Chapter 6 Chapter 4 Unsolicited "Aid"

The sea spirit's departure time was delayed by two weeks, and the route also turned to the south.Captain Deudermont's explanation was that they still had unfinished business at Baldur's Gate, one of the largest ports in the Sword Coast, between Waterdeep and Calimport.No one openly questioned this explanation, but his unease, even hesitation, was felt.They had never seen such a state of mind from the unflappable captain. Four days after the Sea Spirit left Waterdeep, the captain returned to his usual demeanor.At that moment, Sea Sprite's lookouts spotted a square-rigged ship with its decks packed with people.A clipper ship typically carries forty to fifty men; a corsair typically carries three times that number of crew, in order to have an overwhelming advantage in attacking other ships and bring the spoils back to shore quickly. .Pirate ships don't carry cargo, they only carry pirates.

If Deudermont had shown weakness, he was now firm again.With the Sea Sprite sailing at full speed, Catti-brie took Tamari from her shoulders and climbed up to the lookout.Robila was ordered to stand at the stern and use magic to speed up the Sea Spirit.However, the strong sea wind blowing from the northwest filled the sails of the Sea Spirit and the pirate ship, and this pursuit will undoubtedly be a long process. On the central deck, the musicians on board played a rousing piece of music.Drizzt jumped from the bow earlier than usual to stand beside Deudermont at the helm. "If we capture it, where should it be dragged?" Drow asked, a question often asked in the high seas.They are still closer to Waterdeep City and farther away from Baldur's Gate.But now it is the season when the north wind prevails at sea, and it is obviously much more appropriate to sail south.

"Oulu." Deudermont replied without hesitation. Drizzt was somewhat surprised.Oulu is a rocky island completely exposed to strong winds between Waterdeep City and Baldur's Gate. There is an independent town on it. There is not much population in the town. It is difficult for the armed forces there to detain a whole ship of pirates. "Let the shipwright there repair that ship?" Drow asked suspiciously. Deudermont nodded, and the lines on his face became hard, "Oulu has received a lot of favors from Waterdeep City. They will take care of this pirate ship until another ship from Waterdeep City tow it away. I will let Robi Get in touch with Waterdeep."

Drizzt stopped talking.The captain's words seemed very logical, but very wrong.Drow understands that this is not a regular voyage of the Sea Spirit.Deudermont never left captured ships and men for others to dispose of.Time never seems to be an issue in an ocean whose waves roll forever.The Sea Spirit usually patrols around the sea. If a pirate ship is found, it will be captured or sunk, and then returned to an ally's port.The journey often takes a long time, but no one cares. "Our business at Baldur's Gate must be very urgent." Drow peeked at the captain suspiciously.

For the first time since setting off, Deudermont turned his head and stared at him, without saying a word for a long time, "We're not going to Baldur's Gate." He finally admitted. "Where are we going?" There was no surprise in Drizzt's voice. The captain shook his head and looked away.Slightly adjusted the steering wheel, so that the Sea Spirit followed closely behind the clipper. Drizzt kept his mouth shut, knowing that Deudermont could admit to him that their destination was not Baldur's Gate.That's a lot of respect for him.He also knew that the captain had full confidence in him.Their first priority is the pirate ship.It still ran far ahead, its square sail almost disappearing beneath the blue horizon.

"Master, the wind is even stronger! If we don't have more wind, we won't be able to catch up with it before dusk." Deudermont shouted to Robila without looking back, the magician muttered and waved to the captain. . Drizzt smiled at Deudermont, then stepped forward, returning to the yards of the bow, enjoying the smell of the sea and the splashing waves.The waves roared around the Sea Spirit, and he needed to think and prepare in this lonely environment. They chased for three hours before the pirate ship entered Catti-brie's observation range, and she reconfirmed the identity of the opposing pirate ship from the observation deck.It was a summer day with long days, and the sun was still in the western half of the day.The pursuers knew they had to catch each other before sunset, or else they would flee in the dark.Robilar could cast locking spells on the pirate ship: but the pirate ship undoubtedly had a magician or priest too.Although it will not be as powerful as Robila, it is more than enough to eliminate the locking magic.Moreover, pirate ships never operate far from their secret ports, and Sea Sprite cannot chase them to their lair, where pirates will get the help of their allies.

Deudermont didn't seem too concerned about it, they've lost targets to nightfall before, so there's no guarantee it will happen again.In any case, there will always be criminals at sea who need to be hunted down.But never before had Deudermont looked so nonchalant in Drizzt's furtive glance at the captain.Obviously, although Deudermont never talked about the mysterious incident in Waterdeep City, it undoubtedly occupied part, or even all, of the captain's mind. Drow gripped the cable of the sail and sighed.Deudermont would speak to him about these things as he saw fit. The sea breeze weakened somewhat, and Hailing's pursuit speed gradually accelerated.It looked like the pirate ship had nowhere to go.The bards, who had parted ways during the long and tedious pursuit, reunited and began to play music.Drizzt knew that the pirates would soon hear the music here, the music that would ride across the waves to tell them of the end.

Now, everything seemed to be back to normal, and although the battle was imminent, the captain's expression relaxed.Drizzt tried to convince himself that Deudermont's calm was due to his certainty that they would capture the pirate ship.Everything will pass smoothly. "There are big waves at the stern!" The shout came, attracting everyone's attention. "What is that?" More than one voice sounded at the same time.Drizzt looked at Katie, who was aiming the binoculars behind Sea Sprite, shaking her head in bewilderment. Drow slipped over the railing and leaned over the side of the ship, looking at the unknown pursuer.He saw what appeared to be the dorsal fin of a killer whale in a mountainous wave of snow, but no whale in the world could swim so fast.Like everyone else on board, Drizzt sensed immediately that this was no creature of nature.

"It's going to hit us!" Vilan Mason on the stern ballista platform warned.As he spoke, the strange stalker turned abruptly to Sea Sprite's starboard side, abreast of the schooner. Drizzt could see that it wasn't a whale.Whatever it was, as it galloped within twenty yards of the Sea Sprite, the wall of water it kicked up slapped directly against the hull of the schooner.Drow thought he saw a body in the spray—a human body. "That's a person!" Katie's voice came from above, further confirming Drizzt's suspicion. All the crew members watched with disbelief as the man rushed past the Sea Spirit and chased after the clipper.

"A magician?" Deudermont asked Robilla. Robilla shrugged, and the others just shook their heads blankly. "The question is," said the magician at last, "which side is he on? Friend or foe?" Obviously, those people on the fast sailing boat also didn't know the origin of the man in the water.Some pirates leaned on the rails and stared at him blankly, and more pirates took up crossbows.The pirate ship's catapult fired a ball of burning pitch at him. After all, the slow fire ball couldn't catch up with the fast-moving pursuer, and could only fall helplessly into the sea, making a loud "hissing" sound.The tracker easily circled to the front of the pirate ship, and the splash around him dissipated, finally revealing his robed body and a huge burden behind him.He stood on the tip of the waves, swung his arms quickly, and shouted loudly.He was too far away from the Sea Sprite, Drizzt and none of them could hear what he was shouting.

"He's casting a spell!" Katie warned from the observation deck, "He's going to..." She stopped talking suddenly and gave Drizzt a concerned look.Although Drow, who was far below, couldn't figure out what she meant, he could see that Katie was in some kind of confusion.She shook her head, as if denying something. Those on the deck of the Sea Sprite are trying to ascertain the current situation.They saw the pirates commotion in the place facing the pursuer. There were constant shouts and the sound of hard crossbow firing, but the man seemed not to be affected in the slightest. Suddenly, a terrible flash forced people to close their eyes.A huge and expanding ball of white light appeared behind the pirate ship.The red fire cloud shot straight into the sky, and then diffused into a thick fog, covering a large area around the ball of light, engulfing the pirate ship and the caster in it.It wasn't until the Sea Spirit approached the edge of the dense fog that Deudermont slowly slowed down the ship.He cursed in a low voice, and slowly cruised along the edge of the thick fog. The crew is ready behind the ship's side, and the ballista and the ballista at the stern have been filled with ammunition and ready to go. With the breeze blowing, the dense fog began to drift and dissipate.A vague figure gradually appeared in front of everyone.With one hand resting on his chin, he stood at the very center of the terrifying explosion. "Impossible." Katie shouted to Drizzt. In fact, Drizzt also thought it was impossible.He noticed that the bright red robe was embroidered with magic runes and strange figures. They showed various strange postures of magicians when casting spells, and some of them should have been written into spells by high-ranking magicians. the content of the book.Drizzt also recognized the bald head and the baby face.There are two dimples on the top and a pair of big blue eyes, and the long, straight brown hair.Gathered tightly behind the ears as if standing on top of the head. "What is he?" Deudermont asked Drow. "It's not what," Drizzt corrected him, "but who." Drow chuckled and shook his head with an expression of disbelief. "Then who is he?" Deudermont tried to make his voice stern.Drizzt's happy laugh obviously affected him. "A friend," Drizzt answered, looking up at Katie, "Harkle Hubbell of Longsaddle." "Oh, no." Robilla groaned.Like all wizards, Robillard had long heard of Longsaddle and the eccentric House of the Harbells, the most dangerous and inexplicable family of wizards that really graced the multiverse. In a short while, most of the fog had dissipated, and Deudermont and his crew were no longer so nervous.Until the air was almost completely transparent again, they saw the pirate ship again.It has gone far away.Deudermont was about to issue an order to continue the pursuit, but he looked at the low red sun, calculated the distance between the two ships, and decided to stop today. The figure of the wizard Harkle Harbel is now clearly revealed.He was standing just a dozen yards from the bow on the right side of the Sea Spirit.Deudermont handed over the wheel to one of the crew, and he and Drizzt and Robillard walked over the side of the ship.Kitty also came down from the mainmast to join them. Harkle stood expressionlessly on the surface of the water, staring at the place where the pirate ship disappeared, rising and falling with the rolling waves.Blue and white splashes kept trying to bite his toes, but floating magic kept them coming back in vain. Finally, Harkle turned to Sea Sprite, looked at Drizzt and the others, "I didn't expect this to happen," he shook his head, "It seems that there is something wrong with my aiming." "That's good," murmured Robilla. "Are you coming on board?" Deudermont asked the man.And this question, or the sudden realization that he was not on the deck, woke Harkle out of his trance. "Oh yes! That's a great idea, glad I found you." He glanced at his feet. "I don't know how long my spell will last..." As he spoke, his spell suddenly failed, and the magician was covered in water in the blink of an eye. "I'm surprised..." Katie said casually, lying on the rail of the boat. Deudermont asked the crew to jump into the sea to catch the magician, and then looked at the friends around him in amazement, "He just uses such an unreliable spell to wander in the open sea? Here, it is almost impossible for him to find us, or even find us." Any ship..." "He's from the Hubbells," replied Robilla dryly. "Harko Harbell," Katie added emphatically. Deudermont shook his head, but seeing the smiling Drizzt, he finally felt a little relieved.