She would be accepted and have people of her own — people that would call her friend for who she was, not who they wanted her to be. She could have the love of any man she wanted, simply with a gesture and a look. All of Deepingdale was to be hers for the taking, all she had to do was to give in to the voices and let them teach her the things only it could teach her.
Watching Dexter leave she had felt another piece of her heart crumble. A tear slid down her cheek. Jenna turned inward, listening more earnestly to the voice.
“Where’s Rosh?” Dexter asked as he strode up the deck. Keshira and Bekka were behind him, following closely.
Logan shrugged from where he was writing something in a journal he had taken to keeping. “Haven’t seen him,” he said. “Willa neither, for what it’s worth.”
Dexter frowned. After a moment he shrugged and headed below deck, barging into Rosh’s quarters without bothering to knock. The man was not there, as expected, but the spare weapons were. He grabbed several bags of fire powder and handed them to Bekka and Keshira. Logan had followed them downstairs, and given the ruckus he was making outside of the crew quarters, Bailynn soon joined them.
By the time he had started back up the stairs, Jodyne had emerged as well. She looked on, confused, at the heavily armed profession that passed her by. Dexter called down to her to mind the ship while they were out, and she could only nod and roll her eyes at what she expected to be more trouble. She thought to wake Xander, but decided to let the wizard rest; he was a bit peculiar for her tastes.
It made her sigh with longing for her lost husband. She had no doubt Kragor would have been right at Dexter’s side for whatever mischief he had planned. Unknown behind her, the ghost of her partner watched with a smile and a nod as the crew departed.
They trooped back to the tower, the hour growing so late the sky was lightening though the sun was distant. More proof of the magic of the Lord of the tower.
Dexter laid out his plans when they got there. Still no portal allowed them entrance, so he stacked sacks of powder about it, intent upon making one. It was only after he finished with it that he poured a line of the powder to where they hid; some dozens of feet away and behind a swell in the ground.
Bekka used a touch of her magic and they all watched expectantly. The flame leapt from her finger to the powder, but it did not ignite. She looked up to Dexter, surprised, and tried again. The second and third time it continued to fail to light.
Eye’s wide, Dexter drew his pistol and pointed it at the makeshift fuse. He pulled the trigger and was left stunned by the lack of a report from the weapon. It stayed silent and still in his hand.
“More magic,” Bekka wagered. “The powder won’t light.”
“Captain, why are we here?” Logan asked, his curiosity reaching the breaking point. “I thought Jenna went of her own will.”
“Aye, she did,” Dexter said offhandedly. “I mean to have her back.”
Logan and Bailynn shared a look. Logan seemed surprised, Bailynn suspicious. “You’re not releasing her from service?”
“This ain’t about service,” Dexter said, staring at the tower. He cursed and looked back at them. “I’m not of a mind to share my thoughts, you can go back to the Hawk if you want, or wherever you feel like. I got something that needs doing and I mean to see it done.”
Nobody got up to leave, but Dexter had already dismissed them. He stared at the tower and then turned to Keshira. “I won’t order it, there be magic in that tower and I don’t know what it can do, but I’ll ask it. Can you break a hole in that wall?”
Keshira studied the wall very briefly then nodded. “I believe I can, Captain.”
“I learned better tonight, so I’m asking you, will you try it?”
Keshira smiled again, dazzling them with her beauty. “Yes, Captain, I will.”
Bekka looked at Dexter quizzically, but he ignored her. She meant to have a long talk with the man when this was all done. Meanwhile, Keshira led them back to the base of the tower. Dexter and Logan pulled the powder sacks away from it while Keshira looked for a weakness. Finding nothing, she set to slamming her fists into it, sending vibrations through the ground with each forceful thud.
It seemed a pointless task, but after a dozen blows had landed a crack appeared upon a block of stone in the wall. Another followed soon after, and then she truly made progress with the destruction of the wall.
By the time she had reduced a pair of stones to rubble, nearly enough room for Dexter to climb through, Constable Lorren shouted at them from the road to town. He hurried up to them and demanded that they stop, insisting they tell him what this was all about.
“Know a better way in?” Dexter asked him.
“What? Why?” The constable asked. “The tower accepts supplicants when the Lord of Deepingdale wishes it.”
“That’s not going to do it,” Dexter said. He focused on the constable and addressed him directly. “You seem a good man, but there’s one of you to all of us. Them’s not the kind of odds that lead to sharing stories with your grandkids.”
The constable gaped, mouth flapping like a fish out of water. He looked back and forth, and saw to a man they all looked deadly serious. Keshira continued to pound, breaking off parts of another block and clearing it out.
“Why is Jenna not responding to us?” Bekka asked him, stepping closer. “We are her friends.”
The constable, able to focus on something, blinked and nodded. “Please, please stop — I’ll tell you what I can.”
Dexter narrowed his eyes but, after a minute, nodded and turned to tell Keshira to stop. She had already ceased, however, and instead offered him a knowing smile that he nearly laughed at, in spite of the situation. He turned and nodded to the constable to continue.
“Thank you,” he said, taking a moment to wipe his brow with a rag he produced from his pocket.
“I was a boy serving as a cook’s monkey on a ship that came here,” he said. “The captain became the new lord — and after a few years I was given the job of constable.”
“Does every new arrival end up changing the Lord?” Logan said, interrupting with his question.
“No,” Lorren said, surprised at the question. “It always signals a festival, but at times the newcomers are not found worthy.”
“My captain is the Lord that is turning over his duty to your friend. You will find her different as she accepts her responsibilities.”
Dexter growled. “I don’t want her different — she’s my first mate, there’s no call for her to be tied to this place.”
“Did you not have dreams of what being Lord here would be like?” Lorren asked him.
Dexter opened his mouth to retort, but remained silent. He scowled. “Every man dreams,” he said at length. “And every man lives a life as best he can in spite of his dreams.”
Lorren sighed. “Well spoken, Captain — but it is too late. She put on the amulet and, as I recall, that signals the ascension to the position.”
“Aw hell,” Dexter swore. “That’s a load of voidrat dung! Constable, I’m going into that tower and I’m getting Jenna back.”
“I can’t stop you, Captain,” Lorren admitted. “By the time I could raise some men to come here, you’ll be inside.”
“Some friendly advice,” he offered with a resigned tone. “When you stand before her and find you can’t see your friend there anymore, ask yourself if such a fate is truly a curse.”
The constable stood a moment longer, then walked off back towards the town. Keshira resumed ripping out the loosened block from the tower. Dexter turned to the tower as well, while the others stared thoughtfully at the constable.