Chapter 19 Chapter Fifteen: The Call of Cershennibon

The prow darted swiftly across the azure waters of the Sea of ​​Swords, raising fin-like waves and splashing water into the air.Katie stood by the bow rail, the bright sun warming her beautiful face and feeling the stinging, salty drops of water.The ship, the Seeker, was heading south, so she was looking south, too.Leaving Icewind Dale, leaving Luskan, leaving Waterdeep from where they set out three days ago. Leave Wulfgar. It wasn't the first time, and she knew it wouldn't be the last: she began to rethink their decision.Should the troubled savage really be allowed to go his own way?How could Wulfgar not need them, in his current state of utter confusion and bewilderment?

But now, she was sailing south along the Sea of ​​Swords, and she couldn't find him at all.Katie blinked away the moisture that wasn't splashing into the sea, and then stared firmly at the expanse of water in front of them, quite satisfied with the speed of the boat.They had a mission to accomplish, and an important one, for in their days overland they had no doubt that Crschinnibon was still a formidable foe, sensitive and clever.It can call all kinds of creatures to be his servants, and those evil monsters are all eager to take this powerful relic and possess the power it once promised.For this reason also, when the companions came to Waterdeep, they resolved to embark on the strongest ship possible, thinking that at sea the enemies would be far fewer in number and easier to identify.To both Drizzt and Katie's regret, Captain Deudermont and his Sea Spirit were not in the port at that time.

They had barely two hours out of port when a crew member followed Drizzt furtively, waiting for an opportunity to steal the Crystal Shard.Drizzt knocked the man down with the side of the scimitar, and they tied him up, gagged him, and put him on another passing ship heading north to Waterdeep.He will be sent to the port authority of Waterdeep City, and then accept the reasonable punishment judged by this city ruled by law. Since then, nothing special has happened during the voyage. The ship has been driving fast on the open water, and the sail shadows of other ships occasionally appear at the intersection of the water and the sky.

Drizzt came over and stood by the railing with Katie.She didn't turn around, but from the sound of footsteps, she knew that Bruno and Regis were also coming. "It's time to arrive at Baldur's Gate in a few days," Drow said. Katie glanced at him, noticing that he had pulled down the hood of his traveling cloak—not to keep out the splashing water, she knew, because Drizzt enjoyed it as much as she did, but just to keep the Put yourself in the shadow of comfort.Drizzt and Katie had spent several years together on Deudermont's Sea Sprite, but even so, the glare of the sun's reflection off the water at midday was uncomfortable for the drow, since his body was designed to Used for walking in dark underground.

"How is Bruno?" she asked quietly, pretending not to know that the dwarf was standing behind her. "It's still nagging to go back to land, and even said that it doesn't matter if all the monsters in the world appear in front of him at once, as long as he can leave this cursed coffin floating on the sea." Ranger accompanied her Played the game. Katie smiled slightly, not surprised at all.She had traveled farther south with Bruenor on the seas, and the dwarf had been stoic on the ship, though he was visibly relieved when he disembarked and returned to dry land.Bruno felt worse this time, spending a lot of time at the railing—and not looking at the view.

"But Regis doesn't seem to be disturbed," Drizzt continued. "Whenever Bruenor declared he had run out of food, Regis was always quick to wipe out what was left on Bruenor's plate." Katie smiled again, but it still didn't last long. "Do you think we'll see him again?" she asked. Drizzt sighed, turning his eyes to the empty water.Though they were all looking south, the wrong way, they were looking for Wulfgar in a way.It seemed that they were expecting to see him swim towards them, regardless of any logic or reason. "I don't know." Drow admitted. "Given his mood, Wulfgar is likely to find many enemies and devote himself to fighting them. No doubt he will kill a large number of them, but the Northlanders The enemies are endless, and I fear some of them will not be defeated by Wulfgar."

"Bah!" Bruno said dissatisfiedly from behind. "We'll find the boy, there's no need to doubt it. And the strongest enemy it could possibly see is me, because he not only hurt my girl, but also made me so worried about him!" "We'll find him," Regis declared. "Ms. Elastre will help us, as will the Hubbell family." Bruno groaned when the halfling mentioned the Harbells.The Harbells were paranoid and eccentric mages, best known for gathering themselves and their friends together and making themselves—largely by accident and irrevocably— — turned into various animals.In addition, they have repeatedly caused various catastrophes to themselves.

"Alustrix, then," Regis agreed. "If we can't find him ourselves, she will help." "Bah! Do you think it will be hard to find him?" Bruno argued. "Don't you know that seven-foot jumper? Don't you know that the hammer on his back can knock down a giant, even a giant's house?" "Look," Drizzt said to Katie. "That's the guarantee that we'll find him." She made a smile, but it was still a forced smile, so it couldn't last at all.What will he be like when they finally find the friend they miss?Would he be willing to meet them even if he wasn't physically hurt?And even if he wanted to, would he be mentally better?And most importantly, would they—she herself—really want to see him?When Wulfgar hit her, he hurt Katie deeply, not physically but mentally.She knew she could forgive it, at least to some extent.

But only this time. She watched her drow friend, seeing the profile of his face peeking out from under the brim of his hood.He stared motionless at the empty water, but his mint-colored eyes sparkled as if his mind was looking elsewhere.She turned to look at Bruno and Regis, and saw that they were equally lost in thought.All of them wanted Wulfgar back—not the Wulfgar who had left them on the road, but the Wulfgar who had been taken by the Waxmelt, all those years ago, beneath Mithril Halls.They all wanted to be like they were before, the "Mithril Five" adventure together, and there was no demon lurking in any of the members.

"There's a ship coming from the south." Drizzt's voice pulled Katie out of her contemplation.She squinted, trying in vain to see the too-distant ship, while the sailor in charge of the lookout yelled, confirming the drow's announcement. "Which way is it going?" Captain Varness yelled from somewhere amiddeck. "North," Drizzt replied, but only Katie, Bruenor, and Regis could hear him. "North!" cried the lookout sailor after a few seconds. "Your vision in sunlight has improved," Bruno commented. "Credit to Deudermont," Katie said.

"My eyesight," Drizzt added. "And my ability to judge its purpose." "What are you talking about?" Bruenor asked, but the ranger held up a hand for silence.He looked intently at the distant ship, whose sails now appeared to the other three as little black dots just emerging. "Go and tell Captain Varness to turn our course west," Drizzt said to Regis. The halfling stood there for a moment, then rushed back to the deck to find Vanes.A few minutes later, the partners felt the Seeker begin to tilt, its bow turned to port. "You're just making the voyage longer," Bruenor began to complain, but Drizzt held up a hand again. "That ship is also turning, keeping the same course as we met," Drow explained. "Pirates?" Katie asked.The same question was also uttered from the mouth of Captain Vanes who was walking over. "They're not in trouble because they're going as fast as we are, maybe even faster," reasoned Drizzt. "They're not part of the King's fleet either, because they're unmarked. And we're pretty far off the coast, so it can't be Coast Guard either." "Pirates." Captain Vanes spat. "How do you know this?" Bruno asked, still in disbelief. "Because he hunted them down," Katie explained. "And what we've captured far exceeds our mission." "I heard about it in Waterdeep," said Vanes.That's why he agreed to send the group to Baldur's Gate quickly.Usually such a woman, a dwarf and a halfling couldn't leave Deepwater Harbor easily, and if they could, it wouldn't be cheap, for they had a dark elf traveling companion.But among honest sailors in Waterdeep.Drizzt Do'Urden and Catti-brie's names were like music. The approaching ship looked larger, but apart from Drizzt, only Vanes and the lookout sailors could see the details of the ship, because only they had rare and expensive telescopes in their hands.Now the captain was watching the ship through his glass, and recognized it by its triangular sails. "That's a clipper," he said. "And it's still light. It can only carry a crew of less than twenty or so, so it's not our opponent." Katie considered the words carefully.The Seeker was a light sailing ship, and a large one at that.She had three mighty sails, a long and tapered prow to speed her up, two guns, and a very heavy and strong side.True, a light schooner did not seem to be a match for the Seeker, but didn't many pirates do the same with another schooner, Captain Deudermont's Sea Spirit?They thought it was just a small boat that would soon sink, but really? "Turn back and sail south!" cried the captain.The Seeker began to tilt to the right, and soon the approaching clipper also adjusted its course and continued to run towards them. "They're going too far north." Vanes stroked his gray beard with a sad expression. "The pirates shouldn't have traveled so far north, and they shouldn't have come to us." Several others, especially Drizzt and Katie, understood his concern.In terms of general combat power alone, the schooner and its twenty, at most thirty crew members are obviously no match for Vanes' sixty crew members.But both Katie and Drizzt knew that at sea this balance of power could be easily changed with the simple use of a mage.More than once they had seen Sea Sprite's mage, a powerful spell-wielder named Robillard, sink an opposing ship by himself, without even the usual weapons. Useful. "'Shouldn't' is very different from 'isn't,'" Bruno said dryly. "I don't know if they're pirates or not, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with them approaching with malicious intent." Vanes nodded and returned to the helm a little later. "I'll get my bow and go up to the lookout," Katie suggested. "Shoot on target," Drizzt replied. "It's likely that there's only one or two of them leading the ship. If you can find and shoot them, the rest will probably get away." "Is this how pirates behave?" Regis looked confused. "Are they pirates after all?" "A small ship chasing us for the Crystal Shard would indeed do that," Drizzt's answer made the other two understand. "You think it's the damn thing calling them?" Bruno asked. "Pirates rarely take risks," Drizzt explained. "And a light clipper chasing Seeker is taking a big risk." "Unless they have a mage." Bruno also began to understand Vanes' worries. Drizzt shook his head even before the dwarf had finished speaking.If Katie had been there, she would have shook her head too, but she had already run to get the Tamari bow. "If this was a pirate ship with enough magical power to destroy the Seeker, it must have been noticed long ago," Drow explained. "Will be warned of it before we leave Waterdeep." "Unless it's new to the line, or has just acquired magical powers," Regis deduced. Drizzt nodded acknowledging that it was a possibility, but he still believed that Cshshnibon had brought new enemies, like those it had brought before, in a desperate and futile attempt to keep the relic from wanting to be destroyed. It was salvaged back from the hands of the people.Drow looked back and saw the familiar figure of Katie on the other side of the deck, carrying the amazing Mindseeker Tamari bow and nimbly climbing up the knotted rope. Then he opened the pouch on his waist and peered at the evil relic.How he wished to hear its call, to better understand the foe it brought. Seeker tilted suddenly as a shell flew out.The shell failed to hit the Clippers, which were out of range, but it was enough to let the people on the Clippers know that the Seeker had no intention of negotiating or surrendering. But the course of the Clippers remained unchanged, and it continued to rush towards the Seeker.It moved smoothly and quickly, like an arrow flying in the air.Its narrow hull was designed purely for speed.Drizzt had seen many of these pirates; such ships often required the much larger Sea Sprite, also a schooner, to pursue them for long periods of time.Drow spent a good portion of his time with Deudermont on this kind of chase, and he loved it, standing on the prow with his long white hair flying behind his head. But he didn't like the situation now.There are many pirate ships near the Sword Coast that can destroy the Seeker. They are much larger than this well-equipped light sailing ship, and they also have more and better weapons and equipment. They are the real lion hunters in this area.But the approaching ship is more likely to be prey; it can only do small-scale, quick robberies at best, such as robbing fishing boats that leave the coast patrol control area, or are not cautious enough, and some distance from the convoy large merchant ships.Alternatively, several of these schooners cooperated in their raids, forming a marauding fleet. But until now, there were no other shadows of sails around. Drizzt took the onyx statue from another pocket. "I'll call Guenhwyvar in a moment," he said to Regis and Bruenor.Captain Vanes came over with a visibly nervous expression, which also told Drow that while the venerable captain had spent many years at sea, Vanes hadn't seen many battles. "With a suitable run-up, it can leap fifty feet or more to the deck of an enemy ship. There it will certainly cause a commotion, and perhaps force them to flee." "I've heard about your leopard friend," Vanes said. "People in Deepwater Harbor talk about it a lot." "Then quickly call that damned cat." Bruno muttered while looking ahead.Indeed, the approaching Clippers looked much bigger and were still plowing through the waves. For Drizzt, what struck him most about the sight was the utter loss of control; the attack was clearly suicidal, like the giant that had stalked them near the Spine of the World.He placed the statue on the deck, calling softly to the panther, and watched the gray mist swirl and begin to form around the statue. Katie rubbed her eyes, then picked up the binoculars to observe the deck carefully again, she could hardly believe her eyes.But she saw the truth again: this wasn't a pirate, at least she hadn't seen one like it before.There were women on board, and not female fighters, not even good sailors, and obviously not prisoners.And kids!She saw several children, and none of them looked like children who had lived on the ship all year round. She flinched as she watched a shell scrape the clipper's deck, snap a slew pole and pass through the sidesail, and just missed a little boy. "Get down quickly!" she ordered the sailors who were also in the lookout. "Tell the captain to load the chain shells and shoot the top of the opponent's sail." The man was clearly impressed by the stories he had heard about Drizzt and Katie, and without hesitation he began to slide down the rope, but Katie knew that she alone had the task of stopping the coming tragedy. To be done. The Seeker was lowered to half-sail for the fight, but the clipper was still at full sail, moving straight and fast, and it looked as if it had decided to crash through the middle of the caravan. Katie picked up the binoculars again and watched slowly and carefully.She knew now that Drizzt's guesses about the ship's path and intentions had been correct, a good deed by Crshinibon, and it made her blood boil with rage.One of them, or maybe two, will be the crux of the matter, but where...? She saw a figure standing at the front of the bridge, almost completely hidden by the mainmast.She kept staring at him, resisting the desire to see the damage done when a cannonball flew out at Katie's orders, and continued to stare at the man.The spinning chain nosed the clipper's topsail.The sight of the man she was looking at now, with one hand clutching the wood so tightly that it lost its color, was what mattered. The Clipper flinched a bit, leaning a little, but not on purpose.The sailors later took control of the sail, which had been damaged by the shell, and restored it to its original position.But in this tilt, the man's figure emerged from behind the shaded mast, and Katie could see him clearly, the demented expression on his face, the saliva dripping from the corners of his mouth. So she gets it. She put down the binoculars and picked up the Tamari bow, aiming with great care.She targeted the mainmast because she couldn't even see the man. "If they have a mage, he should act now!" Captain Vanes yelled frantically. "What are they waiting for? Trying to tease us like cat and mouse?" Bruno looked at him and snorted disdainfully. "They have no mages," Drizzt assured the captain. "What? Are they trying to sink us?" asked the captain. "Then we'll sink it!" He turned to give fresh instructions to the gunners, and ordered the archers to mass the deck.But before he could make any sound, a silvery flash shot from the lookout, leaving him dumbfounded.He turned to see the flash streak across the clipper's deck before turning sharply to the right and flying across the open water. Before he could ask, another flash of light flew out, following the same path as the previous one, but the difference was that it didn't make a turn this time.It roared past the clipper's mainmast. All movement seemed to come to a sudden stop, caravels and clippers alike. "Tell the Panther to stop!" Katie called to Drizzt from above. Vanes looked at Drow suspiciously, but Drizzt didn't hesitate.He raised his hand, ordering Guenhwyvar, who had just begun his run-up, to come back to him. "It's over." The dark elf announced. The captain's skeptical expression melted as the clipper's mainsail was lowered and its bow immediately sank deeper into the sea.Its backspout swivels, turning the triangular sail.It leaned to one side, turned its bow to the east, to the far shore. Through the binoculars, Katie saw a woman kneeling beside the body, and another man shaking his head.There was a void in Katie, because she never liked this, never wanted to kill anyone. But that man was the enemy, and if he didn't die, many innocent people on that clipper would die.It is better for him to die alone than to let others die with him. She comforted herself repeatedly.This only works a little. Drizzt was sure that battle had been avoided, so he looked at the Crystal Shard again with utter contempt.One call to one person has almost destroyed so many lives. He couldn't wait to throw this thing away.