The Phoenix’s Feather drifted into the docks. Lines were thrown out, the dockhands on the other side grabbing them and pulling the ship to the dock. The airship shook as the sides struck the padded posts. It bobbed in the water, drifting back and forth a bit as the lines were tied, keeping it from moving. I was already standing at the gangplank, with the small group that would accompany me down for the first meet and greet.

  “Make sure everything is set to rest,” Captain Nichols told her first mate.

  “Aye aye Cap’n,” he said, moving off and barking orders at the sailors.

  “Lieutenant,” Maria said, looking down at a notebook in her hand. “Get the priority gear ready to unload. Once we found out where we’re supposed to be, I want the Engineers debarked and there to evaluate.”

  “Yes ma’am,” the lieutenant said, saluting before moving off and barking orders at the soldiers and support staff.

  “Evaluate?” I asked.

  “Wherever they’re planning on us setting up the base camp, we want to make sure it’s defensible and a good location. I’m not just going to accept what they give us.”

  “Excellent.”

  The gangplank bashed down on the dock, the reception army already moving forward. And it was an army. There was a guy at the front, and a dozen or so people behind him. Soldiers, and there were a lot of them, lined both sides of the dock. Those soldiers looked like weekend warriors. All shiny armor, freshly washed tunics, standing at attention, with swords sheathed at their waists and holding spears upright. Each wore identical armor, helmets and tabards. All pretty decent looking stuff.

  The guy in the lead was a short man, on the chubbier side. He wore pretty fancy looking clothes, lots of purple shades, some jewelry and even a fur lined cloak. His brown hair was slicked back, his beard neatly trimmed. He didn’t carry a weapon. This was someone living under the Celestial Challenge System, so I knew he had combat experience, but for all appearances he was a stereotypical city lord.

  I hated him already.

  I knew that wasn’t fair, but it was what it was.

  The others with him were all finely dressed, a couple at least had visible weapons. Most just looked like functionaries, dignitaries and people that would just get in the way.

  The guy in the lead was upon me as soon as my foot touched the dock.

  “Lord Howell,” he said. “Welcome to Darren’s Port.”

  He took my hand in both of his, shaking vigorously. I managed to free my hand.

  “I am the Lord Mayor of Darren’s Port, Calvin Holsted.”

  Kat would have been proud of me. I only inwardly groaned and managed to keep a straight face. He was calling himself the Lord Mayor? Poor guy was in for a rude awakening when he found the Lord stripped from his title. We didn’t go for that kind of thing in the Solace Fellowship.

  We did have a somewhat noble class in the Fellowship. There was no way to really avoid it. Rich merchants, shopowners, powerful Adventurers. That kind of thing. But we strictly enforced how everyone interacted. There was no class system in the Fellowship.

  This guy would just have to get used to being the Mayor.

  “Good to meet you, Mayor,” I said, seeing him wince a little when I left off the Lord part.

  “We have a reception set aside in the Town Hall for you and your entourage,” Calvin said, gesturing toward the city. “If you’d please follow me.”

  “Sounds great but first,” I started, making Calvin and the dozen people that had already started to turn, stop and all look at me. I gestured to Maria and her second-in-command, a Captain Simon Richards, to step forward. “If you could direct Captain Richards to where you’re planning on having us set up our encampment, that would be great.”

  I could tell that Calvin hadn’t been planning on doing that right away. This guy wanted to wine and dine me. He knew that with the Gray Wolf joining the Fellowship, there would be opportunity for growth, or loss, and he wanted to be on the growth side. If he thought wining and dining when there was a Surge and an Incursion would make me like him, he was in for a rude awakening. But I wasn’t ready to give him that yet.

  “Uhm… yes.. Of course,” he said, waving to one of the men wearing a sword.

  That guy stepped forward, pushing his way through the dignitaries. He wasn’t wearing armor, but had the bearing of a guy that was used to wearing it. He looked very uncomfortable in the finery he was most likely being forced to wear. I kind of liked him already.

  “This is Captain Jeremiah of the Gray Wolf Militia, he can show your man to the area we set aside.”

  “Very good,” I said, turning to Captain Richards. “Take anyone you need with you to evaluate the site.” I know Maria had already given those orders and gone over everything with Richards, but this was all for show. Derek and Maria had prepped me for this. It was all about establishing the way things were going to be done. “If you don’t find the site satisfactory, find one that is. Doesn’t matter what’s there already, if it works for our purposes, claim it.”

  “What? Uhm… surely…,” he sputtered and stopped when he realized I was ignoring him.

  I did see Captain Jeremiah crack a smile.

  Richards looked up the gangplank.

  “Sargeant Jeffers, assemble your team and make sure they have an adequate escort.”

  “Yessir,” the man on the ship answered.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Richards stepped forward, extending a hand to Jeremiah.

  “Captain,” Richards said.

  “Captain,” Jeremiah said. “The first site might not be up to your standards. But I know of some that should work better.”

  “Very good Captain,” Richards said. “Let us see the first site and we can go from there.”

  The two walked off, a team of four followed by six soldiers, coming down the gangplank. I made shooeing motions with my hands to get everyone to move as the group tried to make their way through the crowd. Richards and Jeremiah led them down the dock, toward a waiting wagon. I didn’t think the wagon was meant for this purpose, but it was being commandeered.

  Calvin started to sputter a bit more but stopped when I looked at him.

  “My command staff is hungry and thirsty,” I said, making Calvin smile, excited that he was going to get his wine and dine, but the smile faded as I kept talking. “But first,” I continued, looking around the dock. “I assume you have an airship ready to take our advance team to the Incursion site.” I turned to look at Maria. “Colonel Fernandez, would you like to see the Incursion site or the Dungeons first?”

  “No reason to not review all of them,” Maria said.

  “Good point,” I said and turned back to Calvin. “The ship?”

  Calvin didn’t have a ship prepped, that much was obvious.

  “Mister Mayor, this is a military operation, not a state visit.”

  That made Calvin start to sweat a little.

  “Lord Howell,” one of the people gathered around Calvin said, stepping forward. She was an older lady, silver hair in a bun, wearing a green dress, and the fur lined cloak. Maybe that was just the fashion in this area. It was colder here than in Solacetown. “We can have an airship prepped in a couple of hours.”

  “Excellent,” I said, turning to focus on her. “Thank you….,” I paused, prompting her for her name.”

  “Daphne Culpepper.”

  I glanced at Derek, making sure everyone could see the glance and everyone could see him writing her name down. I looked at Maria again.

  “Is there anything else we need to do immediately,” I asked her.

  “No sir. We will disembark the soldiers and support staff to their temporary housing as soon as we are informed where it is.”

  I looked at Calvin. Maria looked at Calvin. Derek looked at Calvin. Even Daphne looked at Calvin.

  “Uhm… yes,” he said, looking extremely nervous. “We do not have much extra space, but we fitted a warehouse up to house your men until the fort can be constructed.”

  “Good, and where is that.”

  Calvin looked at one of the people around him, making a beckoning motion with his finger. The man rushed forward, standing almost at attention to the side.

  “Yes sir?”

  “Show..,” he paused, looking at me. Maria turned and beckoned one of her soldiers down. “Show them to the warehouse.”

  “Yes sir.”

  Calvin stood a little straighter. Seemed to get some of his confidence and swagger back.

  “Lord Howell, if you would please follow me,” he said, motioning toward the end of the dock. “We can retire to the Town Hall.”

  “Of course,” I said. “Lead on.”

  ***

  I was glad that Calvin hadn’t set up carriages for us to take to the Town Hall. After being cooped up in the airship, I wanted to walk and stretch my legs. It was only a small group coming with me, the people I wanted to suffer as much as I would. Nathan, Captain Nichols, Maria and Derek. It was obvious that Calvin had expected a bigger entourage. He had one.

  I’d thought about bringing Sunie and one of the other elves along, but we’d talked about that on the trip up and everyone, including the elves, thought it best to keep them hidden for as long as possible. They would draw attention, from the cityfolk and anyone in town spying. And we figured there would be a lot of people in town spying. I figured I’d reach out to Fred and see if he could get any of his people to stand down, maybe they’d even help us. If I could find Subudai’s folks, I’d enjoy having them arrested.

  I started chatting with Daphne as we walked, ignoring Calvin. I let Derek discuss matters with him. Logistics, all that fun stuff.

  “What’s the situation,” I asked her.

  “Lord Howell,” she said. “Are these not better questions to ask the Lord Mayor?”

  She said it just loud enough for Calvin, a couple steps ahead of us, to hear. So I kept my answer in the same volume.

  “I’m not impressed with the Mayor,” I said, seeing the man miss a step as he heard my words. “All this pomp, it’s unneeded. As I said, this is a military operation. I appreciate feeding us, and hope that our people disembarking off the ship will get access to food as well,” I smiled, seeing Calvin stiffen again.

  Guess he hadn’t planned on that. Wonder how fast he could scramble something up?

  “The incursion is worrying,” she said. “As is the expected Dungeon Surge. With the Gray Wolf Clan officially joining the Solace Fellowship, I’m sure the Mayor expected this visit to be a combination of both.”

  “In a way it is,” I admitted. “But that’s what Derek is here for,” I said, pointing to the younger man that was asking Calvin a lot of questions, writing the answers in his notebook.

  It was all boring stuff about imports, exports, number of visitors, how much traffic the Atlanflow got coming up. Stuff like that. I know Kat had given him a very long list of stuff to find out.

  “What are you here for then, Lord Howell?”

  I really wanted to ask her to stop calling me Lord, but I remembered Kat’s words before I’d left.

  “I’m here to punch things,” I answered.

  I somehow managed to keep from laughing as Calvin almost fell as he stumbled at hearing me.

  Did he think I was going to punch him?