Chapter 7
“Fine.” Captain Bondson said. The sergeant stiffened. Camron’s jaw hit the bottom of his helmet. This is skyway robbery!! thought Camron.
The captain continued. “You’ll get our cargo and we’ll get safe harbour until this storm is done, plus food and ale if the storm lasts longer than a cycle, with no extra charge.”
The short one nodded, but Bondson held up a finger. “And, there will be no other hidden charges. The transfer of our cargo satisfies all our obligations in this.”
The two duardin looked at each other and nodded. “Deal captain. We’ll take the cargo now if you’ll be so kind.”
“Bring me the agreement of docking. By the time it’s here we’ll have the cargo ready for transport.”
They nodded and left.
The tension on the deck was palpable as the crew of the Wind's Oath watched the two Barak-Mhornar duardin walk back into the hold to prepare the paperwork.
“Captain are you sure that was wise?” Sergeant Nesbred asked.
“That’s practically criminal!” Camron blurted. The two other duardin looked at him, then back at each other.
“They’ve got us between a rock and a storm,” the captain said, shrugging. “And unfortunately that’s exactly where we need to be right now.” He ran his hand along the top of his helmet, as if he were trying to run it through his short cropped hair that would normally be there. “We’ve got Grimnir’s own luck today it seems.” He added.
So much for a profit driven captain, Camron thought. Now we don’t have glory OR profit! If he wasn’t going to learn how to soldier and earn glory, he thought he would at least get to learn how to turn a profit from Captain Bondson. The disappointment of it was too much. “But the entire cargo!” he protested.
Sergeant Nesbred wheeled on him. “Enough beardling. Back to your post!”
Camron recoiled as if slapped. Beardling? He was younger - did she know? Worse, did he really not belong? He took a step back and nodded to her. It hurt all the more because the sergeant was right - he’d had no right to interrupt his superiors like this.
Captain Bondson turned to the Sergeant. “Any duardin old enough to serve and die for this ship is old enough to not be called a beardling,” he said calmly. Then he turned to Camron. “But the sergeant is right. Although I appreciate a duardin that speaks his mind, there are certain decisions above your profit-share.”
“My apologies Captain, Sergeant.” Head hung, Camron was about to turn and leave before he remembered why he was here in the first place. “One thing Captain, I could swear I saw shapes in the storm behind us.”
The captain had been turning away from them before he abruptly froze. “What shapes?”
“I’m not sure. It was dark, and they seemed darker still,” Camron said. “But I’m pretty sure they were small winged things.”
“How small? Wind-guppies or their ilk?”
“Maybe human or aelf sized? Taller than a duardin.”
Sergeant Nesbred turned towards the captain, and both Camron and his sergeant watched the captain as the wheels turned in his head.
Captain Bondson started pacing. Pausing every step or two to think. After an eternity that was probably only a few moments, the captain nodded. “Believe it or not,” he said, “this could work well for us. Sergeant, please put your grundcorp on high alert. Fully loaded munitions.” Then Camron jumped as the Captain spoke to someone over Camron’s shoulder. “First-mate Grengever, put the crew on high alert. All non-essential posts to crew weapons and post lookout.” Grengever marched off.
The captain turned back to Camron. “Well? Dismissed.”
Snapping off a quick salute to the Captain, Camron turned to the sergeant. “Sergeant, with your leave I’ll resume my post with Yedrun on the portside rail?” Nesbred nodded and Camron hurried off. He could feel the sergeant’s eyes on his back the entire way. He was glad to have had news to share. He wasn’t sure what was going on but at least he was being somewhat helpful.
Camron settled in beside Yedrun. The older duardin grunted a hello, but otherwise they both watched everything silently.
Within a few moments, the ship’s hold had opened and the cargo container was brought out onto the dock.
“Who’s that?” Camron asked Yedrun, gesturing towards the duardin towing the cargo. He wore the copper army and pinstriped black suit of a Barak-Torin privateer.
“I dunno,” Yedrun shrugged. “Ship crew.”
“Naw.” Camron shook his head. “We’ve been on this ship for days, and I’m pretty sure I recognize all the crew. This one’s ancestor mask is different.”
“Ship crew Camron.”
“Naw Yedrun, I know who I’ve…”
“Camron. Ship crew. It doesn’t matter. We’re looking out for those shapes you saw on our tail. So look smart.”
Camron grunted. Yedrun was probably right. He was experienced and had probably been flying for longer than Camron had been alive. But Camron couldn’t shake the feeling something was up.
The (new?) duardin wheeled the cargo to the edge of the ship and waited.
Within a minute the two Barak-Mhornar duardin came out of the gate to the khazak’s inner corridors and walked along the dock towards the ship. The shorter one carried a sheaf of papers. They handed the papers to the captain and took the handle for the cargo wagon before heading back towards the entrance to the interior of the khazak.
Camron looked back through the cave entrance at the raging storm outside. He thought he saw an aberration in the mist. He blinked and it was gone. It came again. He opened his mouth to shout.
A horn blast shattered the calm and the lookout’s voice rang out. “Hostiles at the cave entrance!”
The captain leaned over the side of the ship and hollered to the two Barak-Mhornar duardin who had just opened the door to the holdout’s interior. “Are those cannons just for show?” Camron could hear the smile in his voice.
The two duardin looked at each other. Tungevin, the taller one, shoved the cargo inside and closed the door before dashing towards the cannon on the portside, and the shorter duardin waddled to the starboard cannon.
Now the shapes were starting to be clear. Lithe. Winged. Bearing cruel sickles and wickedly edged shields.
Yedrun grumbled under his breath. “Khinerai Lifetakers. Probably followed us all the way from Ulgu.”
Camron grunted again. He’d never seen these before, but he shrugged and hefted his rifle. “Bet they die to aethershot like any other.”
Before Camron could pull the trigger, the captain’s voice rang out across the deck. “Do not engage! I repeat, do not engage! If they attack, defend yourself and the ship and shoot to kill! Otherwise, do not engage!”
As the captain’s voice boomed, Camron lowered his rifle. Confused, he looked around. But he wasn’t the only one looking at shipmates. This didn’t make sense. What Camron had learned of tactics so far had taught him to be bold and seize advantages. The flying aelves bunched up as they squeezed through the cave entrance. This was the perfect time to be firing when they were all together.
The cannon off the portside boomed, and one of the khinerai came apart in an explosion of blood and tissue. Her wings gently floating to the floor of the cave.
The starboard cannon boomed, but the shot must have missed.
Camron looked around again. He itched to fire. His trigger finger was jumpy. They should be firing, adding their weight of fire. But not a single duardin fired their gun or loosed an air supremacy mine. It looked like the whole crew was out on deck. He even saw Malaida out on deck, a wrench in one hand and some sort of weird pistol contraption in the other.
“Yedrun, those cannons are for repelling ships and sky sharks. It could punch a whole clean through this ship, but against this swarm they’ll do nothing. It’s like trying to stab a cloud of flies with a fork.”
Yedrun shrugged.
Camron frowned but said nothing.
A swarm of khinerai flooded into the cavern. The cannons boomed again. Another scream as a wing was blown off and an aelf plummeted through the air.
Some of the khinerai went for the two cannons firing at them, but most went straight for the door to the interior of the outpost. There were maybe thirty of them, but more were streaming in from the outside.
None of them were engaging the ship.
The portside cannon boomed again. Grapeshot this time. Three of the khinerai were shredded and fell from the sky, but more took their place. The cannon off to starboard wasn’t firing, the shorter duardin locked in a bitter battle with two khinerai.
The aelves weren’t bothering with the Wind's Oath. Most of them were in front of the khazak hacking at the door with their sickles or heading there to help out.
The taller Barak-Mhornar duardin leaned out from behind the gun emplacement. “Captain! Your help please!”
The captain turned to address him. “If it’s all the same to you, we’re content to rely on your protection.”
Camron leaned closer to ensure he could hear.
“We won’t last! We need your help!”
“I believe we signed a contract for safe refuge here. Are you saying you can’t meet your end of the bargain?”
“The contract was for refuge from the storm. Not attackers!”
“Well certainly it included no obligation on our part to repel attackers. Is that something you’d like to include as an amendment?”
Camron heard what he was starting to think of as the captain’s trademark smile in his voice, even above the din of battle. He smiled too in his helmet, seeing where the captain was going with this.
“Yedrun, are you seeing this?” Camron leaned over and smacked Yedrun in the shoulder. He glanced at the Barak-Mhornar duardin and then turned his attention back to the doorway to the interior of the khazak where all the khinerai were chopping away. Yerdun’s gripped his rifle tightly and he seemed mesmerized by the flock of aelves.
The bharak-Mhornar duardin shot a quick glance towards the captain before turning back to deal with an aelf storming his position. He pulled a pistol from his belt and shot her through the chest before holstering the pistol and grabbing his weapon again. “Grungni take you captain!”
“You’re welcome to brave this storm of aelves until you can find one of our competitors to help you defend your khazak!”
Now Camron was certain the captain was smiling.
Tungevin looked over at his compatriot, buried under a sea of aelven bodies. He must still be alive since the aelves still seemed like they were fighting.
“Fine! You can have your cargo back!”
“Plus a half-barrel of aethergold, to fill up our engines.”
“FINE!”
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