Tales of Vyscher Book 1

Chapter 11

Tad decided that manticore stew wasn't too bad. A little gamey, but better than most of the things they had eaten when they were crossing the ocean, so he was certainly in no position to complain. Except for the new scratch on his ribs, that kept bothering him as it slowly leaked blood. It had taken a lot of wiggling and pulling, but he had been able to get the manticore spike out of the deck without getting noticed. It was a foot long and needle sharp, now he just needed a way to use it so that he and Flewin could escape. He had slipped it under his ragged tunic to keep it out of sight, and it sliced him across the ribs almost immediately. Luckily, he was so dirty that nobody could see the blood, but now he was paranoid about it getting infected.

It was late at night on the fourth day that the ship had been anchored in the mountains when the lookout yelled out. "Get the captain! I see the signal!" One of the other crewmen down on the main deck took to his heels and ran for the captain's stateroom. Tad gripped the spike under the blanket that was wrapped around his shoulders, not knowing if the sign meant immediate action.

Captain Lynch finally made it up onto the deck and made his way to the bow of the ship. Looking downward with a spyglass he paused a few moments. "Hoist the anchor! Our merchandise is finally ready!" He turned and headed back towards the quarterdeck, slipping the spyglass into his belt. "Tad, you're about to have visitors, I hope you've cleaned the room for them," he said with a cruel chuckle.

"Yes sir." Tad just stared after him, wishing the captain had walked closer to the cage so he could sink the manticore spike into him.

In short order the ship was moving again, this time further westward and sinking down into the valley that lay beyond the mountains. Lanterns were hung on the front of the ship to light the way, and the moon was high and helped the captain see. Tad just hung on; he couldn't see enough to know what was happening other than the darkened mountains passing by on both sides of the ship. He hated having to trust Lynch.

It took a bit for the chill of the air to wear off, but even still, Tad kept the blanket around him to cover the spike, he had no real way to hide it, but that wouldn't last. Moving over to Flewin, he wrapped the blanket around her. "Here, hold onto the spike until we have everyone else aboard, I think I might need both of my hands for a bit, and we can't lose our only weapon!" he whispered. She looked up at him with wide eyes and nodded.

Several hours later the ship started circling and descending rapidly, and deckhands rushed about doing whatever they needed to support whatever was happening, Tad had no idea. "Make ready the ropes!" Lynch called out from the quarterdeck.

Maybe they were landing, Tad thought?

Indeed, in short order ropes were being dropped and the ship came to a halt, with ropes being heaved to lower them further. Tad could see that they were in a clearing surrounded by tall trees, in what land he knew not. He could hear yelling from down below the ship as well, with someone urging people on, and another complaining about having to be awake at this god-awful hour. He couldn't disagree with that one.

The gangplank was lowered, and a rotund man clambered up the gang plank. "Where in the Hells is the Captain?" he bellowed.

"Right here, and please keep it down. I would prefer not to draw too much attention to us," Lynch said harshly.

"I have a load here for you, worth a fortune, and you took your sweet time getting here!" the man hissed.

"We came as soon as we saw the signal. If you know someone who can fly a ship through these mountains better than I, then by all means hire him next time," Lynch laughed, knowing nobody had a ship that could match his.

"Hrmmff. Well just get the cargo on board and be fast about it, the next load will be here in two days, so just come back and don't await the signal."

"Next load? What next load?" Lynch demanded.