PreCursive

  Bel didn’t see the point in hiding that our pns had ged from the crew, which was reasonable. Everyone khat we were heading straight to Caer Drarrow now.

  Now that we were alerted to the aurian scouts, the mood on the ship took a more serious turn. Everyone was aware that with every hour we grew closer to Caer Drarrow, the possibility grew that we would be attacked by a aurian at any time.

  Which did happen.

  It wasn’t stant, but with Pete keeping a, we had an early warning system to the arrival of the scouts. He must have a build that specialized in Perception or something, because he could spot them miles out from underh the Reef. Over the few days of travel, we entered three more scouts.

  I wasn’t involved in fighting these scouts, as I was still caught up in my punishmeail. I’d gotten to watch as the crew of the Reef easily dealt with the scouts that had e by. It was cool to watch, if nothing else. I’d seen Morlow, the angry guy I’d pyed cards with a few days ago, literally harpoon one of them out of the water and drag the screeg aurian onto the deck.

  In the light of day, I’d gotten a much better look a them. You know, when I wasn’t fighting for my life against one of them trying to drown me.

  They were rge, bigger than any man, dwarf, or Sculpted. From hooves to head, I’d say the average aurian was about niall. And they really did seem simir to the myth of the taur from bae. They had the same basic body pn of one, with an equine lower body and a humanoid upper body. However, these taurs had her hair nor skin. Instead, they were covered in dense blue scales, remi of fish. On their massive four fingered hands were equally massive talons as well, easily extending out several feet. All of them had bulbous yellow eyes that gred out at the world from a ft face, with a mouth filled with what seemed to be shark teeth.

  But perhaps the oddest part of them had to be their tail. Because they didn’t have any hair for a tail like a normal horse, they instead had a rge finned o holy looked like something you would see on a shark, simir to their teeth. It gave most of the aurians I saw a decidedly odd silhouette. I guess it made sense, when I thought about it. They were aquatic creatures, and needed some way to swim through deep water easily.

  But damn. I hadn’t evehat huge ass tail during my first enter with a aurian. I guess you really missed some things when you were being asphyxiated.

  While the crew was fishing for aurians, I’d finished fixing the burn marks the first day by cheating. I’d had an idea, you see. Why not see if I could use Aetherial Melding to try and fix the pnks of the deck? It was an iing idea, and I’d wao see if I could ‘meld’ damage away from an object, essentially repairing it. Fade had kept me pany through all of my drudgework. While I hadn't seen him much during the trip to the isnd, he still sought me out sometimes.

  Like now, so he could watch me repair the ship. Somehow, I thought the little wolf was amused by my bor.

  Turns out I could fix the damage with Aetherial Melding. But there was a catch. I needed material to repce the damaged portions with, which I had a easy solution for. Some of the pnks on the deck had been too damaged by the fire to stay, so I’d been given a few repts for them. I’d taken a few portions of the wooden pnks, astralized them, and thehat astralized material to repair the decks very quickly. The crewmates that walked passed me during this process could only wat fusion. Bel had even e by to watch as well, watg me with a hawk eyed gre in case I damaged her ship any further.

  But everything was fine when I was done. In fact, funnily enough, the boards that I had fixed looked visibly han the ohat surrouhem. When I had somewhat smugly poihat out to Bel, she had given me a bit of the old evil eye. What wasn’t so funny was that she left down to the cargo hold, theurned with a bucket of wood stain and ordered me to use it on the deck by hand. Apparently, with no ‘funny business’.

  All right, fair enough.

  However, a few days after adjusting our course directly to Caer Drarrow, the aurian attacks abruptly stopped. No more scouts were eveing in range of Pete’s dete. He told us that he sometimes thought that he saw one or two way out into the distance, but they never drew close anymore.

  This arently a bad sign.

  “They know we’re out here now,” Grey told me, with narrowed eyes directed out onto the horizon. I was standing with him oern of the ship, behind the helm with Fade at our feet. Bel was behind us, no doubt paying attention to our versation as well.

  “Because the attacks have stopped?” I asked my mentor.

  “Yes,” Grey nodded seriously. “There’s no other reason for their probing to cease. I suspect that the Prime has noticed he’s been losing scouts out in this dire, when they don’t report in.”

  I g Grey from the er of my eye. “Just how smart are Primes? You’re talking about it like it’s intelligent and running a military squad or something.”

  “It is intelligent, Nathan,” Grey said, turning to me. “Not as intelligent as you or I, but intelligent heless. Primes are fully capable of basic reasoning and trap setting, more so than your usual mohey’re bestial, yes, but not stupid. It would be wise not to uimate it. Remember that, Nathan.”

  Trap setting, huh. I guess that the snake Prime back from the Addersfield forest had nearly killed me with a trap.

  Our versation was interrupted by a silvery, bell-like whistle erupting from above us in the crow’s . Activity on the ship ceased, with every eye turning upwards, mine included. Sylvia there, waving down at the deck. She cupped her hands around her mouth. “Land!” She called down. “Land on the horizon!”

  The ship exploded into a, including Bel. She spun the wheel rapidly to the left while calling out ands. “Hard port! Drop anchor! Furl sails!” She bellowed rapidly, and then paused for a moment. “Reel Pete up!”

  The crew had seemingly anticipated her orders though, because they were already doing the things she had ordered. The sails of the Reef were untied from their rigging and rapidly furled by the crewmen calling all over them. A few crewmen, including Azarus, heaved a massive iron anchor over the side of the ship. Meanwhile, Pete was getting reeled in like an unruly stone fish by his improvised rigging. The Sculpted shed water like a sponge as he breached the surface.

  I leaned into Grey. “Wouldn’t the anchor not be very useful? Aren’t we too far out?”

  Grey shook his head slightly, watg the chaos. “No, the waters around Caer Drarrow are notoriously shallow. It’s one of the reasons that the isnd was chosen for the prison. It helps prevent both a destine uer approach, and disces escapes. Far easier to find escapees in shallow water, you see.”

  I made a quiet noise of uanding, while Bel was bellowing orders to her crew. Before long, the Thorny Reef had e to a plete stop. When the ship had halted pletely, Bel shouted one final order. “Meetin’ on deck!”

  Grey and I exged nods, and followed Bel down to the main deck of the Reef where everyone was gathering. We found our panions pretty quickly once down there, as it retty easy to pick Venix’s massive frame out of a crowd. I admit, I was only slightly startled when Sylvia dropped down out of the sky from the crow's with a muted thud, so simir to how she had killed the aurian a few days ago. Fade wagged his tail at our Sculpted friend, causio briefly reach doet him.

  Once everyone had assembled, Bel turo face Grey with a raised eyebrow. Grey took the hint and stepped up. “Now that we’ve arrived at Caer Drarrow, it’s time to discuss our steps. Bel, if I could borrow your far eye?”

  Bel grunted, and opened a small tube at her waist. From it, she withdrew a small colpsed telescope. I’d seen it a few times on our trip to the isnd, so I wasn’t too surprised at its appearance. I just sidered it another indication that Vereden wasn’t quite as primitive as I sometimes thought it was.

  She ha to Grey, who extehe small spygss and turo face the distant isnd. From where I was standing, I could only see a small bck dot on the horizon, now that I was looking. Grey looked through the telescope for a few moments, before frowning and making a sidering noise. He lowered the gss and turo face the gathered crowd.

  “Well, it’s not quite as bad as it could be,” Grey said, causing a stir in the crow.

  The hell does that mean?

  “The hells,” Pete started, before spitting out a handful of seawater. “Does that mean?”

  Yeah, what he said.

  Grey rolled his eyes slightly. “It means that there is a gathered for the isnd, but not an excessively rge ohere are two corvettes currently docked at the isnd, her of which seem to be excessively armed. I do, however, believe that they’re adapted troop transport.”

  Bel hissed to herself. “Damn. I don’t care if they’re just ferries, the Reef ’t outrun a corvette. Much less two of the damn things.”

  I heard Curloch ugh from the crowd. “Then we’ll just have to make sure they ’t follow us!”

  The gathering of pirates chortled among themselves, only slightly sinisterly. I ughed along nervously. I guess some sabotage was on the menu, during our prison break.

  “Indeed,” Grey said, unphased. “I would reend it. In the meanwhile, I expeewhere between two to three hundred garrisoroops on the isnd, with the presence of the corvettes. A not insurmountable force, with the strength gathered here, but we should avoid open bat if possible.”

  Two…to three hundred? And that wasn’t cause for ? I cast a gaze out at the people gathered here. There were maybe around thirty crewmen for the Reef, while there were seven people in roup of people. If it came to open flict, that was a hell of a disparity in numbers. Nobody else looked ed, though. Maybe Grey really was just that much of a force multiplier.

  Bel cut in. “What about the damn Seahorsemen? ye see them on the isnd?”

  “As I’ve told you, Isabel,” Grey said with a frustrated sigh. “I believe the Loyalists are granting them sanctuary in an uer cove around the back of the isnd. Said cove is roughly beh the northwestern cliffs. Thankfully, our approach has left us perfectly positioo approach the cove. However, not ihorny Reef.”

  “No shit,” Bel rolled her eyes. “We’ll be using the lifeboats to reach the isnd. The Reef ain’t a big girl, but she’s big enough to catch more than a few eyes.”

  “We?” Grey raised an eyebrow at Bel. “Are you going to apany roup then?”

  “Of course I am,” Bel scoffed. “I’ll be goin’ with ye to kill the Seahorsemen, while me men go slit some throats and ssh some sails.”

  Grey tilted his head in acceptance. “Very well. I wele your bde at our side.” Grey turo face roup now. He met my eyes. “Ready yourself, my friends. We leave soon.”