A Battle Won

The sun had just started dipping to the western horizon when they burned the bodies.

The Nawyet now sat anchored in the middle of the wide river. This necessitated numerous trips in the small tender craft back and forth to shore, but no one complained.

Captain Amaruq looked at the lizardkin bodies heaped in an untidy pile on shore next to the jetty. She had been tempted to simply push all of them over the side into the river, but tradition dictated they leave a pile of bones after the battle. A warning, though Amaruq hoped there were not any lizardkin warparties for a thousand leagues.

The fire was just beginning to catch up the bullrushes they had soaked in whale oil. Hannah tossed the torch onto the top of the pile, then walked back toward the small group standing well away.

With a tired sigh, Amaruq looked at a pair of sailors walking down the jetty from the rowboat. “I am quite sure I told you to stay in your bunk.”

“Sorry Cap’n,” Kireama mumbled. Lisa, her broken arm in a brace and sling, just gave half a shrug and said, “I didn’t give the girl a choice, just hopped on.”

Standing upright and stiff with pain, Lisa concentrated on not breathing too deeply with her cracked ribs tightly taped up. “I wanted to see them burn, Captain.”

Amaruq could do nothing but nod to that. Kireama hadn’t been wounded, like most of the youngsters, but the captain could see a wariness in the girls furtive looks around the hills next to shore.

“Kireama,” the captain said softly, “there are still some things to move to the Nawyet. Please help Hannah grab those last few boxes and treat them well.”

Kireama blanched at the two battered sea chests but nodded.

There were now 5 sailors on the beach, everyone always keeping the others in sight. Lisa stared at the growing fire and asked, “You found their den, I take it?”

The captain nodded, “Aye. What you’d expect, about 20 of them living in the space under the watchtower. We found some cargo stolen from at least two riverboats, and recently. The… remains are in the boxes. We’ll take them with us, but we’ll have to send searchers back from Currielle.”

“Anything you recognized?” Lisa watched to make sure none of the boots were nearby. Granted, none of them were truly ‘boots’ - unblooded rookies - any longer, but Lisa knew that only Captain Amaruq, the officers, and the former marines had cleared out the lizardkin den. Not that anyone expected any living enemies, lizardkin all fought and all died, but some experiences were best avoided if possible.

Amaruq nodded, “They had some bones, stacked like they normally do. A few cages, some luckless souls got captured and kept for a spell. But they were all in the cookpot a week or two ago. Think one of the boats must have been the Faoileán, that fancy purple sharkskin greatcoat was with the pile of clothes.”

“Fuck. The second officer, Beatrice, loved that coat.”

“Aye. Absent friends.”

“Absent friends.”

The big veteran tried to take a deeper breath but grunted in pain. She made a note to tape up her ribs more tightly when they got off this cursed beach. “We did well, Cap’n. This was a near perfect ambush. They took a few boats at least as big as us, and we only have some broken bones and a few cuts. We were lucky.”

“Lucky indeed,” Amaruq finally turned away from the flames, seeing the tender had dropped off the bits of human remains they had found on the Nawyet and was now returning. “If not for that shifter witch, we would have very likely stopped here on the trip back. Just tied up to the jetty like normal and had a couple of bored mates on watch with a knife and an old crossbow while the rest of us slept.”

Lisa nodded, “Yes, but we didn’t. No one died, and we killed all of them. Well, I still can’t quite fathom what the girls told me about the dragonkin.”

Captain Amaruq chuckled mirthlessly, “Ah yes, the dragonkin. Let’s get back to the boat, we’re done here, and I think it’s high time the steward answered some questions.”

Cautiously, Lisa nodded, then said, “About that, he’s been helping clean up. He hasn’t said much, but, well, the crew are talking. Naturally. Making wild guesses and so on… but they also want to know your mood. So do I.”

Stopping, the captain looked up at Lisa, surprised, and gave a more genuine laugh. “Ahh, I see. Well certain people on the Nawyet can rest easy. Noah saved us… and while I’m very interested in his story I know he is loyal crew, and has a good heart besides. But I won’t be accepting his cute smile and vague stories this time. I need to know if he puts the boat and my crew in danger.”

Everyone was tired as they gathered on deck, being too many to all fit in the mess. It was evening, and other than snatching a few hours here and there over the day no one had slept. The lizardkin blood had been washed off the deck, trophies taken, and the captain had sailed the Nawyet a mile upriver before anchoring for the night. Now everyone sat or stood, some eating a late meal or fussing with bandages.

Sitting on a crate, Noah looked as tired as anyone else. He had complained of a terrible headache throughout the day, but had not shirked his part of the work.

“Noah, you told me a little earlier in the day, but things were hectic, and I know the crew wants some answers too.” Amaruq stood with her arms crossed, and she realized she seemed rather accusatory. With an effort, she relaxed and let some honest relief colour her voice as she continued, “You did a powerful and uncanny thing, and saved us all in doing it. Now, a sailor’s life off the boat is her or his own business, unless it affects their crewmates. So, let’s start there, neh?”

The man looked nervous, his handsome face solemn and his hands clasped behind his back. But he nodded and spoke, turning to face the crew as he did, “Thank you. I didn’t hide anything from you for any reason other than, well, I didn’t know how you’d react. And my habit is to keep to myself.

“I am not a mage, I guess I should start there. A few of you have asked me today and I could tell you didn’t always believe my reply, but it’s true. I do not know how magic works but what I can do is not magic as you would understand it. I simply… have an ability. I can move from place to place in a moment. If I have been there before, I can skip between places in no time at all. Distance doesn’t matter very much, but skipping with heavy loads is harder, and I can only skip with things I am holding or are very close to me if I focus on it.”

No one spoke, but he could see some doubtful expressions. He sighed, then a small grin broke out on his face, and he was gone-

-and back, 5 feet away, still standing with his hands behind his back, one moment there and the very next instant over there instead. Depending on where they stood, some of the crew had the impression he was gone for a split second but to some he looked like he had been in two places at once for the tiniest flicker of time.

A dozen voices yelled out, some shocked and some nervous laughs of disbelief.

“That’s fucking magic, come on!” cried out Ashe, her voice raised like a woman heckling a stage performer. Something about her cheery tone cut through the tension and several other sailors laughed.

When the noise died down, Noah shook his head, his smile fading. “Not as I understand it, because I was always able to do it. That, and only that.”

Standing up straighter, he gave a nervous exhalation. Hitty was staring at him, her eyes fixed but he couldn’t look at her. “I am not from this world,” he said, licking his lips. “I am from a different, well, planet entirely. I came here because I am able to skip, to jump, between places. So, if I can focus on something I need, I can find a world where that thing exists. It takes me much more effort than just skipping to places I've been in the same world, but I came to these lands, to this world, to find a special map.”

Any mirth died down, and Amaruq could see how frankly scared the man looked now. His lip trembled, and she realized with a twist of her heart that he wasn’t scared of them, exactly, but scared they would reject him. He could simply leave any moment, but he couldn’t escape the fear and distrust of the people who he had come to consider crewmates. Friends. Lovers.

“Noah,” she said slowly, “if I may, I think we should first agree that, whether you consider it magic or not, for us you use magic. And if anyone heard of your ability or whatever you want to call it, they would assume either we had all become haze fiends or else that a man who was able to tap into the older, deep magic was around. And that would be bad.”

The crew pondered, with Hyvin finally saying, “Aye, if word got out what do you think the Duchess would do? Or her old crew of would-be warlocks? They used to have a coterie of deep magic users there, now they have bitter old men and women who can barely light a candle. What would they do if they got wind of a man who could move a mile in a blink?”

Amaruq nodded at her second mate, “Excellent point. Whatever we think about it, Noah is not safe if loose lips start bragging at a bar that they fucked a sexy man who knew magic.” Several loud laughs and nods at that, but more than a few words of agreement.

“I won't say shit about magic, but I am still telling everyone I know I fucked the sexiest man in the Northlands I don’t care!” Ipellie called out, and everyone laughed, especially when they noticed how Noah blushed. Captain Amaruq smiled - at least the first part was done.

“So, we all agree? This is our secret to keep, for Noah, who stewarded for us and is our crewmate and friend.” Unanimous agreement to that, and Amaruq could tell Noah was greatly relieved. In fact, that decision seemed to make his other even more outlandish claims seem less pressing.

But Amaruq was quite certain nothing he had said was anything but the truth. But, perhaps, not all of it.

“How do you speak our language so well, Noah?” she asked, “And you talked to the dragonkin in their own tongue. Never even heard of anyone can do that, never mind someone from, er, very far away.”

He seemed happy to answer, perhaps reassured by the way she framed her question to indicate she believed him. “I can learn languages very quickly. It was a gift from my home world, it’s hard to explain, but it’s why I was able to pick up some words of the lizardkin language from books I studied when I got here, and a few words I heard when I woke up mid-battle.”

“You damn near slept through the whole fight,” Lisa said, teasingly.

He shrugged, embarrassed, “I was in a deep sleep, perhaps as much from using my abilities in the Empty City too much as from the **** of the shapeshifter woman. I was dreaming of a huge fight and monsters yelling and then I realized it was happening. I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to help sooner.”

“How did you help, anyway?” asked Hannah.

“I skipped away once I was touching both of those giants. I brought them to a spot in the Empty City and left them to die.”

Hannah frowned, “So they are dead, or just left? Will they attack the next boat that docks there?”

Noah shook his head firmly, “No, they won’t. Trust me, they are already dead.”