Sparrow on a Plank Chapter 14: Bribes and Paper Prisons

The inspectors had already come and gone, their pockets considerably heavier than when they had come aboard. The inspection was a farce, but luckily a quick one; there were goods that even a large bribe wouldn't protect, and a sizable number of those were on board the Hell's Wrath, waiting for pick up. It was fun to watch Rick go into his act as a first mate on a “poor cargo ship”, bargaining for the lowest bribe he would pay. The inspectors got into the spirit of things, and so there was the quick conflict of supply and demand, as the inspectors demanded what they could from the supply of funds that they had been given for bribes. In the end, thanks to a mix of Rick's bargaining skill and the inspectors' lack of recent entertainment, the bribes were half what they had estimated. Captain Taylor breathed a sigh of relief when the last so-called inspector left, with all goods still on board, and the remainder of the bribe money going into a party fund.

When they finally started unloading, Captain Taylor had sent Rick into the port town to grab as much liquor as possible. The captain knew that locals would come and give them all the wine and beer that they could ever want, and he would need to deny that alcohol as well as he could. As soon as they had finished unloading, the plying would begin, and if he wasn't successful, then there was the possibility that they wouldn't leave port, at least, not on the same boat as they had come in on.

Bosun Jack Comorant entered the mess, which had been temporarily transformed into a trade hall. A number of local merchants had received news of the ship's arrival, and were paying for the cargo that their counterparts on Cyrill had shipped them. In some cases they had to arrange transportation for their goods, but that was their problem. Jack approached the captain. “Captain, the cargo is almost unloaded.”

“Good to know, Jack. Any sign of our bedamned first mate's return?”

“No, sir. However, the local wine merchants are lining up. I've never seen them come to us before. It feels a bit peculiar.”

“Everything about this feels peculiar. I can't wait until we're out of here and back in the deep blue.”

“Hear you there, sir.”

Jack left; with the cargo mostly unloaded unto the waiting dock, he needed to start cleaning the mess up. They were going to apparently be accepting more cargo, but they needed to make sure that the space was clean. Within a few hours, they would be ready to go, and the captain wanted to celebrate far out at sea. The knowledge that alcohol was on board would actually protect from pirates; only a pirate with something to prove would attack a ship that was more flammable than usual, and a pirate that scuttled ships just to prove a point was usually tracked down by bounty hunters with something to collect. It was a dangerous gambit if the local navy decided to come and say hello, but it was a gambit worth trying.

When all of the merchants had claimed their cargo and had arranged transfer of their own cargo, Captain Taylor walked up to the forecastle and surveyed the town. He looked upwards for a moment, long enough to utter a short prayer: “Here's hoping all three of you return hale, hearty, and quickly.” He then went over his charts one more time, hoping that there were no surprises on the way out.

* * * * *

Sal and Hajime were on their guard as they entered the musty temple. Sal smiled to herself as she entered the temple; the mustiness meant that no one had maintained the temple, and therefore it was unlikely that there would encounter anyone guarding it. Of course, traps were still a possibility, but at least nothing sentient would be between them and their objective. Sal made a mental note to keep her eyes open; this temple was a reminder of the nastiest century in Jezreel's history, and made to defend itself against some of the most powerful entities. Even worse were ruined traps; the live traps were bad enough, but a trap that had fallen into disrepair could be even deadlier as it was no longer predictable, and therefore capable of greater harm or completely useless, and there was no way to tell until it was activated.

The two of them were traipsing around with almost no defenses beyond their perceptions and agility. The problem with being a thief is that armor gets in the way. Sure, it can deflect and absorb blows, but unless those blows are easily predicted it is pretty much useless; the best armor can be easily penetrated if you know where to hit it. Helmets limit vision and hearing, and the suit slows down reflexes. Worse, on a water world it can drag down the wearer and requires heavy maintenance or the salt water will destroy it's defensive value. Their senses would have to do, both the merely physical senses as well as their intuition.

In that regard, they perceived the musty temple differently. Sal's experience and training let her make use of her five senses to the best of her natural ability, and she had developed an intuition that had saved her neck more times than she could count. It was a true sixth sense, a synthesis of her other senses granted, but a way of looking at something from five different ways and then combining those impressions and resorting them so that she could get a feel for a situation and then react to it as appropriate. It was more than just a mere “danger sense”; it was a more of a “situational sense”, and gave her a definite advantage when it came to dealing with surprises, as part of her was already dealing with the situation as it arose. It was hard to catch her flatfooted, and that made her so valuable as an operative.

Hajime lacked her training and experience, but substituted his own. His daily meditation made increased his ability to deal with the world, allowing him to see patterns in what he had already dealt with, and apply that to future operations. He could also enhance his senses, sharpening them to a razor's edge; although not long-lasting and coming with its own limitations (making him more vulnerable to visual or sonic attacks, for example), it could nonetheless give him just the edge he needed. With a little bit of concentration, he could extend his senses to another level, enabling him to sense magic; although limited to the type and strength of what he was facing, that alone could give him an advantage when it came to figuring out how to deal with something. Of course, he add other sensory capabilities through his spells, but that any mage could do.

The combination of their sensory capabilities made them a scary pair when it came to avoiding traps. She could appreciate his senses, and her intuition maximized his sensory ability by using it where it needed to be used rather than just using it randomly. Thus it only looked like they were strolling through the temple, occasionally inspecting some piece of detritus or ruined carving. They were carefully picking their way through, Hajime depending on Sal's intuition to look at something more precisely, and Sal depending on Hajime's arcane perceptions to make it through safely.

They encountered fewer traps than they had expected. Those that were found were dealt with quickly and easily, as both of them were skilled at dealing with traps; Hajime was an expert with anything mechanical due to his education, and Sal had plenty of experience with disabling traps as a thief. They didn't encounter any magical traps; the lack of such traps, which required maintenance by newer generations of scholars thanks to the Law of Impermanence, was just further proof that the temple had been abandoned. They quickly made their way to the center of the temple.

As they turned a corner, they noticed the glow coming from a chamber ahead. Hajime froze in his tracks as Sal shifted her casual walk to a more stealthy mode, both slower, longer paces, and stepping on the outside of her feet rather than the inner. She melded from one shadow to another, and was able to see what lay in the chamber ahead without being heard of seen. A globe of light danced on a staff as its owner perused the few remaining books in the temple's library. A man held the staff, a white male in his mid-thirties dressed in standard gear. She glanced back at Hajime and he nodded, then advanced to just behind the corner while pulling out his crossbow.

“Don't be scared. Fellow bibliophile here.”

The man continued reading. “About time. I was beginning to wonder when you were going to arrive.”

“So we were expected. Lovely afternoon for some reading.”

“One would think. Too bad that you're not the reader.” He dropped a passel of papers. “Retreat or I'm going to need to stop you. Sorry about that.”

Sal had to force her eyes from rolling up. “Are you sure we need to fight? It would be such a horrible way to start what could be a beautiful friendship.” She smiled just a bit as she heard the quietest click from Hajime's belt and realized that the man in front of her hadn't heard it. Hajime had switched weapons.

“I need to ask you to leave this chamber, or I will be forced to defend it.” He turned towards her, revealing a person that she would otherwise ignore if she had met him in the marketplace. He was pale, and wore thick goggles and what looked like saddle bags across his front, but otherwise had no outstanding features.

Sal put her hands on her most accessible daggers, daggers that were still hidden from view thanks to the well-designed scabbards that melted into her clothes. “Too bad I need a book from here. Let me take the book, and we'll have no problem.”

“Then I guess some escalation is in order.”

The papers he had dropped earlier flew up, engulfing Sal and obscuring her vision. They quickly formed into a prison, solidifying around her and stopping her from moving. Another paper flew into his hand, straightening. “You didn't need to die.”

[The last chapter can be found here.]