“A Sun Strider? Here?”

  As though drawn by the chaos, Kaeleth appeared next to Jaeger. She leaned on the railing with him and stared at the happenings out on the docks.

  “What’s a Sun Strider?”

  She waved her head, leaving a trail of dark, multicolor in its wake.

  “See that?”

  Jaeger nodded.

  “What I am to chaos, it is to the sun. Only with more religion. And prestige.”

  “That explains almost nothing and raises more questions.”

  “What else do you expect from a chaos elf?” Tiber said as he landed next to the pair. In his hands was a coil of rope, which he proceeded to tie to the railing near them. “I’ll give you an explanation if you’ll help pull my five crew aboard. Deal?”

  Jaeger looked from the golden smile out to the dock. The five crewmates were making good progress across the docks to them, considering they had to dodge beams of bright light, cargo piles, and the occasional fireball. He could tell they wouldn’t make it to the ship before it left, though, because even now the ship was starting to pull away.

  “Your crew won’t make it.”

  Tiber hefted the rope.

  “That’s why I’ve got this. Now, are you gonna help me or not?”

  Jaeger shrugged.

  “Fine.”

  “Good. Now I’ll toss the rope, and you two grab hold. Once the crew has a tight hold, we pull them back. Savvy?”

  Kaeleth scowled.

  “I never agreed.”

  “Ah, but you will. Imagine the chaos that Sun Strider will cause when he’s got no prisoners and the guard shows up.”

  That brought a grin to Kaeleth’s face, and she agreed to help.

  Tiber reached into a barrel resting nearby and pulled out a large, wicked-looking harpoon and tied the rope to it. He gave it a few light tosses, testing its weight, before grabbing it and throwing it at a large crate near his crew. As it flew, the rope extended more than its modest size would allow. It slammed into the crate and stuck fast.

  “Grab hold.”

  All three did, and then they simply watched and waited for the crew on the docks to reach the rope. As they waited, Tiber started talking.

  “Sun Striders are blessed warrior-mages of the Hyperion Horde. Sun Striders are the heaviest hitters the Horde has and are made up entirely of minotaurs. You’re not like to see many of them outside of the Horde’s territory, when I found out one was in the city; well, I just couldn’t resist.” Tiber tensed as the first of the crew reached the harpoon and pulled it free.

  “What are they blessed by?” Jaeger asked.

  “The sun, more specifically, their sun god,” Tiber replied.

  “Is their sun god Hyperion?”

  “No?” Tiber said. “No one, outside of the Horde’s religious orders, knows the name of the sun god. As far as I know, Hyperion was simply the first Herdmaster of the Horde. You could ask the Sun Strider, they’d know, considering they’ve got its blessings.”

  The rest of the crew down on the docks reached the rope and had gotten a hold; the Sun Strider had made progress and was closing in on them.

  “Ready up. On three.” Tiber said. “One, two…Three!”

  In unison, the trio began to reel the rope back in. The rope flexed and groaned but held as the weight of five pirates was borne across it. The effort needed to pull them in was not as much as Jaeger had expected, so he found the trio making good progress on bringing them in.

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  “MALUSKIN! YOU SHALL NOT ESCAPE PURSUIT AGAIN!”

  The minotaur yelled before stopping, waving his scepter and summoning forth a golden aura around himself. When he started to charge again, he moved much faster.

  “Shit, he’s going to catch up,” Tiber said, before eyeing his two passengers. “You two wouldn’t happen to have a way to slow him down, would you?”

  “What’s it worth to you?” Jaeger replied.

  “Your life. If that Sun Strider catches up, we’re all going to die; the Horde doesn’t differentiate between pirates and passengers.”

  Jaeger considered it.

  “That and three unquestioned favors from you and your crew.”

  “One.”

  “Three.”

  “Two.”

  Jaeger nodded in agreement before pointing his ringed hand at the charging minotaur. As they’d been talking, the minotaur had reached the end of the dock and was now moving just as easily across the water towards them. With a focus of his will, Jaeger activated one of his bracelets and cast Entrapment. As he finished from the water, a step ahead of the minotaur, numerous watery chains erupted and tangled the minotaur the moment he stepped into them.

  “MALUSKIN!”

  Whatever his next words were got cut off by his abrupt fall into the water. It seemed that his magic only kept him above while he was moving.

  “Ha! Good spell casting. Now, let’s finish hauling in my crew, and we can get fully underway. Hopefully, before the Sunny bastard resurfaces.”

  As they finished reeling in the waterlogged pirates, Jaeger questioned Tiber.

  “You don’t think that’ll kill him?”

  “Nah. Sun Striders are nigh-immortal sun-botherers of the highest order. The best we can hope for is that we’re long gone before he surfaces.”

  Two days later, sailing down the inland sea, Jaeger found himself training with Tiber’s first mate, a tigerkin, or as the woman corrected him, a tigristhrope djurmaor. He found that a mouthful to say as the woman trained him, so he simply called her by her name, Tiga. She’d found him practicing with his new blade a day after they’d sailed from Patterson. She’d apparently been offended by his technique and offered to teach him. Seeing no reason to deny her offer, he accepted.

  “You know, when we first started, I mostly offered to train you out of boredom,” Tiga said, as they sparred. She was wielding a cutlass in one hand and an icepick in the other. She led with the cutlass and offhanded the pick.

  “I know you said as much the first day,” Jaeger replied as he pushed forward with his Darkblade.

  He tested her, throwing out a few downward slashes and stabs, which she parried with a bored expression. He came again with a series of side slashes, each of which she met with either her cutlass or pick, blocking or knocking aside the blows. As he stepped forward to launch another attack, she hooked his leg with her pick, and as the ship hit a swell, she flipped him onto his back.

  “Done?”

  “Done.”

  Tiga proceeds to show Jaeger some moves that she thinks would work with his blade. A few classics that he recognized and a lot more underhanded pirate moves. He made a note to start carrying sand or iron shavings. She has him join her and has him practice the moves, even helping him adjust them as needed.

  After a few hours under the hot sun, she stops and, as they get a drink of water from the barrel nearby, she speaks.

  “Alright, I’ve seen what I need to see,” Tiga said as she moved for a drink herself.

  “Not my best work.”

  She gave a slow rolling laugh before replying.

  “No, I expect not. You fight with your sword as if it were anything but. You strike me as an axe or mace man.”

  “My fighting gave that away?”

  “You do strike with the sword like it is a sword, which shows you have some training with it, but it’s mainly your footwork. I noticed you've got a firm, hard stance. Great if you fought with something heavy like a maul or large shield; absolute shite for the blade you've got now.” She grinned, barely concealing her teeth. “No need to worry now that I've seen you know how to fight, we can focus on the footwork, and we'll get you ship shape. Trust me, you might think the grubby land lubbers have fancy footwork, but once you've learnt the pirates promenade, you'll never go back.”

  “I’m looking forward to it. Any other advice?”

  “I haven't fought with a blade like yours before, but I've seen a few exotic types like it. You'll want to either make sure to keep your hand free and clear of combat or incorporate an offhand weapon. You should also try and roll your wrist. The blade looks light enough that you could put some flourishes and distracting moves. The key with lighter blades, especially like yours, or even my cutlass, is to strike where armor is weakest, distract when you can, and hit hard when you can't.”

  “I guess I could try flourishes, I’m not for that though.”

  She shrugged.

  “I’m just offering advice, do what feels right. Except for blocking. Do not trust your blade to catch any blows for you. Light blades like yours and my cutlass will snap like a broken mast. Stick to dodging or, if you can, redirecting blows; that's a bit trickier, but if you can manage, you'll be a shark among minnows.” She nods, satisfied with her answer, before cocking her head and adding. “I guess if you really feel the need to block, get yourself some sort of gauntlet or arm armor, nothing too heavy though; speed is still your priority.”

  “My Darkblade is a magic weapon.” He didn’t bother with a subtler way of explaining it. Tiga gave a harsh chuckle.

  “I still wouldn’t block. Unless your Darkblade’s got a shield-wall effect or the like, it’s not worth the risk. Sure, most people don’t have magic weapons, but best not to get sloppy.”

  That made perfect sense to Jaeger. Plus, it fit his highwayman persona better to duck, dodge, and parry wherever he could.

  “I appreciate this. Same time tomorrow?”

  Tiga grinned and nodded.

  “Aye, this is a better way to pass the time than card sharking the crew. Same time tomorrow.”

  With that, she walked off, moving down into the interior of the ship.