Scalvoris Town Docks
8th Ymiden, 720
8th Ymiden, 720
Continues from: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3
“I can’t believe I agreed ‘ta this.”
Tio gave Mr Dutch a sympathetic pat on the shoulders. “Relax. All you have to do is fulfil your end of the deal, then it’s all over. You’ll get paid, I’ll get what I’m after, and nobody will know you were ever involved. Life will resume as usual.”
The two men were in an abandoned warehouse in Scalvoris Town only a short ride away from the docks, where Tio’s heist target: a water troop galleon called The White Lady, was docked. Mr Dutch was a simple fruit merchant who had a contract to supply water troop ships with his products, and had made a deal with Tio a few nights ago. In exchange for a rather hefty sum of coins, Dutch had taken his latest delivery -which was headed straight for The White Lady- on a detour to meet Tio here.
For his part Tio was once again dressed in his heist getup: his duplicity suit morphed into tight-fitting black robes with a hood and balaclava obscuring his face. His domain bag was strapped securely to his back, his magic ring Thieve’s Accomplice present on his finger, and his floating ability was cancelled. Anything that could be used to recognise him was stored away, only to be used if things didn’t go according to plan.
With a worried sigh Dutch pulled open the lid of a crate on the back of his cart, revealing it to be half-packed with fresh lemons. He shovelled the contents to one side with his hands as Tio hopped onto the wagon. “Well at least ye’ll smell lemon fresh as ye get up to yer mischief.”
“Indeed.” Tio chuckled, swinging his legs over the side of the crate and crouching down among the lemons. “I feel like I should be making a When-life-gives-you-lemons joke.”
Dutch sighed and began piling the lemons back over Tio until the thief was completely concealed beneath them. As he pulled the crate lid back on he gave one last forced smile. "Can't believe I'm saying this but... Good luck ta ya Mercury. Don't get caught and land us both in jail.”
With that the crate lid slammed shut, casting Tio into darkness. Moments later the crate began to bump and shake, signalling that the wagon was moving once again; taking him to the docks.
The Court of Miracles
The Night Before…
The Night Before…
“So what’s the plan?”
Tio grinned in reply, pointing to the copied blueprints of The White Lady Kyari had procured. "Well the success of this plan revolves entirely around keeping the water troops unable to fight. Getting inside the ship is the easy part. Before it sets off on a voyage supplies need to be brought aboard a ship. Fresh produce, such as lemons, is needed to keep away scurvy, but goes off rather quickly without suitable storage conditions, so tend to be brought aboard as close to the departure date as possible. I've given their supplier a rather substantial bribe to sneak me aboard the ship amongst his supplies."
James frowned. "You don't think they'll check the supplies they bring on board?"
"Not properly no. Consider what we've learnt about the captain of The White Lady: Felicia Du'Belle." He gestured to another sheet up paper, upon which a sketch of a young woman's face was drawn. She was beautiful, with naturally sharp and regal features, but in a cold, icy way completed by the stern expression she wore and the tight bun she kept her hair in. Around her were a number of words and sentences describing her life and personality, and Tio pointed to a few of them: punctual, strict, perfectionist, high-expectations. "Du'Belle is well known for demanding that everything be done perfectly by the book and on schedule. There is an exact plan for the departure day, including the loading of last-minute cargo. Cobra's talks with her crew members have shown that she doesn't hesitate to berate them for failing to meet her expectations."
"Isn't that bad for us?" James asked, confused.
"Not at all. The first few times her troops might have been willing to put in the effort demanded by her, but over time my bet is that human nature has begun to take hold. The White Lady has gone on patrol many times before, and since every previous departure date has gone by without incident I suspect that the water troops will have started to get a little bit lazy. However since Du'Belle will shout at them if they take too long to do their duties then instead of taking the time to do them well, they'll cut corners. I can't imagine that the soldier assigned to check the cargo coming into the ship will search each crate as thoroughly as they ought to."
When the rattling of the cart came to a stop Tio wiggled further down into the bottom of the crate and strained his ears, listening to the faint hum of conversation outside. Soon his own crate rocked as strong hands lifted it out of the cart, and sunlight streamed in through the lemons as someone pulled the lid open and peered inside.
"How's it look?"
Tio stayed absolutely still, even holding his breath to stop the rise and fall of his chest. There was a barrier of lemons between him and whoever was looking in, and with the power of Thieves Accomplice it was hard to spot him so long as he didn't move, but that wouldn't mean a thing if they decided to move the lemons to have a proper look inside. All it would take was a few extra seconds of diligence and all of his work would be undone before it had even begun.
"... Fine. Take it in."
The lid closed again, and Tio stifled a sigh of relief as the crate was lifted up again and, judging by the sound of footsteps on wood, brought aboard the ship. A few minutes later the crate was dropped roughly on the ground. For about half an hour there were more sounds of footsteps coming in and out, loading the other supply crates in the same room, until eventually the sound of a door closing rang out and the background noise of other people moving about the ship became muted.
Still Tio waited, staying as silent as the grave until he heard the faint sound of a bell ringing and felt the swaying of the boat intensify as it set off on its voyage. Then he began to count.
“7200… 7199… 7198…”
“According to the map Kyari procured, it will take The White Lady just under two hours to pass by the Immortal’s Tongue and go completely out of sight of the docks. That’ll be the moment I make my move.”
“By somehow sneaking through a ship full of alert, armed guards? I hope you’re as sneaky as you think you are.” James cut in.
Tio smiled evilly. “No, I’m not that good. However that isn’t the only option available. If I can’t move about the ship with the troops spotting me, then I’ll just have to make the troops leave.”
Cobra raised an eyebrow. “You want to make the troops leave their own ship? How?”
In reply Tio pointed to the blueprint of the ship again: specifically at a collection of rooms in the middle. “There’s a big risk of valuable supplies being damaged by water if a leak springs up in a ship’s hull. In order to mitigate this risk most ships use the middlemost supply rooms to store items that are particularly at risk of water damage, such as fresh produce like lemons, or…”
“... 2… 1… Go time!” Slowly Tio picked himself up out of the lemons, gently pushing the lid of the crate off and stepping outside. The room he was in was plain and orderly, about what you’d expect of a military ship supply room, and packed full of crates of all shapes and sizes filled with fresh water and food. Fortunately for him the crates seemed to be arranged by expiry date to help the ship’s cook make efficient use of them, and so his had been set down right at the front without anything being set on top of it.
He pressed an ear to the door, and when he heard nothing on the other side tentatively opened it a fraction and peaked through. Nobody was outside, and so he slipped out the door and crossed over to the next supply room along. This room was only about half the size and just as plain and orderly as the last one: filled only with stacks upon stacks of small round barrels. Tio picked one of the barrels up, prised the lid off and ran a finger across the black powder within, which he then brought up to his tongue and quickly tasted. A flicker of a smirk crossed his lips.
Gunpowder.
Tio slung his domain bag off his back and rummaged through it, pulling out the dozen smoke bombs that he and Morgana had made a few days earlier, and set them down inside the powder room. Then he brought his tinderbox out the bag and used the flint inside to light the fuses, before quickly packing it away, slinging the bag back onto his back, taking the stolen gunpowder and retreating back to the food store room. Thick grey smoke began to pour out from behind the powder room and fill the corridor; creeping beneath the door of the storeroom and flowing out across the rest of the ship as well. It wasn’t long before panicked shouts began to cry out from across the ship.
“Smoke! Someone alert the captain! Where’s it coming from?!”
“The supply rooms! Fek! The gunpowder store!”
“Treid’s Bile! Abandon ship!”
An alarm bell sounded, and Tio listened with pleasure to the sounds of footsteps hurrying about the ship. There was nothing quite like the threat of a giant explosion to get even the most disciplined of soldiers panicking, and while a few of them would probably be smart enough to question why so much smoke was being produced yet it was taking so long for an explosion to come he doubted any of them were prepared to risk their lives to find out. Better safe than sorry after all.
When they had sufficiently quietened, indicating that most if not all of the troops had evacuated onto the rowboats, Tio pulled open the door of the storeroom again and stepped out into a corridor so thick with smoke that he couldn’t see his hands when his arms were stretched out directly in front of him. He screwed his eyes closed as the thick smoke began to sting them and felt his way along the wall, trying to recall the details of the blueprint he’d spent a good few hours yesterday trying to memorise. Ships had a simple structure designed to be easy to navigate so that sailors wouldn’t have to waste time, so he didn’t expect it to be too hard. Fumbling through with his hands, Tio made his way out of the storage section and up to the gun deck, where the heaviest guns were kept.
“Okay, getting the troops on board the ship to evacuate makes sense, but it’s also going to set the water mount riders escorting the ship on high alert. We can’t exactly leave The White Lady while they’re around. What’s your plan there?” Kyari asked.
In response Tio reached under the table and pulled out the can of Siren Light paint he’d created with his alchemy. His smile broke out into a half-maniacal grin.
“We give them one hell of a distraction. Oh, and we’re going to need to hire a ship...”
When he reached the gun deck finding the cannons lined up at the sides was pretty easy even with all the smoke thanks to how big they were. He placed the stolen barrel of gunpowder up against the wall, took a handful of powder and used it to make a thin trail leading away from the keg. Once he was far enough away Tio brought his flint out of his domain bag again and used it to set the makeshift fuse alight, which quickly travelled back to the barrel and detonated in a fierce explosion that blew that large portion of the wall clean off. The strong ocean wind was quick to leap in through the gap and begin sweeping the smoke away, allowing Tio to finally see unobstructed as he jogged back over to the hole and looked at the ocean outside.
“Hey! What’s that over-... YOU THERE! STOP!”
The first thing Tio could see out across the stretch of ocean in front of him was a group of about half a dozen merquestrian riders coming to examine the explosion. All of them were armed and quickly coming towards him, no doubt intending to kill or arrest him. In the distance he could see a small ship with its sails pulled taunt racing towards him: a ship he knew was captained by James, and had been tailing The White Lady from afar since it passed the Immortals Tongue waiting for an explosion as it cue to come closer.
Reaching into his domain bag, Tio closed his eyes as he drew out the object he wanted and hurled it out into the ocean at the approaching merquestrian riders. He heard an exclamation from the troops, a splash as it hit the water, and then… nothing. The conversation of the water troops faded, stolen away by the noise of the lapping waves.
Tio didn’t need to see to know what had happened. The object he’d thrown was a simple wooden toy boat that he’d painted with the Siren Light paint. It was human nature to look at something thrown towards you, and without knowing what it was the troops and their mounts would have looked at the toy boat as it landed in the water. From there the hypnotic effect of it grabbed their attention, drawing them into a daze and leading them away from The White Lady.
Somewhere far away he heard the sounds of indignant shouting, revealing that the troops who had evacuated onto the lifeboats had spotted the mounted troops being lured away. Tio opened his eyes again, noting that the mounted troops were now sufficiently far away enough for the light to no longer reach him, and that James’ hired ship was getting pretty close. The troops in the lifeboats were rowing back towards the ship, but James’ ship was faster and would arrive first. Quickly Tio got to work untying the ropes binding the ten nearest cannons to the gun deck and trying to heave the heavy weapons into something vaguely resembling a line, but despite a great deal of effort had only managed to move two into place by the time that James’ ship pulled up.
A wide gangplank came through the hole and fixed itself to the deck, from which Morgana, Kyari and Cobra quickly emerged dressed in the same black thieves clothing as him. Working together they began loading the cannons onto the ship; each grabbing a corner and pushing it across the gangplank with the desperate haste of people who knew they were on a time limit. The cannons were staggeringly heavy and made the gangplank creak ominously as they were brought over, but working together the group made good progress. At one point Kyari brought one of the Court of Miracles' calling cards out of her pocket and fixed it to the wall with a stiletto knife to make sure the credit for this feat was attributed to them.
It was as they were bringing their seventh cannon over that the sound of charging footsteps and furious shouting betrayed the fact that the water troops were back on board the ship. Immediately Tio let go of the cannon and barked “Time to go!” The others followed him a second later, sprinting up the gangplank onto James’ ship and running to the sails. Prioritising speed over quality they hoisted the sails, causing the ship to suddenly lurch forwards and the gangplank and cannon they’d left in place to slip off and crash down into the ocean. The water troops appeared at the hole and shouted abuse at them, some ever reaching for their ranged weapons, but their ship was quickly drawing away out of their range. James turned the ship and darted off towards Almund; making use of what little time they had before the water troops organised themselves in order to give pursuit to make a break for safety.
Half an hour later saw James’ hired ship docked at one of the coves just off the coast of Almund, with The White Lady looming in the distance but bearing closer by the second. Tio and his minions quickly unloaded the cannons from the ship and ditched it; strapping the artilery to one of the ten horses Arthur had brought from the stables above the guildhall and was waiting for them with at the cove. Before The White Lady had come close enough to see them they led the horses, six dragging cannons and four being kept in reserve to switch out if needed, out away from the cove. Rather than taking them into Almund however James led the procession further away from civilisation out into the wilds.
When they arrived at the other end of the island, a small stretch of beach facing Faldrass, night was beginning to fall. It was a wide stretch of beach perfect for a ship to dock at and load cargo onto, yet the coastline was devoid of any kind of ships. Tio led the group along the beach for a while, keeping an eye on the tide coming in, and then headed back up the beach into the dunes, where a wiry little tree that perhaps looked a little bit like the head of a crow if you looked at it from the right angle stood alone amidst the sand. Besides it lay six shovels and a pile of tarp sheets weighed down by stones, which the court had left there a few trials ago.
Each of them grabbed a shovel and began digging a hole in the beach. Once it was deep enough they lay the tarp into the hole, pushed one of the cannons into it, wrapped the loose corners of tarp around it to keep the cannon safe, and then began shovelling sand back into the hole to cover it up. The piles of displaced sand remaining were spread out across the beach, until by the time the moon had taken a prominent place in the sky all six cannons were buried cleanly beneath the ground.
This was the final step in Tio's plan. When he had explained it the others had thought he was being needlessly piraty, but soon saw sense when he explained his reasoning. The crew of The White Lady would either call for help from the soldiers in Almund or attempt to follow them from where they'd left the hired ship, and even though the court could outpace them due to the horses they'd bought dragging cannons across the ground would leave a pretty clear trail to follow. Even an untrained soldier would have little trouble tracking that. If they couldn't lose their pursuers then the best alternative was to trick them. By Tio's estimate the water troops would arrive in about an hour, by which time the tide would have come in enough to cover the trail and scent they left across the beach. The water troops would arrive at the beach, and their natural conclusion would be that they'd loaded the stolen cannons onto a ship docked here and sailed away to foreign shores under cover of night. Even if anyone suspected a trick the beach was incredibly long and sand, unlike dirt, was far easier to cover up. It would be beyond the skill of any ordinary soldier to find unless they knew to use the crow-head shaped tree as a reference point.
Burying the cannons had another advantage too. It wasn't like they could walk down the streets of Almund with cannons in tow after all, so they had to keep them safe and out of sight until they arranged a buyer. By burying the cannons the chances of anyone stumbling across them by accident was astronomical, and the tarp would keep them dry and safe until the heat had died down enough and a buyer sorted; at which point they could sail back here and dig them back up again.
With their task complete, Tio and his gang mounted the horses and rode back down along the coast back to Almund, keeping their horses close to the ocean so that the rising tide would sweep away their tracks. They stayed silent as the grave, unwilling to let out so much as a peep until they were safe back at the guildhall, but even so Tio could swear he could see the muscles of each of their cheeks stretched into wide grins behind their masks.
