Star had a new baker, and the young man’s culinary skills were the stuff of legend within the Westmarch Navy. Captain Tollifer had called in some markers to arrange to have the baker assigned to their ship. Every sailor aboard Lonesome Star had developed a sweet tooth, but Maldrin had been the first to realize the baker actually wanted to learn how to sail and had capitalized on giving him time at the steering wheel in exchange for pastries.
“I may have put on a pound or three in the last month or two,” Maldrin admitted, “but I’ll never get so old or so fat that I can’t keep up with ye young pups. If’n I do, I’ll tie a rope around me neck and dive off the fo’c’sle.”
“Then follow along,” Darrick invited. “We’ll see if we can’t take over that stockpile.”
“Whatever for?” Maldrin grumped.
Darrick started down the grade, staying along the edge of the river. The block-and-tackles and the guards were nearly two hundred yards away. Brush and small trees grew along the high riverbank. Raithen’s pirates had been lazy about clearing more land than necessary.
“Unless I misread those barrels,” Darrick said, “they contain whale oil and whiskey.”
“Be better if they contained some of them wizard’s potions that explode,” Maldrin said.
“We work with what we get,” Darrick said, “and we’ll be glad about it.” He called for Tomas.
“Aye,” Tomas said, drawing up out of the dark shadows.
“Once we give the signal,” Darrick said, “bring the rest of the men in a hurry. We’ll be boarding the middle ship to look for the king’s nephew. When we find him, I’ll be having him off that ship soon as we’re able. Make use of one of those block-and-tackles. Understand?”
“Aye,” Tomas replied. “We’ll fetch him up.”
“I’ll be wanting him in one piece, Tomas,” Darrick threatened, “or it’ll be you explaining to the king how his nephew got himself hurt or dead.”
Tomas nodded. “A babe in arms, Darrick, that’s how we’ll be treatin’ the boy. As safe as his own mother would have him.”
Darrick clapped Tomas on the shoulder and grinned. “I knew I was asking the right man about the job.”
“Just ye be careful down there, an’ don’t go gettin’ too brave until we get down there with ye.”
Darrick nodded, then started down the mountainside toward the riverbank. Mat and Maldrin followed him, as silent as falling snow in the winter.
Raithen followed the steps cut into the riverbank overlooking the boats. When the steps had first been cut from the stone of the mountains, they’d doubtless been of an even keel. Now, after the damage that had been done to the city, they canted to one side, making the descent a tricky one. Since Raithen’s crew had been holed up at Tauruk’s Port, more than one drunken pirate had ended up in the water below, and two of them had been swept away in the current and likely drowned by the time they reached the Gulf of Westmarch.
He carried a lantern to light the way, and the golden glow played over the striations in the mountainside. In the day, the stone shone blue and slate gray, different levels marked by a deepening of color till the rock looked almost charcoal gray before disappearing beneath the river’s edge. The fog maintained a soft presence around him, but he saw the three cogs through it without problem.
Pirates assigned to guard duty squared their shoulders and looked alert as he passed. They deferred to him with politeness he’d beaten into some of them.
A sudden shrill of rope through pulleys alerted him to activity above.
“Look alive, ye great bastards,” a rough voice called down. “I’ve got ye a load of victuals, I have.”
“Send it on down,” a man called on the cog to Raithen’s right. “Been waitin’ on it a dog’s age. Feel like my stomach’s been wrappin’ itself around me backbone.”
Pressing himself against the mountainside, Raithen watched as a short, squat barrel was let go. The pulleys slowed the barrel’s descent, proving that the load was light. The scent of salted pork passed within inches of Raithen.
“Got you a bottle of wine in there, too,” the man called.
“An’ ye damn near hit Cap’n Raithen with it, ye lummox,” the guard only a few feet from the pirate captain yelled out.
A muttered curse followed. “Excuse me, cap’n,” the man said in a contrite voice. “Didn’t know it was ye.”
Raithen held the lantern up so the man could plainly see his features. “Hurry up.”
“Aye, sir. Right away, sir.” The pirate raised his voice. “Ye lads heave off with that barrel. We need another, I’ll fetch it up later.”
The pirates aboard the first cog threw off the lines, and they were hauled back up the block-and-tackle.
As soon as the way was clear, Raithen walked to the first of the small temporary docks floating on the black water. He climbed the cargo net tossed over the side of the cog and stepped to the cog’s deck.
“Evenin’, cap’n,” a scar-faced pirate greeted. A half-dozen other pirates did the same but didn’t slow in their efforts to take the food from the barrel.
Raithen nodded at the man, feeling the pain in his wounded throat. When the ships were in port, he made certain the men stayed out of ships’ stores. All of the cogs stayed fully loaded at all times, in case they had to flee out to deep water. His other ships lay a few days away, anchored off the north coastline in a bay that could be treacherous to an understaffed ship.
Planks spanned the distance between the ships. The river current was gentle enough that the cogs didn’t fight the tether while they lay at anchorage. On board Barracuda, the ship kept between the other two, he saw Bull sitting in the prow puffing on a pipe.
“Cap’n,” Bull acknowledged, taking the pipe from between his teeth. He was a big man, seemingly assembled from masts. A scarf tied around his head bound his wounded ear, but bloodstains were visible down the sides of his neck.
“How’s the boy, Bull?” Raithen asked.
“Why, he’s fine, cap’n,” Bull replied. “Any reason he shouldn’t be?”
“I heard about your ear.”
“This little thing?” Bull touched his wounded ear and grinned. “Why, it ain’t nothing for ye to be worryin’ over, cap’n.”
“I’m not worrying over it,” Raithen said. “I figure any pirate who gets taken in by a boy isn’t worth the salt I pay him to crew my ship.”
Bull’s face darkened, but Raithen knew it was out of embarrassment. “It’s just that he’s such an innocent-lookin’ thing, cap’n. Didn’t figure him for no shenanigans like this. An’ that two-by-four? Why, he like to took me plumb by surprise. I’m right tempted to keep him fer myself if’n the king don’t ransom him back. I’m tellin’ ye true, cap’n, we’ve done a lot
