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.""The starry compass, then," Geran breathed.He nodded to the tiefling."My thanks, Sarth.Without your efforts we'd have no hope at all of finding Mirya and her daughter.""I only hope that my meager talents do not lead you astray," Sarth answered."Of that, I have no fear," Geran said.He returned his attention to the gray coastline sliding by through the rain and mists.They continued on for several hours, making little speed in the light wind.Eventually Geran had Andurth call the crew to their rowing stations and continued at half speed, a pace the crew could sustain for hours by rotating rowers to and from the benches.Unlike Moonshark, Seadrake was not really fitted out for rowing speed; she was made for sailing and could only put about twenty oars in the water through high, awkwardly sited ports.Early in the afternoon, they rounded a headland and spied the ruins of a large city hugging the hillsides of the bay beyond.Old walls encircled theplace, marred by numerous gaps.Twisted trees grew up through flagstone courts and choked what used to be the city's boulevards.High on a hill overlooking the harbor, the keep that had once dominated the place was an empty shell cleft in two by the gray scar of an old landslide; a huge mound of rubble at the foot of the hill marked where most of the castle had fallen.Many other buildings in the vicinity looked as if they'd been knocked down by similar upheavals.Those that still stood stared blankly out to sea, their windows and doorways filled with ominous shadow.Geran could not shake the impression that the city was watching Seadrake approach, resentful of the intrusion."This is Sulasspryn?" Hamil asked."What happened here?""No one knows for sure," the swordmage said."Some disaster befell the place a hundred years or more before the Spellplague, and few people survived to tell the tale.As the story goes, the ruling family feuded against a drow city beneath the Galenas and won—or so they thought.But the dark elves had their revenge in the end.They undermined the citadel and collapsed it, wiping out the city's rulers in one swift stroke.Then the dark elves and their monsters boiled up from beneath the city, slaughtering or carrying off most of Sulasspryn's citizens." Geran shrugged."I don't know if there's any truth to it, but in Hulburg they say that Lolth's curse lies over the ruins.You can't find a soul in Hulburg who'd dare set foot within the walls.""Including you?"Geran pointed at a high hilltop west of the city."When I was about eighteen or nineteen, Jarad Erstenwold and I rode to the headland there to look on the ruins.That's as close as we cared to be.And even then my father was furious with both of us.He feared that we might wake things better left undisturbed." He paused, and found that a shadow of old dread had crept over him.He was as close to Sulasspryn as anyone from Hulburg had been in a long time, and it struck him as an unwholesome place to be."To tell the truth, I sincerely hope Moonshark's moved on by now.I don't like to linger here.""No such luck, I fear." Hamil pointed over the rail at a customshouse close by the water's edge.As Seadrake slowly sculled across the harbor, the slender black hull of the pirate galley—concealed by the ruined building at first—came slowly into view, drawn up on the shore behind the structure."There she is! It looks like we've caught Moonshark on the beach."The pirate galley was drawn up on the strand a short distance outside the city walls, well hidden by the headland that sheltered the city's old harbor from the westerly winds.If the rain had been a little heavier, or Seadrake a little farther out from the shore, they might have sailed past without spotting the other ship.Geran signaled to the helmsman, who turned the wheel and brought the ship into the harbor.All over the Hulburgan vessel, the soldiers and sailors scrambled to make themselves ready for battle, quickly donning mail shirts or leather jerkins and uncovering the ship's catapult.The swordmage peered toward the shore, looking for signs of commotion—the Black Moon pirates might try to launch their ship and make their escape before Seadrake landed, or at the very least make ready to defend the ship.But he saw no one moving on the shore."Where are they?" he muttered."They must have seen us by now.""I don't care for the looks o' the shore," Andurth said in a low voice."I can beach if you insist on it, but we've a deeper hull than that galley there, and I fear we'll be stuck fast.It'll be a devil of a job to get back in the water."Geran frowned.The dwarf was right; there was good, deep water by the quays in the city proper, but he was not about to tie up in the middle of the ruins.The shore the pirate ship was drawn up on looked wide and muddy."Very well.We'll land by boat." He hesitated then asked, "Hamil, can you see anyone ashore?"The halfling shook his head."It looks like there's a camp on the beach, but there's not a soul in sight.I'd suggest that perhaps they're all below-decks on Moonshark or sheltering from the rain in the ruins, but somehow I don't really think they are.I don't like the looks of this, Geran.""Nor do I," Geran answered."But we're here, and we need Moonshark's compass." He sighed and looked over to Andurth."Master Galehand, drop anchor and put the ship's boats in the water.I'll take twenty hands ashore.""Aye, Lord Geran," the dwarf answered.He shouted commands to the sailors on deck.The crewmen aloft began to furl the sails one by one, while others hurried to the ship's anchor or began to unlash the ship's boats.Geran absently listened to the bustle and commotion.His attention was fixed on the mist-wreathed ruins looming over the harbor, concealed by veils of rain.Some dire peril awaited within, he was certain of it.But he had no idea what it might be.TWENTY12 Marpenoth, The Year of the Ageless One (1479 DR)Wet gravel grated under the longboat's keel as it grounded on the strand a bowshot from where the silent Moonshark was drawn up.Geran vaulted over the side into knee-deep water and splashed ashore in the cold, steady rain, sword in hand.Weathered gray battlements and crumbling temples towered over the landing party, clinging to the edge of the steep bluff that marked the western side of Sulasspryn's bay.The harbor proper lay several hundred yards to the east, where the remnants of a stone jetty sheltered the city's old quays from the Moonsea storms.On this side of the harbor, a causeway ran out to the old customshouse across a thirty-yard-wide strand at the foot of the bluff.It was the only place in Sulasspryn's bay flat enough for a ship the size of Moonshark to haul her prow out of the water—and it was well hidden from ships passing by at sea, not that many ever had reason to sail along this desolate coast."It seems your guess was right," Sarth said to him.The tiefling pointed to the camp set up not far from the beached galley.Several fresh logs lay stacked there, partially stripped of their bark.The ship's bow was braced atop two more logs set like rollers under the keel, and a simple framework of timbers held her in place."Murkelmor must have decided he could not sail any farther without first mending the damage to the bow.""He would've been wiser to find a cove a few miles back, then," Geran said.He reminded himself that few in Moonshark's crew had any reason to be wary of Sulasspryn.None of them hailed from Hulburg or the lands nearby, after all.But he would have imagined that any grim old ruin of a city should have commanded some respect.Everyone knew that all sorts of curses, ghosts, and hungry monsters might lurk in any long-abandonedcastle or city, even if few of the pirates were familiar with the specific perils of these ruins."There aren't many trees along the coast, but there seems to be some good timber here," Hamil pointed out [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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