The wind buffeted Kelv as he stepped out onto the deck. Dark clouds loomed overhead, and sailors scrambled around him, working quickly to secure the sails and follow the captain's shouted orders. A wet touch on Kelv's hand heralded the approach of rain, and quickly the worn white wood of the deck was spotted with dark splotches.
Some fifty meters above, following the ship's erratic course, a sleek ch'taren griffinship sailed on unseen currents. Kelv blinked up at it through the rain, and was impressed--the storm was not affecting it in the slightest. It was as large as the sea-faring vessel below it, but looked even bigger due to the vast side-wings. Its wooden hull was carved and painted to resemble a giant griffin in flight. Kelv had never seen a griffinship this close up, but he had heard that they were sailed by crews of ch'taren airmages and air templar soldiers. The only wind that touched the flying craft was that born of magic.
Dust and Falandil were standing near the captain, who battled with the tiller to hold the ship on its westward course. The captain seemed much more concerned at the moment with his own ship than the one following above them. The rain turned into a heavy downpour, forming large puddles on the deck and causing the sailors to curse as they worked. Kelv decided that his presence wasn't required--better to get back to the cabin, or at least go find a heavy cloak.
He descended the stairwell and went to open the cabin door, only to find it locked. Clucking with disapproval at the poor quality of the lock, he picked it in seconds, and lifted the door latch. He then froze, hearing Korchanja's gruff voice from within the cabin.
Slowly, Kelv crouched down to peek through the keyhole. There was Korchanja, his back turned to the door--and someone, or something, was with him. A large black crow was perched on the table in the center of the cabin, looking up at the swordmaster with intelligent eyes. Korchanja was speaking to a bird! Kelv listened intently, trying to hear the faint words over the drum of the rain on the wood around him.
"...but the young fool was captured before the orzub could get out of the pendant. The spirit scholars must have..."
There was a sudden creak, as the swaying of the boat in the storm caused the door to swing open. Korchanja turned to see Kelv crouched in the half-open doorway, staring at the warrior and the crow, a startled look in his eyes. The dull ring of swords exiting sheathes was only slightly quicker than Kelv's reaction--he leaped up the stairs and out on to the deck. Korchanja and his dual rapiers followed just behind.
"Help me!" Kelv shouted over the noise of the rain and wind, and bowled over a startled sailor as he ran towards the Falandil and Dust. The two Knights, still speaking with the captain, were peering at him through the rain with puzzled expressions on their faces. Korchanja was only two steps behind the thief. Kelv knew the veteran swordmaster would skewer him with ease if he caught up, so he made for the nearest obstacle--the thick center mast of the ship--and began dodging around it. Korchanja's blades sent slivers and splinters of the pole into the air.
"He attacked me, he's crazy!" Korchanja bellowed, trying to corner the nimble thief. "The ch'tarens...", he paused for a second, shifting his stance into a swordmaster form, "...they addled his brain in that tower!"
Korchanja snarled as Kelv barely dodged the warrior's eagle-thrust, which came so lightning-quick and hard that it would have pinned him to the mast had it been an inch to the side. "Get him!" the kankoran ordered the other Knights, who were both running towards the battle.
Kelv doubted Falandil or Dust would believe such an outright lie; however, he wasn't about to bank on it--he had been wrong about a lot of things. He dashed from the mast towards a pile of crates stacked along the starboard rail, sparing one quick glance toward the Knights. This proved to be a mistake--as he looked back to see Falandil and Dust approaching, he tripped on a coil of rope half-hid in the puddled water on the deck. He went down hard, his ankle twisting beneath him.
"Die!" snarled Korchanja, standing above Kelv as young man struggled to rise. But a streak of fire erupted into the swordmaster before he could thrust home the death-blow. He was knocked back several feet by the unexpected strike. He turned, snarling and baring fangs, to face the ethron whose magic had saved Kelv.
Falandil approached, the expression on his face unreadable. The small templar unsheathed his slender sword, and with a word of magic, surrounded the steel blade in flames.
"Little fool! To believe that boy over me--he isn't even a Knight!" Korchanja snarled venomously. "No matter, I've been looking forward to this, you...you fraction of a Knight. I can deal with you all." He shifted his stance, raising both rapiers high, a swordmaster form Kelv hadn't yet witnessed.
Falandil defiantly retorted, "The High Lord has long suspected a traitor in our midst, bought by shuddeni gold. He bade us watch you closely, and wait for you to make a mistake. You have--oathbreaker!" The last word was spoken with boundless contempt.
The swordmaster's only reply was to leap into the air, spinning as he did. The maneuver brought Dust and Kelv also within the reach of his blades. Falandil parried wildly, but his sword was smashed aside by a savage blow that cut into his shoulder. Dust was also injured, Korchanja's off-hand rapier slipping past the scholar's mace, and slashing through robes and flesh to leave a bloody wound along his side. The rapier continued to whirl, grazing Kelv across the chest as the young man threw himself backward in a desperate dodge.
A sudden sound directly above--the deafening blast of a lightning bolt--made the combatants pause. Many of the sailors who had been forming a circle around the combants even dropped down to the deck, hands over their ears. Looking up, those on the ship below saw that the griffinship had turned and was pursuing a dark speck through the clouds. Kelv could see that it was following the crow that had been in the passenger cabin. Another bolt thundered out toward the bird, this one finding its mark. The result was a charred mass of feather and bone, trailing smoke as it plummeted down into the water.
Korchanja leaped forward again with another whirlwind rush, but was struck by a small boulder which rocketed down from above, like a meteor. He stepped back, shaking his head as if dizzy from the meteor strike, when a series of firebolts sent him staggering. The stench of burning hair and flesh filled the air, as he became surrounded in flames that had taken hold in his fur and clothing. Roaring incoherently, he spun around like a living torch, when a second meteor strike knocked him over the railing and into the surging wake.
The ship was a day away from Earendam's coast. Kelv was out on deck, enjoying the warmth of the afternoon sun and watching the play of the sun's rays on waves. Near him, the two Knights sat, playing cards. Kelv had watched the card game with interest for a while, but his thoughts had turned to the events of the past week. He was mulling over the aftermath of the battle, still not sure of what it meant for him.
After Dust's meelee-ending meteor strike, several griffinship soldiers and mages had flown down to retrieve the blackened, soaked swordmaster. He was taken up to the ship by the soldiers, and an airmage who possessed some skills with water magic healed the wounds the Knights had received during the fray. As he healed the knights, he told them why the griffinship had pursued the boat. The spiritlords had detected the presence of a possessed creature near the island. They couldn't destroy the far-away shuddeni void mage that had possessed the creature; however, they could at least stop the creature from committing mischief.
Falandil had argued at length with the mage about who would take custody of the fallen knight, but at last acquiesced. Korchanja would come to know the inside of a ch'taren cell very, very well.
"You are a harder opponent than the oathbreaker was," complained Falandil at last, interrupting Kelv's reverie. With a sigh, the ethron laid his cards down. Dust responded with a satisfied chuckle, and began putting into his money pouch the small pile of coins sitting next to the cards.
"Something troubles you, Kelv?" Dust asked after a moment, noticing the young thief's absent gaze.
"It's just that Korchanja was going to be my sponsor, and now I'll have to find another one. After all that I went through."
"Well now, I suppose I can help out with that," Falandil interjected. "Though I have been sponsoring Dust, I think he's about ready for an advancement. Dust, how does 'Knight Acolyte Lossandas' sound to you?"
"Sounds better than Dust, it does," the caladaran said, smiling.
"Good. So, when we get back to Earendam, I'll meet with the Knight Lords and have them advance Lossandas to Acolyte rank. Then I can take on another initiate. That solve your problem, Kelv?"
"Mostly, thanks," Kelv grinned. He had been hoping for something along those lines. "But one more thing: I'm not sure I understand why you even came here in the first place, if you were just watching Korchanja for the High Lord."
"I'm sure Korchanja had suspected why we had been assigned together in Var Bandor, and why we wanted to follow him to Alensha. Dust and I have been on him like a scum on a water ogre for the last several months. It came to be something of a game between us. Him, dropping little hints to let us know that he knew why we stayed with him. And me, just waiting for a wrong move."
"And that is why you didn't believe him, and attacked him instead of me?"
Falandil laughed. "Actually, I should have believed him, according to Knight protocol. But I was so fed up with his arrogant attitude that I was reaching my limits; I probably would have blasted him even if I had believed that you had gone crazy and attacked him first."
Falandil began shuffling the cards, but Dust shook his head, declining a rematch.
"Quite a week for you, Kelv," Falandil continued. "Learning one of the greatest mysteries of Avendar--not to mention learning something of the ins and outs of Knight intrigue. You have Enaerai's own share of luck, I think."
They left the ship and set out for Earendam, along the dockway road, in the pre-dawn darkness. For several minutes they walked quietly, their footsteps the only sounds to interrupt their thoughts. At last, Falandil broke the near-silence.
"Kelv. Bravery, understanding, discipline--those are what Korchanja said a Knight candidate must possess, are they not?"
"Yes," replied Kelv.
"Good. We've seen your bravery, and I should hope you've gained something of an understanding, considering what you've experienced in the last few days. Now, it's time to show your discipline." Without breaking his stride, the short templar undid his pack straps, and tossed his bulky pack over to Kelv. The two Knights continued without pause, striding over hard-packed earth of the road, leaving the surprised thief behind them holding the pack in his arms.
Kelv failed to stifle a long groan. He then reached back to adjust his own pack, and shouldered Falandil's. "Hey, wait for me!" he called to the retreating forms ahead of him. Hearing them laugh, he silently cursed the deities of good and evil--just minor ones, to be safe--and hurried to catch up.
