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BUMP.
The whole raft lurched. Myrch gave a waking-up shout and swore loudly. “That was not our smartest move.” Then, he hissed, “Wake up!” He needn’t have worried, the lurch had shaken everyone awake already.
“Where are we?” Tali asked.
“Damn good question,” Myrch said. “If we hadn’t all been asleep at the oars we’d know that by now.” He paused, then said, “Godsdamn. Lakeside.”
“For such a charming name,” Padg said. “That doesn’t bode well.”
Myrch snorted.
“Nice village?” Padg pressed.
“No,” Myrch clipped back. “Gods forgotten scum-hole.”
“Good,” Tali said. “Sounds lovely. We’re here why?”
“Wait, I got that one,” Padg said, “because our glorious leader, or kidnapper, or whatever he is, fell asleep too.”
“And still, we’re here because...?” Tali’s sarcastic edge was hardly hidden.
“Because it’s two full spans to the place we should have left the lake,” Myrch said.
“So what now?” Dun said.
“Find somewhere to moor, away from the village, and I check things out,” Myrch said.
“We can’t come too?” Tali said.
“Sure,” Myrch said, “if you’d like to take your chances with death in less than ten strides on the shore.”
“Such a performer,” Padg said under his breath.
Myrch grabbed an oar and began rowing the raft, seemingly along the hard face of where they’d landed, one bump at a time.
“Here,” he said handing the paddle to Dun. There was a chink and a rustle of fibers. Tying up the raft, Dun thought. Once the rustling had stopped, Dun felt the air shift toward them, and he heard the sound of a crowd. A raucous crowd at that. Raucous in a way that Dun hadn’t really heard before. The most riotous assembly Dun had ever heard was festival time in the village. A night of free-flowing mead in the Moot-hall could get quite out of hand at times. But the noise that Dun could hear from farther around the lake sounded more, dangerous, somehow.
The raft lurched again, but slowly. Then the slow gloop noise of someone entering the water. There was a brief gasp as Myrch started to feel the cold and the wet.
“What do we do?” Dun said.
“Stay,” Myrch said. “I’ll swim around. Don’t move. Lay low til I get back.”
“Okay! Great!” Padg said.
“Yeah. Lay lower than that,” Myrch hissed and then swam off toward the noise of the settlement.
When the noise of Myrch swimming had been drowned by the sounds drifting on the water from Lakeside, Padg spoke, “Did I say, ‘great?”
“Yep, you said that,” Tali said.
“Loudly,” Dun said.
“And we are...”
“Going to stay here, yes,” Tali finished.
More rustling and ripping noises from Tali’s side of the raft.
“Good, good,” Padg said. “And you are?”
“Preparing,” Tali said.
“Better prepare quicker,” Dun said. “I can hear voices.”
“You always hear voices,” Padg said.
“Outside my head, Padg. Outside.”
“And who have we here?” a strange, harsh, nasal voice said. “Mmmh, eh my friendly sea rats, they smell like visitors to our fine town. And what have they brought us, mmmh? A nice present and all. Lovely rafty, eh? Nice made too. Found ropes and all, mmmh? You get off now. Swim from here.”
“Who says?” Tali said, annoyed.
A gulp from Padg. “Err, they’ve got a knife. Ow, steady.”
“Ah, smart pup, eh? Off the raft!”
Dun lowered himself off the side of the raft. Then he felt for Tali who was already climbing down.
“Now put the smart pup down, Royg. Good. Now scram!”
There was a splash. Dun and Tali heard a gasp, and then a pant for breath as Padg surfaced.
“You...” Padg was cut off by a kick in the knee from under the water.
“Hey, smart pup!” the nasal shout from off the raft said. “You be alive or dead, I’m easy either way. Don’t be a dumb, pup. Go.”
“Shh, let’s go,” Tali said in Padg’s ear.
“But...”
“It can wait,” she said.
He felt one arm each being dragged until they were farther away. Then they all swam in long, slow strokes toward the crowd noise. Lakeside seemed quieter now than before, but occasional bursts of noise broke through. Odd sounds, things breaking, shouts, screams. They swam on.
Then when they were out of earshot of the raft.
“I saved our stuff.”
“Wow, Tali, you don’t hang about,” Dun said.
“Pays not to.”
“Isn’t it drenched?” Padg said.
“No,” Tali said. “I bagged it.”
“Where is it all?”
“Following us. I tied it around my waist before we jumped.”
“Okay. Amazing,” Padg said.
“Mmm-hmm.”
Dun was nearest to the shore of Lakeside. The steep metal wall felt of rust and rivets and smelled of oil. They swam along it for a while looking for a way up, glad that the sound of the thieves on the lake got increasingly quieter.
Dun stopped. “Hey, I’ve found something. Feels like a ladder.”
“And a ladder it is!” A friendly sounding voice boomed down to them. A deep voice with a laugh in it somewhere, but with something else too. “That will be ten tallies if you please.”
“Ten tallies for what?” Padg said, tired and outraged.
“Call it embarkation tax.”
“And you’ve got the right to extract that, how?”
“On two counts: Firstly on the count of how you’re down there cold in the water, and I’m up here in the warm. Second, I’m Old Fryk, the watchman, and I just asked you real nicely.” He paused. “I could ask you, not nicely.”
“I’ll pay,” Tali said resigned.
“Where did you..?” Dun started.
“Prepared.” Tali cut him off. She reached up the ladder with the stick, and the watchman took it with one hand, and then in a smooth sweep swapped hands and with the other pulled Tali up onto the side. Not so old, thought Tali. The others waited.
“So!” Fryk said, “Are you going to bob around in there all span, or are you coming up here to get dry? I’m easy either way.”
“A lot of folk seem to be that easy around here,” Padg said, starting to climb.
They both reached over the top rung of the ladder to a flat surface of old worn chequer-plate, slightly sticky.
“Hey,” Tali said to the watchman. “Can you give me a hand with our stuff here?”
The place smelled of stale sweat and gone off chemicals of all kinds, mead certainly. A loud crash and a thump sounded in the distance, and then a peal of hysterical laughter.
“Welcome to Lakeside!” The watchman laughed.
