Stephen Deas: The Thief-Taker's Blade

A prequel to The Thief-Taker's Apprentice and all that came after.

1 stCouncil Day, Month of Floods

Two days since we took possession of the Flying Shark, and it’s taken us that long to settle on the name. The crew wanted to call it the Sun-King’s Doom, but that would hardly serve us if we were to put in to any of the Sun-King’s ports, so the Flying Shark it is. We sail with the Dread’s Revenge as far as Kurotos and then we see about selling her. The Shark is clearly the better ship. Not bigger, but faster, she sails closer to the wind and being a Taki ship, she’ll get us a welcome in most ports. Crew may take some convincing to part with the Dread’s Revenge, but they’ll do as they’re told or suffer the consequences. Hard to believe we managed to do this.

Takis fought harder than most to turn us away. Others would have surrendered as soon as we were aboard, but not this lot. Fought like demons. Several even went over the side rather than be taken. Weather fine, wind fresh.

1st Moon Day, Month of Floods

Taking longer than expected to work out how to sail this Taki maiden. Everything is unfamiliar. Prisoners are not co-operating. Made an example of two today. Tomorrow it will be four. Some cloud, wind fresh.

1 stAbyss Day, Month of Floods

Inspected the hold. Not much there except the casket. Sanct says not to touch it. He’s acting stranger than usual and it’s getting to the crew. Sooner we’re in Kurotos and rid of him the better. Strung up four of the Takis today. They’re hanging in the rigging from hooks. One of them has been screaming for five hours straight. The rest, they don’t even flinch. Hard bunch. Some cloud, wind fresh.

2 ndSun Day, Month of Floods

We have mastered this Taki maiden and she is beautiful. Under full sail she leaves the Dread’s Revenge for dead. Under half sail, she easily keeps her position. If it wasn’t for the Dread, we’d be in Kurotos in three days. Sanct has taken refuge in the captain’s cabin. Says he needs the space to do what he needs to do. He’s welcome to it. It’ll be mine as soon as he’s gone. Weather fine, wind strong.

2 ndTower Day, Month of Floods

Strange noises from the hold in the night. Crew spooked. Takis are up to something. If they do it again, I say we throw them overboard. Weather fine, wind fresh.

The ship was aimed squarely at the harbour. It had a good wind coming off the port quarter and the sun behind it, already red and fat on the horizon. It was under full sail too. That was the first thing that made Jerric pay attention. Coming in at full pelt in failing light, that wasn't usual.

He squinted at the ship. The sun almost behind it made seeing anything more impossible, but it was definitely coming in fast. He could see it heeling to starboard. From where he sat in the watchtower on Wrecking Point, the ship looked like it was coming right at him.

It didn't slow down. Jerric watched for another minute and then another. Then he nodded to no one in particular, turned away from the sea and climbed down the ladder towards the jumble of rocks below. The Guild of Sea Captains and Traders had built the watchtower at the start of the year, fed up of pirates sneaking around the point at night to raid the ships in the harbour. It wasn't the easiest place to put a lookout post, at the end of a long curving arm of broken rock that sank reluctantly into the sea as it reached round to embrace the north side of the harbour. At the bottom of the little tower, wooden boards sat on piles, running across the litter of boulders. Jerric took them as quickly as he could, but the guild had been as tight-fisted as ever and the walkway was only as wide as his feet. It was also all relatively new, which meant it hadn't had time to get properly used to the sea and the wind, and you never quite knew when one of the slowly warping planks would pop its nails and come loose. Falling off the walkway into the rocks was a sure way to break something and Jerric was too old to care about his city more than he cared about his bones. His eyes were firmly on his feet, so he didn't see the ship as it came closer.

After the walkway there were some wooden steps and then a rope ladder up a small cliff, and then you were up on the flat top of Wrecking Point. There was a path the rest of the way, which was all very well apart from the fissures in the rock, some of them as wide as a horse. Rope bridges spanned the bigger ones. The smaller ones had planks, loose planks. Jerric and the other watchmen had found that if they left loose planks lying around, it would be a night or two at most before some wanker nicked them to build a house. So now the planks lay hidden. A constant source of tension between the watchmen and the Guild, those planks.

He started to run. The path was even enough, at least when you had enough light to see where you were going. He jumped the first couple of cracks in the path, scuttled across a rope bridge. One day, someone was going to help themselves to those too, and then he'd be stuffed.

The path levelled out. There was one last fissure here, as wide as Jerric was tall. It ran right across Wrecking Point, as though the end of the stone had snapped off and was slowly slipping into the sea. If you stopped to peer down between the slick black stone walls, the split went all the way down to the sea. A good place for dropping bodies. Apparently a couple of watchman had gone down there on ropes, back when they were building the path. They'd found all sorts. Bones, whole skeletons. Not the treasure they'd been looking for, but then you'd have to be a right fool to carry a body all the way out here without having the sense to loot it first.

There was a plank hidden here, pushing ten foot long, a foot wide and as thick as a man's wrist. Too heavy for a man to carry, but that didn't stop it going missing from time to time. Jerric started to push it towards the gap in the path. There was a trick to getting this one right. Move the plank to the right place, then slowly tip it up on one end and let it fall across the gap. Get it wrong and that was your plank gone down the chasm and one stuck watchman.

Jerric glanced over his shoulder. The ship was almost into the mouth of the harbour now, still coming full pelt. Jerric levered his plank into place and started to lift it up. If ever any real pirates came, whoever was watchman on Wrecking Point would probably get to the harbour-master just in time to watch them all leave again.

He let the plank go. It crashed down onto the other side of the chasm, bounced once and then stayed where it was supposed to. After that, Jerric ran. It was a good half-mile to the harbour.

The ship raced past him into the middle of Deephaven Bay. For a few seconds they sprinted side by side. Then at the end of the Wrecking Point road, Jerric dropped into the backside of Reeper Hill. Buildings — brothels, mostly — sprang up around him and he lost sight of the bay. The last thing he saw of the ship, its sails were falling down as though the ropes had been cut.

A minute later he was up above the Sea Gate and looking down into the harbour again. He stopped for a moment, stood gasping, doubled up, hands on his knees, watching as he tried to catch his breath. He was wasting his time. He could see that now. Down in the docks, someone had spotted the ship. The harbour longboats were already in the water, gangs of armed militiamen milling around the waterfront waiting to be told what to do. From where he stood, Jerric could hear their shouts, drifting across the waves. He'd have to finish his errand so the Wrecking Point Watch could be seen to have done their job, but the urgency was gone. So he stopped to have a proper look at the ship that had woken him up from his dozing.