Hostages, page 29
Meaning he held his tongue. If he did it correctly, he could stop the slave trade, without anyone knowing what had happened.
“In the meantime, keep purchasing them. I’ll send more gold, if it’s needed. Just let me know. Keep at least half of that for yourself and the crew? Gold is easier to get than good men.”
For him, at least. That reminded him that he needed to practice mining. It was a thing to work on that night. Even if he only took plain rocks from the bottom of the ocean. He could toss them back over, after all. It was the exercise that was important that way.
Enna nodded, looking straight ahead. The sky was still fully lit.
“Seven bells just rang. The plan is for a meal, twice a day. Does that work for you and your people? Seven and then eight, like normal with this many on board?”
It took checking, but he was able to nod, after a few moments.
“Collin and Matt have that for us. Depak Sona and Apprentice Alice are arranging to use magic to deliver it to the table. That part is all show, of course. Carrying by hand it will work as well. We need to practice, almost constantly. Oh, say, would you like someone to come and add wind to the sails? We can have one person from each shift doing that for you and push a bit faster?” Anders grinned then, feeling cheeky, but not meaning to be. “It’s more pleasant to move fast when someone else has to do that part of the work.”
There was a strained look on Enna’s face then, but it wasn’t mean, just slightly annoyed.
“That’s fine, I’m certain. You have orders to go at fastest pace?”
Anders actually looked away, then shrugged.
“We do. Technically, Depak Sona, his apprentices and I do. Originally it was going to include Prince Darren as well, but he’s off to get married soon, so we got him excused from the annoying war bits. For now, at least. I don’t know the situation on the ground down south. Not completely. That means anything might change, without warning for us. I do know that someone tried to kill the Great One of Modroc and a famous entertainer from there, using assassins. Kaiden Sett? They, the Great One and her friend, they both lived. The assassins... Not so much.”
The man whistled.
“Natech assassins? They use magic for that and devica and are said to never fail. That’s... Well, Great One means Great One, I guess? We can meet up for the second meal at eight bells?”
That would work, he figured, so Anders nodded, leaving the heavy chest of treasure where it sat.
Chapter twenty
The wet, pale hand that reached over the edge of the railing looked wrong, of course. Anders blinked on seeing the first one, but noticed that there were others there as well. Hands, at first. Some of them skeletons, with no real flesh at all. Where that kind of thing existed, it hung from the bone. Loose and flapping.
The first thing he did was check to see if they were actually there. No one else on the ship should have known how to really do a good illusion, since he’d focused on practical effects first, as well as wizardry and magician’s skills. He’d done that kind of thing in front of several of them, of course, and the idea that someone there might have worked it out on their own was very possible.
Thinking that, then finding that the dead men, all five of them, were actually there, and not living people, he nodded.
“After all, Depak and the girls have had lessons in illusion. They just wouldn’t do something like this.” He grinned, not too worried, even if he couldn’t find the source of the obvious magic. Still, he called out, in case he failed to remove the revenants that were coming for him.
They shambled slowly, giving him a good bit of time to think.
Softly, only a bit louder than a conversational tone, he called out. Trying to not bother anyone who was down below, sleeping. Not yet.
“Alert! Alert! The dead are walking the deck.” He tried to sound serious, but the words were simply too awkward and strange for that. Fisher, who had been pulled to stand the late shift with Anders, Walden and Niven, came at a fast walk, stopping dead in his steps, on seeing the shambling former men coming at them. They were all male.
“We need to wake everyone! I saw this before, once. The dead won’t go down in a fight. They could kill us all. They don’t have weapons, so we need to watch for biting and hitting.”
Anders nodded.
“I’ve seen this kind of thing, too. We should see about dealing with this first. There’s a bell to sound?”
There was, and the thin man hurried to the upper deck, and started a mighty din. Walden walked over to the port side, with Niven in tow, and froze, on seeing what was there.
“Um... I have no training for this.” The words caused half the partial skeletons turning, making Niven give a small sound.
Anders grinned, even if it was a serious matter. People really could die, after all.
“Let’s cause them to float in the air, first?” If they were moving using magic, it would be possible for them to fly then, of course.
They seemed to need to touch things for it to work, but they’d gotten up the side of the ship on their own, which could mean magic was being used to do something unusual.
“Hom bona fla fen ot...” He pointed, making three of them lift off the deck. Leaving one for each of the others.
Niven scrambled, nearly screaming his spell, lifting the skeletal form higher than was needed, easily enough to foul the sails, if they started to move around on their own. Walden on the other hand simply matched Anders, almost perfectly.
It seemed to be working, thankfully.
He nodded at the idea.
“Now, slowly, move them over the edge, a good thirty paces away from us. Then we’ll destroy them, after making certain the ship is safe. We need to also check the rest of the ship, in case there are more.” He did that instantly, using magic for it, but several of the men were already there, holding swords and cudgels, ready to fight. They were followed by everyone else, with Duke Ford noticing the real threat first.
Which, being who he was, meant laughing. A bit too loud.
“Ah? This is different than I expected. The returned dead? Out here? That’s impressive. Pulled from the deep, do you think, Prince Anders?”
That sounded right, so he was nodding as Depak Sona stared at the creatures.
His voice was deep and commanding.
“Indeed. I also can’t find the source of the magic which is being used. Anders, do you have it?”
The truth was, even when he tried, that didn’t happen at all. He could tell there was magic, there, floating over the water, the former men bobbing in place, almost as if they were in the water, even if they were fifteen paces too high for that. They tried to move, making walking motions, but just stayed in place.
Anders shook his head.
“Not at all. It’s a rather well-done spell. I was thinking that we’d burn them, and break the spell? We don’t have to know where it’s coming from for that.”
Everyone looked at him then, as if he were being strange. It was all of them, as well. Even the sailors, as well as each person in his traveling group. All of them except for Depak Sona.
“I’ll do that portion. Who’s going to turn them to dust?”
Salina moved forward, but Anders waved her back, grinning.
“Captain Enna? If you’d do the honors on the first one? The one on the far right?”
The man glared at him a bit, but then a bit slowly, clumsily and without much magical force, he started in on it. Setting the damp body on fire, with some good effort. That took time, with the next person, Jasmin, doing the next in line. That went a bit faster, but was still going to take a good amount of time for it to work.
Ezola stood back, seeming ill, but Collin stepped forward, for the next one, volunteering to take his own turn at immolation. He was more gifted power wise than Enna, but no less clumsy in doing the work. Then, the man hadn’t been taught more than the basics, except for working with food. A magical cook and baker, truly. He was becoming good at it, as well.
At least the late meal had been tasty and well presented.
During that, Depak spoke a longer spell, which cut the energy to the magic, even if the source wasn’t known to them. The bodies stopped moving then. They hadn’t been making much noise, but there had been some, so it was noticed when the men were dead again.
Kip and Alice did the last two, their efforts showing greater power and skill. Kip added something new, which Anders had to smile at. His burning husk target disintegrated almost instantly, after that.
Anders nodded.
“Very nice! Turning them to stone, then pulling flecks of sand off of the outermost layer until nothing it left? We should do that with the others. Mary, why don’t you and Kip work on that? Take turns?”
Where there had been flying bodies, there was nothing, after no more than a few moments. Only sand, scattered in the water.
He nodded.
“That will work. We should be ready for that, apparently. I gather that the Natech have learned we’re coming already? Unfortunate, but clever of them, if it’s the case. The other idea I have is that we need to be on the lookout for a nearby ship? Pirates travel with magic users, when they can, don’t they?”
Captain Enna, seeming annoyed, actually forced a laugh.
“Not ones that can raise those lost at sea like this. Most can do a few simple spells at most. This is high magic. Then, so is setting them alight, or removing them as you three did, from my ship. We have three magical watches, Brolly Sona?” The man asked him, but looked at Depak.
The Great One of Barquea and an obvious man. Not a boy playing at being important.
Depak Sona closed his eyes, but was thinking, instead of using magic. Anders wasn’t feeling anything, at least.
“Anders, you can end the spells of others as well? I’m not certain that these here can as of yet...”
The Captain seemed relieved to hear that, for some reason. As if an instant attack, say an explosion at the water level or just below, along the timbers of the craft, could be stopped in time to save them. That would be nearly impossible to pull off, of course.
Not mentioning that fact, he shrugged.
“Everyone in the advanced sections, please come this way? Depak Sona, would you stand guard for some moments? We’ll cover ending your own spells and doing that for the work of other people, as well. It isn’t difficult, really. It won’t be for any of you, at any rate. This way!”
It was mean of him, being late at night, in the deep dark hours, and that showed in that it took even Lissa twice as long as normal to learn the new spells, but inside an hour, they could all end such things. Even Duke Ford sat for it, as did Gull.
The man had been sleeping, not needed for a watch, as of yet. Mainly due to Niven having taken his place, given how unlikely an attack at sea, at night truly was. A thing that had likely just changed.
After learning how to end spells, both for themselves and others, which was an advanced skill, according to Depak Sona, everyone who was supposed to be sleeping was allowed to go back to their cabins for a short time. A few bells. It was the kind of thing that would throw people off, of course. Anders was better off that way, being awake already. Also, using magic to stay alert.
Walden and Niven were both walked through how to do that as well, since it was needed for their duty of the moment. Plus, it was useful. That meant they did a decent job of walking around as the sun rose, staying ready for another attack. One that, rather naturally, didn’t come at all.
That part made sense to Anders.
They were at sea, and while it wasn’t impossible to act at a distance, most schools of magic couldn’t have pulled it off as had been done. They were at least ten miles from anyone else, after all. Probably more than only that. The idea that the dead had been animated elsewhere and sent toward them was possible, of course. Only, as far as he’d seen, they’d needed to touch solid objects in order to move.
There were other options, of course.
The least likely being that the dead had been attached to the bottom of the vessel, clinging there and ready to act when given the signal. The problem with that was one that Anders realized might be a mistake on his part. He’d assumed that it was an attack on them by the Natech, since they were running off to the war, to fight them.
If the dead had been sent by someone else, and the target was the crew of the Sea Leopard, who had been returning slaves for half a year, it could be a very different situation than he’d even considered, otherwise.
Also, he hadn’t been able to find the source of the magic. That was possible, for an accomplished necromancer, at least in theory. Anders had never seen that type of magic user do that, but he knew there were many ways to hide from wizardry. Some of them were no more than simple tricks, as well.
The other way to animate those once living was to use a devica for it. From everything he’d ever been told, the Natech used both magic and devica, as a normal part of life. The problem there was that, while not afraid of such beings, Anders wasn’t skilled in seeing and interacting with them. It wasn’t his primary ability at all, so was always somewhat difficult for him, and them, to manage. He could be shouted at, the beings glowing brightly and making a point of being seen to him, and then sometimes pick up that they were there. He’d even spoken with many of them, and made friends, after a fashion with a few.
If they were working with the enemy however, they could have rather easily hidden from him. It would take no more than the energy beings simply refusing to make themselves known. That would work on Depak Sona as well, he thought. All of the people there, in fact. It was a mistake on his part, but all of the students and people being taught were strong in personal magic. Not the other forms of natural talent. Except Mary, of course.
Meaning that they were going to be at a disadvantage in regard to devica, if they had to face them at war.
The idea bothered him, but it wasn’t a new one for him. Rather than dwell on it, he focused on how to reconstruct damage being done to the ship itself, if they were attacked from a far. Making a small explosion at the join between two timbers below the waterline would sink any vessel. At least if it was a large enough bit of damage.
Doing that at a distance would take some energy, but by smoothing its flow even more than he’d tried before, and using repeated efforts instead of one large one, it wouldn’t be impossible to destroy a ship at sea.
What would be very much harder was fixing that type of damage, and driving the water away, fast enough to save everyone on the craft.
When he was finally relieved, by Lissa, and the morning crew, he tried to work out how to save a sinking ship with magic, spending the hour before first meal in designing a spell that could do the needed work, even without knowing exactly what had to be done ahead of time. The problem wasn’t in making it happen, of course. It was that a decently large explosion, or the wood being forced to rot, would take away the working material, or could, to prevent the ship being returned to a state that would allow floating.
Worse, he was obsessing on that troubling and difficult to address idea as he laid down, on the hard cot, with the others in their shared cabin. That was nicely dark, and no one snored too loudly, but he had to drop into a trance state, and drop the spell that kept him awake, to get any rest at all.
When he finally managed rest, his dreams were filled with troubling visions of the ship sinking, over and over again. The water lapping up around him as he was sucked under, watching all of his friends try to swim, and fail, since there was nothing around them to cling to. The wood sinking, instead of staying on the surface to aid them.
When a tap finally came on the cabin door, he was already awake, and pleased enough to get up again. He made a light, a gentle one, so they could all see, but not left blind and in pain.
“We’re up. Is there an emergency?”
The voice was familiar, being that of Princess Salina.
“It’s simply time for combat practice, Anders Sona. You told us we all needed to do that each day?” She sounded slightly wicked, as she spoke through the light wood of the unpainted door.
A tone he might have been placing there himself, he knew. His mood wasn’t perfect at the moment.
“A good plan. We’ll be right there.”
He started by cleaning his body, including his teeth, and removing the hair from his face. There wasn’t a lot, but the stubble had gotten long enough to be annoying to him. They had a small box by the door, for the dust and remains of any rubbish to go into. Seeing that happening, the boys did the same, and dressed in all black.
Walden, cleverly, used the new spell, to wake himself for the day.
“Valda wollen, fen ot...” His voice wasn’t stilted, in fact the words tripped off his tongue.
Anders did the same, using his own name for it, feeling better almost instantly as soon as he added the small bit of energy to the spell it required.
Niven on the other hand struggled a bit, going slowly, and nearly catching on the new word they’d learned some hours before. It worked, but it was clear he noticed the difference in how easy it was to do for the others.
“I’m not very good...” The boy mentioned that as they walked down the small hallway, to the ladder that would take them up onto the deck.
As they climbed, Walden made a soft sound in his throat.
“That’s not true. You’re doing well enough that we have to not compliment you too much, to prevent you getting a big head. I was actually warned against doing that, by some of the others.”
That was fairly close to true.
Anders took the boy’s meaning, however, and nodded.
“Learning the words, mental sigils and how to add power is only part of doing magic. There’s also speed in using it and dozens of tricks that will allow you to do more that have to be learned. Part of that is going to simply take practice, of course. That’s why you need to use magic as often as possible, from now on. Even to do things that probably don’t need to be done, just to press yourself into greater practice.”
As they got up on the deck, the timbers slightly damp, since it was raining, if gently, Anders smiled, looking over at Niven. It was important to be honest, but also to make a student feel that they would be able to keep up with the learning. If a teacher failed in that, the student would simply give up, or could.
