Chapter 44

I let out a sigh when I watched how Ljus disappeared into the darkness. For once, I was happy for the foggy weather that so often covered Aston with its wet blanket. My day, the evening and the beginning of the night had been busy even if I hadn’t done everything myself. Still, I had had to explain my ideas and make sure that they are being followed in detail - which had been the easy part.

It been equally easy to find eleven volunteers. Eleven men who were stupid enough to think that my plan might have a chance of success. Idiots - but I was happy to have those idiots here with me. Getting Frode to find an abandoned building that could be burned down hadn’t been too hard - even though the building needed to be somewhere on a direct line between those frigates and Ljus. A little more difficult had been filling the small building with something that would burn brightly and long enough to make sure that nobody on the frigates could see Ljus leaving the harbor in darkness.

Finding all the prying pairs of eyes that had already appeared near our pier hadn’t been too hard either - for someone with my skills. I left it to friends of Geir to figure out what to do with those few men even if my warrior wanted to deal with them. However, two out of three were just boys and I was quite sure that the Geir could make those two to see error of their ways. The last man was the one that might have gotten me worried, but Geir assured that he would not cause any problems. I decided for not to worry - about him. But because of the successful arson, I didn’t need to worry that somebody might have seen Ljus leaving.

What had not been quite as easy had been to convince Tofi of my idea - and the fact that I and some others besides me should be left behind. However, he knew, just as well as I did, that those frigates were faster than our heavily loaded fluyt, and, even with their longer range, our cannon were not really a match for the frigate - multiple frigates. So, finally he relented - probably because he couldn’t figure out a better idea - or any idea.

The real issue had been Kara. First she had been angry and then she had cried. Finally she wanted to stay back with me, but this time I didn’t relent. Which didn’t mean that I would have felt any better about it, not at all. So, I watched after Ljus long after it had disappeared in the darkness but finally I forced myself to move and looked at the men close to me.

“Let’s get moving. We need to get to the other side of the harbor before the night is over.”

The men just nodded. They all knew that we were doing this so that the others would be safe. Hopefully we too would be safe in the end.

Even with my ability to tell where all the guards were and how they moved, it wasn’t easy to get all twelve of us close to those three frigates. But we were able to do it, and, with the information I got from the old Admiral, I knew the storehouse we would be able to use and leave at the right moment. Whenever that might be. Somehow I was sure that the fact that Ljus had left the harbor would be noticed and there would also be a reaction. But only at dawn would they see it, since they had lost their spies. I turned to look at Gunni, who was one of the men who had decided to come with me.

“Gunni, could you please organize a guard duty. I will try to catch at least some sleep, since I’ve been running around Aston since yesterday morning and I suspect that there will not be much sleep for the next few days.”

The weather-beaten boatswain looked at me and nodded and even in the darkness I was sure that there was a hint of a smile in his face.

“Aye-aye, Sir.”

‘Sir.’ I would make him pay for that. Then I closed my eyes and fell asleep as soon as I straightened myself on the storeroom floor.

“Stian - Sir. Something is happening!”

I could almost have sworn that I hadn’t slept at all, but two things proved otherwise. First, some light could clearly be seen coming from the outside - and second, I probably had been dreaming all the time that I had been sleeping. I didn’t want to think about those dreams. Instead, I stood up and stretched a bit and then moved to the crack by the door and watched the scene unfolding close to the frigates. After a moment I turned to face those eleven men. Eleven stupid men. Brave, but stupid.

“Gentlemen, time to get ready.”

The previous day, the Admiral had used his contacts and found out that those two ships came to visit Aston to load their important passengers, meaning a new bunch of Shinies and maybe other Guardians willing to fight the Elven women - and several Magicians. Almost all of them that wouldn’t go by land. Now there was a constant bustle of people getting aboard and cargo being loaded into those two new frigates.

The third frigate that had already been at Aston would remain here, to protect the city and to make sure that this group - The Shinies and the Magicians - would also have a stronghold at Aston. The frigate could easily protect this part of the dock with its cannon.

I was just prepared to open the side door so that we could get out when Baggi said something that almost sounded like a cry. Like a boatswain knew how to cry.

“Stian, Sir. We have no idea how to march.”

I had planned to use some of my masking magic once we got close to our target, but for sure my magic would not be enough to make twelve men look like they were marching.

“Mother Earth. Here’s some room - practice and learn. Quickly.”

I cannot say that the group that moved towards the third frigate would have marched there, but at least the movement didn’t look suspicious to the busy people around the area. It was clear that somebody had stirred the hornet’s nest.

Of all my magic skills I had never really used the ability to mask your real presence and look like something or somebody else. Trying that was an easy way to exhaust my magic skills and hiding the way you looked from humans was quite different than masking yourself from possible prey. You only needed to understand what the prey was afraid of - and what it wasn’t. The humans noticed the whole thing, everything and anything out of order could cause an alert. Only now I really began to understand exactly how magically powerful the foreign creature must have been.

Luckily I had learned that not much power would be needed if this skill were used to support something that already was there. If the person expects to see something particular, not that much power is needed to convince him or her. Much easier than making myself and one Elven woman look like a Troll.

This time I would be the officer, looking a bit older than I actually was - a rank of full captain and a stiff look on my face should be enough to scare most of those with a lower rank. Especially when I added some magic to my voice.

I just needed to make the guard at the gangway leading to the frigate believe that what he saw an angry captain and his men who came to check the situation. That wasn’t too difficult, since those on guard were among the lowest ranks and if a man expected to see a strict and angry officer, I just needed to convince them it was what they saw.

“You, seaman! Is there an officer on board?”

“Y ... Yes, Sir. Yes, there is.”

“Are you ready if something happens, seaman?”

“I..., I don’t know, Sir.”

“Then. Who. Knows?”

I almost felt sorry for the young seaman that looked terrified. However, this was exactly what I wanted to achieve.

“Men. To the ship. We need to check that everything is in order. If you permit, seaman?”

“Yes Sir. Of course, Sir.”

I wanted to shout for joy, but instead I kept the stiff look on my face and started climbing the steps to the frigate. Now we just needed to get control of this ship without even really knowing how many men were aboard and where they were. Easy. Really easy. I hurried up to the deck and I could hear the men following me.