Convergence

Ant and Jevon confront Lord Deryck as Rick and Shel face the wrath of Hobnail.

23.

Convergence

 

 

He paced like a caged tiger, staring out across the Airship docking platform toward the three remaining pirate ships.    Lord Deryck was so wrapped up in watching the progress of the battle that he did not hear someone approach behind him.      But at the last moment he sensed them and spun around with his long sword drawn, ready for a fight.

His eyes settled on the face of a frightened Losasidhe girl.   It was Jain, and she held up her hands and backed up, wide-eyed and scared.

"Oh... sorry... I see you made it.   Were you followed?"   Deryck asked curtly, while sheathing his sword.

"No, Lord.    I was afraid I was too late."

Deryck frowned, "They're meeting some resistance."

"What if they lose, Lord?"

"Then we have to sneak into the forest and figure out an alternate way to escape."

"Are you alone, Lord?"

"Of course I'm alone, you silly girl!   What a ridiculous question."

"Oh, not really Lord Deryck..."   Jain's voice changed and immediately Deryck knew that he had been tricked.

In a flash he had his sword drawn, just in time to meet Jevon's sudden charge through the stairwell doorway, while the Changeling girl's form shifted.

"Well played!"  He said with a sneer as Jevon advanced.

"Surrender, Deryck and we'll spare your life!"   The Practical Magician said boldly.

"You have yet to defeat me, magician,"   He lunged forward so suddenly that Jevon barely deflected Deryck's sword point to the side.    The Losasidhe man swiped sideways, lightly cutting Jevon's neck and chin and then reversed the blade to slash at his mid section.

Jevon could do nothing but jump backwards, out of range.   Deryck moved in, cutting Jevon's left leg and sending him off balance.

Out of nowhere Ant leaped in front of him, her sword a blur of motion.    Deryck parried her slash and countered with a chop at her neck, which she skillfully deflected.  

He reared back as if he was going to try a massive downward chop at her head, but as she brought her sword over her head and crouched slightly, his foot shot out.    It caught her in the stomach and knocked her backwards, over the top of Jevon, who was just getting back on his feet.

She sprawled out on her back, but had kept hold of her sword in the fall.

Jevon knew the Losasidhe nobleman would move in for the kill, so he lowered his head and charged forward at him.

His move knocked Deryck down, but he received a wicked cut in his upper arm.   Ignoring the pain and flowing blood, he stabbed at the nobleman.   Deryck defended himself with his free hand.    The point of Jevon's sword scored a deep cut in his forearm.    But Deryck savagely slashed at Jevon's injured shoulder, delivering another deep wound just below his first injury.  

His arm went numb, but Jevon was enraged and continued stabbing with his uninjured sword arm.    Once again Deryck deflected his blow, this time with the palm of his hand.    Jevon's sword pierced his palm and caused the Losasidhe man to cry out in pain.

But Deryck wasn't defeated yet.    His sword now slashed at Jevon's belly, and his injured arm was unable to deflect the attack.    Sharp pain and the warm rush of flowing blood told him that this wound was very serious.    Deryck twisted the sword to maximize the wound.    As he began to swoon, he gave a last desperate chop at the Losasidhe man, aiming for his shoulder.     Instead his slash went high, nearly severing Deryck's left ear.   

As he lost consciousness, he heard his opponent cursing him in the Faesidhe language which was used by the Losasidhe. 

Then he knew no more.

 

Ant had recovered and was on her feet and rushing forward when she saw Jevon take a critical hit to his gut yet manage to deliver a wicked wound to Deryck's face before he collapsed.

Deryck was stunned by the deep wound to his ear, but was desperate to escape, so he swung his sword at Ant as she approached.

He was wounded now, however, and she knocked his sword aside then ran her sword through him up to the hilt.    Deryck's eyes bulged, he gave a single, gurgling cough, which splattered blood on her, then fell dead, on top of Jevon.    She was relieved that he didn't disappear.    "You should have worn an Autocaster ring,"  She said to his corpse as she pulled him off of Jevon.

Quickly she assessed his injuries.   Pulling a vial from a small pouch on her belt, she uncorked it, opened Jevon's mouth and poured the contents down his throat.    It quickly stopped the loss of blood, but he was still seriously injured.

Cradling his head in her lap, she closed her eyes and forced her mind to think of Sophia, whom she had communicated with telepathically several times recently.     Mentally she called out to the Drow sorceress, for she knew Jevon needed further healing, but she didn't dare leave him.

But her telepathy couldn't reach her mind.    Frustrated, she thought of the Halfling and Goblin that were Jevon's friends.   Perhaps they were close enough to be contacted.

 

***

 

Just outside the Practical Magician's Guild, Mutt and Tadd, along with their girlfriends, were still firing upon one of the pirate airships with two cannons that the Guild had enchanted earlier that day.

Most of their shots missed (even with the help of the Amplify spell), but they had the ship's attention and it was trying to turn in the strong wind to return the attack.

"We probably need to change position,"  Mutt told the others, "When it figures out where we are, we'll be sitting ducks."

"We have to let it get closer, so we have a better chance of hitting it with our... OH!   Something is in my head!"   Tadd suddenly jumped to his feet, holding his head.

"What is it?   Tadd, what's wrong?"  Mandy dropped the cannonball she was struggling to carry and raced to his side.

"Wait...wait a moment....it's...it's Ant!   She's contacting me telepathically!"

Mutt and Vellie joined the couple.

"What is she saying?"   The goblin asked.

"It's Jevon!   They're on the Airship docking platform and Jevon is seriously injured!   She needs.... healing potions!   We're coming Ant!   Mutt, grab as many as you can carry from Muld's office and hurry!"

Mutt leaped to his feet and raced into the Guild building, emerging less than a minute later with six bottles with the red cross of Yesh painted on them, "Got them, come on, we'd better hurry!"

Abandoning their artillery, the three Halflings joined Mutt as they raced to help their injured friend.

 

***

 

 

On board his airship, the Ebony Falcon, Hobnail was almost turning purple with rage.    Again and again the same damned group of Practical Magicians had thwarted all the lucrative schemes that he and his brothers had dreamed up to gain wealth.    One brother was already dead, and now, just as he was on the verge of getting his revenge on Westmark, his plan was dashed by a damned Practical Magician and an Orc.

The Ebony Falcon glowed like a green firefly and Hobnail knew that it wouldn't be long before everyone below, as well as those in the Westmark merchant airships, converged upon them.

He turned to one of his wizards who he reserved for sending scrying messages to his brothers, "Contact my brothers; tell them we're damned!   Tell them to do what they think is best!   As for me, I plan to go down fighting all the way!   Now go!"

The wizard bowed and rushed off into the Captain's cabin to use the crystal ball.

Hobnail turned toward the two figures just now getting to their feet in the middle of the wreckage of their hover platform, "Lads, there are the two who have caused us grief!    Annihilate them while we can!   Kill them!   KILL THEM!"

 

Rick heard the dwarf's maniacal yell and it turned his blood cold, for they were surrounded.    A moment later the wizards began peppering them with bolts of energy as they released Magic Missiles at them.   Both of them were hit from all sides, the energy piercing them like arrows or bolts.   

He grabbed for his vest pocket, and pulled out a small lead box.    A particularly powerful bolt of energy hit him in the stomach and he fell to his knees, dropping the box, which popped open.    A handful of bolts hit them and Shel slumped down beside him, but then they stopped, for he had used one of Muld’s silence stones, which he’d pocketed earlier that day.   He had just felt that it wouldn’t hurt to have it available, and now he had proven that feeling was right.   There would be no more spells spoken against them now, but they were injured and he knew it would only be a brief reprieve before the pirates rushed forward to chop them to pieces.

In the silence, he took Shel's hand, which was covered with blood from her wounds.     He looked into her battered face and mouthed the words I love you, as he expected this would be their last few moments alive.

But from out of nowhere, a huge ghostly hand cupped itself protectively around them.    Shel screamed in fright, but did so without sound and Rick looked up to look through the semi-transparent hand.   It was the sight of an airship coming toward the Ebony Falcon, with its deck lined with people and powerful arcane lights piercing the darkness of the night.

Before he could look at Shel, the giant hand gently closed around them and they were plucked off the deck of the pirate ship, moved through the air quickly and softly dropped onto the other ship, as the hand opened.  

The silence stone had not travelled with them, and sound greeted them along with a multitude of friendly faces.   

"Are you alright?"  Queen Synthaeia asked, and Rick knew she had saved them.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, we are now."

"Sit there and I will have a healer come to you,"   She called out something in Faesidhe and hurried off to join the others.

"Syndi's mother,"  Rick told his wife, examining her wounds anxiously, "Hang on, hon."

She smiled weakly at his use of her pet phrase, "I'm not going anywhere."

 

From the deck of the Ebony Falcon, Hobnail saw his doom approach.    The airship deck was lined with wizards and elven soldiers and the dwarf recognized many of those aboard.    The Losasidhe King and Queen, the black-skinned pregnant Drow sorceress and her sword master husband.    But it was who was by their side that drew all of his attention.   A beautiful redheaded Elven woman holding the hand of a tall, lanky Elven man with unruly hair.

"Muld!"   Hobnail roared as the elven ship turned across his ship's bow so as to bring it along side for boarding.

"I'LL SEE YE IN HELL!!"   Hobnail roared at the top of his lungs and with a sudden movement, he threw all four of the Ebony Falcon's four vacuum engines into full throttle.

The Elven ship was still passing in front of them when the pirate ship abruptly shot forward at full speed.   The sudden motion sent a number of the pirates off the side of their ship, but it was the impact of the two ships that was far more deadly.

The Ebony Falcon cut through the Elven ship like a sword, sheering it in half.    Both ships broke apart in an explosion of wood and debris.

Then everyone and everything was tumbling toward the city below.

 

For a few seconds there was nothing but screams and free-falling.    Yet as everyone from the airships braced for impact with the streets and buildings below, they entered a thick, soft, pillow-like cloud that slowed them down to the speed of a falling leaf.

Onto the street and roofs of buildings they were deposited, some piled on top of each other.

 

"Yesh be praised, Alleania, you did it!"   Zeatt yelled from the roof of the palace where she, Alvis, Drake and her sister had raced to see what was going on.    As soon as Alleania had heard the pirate ship fire up its vacuum engines, she had used a charge in a staff that she had grabbed up shortly before hand.   

She had snatched up a magic Staff of Air Mastery in hopes of using it to stop the strong winds that were thwarting the aerial battle.

But before they could figure out what to do to enter into the fray, the pirate ship had rammed the Elven ship.    Thankfully she had remembered one of the staff's powers was to cast a Cloud Save spell.   It's only function was to create an arcane cushion of a large cloud to protect people that were falling.   

"I'm glad it activated so fast,"  She told her sister, still trembling from the speed that she had been forced to act.

"Come on, everyone, there will still be people hurt!"   Zeatt exclaimed and they rushed to get to the scene.