A wind-charged fireball exploded against the palace walls and took out a few bricks while bolts of lightning arced through the smoke. The party beyond was instantly thrown into chaos as Cira watched half-conscious pirates stumble over unconscious ones to get to the armory.
She wanted to ransack the lower floor and really clean them out of weapons, but pushing her luck too much in one night was a recipe for disaster. It was basically guaranteed for there to have been guards down below. For kicks, Cira had Tawny light up a small storehouse outside the gates used for lumber and it turned into a great pyre as they escaped into the night sky before anyone had a chance to fire back.
The palace lights grew distant, but not fast enough. The ship was noticeably weighed down compared to when they arrived, and it swayed in the wind. They were too far now to keep their magic up, so now it was just a straight shot to the shore. They passed right over Hangman’s Cove on their way South and once they nearly reached the edge, the first black and gold ship rose up behind them. Two masts carried it through the wind and its narrow hull slid across the sky with little effort.
It was clear that this enemy ship was already going faster than them as they ascended, and in the time Cira guessed it took them to pull out a spyglass, the sound of cannon fire rang out over the town. It was a clear miss, but rippled the air as it passed by before disappearing into the clouds.
All the women they rescued started screaming and even the ones down below could be heard along with the panicked cries of their children. Truthfully, if a cannonball hit the hull, it could spell trouble. The ship now bore reinforcement glyphs, but they were a far cry from Breeze Haven’s protections.
Another blast pierced the night, “Those sons a bitches!” Reverend called out.
“We need to go faster!” Joe shouted.
“We’re overweight, you fool!” With a groan, he looked around the ship before taking a glance at their pursuers, “Trim the sails, we’re goin’ up!”
At his word, the crew fell into action. “But don’t we need to go down?” Cira asked.
“Wick may not be the sharpest sword in the barrel, but the same trick won’t work twice with a ship that fast tailing us—Ease up the canopies!” He cut himself off with more orders for the crew. Cira saw James taking charge and felt a sudden downdraft as the ship suddenly caught wind. “That ship will reach us by the time we can get back under the island, but we can still climb faster.”
Another cannonball broke through the fog a little closer this time, but their current ascent threw off the enemy’s aim. As Shores furiously spun the wheel back and forth to try and further hinder the cannoneer, Cira thought she should leave him to his captaining.
Another five or ten minutes passed by as they ascended southward and they reached a point where their pursuers could no longer aim high enough to even hope for a shot. Cira strolled around to the edge and watched them get smaller within the dark, misty backdrop. Lost Cloud was nowhere to be seen as they’d flown so far up, but the fog had already begun to envelop Wick’s ship.
“You can get us back, right?” There was a little tingle of worry in the pit of Cira’s stomach as they sped deeper into the cloudy abyss. Without her aura, being this far from Breeze Haven made her nervous. If they got lost, she may never see it again.
“Who do you think I am?” Shores gave her a fearless grin. “You just sit tight, Captain. And have Tawny turn our cloak back on when that guy’s out of sight.”
She returned a firm nod and walked across the deck to where her exhausted mages sat against the stern chatting to watch the sky below. No more cannonballs came, and it only took a few minutes before their pursuers were gone without a trace, leaving them up here alone with the wind.
___
It was still dark by the time they made it back to Breeze Haven, though the first shreds of twilight could be seen creeping in from below. The journey was mostly quiet when they lit torches and approached the basin of shadows. It wasn’t until then that another panic stirred among the former hostages.
“W-where are we going…?” A nervous Olive stood next to Cira and worked up the courage to ask.
“Home.” Cira smiled.
“You… live in the Valley of Curses?”
“Not a valley.” She held a finger up to make a point. “And only temporarily.”
Shrill cries came from below deck as they plunged into the darkness, and her unoccupied crew rushed down there to calm them down. Everyone was on edge. While the women up top frantically swiveled their heads around the black nothingness which enshrouded them all, Olive was noticeably shaking.
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“What is this place?" Her face was pale as her wide eyes kept catching glimpses of revenants as they disappeared into the dark.
“This is merely the reservoir of a mana well. More importantly, do you know where the other hostages are?” Cira had figured out something else she could do to deal a blow to the King. She would take everything within her grasp.
“Um, yes… I do.” She timidly glanced between Cira and the fading apparitions. “Are you going to save all of them too?”
Cira’s mouth was open as she was about to confirm the girls’ question when James walked up, “Hey now, what the hell are you planning?”
Olive nervously shrunk back, but his eyes were fixed only on Cira.
“We need to get the other hostages, no?” She couldn’t abandon something halfway through just like that.
“You think we have the time or the crew for that? We already have those crazy mages looming over us, and you’re the one who said your soul couldn’t be delayed any longer. Everyone’s tired, and there’s barely enough of us to keep the ship moving.”
“So what?!” Cira rebutted, “I could have shot that bastard in the chest—and it would have been easy! He still possesses far too much. And you saw that room at the top of the tower, right? Want to make bets on whether the other storehouses have better conditions?”
Their argument had drawn the stray women’s attention and Jimbo walked over at the noise, “What’s going on? I’m in.”
“Why are you always like this?!” James cradled his head in his hands and loudly groaned. “This idiot’s about to tell us to go find the rest of Wick’s hostages as soon as we get back!”
“What are you gonna do with ‘em?” Jimbo asked, “We already got a bunch on hand.”
“We can send them off to Green Pit while everything blows over, can’t we?” This was a place Cira had never seen but was constantly grateful for its existence.
“Green Pit ain’t that big.” Shores had evidently been drawn in as they drifted through the dark. “How many people are we talking? They’ll need food too, you know. There’s plenty on Green Pit, but something tells me these girls aren’t hunters.”
Cira cast an inquisitive look to Olive. “Um, maybe three or four hundred in all…”
“That’s a lot.” He nodded.
“Sure is.” Jimbo agreed.
Cira agreed as well, but it would do no good to voice negative opinions. “They’ve got to be feeding them, at least a little. Plus, the guards that watch them. We have a pantry worth of goods and we’ll raid each location. That will be a start, right? Bring them to Breeze Haven after each trip and once we have freed all the hostages, Shores will either shuttle them back and forth or go get a bigger ship from Green Pit. If we don’t do this now, Wick will certainly move them once he discovers the others gone. This is our only chance.”
Even the stupidest man would move them if his entire kingdom depended on blackmailing his subordinates. She couldn’t do anything about those truly loyal, but with the number of hostages she was hearing about, it would seriously shake his power over Lost Cloud.
There was a difficult look on James’ face as he mulled over her words. He wasn’t so stone-hearted, he was just pragmatic. The man didn’t like to see people shoved into a room like livestock, nor to hear that there were more places just like it. He clearly wanted to do something about it by the look on his face but couldn’t commit to something that would lead to failure and death.
“The sky’s crawling with those black and gold bastards now,” James finally said. It was bothersome that she needed her crew’s approval for her plans, but she’d be no better than Wick otherwise. She didn’t want people to start dying either, though. “They’ll pick us right off.”
The women here seemed to be familiar with some of the others held elsewhere and listened to their argument with bated breath.
“If I was going to abandon them, I may as well have left the rest at the palace.” He has a point though. We’re not ready for this at all. “We still have a few hours before the sun rises. There has to be a way.”
“I’ll do it.” Shores stepped forward. “Allow me to shoulder this burden for you. Just leave me whoever you don’t need in the forge.”
“Are… you sure?” It was a perfect offer for Cira but didn’t really solve any of the presented problems. “I don’t need anyone rushing to their death to quell my whims.”
“Wick won’t even know I’m comin’.” There was a reassuring smile plastered on his face, “You let me worry about the details.”
While Cira wasn’t comfortable relinquishing control on this one, she realized it was only because she wanted to slight Captain Wick. The core of the issue could be resolved without her. If Shores said he can round up all the hostages, then it was best to take him for his word. “Take everyone you need but Gil and my rock mages. Sorry, Olive. That means you too.”
She was the only one who knew the location of Wick’s storehouses, so it was a given she had to go. The girl knew this, but it still didn’t make her feel any better. “Are you… not coming with us?”
“Don’t worry, he hasn’t failed me yet.” For some reason, Cira didn’t think her expression was as assuring as the Reverend himself, “I have to prepare for a great many guests.”
Through the curtain of shadows, Breeze Haven’s light came into view at last to the surprised gasps of her commandeered prisoners. They mumbled about trying to figure out what it was when they eventually touched down next to the shining island.
Cira gave the heaps of treasure one last look and issued some more orders to the crew, “Get the women and children off the ship and dump all the treasure off the side for later. Make sure to treat the staves gently and bring the food up to the lawn so nothing gets into it. Jimbo, you run in and tell everyone to come out here with all the torch artifacts they can carry.”
“Aye, aye!”
Her point-man jumped off to find the others and Cira turned her back to a grumbling james to climb down as well while the everyone else started directing the rescues. There was always something important Cira forgot to consider when taking on a burden such as the lives of women and children, but she was at least equipped to deal with it now.
The trunk full of boarding passes always seemed like overkill, but she knew there wasn’t nearly enough in there. It wasn’t even worth grabbing them when she would have to make more anyway. Cira was also in the habit of carrying an extra in her pocket at this point, so she pulled it out to inspect the glyphs.
They worked more like a receiver for Breeze Haven to recognize rather than as true artifacts themselves. All the work in allowing someone inside or ejecting them was done entirely by her home’s litany of enchantments, but it did allow Breeze Haven to discern their will.
Starting with a single palm-sized disk of stone from beneath her feet, Cira carved away at it while her onyx slowly recharged.