Deception: Wahrheit Book 3 by AC Cobble

Author:AC Cobble [Cobble, AC]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cobble Publishing LLC
Published: 2023-08-21T16:00:00+00:00

Dwarven-forged platemail was good for many things, like preventing one from getting split in twain by a well-swung axe, but for other purposes, like a brisk row on a choppy sea, it was rather dreadful. Faced with the prospect something could go wrong on the abandoned ship they were approaching, that it might sink, or that their little dinghy might capsize before they even made it there, Tilly had made the decision to leave his armor behind.

He was a courageous man, but he did not fancy a swim halfway across the Strait of Chem with ten stone weight on his back, so he, Sergeant Ramshorn, and Lina Lehmann sat in the prow of the slender boat while a quartet of thick-armed seamen rowed them into the enveloping fog.

Two days before, they’d berthed a fat merchant cog at the base of the abandoned stone fortress which overlooked the strait. At Tilly’s request, the giant golden patriarch of the dragons had easily snapped the foremast, making it look as if the merchant was huddled against the cliffs conducting repairs.

The ballast was filled with seawater so the ship rode low, and men from a nearby royal navy barracks were in hiding on board waiting for an attack. Tilly and the other dragon knights had spent the time in the centuries’ old fortress, so that their dragons were both accessible and out of sight.

The thickest-skulled pirate on the sea wasn’t going to risk assaulting a prize when a dragon was lurking above it, but a day from Chemenberg and any other settlements of size, they’d hoped what appeared to be crippled, well-laden prey would be irresistible to the pirates the ministry of intelligence claimed took the ship carrying the ballistae bolts. But no one had come. That thought was stuck in Tilly’s mind like an errant bit of meat between his teeth as they approached the vessel that had appeared limping out of the fog. Would pirates attempt the same ruse he had?

The merchant cog they’d provided as bait actually was damaged, so they couldn’t sail it up beside the abandoned ship. With the masts and sails raised on their target, there was no way to get close enough on the back of a dragon to safely dismount. The shore boat was their easiest option, but it meant four sailors, two dragon knights, their apprentice, and no one else. Without the familiar comfort of his armor, Captain Tilly felt like this wasn’t enough people.

Before him, in the crook of the prow, Lina Lehmann was crouched like a jockey atop a horse rounding the last corner at the races. She rode the swells of the waves smoothly, one hand on a slender sword at her side, the other resting against the gunwale for balance.

Ramshorn was across from Tilly, a sour pout on his lips, his mace clutched tightly in front of him. Evidently, the dragon knight couldn’t swim, information that would have been useful before he’d been assigned to this mission out over the water, but it was too late for that.

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