The knot in his stomach eased when he saw his father come out of his room onto the deck, already speaking with Commander Ironfist.
The commander was in the lead, speaking over his shoulder. “Do you know what your wife will do to me if I let anything happen to you?” he asked.
“Wife?” Kip asked.
Commander Ironfist scowled quickly. “My apologies, my lord, I didn’t-”
“It’s not a secret, Commander,” Gavin said smoothly. “I married Karris before we left, Kip.”
“You wha-Oh, oh,” Kip said. Clearly that relationship had been a little different than Kip had thought in the little slivers of it he’d seen. Which had included curses and slapping and jumping off a boat rather than be near Gavin. Kip closed his mouth, then realized not saying anything might look like he was passing judgment. He couldn’t help but feel left out. That he hadn’t deserved to hear about it right away, that his father was still holding out on him. “Uh, congratulations, sir?”
“Why thank you, Kip. And I’m very glad to see you this morning. I’ve asked you to fight not as a boy, but as a man, and you’ve responded. And I can tell you haven’t slept, so you’ve responded appropriately. Well done, son.”
Well done, son. The words were what Kip had ached to hear for his whole life, and doubly so since learning Gavin Guile was his father. But they were delivered perfunctorily, as if Gavin were checking items off a list, without emotion, without attention.
“Now, as we go this morning,” Gavin said, “I want you to tell me about the assassination attempt.”
Kip hadn’t really thought of what happened in the alley that way, but Gavin said it so blithely that Kip knew he had to be right. Lucia had died because of Kip. Had stepped into the line of fire. It was, oddly, exactly what Blackguards were supposed to do, but she’d done it on accident. Kip wasn’t sure if that made it better, or worse.
They walked to the stern and Kip saw that they weren’t going alone. At the bottom of a pair of rope ladders, a dozen Blackguards stood on a skimmer the likes of which Kip had never seen. It was, of course, bigger so that it could hold seventeen of them, but it was also shaped differently, like a large flying wing, with eight scoops. Every Blackguard was armed with a bow and a large quiver and bandoliers of grenadoes. Some had spare spectacles. From there, each was armed according to his fancy and expertise. A couple had bucklers. One carried a notched sword-breaker. Most had a pistol. One had a bich’hwa like Karris often carried. And others had the forward-bent ataghans or the sweeping scimitars. The skimmer itself had grapnels and ropes aplenty.
Plus, every Blackguard was himself a considerable weapon.
Kip’s awe and hesitancy must have shown on his face, because Gavin said, “Kip, you can’t become who you need to be if I’m not willing to risk losing you. You still want to come?”
Cruxer was down there. Cruxer was coming! He saw Kip and lifted his chin in greeting. He looked pretty excited that he was being allowed to come.
It pained Kip to say it, but he said, “I don’t bring much to the table, sir.”
“Not yet. But you’re about to learn from the best.”
They climbed down the ladder and onto the huge skimmer. Gavin began giving the Blackguards instructions. “Biggest risk is you’ll tear your arms off. You can’t go from a standstill to full speed in a breath. If you have the skill, you can narrow the pipes at first. The luxin needn’t be focused. This is one place you can be sloppy, whatever is the easiest band for you to draft will work.” He continued, while Kip settled into his place.
They released the ropes holding the skimmer to the galleon and Gavin and Ironfist manned the pipes on the main platform, and soon Kip heard the familiar whoop, whoop, whoop. Soon, half of the other Blackguards joined in, while Gavin and Ironfist gave instructions, and thenceforth the men and women spoke back and forth to each other, giving tips and hints.
Gavin taught them how to do turns and showed how sharply they could do it. And Kip saw the same look of delight steal over the Blackguards’ faces that had crept over his own the first time he’d experienced the wind and waves and the sheer, unbelievable speed.
Then, when things settled down, Kip told his father the whole story of the assassination attempt as they sped across the waves. This skimmer was modified to enclose the front, so the wind didn’t obliterate their conversations.
“This… this is different than the skimmer before,” Kip said. “Didn’t you just make this up a little while ago?”
Gavin shrugged. “War always moves forward, and if you’re not at the leading edge of what’s possible, you might not live long enough to regret it.”
They saw many ships, but didn’t close with any of them until after noon. Gavin stopped, motioning to Ironfist to do the same, and peered at the horizon. He brought out a large glass binocle, which was odd. The last time he’d needed to see into the distance, he’d simply drafted disks of perfect blue luxin. Maybe the clarity of this glass was better.
“It’s flying their flag,” Gavin said. “Broken chains on a black background.” He handed the binocle to Ironfist.
Ironfist was quiet. “That isn’t just a big ship,” he said.
“It’s a great ship,” Gavin said.
“I can’t even count how many guns it has. They’re not just on one deck,” Commander Ironfist said.
Gavin said, “Forty-three heavy guns, one hundred and forty-one light guns, fifty-two paces long, holds up to seven hundred men.”
“Are you joking?” Commander Ironfist asked. “You couldn’t possibly have counted…”
“It’s Pash Vecchio’s flagship,” Gavin said. “If he’s brought his flagship here, he’s thrown in with the Color Prince. He wouldn’t have hired out that ship.”
Kip understood that this was Not Good. “Pash Vecchio?” he asked.
“The pirate king,” Commander Ironfist said.
“One of four,” Gavin said. As if that made it less impressive.
“The most powerful of the four,” Commander Ironfist said dryly.
“Could have sworn that ship was going down the last time,” Gavin said.
“You’ve fought Pash Vecchio before?” Kip asked.
“No. I killed the previous owner of that ship and set it on fire. He was a pirate king, too,” Gavin said pointedly. “Good news: we won’t be killing innocents.”
“Great,” Kip said, trying to muster some enthusiasm. “Did you say one hundred and eighty-four guns?”
“Relax, there’s only eighteen on the stern,” Gavin said.
Comforting.
“What do you think they’re bringing?” Ironfist asked.
“Guns, or men, or just coming to blockade our ships from getting into Ruic Bay. Regardless, big obstacle. Needs removing.”
“You always did love a simple impossible challenge, didn’t you?” Ironfist said. He didn’t sound like he thought he had a chance of dissuading Gavin.
Which, Kip knew, he didn’t.
“Why do you think I let you bring so many Blackguards?” Gavin asked.
“Thought that was too easy,” Ironfist grumbled.
Gavin turned to the Blackguards. “Ready to see what you can do?” he asked.
He got grins in return. The Blackguards were like children with a new toy.
“I should have given you more time to train with the… what are we calling them, Commander?” Gavin asked.
“Sea chariots.”
Gavin nodded acquiescence. “Lots of guns, and let’s guess that there’ll be drafters on board, maybe numerous. Maybe wights. They’ll have tricks you’ve never seen. Expect the guns to be loaded already, though we may get lucky with how fast we’ll be on top of them. Staggered approach, try to cut their lines and set fire to the sails early. We circle sunwise so we don’t have collisions. Sinking the great ship is the primary target. If any other ships join the fight, they’re targets of opportunity, not worth dying for. Speed is your best defense, but expect to miss your first few shots. It’s hard to adjust your aim to this much speed at first. You figure it out. If you slow too much, you’ve given away your advantage and you’ve become one drafter against a ship full of musketeers for all we know. There are blindages on every deck, so until those are set afire or removed, don’t expect to toss grenadoes up top and have much effect. Four crow’s nests big enough to hold multiple archers or drafters. Eight large guns pointed to stern, including two that can aim down far enough to hit close targets. Ten smaller gunport doors that won’t open until they’re ready to fire. Oh, and her name’s the Gargantua. Questions?”