Chương 62: Enter the Bay

Maelle stifled a yawn while the checkpoint guard checked over their entry passes. It was far too early to be traveling—the sun wasn't even up yet. But apparently it took two days to actually reach the bayside city of Ygg Latten Bay, and the caravan they were meant to be guarding was set to leave at the crack of dawn. Their party hadn't set one foot onto the peninsula and already they'd been assigned their first mission. The guard held up one of the passes.

"What's so special about your boots that you went and got a separate permit for them?"

"That's for this little fella right here." Amberlin tapped the feline seated on her shoulder.

"You went and got a permit for your cat?"

"He's a member of the party. We don't go in unless he also gets to go in."

"That's not—" The guard shook his head.

"Forget it, it doesn't matter. Everything checks out. Here are your ration cards for the week. Spend them wisely. You may pass." The entrance to the peninsula actually had two checkpoints. The first one allowed them into the narrow pass, where the caravan workers were busy hitching horses to wagons loaded with supplies that had been delivered from abroad. There were piles of lumber, metal ingots, dried foodstuffs, and pots upon pots of oil.

Accompanying the caravan was a large team of knights, who looked just as unhappy about the early start as Maelle was. In fact Amberlin was the only person not holding back a yawn as everyone introduced themselves. One of the knights looked confused.

"We were told there would be four of you."

"Not this again," Amberlin said, reaching up toward Boots.

"No, I heard you talking to the guard about your cat. But last night the major told us there would be four people coming." At that moment another of the knights pointed, and they all turned to see Dory running up the path from the merchant town. The guard waved her past without checking any paperwork, and she approached the group.

"Sorry I'm late!" Dory said.

"I overslept."

"Lucky you," Maelle said enviously.

"You're really coming with us?" Amberlin said with a broad grin. Dory returned a cheeky smile.

"I kind of twisted the major's arm. Though truth be told, he's probably glad to be rid of me."

"You twisted his arm to be reassigned inside the peninsula?" one of the other knights asked incredulously. Then he glanced at the party and fell quiet.

"We know what we're getting ourselves into," Amberlin said.

"Those goop monsters aren't so tough."

"You've fought one before?" Without waiting for a response, the knight turned to Dory.

"Is this why—""That's right," Dory replied.

"If we're going to be losing this siege, I want to be in a position to get my family out safely." After Dory's arrival, the border guards closed off the first checkpoint and the caravan started moving. The party joined the knights in making their way to the front. While the pass was bordered on both sides by impassable cliffs, it was plenty wide in between, with no shortage of space to move around in.

The guards at the next checkpoint didn't bother to look at their permits, but repeated the same spiel that they'd received earlier.

"Remember, the peninsula is under lockdown. Once you pass this point, there's no going back, and you may not leave until the lockdown is lifted. While on the peninsula, always travel in groups. Report any monster sightings. Do not go into the water, do not touch the water, or you will die a horrible death. I repeat, you will die a horrible death."

"This is so exciting," Amberlin said.

"Are you guys ready? This is our last chance to back out, so speak up now!"

"I'm with you all the way, Lady Amberlin," Havlo said.

"I'm staying with you guys," Maelle said. If worse came to worst, she could always fly away. Boots meowed and turned his head around to take in the scenery as the land opened out into grassy hills. Despite all the warnings, they didn't encounter a single monster the entire first day, and arrived safely at the waystation before sunset. The waystation consisted of several buildings providing amenities for travelers, like a place to cook and another to sleep out of the rain.

There were some outhouses and water for washing up too. While the caravan workers set the animals out to pasture, Amberlin and Havlo joined the knights' hunting party so that the group could have something more appetizing than beans for dinner. Maelle and Boots stayed behind with a couple of other members of the escort team, including Dory, to keep watch over the caravan workers.

"Everyone is so relaxed," she said to Dory.

"You'd never think there was some sort of crisis going on."

"The mucks never make it off the coast, and they also don't come out in the day," Dory explained.

"As far as assignments go, these guys have it easy. And so did I." Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. And now Dory didn't have it easy anymore because she'd tried to do a nice thing for their party. Maelle had heard all about it from Amberlin on the way up, and she felt bad for knight. Human militaries seemed pretty mean. She wondered if the Draegorian army was anything like this. It was something she'd have to ask Marina when they next met.

"We should do a sweep of all the buildings," Dory said.

"Make sure they're clear of monsters before we settle down for the night." She followed Dory to the main bunkhouse. As they approached the door, Boots began to hiss.

"Uh, does he usually do that?" Dory asked.

"No..." She peered nervously at the windows, but the shutters were all closed.

"He's only ever done this around monsters."

"Something must have found its way inside. Good thing we decided to check before the workers stumbled into it." The door wasn't locked. She followed in after the knight and cast a [Light] to help them find their way through the dark interior.

"That's so handy," Dory said.

"I really wish I could do magic."

"You never learned?" she asked.

"I tried. Just didn't have the aptitude for it. I'm more of a physical gal, you know?" The bunkhouse had a simple layout with a main hallway down the center and doors opening on either side. They stopped at the first set of doorways and Dory, with her sword at the ready, opened the one on the left to reveal a bedroom crowded with five sets of wooden bunk beds.

"This one's clear," Dory declared after checking all the corners and then stepped back out into the hallway. On Maelle's shoulder, Boots had gone quiet and resorted to tapping at her ear with his paws. She remembered how anxious he'd been around the chimeras, and decided to ask Dory, "There aren't any dangerous monsters on the peninsula, are there? Besides the, you know."

"I've lived here all my life," Dory replied.

"There's nothing I can't handle, and that means nothing you can't handle either." It was a relief to hear that. Maybe Boots was just a scaredy-cat. She tried to reassure him with a pet, but he batted her hands away. The room on the right was also clear. As they approached the second set of doors, Boots started hissing again. He was staring at the doorway on the right, which turned out to be ajar. They proceeded cautiously, and Dory was preparing to kick it open when the door pulled back on its own.

Something jumped out at them—or it tried to. The thing had four limbs, but all of them looked like arms. Without any proper feet, it lost its balance and crashed through the opposing door into the other bedroom. After a stunned moment, Dory ran in after it and hacked away at the monster. Its flesh seemed to be made of the same substance that coats old boots you might fish up from a riverbed.

The creature fell apart at each cut of Dory's sword, but the parts never stopped moving, and reattached to each other on contact.

"Fire!" Dory cried.

"You've got to kill it with fire!" She didn't have to be asked twice. Maelle aimed carefully with her finger and shot off a [Firebolt]. It struck the muck right in the center of mass, and the fire quickly spread over the entire creature like it was coated in oil.

"Wait, it shouldn't be this flammable," Dory said.

"What do you mean?" she cried.

"It must have dried out from spending too much time on land." Dory retreated from the smoke-filled room.

"Um, Maelle? Now's a good time to put out the fire."

"With what?"

"How about [Hose Down]?"

"I don't know [Hose Down]."

"How do you not know [Hose Down]?" There was no time to answer because the fire was spreading quickly, and they both rushed for the exit, with Maelle clutching Boots to her chest. Outside, the caravan workers had stopped what they were doing to clear a fire break around the bunkhouse. The knights had joined in to form a human chain bringing water from the reservoir.

Instead of wasting it on the bunkhouse, which was already beyond saving, they were trying to soak down the surrounding area and put out little patch fires carried over by flying embers. Moments later the hunting parties emerged from the woods. It looked like they'd rushed back at the sight of smoke.

"What happened?" Havlo asked as they came to a stop beside Maelle.

"I-I-I didn't know [Hose Down]," she stammered.

"There was a muck in there," Dory explained. Amberlin emerged from the group and hugged Maelle to her chest.

"There, there. It's not your fault. I'd have done the same thing by accident." Somehow those words made her feel both better and worse at the same time. Afterward Amberlin checked her, Dory, and Boots over for injuries. The knights did a head count and confirmed that everyone was safe. There were questions of how a muck had gotten this far inland. In the end they didn't have enough information to come to an answer.

One of the knights had previously served in a scouting unit, and followed the tracks to see where they'd come from. He returned an hour later and declared that he hadn't found evidence of there being more than one of the creatures. Collectively they decided that it must have slipped through the perimeter defenses. But an air of anxiety had descended over the entire caravan. That night they slept under the moon and set up extra look-outs.

Amberlin volunteered to take Maelle's shift, so she was well rested when they had to get up early again the next morning. The second day passed without incident, and by evening they crested the final hill, and the city of Ygg Latten Bay came into view. It sprawled out beneath them, more vast than one could take in at a glance. The buildings grew right up to the water line and spread out in both directions along the broad shore. The bay itself was far larger than Maelle had imagined.

She'd expected something that could hold maybe a dozen ships. This one could easily fit hundreds. She'd heard that the Star-Turq Kingdom was a major naval power, but what that implied had never sunk in until now. Which was why it was so eerie to see the bay sitting completely empty. There was not a single vessel in sight.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Dory had stopped beside her.

"This is my home."

"It is," Maelle agreed, taking in the view as the last slice of sun dipped below the horizon. But she couldn't shake the feeling rising inside her. What was this uneasiness? It was only when the final tinges of orange in the sky turned to gray that she got her answer. In the empty, open water beyond the bay, apparitions began to appear.

Hazy at first, like a fog coalescing into substance, with their own soft, silver glow that only got brighter as the sky got darker, like they were the ones sucking light out from the day. Ships. Hundreds of ships. More ships than could possibly fit into the bay. And carried in on the wind, the unmistakable wails of the dead. Maelle realized she'd stopped dead in her tracks. Beside her, Dory had too, softly murmuring, "It's about to begin."

She followed the knight's gaze to the shores, where it looked like the dark tide was crawling up the beaches. The first [Fireballs] started raining down from tall watchtowers scattered across the landscape. It was only by their light that she realized she wasn't looking at the tide at all. It was a big mass of mucks, with their weirdly assembled limbs. For each one that got blown away, ten more were ready to take its place, a neverending stream rising up from the depths to swarm over the land.

Beside her, Dory was murmuring again.

"Goddess save us, it never used to be like this." Maelle began to regret coming here at all. It was a miracle the humans had held out this long, but their days were surely numbered.

"Good thing Maelle's here to turn this thing around," Dory whispered. What? Dory tugged her along.

"Come on! Let's get you guys acquainted with the governor so you can jump straight into the action."