Malspire (25 page)

“You’ve fallen out of favour would seem to be the obvious answer,” I said with a certain satisfaction, I might add.

“I doubt that. I understand that it might seem obvious to you, not knowing me, but there is something else afoot and I fear for your brother’s safety.”

“Why?” I demanded. I did not think that Pavantu had fallen out of favour. He was obviously the perfect man for the job which was why this comment worried me so much. “Why?” I repeated.

“It’s a hunch. Something isn’t right. Ajator came to me asking about Obein Klarans, and then I find there is a Secret Servant spy aboard his ship without my consent. Then he vanishes on some mysterious errand.”

“You do doubt his loyalty. You think he has gone to join the rebellion. He would never do such a thing!”

“I told you, Malspire. As far as I can tell, Ajator is loyal. I have never doubted that and I don’t do so now.”

I did not believe him. Was this man so stuck in a world of shadows and secrecy that he saw enemies and traitors in everything and everyone? Ajator probably had a very good reason to set out to sea. His orders probably told him to return to Norlan. It was probably my father who wanted him to return for a proper marriage. It had to be something simple, yet I felt deep down that Pavantu might be right and something very bad was going on.

“What can I do?”

“If there is nothing more you know then there’s nothing more you can do.” Pavantu watched me. “Perhaps I am being over cautious. I very much hope so,” he eventually said.

A sudden gush of wind shook the windows.

“There’s a storm coming,” Pavantu whispered then looked back to me. “Now you must be off. I’ve held you up long enough.” Then, standing up, he added in a harsher tone, “The gods are watching, young Malspire. I hope they favour the Empire this day.”

We hastened the ship through the harbour and out to sea. The weather was getting worse and men wrapped up against the inclement winds and water. Seagulls called their complaints and seemed to be heading for cover inland. The wave tops started to show signs of breaking. I hoped the storm would not last, but it was an ominous sign. It took a concerted effort to focus on the mission at hand after the meeting with Lord Pavantu. Not only could I not shake the unreasonable fear for my brother that the man had planted, but also the notion that the Secret Servant knew much more than he was letting on.

Chapter Eleven

“Full speed Mister Owman,” I said as we made for the open seas. “Head east. Make for the shortest route.”

“Aye aye, Captain.”

Time was now of the essence. If the enemy fleet was truly heading this way, then all depended on the speed we were making. If the enemy managed anything like a cruising speed then the Lady Ocean had no chance of reaching the tower before the rebels, but if the rebels had supply vessels and perhaps had to make further stops along the way, then we stood a good chance. It was yet another risk, but then so was anything in war.

I then turned to the Lady Lamient. “Perhaps you would like to rest in my cabin? We need to talk anyway.”

She nodded and smiled, then followed me down to the cabin where I found the lectrocode officer, Mister Farnsind setting up his box of magic against one wall. There was no time to organise a proper cabin for him, so my cabin would have to do for this mission.

The device was placed on a large desk and was made up of a brass and copper framework with piping, cables and glass tubes, some of which were glowing. The officer was twisting dials and adjusting slides and flicking switches. The machine gave off a slight hum, just audible over the noise of the ship’s engine. I will admit it made me nervous having such a machine in my cabin.

Offering the lady a chair at my desk, I then sat down myself.

“So, Lady Lamient. Lord Pavantu seems to hold your skill in very high regard. Perhaps you could enlighten me?”

“My lord has requested that I take the tower without offering them any chance to warn the rebellion. That is what I’ll do.” She had a sweet voice, an innocent voice. She fluttered her eyelashes and smiled. The smile was not sweet, still cruel and vicious. That smile told me that she was a cold hearted killer.

“I see. How do you expect to accomplish this task? Have you given it any thought?”

“I don’t know. You’re the captain. You tell me.” She was toying with me.

I leant back and sighed, ignoring her insolence. How indeed?

“Let me give you a hint, Captain," she said. "I just need to get inside. Once in, I’ll open the gates.” Her accent was slipping - a bit of country slipping in.

“How persuasive are you?”

At that the smile changed. Not in shape or size but in meaning. It was a miracle to behold how she went from terrifying to fragile, dainty, and childlike in the blink of an eye. I could but admire her and respect the skill with which she could most certainly play people.

“Just get me to the tower,” she said. “I’ll open the gates. You have your men ready.”

I nodded. I did not like this woman one bit, but had to admit that I was pleased to be fighting alongside her rather than against her. Or was I? I never found out for certain, but now that I think about it, I am sure she had two agendas. One was the tower, the other was my life.

***

The choppy waters hampered the Lady Ocean, but by early morning of the second day, before sun rise, Olvan and I reckoned we were close to the tower. I wanted to come in close to shore and try to find a cove before being spotted, but it was risky business travelling in the dark so close to shore in such seas.

Sun rise would be in less than an hour. The Imperial fleet would not be far behind. Perhaps as little as six hours away. The admiral was going to follow on without any support vessels or supply ships in order to move quickly. Orders were to keep all lectrocoders silent. On deck, there was no light. Even pipes were banned, not that anyone could have lit one in this wet weather. I noted how I often yearned for the weed when I was not allowed any, and could go days without when I was.

Before, I had slept some hours, drawing the curtains round my cot. It was not perfect with the lectrocode machine humming and the waves beating the ship about, but after the last few days of excitement, I was exhausted, and given the chance, had found sleep easily.

It was near pitch black. Somewhere, not too far off, were the craggy rocks of an enemy peninsula coastline just waiting for the seas to smash a frigate to wet tinder on their unforgiving edges.

“Take us in, Mister Harl,” I said. “Half speed.”

“Aye aye, Captain.”

We headed south towards the coast. Twice I had the engines cut to listen for the sound of waves breaking on land. On the third attempt, we heard it. We could just make out the suck and smash of water on rocks and knew we were close to shore. Now we had to be extra vigilant. A man was taking the depths with a lead weight and passing the numbers back. I scanned the sky and could just make out the hint of grey on the blackness along the horizon, then looked to the south again and watched for the line of the coast. I expected to see cliffs as it got lighter, and hopefully the tower somewhere along the cliff tops.

We made a westerly heading at slow speed and watched for the shape of the cliffs to emerge, and so they did after another twenty minutes. It was a fight on the rough waters to keep a safe distance from land and rocks, but we persisted along the line of cliffs as the morning sun cleared the gloom of night.

As dawn broke, the waters calmed a little. It no longer rained and anyone who was on deck watched out for the tower. After some while, the call came from the crow’s-nest. “Watchtower!”

We stared hard and saw as the distant shape of a squat stone built tower emerged from the heads of the distant cliffs to the south west. Now we needed a place to land before we were spotted, but there was nothing but cliff face. We moved closer to shore as visibility grew to make it harder for the tower to spot us.

“Continue west,” I commanded. My mood was sour from the wet clothes and lack of beach or cove for us to make a landing. I wanted to hide the ship away while we took the launch for the raid, but so far there was nowhere to do this so we continued.

Rounding another head of rock, we were in sight of the tower again. If the tower’s garrison were vigilant, we would be seen and reported by lectrocoder to the next watchtower and if the enemy fleet were close, they too would get the message. I scanned the sea as I realised that the enemy fleet could indeed be close, but saw nothing. No stacks of smoke from steamers, nor flocks of gulls that might follow a mass of ships at sea.

The tower would report a privateer frigate which might not be too uncommon. We had the rebel flag flying. Even so, the enemy would be on edge, and may suspect something was amiss. I did not want anything to put the enemy on alert. Also, now that the sun was up, the smoke belching from the funnel could be seen for miles. I wanted desperately to cut the engine and kill the fire.

“There!”

Bringing the frigate closer to land again, we were now hidden once more, and there we saw what might be our best hope which was a small beach in front of a jagged and steep slide of land that climbed up to the cliff tops. It would be a bugger of a climb, but it looked like the best and probably only option.

Harl looked sceptical, scratching his grey head of hair.

“It’ll have to do, Mister Harl. Put the ship over there, then cut the engine and drop anchor. Mister Olvan?”

“Sir?”

“Tell Sergeant Lamtak to ready his men. Then fetch the Lady Lamient." Then to Harl I said, "You are in charge while we’re gone, Mister Harl.”

“Aye aye, Captain. Be sure to take Mister Sudlas and Jod with you, sir. If things go wrong, they'll be your best bet.”

"Thank you, Harl. I will."

Soon the launch was in the water. The sea was still rough but the anchor seemed to be holding the ship in place. Harl had orders to simply keep the ship there, out of sight. The boiler had been doused so there was now only a trickle of smoke and steam coming from the funnel. If the enemy arrived, the Wraith Deep/Lady Ocean would never be able to escape as it would take at least an hour to stoke the fires and heat the boiler again.

The men had a fight to keep the launch steady against the side of the frigate as it rose and fell with the waves. Eventually Olvan, Lady Lamient, Jodlin, Sudlas, Farnsind the lectrocode officer, Sergeant Lamtak, his twenty marines and I were packed into the launch. Mister Farnsind had the copy of the enemy lectrocode book. There was a chance that we would find a new copy in the tower should we manage to get in, but at the first hint that the enemy might be overrun, it would be destroyed.

On reaching the small, shingle beach, we hauled the boat up out of the water and looked up at the steep ascent. It looked worse from down here than it did at sea, but the Lady Lamient did not hesitate and began to scale the broken wall of rock and earth. She had changed into a simple, tight hunting suit of soft leather. At her belt was a slender but long knife. She wore leather gloves and leather shoes. She had tied her hair back and now wore a scarf about her head. Apart from her feminine figure she looked like a ship’s boy.

Ever since she had come aboard the ship, men had been staring at her, for she was truly very pretty and possibly high born, but I very much doubted she was a proper lady. She had ignored the looks and seemed quite used to it.

I went after her, and the rest followed me. We did not need rope or hooks to make the climb but it was very hard work all the same. Parts could be climbed like steps, but other harder sections needed both hand and foot. A couple of younger marines had climbed ahead and leant a helping hand to those that lagged behind. By the time I was half way, the Lady Lamient was already at the crest where she disappeared over the edge.

It took the best part of an hour to reach to top. We had to stop a few times to rest after it became apparent that fatigue could easily lead to a slip, and then a crashing fall to the rocks below. The top revealed a barren and rocky grassland of rolling hills with a few bent trees and a forest in the distant south. The wind was strong and the long grass swept back. Above us the grey skies looked low and somehow angry with fast moving clouds and a smattering of rain.

To my annoyance, the Lady Lamient was already a distant figure heading in the direction of the tower, so I quickly gathered the men and headed off after her. After a few moments she headed inland and I saw that she wished to approach the tower from behind a low hill to its south-east.

As we got closer to the tower, we could see that it was not a large structure but certainly fit for purpose, set about fifty yards back from the cliff’s edge, it looked to have a single entrance with arrow slits further up the walls. I had hoped it would be a dilapidated thing but it was obviously in good repair which meant battering down the door would take far too long.

All the men were crouching now as they neared the crest of the hill so as not to be seen. The grass was long and we would have to crawl the rest of the way before getting a closer look and figuring out how to entice the men inside to open the door. I did not relish the thought of using hooks and rope.

Cursed bitch, the lady had vanished as the sergeant, Jodlin, Olvan and I crept up to the hill’s grassy ridge. Now soaked again and cold from the wet grass, we looked over the hundred yards or so at the tower and Mister Olvan pointed a finger in surprise at what he saw. At the crenulated top of the squat tower was a guard, doing a slow march round the tower’s circumference. He walked in a manner that indicated that he had done this a hundred times before and expected to do it a hundred times again. He had a tall silver helmet and long musket on his back. This was not what had surprised Olvan however. We watched just as the Lady Lamient crawled in through the lower arrow slit about six feet above the doors. How she managed to climb the wall, I had no idea, but what was even more baffling was the way she somehow compressed, twisted and contorted her body in order to fit through the thin slit. Surely the slit was not even wide enough for her head, but somehow she squeezed through and vanished into the darkness.

As the guard did his rounds, he spent a good twenty seconds within sight as he rounded the southern half of the circle. Then he vanished for another thirty seconds. I looked for spots closer to the tower where men could be hidden. There were none. The region around the tower was cleared of bush and rock. The distance could be run in less than twenty seconds but men would make a noise. There would be even more wind on the tower which would hopefully disguise any. I began to pass the order round that three men at a time would run over to the tower in complete silence when the guard was not in view.

Mister Olvan and Jodlin went first as soon as the guard’s head disappeared. They ran at a crouch, quickly but silently. Then on reaching the wall, put their backs to it and looked up to see if the guard had heard them. I could see that the guard had heard nothing as he casually continued his round. The rebel could not see the foot of the tower without leaning over the parapet, and we could only hope that he did not do so. Another three ran the distance, then another three until we were all across and hugging the base of the tower. Nobody spoke and all moved silently. I was now listening for noises from within. I guessed that there might be a garrison of twenty or thirty men based in the tower.

“I can smell bacon,” whispered one of the marines. Sergeant Lamtak shot the man a murderous glance for making a noise. I could smell it too. They must have recently had breakfast, and the bacon smelt good, but I could not have eaten. I was worried sick, and hoped it did not show, but I had no idea what to do now. The woman had vanished into the window without a word of what she intended, and now my men and I stood vulnerable and without a plan at the foot of an enemy stronghold.