The barge slowly chugged south along the coast.
Jimmy sat on a barrel next to a strange humming box near the back of the ship. His seat was cushioned by a long iron bound box. His left hand was behind his back holding a strangely green stick, while his right was balancing a knife a top his right index finger. The young blade kept this pose for a few minutes and then with a flip of his wrist, the blade spun through the air before landing on another knife newly balanced on his finger. The pair of blades teetered and wobbled before straightening. Jimmy held this make shift pole for a few seconds, before spinning the pair of them into the air again. With a swipe of his left arm, he spun the verdant stick in place before both blades vanished. Jimmy then switched the positions of his hands, extending his now empty left hand before him as his right hand grabbed the stick and put it behind his back. Another flick of the wrist, and a knife was once again balanced on his outstretched left index finger.
"Boring," yawned Chloe as the small enforcer paced in a circle upon the deck of the slow moving vessel. Her bright aristocratic clothes were replaced with drab studded leather armor. Even her highly recognizable short opaline hair was now a dull curly red. "I'd throw you a silver, but I see better magicians and acrobats at the market square. Actually, the whole lot of them are pretty bad, well…except for that off tune busker with the knives. At least she knows a couple of really gloomy and old songs on her play list…"
Jimmy ignored her as the barge shifted its course slightly. The ship's overworked water elemental engine and the sailors pushing hard with their long poles narrowly missed an area of what Jimmy could only guess as a reef or shoals. They would be safer on open waters, but also more visible; which would defeat the whole point of booking passage on this ship.
"Like what is this? The slowest smuggling vessel ever? I still can't believe we're going to Grom City on this smelly piece of crap," declared Chloe loudly as she held her nose up while adjusting her hair. The large scow seemed to agree with her as its timbers groaned as it banked around some rocks along the coast.
Though they were supposedly out of earshot, several dour looking sailors glared at the short girl as she voiced her slight over their vessel, but none made a move against her as Jimmy simply glared back at them. They simply lowered their heads and continued working their oars as the ship slowly made its way south.
"I mean, when Hoaglie said you had some special way to get to Grom City, I thought it was going to be a Skyship, or a chariot pulled by Pegasus, or maybe some dark teleporting ritual. Not you and me, and fifty tonnes of rotten wood," ranted Chloe.
Jimmy sighed. "Any proper skyship is military only, no way we can book passage on one in Northern Grom, security is too tight up here. Southern Grom we might, those hicks are more open to bribes down there. Unless of course you want to try your luck with some half rate wizard hack's version. I've seen some wonderful looking sky galleys for sale, complete with sparkly magic sails. We'd end up smashed into a mountain before we get to the Academy."
" Teleporting is out of the question. They had a wizard that escaped, that means they also have access to similar magics. They might not be able to track the sword, but they can track everyone that uses they type of high level magic. It just takes a divination spell on every teleporter they sense, and they'll pick up the trail again. Also the Shattered mountains between here and Grom City makes teleporting through that region risky at best. I have no desire to end up underground or a hundred feet in the air."
"As for that Pegasus chariot idea, I'm not even going to give it any credence. This barge, no one knows about. Not the harbor master, not the tax collectors, not even Hoaglie looking for his cut. "
Chloe sniffed at him and pointed at her crooked red hair and then to her unusually large bust. "Well, Mr. Smartypants. If we're so secrety, what's with this? Why'd I have to wear a wig? And why the hell do I have to wear a stuffed bra."
Jimmy shook his head." I make it my business to be non-descript. A bit of dirt and little roughing up of my hair and I'll blend into any crowd. You on the other hand stick out like a black sheep. Short girl with a pixy build and white blue hair and stylish short dresses? I mean, how did you survive so long in this business? If anyone did see us, they would notice your white hair first, and then they would yap, and yapping leads to people listening, and people listening leads to people with swords and sorcery coming after us. "
"Loose lips sinks ships," added one of the less grubby looking sailors. Chloe shot him a 'don't talk when we're talking look', but the sailor simply returned a strangely full and white smile before returning to his work.
"Wow, that guy has some nice teeth. I wonder if he bleaches them?" commented Chloe before turning his attention back to Jimmy. "Anyways, I don't get what's the big deal. Why all the secrecy? We're the Dwarven Teamsters. Well minor members actually, since neither of us are full blooded dwarves. Still, you'd think we could just round up some more enforcers and go to Grom City with a chip on our shoulders, daring anyone to cross swords with us. Nobody messes with our crew."
"You should know our boss doesn't work that way," corrected Jimmy. "Too much resources invested in any venture doesn't return a profit. And we thrive on profit more than the Grommers do. Besides, these guys are the Knights of the North, or at least a splinter group anyways. I've crossed paths with these guys before. Take away their steel armor and blades, and their just barbarians five generations removed. They have a weird sense of honor and they certainly don't play by our rules. It wouldn't surprise me if they send a full raiding party down here now that their scouting party has failed. I don't know what's so special about our…cargo..but its dangerous and they want it. Best we avoid them just in case."
"And this is the best you can do? An old scow?" snorted Chloe.
Jimmy couldn't resist an eyeroll. He wanted to tell her about the meticulous rumors he placed about heading to the Sage Delsenora in the north, and even sending several pairs of travellers that fit their description to throw off their trackers. Not to mention the non detection spells he had cast or the auction offers to sell a similar sword in Karlston and Porlock's Port. He even had a fake sword made to parade it around the barge crew incase one of them tried to betray him. He could have mentioned all of this, but given his companion, it would probably fly over her literally wood filled head.
"Best we keep your eyes open," cautioned Jimmy instead. "The Knights of the North travel not only by land, but by the sea and the sky as well."
"Oooh….I'm soo scared," snorted Chloe as she paced in a circle once more. "A bunch of stinky tribesman are looking for us and your panties get in a bunch. I bet a bunch of them simply cut a log down, and are now using it as a battering ram against Lower Lueder's gates. "
One of the sailors chuckled at Chloe's comment, but the young blade knew the danger. Back when he was an apprentice demon hunter, he not only worked with the Knights of the North, but also knew several of their Arbiters, powerful men and women that kept the other knights in line when they were out of the North. Besides the Arbiters, he also had firsthand experience with one of them in their band, Sir Jose.
Sir Jose was as dangerous a warrior as Jimmy met. Maybe even more skilled than the Arbiters, save for his weakness for that damned agave worm juice he always swilled. While his master Martinez was deadly, and his partner Raoul was strong, Jose was a force of nature in battle. Men, demons, and even dragons could not stand against that knight when he had his war face on. When his band broke up and Jimmy joined the teamsters, Sir Jose and his lycanthropic squire Kitahria went west on some grand crusade eventually getting himself killed on some fool quest of some sort. Jimmy only heard rumors, but it had something to do with a one eyed dragon and a flying castle of some sort. Kit survived though, or so he heard, which was good. Jimmy always got along with Kit since she was approximately the same age as he was when he was a part of Martinez's demonhunters. She was now running a nursery of some sort, which was good. Adventuring didn't seem to suit her. Though Jose was a part of his past and Jimmy had met other lesser knights in his travels, the thought of facing anyone of Jose's caliber was a sobering thought.
"Jimmy, Jimmy? " asked Chloe. "Wake up. You were in a trance or something for a minute."
Jimmy nodded. "Just thinking of the past. Old friends and comrades..that type of thing."
"Freddy and Harry?" shrugged Chloe. "Freddy was alright, but Harold was too much of a loner for my taste. Always acted so superior and mysterious….kind of like you."
From her smirk, Jimmy wasn't sure if she was joking or serious. He had Hoaglie's strange dryad stick, and wondered if he could use it to make her shut up or at least to stop bothering him. He hadn't tested it yet, but he doubt it would be hard to use. While he doubt he could identify the steel grey sword, fiddling and tinkering with magical items was one of his knacks and he doubt he would have trouble using this staff if he needed to. He was about to wave her away, and let her bother the crew when suddenly the barge tilted up to the sound of snapping timbers.
Jimmy flipped from his seat, balancing on the side of the barrel briefly before landing softly on his feet. Chloe was sent flying, head first into a cabin door, but was already rolling back to her feet. Several of the crew were thrown into the water, even as a grey ominous fin began circling their vessel. Some of the sailors tried to help their thrashing crewmates, others were running below decks to access the damage, while the rest seemed to stand there with the mouths wide open in confusion.
"Shark! " shouted the sailor with the perfect teeth, but Jimmy knew it was much worse when dark shadows began to appear on the deck of the barge.
With his long iron bound box in one hand and his green staff in the other, Jimmy scrambled for cover. He didn't even get a chance to shout a warning before the arrows began falling.
"Get those men out of the….ahhhh…." shouted the sailor with the perfect teeth before an arrow embedded in his shoulder.
Overhead, large flying creatures circled the damaged barge even as a pair of sailors began futilely firing crossbows at them. At least fifteen Griffons and a three large bats flew in unison, dodging the return fire. Mirror images, Jimmy quickly deduced. Ignoring the illusions, Jimmy guessed their numbers were closer to five and one even as their riders shot indiscriminately down at them. Both crossbow sailors screamed as black arrows rained down on them. Two struck Chloe in her back, knocking her face first onto the barge's deck. Jimmy felt one aimed for his head, but he quickly swatted it away with his iron bound case.
"Damn it. How did they find me? " swore Jimmy as he dove towards the port side of the ship, landing hard on the deck near a dead sailor, before rolling to his feet with staff and box gone and crossbow in hand. He aimed upwards at the bat, judging its speed and distance. He was about to return fire, when suddenly the ship rocked violently again, sending him to his knee and spoiling his shot.
Before Jimmy could aim again, he was almost paralyzed by a great shriek as a great iron sheathed talon descended on him. Jimmy barely managed to roll backwards out of reach, losing the crossbow and drawing his rapier and main gauche in the process. The young blade stabbed straight, even before he could fully get a sense of his opponent and was rewarded by another shriek and a splash of crimson.
The Griffon before him, reared up defensively raking its claws in the air like a cat, as its armored rider struggled to stay in his saddle. Jimmy took a quick step to his left to fool his opponent, before dashing to his right. His feint worked better than expected as the griffon shifted in the wrong direction even as Jimmy swung to its flank and stabbed its rider through the neck, targeting the mail gap between his helmet and shoulder.
Or at least it would have been his neck if the griffon and rider didn't suddenly blink out of existence and reappear five feet to the side. The rider with his griffon back under his control, flashed a grin at Jimmy from under his helmet. The smile quickly faded as Jimmy threw his main gauche before the blink spell could reset, and slammed through the helmet's eye slit.
As the warrior screamed in agony, Jimmy saw that the rest of his 'allies' fared less than well. A Griffon rider and her duplicates were wading through the stunned and demoralized crew with her mace, smashing the thoroughly demoralized and confused crew. A dripping brute of a warrior in half plate, pulled himself on board to join the one sided fray. Surprisingly some kelp vines slithered out from behind him and attempted to pull the man back into the water, but the warrior quickly deduced who was responsible and smashed his heavy iron boot into Chloe's midsection, knocking her back and sending the young enforcer tumbling down into the ship's hold. The sailor with perfect teeth, somehow managed to keep fighting even with the arrow in his shoulder. He wielded his cutlass with some skill, fending off and dispelling some of the multiple griffons surrounding him, but a volley of magical bolts from the overhead bat, knocked him over the rail and into the ocean.
Jimmy didn't like the odds. He first threw a couple of smoke bombs to lay down some cover. He then drew a normal dagger to replace his main gauche, but even with his skill at the blade he doubt he could last long against the knights. Disregarding the odds, Jimmy launched himself at the other griffon. He inadvertently stabbed and dispelled two of its images, but its rider managed to clip him over the head with her mace before he found his true target. Jimmy stumbled back, blood dripping over one eye, even as another griffon dove down on him. Jimmy barely managed to throw himself to the ground and roll on his back to the side, avoiding its claws. Though it seemed like three griffons were overhead, Jimmy dropped his blades, miraculously produced his crossbow again out of thin air, and fired it blindly. While he wasn't rewarded with a griffon' shriek, a hoarse grunt above him told him he hit someone at least. Jimmy reloaded fast and though he couldn't see his target through the maze of images, he saw a trail of blood leaking on the deck. Firing slightly ahove that vague indicator, Jimmy was rewarded again with a sharp cry as a knight fell heavily to the ground. Hiding his crossbow and then rolling to his feet once again with blades in hand, Jimmy prepared to make his last stand.
"C'mon you dogs. All at once or one at time. Who dies first?" shouted Jimmy in defiance. It was a ridiculous thing to say, but he read it once as a child in a sword and sorcery tale, and it stuck with him. The hero was surrounded and shouted that taunt to his foes. Jimmy thought it was cool thing to say before one was surrounded and struck down, but never had the opportunity to use it till now.
"Hold," shouted a clear and ringing voice overhead. The griffons, their respective riders, and even the big warrior from the depths took a collective step back. The warrior that Jimmy hit in the eye hesitated, but even he fell back as commanded.
Jimmy looked up and saw the large bat circle once and descend onto the boat, amidst the screams of the dying and the crashing of the waves around them. The young blade noticed the arcane runes inscribed on the bat's belly and wings, and immediately recognized the unique spell mark of an eye crossed in lightning.
"James the Blade?" said a robed man as he hopped off his arcane inscribed bat. "What in Baator's name are you doing here?"
"Ulffy…Is that you Ulfgar?" replied Jimmy in surprise.
The robed man removed his heavy cowl, revealing a bearded face with a with blue lion tattoo on his right cheek.
"Jimmy …that is you! I can't believe it. When that Halfling told me the Teamsters have their top guy on this, I was expecting a dwarf or someone similar. I wasn't expecting the great Jimmy the Blade, demonhunter without peer. I would give you a hug, but it seems inappropriate, " said Ulfgar as he motioned to the dead knight and the Griffon knight still clutching his bleeding eye.
"Yeah sorry about that. He's lucky though. If it weren't for your spell, he'd have his throat punctured right now," nodded Jimmy.
"Same old cocky Jimmy," laughed Ulfgar as he turned to his fellows. "This guy is alright. He almost single handily kill one of those Nalfeshenes back in the day during that horrible Baltar business back in Porlock's Port. Everyone was running when that big boar demon popped out of the wizard's lair except ol Jimmy here. This guy has the heart of the lion, and coming from an actual Lion knight, that means something."
Several of the Griffon Knights as well as the big warrior in half plate flinched at the mention of archmage Baltar. The warrior woman with the mace, a tall well-endowed blonde with braided hair sticking out of her winged helmet simply licked her upper lip.
"Speaking of Lions, where's Saberclaw," asked Jimmy motioning to the bat. "I doubt she would let you ride something else into battle."
Ulfgar shrugged. "Saberclaw died and since I had a little falling out with Champion Brita, I've yet to replace her. KiKot on the other hand, I sort of inherited from a fellow mage knight from the Order of the Bat as you can guess. She might not be much to look at but she's served me well."
The rune scribed bat that was sitting up with its wings folded, made a loud squeaking noise at the mention of its name.
"Hurry this up, we're getting close to those rocks," interrupted the warrior in half plate, a big muscular bald man with what looked like filed sharpened teeth.
"In time Padraig. I don't want to kill a friend, so let's do this right," said Ulfgar before turning back to Jimmy. "You don't owe anything to these rogues, so how about you give us the Black Blade and we let you live."
"Black blade? It's more of a grey blade actually," replied Jimmy as he reached behind him and somehow retrieved the long ironbound box from out of thin air. "You want this?"
Several of the knights murmured as Ulfgar waved to calm them down. "It's not true magic, it's some type of sleight of hand he uses combined with a bag or multiple bags of holding. It's actually kind of clever really. As for the greyish looking Black Blade, well its seen better days which is why we're after it in the first place. Don't make this hard Jimmy, hand over that box and you walk away from this. "
Jimmy didn't believe Ulfgar for second. He wouldn't get to live, especially after he blinded one and killed another. He might be a friend, but those other guys were Ulfgar's battle brothers. He was with the Knights long enough to know this wouldn't end well for him.
Jimmy held the box up and extended it towards Ulfgar. As the robed knight reached out for it, the young blade drew his hand back and then threw it in the ocean. The big warrior gasped as he immediately jumped into the water after it, even as another knight mounted his Griffon and flew overhead.
"Oops, sorry."
Ulfgar shook his head. "That wasn't smart Jimmy. Not smart at all," he said as the remaining knights and their griffons closed in with weapons drawn.
"I think that was plenty smart," smirked Jimmy with false bravado. "That's two less of you I have to kill," he said as he readied his knives once more.
Before Ulfgar could throw a spell or Jimmy a knife, the floor of the deck was pierced upwards by what looked like a series of long sharp claws. Several of the Griffons hopped back, startled by this, even as the deck gave way from underneath one of them. The Griffon squawked and flapped its wings helplessly even as its rider struggled to keep it under control as they both fell through to the lower deck. As the pair of them fell, a short feral figure with a pair of arrows still stuck to her back hopped up onto the deck from the hole and slashed wildly at the bewildered knights with long claws growing from her fingers.
"You don't escape the Chloeverine that easily," roared the red headed hairy figure as she unleashed a flurry of swings against the blonde woman and her griffon.
Jimmy wasn't sure what type of strange druid magic Chloe unleashed but he took advantage of it. He threw some more smoke bombs onto the deck and made his way to the strange box that passed for an engine on the barge. While he wasn't exactly sure how to operate this device, he knew enough that there was an elemental inside. A few quick slashes with his dagger over what looked like protective runes began to make the box quiver. Jimmy felt he was making progress when suddenly he felt his hair stand on end before a bolt of lightning crashed down on his position.
Jimmy barely evaded the bolt but was forced back from his position, with his back now against the back rail of the ship.
"Nice try Jimmy, " said Ulfgar as he emerged from the dissipating smoke. Behind him he could see the woman with the mace exchanging blows with the half beast form of Chloe, even as the one eyed knight was circling behind her. Before he could shout a warning, Jimmy watched as One-eye slashed at Chloe from behind, distracting her enough to give mace woman a chance to strike Chloe in the back with her mace while grabbing and pulling her hair. Mace woman fell back in surprise as she yanked Chloe's red wig clear off her head, giving the small dryad a chance to back kick her into the hole she just emerged from.
Ulfgar ignored the battle behind him as he faced Jimmy, his hands radiating black motes. "Here it ends."
While Jimmy's blade failed, Ulfgar's lightning had succeeded as a towering pillar of water erupted from the box the lightning struck a few seconds ago. It took the form of a huge humanoid wave as it began swinging wildly at all around it. Jimmy hopped over one attack even as Ulfgar was struck and battered backwards from another. Chloe and her dance partners quickly scattered against this new opponent as it began tearing apart the barge.
Jimmy saw his chance and he hopped overboard. He would have done so sooner, but that would have just hastened his death. With their griffon mounts, the knights could have easily followed overhead and filled him full of arrows, but they had something more pressing on their plate right now.
The cold water hit him like a shock. While Jimmy was used to the freezing temperatures of the north , he wasn't use to this soul numbing ice. Jimmy's limbs almost seized up, but he forced himself to swim, paddling towards the shore as waves tossed him around.
"I'm not going to make it, " he thought to himself after a mere minute in the water. "I should have taken my chances on the barge."
As the cold almost took him, and he began to black out, Jimmy saw what looked like a large armored shark swimming towards him in the water. As its jaws opened, suddenly a shock of silvery blue hair rammed the beast from its left flank diverting it's path a few feet to the side as it missed its target. Jimmy was startled as Chloe's face popped next to his under the water as the shark wheeled around for another pass. Instead of being a half wolverine woman she was now all sleek in appearance, as she took the form of a anthropomorphic seal. Chloe playfully swam around him in a circle before she snatched him in her teeth and darted quickly to shore away from her large lumbering opponent.
Chloe dove towards some shallow rocks, easily slipping by them as the shark was forced to break off its pursuit. Jimmy thought they would have been smashed with the next wave, but somehow the dryad was able to make it to shore and throw the water logged blade onto the beach.
"I make a cute seal," she said as she transformed back into her slim short form. She wore a wet version of her courtier's outfit but she paid it no heed as she dragged a coughing Jimmy away from the beach and under the cover of a nearby grove of trees. "We need to get out of here and tell Hoaglie what happened. I saw from the cracks what happened, he's not gonna be happy when he finds out you lost his sword," she said as she calmly plucked the two arrows still sticking out of her back. She winced as she removed each of them, but intoned some ancient words which quickly mended her wounds.
Jimmy laughed even as he hacked up some water. "No, we need to head south before they realize they've been had," he said as he produced another long ironbound wooden box similar to the one he threw into the ocean. " We need to get moving before they take flight once again. We'll be at a disadvantage with them in the air…."
This time Chloe laughed as he silenced him with a finger. She then easily lifted him and propped him up and pressed him into the biggest tree in the grove. Jimmy was startled as he began sinking into the bark but relaxed when Chloe smiled at him reassuringly. "They're not going to find us anytime soon," she said as the pair melded into the tree.