Ghost Ship

Hobnail and his crew encounter a haunted airship.

15.

Ghost Ship

 

“You’re sure you have everything set up?”   Asked the ghostly image in the crystal ball.

“Yes, ma’am, I think we’re ready for it.”

“And you know that Hobnail will come across you?”

“An airship burning in mid-air at night is hard to miss; he’ll see us.”

“It seems to be a risky undertaking to me,”

“It is, but I fear for Jevon and the Changeling girl’s lives.”

“Drake and Archmage Keith volunteered to join you.”

“I know, but Hobnail has spies and that would probably look suspicious, even if they wore disguises.    Most merchant ships only have one wizard to cast wind spells.”

“Well, I pray success will be yours.    I wish there was something else I could do to help.”

“Lady Alleania, you’ve already provided tremendous help!    You steered me in the right path with the Ghost Rider spell - I didn’t know it had variants - so your variant will do the trick.   Loaning me the scroll with the spell on it and finding it so quickly has helped us greatly.”

“I hope so, Rick.”

“Tadd just called down to me - he thinks he heard a vacuum engine in the distance, so we’re going to begin the illusion spell now.”

“Just remember to let the ship fall before the pirates get a chance to look around and see that the fire isn’t real.”

“It will be no problem - This old wreck was about to fall apart anyway and the Dwarves in Hammerforge were glad to let us take it.    It was one of the first merchant ships that Hobnail attacked several years ago, so this is fitting.   It looks enough like the White Buck that they’ll not know.   We just levitated it enough to last for this evening.    Even if I don’t dispel it, the ship will fall on its own.    I’ve got to go, ma’am, to give me time enough to cast the Ghost variant spell.”

“Yesh protect you, Rick!”

“Thank you, ma’am.   Goodbye.”

The image in the crystal ball faded and Rick looked up at Mutt, Shel and the handful of Royal guards that would be posing as ghosts of the dead merchants very soon, “Well, let’s get started.”

 

***

 

“Cap’n, there’s something in the distance sir… something on fire!”

Hobnail rushed across the deck to where one of his men was peering through a spyglass into the darkness.   

“Let me see,”  He grabbed the spyglass and stared for a long moment while his lieutenants clustered around him.    Next to him, Lord Deryck stood with his eyes squinting as he looked with his superior elven sight into the night.

“It’s above the mountains,”   He told the Dwarf pirate and his men, “I’d say it was an airship.”

“Well, let’s go and see for ourselves, then!”

 

Five minutes later they were on the scene.    Hovering about a hundred feet above the top of one of the mountains was a wind-powered merchant airship, completely ablaze, sending an orange glow upon them from the fierce flames.

Hobnail ordered his pilot to steer in cautiously close.    On the deck were the bodies of the crew and from the battered look of the ship, pirates had likely attacked them.

“None of my men are responsible for this,”   Hobnail told Jevon after he had been brought up top to see it, “I don’t like competition, either.    Do ye know what ship we’re gawking at, magician?”

Jevon shook his head, fearful of the smirk on Hobnail’s face.

“Well then, I’ll tell ye!   This is the White Buck!   ‘Tis a mere merchant ship, but ye will be mortified to know that it carried your boss and his lady!   Unless the pirates that attacked it took them as prisoners, ‘twould appear they were killed along with the crew.”

Jevon paled, but said nothing, and Hobnail snickered at his reaction.

“We’ll have to verify it, so you’re safe for now, but if Muld is dead, then ye ain’t worth anything to me anymore!”   

The pirates laughed at the look on Jevon’s face, but again the half-elf didn’t speak.

Hobnail stared at him for a moment, then turned to his men and said, “I need volunteers to go aboard that burning ship and quickly search it before it is consumed.”

He waited, but none of his lieutenants relished the chance of such a dangerous mission.    Just as Hobnail took a deep breath to berate them for being cowards, there came a crashing sound as if something had given way and all at once the burning ship dropped straight down.

“The Hull’s too damaged for the levitation enchantment to hold it!”  A pirate said as the ship plummetted the hundred feet onto the top of a snow covered peak.

There was a loud boom and most of the flames were extinguished upon contact with the snow.    A cloud of dust, debris, smoke and steam concealed the wreckage from their sight for a few minutes.

The pirates all stood at the railing of their ship, peering over the side, waiting like vultures to see the spectacle when the smoke cleared.

Jevon just stood with his head down and eyes closed, praying that Mudl and Syndi had not been on board.

*Don’t believe everything you see, Jevon.*  

It was the telepathic voice of Ant and he opened his eyes and glanced around, but she was no-where to be found.

*I’m nearby, but you can’t see me.   I don’t think that airship was exactly what it looked to be.*

*Why?* Jevon thought, knowing she’d ‘hear’ it.

*As hot as that fire was, there was no heat from the flames*

*What does that mean?   An illusion maybe?*

*A complex one - the ship was real, and some of the flames as well, for I could smell smoke.   But I think most of the fire was fake, and maybe the bodies were illusions too.*

*Ant, they’ll kill me if they decide Muld and Syndi are dead.*

*They’re not dead, Jevon, trust me.    Don’t worry about the pirates, I won’t let them kill you.*

*How can you stop them?*

*I may not have to - look out over the deck to where the burning airship had been.*

Jevon opened his eyes and glanced where she had directed.   To his surprise, he saw eight ghostly figures standing in mid-air as if they were still on a deck.  

“Yesh have mercy, what is that!”  He unintentionally said aloud, which of course pulled the attention of the pirates to where he was looking.

“Thunder!   Capt’n, look there!   Ghosts!”   The pirate pointed wildly toward the apparitions.    Those at the railing were alarmed and dismayed at what they saw.

“Give me a crossbow,”   Hobnail ordered and a few moments later one was placed in his hand.

The Dwarf squinted in the failing light and fired a shot at one of the ghosts.   The bolt sailed through it without touching anything.

“It went through him!”   A pirate exclaimed.

“Shh!   I just missed, that’s all.   Get all the men up here with crossbows and longbows.   We’ll see if they’re real or not!”

As the pirates raced to comply with their captain’s orders, Hobnail turned to Jevon, “Well, boy, what do ye make of it?”

“I don’t know... but two of them are the size of two of my coworkers, Mutt and Tadd.”

“We’ll see what they are, soon enough.   Come on, lads!   Get up here with your bows!”

The pirate captain turned back to stare at the spirits again.

The ghosts just hovered there, as if standing at the railing of an airship, unconcerned about(and not seeming to even notice) the pirate ship.

It didn’t take long for the pirates to bring their missile weapons topside and soon all of them lined the side of the pirate ship with their weapons aimed at the hovering spirits.

“Take careful aim, lads, and on my signal, fire upon them.    Ready?   Fire!”

A volley of crossbow bolts, arrows and a few throwing knives were released, and many of them were on target and passed through the apparitions.

A loud murmur of unease passed through the ranks of the pirates and even Hobnail paled noticeably.  

*Ant, are they real?*   Jevon projected his thought, hoping the Changeling girl would hear him.

*They’re real, Jevon.    I have scanned their thoughts and they’re as alive as we are.    It’s your friends and they’re here to rescue us, but we’ve got to play our parts to help them.    You have to act terrified of them.    Get ready, for they’re about ready to begin the scare tactics.*

As if they heard her words, the figures hovering in mid-air slowly began to turn and face the pirate airship.   A mournful series of groans and wails came from them, then they began floating across the sky toward the ship.

The hardened pirates began panicking like terrified children.    At first they fired more arrows and bolts at the ghosts, but seeing them pass through them unharmed was too unnerving for them.   As the figures neared, still wailing and moaning, the pirates suddenly broke and ran, falling over themselves as they raced for the nearest doors.    Jevon wondered why, as if they were truly ghosts, wouldn’t they float through walls and locked doors?    Even those guarding him bolted and ran, leaving Jevon standing on deck to greet the approaching ‘spirits’.  

In spite of Ant’s telepathic words, he was a bit apprehensive as they neared, for they certainly seemed to be disembodied ghosts.

Two passed him that he did not recognize, but then he saw the ghostly image of Rick and the Orc lady, Shel, followed closely by Tadd and Mutt.   They all were making terribly spooky sounds and didn’t stop as they passed, though each of them turned just a bit and gave him a nod as they floated by.

*Jevon, remember, we need to help them!   Scream and fall to the ground as if they touched you or something!*   Ant sent to him.

Jevon gave an anguished scream, grabbed his arm as if it had been touched by one of the passing ghosts and crumbled to the deck.    His performance convinced the pirates, who were now like animals, trying to push their way into the cabins on the aft deck while several hurried through the door leading to the lower decks.

The pirates screamed as the ghosts approached and some gave up trying to get inside and turned to run in a panic.    The ghostly crew split up; some passing through the walls into the aft deck cabins and others going through the doorway leading down to the decks below.

There were screams of terror and pirates stampeding in sheer terror.

Some came crashing out of the aft deck like scared rabbits.      It was at that moment that Ant decided to show herself.    From a place of concealment on top of the quarter deck, she leaped to the deck, still wearing her vampire form, with a menacing growl.

The ghosts that had pursued the pirates down into the lower deck came back through the walls and moved forward toward the pirates.    One of them ran to the edge of the airship, grabbed at a tow line rope hanging over the edge, but lost his grip on it and plummeted to his death.

The other pirates were like wild beasts, huddled together in horror as the ghosts and vampire moved around them in a circle.    Jevon laid still, but he could still see what was going on from the lanterns hanging from various places on deck.    He knew what they were doing.    The ghosts and Ant moved so the men would have a clear path to the lower decks.   

All of a sudden one of them broke and ran toward that door, and the others followed him.     Before they were even through the doorway, Jevon was back on his feet and rushing after them, but not to join them.     The last pirate rushed inside and slammed the door shut behind him.   

Jevon began chanting while he was still running, and finished his spell as soon as he had reached the door.   Touching the door knob, he activated the spell, then turned to some familiar, but ghostly faces hovering behind him.

“Wizard Lock,”   He told them.

Tadd floated up close to his face and said, “Booo!”

“Uh huh, scary.    The Ghost Rider spell?”

“A variant of it, Alleania gave us,”   Rick answered, but the spell effect made his voice sound ethereal.

“How long will it last?”  

“Not long; I’m going to go see where the pirates have hid, before it wears off,”  Rick answered, and Shel accompanied him.

“Did we scare you?”   Mutt asked as Ant walked over to join them.

“Well, you especially startled me; there is something particularly scary about a goblin ghost.”

Movement from the foredeck got all of their attention.   Standing with swords drawn staring at them with hate-filled eyes was Lord Deryck.

“Your ruse has been revealed, ‘ghosts’,”   He said as he cautiously backed up, still watching them.

“Surrender, traitor and perhaps your king will let you live,”   Jevon called to him.    Ant picked up a sword that one of the pirates had abandoned in his panic and began walking toward the Losasidhe elf.

“Ant, wait!”   He called, but he knew the Changeling girl wouldn’t listen, so he began chanting a glue cantrip, to hold the elf to the deck.

But Deryck wasn’t ready to challenge them.    With a sudden movement, he turned and simply leaped over the railing and off of the ship.

“My God, he’s killed himself!”   Tadd exclaimed, his voice changed by the spell to sound mournful and dead.

“I doubt that,”  Ant replied as she rushed over to the edge and looked over, “He’s gone; apparently he can’t fly or cast spells, so I’ll wager he had an Autocaster Ring that took him back to Losahome.”

“Out of our reach,”  Mutt said with a ghostly sigh.

“For now,”  Jevon responded, “But we have a hold full of others to contend with.”

Rick and Ant suddenly reappeared, floating straight upward through the deck. 

“What did we miss?”  Rick asked, and they told him about Deryck’s actions.

“He won’t kill himself, I’ll bet he’s back at Losahome planning an escape, but we notified Syndi’s brother, so they’ll know what to do with him.”

“If they know he’s arrived,”  Jevon argued, looking at some of the unfamiliar ‘ghosts’ standing nearby, “Who are those guys?”

“King Eleazar’s guards - posing as the merchant crewmen.   I’ll tell you how we pulled it off later.   I think the Ghost spell is about to wear off.”

Sure enough, a short time later all of the spirits materialized into solid form.

“That was fun,”   Shel said, “Though it was strange not being able to touch anything.”

“That is one of the downsides of the spell,”   Rick answered, “You can scare people, but you are unable to touch anything solid without passing through it.”

“Ant and I are thrilled to see you; we were in considerable danger,”  Jevon said, though the Changeling girl shrugged slightly at that evaluation.

“We’re just glad we got to you in time,”   Rick told them about his plan to trap Hobnail and his men with leaked news that Muld and Syndi had already been secretly rescued.

“Muld would be pleased with your plan,”   Jevon told his friend, “Not only did you rescue Ant and I, but you revealed the names of both of the Losasidhe spies.”

“So what do we do with the pirates?”   Mutt asked, “Sooner or later they’re going to get over their fear and try to get out, and they probably outnumber us.”

Rick nodded and turned to the five royal guards who were sitting with them, “You men guard the door to the lower decks - in shifts of three.    We’ll take a shift too.     They’ll have to bust that door down as it is the only way onto deck, so that will help us, some.   Jevon, how many pirates are there?”

“Well, there were about twenty, I’d guess, but while we were prisoners in the hold, they met up with another one of Hobnail’s airships - The Red Buzzard as I recall.    This one brought over Lord Deryck and probably ten more men before it sailed off, so I’d guess about thirty.”

“Thirty three, “  Ant corrected, “Including one very inexperienced wizard who will probably be able to dispel the wizard lock on the door, unless we put a silence spell on the door as well, so he won’t be able to chant the dispel magic near it.”

“I’ll do it,”  Tadd volunteered and he got up and chanted the spell around the door.

“That might be a problem, though,”  Jevon said, “We won’t hear them trying to break down the door.”

“We’ll need guards watching it at all times,”   Rick replied, “You said one guard fell overboard and with Deryck gone as well, that would leave thirty one, right?”

Jevon and Ant nodded.

“Thirty one against eleven, if it came to a battle.   We need to keep them contained until we reach Losahome.”

“Can any of you sail this ship?”  Ant asked.

“Muld taught us the basics of airship control, and the royal guards that were sent with us are all trained in wind powered airships, yet the Silver Pegasus has vacuum engine power.  But I think if we all work together, we should be able to get this ship to Losasidhe.   The capital is only about an hour and a half by vacuum engines, though we’ll have to wait for morning to start,”   Rick yawned, “We’ll all sack out here on deck - it might get a bit cold, but I want all of us nearby if Hobnail and his men try to break free.   Their wizard might be more powerful than we suspect.”

“I’ll stand watch with the guard,”   Ant volunteered, “I rested all afternoon and I’m not too sleepy.”

“Alright, but everyone sleep with your weapons nearby, okay?   I’ll go see if there are any blankets or furs in the captains cabin to keep everyone warm,”   Rick hurried across the deck, wishing that the night was over and hoping that Muld and Syndi were having some luck wherever they were.

 

Reviews

[The Iron Horseman]

Well written, but I have not read any of the earlier chapters, so I was a little lost. I found the mix of technology and magic a little strange. One minor point; I found the indent on the first line of each paragraph annoying when reading the dialogue.

[Eddie Davis]

Thank you, this is actually the 14th book that takes place in the same world. Practical Magic is the use of magic to replace technological advancements, sort of an 'arcane-punk' situation.

[The Iron Horseman]

Cool. Thank you for enlightening me.