Cast Away

Syndi attempts an insane rescue attempt of Muld.

5.

Cast Away

 

Syndi raced as quickly as her high-heeled shoes would carry her, through streets filling with curious and sometimes nervous people who were watching the low flyover of the black airship.

Once some mounted city guardsmen rode past and she yelled to them, trying to flag then down, but they were in too big of a hurry and rushed by without hearing her.

It was like one of those crazy nightmares where there is terrible danger and yet you can’t get anyone to help, nor are you able to do anything.    Syndi didn’t know anyone in this part of town that could help her, and she didn’t have time to explain everything anyway.

As she neared the block where the guild house was found she desperately tried to think of a plan of action.      There were at least half a dozen of the thieves and she knew that at least some of them were armed with clubs.   What could she do?   

She stayed close to the buildings on the same side of the street of the guild house.     For some crazy reason, all of the buildings seemed empty.   Most were new buildings, and then the reason for their emptiness hit her;   many were not occupied and the few that had been bought or rented out did not yet have their owners living in the quarters over the shops.

Perhaps that was why the thieves had targeted the building.

 

As she crept closer, she became aware that the moonlight had disappeared.    Alarmed, she glanced up and blinked in surprise.    The black airship had stopped a short distance ahead of her.

It hovered directly over the Practical Magician’s Guild.

 

More nervous than ever, the Losasidhe princess sneaked from shadow to shadow until she was only a few buildings away from the guild house.     In the distance could be heard a large group of people - perhaps the night watch, coming to investigate, but they were too far away to be of immediate help.

The airship floated just above the top of the guild building and a countless number of knotted ropes hung from the bottom of it, dangling in front of the building.     A dozen dark figures rushed about in the street just in front of the building, while several more stood nearby as look-outs.

She could barely make out four men carrying something out of the guild building.     It seemed heavy and they took it over to a large metal basket that dangled from the bottom of the airship from a thick iron chain.

They lifted the object into the basket and she heard the clank of metal.     Then she figured out what it was - they were stealing the cannons!

“That’s the last one; haul ‘er up quick, I can hear the night watch comin’ ,“ One of the dark figures shouted up to the airship.

There was the squeak of a winch being turned and the basket was pulled upward.

Another group of four men appeared, and they were carrying a body that Syndi knew had to be Muld.       One man took one of the dangling ropes and tied it around his underarms, then gave a couple of tugs and another winch pulled the unconscious magician upward.

“Done?”   A voice called out from the airship.

“Done!”   One of the figures answered.

“Then get the hell out of there!”  

At that command, all the dark figures raced to the knotted ropes and began rapidly climbing them.       In no time they had disappeared into the shadows of the airship.

Syndi anxiously glanced up the street, but the approaching night watch was still not in sight.     The ship was already beginning to rise up into the air.

“Oh!   What can I do?”   She groaned, wringing her hands.    If the ship got away, how would they find it?    There were no airships in Westmark tonight and by the time one arrived, the mysterious black airship would be gone.    

But the thought of Muld, who had been so wonderfully kind to her these past few months, alone and at the mercy of the bandits (or were they actually pirates, as they were using an airship), was too much for the young girl to bear.   

Throwing common sense to the wind, the girl ran forward and leaped for one of the remaining ropes hanging from the bottom of the airship.   She barely caught it, but with a surge of energy from her fear, she pulled herself up the knotted rope, climbing furiously as the airship continued to slowly rise higher and higher in the air.

 

She didn’t dare look down, for she was absolutely terrified of heights, so Syndi focused on the dark hull of the airship as she frantically climbed the rope.

Her arms screamed in protest, and she had absolutely no idea what she was going to do when she reached the top.    The ropes were all tied to the railing of the airship and as she neared the top, she could hear voices coming from the deck.      Syndi felt with her legs against the side of the ship for any sort of footing, but the wood hull of the airship was smooth.   

She knew she’d be too worn out to put up any sort of a fight when (and if) she reached the deck.      She cursed her foolhardiness but continued to climb out of a terror of falling to her death.

Near the top of the hull, her foot felt an opening, only five feet from the deck.     Syndi stopped, exploring it with her feet.   It was a square opening with some sort of wooden flap that pivoted.

With weak and shaking arms she lowered herself a few feet and used her feet to pull herself over toward the opening.    It was a port where ballistae were fired from during battle, but the ballista had been removed from the port.    

Using her legs to pull herself through the opening, and praying to Yesh that there was no-one on this deck, Syndi slid through the opening and collapsed to the floor.     The lower deck was dark and empty and she laid there on the floor recovering from her climb for a few minutes.     

She could feel the ship rising faster now and the sounds from the city below grew fainter and fainter.    On the main deck above, she heard a wizard chanting a spell followed by the sounds of a rushing wind.      She knew enough about the function of airships to know that this was a wind powered ship, so the magic-user had apparently sent the ship into motion with an arcane breeze.

Syndi knew she couldn’t stay where she was; she had to find some place concealed.     She stood up and quietly went to the door that opened onto the ballista deck.   Putting her ear to the door, she listened for a moment.    Hearing no sounds, she pushed the door open slightly and glanced out into a hallway lined with doors leading into what she assumed would be crew cabins.     But at the end of the hallway were stairs - one set heading upward to the main deck and the other going down into the hold of the ship.

 

The thought of hiding in the bottom of a ship where everything smelly and nasty probably ended up, did not thrill her, but she had to find some place safe.    She moved quickly down the hall, her Sorceress’ high heels clicking against the wood deck as she rushed toward the stairs.     Just as she started downward, she heard the door to the main deck open up and a group of men coming down the stairs.

The Losasidhe princess crept down half the flight of stairs, straining to hear the conversation of the men.

“I have made my demands of you quite clear, magician,”   a gruff voice was saying, “There can be no compromise and no bribes.”

“You won’t succeed, captain.”   It was Muld’s voice, and he sounded calm.

“I think I will.    I will give you a night to reconsider my proposition.    Holiun, bind him in the brig - put a silence stone in the center of the room; he’s desperate enough to try some spell to escape.    Make him secure but comfortable.    Now, Mr. Muld, I will bid you a good night… what is left of it.     As we tend to operate under the cover of darkness, you must get accustomed to sleeping in the morning hours.     I shall come for your final decision at sunset.    Think well on what I have said to you.    Take him away!”

 

Before the gruff man had even finished speaking, Syndi was moving downward on the stairs, mindful of scraping her heels against the wood or making any other sound.

The stairs opened up into a cargo hold, rather full of looted junk and material.     Thankfully it wasn’t a bilge, and she quickly sneaked around the back of the stairs and crouched down behind some boxes.

A few moments later she heard the sounds of someone being led down into the hold.

“Welcome to your quarters, master magician,” One of the guards sarcastically said as they pushed and pulled the bound elf across the hold to a cleared space where large hooks were bolted into reinforced sides of the wall.      Syndi heard jingling and the clicking of several locks.

“Be glad we didn’t chain you standing up.   Perhaps this act of kindness will help you think clearly.    But don’t expect any food until you’ve made your decision.    Sometimes hunger can help make difficult choices seem much easier.”

The other guards laughed at this and then suddenly all sound disappeared.    Syndi knew that they had placed a silence stone somewhere in the room, to prevent the use of spells.    She remained hidden until she saw the light from the stair opening dim, and then slowly stood up.

The hold was very dark, but she could make out Muld sitting on the floor across the room, his head bowed as if praying.    Glancing frequently up the stairs to make certain that she wasn’t seen, Syndi moved quickly toward Muld, thankful that the silence stone had neutralized all sound.

He couldn’t hear her coming and when she touched his arm, he jumped, looking up at her in complete surprise.      Even without sound, she knew what he was silently asking her.    ‘How in the world did you get here?’   She simply smiled as she examined his chains.    He was firmly restrained to the wall and there was no chance of pulling him free.

Gesturing at the chains, she shrugged, and he nodded, understanding.   What could she do?   A crazy idea came to her, though she was not at all sure it would work.    She held up a finger to indicate to Muld that she’d be right back and she began searching for the location of the silence stone.

 

It took her longer than she’d hoped to find it, but she finally located the silence stone resting on the bottom step of the stairs.   She had no way to neutralize it, so she had to remove it in order to go ahead with her idea.    That meant she had to get it out of the hold, so she picked it up and cautiously carried it up the stairs.     Peeking around the landing, she was relieved to see that no-one was in the hallway of the deck above.  

But if she carried the silence stone up to the deck, anyone awake in the cabins would suddenly find all sound muted and they would probably come out into the hallway to investigate what had happened.

Yet she wouldn’t be able to help Muld with the silence stone in the hold, so Syndi decided to chance it.    She sat the stone near the stairway and then rushed back into the hold.

By the time she had stepped off the bottom step, she had left the range of the silence stone.

Muld was standing, waiting anxiously for her.

“How in Heaven’s name did you get on this airship?”  He asked in a whisper.

“Shh!   We’ll talk about that later.   I’m going to try something to see if I can cause these chains to unlock.”

“What?   There are only a few spells that can remove chains and-“

“Shh!   Do you want the guards to come back?   Be quiet!”

The Practical Magician meekly complied and a moment later he heard Syndi softly chanting a spell.    He recognized it as the common ‘Wizard Lock’ spell, but chanted in its’ reverse ‘unlock’ pattern.    Impressed at her idea, he watched hopefully.

She touched the chains as soon as she finished the spell and to their delight, the locks all popped open.

“Brilliant!”  Muld complimented as he pulled the shackles off his wrists.

“What do we do now?”  Syndi asked him in a whisper as he rubbed his wrists.

“I thought you had a plan.”

“I don’t have any plan; I’m just reacting to each moment as it happens.”

“How’d you get on board?”

“I climbed a rope.”   She quickly explained and Muld seemed both impressed and concerned.

“You put yourself in an incredible amount of danger for me, Syndi.   That was very foolhardy.”

“Foolhardy?!”  She asked, offended.

“Yes, indeed!   You are far too valuable to be risking your life for me.”

“Well, thanks a lot!”

“I don’t mean that I don’t appreciate it, merely that you should really think of yourself first.”

“Unbelievable!”   Syndi shook her head.

“Well, you are a princess, you know!   These are pirates, Syndi and if they found you… there is no telling what they would do to you.”

“So exactly who are these pirates, Muld, and what in the world is going on?”

“Remember I told you about a man that visited me seeking a better way of firing projectiles?   I thought he was from Marksylvania’s airship corps, but apparently I was deceived.    He was just posing as that.   He was a member of a group of pirates - their master is someone they call ‘Hobnail’.     They’re airship pirates, Syndi, and they had heard of our Practical Magic shop opening up and fooled me into believing they worked for the king.”

“But why?”

“Weapons, of course!    They want to fortify their airships with my design of cannons.      They tricked me, we crafted them and then they break in and steal them so that they didn’t have to pay for them.    But I caught them red handed.”

“So they took you captive?”

“Yep, so I could produce more for them, back at their hideout - wherever that might be.”

“Then we’ve got to get off of this ship!”

“I quite agree… have you any plans?”

“You didn’t like my rescue attempt, so you come up with something.”

“I appreciate your rescue, Syndi, and your devotion to the guild, but we’re high up in the air now and moving rapidly toward their destination.    Any escape seems impossible now.”

“Wonderful!”   She plopped down next to him on the floor in frustration.   “So what do we do, then?”

“We’ll have to hide, and that will mean obtaining disguises.”

“Where can we hide aboard an airship?”

“I doubt that it will be easy.”

“That’s not much help, Muld.”

“Syndi, rescues are not meant to be easy, or everyone would try them.”

She looked at him like he was crazy and he just shrugged, “We’ll have to steal some clothes.”

“Sure, that’s easy enough.”

“It might be, actually.    Most of the crew is asleep right now and we could use the silence stone to creep into their rooms and take some disguises.”

“Maybe they have a supply room that would be less dangerous to sneak into.”

“They’re pirates, Syndi, they don’t wear standard uniforms.”

“Well maybe they have captured loot that we could assemble disguises from.”

“They keep their stuff down here in the hold.    I guess it wouldn’t hurt to look around first.”

 

***

 

They were in luck, for apparently some of their number that had died had their belongings piled over in a corner of the hold until they could be rationed off or brought to their nearest of kin later on.     They found heavy coats and other typical pirate attire and pulled the gear off to the side to try on.

“Real clothing,” Syndi said with a sigh.   She had retrieved the silence stone from the stairway and had placed in within a small potion chest made of lead that they found in the hold, with empty bottles inside.    Muld removed the bottles and she had put the stone within, and  then closed it.   The lead neutralized the spell, which they wanted as they needed to hear someone coming down the steps into the hold.

“You said something earlier today about still wearing scant clothing under your wizard’s robes.    Do you still have the same outfit on?”

“Yes… why?”

“Well, you should see if you can put some clothing over your Sorceress attire, so if you need to strip down in order to generate Qi, you’d not be buck naked… though come to think of it, that would REALLY generate some power for you.”

She glared at him, “I’m NOT going to expose myself that much!”

“I was just kidding, Syndi.    But can you fit clothes over your Sorceress outfit?”

The girl snorted, “Easily!   Why do you think I’m wearing this wizard’s robe?   The ensemble I have on today is absolutely ridiculous.   A dancing girl would be embarrassed dressing like this!”

Before he could say anything, she untied the robe and let it slip to the ground.    Muld forgot to breathe for a few seconds at the sight of her.   Alleania had selected a wild costume for the budding sorceress to wear.   

It was all metal - what there was of it- consisting of a very scant groin piece that covered her lower extremities and (just barely) the center of her butt, and small saucer shaped breast cups that covered her n*****s and little else.    Both pieces were held together with delicate chain.

“See?   Isn’t that awful?”  Syndi asked, turning sideways as if there were more to see from that angle.

“That… that is really scant.   I think I just helped you generate some Qi.”

Syndi sighed, thinking he was kidding with her again.   “You can see why I’m not parading around dressed like this.    So obviously I can fit clothing over it.”

Muld nodded, too unnerved to say anything else.    He shook his head to try to clear it, but the wonderful image of the gorgeous young woman would not vacate it.   When he turned back around, Syndi was wiggling into a baggy pair of pants.

“I don’t know what to do about these crazy high heeled boots."

“Just leave them on for now, those pants are baggy enough to hide them.”   Muld suggested, turning away from her to speak so he wouldn’t leer at her.    His own pants and boots would suffice, so he just pulled on a heavy coat and secured it with a sword belt and a shoulder sheath containing half a dozen throwing daggers.

Syndi donned a billowy white shirt and also selected one of the heavy coats favored by pirates and sailors.    Following Muld’s lead, she strapped a sword belt over the coat.   Last, she then pinned her long red hair up under a large cap.

“There,” She said, showing herself to him for inspection, “Well, how do I look?”

Although her garb hid her revealing Sorceress outfit, it couldn’t hide her loveliness and feminine shape entirely.

Muld just shook his head, “Syndi, you are simply too pretty to be a pirate.”

She took this as a compliment and smiled sweetly.

 

Muld just returned to his own disguise, speaking to her as he finished, “If they see you close up, we’re in big trouble.    Keep the collar of your coat pulled up and your face down.   One good look at you and they’ll know you aren’t a pirate.    A beautiful woman surrounded by a ship full of men who haven’t any women among them would be a very bad situation to find you in.”

“Well, it would generate Qi.”

“Yes, but do you know any offensive spells to take out that many pirates?”

“Well… no.”  She responded, crestfallen, “Alleania hasn’t taught us anything like that, yet.”

“Then we’ve got to keep you concealed as best as we can.”

 

As they were finishing assembling their costumes, the airship suddenly stopped with a lurch.

“We’ve stopped!”  Syndi exclaimed, “Surely we’ve not reached their base this quickly.”

“Well, I don’t know with absolute certainty, but I would seriously doubt it.    I would say we’re still within Marksylvania - probably the northern-most part.”

From somewhere up on deck there came the sound of someone banging on something metal.

“An alarm… you don’t think I was detected, do you?”  Syndi said nervously.

“They’d not sound an alarm; that would warn you too.    No, something is going on upstairs.”

Footsteps could be heard running from the cabins directly above them, heading up the stairs toward the deck.

Syndi’s ears popped and she prepared to say something about this to Muld, but apparently the same thing had happened to him.

“A change in altitude,” he explained before she could ask, “We’re descending.”

“What do you think is going on?”

“Let’s go find out.     They’re all assembled on the deck now, so we’ll just creep along the stairwell to the deck and peek out.    Stay behind me; they probably don’t have any women with them on this ship, especially one with fiery red hair.”  He smiled to show her the comment was not meant as something negative.

Pulling their coats close to their faces, they quietly crept up the stairs and peered around the corner.   The rest of the stairwell was devoid of any pirates, so they hurried upward.   

The door out onto the deck was slightly ajar, but several pirates were standing with their backs to it, listening to their captain address the group.

“Sorry to arouse you, lads, but we’ve fresh prey.    A Dwarven caravan camped below, on their way to or from Hammerforge.    This far from any town, they should be easy marks for us.”

“Do we use the magic cannons, Cap’n?”  One pirate asked.

“They aren’t ready for use, lad, and besides they won’t be as good when our prey is below us.   We won’t waste them on that.   They’ll be plenty of use attacking towers or fighting off other airships.   Tonight we’ll just drop into their camp and overwhelm them.”

“They’ll have guards.”

“The moon’s gone, boy, they’ll not see us until we’re among them.   Now take to your ropes lads, they’ll be either laden with precious metals or gold from selling them.”

The pirates all murmured excitedly and there was a quick shuffling as they spread out across the deck.   Muld opened the door a bit more as soon as the men standing in front of it had moved.

In the dim light of torches on the deck, he could see the pirate crew climbing down the various knotted mooring ropes that hung from the railing of the ship.   

“What do you see?”   Syndi whispered, and he told her of the scene.

 “We’ll wait until they’ve engaged the dwarves, then I have a plan.”

“But we’ve got to help them fight off the pirates!”  Syndi protested.  

“We will, my dear, but in an unconventional way.”

“Huh?”

“Shh!   Just follow my lead, okay?   You do know a levitation spell, don’t you?”

“Levitation?   Yeah, that is one of the basic spells that all apprentices are taught as soon as we master the cantrips.”

“Good, then have it ready in your mind.”

 

“Why?”

“You’ll see, come on!”   Without further instruction, Muld pushed the door full open and hurried out onto the deck.

With a calming breath, Syndi followed, wondering what insane plan the Practical Magician had in mind.

 

Reviews

[Elina]

"...where ballistae were fired from in battle..." Maybe replace "in" with "during?"
"Syndi knew she couldn’t stay there..." Perhaps, "Syndi knew she couldn't stay where she was..."

[Eddie Davis]

Thanks for your proofreading expertise.

[Elina]

My pleasure!