Chapter 125: Book 2: Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Day 59

 

As predicted, the leadership of Manistee capitulated to my demands and the ferrying of their populace got underway once they forked over the gold. We couldn’t complete the transportation job in two runs, and we had to spread them over three. This was because the Submersion Sails only came with a half-sized Hold not a full one.

The exterior of the ship had increased in size, but the extra deck space wouldn’t be enough to compensate. Anastasia and I, therefore, chose to keep the exterior as its original mark one size. Mainly because we continued to navigate rivers and small tributaries on a regular basis and the smaller vessel made this easier.

The ship could switch between sizes, though not at will. It required the vessel to enter a chrysalis state like when it was being upgraded. Although the transformation took less time, roughly an hour for each mark design you were shifting through.

We had recently arrived in Saginaw for the third time in as many days carting the last of the Manistee townsfolk to the city. Most of final drop off were levelled fighters who had stayed behind until the last trip, and they had almost finished disembarking.

“That’s the last of them, Captain,” Kristoff called from the deck as four ranger types stomped down the gangplank giving me dirty looks as they passed.

I was standing on the slipway of a small marina in the heart of Saginaw and smiled brightly in return to their derision. Their faces soured further, and I smiled harder if that was possible. The temptation to cut them down pulsed through my veins, but I quelled it. They weren’t worth the hassle that would ensue if I taught them a lesson in proper manners. Once they were past me, they started jogging to catch up with the rest of their people who were already some ways ahead of them.

Some people have no gratitude. The Manistee ranger division had been a pain in the ass during all three days of this operation and I was glad to see the back of them.

They hadn’t wanted to abandon the town and they were the primary reason it had taken three days instead of two to finish the transportation.

I’d have been happy to leave them behind seeing as they loved the forest with an overabundance of monsters so much.

Sadly, they weren’t stupid and knew they couldn’t hold or maintain the town unless a significant proportion of the residents stayed behind with them. Therefore, they had spent most of the first day dragging their heels and trying to change people’s minds behind the scenes. The disruption may have delayed our departure but did not stop it.

Even after it became plain that they wouldn’t get their way, the delaying tactics continued. Case in point, Kristoff had to round the last four of them up from wherever they had been lurking and escort them off the ship. Five minutes after the rest of the fighters had already departed.

Why? Only they knew.

If I hadn’t needed to keep my relationship with the Governor cordial, things would have gone very badly for the sneering Rangers. Given my timebound quest to eliminate Luca and his Lion’s Claw, I needed good old RR to keep up the pressure on his eastern flank and deny him any resources from that direction.

I was about to run back up onto the ship and get us on the way home when a sultry, slightly breathless, voice halted my stride. “Torin! I’m so glad I managed to catch you before you left.”

I turned about with a big smile plastered on my face as I recognised the voice. Trisha Belmont was hurrying down the road that led into the city, being trailed by a pair of Guardsman who were her escort.

She motioned for her guards to stay behind as she ran past the Rangers going in the other direction. Her bountiful bosom bounced pleasantly as she rushed down to join me and I took a moment to admire the view. Something Trisha spotted immediately, so she slowed down to walk and shook her head, but she couldn’t keep an appreciative and quirked smile from her painted lips.

The former small-town news anchor and now siren, was dressed casually in blue jeans and a white halter top. She fluffed her long, blonde, green-highlighted hair back into position over the last few steps before she was in my arms, and we kissed deeply.

When we broke for breath, I whispered. “So, has my little spy come to her senses and decided to come home with her dashing Captain and his darkly beautiful elf lover? Fun and sexy games guaranteed.”

Trisha’s lack of bags or travelling gear heavily suggested not, but I could hope. She had an inventory, after all. We might have kept in regular communication with Trisha via the podium, but both Shana and I missed her. We hadn’t forgotten the hot and steamy journey she had taken with us, and I was confident Trisha hadn’t either.

In fact, my habitual analysis confirmed that Trisha had remained faithful to us. The small gains in her receptivity to me had not been flushed out by another. Not that I’d had any doubts in that area.

Trisha stepped back from our embrace and pouted a little. “I’m afraid not. Although I have come to realise you were right. Being embedded with the Governor has not worked out as well as I’d hoped and I’m having my doubts Michigan State will emerge as the primary player in the area,” she sighed at the end.

That last little nugget intrigued me, and I was about to quiz her more deeply on it when a delighted squeal pealed across the slipway.

“Trisha!” Shana cried with an overabundance of excitement.

I shifted out of the way as the elf agilely bolted down to join us and wrapped Trisha in her arms as the pair kissed. My train of thought about the Governor’s potential struggles was suddenly derailed. Strange that.

The air of distraction rapidly spread.

A stern look from me, back up at the crew on deck who had magically gravitated to the side of the ship where two beautiful women were smooching, sent them back to their tasks with a few guilty expressions.

And a couple of unrepentant leering ones as well.

I made a note of the leery oglers who had just volunteered for lookout duty tonight.

My attention was drawn back to the ladies, and I pointedly cleared my throat. The interruption had the desired effect and the pair’s lips parted. Shana winked shamelessly back at me before turning back to Trisha.

“Are you coming back with us?”

“That was the first thing Torin asked as well,” Trisha laughed.

“That’s because despite being a musclebound lug, he’s no meathead and knows what’s best. Bringing you home with us and keeping you close.”

“Best for him, me, or you?” Trisha giggled at Shana’s wanton assertion.

“Same difference,” Shana answered seriously.

“Hmmm, maybe,” Trisha mused, and Shana gave her a faux-cross look for not yielding to her demands immediately.

“What could possibly convince you to stay? Don’t you want to come back with us?”

“I very much do. However, there are a couple of reasons I ought to stay. I am the spymaster of Marena’s Mercy, after all,” Trisha said, glancing around suspiciously as she did so. “I had started to tell Torin before you joined us about some of the difficulties I’ve been encountering, and potential revelations uncovered.”

<The coast is clear. The topography is open all around and there are no lurkers listening in> Quixbix assured me.

“Go on,” I urged her.

“A good journalist verifies her sources which is why I’ve not said much in my reports. A lot of this is unverified speculation, based on an anonymous source I’ve yet to identify or confirm the validity of, but as you are here…Besides, it’s easier to relate in conversation than on paper,” Trisha explained. “I believe that The Michigan State faction might be struggling badly.

“Even with your help getting them to Lansing, the Governor missed out on locking down many of the useful mayoral regions. Especially in the south of the state along the Ohio border. They are strongest in the central and eastern areas of the state. Lansing, Saginaw, and Flint are firmly in their control. But from what I can gather Detroit is a much bigger mess than they want me to believe. They have only nominal control and holding onto it is sucking in most of their resources. Everywhere else that signed on is either too small or too isolated to be of use to them.”

“Like Manistee,” I interjected.

Trisha chuckled and bobbed her pretty head. “Yes. By the way, Governor Reynolds was livid at what you charged them for transport. He wanted that money for himself.”

“Tough shit,” I barked. “Besides, it’s not like he would ever get his hands on it. Unless he came and saved them himself.”

“Don’t be so sure about that…” Trisha replied in a mysterious hushed whisper.

Shana nudged the siren with her elbow. “Spill it. You can’t drop a hint like that and leave us hanging.

“Sorry, professional habit,” Trisha apologised. “This is complete speculation. I have no hard evidence to back any of this up. According to my unidentified source, not too long-ago RR found a way to rid himself of his Ruler class and it has caused a schism in their ranks.”

“I didn’t think that was possible. Quixbix?”

<Once a ruler, always a ruler…usually> the imp chuckled. <But there is always the possibility of an exception. And here on Earth, exceptions seem to fall from the sky like rain. I’ve never had the misfortune of being saddled with a porter weighed down by the Ruler class. I bet Quinn has, though. It would probably be best to push her for any potential methods of abandon it.>

“Quixbix says it could be possible,” I said for Trisha’s benefit.

“Ha! I knew it,” she exulted. “Anyway, they’ve largely split into two camps. The Governor’s, led by his blindly devoted daughter Raven, and Regina’s. According to my source RR came to the conclusion his class was deadweight and he is trying to squirrel away as much currency as he can before ditching it and taking off.

“To that end, he has been hanging a lot of communities who bent the knee to him out to dry. Stringing them along and encouraging them to deposit their funds with him directly or at least in an account he can access. Then waiting for them to be destroyed and claiming it for himself. At least, that is what an anonymous source who contacted me has claimed.”

“That treacherous snake,” I seethed. “That prick owes me. He is supposed to be pressuring Luca.”

Trisha nodded in agreement. “On the other side, Regina is the one trying to keep everything together. Supporting those that can be helped and attempting to instil stability where they have sufficient control. However, if my source is accurate, this runs counter to what her husband wants, and he is no longer cooperating with her.

“RR and Raven are keeping things from her. That much I can verify for sure. We didn’t even know you would be here until yesterday. It was Regina who brought me down from Lansing. She sent me ahead with a patrol to catch you before you left, but she ought to have arrived herself by now. Perhaps none of what my informant is telling me is true and they have simply had a falling out. But I think this is too important to the Shattered Storm to leave with you now without uncovering the whole truth.”

Reluctantly, I was forced to agree with her. If Richard Reynolds did plan on bailing out, then I needed to know. Trisha would have to stay embedded with them and continue to dig for answers regardless of what I personally wanted.

“Speaking of distrust and a lack of cooperation from Raven. I almost missed you as I was drawn away by one of her people on some random distraction when I arrived. I thought he was bringing me to you, instead, he took me to a hospital in Saginaw because they found something you had made on one of the patients.”

“Something I made? How would they know that?”

“Yes, apparently one of their crafters unlocked an ability to identify items and one of the bits of information he gets is the name of the original crafter or creator.”

The only things I could think of that I’d made were Ice Blades and most of them were in my inventory.

“Curious, what was the item?”

“I can do you one better,” Trisha smiled at me. “I was so pissed off at Raven’s lackey that I snatched it from the table and stormed off before he could stop me. A little bit of my Siren Song convinced a few beefy orderlies to delay him.”

Then Trisha produced the hilt of an ice-blue broadsword from her inventory. Most of the blade was missing, it had been cracked and snapped off. This didn’t really surprise me as this broadsword only had a durability of one.

I had made it before I knew about infusing more mana into my ice blade constructs to improve their durability. And I’d only made one sword like this.

For Malky.

“Take me to this patient, right away.”

 

***

 

Thirty minutes later I was stalking down a refitted hospital corridor in a foul mood. The fluorescent lighting had been replaced with glow orbs bought from the podium, but the faint antiseptic smell continued to linger despite the older medicinal methods being largely overridden by the new Darkwyrlds reality.

Trisha and Shana were struggling to keep up with me and the two guards assigned to the siren traipsed along behind us at a fair distance. There had been a brief altercation between us on the way here that discouraged them from getting too close.

The administration of the facility had been unhelpful in pointing me in the right direction and I’d been forced to get physical. Trisha’s guards had tried to step in, and I may have been a bit heavy-handed in repelling them. At least, we were in the right place for them to get a bit of treatment after I was done.

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Thankfully, one thing about hospitals hadn’t changed and their obsession with records remained. When it became obvious that I would not be deterred, the nurse had abandoned her station and I’d flipped through the pages of the register myself until I got Malky’s room number. He was listed as a John Doe, but his entry had been helpfully annotated with the phrase ‘broken ice sword man’.

Sweeping inside the room, I confirmed it was indeed him. The large man was in a bed in the centre of the room and there was an attendant in scrubs hand washing his body. Malky was unconscious and not responding to the tender ministrations of the woman who looked to be in her forties.

She jumped in fright at our unexpected arrival. “Umm, can I help you,” she asked nervously.

 

Malcolm ‘Malky’ Richards (Human)

Knight Errant (S) 9

Character Aptitude: Moderate

Loot Value: Nil (current state)

Threat: Nil (current state)

XP Value: 0 (current state)

Market Value: 0 GP (current state)

Current Affiliation: Michigan State (provisional)

Status: Comatose (Brain injury, serious)

 

I ignored the woman and walked past her to examine my friend closely. He was breathing easily and seemed to be resting peacefully. There was no sign of any wounds on his body.

Quixbix explain to me what his state means, I mentally prodded my imp, not wanting to speak out loud with the attendant still present.

I could have had Shana or Trisha usher her from the room, but I might need to question her in a minute.

<Most likely he has experienced a traumatic injury to the head. Severe enough that it affected his health stat, but not enough to kill him outright. As you know, unlike hit points, health recovers at a natural rate. He will recover and awaken once his brain has had sufficient time to heal. In the meantime, his hit points have recovered, effectively curing any superficial injuries.

<You are unlikely to find a skilled enough healer or potion to accelerate his recovery at this stage of Earth’s development. Things would be different if the shroud had been dropped already.>

Will there be any long-term effects?

<Nothing that can’t be fixed. One of the benefits of the Darkwyrlds is that if it doesn’t kill you almost any wound can be recovered from.>

I sighed in relief having been reassured the big man would recover. But now that concern was dealt with, fresh questions arose. Like what happened to him? What about Keith and Mia?

“You,” I barked at the attendant. “This is my friend, Malky. Tell me what you know about how he got here.”

The woman visibly bristled at my tone. “I do not answer to being called you!” she retorted angrily.

A low growl emanated from the back of my throat, and she stepped back fearfully. Trisha stepped in front of her and grabbed her attention while Shana took hold of my arm and softly asked me to calm down. Reminding me it was not this nurse I was angry with.

“I’m ever so sorry about Captain Torin’s brusque tone,” Trisha spoke to the woman soothingly, the honey of her song unruffling the feathers I’d displaced. “It was quite a shock to find his friend like this, as I’m sure you can understand. What’s your name?”

“Maria,” the attendant replied in a mollified and calmer tone.

“Maria, a beautiful name. Torin is the one who made Malky’s sword. Please could you tell us what you know, Maria?”

“I recall the name,” she said, her eyes a little unfocused as Trisha worked her magic. “You must be his friends then, so it should be okay. We don’t know too much. He was found drifting in the river a couple of weeks ago, clutching the broken sword in his hands with his skull cracked open and half his scalp missing.

“The doctors removed the bone fragments from the soft tissue and patched the cranial damage. His skin regrew within a week with the help of some of those potions, but he has not woken up.”

“Was he alone?” I asked, trying to restrain my urgency and be polite. “Did he say anything?”

“No sign of anybody else was found with him. He is quite the mystery. According to the patrol that found him, he was muttering incomprehensibly when he was pulled out of the river, but he was deep under by the time they got him inside the city limits. Based on his other injuries, which were partially healed, the doctors think he had been in the river for several days before he was found. Must have been half out of his mind, fighting off whatever nasties were in the water with him.”

“Where was he discovered?”

“In a basin on the Shiawassee River at the far end of the nature reserve. The city patrols it regularly to cull the monsters that infest the place.”

Distractedly I pulled out one of the paper maps I’d stolen from Mike’s Bikes back on the first day and laid it out on top of Malky. There was no other flattish surface but the floor in the room. Maria tutted her displeasure but didn’t stop me.

“Is this where you mean,” I demanded of Maria and pointed to a spot on the map. A place south of the city just past the reserve where the Shiawassee River that ran through the city thickened in width.

Maria peered past Trisha, unwilling to get any closer to me. “Yes, that’s the place.”

My finger traced one of the tributary waterways that flowed into that river basin. The Flint River. My fingers weaved their way across the paper as Shana’s eyes followed until they reached Flint.

“Mia,” she whispered in concern, echoing my thoughts.

Malky would not have abandoned her. Keith either, not that I gave a rat’s ass about Keith. He was about as useful as a chocolate teapot. Which meant if Malky was out of the picture, Mia was essentially alone. A pang of guilt and self-recrimination washed through me. I should not have given her the choice to stay behind. But it had been Malky ending up in a state like this that had convinced me to act otherwise.

“We are going to Flint,” I announced.

“Are you now?” Regina questioned my statement with stark disapproval.

She was standing in the doorway to Malky’s hospital room, with several guards and what appeared to be the leading Doctor or administrator of the hospital nervously lurking behind her. She wore a grey business suit and glared at me balefully.

“Captain Torin, it seems I must remind you that you are a guest in our territory,” she continued, anger simmering in her voice. “Regardless of what services you have provided, manhandling our people and intimidating our under-pressure hospital staff who are simply doing their jobs is completely unacceptable.”

“Regina,” I started to say.

“Not a word,” she said, cutting me off. “You have overstayed your welcome. Time for you to leave. Return to your ship and cast off.”

With that, she turned on her heel and marched away, her entourage following her with the exception of a man and a woman.

The woman, the administrator I’d concluded and not a doctor, but definitely a self-important busybody if ever I’d seen one, sneered in my direction. “Maria, come with me,” she said, and Malky’s attendant dutifully obeyed with a sniff of disapproval in my direction.

That left the man. I vaguely recognised him, and my analysis filled in the gaps. It was Sergeant, now Lieutenant, MacDonald. He had been leading the National Guard squad who had intercepted us when we first arrived on Mackinac Island to speak with the Governor. I hadn’t recognised him at first as he was out of uniform.

He stepped inside and closed the door behind him.

“Calum,” Trisha greeted him.

“Miss Belmont,” he smiled back at her stiffly. “Captain Torin.”

I grunted a response to his greeting.

“How pissed is she?” Trisha asked him.

“Not as much as you might think. More annoyed that Captain Torin has put her in a tight spot with hi…assertiveness.”

“I’m not going to apologise. They should have given me what I wanted,” I growled.

Calum MacDonald straightened his shirt and fidgeted a little under my gaze. My displeasure was evident, and Shana was also seething. I could feel her anger at how Regina had spoken to me pulsing through our bond.

“She didn’t think you would.”

“I don’t care what Regina thinks. We are taking Malky and leaving for Flint.”

“Torin…” Trisha sighed plaintively.

Calum put his hands up to try and calm me. “I think you misunderstand the politics of the situation. Regina had to be seen to be tough on you when you started throwing your weight around like this was your city, not hers. Appearances must be maintained. Now, more than ever.

“Mrs Reynolds can explain better than I. If you take the direct route back to your ship from here, you will pass a second-hand bookstore called Snug as a Bug. Go in and Regina will meet you in the stacks in private if you’re willing.

“You will have to leave Malky behind. He is tagged as a citizen of Michigan State. We can’t allow a foreign party to simply take our citizens. If you insist on removing him, there will be no meeting with Mrs Reynolds, and you will precipitate the kind of repercussions between our factions no one wants. He will be perfectly safe here. Believe it or not we do have some of the best healers in the state.”

“He is only one of your citizen’s provisionally,” I muttered angrily.

“Would that matter to you if we tried to take one of your provisional citizens?” he shot back.

“I didn’t think so,” he answered for me when I didn’t immediately respond. “You can take a few minutes before leaving, Regina will need a little time to untangle herself from the hospital admins. I hope to see you again under more auspicious circumstances, Captain Torin.”

With his piece said Calum MacDonald bobbed his head at us and left the room, closing the door after him.

I snatched an empty, blue plastic jug from a small bedside table and hurled it against the wall by the door.

“Feel better?” Trisha rebuked me with a mildly exasperated sigh and a cock of her hip.

I didn’t but then felt Shana press her body into my back. The intimate sensation sent a wave of relaxation through me, and I managed to slough off my crankiness and let go of a deep breath I hadn’t known I was holding.

Trisha, taking her cue from Shana stepped in and embraced me from the front making me the meat in their sandwich. I returned the hug and kissed the siren’s golden locks.

“You need to remember my suspicions, Torin,” she mumbled into my chest. “If the Governor really is looking for a way to cash out and abandon his responsibilities, being stubborn about this will severely weaken Regina’s position and present him with a gilt-edged opportunity to get away with it.”

The most frustrating part of this was that Trisha was not wrong. My instincts to lash out and kick multiple asses here in Saginaw while satisfying in the short term would likely make life difficult in the future. Damn, but I hated the politics of compromise when I was the one who had to do the compromising. It was much better to have the other party bent backwards over the barrel and forced to dance to my tune.

“Fine,” I grunted. “Let’s go see what Regina has to say out of sight of these butthurt bozos.”

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