Cari stared out over the stern rail at the ship’s wake as the Vengeance cut through the waves on the return journey to Tandon. Her thoughts turned back to the man who’d almost killed her.
Helen joined her at the rail. “Still thinking about the man from the caverns?”
“I can’t help but think I could have found a way to stop him.”
Helen let out a wry chuckle. “It sounds like he almost killed you and you want a rematch. You are a piece of work, Cari.”
“What’s wrong with wanting a rematch? I want to find him and who he is. He could be the key to tracking down a definitive link to the Duke of Charon. That would allow us to present the evidence needed to charge him with treason in the Crystal City.”
“You just said it. You don’t even know his name. How are you going to track him down?”
“Somehow I think he’ll end up in front of me again before this whole thing is over. Until then, we’ll call him the well-dressed-man, for lack of a better name.”
Cari turned and took in the ship’s course and speed with a glance. It was second nature now to call up the course vectors in her mind. She lay in the vectors over the current and wind direction she saw. The speed and destination adjustments appeared before her and she smiled.
“We’ll be in Tandon before sundown. I hope the Duke will allow us into the harbor and grant us an audience. He needs to know about this and take steps to defend himself and the city against further attacks.”
“What’s the plan if they don’t let us into the city?” Helen asked.
“We sneak in if we have to. We’ve got to retrieve young Jane before someone else discovers who she really is.”
“There’s been a plague in the city, Captain. Are you prepared for the possibility she’s ill or even dead?”
The statement bothered Cari for a moment. She called up her quest menu and relaxed. In the open quests area, she saw the highlighted text of the current mission.
Active quest — retrieve the missing princess
“Don’t ask me how I know, Helen, but I know. She’s still alive, at least for now.”
“I’ll take your word for it, just like I always do. Someday, though, you’re going to tell me what you see when you get that faraway look in your eyes. It looks like you’re reading something that’s not there.”
“Someday, maybe I will tell you. You won’t believe me, though.” Cari changed the subject. “How are Rodrigo and Francesca? I’m hoping we can take them to one of the temples while we’re in Tandon and purchase a healing spell or two from one of the priests.”
“It wouldn’t be a bad idea to add a chest full of healing potions to that shopping list, either. As to how those two are doing, Francesca will recover well enough with rest and food. The impact of Beau’s death is starting to set in for her. It will be harder for her to adjust to that than it will to heal the physical wounds.”
“And Rod?”
“It’s a good idea to get him looked at by a priest. I was able to keep his life from slipping away but he’s still unconscious, and we’ve exhausted the limited healing skills I have.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, Helen. You’ve been able to bring me back from the brink of death on more than one occasion.”
“You’re different. I’ve never seen anyone heal as fast as you do without a healing potion or spell. It’s as if all I have to do is stop the bleeding and splint up your wounds and your body takes care of the rest before I can do anything else.”
“I’m just lucky to have strong stamina, I guess.”
Helen looked from side to side to make sure none of the crew was close enough to overhear over the wind and waves.
“Cari, did your father possess healing skills like this?”
Cari shot her first mate a stern glance. This wasn’t the first time Helen had brought up her parents since she’d decided Cari was, indeed, the legendary Lost Princess.
Cari gave up on arguing the point with Helen and shook her head in answer. “I honestly don’t know. It’s not like he told me how anything in this place worked before I came here. Knowing him, he probably did. He’s the luckiest person I know. Sometimes, without even trying, the strangest things will just happen so that a series of events just land in his favor. He calls it his superpower.”
“That kind of luck could come in handy.”
“Maybe, but I prefer to rely on my sword, my speed, and my wits to make people and things around me fall into place.”
“You can’t say it hasn’t worked well for you so far.”
“No, that is true.” Cari looked up at the sail configuration and gave the wind vectors an appraising glance. “Let’s put on some more sail, Helen. I think we can squeeze a little more speed out of this old girl and maybe get into Tandon a few hours early.
“Aye, aye, ma’am.”
Helen stepped away, calling out orders for the bosun to relay to the rest of the crew. Soon a dozen men and women scurried up into the rigging to carry out the captain’s orders.
It was time to look forward and not back at her parents and the past. There was work to do.
———
The harbor chain still stretched across the narrow opening into Tandon’s harbor. Cari assumed the other land gates were still closed as well, so she now found herself back in the longboat, headed for the small fort on the headland at the mouth of the harbor.
The same black-clad doctor came out on the battlements with an escort of musket-armed guards as the longboat approached.
Cari called up to him. “We found the source of the illness. It was caused by large amounts of concentrated starwort poison dumped into the source of the city’s water supply. We were able to stop those responsible.”
“Starwort you say? That would explain the lessening of symptoms and the recent recovery of some of the least sick people in the city. If that is true, then it isn’t a plague at all, and we can reopen the city.”
“That’s what we’re hoping you’d say.”
“I must consult with my colleagues and the priests in the temple leadership before we can make a recommendation to his Grace, the Duke.”
“Is there any way you can let us into the harbor in the meantime? We have urgent business in the city.”
“No, I don’t have the authority to open the city up to anyone. That lies solely with the Duke. If what you say is correct, though, I will recommend the travel ban be lifted and the city’s gates and harbor opened.”
“Don’t let me hold you up from your urgent business, then,” Cari replied. “I’ll wait here with my crew aboard the Vengeance until you have a reply from the Duke. Please hurry.”
“I will pass along your message and request, Captain Dix.” The doctor nodded and disappeared from view as he re-entered the fort’s interior. The guard of troops remained to discourage her from forcing a landing here and now.
The bosun turned the longboat around and ordered the crew to pull on the oars as they headed back into the deepening gloom of the approaching dusk.
The next morning, a sharp rap on her door woke her from a dead sleep.
“Come in.”
Percy poked his head into the cabin and smiled at her. “Miss Doolan requests your presence on deck, Cap’n. The sun’s just come up.
“Thank you, Percy. Tell her I’ll be right there.”
“Aye, ma’am.”
The door closed. Cari rolled out of bed to pull on her trousers and get dressed.
Helen called out to her as soon as Cari emerged from the passage beneath the quarterdeck.
“Look!”
Cari followed her first mate's gaze and pointing finger to the mouth of the harbor.
The great chain blocking the harbor had been lowered.
Cari smiled and called out orders to both Helen and Mr. Dawkins. It wasn’t long before the Vengeance came about and sailed into Tandon’s harbor.
She stood watching as the docks and piers came closer. She saw other captains on the few ships in the harbor calling out orders as their vessels prepared to leave Tandon. Their crews and cargo had been held captive in the city for weeks while the source of the plague was sought.
A few of them waved as they saw the Vengeance pass by and one captain and crew cheered. Word must have spread with news of who’d been responsible for delivering the city from the strange sickness that had befallen it.
Soon they docked at a long wooden pier and Cari joined Helen by the rail as the crew lowered the gangplank into place.
“You remember where you left her, right?”
“Yes, ma’am. Don’t worry. I know just where she is. We’ll have her back in safe hands within the hour.”
“Let’s get to it, then.” Cari jumped up onto the gangplank as soon as it clattered down onto the pier.
Helen followed her captain and took the lead as the two of them headed into Tandon.
An hour later they stood in front of a small, one-story stone home with a thatched roof. The house sat amidst other humble fishermen’s dwellings on the narrow street.
“Are you sure this is the right one?” Cari asked reaching up to touch the boards nailed across the doorway. A red letter “P” had been painted on the boards.
“This is the right one, I’m sure of it.”
A voice to their left called out to them. “They’re dead. Died of the plague that took the city these last few weeks.”
An old woman, her gray hair pulled back in a bun leaned out a first-floor window across the street.
“Dead?” Cari asked, her heart sinking. “All of them?”
“Yep, both Carl and Ina got sick at the same time. They died within hours of each other two days ago.”
“Wait,” Helen said. “You said both of them. What about the little girl, Jane? What happened to her?”
The old woman squinted at Helen for a few seconds, then recognition showed on her face.
“You’re the sailor who brought the girl here to live with them, aren’t you?”
“She is,” Cari said, jumping into the conversation. “I’m her captain. We came to check on the little girl’s welfare.”
“She ain’t here. She left with all the others.”
“Left? Where?” Cari asked.
“When it became clear there was a plague, and the Duke was going to close the city, our guild leaders gathered all the fishermen’s children together, including young Janey. A few of us used our boats to take them down the coast to stay among friends in the fishing villages to the east of here.”
“Oh, thank goodness,” Cari exclaimed. “Tell me who took her on their boat and we’ll find out from them where she was left.”
“I cannot. Both Old Bert and Yori Hansen died from the plague after they returned. She is safe though, I’m sure. The folks in those villages are fine people and will take care of her and the other orphans as if they were their own children.”
“Helen, how many villages lie along the coast to the east of here?”
“Depending on how far east they traveled to parcel out the kids, it could be up to a half dozen. We likely passed half of them on the way to and from the silver mine.”
“Return to the ship and prepare to set sail. I know we need to resupply. Get only the provisions we need for a short voyage loaded as fast as you can. I’ll stop in and leave a message for the Duke with a friend. I should be back on board the Vengeance before the evening tide. We’ll leave as soon as I return.”
“Aye, Cari. We’ll be ready to go when you return.”
Cari nodded and shouldered her bottomless leather backpack, heading up into the city proper.
———
Pushing open the door leading into the enormous, ramshackle building, Cari entered the Caravansary Outfitters, hoping Colin was here. He was the only one she could trust with a message for the Duke. There was no time to go through normal channels. It would take all day to gain an audience with His Grace, even with Cari’s notoriety.
“Colin, you here?” She called out as she stood amidst the stacks of adventurer’s gear stretching out in every direction as far as she could see.
Cari jumped with a yelp when a voice responded directly behind her.
“Young lady, what are you doing here? Has the plague ban been lifted at last?”
Cari spun around to face the strange little man who owned this shop. She had to admit to being happy to see him. He was a connection to home for her. He was the only person she’d met here who’d recognized her on sight and claimed to know her parents, though how he could, she wasn’t sure.
“Colin, don’t sneak up on a person like that.”
“What an odd thing to say. What other way is there to sneak up on a person?”
The question caught her by surprise.
“Never mind. Cari, what is it you need?”
“Two things. First, I need to replenish our supply of healing potions. I’m hoping you have some on hand since you’ve been able to supply us in the past.”
“I do, I had actually been buying up stock in other cities and stockpiling it here to dispense to the temples as needed.”
Cari held out her special backpack of holding, the magic, bottomless pack she’d received the first time she’d come here to outfit herself with gear.
Colin took it and held up a hand. “Wait here, and don’t touch anything.”
Cari nodded, used to the routine by now. Colin headed down an aisle between stacks of what looked like old metal breastplates. He turned the corner into another aisle and she lost sight of him.
Five minutes later, as Cari picked up a conical helmet with a spike atop it, Colin’s voice startled her again.
“I said don’t touch anything, girl. Don’t you listen?”
Cari set the helmet down and held out her hands. He shoved the backpack into her arms. “There’s a variety of healing draughts of various strengths in there for you. Now, what was the other thing you needed from me?”
“I need you to pass along a message to the Duke. It is to be given to him and only him.”
“Alright, I agree to your terms. What’s the message?”
“I’ve found the missing heir. I’m heading off to the east to retrieve her now. I’ll return here with her when I am able.”
“Ah, I wondered when you’d find Kareena’s lost great-granddaughter.”
“You knew about her?”
“I suspected she might be alive and well. Why else would you be here? Your mere presence in Fantasma just confirms that suspicion.”
“Colin, if you knew all along why didn’t you tell someone? They could have rescued her long before this.”
“No one listens to me. They think I’m crazy and only useful for supplying caravans or outfitting adventurers. Besides, I knew that was likely your purpose for being here to begin with. I’m a programmer, a watcher from the sidelines. I first found this place by stumbling on a piece of code that didn’t belong. I’m happy to lend a hand for people like you and your father, but I’m no hero. I learned that the hard way.”
Cari was surprised to learn Colin might have been a programmer in the original Fantasma project. His explanation indeed made sense in light of how he appeared to pop in and out of his shop whenever he was needed.
“Look, I’ve got to get out of here. Will you deliver my message?”
“Of course, I would be happy to do so. Too much hinges on you finding that little girl.”
“Good, then what do I owe you for the potions?” Cari dug in her belt pouch for coins.
“We can settle up later. I’ll see if the Duke will pick up the tab in the meantime. Be safe in your travels and watch your back. I fear this will be a bumpy ride from here on out. Things are about to get a lot harder for you and your crew.”
His last statement startled her. She felt like things had been bumpy enough just getting to where she was. She started to ask him what he meant but stopped when he shook his head. He wouldn’t tell her anything else.
With a nod of gratitude, Cari turned and left the strange little shop owner behind. She had a lot on her mind and just enough time to reach the Vengeance to catch the evening tide.