Chapter Three Hundred and Fifty-Two - With Catlike Tread

One of the soldiers tripped on some loose stones and his armour rattled as he caught himself against the cliffside.

Bastion half-turned and made a gesture that I didn’t need my translation abilities to understand meant, “I said be quiet.”

In the soldier’s defence, it wasn’t easy. We were walking more or less single-file along a path picked out by a few of the scouts. It wound around the cliff edge below the tower, mostly keeping to outcrops and nooks where someone looking from the tower wouldn’t be able to see our group moving.

The tower did as towers do, and towered above us. It was quite a bit larger than I expected, actually. The building’s footprint must have been more than a hundred metres across, and it was shaped like a large octagon, with sheer walls only broken up by the occasional balcony that stuck out above.

The entire structure was clearly made from the same kind of stone as we walked upon, though I imagined that there was some magic involved in its construction,seeing as it was so remote.

Ahead of me, Caprica paused, then nipped into a depression against the cliffside where she set her shield down and took off her gloves. A moment later she was holding onto a long slip of paper.

“Anything good?” I asked as I came closer.

“Report from the Royal Pride. It’s beginning its run now. Let’s pray to the World that this works,” she said.

I nodded along. “I’m sure they’ll take the bait. It’s big and juicy!”

She snorted and pulled her gloves back on over her communication ring, then she picked up her shield and hefted it. “Come on, we still need to get into position ourselves.”

As it turned out, our position was only a little ways away. The scout explained to us that it was the last point where we could reliably hide without being spotted by anyone who looked. Even then, the spot was rather tight with all of the sylph soldiers bunched in close to stay in the shadow of an outcrop.

I didn’t mind so much; I got to bunch in close to my friends. “Do you think this will go well?” I asked.

“It might,” Amaryllis said. “If we can move swiftly and with overwhelming force, things will go just fine, I suspect. These sylph are well-trained, I’ll give them that. Probably better than any common pirate rabble.”

Awen shrugged. “Ah, I don’t know. But we have to try, right? If we don’t, they might end up freeing Rainnewt, and that wouldn’t be any good.”

A pit opened in my tummy. I still hadn’t told my friends what Caprica had told me -- that Rainnewt had already escaped. I probably should have, but there hadn't been a good time for it. We’d slept in a tent with walls thin enough that anyone could eavesdrop on us and we’d been walking since the morning.

“Who’s this Rainnewt fella?” Calamity asked.

“He’s a fool of the highest order and someone whose head can’t be separated from his body soon enough,” Amaryllis said.

“Um. Rainnewt is a riftwalker who destroyed a bunch of dungeons,” Awen said. “But he also, ah, tried to start a war.”

“A war between who?” Calamity asked.

“Everyone,” I said. “The Trenten Flats, Sylphfree, the Nesting Kingdom, and even the grenoil down in Deepmarsh. He hurt a lot of people, framed innocent people, and basically did terrible things just because he was too lazy to find a more peaceful solution to his problem... our problem, I guess.”

“Huh.” Calamity rubbed his chin. “Well, he sounds like the sort of person nya wouldn’t mind getting into a hunting accident with.”

I shook my head. “No, you wouldn’t want that. He’s actually pretty strong. He even fought Bastion. Though Bastion’s a better fighter, Rainnewt is a lot trickier.”

“He fought the Paladin?” Calamity asked. He glanced to Bastion who was talking to some of Caprica’s royal guardsmen at the moment. “Bet I could take him.”

Amaryllis snorted. “Maybe if he was tied to a post, blindfolded, and wearing only what he hatched with.”

I giggled at the mental image of Rainnewt covered in egg-goop. Amaryllis gave me a confused look, and I shook my head. “You’re cute,” I said.

She huffed a very clear “I am no such thing,” kind of huff back at me.

“This Rainnewt guy work for any country?” Calamity asked.

“As far as we’re aware, no,” Amaryllis said. “It’s very probable that he’s an independent actor.”

“Except that the pirates want him, so they have to have been working with him too,” Awen pointed out.

“We’ll be taking care of them shortly enough,” Calamity asserted.

Bastion cleared his throat. “Quiet down,” he said, voice a low rumble that still carried. A few of the soldiers had also been chatting, and they clammed up right away.

I did the same, with a little zip-up-my-mouth motion that only had Bastion shaking his head in confusion. I guessed that zippers weren’t a thing yet.

“Check your gear, weapons at the ready,” Bastion ordered, again in the same tone that wouldn’t carry far.

Was Ventriloquism a Paladin skill?

I checked on Weedbane while Awen loaded up her crossbow, Amaryllis checked the straps on her holstered dagger-wand, and Calamity strung his bow. His weapon was the most well-worn in our bunch, but he looked really comfortable with it. It was a simple wooden recurve bow, with only a few scratched-on flowers on the shaft as decoration. He set a quiver up against his hip with a couple dozen arrows within, each stuck through a bunched up piece of cloth to prevent them from rattling around.

“Are you ready?” I asked.

He nodded. “Never hunted pirates before,” he said. “A whole new sort of prey.”

“Try not to hurt them too much,” I said.

He blinked at me, then Amaryllis jumped in to explain. “She has a pacifist streak a flight wide. Even if the people we’re fighting are clearly criminals.”

“That’ll make it a bit more of a challenge.” He paused, then grinned. “I like challenges.”

We were interrupted by Caprica who spoke up from the middle of the formation. “The Royal Pride reports they have been spotted,” she said. “Just a few more minutes now and we’ll know if our plan will work.”

The next few minutes passed like molasses through an hourglass. I fidgeted, then tried to stop because I didn’t want to waste any energy before we started.

Suddenly, one of our scouts appeared from behind a rock. I hadn’t heard them moving at all, and I had the impression that I only noticed them because they didn’t mind being noticed.

He joined the princess and the Paladin,speaking to them in low tones. We were just close enough that if I twisted my ears their way I could eavesdrop a pinch.

“Ma’am, sir. I believe the pirates have taken the bait. Three of their ships are scrambling to cast off as we speak.”

“Only three?” Caprica asked.

“They might not believe they need more,” Bastion said. “Or, perhaps that’s as many as they can have ready on short notice.”

“Three out of seven isn’t ideal,” Caprica said. “But I suppose they’d leave some guards behind for their hostages. It’s better than having to face off against the entire force, in any case. And it means less resistance for the Royal Pride. It might be able to outrun them.”

“It also means fewer ships already in the air once our transportation arrives,” Bastion added.

Caprica nodded, then turned her focus back onto the scout. “Alert us as soon as the ships have taken off. We’ll move then and try to time it so that our attack coincides with the ships being out far enough that we’ll have time to secure the tower before they can return.”

“Yes, your highness,” the scout said. He snapped a quick salute, then flew off over the rocks with a buzz that faded almost instantly.

“I guess we’ll be heading out soon,” I said. My grip on Weedbane tightened.

“Don’t be so worried. We’re only facing rabble and pirates,” Amaryllis said.

“I think I’ll be worried no matter what,” I replied. There was no reason to assume that these pirates weren’t going to be tough opponents. And our main priority was still finding and saving their hostages.

“Buff time?” Awen asked.

I nodded, happy for the distraction, then I pulled out my tea set. I didn’t have anything particularly useful, but I had one tea that could soothe the nerves, and so I prepared a quick brew of that. It smelled nice, and when it finally came time to share, I had a few soldiers looking at us longingly, so of course I shared.

Then, once the third kettle of tea was gone, I stuffed everything away and started giving out hugs liberally. The buff from that was tiny, but it might still help, and sometimes everything counted!

Plus, it was an excuse to hugs!

Bastion perked up at about the same time as I was done snuggling all of my friends. “We’re heading out,” he said. “Stay low, move fast. Keep quiet if you can. Once we reach the tower we’ll be dividing into two groups. But before that, we need to secure an entrance. The scouts have determined the tower likely has only two entrances. We're going to use the one at the base of the tower; unfortunately, it's on the other side, so we'll need to circle around. Securing it will severely impact the adversary’s ability to manoeuvre.”

Caprica nodded. “Once inside, our primary objective, above all else, is securing the hostages. So clearing the route from the hostages--wherever they may be--to the first floor will be our second priority.”

“Our third,” Bastion continued right where she left off. “Is crippling the pirate’s operation. We don’t have the ability to imprison such a large group. That means that we need to make it difficult for them to operate so that a larger force can properly remove them as a threat later.”

Caprica grinned. “Take out food supplies if you see them. We might be destroying whatever cisterns they have and piercing their fuel supplies as well. A small team will be sent to cripple their remaining ships. Cut important ropes, break flight mechanisms, poke holes in their balloons and ballast tanks.”

“This is off the books,” Bastion said. “Officially, we’re not here unless this mission is a resounding success. For the moment, you are technically not soldiers of Sylphfree, but mercenaries working at your own discretion. That also means that we can’t afford to leave anyone behind. These pirates won’t play by the same rules as a proper army would.”

“Keep yourselves safe,” Caprica said. I think she was really enjoying her byplay with Bastion. “Keep your brothers and sisters in arms safe as well.”

The scout returned, perching next to the outcrop we were using for cover. “Ma’am, the ships are leaving.”

I looked past him and saw that he was right, three airships were taking to the air. Two of them looked like naval ships, and I suspected they were harpy designs, the third and largest was all boxy and square.

“Not all of them are Snowlander ships then,” Awen said. She sounded a smidge disappointed.

“Good,” Amaryllis said.

“Let’s move out, everyone,” Bastion ordered.

We did as he said, filing out from behind the rock and moving at a quick jog towards the tower. The scout took the lead, walking a zig-zag route that was easier to follow up the cliffside.

My heart was beating so fast in my chest that I could hardly hear anything else, even with all the ears I had. This was going to be something, and I wasn’t sure I was entirely ready for it.

***