Chapter V
Lilmoth
The early morning air was drenched and unseasonably chilly in Amuzei’s nostrils as he glared at the dark sky. Vakka, the sun, had not yet begun to rise on the Eastern water and the storm had recouped into a supermassive thunderhead rolling across the ocean, distant now, but still it boomed ominously like a god’s wardrum as a torrential downpour and surges of crimson lightning unfurled out of its black bowels.
By my Egg…
“Ahoy, Amuzei.” Swims-In-Skies called from the helm..
“What the hell is that?” Amuzei ignored the Imperial Captain. The thunderhead roared as if in response.
“Captain, we’ll be at port within the hour.” Uko’s voice came from the crow’s nest, lacking most of her usual cheer. “That thing came out of nowhere mere hours ago, as though the storm went to lie in the shade, and has since returned with fresh vigor.”
The mostly Argonian crew went here and there checking knots and making work. Amuzei knew it was to keep their minds off the ominous Call and the seemingly related storm, though he doubted that was working for them.
What does it mean?
Amuzei cast his gaze to the port of Lilmoth, anticipating the city and what would happen therein. A few large ships were visible already, but clearly none of them were the Sorrow. His view was largely obscured by the shoreline trees at that moment, but his Captain’s heart knew his ship was there.
/
Commander Xode was relieved to make port with the cursed storm cloud having moved to within mere hours from their position. He would not have been surprised to learn that it was not moving toward them so much as expanding outward to cataclysmic proportions. Its powerful wind reeked of rotting flesh, but had the fortunate effect of quickening the Painted Tortoise’s sails.
Even for the early hour, Lilmoth’s docks were deserted. A few large Imperial ships and a couple dozen fishing and leisure vessels floated quietly in the dim morning light. Xode looked around for any sign of life, noting that lanterns and torches around the port had been tended recently.
“What hatches from the egg?” Captain Swims-In-Skies asked, eyes shifting intensely across the beach town and up to the city proper.
“It may have claws.” Xode said, walking across the pier to find the customs officer on duty, thinking it would most likely be Sara, the blonde Legionary who always gave him a hard time about the paperwork.
/
Swims-In-Skies signed off on the sheet and slid it back to the Saxhleel customs officer. He half-expected to find that snarky Imperial woman behind the desk under the shelter, but the dour Histkin accepted the documentation with cursory inspection.
“Appears your soulmate has swam upriver.” Swims-In-Skies teased the Commander.
“Legionary Sara’s egg spent far too long in the shade.” Xode grumbled, gaining urgent attention from her replacement.
“You have not heard?” The officer asked, eyes wide and jaw agape.
Swims-In-Skies felt his unease return in full. “Tell us?”
“Ah, I think I should not. It would be best for you to see, and bring your party.” He stuffed the paperwork in a file, seemingly at random.
/
Ulene leaned close to Amuzei as they departed the Painted Tortoise. Xode and his Captain had returned and gathered them along with Uko, Hides-His-Teeth and a few other Bright-Throats.
“What is it, sera?”
“It is about this silence on the docks, perhaps.” Amuzei whispered in her ear. Despite the conversation’s gravity, she enjoyed the quiet intimacy.
“Aye.” Ulene glanced over her shoulder, caught Uko’s eyes for half of a moment, then turned her gaze forward with a sigh.
She is quite sweet.
The Captain remained with the ship, while Xode led the curious group across the pier to a little shelter, where they met a green-scaled Argonian, who introduced himself as Vergil. They hiked up the cracked cobblestone road in pairs without torches, as the sun had risen over the leafy horizon and fully illuminated their path. Opposingly, darkness crawled behind them across the Southern sky.
The walk was not lengthy nor the incline unreasonable, but the humidity was oppressive and Ulene had tied her shirt around her waist, leaving her lean upper body wrapped in a lavender bandeau. She welcomed the breeze on her back, although it was unnaturally warm and carried that horrid scent with it.
As they reached Lilmoth’s outer walls, Ulene noticed there were an abundance of guards attending the main gate. She counted eight muscle-bound and heavily armed Argonians.
/
“The Hist watches you.” The plate-armored guard spoke in Jel. He was leaning on an unwieldy macuahuitl--a blunt wooden sword toothed along its blade with ebony bone.
Amuzei noticed something odd, which filled his heart with a hopeful promise.
/
He must be hot as a furnace in that armor!
The leader of the guards glared at Ulene and she wondered if he had mind-probing magic. An Imperial battlemage, perhaps?
“We have swam over the water to answer the Hist’s Call.” Xode replied in common language. “Her summoning weighs upon us like a second set of scales.”
“Yet you carry a blue reed in yellow peat.” Another guard spoke up, and Ulene realized all eight of them were leering at her.
“As mud as my mother, what are you about?” Hides-His-Teeth exclaimed, wafting unnameable citrus as he stepped to the front of the group.
“Still waters, Histkin.” Xode held out placating hands. “Gah-Jah, unless the Emperor has delivered new laws during my mission, I do not see why Lady Hlaalu should be barred from passage.”
Ulene could not recall the last time someone called her by that title, then she remembered Uko regarding her as a princess the night before. She became agonizingly aware of how many eyes were attending her and she wished she had stayed in her stuffy shirt.
What Gah-Jah said next derailed those thoughts entirely, and the whole party was viscerally shocked, except her perpetually unphased Captain Amuzei.
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