Out of sight of Abford, Celina suggests to Merlin: "We should look to see if they've put anything by way of message or marker in our belongings. That whole situation back there gives me an itch between the shoulder blades."
"I believe that we crossed paths with him by accident, but not completely so. Why would our paths cross? If they were going from similar places to other similar places."
He closes his eyes and begins some sort of minor spell, involving what Merlin has described before as "his third eye." "I sense no thing magical upon us. Where shall we go?"
"We are going," Celina smiles, "to a similar place, I suppose. The mystery is were they going or coming? Did we just pass Huon because he is trying to find the center while we were moving outward?" She pauses and says more softly. "Or did he just come from a beach with statues of young women astride tritons as we did?"
She looks up. "It makes some sense that this thing I look for would be valuable to more than myself. I should have kenned that earlier." And her words pounce as she leans towards him, "Now it should be easier to find. It has become more real if it is desired by more than one of the family. I think it would work that way."
"Huon is looking for something valuable to himself," answers Merlin. "He would not need an Army to find an artifact, unless he needed an army to get to it. I wonder if he knew something we do not. Or perhaps we will be greeted as friends by those who will face him in arms."
Celina encourages Mauve to pick up the pace even as she eagerly listens to her brother.
Celina parses that last for a bit. "I didn't give him much reason to think he'd find Amber so changed where he was concerned. He's worried about redheads." She then lapses to her own hidden thoughts.
New growth and a new season lie just over the hill.
[Arref/ooc: just for clarity, Celina puts her will fully to finding the sword and tritons that will back her return to Rebma to re-balance the Hope of Those Sworn]
Celina and Merlin move through shadow towards their goal, letting intuition drive them. What Celina can tell at this point is that it isn't time to go into the water, but she thinks she will need to, eventually.
A short way outside of a large port city, Celina sees a tavern. The sign over the door is an Osprey, gray and somewhat malevolent looking, with flat colored eyes and wings spread. A military man is brushing down a horse in the tavern's courtyard.
Celina considers the day may be improved by stopping outside such a large city. She suits action to thoughts then and turns Mauve to the courtyard. She dismounts and kisses the horse's neck and pats it gently.
Merlin dismounts as well. A stableboy comes out and offers to take horses.
Looking at the military man, she asks, "Arriving or leaving? And how's the trade hereabouts?"
He smiles. "Arriving, my Lady. My trade goes middling well; we're keeping the war off this island."
He turns to the stableboy. "Tell your mistress we're here, Squint."
He turns back, smiling. "He's a good lad, but slow. I'm Hartwell, by the way. Will you join me for lunch?"
"I would be so pleased," Celina answers. She nods her head and shoulders to the officer in a modern Seaward curtsey. "I am called Ourhope." A hand gesture is made to Merlin. "My friend of some miles..." [whereupon he better make a polite introduction of hisself.]
"I am called Merlin, son of Corwin, and I am not from here."
"I am glad to hear the war yet stands off. What are we having for lunch?" She allows herself to be guided inside.
Hartwell looks at Merlin. "You're not, are you? I'm not as surprised by that as you might think. This place attracts outsiders."
He holds open the door for Celina. "Smells like fish stew, Ourhope. That's what'll be fresh."
The inside of the Osprey is well-kept if somewhat threadbare. There are no other customers. The boy, Squint, comes in with three tankards of a cloudy liquid, probably ale.
Hartwell smiles. "So, where are you from?"
"A small place called Abford," Celina answers. "War there also. Bad for business, but we all have our lot to bear." She reaches and accepts the tankard and sets it down. "Tell me the War isn't stopping trade and travel. Please?" She smiles.
His smile brightens in response to hers. "I'll tell you the way it is, which is that mostly, it's not. War is, in my unfortunate experience, long periods of nothing happening punctuated by hours of sheer terror. People who favor war do not know it.
"It's dangerous to go some places. We don't bring ships by southern routes anymore. If you follow this road east, you'll come to a city that was abandoned, a place called Mothersport. We took it when we were clearing this island, and our foes ensorcelled it so that it has rained there for a thousand days. The city is slowly flooding.
"But it's not all bad. Our allies have opened up new trade and travel to the north and east."
Squint comes back with three bowls of stew. The food smells tasty. Merlin picks up his spoon and starts eating heartily.
As does Celina.
After letting her appetite do her talking for a bit, Celina draws on the ale and takes a measure of Hartwell again. "So if there is to be no trade at Mothersport, then what passes for the trade hub here now?"
"There are no people in Mothersport. What they did was a crime that will be remembered for generations." His lips press together slightly, and he takes a deep breath. "Inland and uphill Ourhope. Are you here to trade with us? And in what? My family are not all soldiers. My mother and grandmother are involved in civic affairs."
"Today, I am trading legends," Celina answers. "You've given me one already, this thousand days of rain over a broken city. I'll give you one in return." She settles back a bit and closes her eyes for a minute.
Celina swallows and begins. "A promise was made long ago, between a throne and a defeated enemy. The pledge went something like this: in defeat, we must ask you to send a small group of your many brothers to serve our royal blood. Do this and your greater numbers may return to your lands and live in peace.
"The oath was accepted and sworn by both sides on blade, blood, and bell---all of them green as the sea. The peace and promise may yet continue today, but no man seems to know what became of blade or bell." She licks her lips and cocks her head to the side. "Of course, you may never have heard the like of such stories here. It is a tale from my travels."
"Surely there are more details? The name of the Queen, was she merciful or cruel, how the gods looked upon the bargain, those kinds of thing. Legends want to be specific, ofttimes overspecific. They're also usually both over simplified and have a moral lesson. They carry a lot on themselves, legends. Yours sounds like history, or echos of history."
Merlin snorts and Hartwell looks at him. "It does sound like history," Merlin says.
"Oh, I am quite certain it is someone's history." Celina nods. "The queen was quite beautiful, or she was older than the first waters. The gods slept through the whole thing, or they were thrown down for daring the mythic city. The defeated foe was monstrous in appearance, or perhaps pure of heart." She nods once more. "I am quite certain."
Celina eyes Merlin. "Perhaps I'll find more details as I travel. I'll collect the best bits, you can be sure."
She enjoys the lunch so that Hartwell can tell she is pleased with the company.
Hartwell seems obviously pleased. His eyes are very distinctive, shading from green to blue.
Afterwards, she asks if he has heard tales of looting in the drowned city.
He loses his jovial expression. "Few would dare the curse. What if they brought the rain with them to their home village? Mother's Port is now a city for ghosts."
He shakes his head. "Besides, looting during a time of war is subject to military justice. I think some tried, early on." He wipes his mouth and straightens his bowl. It isn't the action of a rough soldier. "Where will you two be headed next?"
"South I think," Celina answers. She lays her hand next to Hartwell's and the table. "You have beautiful eyes. I wonder that many travelers don't lose their way after sharing a small rest with you."
"Says the girl with the eyes like emeralds in sunlight." His eyes dart to Merlin, who nods slightly to him. "If you wish to compose sonnets to my eyes and martial nature, I won't object, but my Grandmother has promised me to another woman, so I am not available for honest dealings." His eyebrows are raised, perhaps mockingly. He looks at her hand next to his. "That is not the hand of a humble merchant lass, you know."
"Now you tell me," Celina answers with an edge of sigh in her voice. "Where were you ten or even five years ago?" She studies her hand next to his. "No matter, for all the work it has done and all the things it hasn't done, I admit that 'humble' is not really on the list."
She rises then. She nods to Merlin.
Merlin rises also.
She turns, reaches and takes Hartwell's hand. She kisses the back of his fingers in a gesture of respect.
Hartwell allows her to take his hand.
"Thank you for lunch. My respects to your Grandmother's honest teachings."
He smiles, quickly and reflexively. "If you reach Dunleith, look up my Grandmother. Her name is Vianis." He looks over to the stable boy. "Our horses, if you will." The boy nods and leaves, quickly.
Celina savors his smile. "I'll certainly remember if we get that far. Thank you." She stares too long at his eyes, then she shifts moods completely. Looking to Merlin, she says, "Travel so broadens one."
When the horse are brought, Celina wastes no time in mounting and pointing the beast towards the road onward. The broken city lies ahead of them.
Celina speaks softly to Merlin as they go. "I'm going to call the shadows once more, but we may be closer than I thought. Before us a city drowning with broken authority and perhaps a doom." She shakes her head wondering. "A fine place for an artifact to be lost. I'm sure it is beneath water."
Merlin agrees. "A recent one, but one nevertheless. I, too, feel that we are near our goal. That place reminded me of Abford. Did I tell you that I felt someone trying to look at us sorcerously in Abford? I blocked it, and kept deflecting the entire time we were there."
Celina looks thoughtful. "No, you didn't." She half turns in the saddle and looks back along their trail. "Good idea to block it."
Later some hours, Celina offers, "I suppose it might have been Khela. Did I tell you about Khela?"
[as I recall, Corwin used to play this game, too. It must be a meta-trait.]
He shakes his head. "I do not recall you doing so, and I believe that I would."
"I will have to share a bit of that tale before we arrive. Give me some time to arrange the telling. There are many parts you won't like but you need to know."
[Assuming that Celina does, indeed ride through shadow along the coast.]
As evening comes, Celina notes a chill in the air. Merlin stops at the top of a hill. Below is a river valley with a broad delta and a cozy port city. Just offshore is a highly decorated stone arch, large enough to sail a tall-masted ship through. Ships are moored to the bases of the arch and cargo is being transferred. Celina is quite sure where she is, having heard of this place many times from her aunts. That is The Gate, and below it is the far end of the Seaward. This is Gateway.
Celina pauses at the top of the hill for several minutes. She eyes the strong architectural landmarks, the rooftops and patterns of the streets. It is a while before she shakes her head with some resignation. "Somewhere in my past or childhood, I must have done something quite horrible." She looks at Merlin and smiles, "Which is to say, I think I'm in big trouble. Again."
Merlin looks at The Gate. "That is magically ... unusual. What trouble do you anticipate, sister?"
"Behold Gateway," she waves a hand at the port ahead. "Gateway is a land of magic and sorcerers so expert they are known throughout the trade routes. They are very potent people with the resources to understand and influence Amber and Rebma from old." She pauses still looking at the city. "They won't have any special reason to cooperate. They will recognize me from Seaward, if not from Rebma and I can't count on them missing whose daughter I have become either."
Celina chews at her lip; then says, "I thought our journey would be into the wild and parts unknown, not to a well-established Golden Circle trading partner. They may be holding the artifact in some museum or private collection. Someone powerful might have asked a specialist scholar to examine it for secrets.
"My luck stinks like three week old squid jelly," she mutters.
And adds, "This might be a good place for Khela to be already established, too."
Celina looks about and points to a grove of trees off the road. "Let's take a break. I need to tell you about Khela before this pong gets any worse."
And they quit the road. Celina takes some care to see that they are not visible from the road. She notes to Merlin. "Lir knows whether Gateway regularly has someone watch the road for visitors. I have to assume they don't have to ability to monitor shadow walking."
She pulls some trail food from the saddlebags and settles comfortably. Celina pulls her red boots off and stretches her toes. "Telling this all in order will be hard, for I didn't learn it that way. Khela told me nothing of family.
"First there was growing up in Seaward, which you know was a fine life. I was misinformed about significant parts of that. Then I went to Rebma after boarding school. But at school, our TaKhi instructor was Khela of Shell Khrop." Celina stares at Merlin for several beats. Her gaze goes soft as she talks again of her old teacher. "She fit in with the elegance of the place. I found her fascinating. She also taught me sorcery when my blood began to run hot with that will to alter things. What a fool I am. Such a clue to miss." She sighs.
Celina wraps arms about her pulled-up knees and puts her chin on her crossed forearms. "After honors graduation, most of the other girls left, but Khela got me a graduate grant. I begged my aunties to stay at Nibbeak through the next half-year. They agreed. I think they wanted my head stuck in books and such." She squints, "No doubt, Khela was not part of their plans.
"And?" Celina's voice husks, "I fell deeply in love with Khela. We were lovers. It turns out Khela is Llewella's daughter. She was exiled from Rebma after threat of death for opposing the Queen's policies and trying to liberate the Tritons." Celina comes close to tears, but holds back to finish the telling. "She must have known I was her cousin. She's older than Martin and once his friend, but she chose to play with me instead of open my eyes to the world. She's still playing some agenda.
"And my heart still wants to make it right with her. I still love her?" Celina's hands grip harder with suppressed emotion.
Merlin takes in this tale like a dry sponge drinking in water.
After a moment of silence, he reaches out to touch Celina. "I do not know what to make of this story. But I often do not know what to make of relations among our kin." He sighs. "You says your heart wishes to make it right. To make what right?"
Celina swallows a few times before trying to continue. She makes no effort to shake off his touch. "Excellent question. I'm sorry about all the 'relationship grue' but I don't want you to be caught by surprise if my cousin Khela turns out to be as mad as your mother."
She sighs. "To make what right." She rubs her chin back and forth on her arms. "I'm carrying a powerful rage for the people who lied to me routinely while I was growing up. So then I try to put it behind me and act as if what really matters is what I do next, not what has been done to me."
She tilts her head and looks squarely at him. "Then Khela walks in my dreams and I realize I still love her. I still want to see her and be with her in carnal fashion. Except she tries to kill me in this dream and tells me I should be wearing white. I don't know what that means beyond the obvious that I'm an idiot and a pervert. It settles in my mind then that Khela lied and used me even worse than my mother and aunts. She knew more and got closer to me than they ever did. She could have said something to open my eyes. I can't believe she didn't stop me from going to Rebma except it probably fits into her plans better that I know about the Tritons firsthand; so why should she explain it all when I will see it for myself? Martin can be like that, too."
Merlin blinks owlishly and nods.
Celina groans and closes her eyes. "So I need to find out what Khela was thinking. My heart wants to give her the chance to explain. Did she know I was family? She must have. Does she know why Moire's authority is slipping? Does she have missing pieces to all this that make some sense of why she didn't keep her hands off me. How could she? Our mothers are sisters!" Her knuckles whiten for a moment as her fingers flex. "If she wanted me lovesick over her, then why send me away to Rebma at all? Khela could have bent me to her cause more easily in Seaward. Its all as opaque as why Moire sent me to Paris when she could have used me to draw Corwin to Rebma? It's not logical for Moire to let me out of her sight after all her efforts to keep me a secret. Even if someone in Rebma wants me dead, Moire could have locked me up tighter than a Grosk pledge doing a vigil."
[sudden pause in babble]
"Is it?" Celina looks at Merlin. "Logical?," she adds.
"If there is a logic to it, I do not see it," Merlin confesses. "But I have not lived enough to make sense of the logic of love and politics." He frowns. "Is that which you want to make right the knowledge you were denied by your mother and Khela? You equate this with the slavery of the Tritons; I recall it. But are they the same?"
Gently, he strokes her arm. "Would you like me to read your fortunes? The reliability of the reading will not be perfect, but it may offer insight."
The hair on the back of her neck rises. Celina gapes at him. "It never occurred to me that the future could really be examined. I mean, yes, in the classics the heroes do it but---." She takes a breath. "Ah, me."
And she shakes her head. "Soon I'll feel better about some of this. I'll get more riddle pieces and be interested in trying to plug holes. Then your offer will be timely." She smiles as she remembers a similar conversation with Martin. "Thank you for offering. I will take you up on this later."
She leans forward then and stops abruptly halfway to Merlin cheek with her lips pursed. Celina leans back. She squeezes her brother's hand instead of whatever else she planned. "My heart wants another bruising from Khela so she must be ahead somewhere, perhaps seeking the same thing I am. But I apparently have advantages that she doesn't." Her eyes narrow a bit, then relax. "Yes, I do."
Celina grins at Merlin. "I think it probable that even if Gateway has what I'm looking for..." she chuckles, "they won't have figured out what they have. They would have bartered it by now or been forced by Khela to defend it." She shrugs. "So I'm just going to assume that I will get my hands on it, even if it means leaving a Celina-sized hole in the Gateway."
She makes to stand. "Let's get going again, eh?"
The two resume their horses and quit the grove.
Celina moves, and she searches for her destination. It's clear at once. The path, Celina feels, leads through The Gate.
The cool wind ruffles her hair. The Seaward lass stares at the arch over the harbor and the vessels clustered there. "Can you feel it, Merlin? I said a 'in the Gateway' and it is there in fact." She clucks her tongue in youthful excitment. "A night swim, I suppose. Perhaps we need to discuss modifying the horses with sorcery. While our travels so far have not caused them undue stress, I think we're going to journey underwater for a while now." She looks at her brother. "Unless we abandon them and all the nice baggage that will make our trip easier. I'd leave as not. What say you?"
She grins as if she had never cried at all.
The wind that ruffled Celina's hair must have reached the harbor. One of the vessels there, one set apart a bit from the rest, is flying a red banner with a unicorn rampant. It is not the biggest ship in the harbor, but it's one of the larger ones. From this distance, Celina can't make out the name of her.
Merlin looks at The Gate. "I could make air for them. Will I need to make air for you? It will be easiest for just one body. I can arrange to avoid breathing for myself." He frowns. "There is a current in the magic here. It is related to that." He points to the gate.
"Air for me?" She scrunches her nose. "In the Seaward such things were not done. Out here, well, I never heard the aunties talk about it. Two horses worth of air and perhaps for me if things go that way? Sounds as though it won't be easy then."
She looks back to the gateway of Gateway. "A current of magic, eh? How intriguing."
[summary mode? I don't want to hang everyone on the dry technicalities.
One: Celina will use Necessity and Sorcery to prepare the horses for undersea travel.
Two: She will discuss the idea with Merlin that Someone built the Gateway to tap overflows of magic from yet another world. In which case, the Gateway is a boost or solely responsible for the famed arcane might of Gateway.
Merlin thinks The Gate is an anchor. To know what it was anchoring, Merlin would want to see the other end, which is north of here. He wonders if it can be permanent, because it seems like it would cause something like erosion.
Three: She will propose they go through the shore/beach to pass through the Gateway walking under water, being perhaps more discrete that way--and getting the horses used to the journey.
Four: Before they go, she will ask Merlin is he can spy on the 'unicorn vessel' to see who commands there and if there is a familiar face down there.
Five: Four may change everything.]
Merlin agrees and conjures a spyglass for Celina, so that she can look without magic. Starting at the top, she sees the Red Unicorn banner that was flying over Xanadu when she arrived. The ship's nameplate says she is The Lady Venus.
As Celina scans the deck she sees a few men on deck. The ship in the harbor is a quiet thing, a nested bird. Usually. On this ship something is happening. Something very, very bad.
Her lips thin with tension.
On the foredeck, Celina sees a group of men climbing over the rail, they attack a sailor, who falls. Some of them go belowdecks, and others run towards the stern. In the rigging, a sailor starts ringing a bell, and armed men trickle up from the back, fighting the invaders. Celina can't recognize any of them from this distance, but there's something wrong with the invaders. Perhaps they are not men after all. Celina is sure she's seen them ignore sword blows that should have decapitated mortal men. An officer appears on the deck, and looks to join the fighting. The not-men on deck are after him.
Merlin snaps his eyes open. "Conner. That's our cousin."
Conner seldom came to Downtown Rebma, but Thalia had heard of a new restaurant, and she had a whim of steel. It was an odd place, a temple but the braised dragon was to die for. The staff all wore masks, and after they had been served, all took them off. They all had Dworkin's face, covered with green tattoos. And knives. Twenty foot long Tritons with Dworkin's smile and knives, in tuxedos. And they were bringing him the bill. Somewhere, a bell was ringing, insistent, angry like the tritons, and someone was yelling.
"Lord Conner! We're under attack! Repel Boarders!" His aide, Captain List, is more of a diplomat than a sailor, but he has two swords, one of them Conner's own blade. The bell from the rigging stops ringing, suddenly.
The ship! Conner remembers that he is above water on The Lady Venus. Once Conner is awake, his aide leads the way on deck. Conner sprints up the ladder and looked over the scene.
Sailors are fighting all across it, but not against men. It looks like the foes are beings conjured out of pure water. Swords go right through them. They have blades of ice, which have already struck down a number of the crew of the Lady Venus and on the ship's lines.
"Sheath swords!" Conner called out to his men. "Fight with oars and buckets. Mop them up like the bilge they are!"
The ship's cook is doing best against them, fighting with a frying pan. The men are trying to implement Conner's orders, but it's not easy.
One of them sees Conner and shouts. Another runs to the first and the two merge, making a giant waterman. It comes running at Conner, leaping to the aft deck, sword swinging at Fiona's son.
Conner sighs. Only the Gatewegians could use so ingeniuous a magic in so blunt force a manner. Granted it was hard to argue at the effectiveness of these things in battle. Conner slashes his blade sideways across his front to deflect the oncoming ice blade. He does not even bother to counterattack on the assumption it is useless.
'There are two schools of thought on magical guardians'. His mother once taught him. "The first says you should make them immune to their own method of attack. This makes them useless against your remaining forces if any are turned against you. The second school feels you should make them vulnerable to their method of attack so those loyal to you can swiftly put down any rebellion. I subscribe to the third school which doesn't bother with a tool with such a high worry of it being turned against you.'
"Here's hoping for school two." Conner murmurs. He swings his sword with an upward arc to strike the blade of ice from the hand of the watery construct and send it flying back into Conner's own. Once the ice blade is in hand, Conner goes on the offensive with it hoping to use its own magic against it.
Conner strikes true, but the hand and the blade disintegrate as he connects, leaving the giant with but one arm. It swings at Conner with the dripping stump. Conner notices that the giant water golem has a small shoal of fingerlings swimming inside it.
Conner does not believe for a moment that his sword cause the destruction of that arm. Well maybe for a moment but it swiftly passes.
Celina begins to pull her thoughts together even before her eye confirms Merlin's exclamation. "Conner. So much for stealth and secrecy."
Even with that short comment, one of the boarders runs to another and both merge, doubling their volume. The creature runs straight at Conner and a jagged bright blade arcs towards her cousin.
"Pliable? Volume? Density." Celina hisses and her jaw muscle jumps. She pulls hard on sorcery and wills to target the warblade and arm she sees through the telescope. The volume of that sword and arm are already subject to instability. Celina forces magic in defense of Conner. That blade and a goodly chunk of arm-mass are instantly a volume a thousand times larger stretching straight up into the air like a geyser and having the density of a light fog.
This works admirably. The double golem is now a one-armed being. This doesn't stop it from swinging at Conner with the club-like stump.
Not shifting the spyglass, she shouts to Merlin : "Can you get us down there?"
"Yes." Merlin rips open a gash in reality, a hole between here and there. "Go through." He draws a weapon and is ready to follow her.
Celina's legs pull up from the stirrups and with an eel-like motion her feet tuck beneath her rump for half a second. She balances on the saddle with a wriggle and then springs through the slash.
Immediately next to the giant, Conner sees a magical portal opening. It has the texture of an unordered thing.
A figure dives from the opening and coils through a somersault to land on the deck. Celina shakes back her emerald tresses and pulls a dagger from her boot.
At the first hint of green hair, it all falls into place. A Rebman sorceror, water golems and their relationship with Gateway all add up to this latest attempt to assassinate him. Of course, it didn't explain the disintigrating arm. Then to his great delight, the whole theory falls apart in a flash of recognition.
"Ware Celina. Blades do not harm them. Unless my guess is correct." Conner calls out then slashes at the water being before him. His target was the fingerlings swimming about inside. He only hoped they were not red herrings.
Conner slashes through the being, using all the techniques he found in Rebma or made up to deal with the odd environment there. He hits one of the small fish, and thinks the creature notices.
"Strike at the fish within!" Conner calls out to his men. "Carl, Jenkins, fetch the nets!" Let see if they can strain these fish away.
[Fingerlings, being fingersized, will not fit in any nets that are aboard ship.]
[[Both Conner and I were aware of that. I had planned to work a little space magic on them to make the weave tighter.]]
[Spoo! The men didn't understand how that would work, so they didn't try anything. ]
The cook hears this and uses his frying pan to ladle out the fish from the pseudo man in front of him. When he stomps down on them with his boot, the watery being explodes.
Celina responds with a laugh. Her face is flushed darker. She steps towards the next nearest watermorph threatening Conner and opens the way for Merlin to follow her to the deck.
Merlin steps through at her back. The rift in space closes behind him. Hopefully, the horses will be fine on the hill.
Conner spares a moment to nod to his cousin.
Merlin nods back, gravely, then reaches out and touches the nearest attacker. The being starts to turn, but a network of small cracks spread from the touchpoint, and small balls of water begin rolling away from it, breaking up further and littering the after deck. Soon that assailant is no more. He turns and looks for another.
Conner is struck by the giant golem, knocked back into the hatchway by the dripping stump of his arm. The being concentrates, growing slightly shorter as his arm regenerates.
The men start shifting techniques, slowly, but begin to get the upper hand.
Pointing the telescope in her left hand at the watermorph she's selected, Celina magics upward by a thousand times the handspan width of volume from crotch to head.
The volume specified becomes a fine mist going upwards, and falls back on the ship as a short, light rain. The two halves of the waterbeing simply coalesce into a more narrow golem.
Conner, from where he's been thrown, sees that some of the golems seem to be growing ribcages made of ice around their inner fish.
"Adaptive I see." Conner mutters gripping the doorframe to right himself. "Well try this on for size." Conner draws forth the extendable pointer from his pocket and flicks it out like a wand. His target is the water around the largest cluster of fingerlings in the golem before him. An increase of space between the molecules should turn to mist and leave them flopping on the deck ready for stomping.
The golem explodes with a satisfying boom, leaving the creatures exposed. Conner notes that water seems to be gathering towards them.
Thanks to Conner's sharp eye and shouted warning, Celina now spots the fingerlings swirling inside the watermorphs. A glance over her shoulder and she sees Merlin is here and doing well. She looses a cheer when she sees another watermorph explode as the tiny fish are stomped under heel.
The Seaward lady steps lightly aside to miss a blade swing. The gesture from the telescope hand defines the weapon arm of that watermorph. Again, she wills the water volume jump upward into the sky by a thousandfold.
Again the telescope points to a part of a watermorph which shortly threatens no longer.
Merlin continues to use his technique, and the deck is slick with tiny balls of water.
The fight goes on for some time, but the aquatic golems are eventually and inevitably defeated. A score of aquatic golems is no match for three sorcerers of Amber's line.
As Merlin stomps on the last fingerling, Conner and Celina see a party arriving at the ship's dockward side of The Venus. Conner recognizes the ambassadorial party he was about to leave to continue Random's business in Gateway. They have arrived too late for the fighting.
"Is everything alright, Lord Conner?" It is Lord Jewel, the new Ambassador.
Celina goes to Merlin and squeezes his hand in restrained joy. She wears a secret smile.
Conner turns to them both with a genuine smile. "Pardon me a moment cousins. Duty calls." He returns to the rail.
"Nothing a mop and some time in the sun won't cure, Lord Jewel." Conner calls back with a cheery tone that doesn't sound faked in the least. "Though I suppose a healer or two would be useful." He adds turning back to survey the wounded among his crew for a moment. Conner turns back to Lord Jewel. "Have you come to see us off or is there news of note already?"
"We saw the commotion, and came to help." says Lord Jewel. "It appears we are the second cavalry. Lord Merlin, greetings. I haven't seen you since the coronation."
Merlin nods, gravely. "Conner, do you know who has attacked you this way?"
Celina wipes water from her sleeves and pays good attention to Conner's manner and answer.
Captain List appears on deck. "Lord Conner, I have the casualty figures. We've lost 5 of the crew and the boatswain, but we're well enough manned to continue." He looks at Celina, and the back to Conner.
"Then continue your preparations for departure, Captain List." Conner instructs. "Investigating this may delay us for a time but I want The Lady Venus ready to leave at a moments notice. Issue the crew an extra ration of rum tonight with my compliments. Let the crew say their farewells and then see to the fallen. The families will be taken care of." Some traditions and protections of Amber would carry over to Xanadu if Conner has his say in the matter.
"Yes, my Lord."
Once Captain List has left, Conner turns to his cavalry cousins. "Well thank you both for showing up in the nick of time." He smiles at Celina. "Well perhaps if we were not so cryptic at our last meeting we would have known we were going to the same place." He chuckles briefly. "In answer to your question Merlin, I do not know who attacked me. However, the two main possbilities are a Gatewegian sorcerer working for Rebman interests or a Gatewegian sorcerer angered by the new trade agreements with Xanadu." Conner looks down at the slick deck and picks up a crushed fingerling. "Even if we could put one of these back together to ask it, I don't speak fish. So I don't suppose I will know any time soon."
Lord Jewel and two men are climbing the gangplank.
"But enough of my problems." Conner smiles. "What brings you to Gateway?"
Celina moves forward and hugs Conner. She backs a half step. "I came to Gateway for the waters." She lets her eyes flick to Lord Jewel and then back to Conner, giving him lead. "I'm a bit surprised to see you here, too. Merlin and I have horses on a hill a mile from here." She gestures. "Should someone bring them down to docks?"
Jewel comes aboard. "I can send a man for them. Point the hill out to my servant Cap, and he'll be off after them." The young man, as befits his name, is holding his hat and kneading the brim. "Do I need to arrange further Ambassadorial receptions and diplomatic visits, your highnesses?"
Celina gestures the young man over.
He walks over, somewhat nervously. He is very young.
She hands him the telescope. "Here you go. I'll show you the hill." She steps behind Cap and orients him. Her hands lay lightly on his shoulders. She whispers in his ear. "Left some more. A bit more. There with the grove to the right. You see?" "Yes, Your Ladyship."
She squeezes his shoulder then. "Keep the telescope. Thank you, Cap."
He manages a bow. Cap's fellows ashore seem quite impressed, and Conner notes that the lad is grinning. Lord Jewel says to him as he passes, "Back here as fast as you can. Take Falchion with you." Cap, somewhat deflated, nods, and proceeds to disembark and leave with another man from the dockside party. It is not until he remounts that he returns the eponymous cap to his head.
And she returns to Conner's side.
"I believe that my cousins would prefer to keep their arrival here quiet." Conner looks over to them for confirmation. "In any event arrange nothing for today or the morrow. I think we need to rest and plan after our efforts here."
Merlin waits, silently, for Celina to answer. But sorcery is hungry work, and most likely, he's starved.
Celina nods to Conner. She approves of 'quiet'. After a glance at Merlin Celina adds, "Cousin, I think you owe us a bottle of wine and a brace of lobsters if you expect to do any planning. Is the captain willing to set a table?"
And she follows where Conner leads.
"I think after his sterling performance this morning, the cook deserves the day off." Conner smiles. "We'll dine at the Embassy. Send a message ahead to the kitchens to prepare breakfast for three Royals would you, Lord Jewel?" Conner then leads the pair of them down to the gangplank. "Soon we'll be esconced behind stone and Gatewegian wards and a few of my own and we can talk."
Lord Jewel sends a messenger ahead and has three of his party dismount and offer horses to the royals.
Last modified: 10 July 2006