Richard Tuttle - Army of the Dead

The small boats tied off to the sterns of the behemoths, and the fisherman stealthily climbed aboard. In a slow and methodical manner, the fishermen silently murdered the crews. Even after they had control of the ships, they did not act with nervous hurriedness. They slowly and quietly raised the anchors of each of the ships, allowing the outgoing tide to carry the vessels away from Alamar. When the leviathans were well offshore, the sails were raised on the new Sakovan fleet. In a tight formation, the ten ships headed north without the Motangans being alerted.

“For fishermen,” chuckled Temiker, “your men make great thieves. Ten ships are far more than we thought was possible.”

“That is what made it possible,” grinned Chargo as he pointed to the barrel of ale. The whole fleet was drunk. We could have taken every ship if we had more men.”

“As most thieves eventually find out,” frowned Temiker, “greed is a killer. If an alarm had been given, you would have found out that even drunken mages can cast spells. I would assume that holds true for archers as well, but I was never good with a bow. What will you do with the fishing boats that we are towing? It will be hard to appear Motangan with them being towed.”

“There is a cove up the coast a ways,” answered Chargo. “We will stop and anchor them there. Hopefully they will last through the war so that the fisherman can earn a living when this is all over.”

“So you expect the Sakovans to win this war?” asked Temiker. “The odds are against it.”

“I have gone against the odds before,” shrugged Chargo. “If I am wrong, we will all be dead, and the fishermen won’t care about their boats, but I expect to be around. Kaltara is strong.”

“You believe in Kaltara?” asked Temiker. “You were an Omungan, weren’t you?”

“I was Omungan,” nodded Chargo. “I had the pleasure of being on the same ship with the Star of Sakova the day she accepted Duran’s surrender. That day changed my life. How can I not believe in a God that can do miracles? Because that is exactly what Kaltara has enabled Lyra to do. I had a long talk with her on that voyage. My faith has not faltered since.”

“She is a remarkable woman, my niece,” smiled the old mage. “I should notify her of our success. Sometimes she worries too much.”

* * *

“Ten?” gasped Emperor Marak as he stood on the roof of the palace in Khadoratung. “Your people are incredible, Lyra. We can make great use of those ships.”

“There is more,” continued the Star of Sakova. “They found a skimmer floating in the ocean. In fact, they almost ran over it. There were two bodies in it. One of them was alive, a fisherman named Formone. Temiker is doing what he can for the man right now, but we aren’t sure if he will live.”

“None of the skimmers returned,” frowned the Emperor. “Is that correct?”

“That is correct,” answered Lyra. “I think this man may have the information about what went wrong.”

“I want to talk to him,” decided the Torak. “Where are the ships now?”

“On their way to Duran,” replied Lyra. “They are going to steal the supplies the Motangans have left there.”

“There are Motangan soldiers in Duran,” warned Marak.

“I thought you were not sure,” responded Lyra.

“I had Myka fly over again on the way to Changragar,” the Torak said. “It was not a lot of soldiers, but even a single corte is far too many for fishermen to go up against. They must not enter Duran.”

“Temiker is with them,” advised Lyra. “His magic should help.”

“It would,” replied the Torak, “except that Temiker is on one of the ships. They most certainly will have a mage in Duran who knows how to use an air tunnel. Let’s not let Vand know that we have his ships.”

“And let him keep the supplies?” frowned the Star of Sakova. “I don’t think so. Besides, those fishermen would not accept my orders to turn back. In fact, I am quite sure that Temiker would suddenly have trouble hearing my orders.”

“I can easily imagine that,” chuckled the Torak. “Alright, I will go there in the morning with Myka. We will clear the city before the ships arrive.”

“By yourself?” scowled Lyra. “That is just what I expected from you. I am supposed to hide myself so that I don’t get hurt, but you are going to fly in on your magic dragon and take on sixty men by yourself? I don’t think so.”

“Myka cannot carry a corte of soldiers on her back,” sighed Marak. “There is no land approach to the city, and the only ships we have in the area are the ones we don’t want them to know about. What do you expect me to do?”

“I expect you to come to Breele and pick me up,” answered Lyra. “I am not without capabilities of my own. We can split the Motangan soldiers between us. It will be safer that way.”

There was a long silence in the conversation and then Marak chuckled.

“It will be a three way split,” he announced. “I am sure that Myka will want to claim her third.”

“Then you will come to get me?” Lyra asked with astonishment.

“I left Myka at Changragar,” nodded the Torak. “I will be in Breele before sunrise. Place four torches in a square to mark a clear spot for the dragon to land.”

“Done,” Lyra replied excitedly. “I will let Temiker know what we are planning.”

Marak felt the air tunnel being dropped, and he turned to go inside. He found Fisher standing a few paces away.

“You have been working on your stride,” commented the Torak. “I did not hear you approach this time.”

“I have been more conscious of it,” smiled Fisher. “I have also been thinking a lot about your news this evening.”

“About Clarvoy coming to Khadora?” asked Marak.

“Yes,” nodded Fisher. “I want to get him.”

“I can well imagine that,” frowned the Torak, “but I advise you not to become obsessed with him. It will lead you to make mistakes, and mistakes can be deadly.”

“I will be careful,” promised Fisher, “but I wanted to ask a favor. You mentioned once that Lord Chenowith reviewed his father’s private papers. I understand that Emperor Bagora was noted for keeping extensive journals about every detail of his life. I would like to see those papers.”

“Inconceivable,” Marak shook his head. “Lord Chenowith felt guilty reviewing the papers, and he was Bagora’s son. He would never permit anyone else to see them. What could you possible want with those papers anyway?”

“Emperor Bagora was also noted for having an extensive network of spies,” answered Fisher. “I must know who they are.”

“Why?” puzzled the Torak.

“Few spies are ideological,” explained Fisher. “Most of them perform services for the gold. Oh, I can imagine that the Emperor had a fair number of spies who worked for him because they believed in him, but others saw only the money.”

“And what is the importance of this?” asked Emperor Marak.

“A spy that works for gold,” explained Fisher, “can be bought by many masters. I think that is how Clarvoy built his spy network. I certainly don’t think that many Khadorans would serve Vand for his ideology.”

“But Clarvoy could bring in people from Motanga,” Marak pointed out.

“True,” agree Fisher, “and no doubt he did, but those people will have no history in Khadora. Their access to really valuable information would be extremely limited. Clarvoy gets his really good information from professional spies, people who have been a part of Khadora all of their lives. These people sell their information for gold, and I believe that Emperor Bagora would have ferreted out every single one of them.”

“So Clarvoy and Bagora were using the same spies,” mused the Torak. “Your reasoning is sound, Fisher, but it leads nowhere. I would not even ask Lord Chenowith to allow you access to the journals. I personally know the anguish his own access has caused in his mind. He would not allow it. He would rather die than have his father’s papers read, and Khadora cannot afford to lose him. I cannot afford to lose him.”