Chapter 1959: Married Man From Afar
"AAAAAGH!"
Quinlan caught the pirate’s sword wrist in his free hand. Earth grew over the Fomorian’s knuckles, pinning his fingers against the hilt.
The captain tried to release the weapon. His trapped fingers strained against the rock as Quinlan tightened it around them.
"Wait-!"
Quinlan squeezed, crushing them until they burst.
He crumbled the rock and released the mangled hand, letting the sword fall.
Quinlan melted the ice holding the broken lower arm, then swept his hand toward the pirate’s legs. An earthen slab rose behind his knees and knocked him onto his back.
Narethi recoiled at the impact. The pirate’s tusks snapped together, spraying broken teeth across his chest.
"Stop!" he choked. "Stop, I yield!"
Quinlan held his saber against the Fomorian’s throat. Stone closed around his three remaining arms and both legs, pinning him to the ice.
He broke the water suspended above them into rain.
"Thanks," Quinlan said. "You taught me a lot."
He lifted his saber and brought it down across the pirate’s neck. The black blade cut through flesh and bone, striking the ice beneath with a sharp crack.
The severed head rolled onto its cheek. Blood poured from the stump as the captain’s body jerked against the stone bindings.
Vex wiped her sword on the pirate’s coat while Lucille rested her hammer against her shoulder.
"What an epic first battle~" the Bloodmonger purred.
Around the ship, the surviving raiders began dropping their weapons onto the ice.
None were spared.
...
After the last pirate died, Narethi’s first mate began counting the crew aloud.
Each answer let her breathe a little easier. The kobold limped out of the cargo hatch with the lynxkin’s arm around his shoulders, and the gnome raised a shaking hand from beside the companionway.
Some names received no answer.
Narethi kept looking toward the water after each one, searching the floating wreckage even when her mate had moved on.
"[Gust]." Quinlan lifted a sailor out of the sea with a sweep of his hand. Narethi reached for the body as he brought it over the rail, but Seraphiel was already shaking her head.
Narethi lowered the dead man onto the deck.
She stayed beside him for a moment, her palm pressed against his wet shoulder. Then another survivor called from below, and she turned toward the sound.
There were still people who needed her.
Quinlan lifted his companions from the ice with wind, bringing them aboard in groups.
They were hurt too. Lilith sat on a broken crate while Jallen traced a sign over her ribs and cast [Mend Flesh], the captain still grinning despite the blood on her teeth.
Serika had a burned sleeve and trembling hands. Blossom was holding her own injured wrist while Aurora helped her drink a potion.
’We got the drop on them, and they clearly aren’t the final bosses of some epic organization, yet it was still a close call...’ Quinlan thought.
Quinlan landed beside the mast, realizing that the world of Thalorind truly wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. Vex took his arm and steered him toward an empty crate.
"Could you sit down for a moment, Hubby? I want Sera to look at your leg."
"It’s barely a scratch."
"Wonderful. Then she’ll be quick."
"..."
He sat, and Seraphiel knelt beside him. Synchra parted over his thigh, exposing a thin scrape that Seraphiel closed with a brief touch of [Healing Light].
Narethi approached them with Garron beside her. Her defender leaned against the mast, his good wing drooping with exhaustion.
"I don’t know who you are," she began. "Hero..."
Quinlan’s red eyes lifted toward her.
She tried to introduce herself properly. Then she looked at her crew behind him and couldn’t get past the fact that they were alive because these strangers had stopped to help.
"We were going to die," she said. "All of us. I couldn’t..."
Her voice failed, and she pressed a hand against her mouth until she could trust it again.
"Thank you."
Garron bowed his head to Quinlan.
"And your companions. Thank you."
"You’re welcome." Quinlan glanced toward the cargo hatch. "You kept your ship afloat long enough for us to reach it."
Narethi looked back at the carpenter, who was sitting against the mast with his hammer clutched in both hands.
"Barely."
"It was enough."
She wanted to say something worthy of what they had done. Instead she found herself wiping her face with the heel of her hand.
Quinlan waited while she composed herself.
Behind him, Kaelira was watching the broken bow turret floating in the wreckage of the pirate ship. He followed her gaze, then raised it out of the water with a current of air.
"Some assembly required," he told her.
Kaelira let out a surprised laugh.
"I can work with that."
He lowered it onto an undamaged section of deck, keeping its loaded bolt pointed out to sea until the first mate helped Kaelira remove it.
Narethi watched them start examining the weapon that had nearly sunk her.
"You can have anything we recover from their vessel," she said. "I’ll have my people help once we’ve seen to the wounded."
"I’d appreciate that. There are some things I’d like to ask you, too."
"Of course."
His helmet turned toward the Fomorian captain’s headless body, still lying on the ice.
"Was he someone important?"
Narethi followed his gaze.
"A coastal raider. There are notices for him at the port. He was rumored to have reached his hundredth level."
"A coastal raider," Lilith repeated from her crate.
"He was well equipped," Narethi said. "But he didn’t command a fleet or hold a port. Men like him prey on ships that stray too far from protection."
Serika looked at Lilith. Both were smiling again.
"Oh, I’m going to enjoy this adventure far too much," Lilith decreed.
Narethi couldn’t understand it. They had fought hard enough to leave blood across her deck, and hearing that there were more enemies like these seemed to please them.
Her curiosity was becoming unbearable. She wanted to know where people like these came from and what had brought them across her ship’s path.
"May I ask who you are?" she ventured. "You don’t owe me an explanation. I just... I’ve never seen anyone fight like that."
Quinlan rested his hand over Vex’s on his arm.
"My wives and I are on our honeymoon."
"Your... honeymoon?"
"Yes." He looked toward Lilith and the women gathered around her crate. "And these are our bodyguards."
Lilith stared at him before giving him a grin.
It was much better than having to pretend to be his lover.
Vex leaned against his shoulder, smiling into his armor. Narethi looked between the married couple and their battered escorts, trying to fit the explanation to the battle she had just witnessed. "W-where do you hail from?"
"We come from a distant, secluded land," Quinlan replied. "It’s customary for a newlywed lord to take his wives out into the wider world for a while. See unfamiliar places, learn how other people live."
"Before taking charge at home?" Narethi asked.
"Exactly. We’re expected to return wiser than we left, ready to lead our people. I’d like to have a few adventures with my wives along the way."
Lucille smiled softly, leaning back to let Seraphiel examine her ribs.
"We’re enjoying ourselves a lot."
Narethi glanced at the blood drying on her coat. That much she had gathered.
The explanation did account for their questions about the pirates. They were strangers to this coast, and she could finally offer them something useful in return for her crew’s lives.
"Then perhaps I can help, my lord. Once we’ve seen to everyone, I’d be happy to tell you what I know of the region."
"Then I’ll take you up on your offer."
Kaelira crouched to examine the salvaged weapon’s mounting.
"The bow and the jammer cost money," Narethi added. "Someone ashore will know where he got them. We may learn more about these raiders at the port."
The gnome approached with the distress artifact held against her chest. Its copper rings were turning smoothly now, the crystal glowing clear between them.
"Captain... The jammer went down with their mast. I can send again. What should I tell the harbour?"
Narethi looked around her ruined deck. Her crew were alive to work on it, Garron was standing beside her, and Lucille was laughing while Seraphiel tended her bruised ribs.
"That we survived," she said, her voice trembling. "And that we’re bringing home the people who saved us."