The Final Voyage of the King's Ransom

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The Final Voyage of the King's Ransom

Postby Threnn » Sat Nov 27, 2010 4:07 pm

Three hours before the Shattering.

The portals were wrong.

Annalea was no mage, but she could feel it all the same: something in the resonance surrounding them, a sharp tang on the air like lightning had struck nearby, a haze when she looked through to Dalaran on the other side. Whatever it was she sensed, it had the same result: no way in seven hells was she stepping through a portal today.

But she had saddlebags full of supplies that her parents needed up in the Grizzly Hills. Threnny and Bricu had wasted no time in shipping the al’Cairs off to the house up there with Naiara once the cultists started swarming. Anna couldn’t blame them -- after what Ginger Dan and his boys had done to her father, no one was taking any chances.

To the harbor, then. Passage on a Northrend-bound ship would be far slower, but better to arrive a few days late than potentially be torn apart in the nether.

It seemed she wasn’t the only one leery of the portals. The docks were packed with people shouting and jostling at deckhands, trying to jump the queues to buy any available berths. Footpads were having a field day dipping fingers into bulging pockets and cutting the strings of nobles’ purses. Anna found herself casting withering glares every few seconds as she made her way through the throng. Whether it was her warning look that made the crooks keep their distance, or that she was known to be part of the Black and Red -- and therefore not to be fucked with -- she wasn’t sure. It could also have been the constant angry rumbling coming from the frostsaber padding along at her side. He liked neither ships nor crowds, and thus looked ready to bite anyone who annoyed him.

As she approached the gangplank of the King’s Ransom, Anna put on her broadest smile. A fussy little man with wire-rimmed glasses and an official-looking clipboard greeted her with a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry, miss, but if you’re seeking passage, you’ll have to wait in line just like everyone else.” He pointed behind her, where a snaking queue of Stormwinders had all turned murderous gazes her way.

“Actually,” she said, “I’m offering my services.”

“We have a full crew.”

“A full crew, and a full ship -- full of people who will spend most of the voyage getting in one another’s way and pissing each other off. You need someone who can keep them entertained.” She gestured to the lute case on the saber’s saddlebags. “Music has a way of keeping the bloodshed to a minimum.”

He opened his mouth to argue the point, but halfway down the line, the shouting started. Within seconds, fists were flying and the crowd had its blood up. Members of the Guard in their blue-plumed helmets rushed over to break it up, but the significance wasn’t lost on the man standing before her. “Very well,” he said, and gestured up the gangplank. “Go tell the first mate you’re reporting for duty.” He jotted a note at the bottom of his page, tore it off and passed it to her. “I pray that you’ll be able to keep the rabble in line.”

Anna grinned and pressed some gold pieces into the man’s palm. “For your trouble.”

She ignored the exclamations of outrage from the people behind her in line as she boarded the ship. She’d win them over soon enough.

---

Stormwind Harbor had begun to recede by the time Anna saw the two familiar faces. After getting the cat settled and her baggage stowed, she’d headed straight for the deck to sing to the crew. The passengers, she’d figured, would keep to themselves until at least dinnertime. Then they’d begin getting on the shipmens’ nerves.

She’d spent the better part of an hour plucking away at shanties and taking requests, which meant she hadn’t had time to scrutinze the paying customers. But two of them had come up top, milling around with a few others who were getting in the way on deck, presumably to “get some air.” They weren’t nearly as well dressed as most of the others who’d booked berths. Matter of fact, they looked as though they’d probably had to cut a few purses to even set foot on the boat in the first place.

Anna slowed her playing down a bit, switching to an old Northern ballad so she could divide her attention without anyone really knowing it. I’ve seen you before.

Normally, it was rather rude to slip into someone’s mind and make... suggestions. These two, however, had her senses jangling, and honestly, it was just a little push. The closest one to her had his hands in his pockets, pretending to stare out to sea. But she was in his peripheral vision, she knew. Which meant it wasn’t hard at all to make him turn and look at her -- it was what he was trying to do, after all, only without being so obvious about it.

He pivoted slowly. Anna didn’t even need him to face her full-on -- she let him go before he completed his turn. Her heart thumped in her chest, but her fingers never lost their steady rhythm on the strings.

She’d seen him before, all right. She’d followed him back to his grandmother’s farm in Elwynn not a month ago. Grandma’s root cellar served as an ill-disguised meeting place for the remnants of Ginger Dan’s crew.

Two of them on the ship, then, maybe more. Whether it’s coincidence or not, they know I’m aboard. Blessed bloody fucking Elune.

Her buzzbox was in the pack just behind her. Not that there was much of anything anyone could do to help while she was at sea, but at the very least maybe someone could meet the boat when it docked in Northrend. She could hold her own for three days, easily, though it’d come at the expense of sleep. Backup would be nice, whenever she could get it.

As the last notes of the song drifted off on the ocean breeze, Anna gave the crew a bow. “I’ll be back in five minutes, yeah? You lot think of more songs you want to hear in the meantime.”

She scooped up her pack and hurried to a quieter spot on the boat -- still in sight of the crew and Dan’s boys, yet private enough that she could hail Tarq or Threnny and get in a quick word. The buzzbox gave a squeal of static when she switched it on, and voices clamored over one another across a public channel. They sounded panicked, terrified. Most of the shouting was in Darnassian, too garbled for Anna to start translating.

She only had a few seconds to contemplate what the cause of such fear might be, though, before something huge cast its shadow over the boat. Then the screams began -- not because of what had just passed overhead, but because of what came in its wake.

The waves crashed over the decks. The ship pitched sharply. People tumbled through the air, their cries drowned out by the horrible shrieking of splintering wood. Instinct made Anna wrap her arm around the rail; her buzzbox dropped away, into a sea that was suddenly above her.

That can’t be right. That can’t be right at a--

Then, as the sky blazed below them and the sea churned above, Annalea lost her grip and fell -- down? up? -- into the waves.

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