270 Port Of Call

Three days of challenges by navy ships and threats by me for them to get out of the way or die, with two ships refusing and being burned to the keels because of the mage contingents onboard, we finally reached the capital's waters. There were also two flotillas of warships waiting for us, or so Lady Ming told me. It was ten ships, five smaller ones and five slightly larger ones.

Some of the ships had apparently just launched, because they were not in the right form or had full crews. Her flag man worked furiously to let them know who we were and to NEVER fire upon us, or they will be destroyed. They were to also acknowledge the order to allow us to pass and to arrest any mages and sympathetic captains, by order of the royal family.

Of course, there had to be at least one ship that wasn't going to send the return signals and they started to send signals to the other ships, or yelled, since they were so close. They weren't going to listen to a slave's order and prepared to fight back, not realizing there wasn't a fight for them to fight.

“Light the offender up.” I ordered.

My crew let out whoops of happiness and loaded up four of the heavy logs with full enchantments. They aimed and shot off their ammo that streaked across the large harbour, making a lot of people on the ships scream in terror. The projectiles hit dead center of each mast and lit the sails on fire and exploded. The other ships scrambled to put out the spreading fire and their own flag people were sending the signals to cease fire.

Like before, we didn't have to fire anything else, because our point had been made. We were well outside the other ship's range of fire and none of them could touch us. After half an hour, the ship we fired on was smouldering and the captain was tied up with the group of mages. The other ships followed suit with their own mages and had them up on their decks and tied up.

Some only had one or two mages to charge and fire the Kracken Tubes and they were not happy to be treated like criminals. Lady Ming's flag guy sent signals to tell the other ships that if they left the mages free, they could continue a war that I was going to finish.

“All right, pull the sails and hold on.” I said and the crew complied. Lady Ming waved to me and I waved back, then I brought my ship up and almost completely out of the water and moved it towards the ships guarding the harbour. The crews of the other ships all stared at us as my ship seemed to be moving without sails. I brought us right into the middle between the two groups of five ships and someone shouted in triumph.

I glanced to the right and saw a mage struggle and pull off burning ropes, get a manic grin on his face, and jumped at a Kracken Tube pointed right at my ship... only for nothing to happen because I had already cancelled the enchantments on the projectile. He tried again to charge the thing and nothing happened.

The crew of that ship quickly tackled him and beat him bloody, then tossed him overboard. They didn't blink as a water beast swallowed him whole.

“Thanks, Laughter!” Ann said and waved at her favorite water beast before it disappeared under the water.

“I really should stop you from feeding him so much. He's getting fat.” I commented.

Ann gave me a happy smile and went back behind me. “Garret only catches fish for him now.”

A few of the crew and slaves around us laughed. Most of them did that, too.

I brought the ship right up to the dock and there were a lot of angry faces on the dock workers and army men. “Do anything against me, my ship, or my people, and you'll be fed to our pet water beasts like that mage was.”

Most of the angry faces changed to fear and they backed off.

“You have no right to threaten us.” One of the army men said. He wore Lieutenant markings.

“I am Lord Drake of Drake's Marsh and friend of the royal family. I could gut you right here for insulting me and NO ONE would say anything to me about it.” I said and nodded to the crew to secure the ship as I stepped off. Gella and Farra came with me and the army men didn't step back to give us room. I wasn't having that and activated the enchantment around my neck. The entire group of twelve men were pushed away by the enchantment and tumbled to a stop fifteen feet away.

“What... what was that?” The lieutenant asked.

“A warning.” I said and walked towards him. The enchantment kept pushing them away and they kept tumbling away at the exact distance, unable to get to their feet.

“Stop! STOP!” The lieutenant said loudly and I stopped walking.

“On your FEET!” I commanded and the group of men jumped to their feet and came to attention.

The lieutenant gave me a stern look before he stood as well.

“I assume you were ordered to escort me somewhere?”

“Yes, to the military garrison.” The lieutenant said.

“Who gave you that order?” I asked.

“My CO.”

“Do they outrank the royal family?” I asked and his face paled. “No? Good.” I turned to my ship. “If anyone tries to board you, kill them.”

“You can't order them to do that!” The lieutenant spat.

“It's my private property and I won't have anyone steal what's mine.” I said and saw the truth on his face. They were going to raid my things again. “On second thought, kill anyone that approaches the ship without me with them. Military or civilian, it doesn't matter. They'll stop trying eventually.”

“No, you can't...”

“I would kill you right now if I thought it would make any difference.” I told him and he backed up a step. “Claiming that you're only following orders might save you from being court-marshalled; but, it won't save you from me or my people.” I took a step towards him and the troops were pushed back again.

Most of them just stumbled this time.

“We've sailed halfway around the world, through the most dangerous waters both known and unknown, and a few pitiful men in uniforms mean less than nothing to us.” I said and glared at him. “Go back to your CO and tell him that if he tries anything, I'll burn the garrison to the ground, just like I did to the ship that tried to attack me.”

The lieutenant didn't move, so I leapt forward five feet. “AHH!” He yelled and was pushed and tumbled five feet farther away. His men didn't say anything as they picked themselves up and stood back up.

“Go. Now.” I said and he nodded before ordering his squad of men to retreat. I waited until they were gone before I ended the enchantment and looked at Gella and Farra. “Let's find a carriage we can buy.”

“Not borrow?” Gella asked as we walked down the dock. We ignored the stares.

“I doubt anyone would refuse a Gulf Kingdom Captain.” I said and plucked at the fake uniform I wore.

Gella and Farra laughed softly. We walked up the dock and found a business almost right at the end of it.

The man working behind the counter frowned as we entered the building. “I don't like having their kind in here.” He said and nodded at the two women with me.

“What? Paying customers?” I asked and pulled off the oversized captain's hat to reveal my long white hair in a ponytail.

The man's face didn't change. “Get out, slave! I don't serve your kind!”

I smiled at him and put my hat back on. “It looks like we'll be taking a carriage for free after all, Gella.”

“You won't be getting anything in the capital! Your kind are as welcome here as a plague!”

“A plague? Very well.” I said and snapped my fingers.

The entire room lit on fire and the man screamed as his clothing went aflame. He started running around and I activated the push enchantment. He was flung across the room and slammed into the counter. He was knocked senseless enough that he didn't realize he was burning up for several minutes.

“Ha ha, the fire suppressing enchantments are fakes.” I said and snapped my fingers again. The fire went out instantly and the man groaned in relief. I walked over to the counter and took out one of the release sheets and signed it in a scribble for a carriage, two horses, and a driver. “It was nice not doing business with you.”

We left there and went to the side where the paddock for the horses was. I handed the sheet to the man there and he barked orders for the items requested. The carriage was delivered and I helped Gella and Farra inside. It made them blush that I offered them my hand and not my elbow.

“Hey, there's no return date on this.” The man said.

“No, there isn't.” I said and handed the driver a gold coin. “The royal palace.”

“Yessir!” The driver said and I shut the door to sit down. We took off at a fast trot until we reached a street wide enough and then the driver brought the horses up to a heavy jog.

The ride to the palace went faster than I remembered, then realized I hadn't approached from this direction before. It was either from the Henrietta Longshore Estate or from the Mage Academy. The driver slowed down as we approached the main palace gates, then came to a stop.

“Any weapons must be handed over for inspection and seizure.” A gruff man's voice called.

I held in my sigh and stepped out of the carriage to look, only to see one of the men that had held my family hostage to arrest me last fall. Apparently, he had been rehired, despite being dismissed.

He saw my outfit and huffed. “Slaves are to be strip searched and...”

I whipped my glowing sword out and sliced it across his chest.

His armor fell to the ground with a clunk and he looked down to see the cut had gone right through the armor and his chest. He looked at me and let out a strangled sound.

“I told you the last time we met that I won't let you harm my people.” I said and his eyes widened as he looked at my face. “Stealing from them is harm, so your life is mine.”

“Hey!” One of the other guards exclaimed and walked over to me while drawing his sword.

I slid my sword into the chest of the dying guard to pierce his heart and then looked at the other guard. “You were there, too.” I said and he let out a yelp, dropped his sword, and ran.

“Gella.” I said and she leaned out the window of the carriage and a dagger was flung through the air and pierced the man in the back of the neck. He dropped like a pile of rocks and slid on his face to a stop. “Thank you.”

“Anytime, my lord.” Gella said and ducked back inside the carriage.

I turned to look at the remaining guard, who looked stunned. “Either open the gate or send word to the royal family that Lord Drake, their close family friend, is here.”

He stared at me for several moments before he hopped up like I lit him on fire and ran inside the guard shack. He was out the other side in a flash and ran up to the castle, rather than taking the horse tied there for the purpose.

“He's going to be a little while.” I said and Gella and Farra laughed softly. I went to the guard that tried to flee and pulled out the knife in his neck, wiped it off on his underclothes, and went back to the carriage. The driver didn't say anything to me and only shook his head.

I nodded to him and climbed into the carriage to sit down and wait for the inevitable response. It was either going to be positive or it was going to be very negative. Either way, I was ready for it. My new bandoleer was well made and fully stocked with both old and new potions. I handed Gella her knife back and she smiled demurely.

Some time later, we all heard the clangs of metal on metal as the response came towards the main gate. The driver wasn't worried, because they were almost always spared and were usually too inconsequential to matter in a fight, anyway.

I stepped out of the carriage as the group of armored horsemen approached. I helped both Farra and Gella out, like ladies, and they took up positions beside and slightly behind me. They didn't want to interfere with my movements if I had to fight. We walked over to the middle of the road and far enough from the gate that it wouldn't hit us if it opened.

The group of nine armored horses came to a stop ten feet from the other side of the gate and the men stared at me. I stood there, completely relaxed and non-threatening, and took their visual inspection.

“Are you really him?” The armored man in the lead asked.

I slipped off my hat and hooked it on my hip, then took the tie out of my hair and shook my head out to fluff the hair out. “I'm the Marsh Man.”

“Lord Drake of Drake's Marsh.” Farra added.

“Ex-convict, ex-conscript, mage student, vanquisher of criminals, and destroyer of the Eastern Empire's morale dozens of times.” Gella added with a smile.

The armored man stared at us for several minutes before he nodded and waved at the gate. The guard that had run to get them, hoped off of one of the horses and ran over to the gate to open it.

“Lord Drake, Queen Ellen has been waiting for your return.” The armored man said.

“Queen Ellen?” I asked, slightly confused. That could only mean...

“King Richard is dead.” The armored man said, sadly. “Return to your carriage and follow us to the castle. The queen does not like to be kept waiting.”

I knew that for a fact and I quickly ushered Gella and Farra into the carriage. The driver followed the armored horses at a fast trot and we made our way up to the castle and to a meeting that I was suddenly not looking forward to.