Chapter 5 Part 7

The next morning the Westwind Cutter cast off from it's moorings and headed out through the harbor towards the open ice. As she drifted past other ships, there were some jeers from guild sailors in protest to her crew. Ultrecht and Calista were at the bow enjoying the attention. Ultrecht could not resist a little bit of childishness and stuck his tongue out at several ship's companies.

Avery was trimming the main sail and Armegon was at the helm. Heiniken too was at the helm giving instructions. The only two well wishers, was Regalus who waved from the Cutter's berth--he had to stay behind and see to it that the smith was running well before he returned to Tycho--and the other well wisher was a slightly older Skimmer, who waved from the deck of another ship. Heiniken returned the elven youth's wave and for a moment thought he saw the glisten of a tear in the boy's eyes. He resolved to hire the boy on when they returned.

As they passed the outer marker, Heiniken directed Avery to haul the sail tight while he himself manned the wench that hauled in the sand bag brakes. When the bags came off the ice, the wind snapped the sails about and the Cutter kicked up a storm of ice in her wake as they tacked her due north. The ship began to accelerate and Armegon felt the helm tremble under his hand. The deck of the ship vibrated slightly and everyone held his breath as the Cutter's speed built up to cruising velocity.

The repairs rattled and shook, but they held and in a matter of moment's, the only thing they could feel or hear was the wind whistling by them. "She skates like a bloody seal," Heiniken yelled happily.

"North by northwest Mr. Armegon," he ordered. "Aye, sir," Armegon replied. It may be his ship, but it was Heiniken's experience that they were going to be relying on for the next few weeks. Besides the dwarf deserved to relish this moment. He had suffered much on Armegon, and the others' behalf.

They continued on the same heading all afternoon. The west held the coastline of the peninsula that was home to the Twin Cities. But just before sunset occurred, the coastline ended abruptly and the setting suns lay down a turquoise colored path from the western horizon across the endless leagues of ice. Heiniken stared into the western sky reverently for a full fifteen minutes, then turned to Armegon. "Steer Due west, helm." Armegon acknowledged and spun the wheel hard counterclockwise. The deck lurched, and the ship came about on a dime throwing the unsuspecting crew to the floor.

"Blimey," Heiniken swore. "Your enchantment works very well. That turn would have capsized any other ship." He leaned over the helm wheel. "Try to make our turns a little more gently unless the situation warrants otherwise."

"Aye, sir," Armegon replied. He had wanted to see how well the enchantment had worked, he was pleased with its results. He and Ultrecht had been discussing what enchantment should be put on the new runners ever since they had been told that the runners had been made to accept an enchantment. They had narrowed the enchantment down to either velocity or maneuverability, and given that the new runners would run faster anyhow, they had decided on the latter.

The prevailing winds ran from west to east, so Armegon had to tack all night long guided only by the stars that he had learned about on the Glass Desert. He was relieved at daybreak by Heiniken and ordered to his bunk which he gladly obliged.

By mid afternoon, he was awake again and staggered into the galley where Calista had prepared soup. Armegon wolfed it down and returned to the upper deck. Heiniken was at the helm and Avery was up in the rigging keeping watch on the horizon. The flash of reflected light told Armegon that the ranger was using his spyglass. That little instrument would insure that they saw any other ships before the other ship saw them.

Three days later, the Westwind Cutter was making excellent time in spite of the fact that they were sailing almost directly into the wind. The daily activities had settled down into a routine. Heiniken true to his experience had made it clear that he wanted everyone capable of each duty without exception. Though Armegon had been assigned the helmsman's duties, Heiniken had insisted on instructing everyone else in the steering of the craft. It only made good sense since it was always possible that an accident, illness or attack could leave them without the benefit of a helmsman. Heiniken insisted that it was likewise for the other positions as well.

Surprisingly, Calista turned out to be the most versatile of the whole crew. She scampered about in the rigging with Avery with no difficulty, unlike Ultrecht, who's tall body caught the wind with every movement he made and nearly throwing him to the ice on several occasions. Heiniken decided that Ultrecht would be better off only working the sail when absolutely necessary.

The young woman was a fair at the helm as well. She still hadn't gotten the feel of hard turns and tacking, but she had the basics down pat. As for navigating, she also seemed to do pretty well except at night when the changing stars confused her on occasion. Heiniken assured her that eventually she would get that also.

She was undoubtedly the best cook on the ship and her position in that respect was unchallenged. The only thing that she did have trouble with was as the spotter. From the top of the mast where there was a small seat and safety rope, she had tried to use Avery's far seeing device to scan the horizon for any signs of ships or land, but instead only found herself getting sick. She kept trying, and it wasn't until Avery climbed the mast and hauled her down over his shoulder that Heiniken forbade her to try again. Avery and Armegon were more than capable of pulling that duty.

It was late afternoon on the fifth day when they made their first contact. Armegon was atop the mast and reported a single masted ship closing with it's spinnaker fully deployed in the southwest. He added that at their present course, they would cross his bow within ten minutes. Heiniken called all hands to deck and instructed them to make the necessary changes to carry them away from the other ship. The orders were carried out, and the Cutter tacked back northwestward.

After several moments Armegon reported that the other ship had fallen below the horizon again. He was certain that they had not been spotted. Calista took the moment to inquire of the captain as to why they had avoided another ship. He told her of the last time he had carried her companions somewhere and the pirates they had encountered. "On the open ice," he told her, "only if you see fire and smoke do you approach another ship. Fire and smoke is the universal Borealmaritime signal of distress. By law we must render aid under penalty of forfeiture of all assets."

"If I was a pirate I might try to lure you into a trap with that signal," she suggested.

Heiniken nodded. "It happens like that sometimes. If we saw it we could ignore it and assume it was a pirate trap, but what if it isn't? No, we must always assume that the signals are real. But just in case, we usually go to the rescue expecting it to be a trap."

Calista accepted his reasoning. It seemed both sound and wise. Three days later she got a chance to experience something like it for real. It all started when Avery announced that there was smoke off the bow in the southwest. Since it was dead ahead, Heiniken announced that they were going to investigate. He called for all hands to assemble and he advised them that they could very well be walking into an ambush. He asked that everyone man his station, but also that everyone be ready to fight. He asked Ultrecht to take the lookout's spot. "You aren't a fighter so I can't see any reason why you should be on the deck. But from up there you can shoot those magic spells of yours with out interference.

Ultrecht climbed to the perch with some difficulty, but once there, he signaled that he was secure. Armegon and Avery manned the winches that operated the sail angle and put weapons within easy reach. Heiniken turned the helm over to Calista with instructions to hold a steady straight course. He then went below and returned momentarily with a heavy short handled sledgehammer.

The smoke was easily visible now and Ultrecht with the spyglass informed them that the ship was capsized and appeared to be partially covered with snow. As they drew closer, Calista could also see the ship was definitely laying on its side. One runner group was up in the air and the mast was laying broken on the ice. White covered various parts of the wood and mast where the afore mentioned snow lay.

Calista was puzzled. There was something amiss here. The smoke rose from a fire on the ship's mast, but no people could be seen. There had been snow, but the weather was clear and had been the whole journey. "Avery," she called.

He hopped a rail and came over to the helm. "What is it," he asked. The tone of his voice indicated that he too felt something was wrong.

"Something isn't right," she said. She was relieved that she wasn't alone in that feeling.

"I know," Avery said as Heiniken and Armegon approached. "The winds run west to east. If there had been any snow storms, we would have encountered it already. Another thing is that the scene appears to have happened some time ago. If so why did they wait until just now to fire their mast.?"

Heiniken accepted the suspicion as evidence enough to warrant extreme caution. "Look alive, mates," he warned. "Cal, girl, drop two anchors to slow us down, but be ready to haul 'em in when I give the word."

Calista complied with the order by winching down two of the heavy sand bags that the Cutter used to slow her speed to the ice. The effect was immediate as the ship's velocity dropped considerably as the extra drag of the sand bags bled the energy from the ship's momentum.

"That's a good girl," Heiniken said as she retook the helm. "Now ease her a little to the starboard. I want us to stay upwind of all that smoke."

Calista piloted the Cutter closer and closer to the capsized craft. She held the bow upwind as she had been directed. Checking over her shoulder she verified the quick-disconnect for the sandbags was free of any entanglements. She wanted to be able to put the Cutter back at full speed instantly if needed.

"There are bodies laying about," Ultrecht told them from above. "I count six. And there are blood stains also."

"I think this might be the real thing after all," Heiniken muttered. "It looks like these poor blokes capsized trying to get away from pirates."

"If they are all dead," Calista wondered, "who set the fire?"

"I think we will find out," Heiniken decided. "Full stop," he ordered. Instantly Armegon and Avery unlatched the winches and allowed the sail to go slack. With the sand bags already slowing the craft, and the sails no longer catching the wind, the Westwind Cutter skidded to a halt.

Heiniken eyed the wrecked ship named Teran Dan by her stern letters. She was of the same design as the Cutter was but without the modifications. The sound of the fire cracking was the only thing to be heard once the gentle hiss of the Cutter's runners ceased.

Heiniken hefted his hammer and lowered himself to the ice via a rope ladder. Armegon and Avery accompanied him. They cautiously approached the wreck. "Ahoy there," he called. "Is anyone here?" He was answered by silence.

Armegon walked, hand on sword hilt, around to the burning mast. There was a little of the snow running from the splintered base to a drift about two meters from the base. The bottom of the drift also spread outward and back towards the shattered hull. He was growing more and more concerned as it became more and more evident that the fire had been recently set.

The charred portion of the fallen mast ran from the midpoint towards the base about three meters where the fire was slowly working its way towards the snow. Armegon was about to brush the snow into the flames when he heard a shout of alarm from Avery. What followed seemed to take long moments and the world seemed to move incredibly slowly.

Turning he saw the halfelf ranger kneeling by one of the bodies. Another body lay nearby and he glanced at it and realized the cause of Avery's concern. The clothes hung on the clean bones of a skeleton. it was as if something had eaten all the flesh and left all the bones behind.

It was at this time that the pain in his hand came to the forefront of his consciousness. With seeming agonizing slowness he turned back around and found his hand embedded in the snowdrift. No, snow was not what his hand was embedded in. It was some kind of white shapeless living thing that had enveloped his hand and even now was slowly inching its way up his arm. His fingers had gone numb, but the pain in his wrist was staggering.

Shouting, Armegon jerked his arm back with all his strength. He toppled over backwards. An elongated trunk remained over his hand and stretched back to the main mass of the thing as it oozed after him. It moved by extending portions of itself and gripping the ice, then pulling the rest of its mass forward.

The thing was a nightmare come alive. His eyes shifted to his hand and in horror he realized that he no longer had a hand. From the wrist down, there was only bone, and between his wrist and forearm, where the thing had eaten through his sleeve, was a bloody mass of pulped flesh. Armegon barely recognized his own voice as the blood curdling scream escaped from his own lips.

Avery shouted a warning when he saw the remains of one of the bodies. From the waist up it appeared to be a sleeping human male, but from the waist down there was nothing left of it but skeletal bones. His warning was intended to warn that some thing other than just a pirate raid was the cause of this carnage.

He started when his warning shout was answered by another shout filled with pain and anguish. Even before he could turn around and draw his weapon, he recognized the voice so long had he known it. A shot of cold fear ran through his blood as he sprinted back to his fallen friend.

Heiniken was inspecting the runner struts. He was puzzled momentarily by the corroded metal. It seemed to strike a familiar chord in his memory but he could not put his finger on it until he heard the ranger's warning shout followed by the Armegon's scream. Heiniken ran around the ship to render what aid he could. When the scene came into view, it was stunning.

Armegon was on the ice frantically trying to pull his left foot from the devouring creature commonly referred to as an Ice Nemesis. The things could mimic the ice in color and texture almost perfectly. Their normal method of catching prey was usually to move into the path of some unsuspecting arctic creature and allow it to enter their waiting pseudopod. Then the thing would totally envelope the victim secreting highly corrosive acids to kill and digest their meal.

Fortunately ice boats moved far too fast for them to get in the ship's path, but occasionally one would get lucky and already be in the ship's path. When the metal runners slid over the nemesis's body, the thing would adhere to the runner and eat the runner right out from under the craft thus capsizing it and throwing a stunned crew to the ice. It was then no trouble for the nemesis to stalk and kill at its leisure.

Fortunately it had a very high vulnerability to fire. Heiniken was sure that that was the reason for this fire. But what happened to the fire starter? Heiniken ran to the mast and wrapped a bit of the sail about the head of his hammer. He then set the sail aflame.

With his make shift torch he closed on the creature. Avery was hacking at the pseudopod which had attached itself to Armegon's foot. The foot was shod, so if he could get free quickly enough, Heiniken thought, there would be no damage, but that hand needed to be attended to immediately to prevent death from a loss of blood.

Heiniken put the flame to the creature's limb, and the thing released Armegon's foot. The pseudopod reared back like a serpent and hesitated. It obviously sensed the presence of the heat.

Heiniken lunged torch first and tagged the monster. Where the fire touched it steam rose and the thing retreated. It piled up into a mound and quivered. Heiniken put himself between Armegon and the monster. Avery took up a fighting stance next to him. "It fears only fire," Heiniken told him.

"Ultrecht!" Avery shouted. Heiniken heard the reply as Ultrecht assured them that he was coming. Heiniken did not pursue the monster. He remembered Ultrecht's trick in the forge. There was no reason to try and attack the creature when Ultrecht would be able to annihilate it without risking their lives.

Momentarily Ultrecht with Calista hot on his heels rounded the rear of the ship. He drew up short and his eyes went wide when he saw the thing attempt to move away. It slithered under the mast and made for open ice. "Blast it," Heiniken yelled. "If it makes it to the open ice, it will be impossible to find or detect."

Ultrecht reacted instinctively. He wove his hands and chanted his spell. A ball of flame appeared in his hand and he threw it unerringly into the creature's midst where it erupted into a sphere vaporizing the ice around it. The thing whiplashed around in the fire, before turning black and oozing flat and motionless.

"I think it is dead, " Heiniken said. He turned back to see how Armegon was. The halfelf was unconscious, but the damaged hand was no longer bleeding, in fact it was rapidly regrowing.

Heiniken pointed to the regenerating hand and looked at Avery. "That is a neat trick," he commended. He had not forgotten that Avery was a healer who had saved Skimmer's life during the pirate attack the last time they had traveled together.

Avery smiled. "I’m a lot stronger than the last time we shipped out with you," he said. "But regrowing a lost limb isn’t easy. This’ll take a lot out of him, but I can regrow his hand by nightfall. Anything larger would be a major undertaking."

"I think this thing’s dead," Ultrecht said as he nudged some of the charred mass with a toe.

Heiniken patted Calista on the shoulder. "Go get aboard the ship, girl," he told her. "It's okay to come to help, but you shouldn't have left the Cutter unmanned."

Calista started to argue, but realized that he was right. Avery picked Armegon up in his arms and followed the young woman back to the ship. Heiniken joined Ultrecht inspecting the dead nemesis. He took a long knife and started cutting the thing up. "These things sometimes have something of value inside them," he told the mage.

Ultrecht took another knife from a dead crewman of the other ship and assisted Heiniken. The monster's body was tough and the flesh was very difficult to cut. They had hardly made any progress at all when Avery returned and reported that Armegon was sleeping peacefully but would not be strong enough to helm the ship that night.

Heiniken expressed confidence that Calista would be able to do the job if she was checked on at regular intervals, then he urged Avery to help cut the nemesis open. Avery unsheathed his sword. He almost expected the thing's voice to sound in his skull, but the it remained silent. He was not very concerned. He had gotten used to it and the sword's intellect had often advised him and discussed things with him in the past. It was almost like having a private comrade.

Avery drew the tip of the sword across the body of the nemesis and neatly and effortlessly sliced it open. The scene revealed sent Ultrecht running for privacy so that he could get sick. Heiniken and Avery rolled a half digested body from the thing's pulpy mass and proceeded to look for indigestible objects. All they turned up was a partially melted steel box.

"These things can digest metal too?" Heiniken observed. "Maybe you better wash your sword blade off," he suggested.

Avery dismissed it. "There isn't anything in this whole world that can even scratch the blade of this sword," he assured the dwarf.

Heiniken harrumphed. "I suppose it told you that itself did it?"

Avery paused and looked Heiniken in the eye. With his most serious voice he answered, "yes it did."

Heiniken did not know what to make of that statement, so he just attributed it to just one of those weird things that seemed to follow this particular bunch of people around. He shrugged and retrieved the box.

There was very little else there, and Avery and Heiniken left the corpse and headed back to the Cutter. They stopped and collected Ultrecht on the way and Heiniken paused long enough to get the ship's manifest and check her hold. It was filled with coal and Heiniken, checking the manifest, confirmed that they were hauling a load of coal to Northreach. He made some notes in the captain's log and took some compass and sextant bearings.

Avery assumed he was attempting to pinpoint the ship's location. Then while Avery watched, he extinguished the fires and ordered Avery and Ultrecht back on board the Cutter. "On the way back," he said, "I can pick up a load of coal to take to Northreach and make a full profit."

They were back under way and the wrecked ship had disappeared behind them when Heiniken assigned the task of the night's helm to Calista. The girl was filled with pride as she took control of the ship. Heiniken told her that Avery and he would make periodic checks on her to monitor her progress, and he also told her he was very confident in her ability to keep them on course.

Calista worked very hard at keeping the stars straight in her mind as she guided by their positions. Once when Avery had come up to check on her she asked him how she was doing and he had reassured her with a pat on the shoulder. "Your doing very well," he told her.

"How is Armegon?" she asked. She really was worried. She had seen the thing that had attacked them and she had seen some of the bodies laying about. The very thought of being killed in that way frightened here even though she knew that they were very safe due to the enchantment on the runners that kept the Cutter from capsizing.

"Oh, he’s going to be just fine," Avery told her. "He just needs some sleep. When I regenerated his hand, I forced his body to heal in minutes what normally would take many months, even years to heal. That put a very big drain on him. He’ll probably sleep clear until noon tomorrow. Then he’ll be up and about. He will still feel woozy and weak for a few days, but by the time we reach port, he’ll be back to his own nasty self again."

"I guess he really isn't a 'god' after all," she remarked remembering what he had said several times since leaving the dock.

"Well," Avery laughed, "that was just a joke to begin with. He was mocking what the leaders of House Blackheart were claiming to cover their own defeat." Calista and Avery laughed at the joke.

"You know something, Cal," he said suddenly. "You have really grown up a lot in the last few weeks." Calista smiled. It was a compliment she liked. She just hoped that she didn't grow up too much. She wanted to be the same young woman that Sam had loved when she got him back. She watched as Avery went below out of the cold night air.

Calista pulled her parka close about her. Thinking of Sam had made her feel much more alone than before. She knew that Avery, and Armegon, and Ultrecht, and even Mr. Thundersledge were her friends, but they were not lovers, and right now she wanted to be held by Sam in that intimate way very much.