Open Wardrobes

It is the final weekend of NaNoWriMo and I am still hopeful that I might finish the draft with just a couple more days left to go (at about 56,000 words now). I managed about 3,000 words today, which included a stop at the Tea Source, and feel that I'm finally nearing the climax. I'm hoping for another 3,000-word day tomorrow, and then just have Monday left!




She had thought them safe enough as they sailed through such remote places, never once thinking that even without the map some points along it might have been known to their enemies. And as she watched their ships make their partial retreat she suddenly felt certain that Lemuel Drake stood upon one. Had he expected this attack to succeed? Or was it simply an attempt to test out their strength and vet their secrets?
Back on board the Arrow Red Foxx met with the other captains and appointed new ones as she could. It was not uncommon for Captain Foxx to place members of his own trusted crew in such vacancies, but Red Foxx did not yet have that luxury. Howl had suggested a few trusted men and Red gave them the ships commanded by Blackfoot's late cronies. She gave them a private warning of the dangers they might face, but it eased her mind to know that would at least blunt Blackfoot's plans. Through all these proceedings the Ruined fleet remained at a safe distance, watching by taking no action. Red thought she saw the repaired Savage among them, but it was too far off to be certain.
Red had no choice to to lead her fleet onwards, using the last heading so dearly bought. The Ruined fleet followed as she knew they would, but they was no way in which they could hide their direction. And undoubtedly the Sorcerer had spies enough to know as well their progress. Red's hopes of finding the Heart unknown ended and she and Jat began to make plans for the fight that would surely come when they found it.
Red spent most nights now listening to the Sorcerer's device, although it seemed he was more guarded now in his speech, and studying the final piece of the map. When they reached the final island the Heart looked to still have some protection, to prevent it from being too easily stumbled across she supposed. But like the instructions so far it was difficult to learn much about what they would face without standing there themselves. Red had to admit that the map was most cleverly done.
The next stop was less than a day's journey from the last and they arrived still early in the morning and the sun had not yet risen. Red found herself weary. They had won the battle on the beach in part through determination and skill, but mostly by luck. Just as they had escaped Captain Drake's first trap. Red had not proven herself able and seeing such traps before they were sprung, and she knew she could not rely on luck to hold her forever.
Red decided to make landing at once, not waiting for first light, but took ample precautions this time. She brought several times the men with her with many more ready to make a landing at short notice. The ships were set in a protective formation against whatever Lemuel (if he indeed led his fleet still) might do next. She sought their next heading as quickly as she could, surrounded of her own crew bearing their own stones. The darkness made things more difficult, clearly the makers of the map had not intended that, and every moment felt to Red an eternity and she thought that a hundred unseen eyes and more watched her.
But no attack came. Red and all the pirates returned soon to their vessels without incident. The Ruined fleet had not even ventured within the range of their cannons once since their first appearance. And so they set sail again and again, until they were at last on course to the Heart's final resting place.
The night before they reached it Red forsook her bed and poured over the map until long after midnight, though she could make no more of its final instructions than before. The Sorcerer's device hissed behind her. She hardly paid attention to the voices she heard anymore even when they emerged, so little now did she learn. And so she at first gave no response when a hissing voice called to her through the static.
"Red Foxx. Calling Captain Red Foxx," the voice said and paused.
Red Foxx continued her examination of the map, having already tuned out the sound so effectively.
"This is the Sorcerer of the Stone Kingdom seeking the pirate king Red Foxx."
Now it began to penetrate and Red started. She swung around to look at the device, wondering if she had heard correctly.
"This is the Sorcerer calling Captain Red Foxx," the voice repeated. "If you are listening, I have things with which I would speak to you about."
Red Foxx considered whether or not to even try and respond. She guessed of course that the Sorcerer knew she had one of his devices, but to answer was to confirm it. The Sorcerer repeated his summons several more times and at last Red decided to answer, though it took her several more summons to learn how to do so.
"This is Captain Red Foxx."
A pause answered. Perhaps the Sorcerer had not expected her to reply even if she was listening. It was not acting in character for her, she supposed.
"I thought you might be listening," the Sorcerer said at last. "I understand you are close to recovering your heirloom."
"We are not concealing much tonight, I see."
"I hear much," the Sorcerer replied and Red could hear the smug smile without seeing it.
"Meaning that you have many spies among my people," Red retorted. "Clearly you are a man of honor."
"I know much that passes," the Sorcerer conceded. "Including what you have done to two of my vessels now."
"I carry out justice where it is required," Red answered, "do you not do the same in your own realm? And if not, what then do you consider a just punishment for spies?"
"I cannot say I would not do much different," the Sorcerer admitted, "but you would also do the same as I in exacting a just retribution for the such acts."
"Perhaps that it is also so," Red admitted, but she grew tired of such bantering. "What is it you want with me?"
"I demand an apology for your actions against my ships."
Red laughed. "That is all?"
"It may be all, unless you refuse me."
"What if I do?"
"Then I shall exact retribution," the Sorcerer replied angrily, "you may be certain of it."
"Let us speak plainly to one another," Red said. "You want the Heart of Destiny for yourself and are even now working through your spies to obtain it."
"You speak of spies, Captain, but I have merely listened to what you and others have said in my hearing."
"I do not speak of your devices," Red snapped. "I speak of those whom you have corrupted to serve your ends. Do you think I do not know who they are?"
The Sorcerer did not answer at once. "I cannot think of who you might mean."
"You mean you will not admit to it," Red scoffed. "Let us be clear: I have nothing to apologize to you for. Nor would your actions be any different than they are even if you had no such excuses for your so-called retribution."
"That is true enough," the Sorcerer conceded. "So be it, Captain Foxx. I can see that neither of us will change the course we have set for ourselves. Do what you must do, I cannot in truth expect any less from you, but understand that I will get what I want and it is you that will suffer for it."
"You do not frighten me, Sorcerer," Red told him. "I have seen in your ways more of science than magic."
But Red received no further reply but the usual background hiss. She turned off the device and gave it no further thought. All their plans were already in motion regardless, the Sorcerer's, Lemuel Drake's, and her own. Red did not pay too much heed to things before her if they could not be changed. Whatever her enemies sought to do to her, she would meet them as best she could and give no quarter until one side or the other lay at last defeated.

*****

Lemuel Drake stood once again on the deck of the Savage as he watched the pirate fleet follow the map's course to the Heart. As Dain Melthew lay in the stocks back on Antilla, Lemuel had found a fishing vessel that accepted his promise of gold and bore him back to sea to find his ship. Dain had told him where some others of their kingdom could be found and with their help he rejoined his ship, repaired now in full, as Red Foxx pursued the map's course. From the other lords of the Ruined Kingdom he also learned that the knowledge of one island far along that course had been passed down for the purposes of an ambush if it became necessary. The time it took the pirates to trace the map's route gave Lemuel the time to gather as much of his fleet as possible at that very place, and so their met their foes on the shore of an unnamed island. Lemuel in truth had expected to take Red Foxx by surprise and hold her prisoner as she had done him as he then finished the quest for the Heart. Clearly he had underestimated his foe. Lemuel now had to be content to trail the pirates and take them to battle wherever the Heart itself finally lay. He had learned from his earlier encounter with the Arrow not to goad the pirates into battle too quickly, for they indeed fought fiercely. He hoped instead to bide his time and wait for a more opportune moment, with all luck holding the Heart of Destiny as his final bargaining chip. His desire to see Red Foxx dead had indeed waned since his conviction that she was the lost Princess Amarantha.
As Lemuel as his fleet followed the pirates he became aware that they in turn had their pursuers. They remained far off, and though Lemuel could not see the flags they bore he knew them to belong to the Sorcerer. He trusted the Sorcerer's motives no more than Red Foxx did, but he did not think them to be of great concern. Perhaps he might even convince them to side with him against the pirates.
Lemuel had no way of knowing when they would reach the end of the journey. He could only watch the pirates as they made landfall on each island, readying his men in the event the pirates did not soon leave the island again. If they proceeded further inland, then he would know they had reached the final stop. At last they reached an island where the pirates, once on shore, remained for a great deal of time and appeared to be searching for something. Lemuel Drake put all his men on alert and prepared to lead the landing party this time himself along with Tom Flint. At length Lemuel spied as the pirates, led by Red Foxx, moved up the beach and past the line of trees. Lemuel ordered the boats set loose and they rowed with all haste to shore to follow the pirates trail.

*****

Those of the Sorcerer's ships likewise watched and waiting for the Ruined fleet to make their move to pursue the pirates onto the island. When at last they did, the Sorcerer's servants knew also that here at last lay the resting place of the famed Heart of Destiny. They launched their own boats to bring their forces to land.

*****

Red Foxx led a force a hundred strong into the forest of the final island, one so remote it had barely earned a mark on the pirate's maps. With Howl's help Red had manned their expedition with many fine pirates who she knew she could trust. Nearly two dozen of the pirate force comprised of Red's own crew, for she felt that they would come on this island to the point when they would have to prove themselves once and for all. Blackfoot she included with a few of his own men to keep him under her eye. He would not make his move now without her being aware of it at once. The map's instructions led the pirates deep into the forest where no man dwelt. But it remained vague on what they would encounter there, leading them only on a specific compass heading to a place Red guessed would be clear once they arrived.
As the pirates marched through the trees Howl brought the news that another force came behind on their tail.
"They've numbers to match ours," he told her quietly.
"They are not here for open battle as of yet," Red replied. "And I have made some plans for this contingency." Not all of Red's remaining crew remained on board the Arrow, but that she kept to herself for the time being.
"Aye, I thought it so. But that we all be carryin' rocks such as yers," Howl said with some trace of envy.
Red smiled. "I have not that many, but I do reward those who are faithful to me." And she slipped Howl an opal such as all her crew carried, black as pitched and cracked with red. "It will aid your sight, as you have seen, and remove you from others, though I should warn you the art of using it takes some practice."
"I thank ye, Captain."
"Howl, never think I have forgotten your great service to my father, nor all you have done so far for me," Red said. "When we have the Heart, I am to decree that in the absence of my own heir you shall be next in line to me."
"I be not so sure I be the one for that," Howl said, touched though he was.
"And that is part of why you would be so fit for the office, if it came to that," Red replied. "But let us worry not of that until we are certain we shall both survive this day."
Howl agreed and on they marched.
At last they came to a stone marker that could only be meant for those on a quest such as theirs. It stood on the edge of a cliff that led down into a deep river valley. On the far side the forest continued on. Red studied the marker, comparing it to the map, until she determined from the two what their next course of action was to be.
"From here," she told the assembled pirates, "we must travel down the cliff, the only trail there is so marked," and she pointed to it. "At the bottom another marker shall take us on our next step."
Many of the pirates, upon seeing the sheer nature of the cliff, expressed reluctance in the attempt of such a feat.
"Those who do not wish it may remain here to prevent our foes from following us," Red told them. "The rest who desire the glory of helping me reclaim the Heart shall find in this their own reward."
Most on hearing this found further courage, although a handful did consent to remain behind and hinder those who would come after. Red Foxx led the way down the trail, wide enough for only one to walk abreast, and slowly they descended. It was a treacherous path and should any enemies wait below it left them vulnerable as well. Their progress was slow enough such that even when Red Foxx reached the bottom, the last of the pirates still stood halfway up the cliff. Red used the time to study the next marker.
"It directs us that way, downstream," she told Howl.
"We be easy marks from above," Howl observed as he looked back up the cliff. "How far think ye we have to go?"
"The map does not say, but I gather we are looking for a cave of some kind, which shall offer us better shelter once we reach it," Red answered. "Send the word back to make haste and follow."
So Red trudged downstream along the bank of the river. There was no proper path along it and she could not move nearly as fast as she would have liked. She often glanced upwards to see if Lemuel Drake had yet reached the top. Soon enough she heard voices above and knew that her men confronted their enemies. Red motioned silently for those behind her to make faster time, but she still saw no sign of a cave and did not hope much that they could escape notice and so hide the map's trail. Shots came from above and one man fell from the great height and fell broken in the river. Red looked back for a moment, just long enough to know it was one of hers. More shots came. Her men had known the danger they faced, and she thought no less of them that they preferred to face an open enemy that the heights of the cliff.
Silence then followed and Red knew that her men were either dead or made prisoner. The voices she heard suggested that at least a few were of the latter. No pirate could be easily made to talk. They were safe so long as the Ruined folk did not think to simply look over the cliff...
Shouts came. They had been spotted and Red gave the signal to run. They needed not worry now about what noise they made and Red did not wish to give Lemuel Drake too easy a target.
The first shots meant for the pirates below began to rain down. Despite their lack of cover they still made for a challenge from such a distance, though bullets bounced off the cliff wall near them and struck the river close by. Red glanced at the map. Where was the cave?