The Supreme Warrior *2014 ABNA Contest 2nd Round*

CHAPTER 12: Dancing on the Waves

TWELVE: Dancing on the Waves

Like Water, The Supreme Warrior has no consistent Shape. Instead, he Adapts to Defeat his Enemy.

—Caraazor 3:8 The Alchemy of War

The company marched north through the Fyrken swamp, this time without an incident, and waded across the shallow Brembel River. Their goal was a rocky cove south of Cheldran, a small port city located on the coast of Medvian Sea. Gellan Ware had used the cove in the past to smuggle dwarvish trade goods from Bodelic past the tax collectors in Cheldran.

The tired and battered company entered the secret cove a fortnight after leaving Nidafall. A dreary curtain of bland gray boulders surrounded them. The huge rocks appeared almost as worn as the company itself. The air reeked with salt. Even the seagulls picking at small sand creatures along the shore were a dirty grayish white.

The cove’s one redeeming quality was its harbor. Sheltered by a rocky coast and a narrow mouth, the cove protected a shallow bowl of calm blue-green water. Even though the company was well over three weeks behind schedule, the Trader was pleased to find a tall ship from House Mycelere still waiting for them.

When Gellan Ware called across the water to a sentry aboard Mycelere’s Maiden, he received a startled reply. Soon afterward, a flurry of crewmen lowered a boat, and Captain Hudorin himself boarded along with an oarsman to row the boat to shore.

Once aground, the Captain did not bother to step out of the boat before exclaiming, “Gellan! We thought you were dead!”

At the Trader’s puzzled glance, the weathered Captain explained. “Every Guild in Selinger is talking about the collapse of Dannik’s fair. Then Baron Grelig stormed Helvig’s castle. Half the Barons in the North are at war.” The Captain’s voice fell, and he shook his rich black beard before he said, “Numerous caravans disappeared in the fighting. When you did not arrive, we thought you were one of them.”

Cal could not contain himself at these words and pushed through the other men, “Who is at war?” he demanded from the Captain in a menacing voice. “What castles have fallen? What Barons have died?”

The middle-aged Captain blanched at Cal’s barrage of questions. His face purpled as he recognized Cal’s youth. For a moment, it seemed as if Hudorin would tongue-lash the young sergeant like an errant deck hand, but the Captain seemed to reconsider his response as he noticed the deferential posture demonstrated by the older men surrounding the muscular giant.

Instead, the Captain looked into Cal’s eyes and answered, “I do not know, young one. Clear word had not yet reached the City when we left.”

Gellan Ware pulled the conversation back to his immediate concerns. “If you believed we had died, why are you still here?”

“We got caught in a weird blow just as we were nearing the cove, ‘bout a month ago. No warning and the storm nearly shoved the Maiden against the reef. We had to fight like Jayati himself to avoid it, but we lost the mast.”

“Is she ready to sail?”

“Yes. We just finished trimming the new mast and patching the sail. You don’t want to know how hard I had to work the crew to find a suitable tree and drag it here.”

“Why? Was it difficult?”

“And then some. All summer, Captains have been complaining about the most bizarre weather they’ve seen in years. The wild seas have forced us to stick to the shallows. That puts us within reach of goblin longboats, who can’t navigate blue water. They’ve been preying upon deep water vessels all along the coast.”