Chapter 40: Decisions

Storm

I woke early and crawled out of the bodies piled onto my bed.

I still liked about four hours sleep, and I think I had slept so solidly due to utter exhaustion. It had been a very fulfilling night, and my loved ones had worked hard to please me. I showered and dressed and then popped down to the café and grabbed some food and a large pot of tea to get me going.

I asked JJ where the ships were, near Saran and Green Island. She pointed out that the ships near Saran were just off the coast. I asked what the weather was doing, and she said it was cool but a fine day. The sun was close to its zenith and she wasn’t sure why the ships hadn’t entered the bay.

The others ships she had picked up, thanks to Luke’s communication frequencies, were still several days away from Green Island by her estimations as to their speed. They were also strung out for some reason and at least a day apart from the front ships to the ones in the rear.

I decided to check on the Saran fleet. I blinked over to the bay around Brina, where the new wharf was. It was busy, and people were ignoring the ships. The beach was a lot different from the first time I had landed here. It was now a working port and had a lot of new buildings. Ulu even had a lighthouse on the point.

For fun, I blinked to the lighthouse and nearly scared the lookout to death. I reassured him that I wasn’t the enemy. He had a good view of the ships, and I wondered aloud why they hadn’t approached any closer. They seemed to be hovering just outside the bay.

The lookout grinned at me and said, “Mistress Selene and Wizard Ulu erected a new shield over the lighthouse and the bay. They said it was a special Storm Shield. In the last month, we have had a lot of ships sitting out there not being able to enter the bay.”

“They have to send in a rowboat and make all sorts of assurances to Wizard Ulu’s brother, Mage Inhu and collect a token. The ship can’t enter without it, and if the sailors play up they find themselves being blinked to the long houses over there,” he pointed out a peninsular of land off to our right that had two long stone buildings on it and not much more.

“They are stuck there for two days, and then they are allowed to walk back to town. The sailors can still get drunk and have fun, but no hitting or wounding is allowed. If a citizen brings a complaint forward while they are there, Mistress Selene goes and deals with them. Things around here are pretty good these days,” he told me happily.

“Wizard Ulu told the people this morning to keep an eye out for the pirate ships. He then did something to the shield when he was here earlier. They have been there for a couple of hours now. One of the ships shot something at the shield, but after the first one, the other balls have bounced off and hit the ship that fired them. We are just waiting to see what they do next.”

I contacted Ulu, and he appeared beside me. He gave me a hug and rubbed my tummy. He then looked out at the ships and chuckled when I asked about his shield. “I did your spell,” he told me proudly. “Then Selene came up with the idea of how to let some ships in, and it has worked very well.”

I was impressed. “What about the cannonballs with hydrazine in them?” I asked him.

“Oh, I added Mikal’s spells this morning. I’d already added some of the new crystals and a new repair spell to the shield, and it seems to have worked. The first shot came through, but after that, none of the others have.”

I mentioned that Luke believed his brother Matte was playing possum like he had been, and that he would happily change sides to ours. The lookout pointed to one of the big ships, “He is possibly on that ship as something seems to be happening on it.”

Ulu and I looked at the ship and decided to go visit. Oops! Remind me never to blink into the middle of men slashing each other with swords again. Even one hitting and bouncing off your personal shield can be very scary.

I quickly dropped a freeze spell on the men. It took a few moments for my heart to stop racing. It appeared that the ship’s crew had been fighting against the soldiers, who were also on board the ship. The sudden silence was as weird as, all of the yelling and screaming only moments before, had been.

I then located the man that I believed was Luke’s brother. “Hi, Matte, I’m Storm,” I said and tapped him so he could speak to me.

He was holding another man around the neck and against his chest, as a body shield and had his sword in his other hand. He moved his head and grinned at me. “What took you so long?” he said.

“Sorry, you looked like you were having fun,” I replied more nonchalantly than I felt. The scene around me was not one a twenty-first-century bloke considered normal even after having lived here for a year. I felt I was on a movie set for the Pirates of the Caribbean.

“I do like a good fight, so no harm was done, I suppose,” he said good-naturedly.

“Why didn’t you just freeze them like I did?” I asked him.

“I would have, but my father put a spell on the ships so we couldn’t use magic to mutiny, I guess he didn’t count on you doing it,” he told me.

“I wonder how Luke got around that spell,” I muttered.

“Probably because he didn’t try to take over the ships. We can arrest a Captain or a member of the crew if they try to mutiny or run off with the ship. Mind letting me go,” he asked me with a raised eyebrow.

“Sorry,” I replied and unfroze him.

He let go of the older man he had been holding and walked around in front of him. I watched as he placed a cuff on the man’s arm and then his hand on the man head. The bling appeared and then disappeared.

“Sorry old friend, but I doubt you will ever change. We did have some good times, but I’m not the callow youth I was. You will be able to defend yourself but will not be able to inflict injury on others, unwarranted. Your pirating days are over. May you still live a good life,” he finished.

He then walked over to another man. This man had his sword poised to penetrate another man’s chest and had a ferocious scowl on his face. Matte then looked at me. “This one is yours,” he said and handed me another cuff.

As I examined the cuff, he said, “I doubt he will change either and I was surprised my father got a wizard’s box to accept him. He was one of his original crew and a corrupt mage. He took delight in killing the crew and passengers of the ships he captured. I suspect my father sent him here to keep an eye on me.”

“My little brother Luke was better at hiding his distaste for this life than I was. I love the disciple of training my soldiers, but I never wanted to lead an invasion. I have no problem with protecting the innocent, but I don’t believe in killing or maiming for fun or conquest.”

“I guess we have too much of our mother in us. To this day, I don’t know how she stayed pure of heart. I miss her; she was a fine woman and loved us regardless of who our father is and what he did to her,” he told me sadly.

I touched him gently and knew his words were from his heart. He was more like Luke, and I decided he was a good man despite the circumstances he found himself in. I also suspected he had been a good influence on his younger brother. I wondered how their mother was able to instil her virtues in them. She must have been a strong woman.

I placed the cuff on the man and performed a similar spell to the one Matte had done. I then removed the wizard’s bling from the man. Matte then pointed out the third man and handed me another cuff. I replicated the cuff, as I only had the couple that Sean had given me. I handed several to both Ulu and Matte.

It was a distasteful task, but it had to be done. We put those that we had removed items from in a holding cell in the ship. I then froze the people on the other ships. We three then jumped from ship to ship retrieving the magical items and placing the cuffs on those people that we deemed a high risk and imprisoned them until Matte could deal with them.

I jumped us back to Matte’s ship and unfroze the ships. Matte explained to the crew that this was now a ship belonging to Regent Storm. They were a Naval Vessel, and their job was protecting sea-going ships, not capturing honest merchants. If they didn’t like it, they could find a new birth once they docked back on Pearl Island.

He then informed the personnel on the three largest ships, which carried his soldiers, of their change in circumstances and appointed new Captains. I wasn’t really surprised that his men were loyal. Any opposition from the ships crews was kept muted by the loyalty of his soldiers.

The smaller ships were free to go where they wished and do what they wanted. We waited to see what they would do. Four of the ships sailed away. The other four stayed with the four big ships. Not all went in the same direction, and we suspected some would try to go back to being pirates.

I doubted that they would have a lot of success with Matte around. “So now I have a Navy,” I said aloud.

“Seems like it,” Matte said grinning at me. “Oh, Luke says he is more than happy to turn Pearl Isle into a Naval Base if you wish. Our older brother Dave runs an excellent shipyard.”

“Have you boys been in contact with your father?” I asked him guardedly.

“Yes, he is very surprised that we have had such bad weather and unexpected damage to our ships. We have both told him we are at least three days behind schedule,” Matte said grinning at me.

I was starting to get the impression they didn’t hold their father in high esteem. Matte must have read my expression, as he said, “No, he isn’t a good man. He went a bit crazy after his first wife left him. They had Pix boxes and her leaving him seemed to unhinge him. Even so, he was a pirate at heart. I believe that Pearl went home to her world.”

“Where did she say that her home was,” I asked intrigued.

“Pearl told my mother that her world was very different from here. They had flying machines, and her people went to the stars in them. She was a very sad lady and despised my father. I think both she and my mother made me look at the world differently.”

“I was only four when she disappeared, but she’d had left a profound impression on me. She had an accent to her speech similar to yours. I remember her saying some of the words you used with Ulu. My mother said she taught many people her language and I only just realised you used it too as some of the words have become common to us.”

“Anyway, my father had us look everywhere for her, but she was gone, and her box was no longer connected to an entity, so he couldn’t use it to find a new mate. Our island wasn’t a happy place after she left. My mother said she must have found another box that was better than her Pix Wizard’s box, for her to leave. She didn’t believe Pearl was dead and that she had used the transportation ring in the cavern to go home.”

I thought about what he said. I knew Bron had items made for a decad mage of one of the sections of Torus and Doug had found a full set and a Queen’s box in his section. If the Keltrian people were planning on setting up new planets, it made sense that, they had wizards’ boxes from both sets and even Queens’ boxes with them.

If Doug could change to a decad, then this Pearl woman may also have been able to do it too. I didn’t get the impression that she was a threat and I was sure I’d hear about her if she turned up on Earth in our future.

She may even be there now, as Lee said she was finding people with magical items coming from Earth to Harmony all the time. I decided it wasn’t my problem. I still had my own here on Amity, but I would mention it to Lee when I spoke to her next.