Elfborn: The Quest

Plot and Counterplot

"I best be on my way, then. So I can begin my preparations. By your leave, admirals?" At Jordi's nod, Hasan quickly turned and stepped to the door.

"Good hunting, commodore," Gabba-Amil said with a smile, which made his sharp features even more predatory than before.

"Thank you, sir." Hasan said with a nod of his head. And then he was gone, hurrying to catch the next wagon into the city, which passed by the complex's main gates.

Meanwhile, on the decks of the Tiger's Claw, Commander Amir was finishing his own preparations as the crew completed securing the frigate at her moorings in preparation to be restocked and rearmed. They had run across three pirate vessels during their patrol and had expended several cannon balls and powder, all which needed to be replenished before the Claw went out on her next assignment, as per Algers naval regulations. Amir smiled at that thought as he leaned against the railing that ran all along the edge of the rear deck, looking up at the Claw's rigging.

It would be his last official act as the Claw's first officer, having received his orders to move to the battleship Morning Star as soon as he could get his gear together not but twenty minutes ago. The thought of serving aboard a ship of the line was exciting in itself, but a commodore's flagship? 'I am definitely moving up in the world!' He thought with a grin. And he owed his recent good fortune to tradition. It was customary for a captain elevated to the wartime commission of commodore to take his command crew with him, so that he would have a trained and trustworthy bridge during battle, allowing him to concentrate on greater matters like the tactics and movements of the battle group.

Though the middle-aged officer wasn't exactly concentrating on what he was doing, he was looking in the wrong direction to see the two figures moving in the water along the Claw's stern. The two were being nearly silent as they carefully made their way along the well-fitted planks of the Claw's hull. Eyes did double duty as they both scanned the decks above for observant eyes which could discover them and examined the place where they would go ashore, a notch in the stone quay made for landing smaller rowboats and long boats and such. It was easier to slip unobserved ashore there, rather than trying to use a rope to climb to the Claw's deck and go at it from that direction.

Finally the two had reached a point where they could no longer use the Claw as cover. They would have to swim for the notch, as quickly and quietly as possible as the quay deck above literally thronged with ship's crew, longshoremen and the odd officer, either obeying recently issued orders or participating in the refit. It took only one pair of eyes to see them and one voice to raise the alarm. And, as far as they were concerned, that was one pair too many!

Planting his booted feet against the Claw's hull, the first one launched himself towards the notch with an almost silent 'whoosh' of displaced water, coasting as far as he could go on momentum before he ducked underwater and pulled hard for the notch. His companion was right in his shadow, having followed him into the open water. The second man too ducked under water at approximately the same spot his companion had vanished, pulling hard for the dimly seen notch, almost hidden in the shadows cast by the moored warships all around them.

Thankfully the first man found the wave-smoothed steps of the landing under his questing fingers only a few short strokes under water. Using that grip on the stairs as a brace, he carefully pulled himself up and out of the water, smoothly pulling himself completely out before he turned to reach back into the bay. Where he caught the hand of his companion, pulling him also to safety.

"So far, so good," Garrett mouthed and Lash nodded, both their eyes narrowed as they scanned the quay above them and the stairs immediately before them. It would have been better, of course, to attempt the penetration at night. But that was far too much time to wait to get to the bodies the Manadim had managed to pull from the waters off the cliffs. If they didn't find them soon, any hope of survival for those that were still alive, if barely, would evaporate in the desert sun.