Chapter 48: Desertion (1/2)

I’d seen men with more alcohol in their bodies than blood turn cold sober when faced with something that scared them. I didn’t have anything to scare me that badly – nor did I want something to suddenly appear for the sake of sobriety – but I wasn’t as sloshed as I should have been after finishing off an entire bottle of whiskey in an evening. Maybe my body was resisting the alcohol, maybe my conversation with Hali had shook me a little. Either way, I was rational enough to come up with a plan before I left my table.

The bartender glared at me when I motioned him closer. People had various initial reactions to my imbalance. While my crew seemed to be getting more or less used to me, everyone else either turned up their noses or glared.

“Whattaya want?” he demanded. He’d made me pay up front, so he didn’t even have the promise of incoming money to motivate him to be helpful.

I tried to change that by placing a silver on the counter. It was worth more than my liquor had been. “I’m looking for a place to pick up magical items.”

“I recommend the market in the morning,” he replied, though he eyed the silver.

“If I was interested in market stalls, I’d do that.” I said. “I need the sort of operation that’d open its doors for me tonight.”

I was gambling. I’d never purchased magical goods on the black market before, but was trying to sound like I at least knew what I wanted. My bluff seemed to work, because the barkeep picked up my silver and eyed it.

“What kind of goods would you be lookin’ fer?”

“Concealment. Not stealth stuff, I mean stat concealment.”

He snorted. “Pity.”

“I know, I know. I’m no ones favorite patron. But I’m trying to change that. Wouldn’t you like to see me without magic convincing you I’m ugly?”

“You are ugly, ya snot! Doesn’t matter what kind of magic is to blame. No magic item is gonna fix you up, neither.” He rolled my silver across his knuckles and made it disappear in his palm. “But iffin’ you’ve got the coin, I’ve got the friends.”

“Then we have business.”

A short while later, I was in a normal armorers’ store. I could guess at the operation that was going on based off the details.

The clerk who opened the store for us and laid out the type of items I requested no doubt worked here during the day – the key ring he had looked official enough. Judging by the way he moved through the place, he wasn’t worried about his ‘boss’ the armorer finding out, so he was probably the true boss of the place despite his seemingly low position.

I wasn’t given the chance to peruse the shelves or check out wherever they had their illicit goods hidden. First time customers weren’t given that level of trust, even if I was rich and something else might have caught my eye.

Speaking of riches, I hoped this wouldn’t be too expensive. I’d had quite a bit of gold for one person not too long ago, but I’d divvied a lot of it up to have my crew make purchases. Only what we’d taken from the schooner allowed me to consider such an investment.

But it should be a worthwhile investment. I’d started thinking after seeing Hali’s necklace again. The usefulness of my Hide True Nature ability was nearing its end – people were learning my name. My ability only hid my curse and ocean magic.

And if people knew who I was, the analyze skill level required to see through me went down considerably.

An item like Hali’s though … it had disadvantages, she’d pointed them out to me before, but it could give me a chance at a different name.

So here I was in the middle of the night, with people the local guard would love to get their hands on, perusing goods that could not have been obtained honestly. I wasn’t sure whether to be impressed or disappointed with the selection.

I’d half expected the black market to have a stall full of trinkets to choose from. Instead, I was looking at two small trays filled with jewelry. What was impressive, was that each piece of jewelry had some function like what I’d asked for.

Ring of veiled character, ring of anonymity, necklace of obscurity, necklace of persona … all of them related to hiding my stats.

But, I wasn’t just trying to hide them. I was trying to create an illusion, like the one that had convinced me Hali was a sailor.

That took most of the goods off the table. I quickly narrowed down the rest by my disliking rings – too many sailors lost fingers due to the darned things. Burdette himself was an example, though the man still persisted in wearing them. That left me with a choice of two necklaces. I chose the one that didn’t look like a gaudy bauble.

“The chain on this, can it be changed without affecting the item?” The clerk nodded. I unclasped the fine silver, diamond studded chain and dropped it in the tray. I was left with a rather plain looking medallion shaped like a compass rose. “Do you have a simple leather cord I could use?” I asked. “I’ll take this one.”

The clerk retrieved a cord for me and named a price in silver. I was relieved – I’d been worried something like this would cost gold. It was a fair weight of silver, but still.

I guess there were benefits of goods acquired cheaply and without any tax applied.

My bartering attempts got me nowhere, and feeling more than a little uncomfortable at whether I was even supposed to barter with this man, I paid the asking price. It was worth it.

I slipped out to the street and almost immediately began to duck down an alley to avoid a gang of men patrolling the streets. That is, until I recognized them.

“What has you lot wound up?” I asked.

Surprised at seeing their Captain, the group stammered and made way for Burdette.

“Captain,” the man said. “It would seem I’ve made a mistake …”

“You sure that we are missing 16?” I hissed through my teeth as I followed Burdette. “What, you conducted a muster in the town square?”

“Those men were in a group that asked to explore the waterfront night life,” Burdette said. “The other group leaders accounted for themselves.”

“You’ve contacted each group?” I demanded. “You said you heard of this not an hour ago, yet you met with every group in the port?”

He hesitated. “Not every group, but the vast majority all have …”

I cursed. “Recall the men to the ship. No! Wait twenty minutes, then give the signals. I want you to have a proper count waiting for me when I arrive.”

“When you arrive?” Burdette said. “But sir …”

“No buts, Burdette! You return to the ship immediately with the rest of these men,” I said as the crew around us ground to a halt. “You said Phillip knows where this fort is?”

“Yes,” he said, still wavering.

I named Phillip and four others – all fighters – who would accompany me. The rest I ordered back to the ship.

This port call was a mistake.

16 men had asked Burdette to visit a brothel. Burdette had let them go. Later, another one of my crew spotted them not carousing with soiled doves, but stealthily making their way towards the local garrison.

There might be something sly going on, but to me it spoke of a coordinated desertion. 16 men had decided they would rather try their luck with the local authorities than serve under me on my doomed mission to turn the waters red.

For all that I pitied my crew and what I made them do, this desertion made me angry. Furious. They’d abandoned their fellows. They’d abandoned me.

Phillip guided me towards where the men were last seen. The size of the garrison unsettled me. We were supposed to be visiting a town just large enough to accommodate us – either the town had grown quite a bit since Burdette had last visited or my first mate hadn’t shared my cautious viewpoint.

There was a two story stone hall making one end of the rectangular garrison. Long, narrow barracks extended from this hall like legs on a stool. With this arrangement, only short sections needed to be dedicated walls, as the buildings themselves served the purpose. It was no castle, but it was more than enough. The gates were barred, and there were no windows in the outer wall. At least, not on the ground level. There were windows on the second story of the hall, but even they were designed to allow archers to fire through and deny intruders.

I pointed towards them anyway. My small gang and I weren’t enough to break into an armed garrison and drag 16 unwilling people away, but I could at least learn more.

I summoned water against the northern wall of the town hall, away from prying eyes at the gate. Freezing the water and shaping it, I formed handholds. They were not strong handholds, and would disappear without my magical focus, but for my 11 levels in climbing? Kids stuff.

Ascending to the second story porthole – I suppose army people called windows in a fort something different, but darned if I knew the terminology – I peered through. It was a spartan if cheerily lit mess hall, with logs cracking on the fire and glow-rocks sitting in polished sconces along the wall. Seated among the tables were my 16 crewman.

They were eagerly tucking into a stew, while the commander of the garrison questioned them.

“And your Captain has no way of sailing his ship without the aid of a crew, such as yourselves?”

“No,” the crew spokeswoman said. I was surprised to see that it was Debra, the former slave consort-turned cook. “He gives orders, but nothing happens unless we do it. If we messed something up, the ship went the wrong way.”

“He can raise and submerge the ship on his own,” someone else popped in. “No clue how he does it, though.”

“Interesting,” the commander said. “What about ship effects? What do you know of those?”

“I remember he talked of this bleeding effect when we were butchering those monsters,” another voice cheerfully supplied.

“Any wound bleeds far more around that ship than it should,” Debra said. “A simple cut making meals could be life-threatening to a low levelled person without medical care.”

“Seaborn could not control this effect to not include you?”

“Couldn’t or wouldn’t,” someone muttered, to the agreement of others.