Lynn Abbey - Realms of the Deep

The barracks was a long hall with a pitched roof, smoke-darkened rafters, and a plank floor. It smelled of the lye soap we used to scrub it down. Rows of bunk beds flanked the aisle that ran from front to back. In happier times, the room had echoed with laughter and the clatter of dice. Since the advent of the sahuagin and their minions, it had become quieter, as the men glumly contemplated the likely outcome of the ongoing conflict: Now it buzzed like a hive of angry hornets, at least until I stepped through the door.

"Don't fall silent on my account," I said, setting my pickax on a scarred, rickety table. "If something wants discussing, let's chew it over together." No one spoke up, so I fixed my eye on the hulking, ruddy-faced fellow, who, of all of them, was least prone to hold his tongue. "Come on, Dandrios, what's wrong?"

"Well… you said that when the new captain came, he'd bring reinforcements."

"I thought he would. Evidently the lords have decided their other warriors are needed elsewhere."

"Better that no one had come than the one popinjay who did," muttered Vallam. A small, green-eyed fellow of about my own age, he'd grown to manhood as a slave in Luskan before escaping, and bore a fearsome collection of scars from the abuse he'd endured.

"He is a bit overdressed," I said. "The last time I saw so much scarlet and glitter, it was on a streetwalker in Neverwinter." The feeble jest elicited a laugh, momentarily breaking the tension. "But he must be fit to lead, else the Lords' Alliance wouldn't have sent him. He wields a lance and sword ably enough."

"Perhaps," Dandrios said, "but he nearly led us to disaster on the beach today. It's a wonder we all madi it back alive."

"Yet we did," I said, "and now that he's taken th(measure of the crabmen, he'll be warier henceforth."

"I hope so," said Vallam glumly.

"By Tempus's bloody wounds," I snapped, Tve neve heard such whining. Are you warriors or timid ok women?" Startled, they stared at me. "Answer me curse you!"

"Warriors," Dandrios growled.

"Then behave like it," said I. "Remember how w‹ routed those hobgoblins two summers ago? We'vt beaten every foe we've ever faced, and we can handle the crabs, too, as long as we don't lose our nerve."

I continued for a while in the same vein, bucking them up as best I could. Afterward, and with a certair reluctance, I crossed the street and rapped on the dooi of the two-story house opposite the barracks. The maid, who, with her red, puffy eyes, looked as if sht hadn't stopped weeping since the previous master ol the household perished, ushered me into the Firsl Captain's oak-paneled study. It seemed odd to behold Hylas sitting there, especially since Haeromos's collection of scrimshaw still cluttered the room.

I came to attention. Hylas kept me standing thai way for several seconds before saying, "I imagine you know what I want to discuss."

"Yes, Captain. When we scouted the crabmen's lair you were in command, but I ordered the retreat. I offei no excuse. I can only say that I actually have been in charge here for a while, and in the heat of the moment I forgot myself."

He raised an eyebrow. "I expected you to argue thai you were right and I was wrong."

"No, Captain," I said. "I assumed you were about to order a retreat yourself, considering it was obvious that the crabs would have slaughtered us if we'd stood our ground."

His mouth tightened. "If I'd had the rest of Term's Fury riding beside me, we would have slaughtered them."

"But you didn't," I said, "and as long as you're here, you won't. You'll have to make do with militiamen, local boys mostly, trained as well as the previous First Captain and I could manage, but not the kind of elite warriors you're used to."

He grimaced. "You're telling me I can't trust them to fight?"

"No, sir. They're game enough. I'm saying you can't expect them to do everything that scores of knights could do. Also, I'm reminding you that you have only forty-two of them, with no one to replace them if they fall."

"Hence your strategy," Hylas said sourly. "Don't attack, simply repel the enemy when they make a foray."

"As you say."

"Had it occurred to you that the crabmen were simply going to whittle down your force a bit at a time until they overwhelmed you and massacred the townsfolk in the end?"

"I thought I was buying time until reinforcements could arrive," I said. "Even now, knowing they won't be coming, I can't see a sound alternative. If you can, I'd rejoice to hear it."

He scowled. "When I do, you will. Dismissed." As I turned away, I heard him murmur, "Curse this wretched place."

Hylas was taken aback when I led him to the window and showed him the line of folk waiting in the street.

"Petitioners," he said flatly, repeating what I'd told him a moment before.

"Yes, sir," I replied. "As First Captain, you hold authority in all matters, civil and military alike."

"I know that," the knight said irritably, "but isn't there a bailiff or reeve to attend to this sort of thing?"

There were, but I'd instructed them to make themselves scarce. "As you keep remarking," I said blandly, "Port LJast is a small town."

"Very well," he sighed. "Show them in one at a time.

The first supplicant, a young but careworn widow, smelled of blood and hobbled in with the aid of a crutch. A crabman had maimed her, and the wounds were slow to heal. Six children with pinched, hungry faces followed along in her wake.

When she stood before Hylas, she tried to curtsey, and nearly lost her balance. The knight sprang from his chair, darted around his desk, and took hold of her arm to steady her.

That isn't necessary, mistress," he said. He looked at me. "Fetch a chair." I did, and we saw her safely seated. "Now, how can I help you?"

The widow swallowed. "It's the dole. We don't want to ask for more than our fair share, but it's never enough to see us through the tenday. I have so many little ones," she concluded apologetically.

"Now that the fishing boats can't go out, First Captain Dothwintyl thought it prudent to ration the food supply," I explained.

"Well, I want this woman and her family…" Hylas faltered as his head caught up with his heart. "Do we know exactly how much food there is, and how quickly the village is running through it?"

"Ill get the ledgers," I said.

My notion was that by rubbing Hylas's nose in the town's woes, I'd show him that the defense of Port Llast was a mission worthy of his talents. To some extent, it seemed to work. Over the course of the next few days, he received the villagers courteously, and did his best to ameliorate their difficulties.

Yet it was plain that he was still impatient to return south, where a dashing cavalier could win renown. Indeed, it was possible that my efforts only made him even more eager to crush the threat to the settlement quickly. I feared that, his'previous experience notwithstanding, he'd eventually insist on assaulting the crab-men's lair, and the men shared my apprehension.

Instead, he hit on another plan. Alas, it was just as reckless.

The broad-beamed merchant cog was no warship, but at least it could carry more men than a fishing boat and was more maneuverable than a barge. As, sail cracking, timbers and rigging creaking, we put out to sea, the catapults on the cliffs looked down on us. The contraptions might well have annihilated a flotilla of pirates, but they were useless against the present foe.

I peered over the side, saw what I'd feared to see, and went to speak to Hylas. He stood at the bow, his red plume and cape fluttering in the wind, seemingly oblivious to the resentment in the faces of the men.

"Have you looked at the water?" I asked. Tester day's storm stirred up the bottom, just as I predicted You can barely see below the surface."