The Kinstrife
Part
49
In
which we run before a storm; we spy the wreck of Iriel’s
ship; we investigate and find Neithan’s empty grave;
we return to Pelargir; Castaher suggests Ragnor joins the Cor Aran.
We set sail
in the ‘So Much for Subtlety’; just two days out we run in to the most
ferocious storm. Ilviren orders the passengers below
and starts bellowing orders to her crew, who seem frightened, muttering about
the ‘fury of Manwë’. Brand senses something
supernatural about the storm so perhaps the crew are right? I get the feeling
that only Ilviren’s personality is holding the crew together.
Brand and I
go on deck to enjoy the storm more closely. Brand nearly gets too close (it
seems Ilviren ordered us below for good reason) when
he slips on the treacherous deck but Ilviren and I
manage to catch him before goes overboard and we both lash ourselves to
fixtures for safety.
With the
storm in his face, Brand believes it isn’t summoned but it certainly isn’t
natural.
The storm
lasts for days but thanks to its fury we make the return to the Ethir in record time, making landfall the afternoon of May
20th. Luckily the storm is abating when we enter the delta but we’re
still being driven hard by strong winds when we sight a ship off the port bow
beached on low dunes. Ilviren’s spyglass reveals the name is Aegrumor and she swears it’s Iriel’s vessel! Unfortunately the gale is too strong and to
investigate now would be to invite the same fate but we promise ourselves to
return anon.
We anchor
in Garadport, a very small natural harbour in the Ethir, far enough up the delta for the dunes to offer
protection from the driving winds. Ilviren advises
that this is her home and she introduces us to her father, Garad
(evidently a family name). In his turn he introduces a cousin named Núrerniel, who promptly asks to be called ‘Sern’.
Garad
and Sern are aware of the wreck of the Aegrumor but haven’t yet investigated, partly because of
the weather and partly because they’ve heard that the Garrison got there first.
Garad seems a little put off by the presence of
officialdom and I get the feeling he’d rather not meet Neithan or his people on
the wreck. Though I don’t recall seeing anyone on or near the
wreck when we sailed past an hour before.
I need to
get to Pelargir to close my mission for Castaher but
I feel we should investigate the wreck – if we can apprehend Iriel or her minions it will help wrap up Brand’s
investigations of the sorcerous killing of Maeglin
and Adrazôr.
Ilviren
asks after Neithan and Garad’s information places him
back at the Garrison. Any prisoners taken from the wreck should by now be at
the Garrison and of course we must go there if there’s any chance of
apprehending Iriel as Neithan almost certainly
doesn’t know of her perfidy. So, it’s rest overnight
at Garadport and then row to the Garrison in the
morning before visiting the wreck. With lucj we can
be back at Garadport tomorrow night and sail for
Pelargir the next morning.
At the
Garrison we find Meneleth in command since Neithan
and Kolfen, with four troopers, went off to the wreck
yesterday. I should have realised Neithan would go himself. Meneleth
doesn’t seem concerned at Neithan’s absence as he
took a roundabout approach via land but I begin to have misgivings.
So we hit
the oars again and find ourselves at the wreck an hour later. There are no
boats visible and it seems deserted. It’s aground on a high sandbank – almost a
dune. Landing on the dune we find six makeshift headstone
made of wood taken from the wreck. The one at the end has a sword stuck
point-first in the grave with a medallion on it.
Neithan’s
sword and the medallion bears the device of the House
of Morthond!
Is this Neithan’s grave? Brand and Sern
dig but find no body in the grave. Has he been captured? Or does he want the
world to think he’s dead? I take Neithan’s sword and
pendant.
There’s a
large disturbed area some fifty yards away and further digging for ten minutes
reveals a crewman, dead from a stab wound – a combat wound if I’m any judge.
Moving to
the ship: it’s superb, a nobleman’s caravel and outfitted beautifully as
befitting a prince. But nothing remains both valuable and portable so it seems
whoever buried the crew also looted the ship. Despite this it’s well worth
salvaging and I get the notion that Sern is
calculating as he goes.
There’s
signs of a fight and quite a bit of blood
and gore scattered around. The noble’s cabin bears the crest of Belfalas differenced with cadence marks for a third son –
so this was Tirazôr’s ship.
So it seems
Iriel’s people overpowered the crew and then
presumably did the same to Neithan but only Neithan was taken prisoner.
On a hunch
I ask Brand and Sern to investigate the other five
graves but I already know what they’ll find. Four bodies, all troopers, killed
in combat, but none of them are Kolfen – traitor! I
wonder where Neithan’s part of the amulet is? I hope it wasn’t on his person.
Brand and Sern refill the graves and we row back to the garrison to
report Neithan’s capture. Meneleth
will send her men in to the marshes to harass the Benish
Armon cult but her chances of recovering Neithan are
slim and she cannot denude the Garrison in case the Corsairs take advantage –
she suspects the Corsairs of being in league with the Benish
Armon cult. We sleep at the garrison.
We row for Garadport. I had hoped Garad
would have inside information on the Benish Armon cult but he confesses that he has no spies – everyone
in the Ethir knows exactly who everyone else is and
where their alliegances lie. But Garad
is sure that Kolfen and Iriel
are close and he’s certain that Kolfen is indeed a
traitor.
Garad
confirms Meneleth’s speculations that Benish Armon and the Corsairs are
linked. If he had captured Neithan, he would take him in to the middle of the
marshes but they could as easily ship him elsewhere on a corsair ship.
I had wanted
to depart for Pelargir today but Ilviren claimed her
ship needed careening or mainbrace splicing or
something and the winds are in the wrong direction. My grasp of shipboard terms
is sparse but as the son of a merchant prince I find her arguments spurious and
the wind seems to be in the same direction as yesterday.
My
suspicions grow stronger when Garad’s people sail
back in boats laden with what looks like pieces of the Aegrumor
and much of this goes straight in to the hold of the ‘So Much for Subtlety’ –
Ilviren’s ship is certainly living up to its name.
But I take
advantage of the unexpected leisure time by asking Garad
about the cult of Perhaladin – Garad
says Perhaladin was an adventurer and explorer who
had a reputation of being disrespectful of officialdom in his day. (Garad doesn’t say when exactly that was but presumably it
was the 2nd Age.) He’s a swashbuckler worshipped mainly by sailors
of a certain persuasion and is sometimes regarded as the ‘God of Pirates’.
Perhaladin
doesn’t seem to be quite what I’m looking for to fill my spiritual demands but Garad, as a priest of Perhaladin,
seems my best source of spiritual advice. Without going in to too many details
I outline my prayer to Uinen when the Queen’s
treasure was stolen and that I believe I and my family have been cursed by a
sailor who drowned as a result.
Garad
advises that this curse shouldn’t be a surprise but I would have to work to
alleviate the curse myself. I reply that I understand this and know what must
be done but that my real worry is that I feel I myself may have been tainted by
whatever answered my prayer (not Uinen). Garad asks some searching questions regarding my current
intentions and motivations and concludes that I seem well able to tell right
from wrong and as long as I follow my current moral compass I needn’t fear a
spiritual decline.
Of course,
this assumes that the ‘right course’ is always discernible. My prayer to Uinen was made with the best of intentions. I was aware
that people would almost certainly die but thought more would die if they did
not. I am consoled but I cannot afford to be complacent in this.
We sail for
Pelargir, accompanied by Sern who apparently thinks
it is duty to dispose of the loot salvage. Wary of the banks and without
the gales of the previous week it takes five days to reach the city.
I leave the
ship and head up the hill to seek an audience with Castaher,
who grants an immediate audience. I lay before him the facts regarding Iriel’s use of sorcery against Maeglin and Adrazôr and of Neithan’s capture by Iriel’s
accomplices but without mentioning my suspicions of Neithan or his blood ties
to Beruthiel and the cat cult.
Castaher
muses over a map of Gondor; he will send troops to
the Ethir to reconnaissance in force. He doesn’t
expect to rescue Neithan but it will send a signal to the Ethir
folk that their behaviour won’t be tolerated. They may keep Neithan but their
people will suffer.
He seems pleased
with the outcome regarding Estel, especially when I
suggest that she might make a suitable match for Castarion
in ten or a dozen years.
Castaher
comments that he can’t see why the Benish Armon cult has captured Neithan after killing his
relatives. I suggest that we seem to be missing a piece of the puzzle (of
course I suspect I know what that piece is but I’m not about to reveal that to Castaher). He agrees and suggests that I take rank in the Cor Aran to head up an investigation in to the matter. Apparently
he thinks I would have the freedom to go where my investigations take me and
with the authority to command co-operation. I go to consider my options but it
seems my career is about to take another turn.
To do list:
Advise Castaher of my decision to join the Cor
Aran
Give letter
to Bauglir regarding Hwiniel
with my personal observations as to her character
Order a
suitable present for Estel to celebrate her official
status as Princess of Morthond
Bury
Adrazôr & attend Aradan’s formal enthronement as
Prince of Belfalas - Tirazôr
should probably be buried with honours too
Survey my
estates and produce a plan to improve them – consider Pimm’s
offer but be cautious
Ensure
Brand looks for the 5fth part of the Key of Fuinur’s Well
Who was Tevildo from the
Benish Armon tomb in the Ethir Anduin?