She scowled and snapped, “Not that! I meant when I came up the stairs I felt a touch of something cool. Not chilly or painful, just… odd.”
Dexter and Kragor met each other’s eyes. His scowl was gone and in its place was a wide grin. He pointed at each of them, one hand a piece, then formed a circle with the fingers of the hand pointing at Jenna and took the pointing finger of the hand pointing at Dexter and inserted it into the circle. He proceeded to pantomime a rhythmic motion that Dexter could hardly dismiss the obvious implications of.
“What’s wrong?” Jenna asked, seeing the color rising to Dexter’s cheeks. “Embarrassed to be seen with me standing near you now?”
Kragor, laughing silently, faded from view. Dexter turned, sputtering, to the elf and was going to try and defend himself but instead she just glared at him. “Bekka said we’d be coming up on a gravity well. She thinks it’s a small moon or something, it’s not on the charts.”
Dexter nodded. “Jenna…”
The elf shook her head, “Save it,” she told him. “This is a bad place for talking, and you don’t want your crew seeing what I plan to do to you.”
The tone in her voice and the angry and sad look in her eyes told him that he did not particularly want to know what she had in mind for him either. He nodded and sighed. “Alright,” he told her. Then, as he turned to head down to the bridge he whispered so he could be certain only her elven ears would pick it up, “I’m sorry.”
On the bridge Dexter glanced at the charts of the area briefly to be certain that it was as Jenna had told him. Sure enough, there was nothing but empty void where they were. Bekka was aware of him and asked distantly, “Captain — do you want to go around it or stop and investigate?”
Dexter thought about it for a long moment. They had plenty of supplies, so stopping was hardly necessary. Still, something uncharted could be a secret boon that might pick up everyone’s spirits. It might be undiscovered trade opportunities or perhaps a long lost pirate cache of equipment and loot. Dexter found himself smiling at the prospects, but then realized it could also be nothing — or perhaps something worse than nothing.
“Check it out,” Dexter said, moving closer to one of the two large round windows in the bridge.
Bekka did not respond, but after a few more minutes the ship began to decelerate as it entered the field of gravity. Dimly, Dexter could hear Jenna above calling out orders to bring the ship in closer for a look.
He hurried up to the deck for a better look as they sailed in. The ship moved in, the sails trimmed to slow it down some, and arced wide to give whatever the port used as a pilot boat a chance to catch up to them. As with surface harbors, a port for ships that sailed the void needed to be guided in to prevent chaos from clogging up the lanes.
No boat appeared. They drew closer and closer to the lush, albeit small, world and saw no sign of anyone interested in greeting or guiding them. Dexter’s grin spread and his excitement grew, overshadowing his other concerns and troubles. Had they discovered an uninhabited world? It was small, the size of a small moon, but that still would allow for thousands of people to live in peace, should they desire to do so. His thoughts raced ahead. If it was unoccupied, he could claim it and set himself up as Lord.
Dexter chuckled and Jenna glanced at him. Her jaw was clenched tight enough to turn her cheeks white. “I’ve enough trouble with a ship; I’m hardly needing a world to run!”
Her expression gave way to one of confusion, then returned to annoyance. She went back to barking out orders to the crew while Dexter returned to his thoughts of capitalizing on their finding.
His hopes were dashed when they circled the planet and made out a fair sized city. Details were impossible to make out from their altitude, even though the world seemed to not be pestered with such silly things as clouds. With no guide to take them in, Dexter ordered them to find their own way down. With recent experience sailing the winds of a world, they had little trouble dipping into the atmosphere and circling down towards the lone city.
Carved into the top of a small plateau, a large harbor rested on the edge of man-made lake with dry docs dotting the remaining area. Dexter opted for a water landing, trusting that the hull was better supported thusly.
The spacious town was well designed and the keep had a low wall connecting five towers. The palatial grounds gave way to a four story mansion containing enough rooms for dozens of people to live comfortably. It was no proper castle, by any means, but still large enough to clearly be the residence of the ruling lord of the city.
The town’s inhabitants crowded the shore and stared at the Voidhawk is pulled up to the dock, scrambling around to help tie off the lines. Dexter, Rosh, and Xander walked down the plank to the dock and cheering erupted. The three looked to one another and then back at the ship before continuing.
A man stepped forward, grinning ear to ear, and welcomed them. “Well met, we’ve been waiting for the next visitors from the skies.”
Dexter took his offered hand and let him shake it, vigorously. Rosh stood nearby, glowering threateningly at anyone that came too close.
“I am Constable Lorren, welcome to Deepingdale,” he said.
“Captain Silvercloud,” Dexter responded. “This is my Arms Master Rosh and my ship’s wizard Xander.”
“Tell me Constable, why is it I could not find Deepingdale on any of my charts?” Dexter asked. He turned and looked at the port. While largely vacant, it still harbored seven other ships.
Constable Lorren smiled and shrugged. “It is not mine to say, Captain. Perhaps your charts are out of date? Perhaps we are not on any trade routes. This is a small world, with Deepingdale being the only city.”
“It is our paradise, I admit,” he added, and glanced over his shoulder at the many others gathered here. “But we have little to trade aside from camaraderie.”
Dexter nodded, thoughtful. Something seemed amiss, but he could not place it.
Xander cleared his throat and asked, “You mentioned you’ve been waiting for visitors?”
The Constable nodded and some of the nearby townsfolk whispered excitedly, drawing a concerned glare from Rosh. “It is rare that we get visitors. As wondrous as it is here, we yearn for the tales you bring.”
He leaned in closer and said, “We’ve many fine young ladies here that yearn for some fresh blood from the skies as well, if you know what I mean.”
Rosh brightened a little, his glower fading. He cleared his throat and mumbled, “Seems like a fine enough port to me, Captain.”
Dexter rolled his eyes, but kept his rebuke to himself.
“Indeed, Captain, it is a fine place we have here. I am the Constable but I’ve not seen a crime committed in two years — and then it was young troublemakers that drank too much of our wine,” the Constable offered.
Dexter turned and glanced at the other ships; he could see no one standing watch on them. That gave both credence to the man’s words but also nagged at the back of his mind.
“We’ve some items to trade, if you’re interested, Constable,” Dexter said. “We come bearing simple supplies, arms and equipment mostly — if you’re truly an uncharted peaceful world, I suspect you’ve great need of steel.”
Lorren’s eyes flashed. “We’ve little need of weapons here,” he said. “Some may find interest in it though. Mostly we trade in our market in town, but for such a load I’ll grant you pass to set up shop here on the shore.”
Dexter nodded. “If you’ll clear some room for us, we’d be happy to oblige.”
Constable Lorren smiled and turned, waving his hands in a shooing motion and telling people to go back to their business. Grumbling, people began to disburse. Lorren turned back after many had gone and said to Dexter, “You and your crew are invited to join us tonight. It’s the Festival of Lords you’ve come upon, a grand time to be had by all!”
“Festival of Lords?” Dexter asked, glancing at Xander and Rosh, both of whom looked blankly back at him.