spilled on the road, was blown away in the wind.
We all piled back into the wagon after that. We might have just been involved in a battle, but that didn’t mean we could stop. There was still a mission to do.
I accepted the reins from Grey and got us back underway. But as the horses broke into a trot, I couldn’t help my mind from wandering in the silence. Thoughts of my status as a Precursor kept me troubled.
They didn’t really go away.
……………………………………..
The rest of the trip to Marrowmist was mostly uneventful. We only encountered one other traveler on the road, and they thankfully weren’t another Loyalist patrol. Just another wagon, driven by a taciturn old man with skin weathered and tanned from long days spent in the sun. He barely acknowledged us at all when we passed each other on the road.
Didn’t bother me. I’d take indifference to battle any day.
On the trip, curiosity finally won me over and I decided to check out the class ability I'd gotten from reaching level forty. Checking out my Status had to be at least a little more interesting than watching the endless rolling green hills, right?
Apparently, I'd gotten something called Grasping Roots. It was my second activated class Skill, and this one was kinda cool. I'd tested it on the roadside under Grey's interested gaze, and what it did was conjure up a mass of tree roots under a target and bind them with familiar grasping red thorns. It dug those thorns into the target and held them in place. I'd honestly felt a bit bad about using the Skill on the rabbit I'd targeted. Still, it became part of that night's dinner.
As useful as it was, I was kinda weirded out by the description of 'Immobilize your prey', though.
Before long, we’d reached the coast. It may have been a change in scenery, but it was honestly kind of dreary. The sea that bearded Herztal’s eastern coast seemed extremely cold and unforgiving. There wasn’t really much of a beach to it, instead being rocky when it wasn’t just sheer cliff. I asked Grey about it on our travels, and he told me that it was the north-western coast of the continent that had the pleasant, sandy beaches.
Hooray for us that these pirates had decided to set up some in such a damp hellhole.
Finally, after weeks of travel, Grey stopped us over the top of one of those cliffs. He had taken off his hat, and was casting a critical gaze out at sea. Following his gaze, I saw three tall, sharp spires of stone jutting out of the turbulent waters, one next to the other in a line.
“Are we there?” I asked him.
Grey nodded slowly. “Yes, I believe we are. I’ve never reached Marrowmist overland before, but I believe this is the correct location.”
I looked around us in incredulity. We’d gotten off of the main road some time ago, and had reached this cliff after about a day of travel. Problem was, I didn’t see a town of pirates around me. In fact, this area had nothing much at all. In front of us was naught but a roiling sea, hundreds of feet beneath. Behind us was a near-endless expanse of grassland, slowly dying with the advance of fall.
I turned back to Grey. “I don’t see a pirate cove, Grey. I don’t see much of anything.”
Grey turned to me with a raised eyebrow. “That would be because it’s beneath us.” He said, pointing downwards. “The cove is hidden beneath the cliff.”
“Oh,” I said, chagrined. “Then…how are we supposed to reach it? Is there a path along the cliff or something?”
Grey shook his head. “Not along the cliff, no. I don’t believe these cliffs taper off for hundreds of miles. Instead, there’s supposed to be a secret entrance to reach the cove somewhere in the vicinity.” He pointed out to sea again, at the three spires of stone. “The Three Fingers are meant to mark the spot where you can find Marrowmist.”
I furrowed my brow. “‘Supposed to be’?” I asked. “You don’t actually know if there’s an entrance up here?”
Grey huffed a laugh. “As I said, I’ve never reached the cove overland before, only by sea. Still, I was given instruction on how to reach the path downwards, if I ever needed it. However, we’ll have to search for it. In which case,” He said, turning around and banging on the wall behind us. When the latch opened to allow Sylvia’s blue eyes to peer through, Grey spoke again. “Time for a treasure hunt, my dear! We’ll need everyone’s help for this one, so get them all up off their behinds!”
Grey’s Sculpted daughter rolled her eyes at him and then nodded. Wordlessly, she shut the latch. Shortly after that, I heard a muffled conversation inside the cabin. Meanwhile, Grey hopped off of the driver's bench and moved around to the back of the wagon. I looked down at Fade, who had been watching curiously from in between us. I sighed and then smiled at him. “Up for helping with the search, boy?”
The young wolf just tilted his head curiously at me. Nevertheless, he followed when I jumped down off of the bench myself and moved to follow Grey. When I reached the back of the wagon, everyone was already standing around, listening to Grey. “…a plank, about yay high,” He was saying to the group, raising a hand to midchest on his skinny frame. “On it should be the symbol of Marrowmist, three bones obscured by mist. I’m given to understand that it marks the position of the way downward.” He gazed at the grassland surrounding us. “However, it appears to be hidden somewhere in this mess. Once you find it, signal me and I’ll know what to do with it.”
When Grey was finished speaking, our group split up into pairs to search. I went with Grey, Venix went with Azarus, and Sylvia went with Aurum. I struck up another conversation with Grey as we searched through the brush for this plank of wood.
“So,” I said, using my extended dagger to cut some knee-high grass. “You never said how you know these pirates anyhow.”
Grey looked up at me from where he was kneeling. “Oh? Well, that would be because I used to be one.”
I nearly tripped in surprise, before finding my feet beneath me. “What? When the hell were you a pirate? I thought you were a schoolteacher?”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Grey laughed as he stood up. “I wasn’t always the Headmaster of the Academy, Nathan. When I was a much, much younger man, before Herztal was even a unified nation, I was…much wilder.” He gazed out onto the sea with a distant gaze. “Because of how close Hollow Hill is to the sea, it was common even back in those days for restless young men to escape to the waters.”
I…guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I’d noticed several times now that Grey wasn’t, strictly speaking, a paragon of morality. Since I’d known him, he’d demonstrated a level of flexibility that would probably have gotten him labeled a monster back home. From the plan to intentionally instigate a Ward Break back in Addersfield, to the recent battle with the Loyalist patrol.
Grey could be surprisingly callous at times.
I glanced at him from the corner of my eye. “What was that like?” I asked him tentatively.
“Well,” Grey said thoughtfully. “I was born in a fractious period of time. As I’ve said before, Herztal didn’t exist yet. What did exist were the many individual human Kingdoms. They had all popped up in the aftermath of the Initialization Wars, and each claimed that they were the true successors of the Gem City,” He glanced at me. “Gem Cities are truly ancient, predating the System and dating back to the time of the Gods. We believe they were the seats of power for them. Each of the native peoples of Vereden possessed one at one point or another. In humanity’s case, that would be Blutstein, our ancestral capital. In any case, the Succession Wars followed for humanity.”
Grey paused to take out his pipe and fill it. With a snap of his fingers, he lit it magically. Taking a deep breath from the pipe, he held the smoke in his lungs before letting it out. He gazed at his pipe for a moment afterward, looking nearly embarrassed. “I can’t believe I’ve started smoking again. I gave it up when Sylvia was ‘born’.” He admitted, before shaking his head. “Anyway, in the midst of one of the Succession Wars, I signed up with a crew at a long-destroyed port some miles behind us. I was young and rebellious at the time, and I resented the direction my parents wanted for my life, which was as a clerk. I didn’t care for the Duke that Hollow Hill was sworn to, and would have rather slit my wrists than shuffle scrolls for him. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the crew I’d signed up for were actually privateers given leave to plunder his enemies' coffers.” He finished with a laugh.
I felt slightly relieved. Okay, so he was a privateer. That was…slightly better than being a pirate.
“Oh, that was an interesting time in my life, let me tell you,” Grey said with a smile, nostalgia in his voice. “I stayed on with that crew for nearly a decade, before the Duke was assassinated and his holdings absorbed by another Kingdom. I would spend the next thirty years of my life jumping ships, seeking out new crews.” He shook his head. “In any case, you asked why I know these specific pirates. That would be because I attempt to keep a moderating eye on them. I won’t pretend they aren’t a group of scallywags, but I like to believe the threat of my wrath has decreased undue harm. Why, I’ve nearly convinced the leaders to accept Herztalian commissioned letters of marque.” He paused for a moment. “Nearly.”
“Huh,” I said. “Is it a case of, better the dev-er, monster you know?”
Grey puffed out a cloud of smoke before answering me. “Partly,” He said vaguely, before blatantly changing the subject. He pointed ahead with his pipe. “Oh look, it appears as if young Fade has found something.”
My brow furrowed slightly in irritation. Goddamn cagey old man. Still, I looked where he was pointing. During our conversation, Fade had ranged slightly ahead of us to sniff around. He was stopped though, and was circling a patch of grass. He looked up at us as we neared him and barked at me.
“Well, let's see what you found,” I said to my pup, nudging him out of the way with a boot. Using my spear, I cleared the grass away to reveal…
A weathered-looking plank of driftwood.
As unimpressive as it looked, Grey still let out a noise of satisfaction. “Ah, there it is,” He said, kneeling. Lifting it up, he wiped some dirt off to reveal something carved into it. Looking over Grey’s shoulder, I could see that it was a depiction of three splintered bones in row, with two wavy lines intersecting them perpendicularly.
“The mark of Marrowmist,” Grey said in vindication. He grinned at me. “Let’s just retrieve the others, shall we?” Raising a palm above him, my mentor cast a silent spell, sending a bolt of light soaring above us to explode in a flash. I felt a shiver run down my spine, remembering the last time he had cast a spell into the sky. I shook it off though, and collapsed my spear to sheathe it.
Shortly after that, our four other companions reached our position. Azarus made an unimpressed noise when he saw the plank in Grey’s hands. “Is that it, then?” He asked in disbelief. “What’s that hunk of junk goin’ ta do?”
“Oh, patience my young friend, patience,” Grey said with a smirk. Turning around and laying a hand on the carved mark, he cleared his throat. To my astonishment, he started reciting poetry.
“In Marrowmist, where pirates roam,
A secret door, the pathway home.
Through salty tales and treasures kissed,
Unlock the port of Marrowmist.”
Under Grey’s palm, the supposed symbol of Marrowmist lit up, outlined in blue light. Meanwhile, I gave Venix standing off to my left a bit of the old side-eye. Grey now? Was this poetry thing contagious? Venix noticed my gaze and raised one chitinous eyebrow my way, causing me to hastily look away in embarrassment.
In front of me, Grey leaned in closer to the plank and started speaking into it. “Hello?” He said in a loud, clear voice. “Is anyone there?”
To my astonishment, sound began to emanate from the mark on the plank. Specifically, the sound of crashing and then muffled cursing. “Who the bleedin’ hells,” I heard a reedy voice say, sounding as if it was getting closer. “Are ye? We don’t got no shipments comin’ in. How do ye know about this, now?”
Grey smiled disbelievingly and laughed. “Is that you, Skinflint?” He said, chuckling. “You can’t tell me you don’t recognize my voice, do you? It’s Whitegull.”
There was an astonished silence on the other end of the…plank, for a moment. “Truly?” The voice said, baffled. “We heard ye got nabbed through the grapevine. The hells are ya doin’ here?”
Grey snorted. “The ‘grapevine’ was correct, but I’m free now. I need to speak to the Triumvirate about contracting their services.”
“Well, alright,” The voice, apparently someone named ‘Skinflint’, said hesitantly. “But first ye got ta say the password if ye want in.”
“I already activated the message board,” Grey said in exasperation. “Isn’t that enough?”
“Ye ain’t gettin’ in without the other password,” Skinflint said stubbornly over the ‘message board’.
“Oh, very well,” Grey sighed, before clearing his throat. “The password is…Otto the Ox can suck my…” He grimaced, but continued. “Cox.”
I blinked. Otto? Wasn’t that the name of the now dead High King? Apparently, it was, because Azarus started snickering to himself next to me. For the first time, I got to see Grey’s cheeks redden in embarrassment.
Meanwhile, the voice on the other end of the message board started cackling. “Damn right he can!” Skinflint hooted. “Hope ye ain’t standin’ on it, 'cause I’m sendin’ up the lift!” Over the line, I heard a clanking noise before the light on the plank winked out.
We stood in silence for a moment, before I felt a rumble through the ground beneath me. That rumbling gradually became stronger and stronger before something unexpected happened.
A few hundred yards away from us, something exploded out of the dirt sending grass flying everywhere. I jerked back in surprise, instinctively reaching for my dagger. I wasn’t the only one, as everyone but Grey settled into a combat-ready stance.
But it wasn’t an attack. Instead, I could see the ‘lift’. It was a huge metal platform with an attached dome, large enough to fit at least two wagons on it. On either side of it were two large steel doors, splayed wide and open. I…think it was the violent opening of the doors that caused the explosion of soil.
Over the sound of falling dirt, Grey turned to us with a grin. “Oh, don’t be alarmed. That’s merely our entrance to Marrowmist. The lift, as Skinflint called it. Nathan, if you could, would you mind fetching the wagon?”
“It’s time to secure our ride to Caer Drarrow.”