"Let's worry about it when we get there," Aaralon said.
The chill was working at him, and Aaralon's weariness had begun to accumulate. He slouched against the railing, noting that Olive had also fallen half-asleep with her head in Nora's lap, and Stanton, too, was nodding off. Aaralon briefly considered escaping the cold by heading below deck, but he didn't relish the thought of staying out the ceaseless pitching and rocking of The Lady in the dark of the hold. Sleep overtook him.
***
"She appears to be flying the merchant's wren half-crest, sir."
"Aye, and when she's along our broadside, she'll be raising the black flag," he hissed, "I wasn't born yesterday."
Aaralon came awake with a start. The other magic students, he could see, were already up and staring at a speck of light in the distance behind the ship. The captain collapsed his scope in a single motion.
"Is she dangerous, sir?" Olive asked in a hushed voice.
"She's the Red Demon, not yer run-of-the-mill pirate ship. She's a Tarnil slaver captained by Crystal Gorehound, a sorceress of the blood arts. From the things I've heard about her, you'd be better off slitting your own throat then letting that bitch have her way with yee."
The captain squared off before the wheel and snarled at the approaching ship. A thick, meaty hand grasped the handle of his cudgel.
"The day that a galleon can catch my Lady of the Mist will be the day I float in my watery grave," the captain shouted into the wind, "Foreman, give 'er full mast."
A pair of bulky deckhands swarmed up the netting and set to work freeing the yard. With a sound of stretching canvas, the mast caught the wind, billowing out into the night. The Lady of the Mist lurched forward, skimming lightly over the waves. Her single mast groaned as it strained against the powerful gusts of lake Wakabe.
The captain looked worriedly at the mast as the timber flexed forward with the wind, "If she can maintain this clip until morning, we'll make safe harbor and leave that galleon drifting in our wake."
To Aaralon's eyes, the lights of the galleon were already retreating back into the darkness as The Lady's clip continued to increase. Olive and Nora clung together near the fore of the ship, trying to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the specter of danger.
"They won't get us, will they, captain?" Olive asked, here eyes were wide with fear.
"Yee'd needn't worry young 'uns. As long as the Lady holds true, we'll get away from the Red Demon like gulls from a shark." |