While Rigord was talking to the Prince's chief of guard, Maser intercepted one of his drinking companions and started interrogating him. He told him a very interesting story: the Prince had come here for a council of war, but thinking it was not so important, he corrupted some of his guards and went on a bender with his friends.
"Maser, let's go, we can manage here without us, and I want to show you something." The savage nodded and walked towards the exit of the brothel.
"What's that?" There were many masts and sails in the harbour, but these were different from the others, first of all because of their size and the fact that they stood proudly above the plain line of unremarkable city blocks.
"Oh, I wanted a surprise, so let's go." After catching the coachman they returned to the quay, but for Maser these minutes stretched like hours, in his head the man had already calculated the size of the ship, for an experienced sailor it was not very difficult, these approximate calculations frightened and delighted him at the same time.
Fortunately for him, the carriage stopped and kicking the door with his foot the captain jumped out and froze like a stumbling block, in front of him in all its splendour stood, a mighty giant. It was huge, even bigger than he had calculated a few minutes before.
"Unbelievable," Maser said, keeping his eyes fixed on this work of human genius.
"Impressive, isn't it? I had the same face when I first saw it," Rigord coughed slightly and said with as much pathos as possible.
"This is the first armoured frigate of the Webian Empire, the Warrior, and she will be Prince Edward's personal ship for the duration of the expedition." Maser slowly turned his head in the direction of his chief, the man was filled with emotions, he wanted to attack him, but with fists or questions he did not decide.
"What kind of a tiger is this lion?" Masser decided to delay physical contact and find out more.
"I don't know much myself, but its creator is distantly related to me, so listen. Over a hundred metres long, a steam engine of about five thousand horsepower, and a range of two thousand kilometres. Thirty guns of 203 millimetres and 10 guns of 310 millimetres. A thousand man crew, in a word, before us is a real monster."
"That's right," Maser was still in shock, the man's templates were torn at the seams and thrown out into the cold, 'If these ships become a stream, the Webian Empire will be unrivalled on the water. He summarised his thoughts.
"Do you like it?" A cheerful man's voice called out to the men, and they both turned round, the prince stood in front of them, accompanied by his retinue, and to the surprise of both of them he was in good health.
"Of course," they both replied in sync.
"This ship is a novelty of our shipbuilders, the first of its kind, and my dear maman entrusted it to me, because only such a ship is worthy of my person, and it will surely demonstrate our greatness to these savages." Edward was literally glowing with happiness, he was in his environment, complete superiority over his interlocutor, the prince was a hardened narcissist and like nothing else in life liked to be the centre of attention.
"Captain Maser, in view of my absence at the war council, we will spend it at sea, so the day after tomorrow I am waiting for you on board my flagship," the Prince obviously wanted to show off in front of his current subordinate, Maser was a well-known man in narrow military circles, but because of his origin could not count on a significant career growth. And with the presence of the prince in the expedition he could not claim the laurels of a hero either.
"It will be fulfilled," the savage replied without looking at the prince, unable to take his eyes off the "Warrior".
...
"Maser, Maser," Rigord shook his subordinate by the shoulder, "Did you fall asleep?"
"Oh, what do you want?"
"Let's say goodbye, because you've been staring at him for ten minutes, I'm probably disturbing you, aren't I?" The prince had long since left, and they were left alone on the wharf. Maser turned round to face his superior and extended his hand to him.
"Good luck to you, my friend, just remember my words and be careful, just in case I will voice that if you lose this ship, you and I will be buried in one common mass grave, please remember that."
"That's right, and good luck to you Rigord, don't miss me, I'll bring you something good, so prepare the best shelves and good wine." The men shook hands, Maser left and Rigord just stood there looking after him. 'My friend, I am very sorry about this.'
Rigord said to himself and caught the coachman and drove away. Maser on the other hand headed towards his ship, his second and first home, the heavy frigate Red Sandstone.
An old but good ship, with an interesting fate, only four of them were built as an experiment. And everything seemed to be fine, the money was allocated and the construction went according to plan, except that ... The first bad omen was the lightning that struck the mast of the unfinished ship, it certainly quickly repaired, but rumours began to go bad, the ship is cursed and everything is gone, whether it is true or not Maser did not know. Further events only fueled the general hysteria, the first heavy frigate sank as soon as it left the harbour, the idiot captain ignored the fog and drove the ships onto the reefs.
The second took part in the war with the Gazan Republic and in the first raid met with two heavy galleons, of course, it was quickly sunk, the third was not even finished, there was a terrible fire in the harbour and the frigate was burnt to ashes.
And then the builders and sailors finally lost their minds, a huge crowd with torches gathered around the last ship, intending to burn the damned ship to hell and forget it as a terrible dream. Argument and persuasion did not help, and every one as one shouted.
'That damned ship will bring down our whole fleet!'
'We must destroy it, lest the curse spread further!'
They didn't listen to them for long, of course, and after enough time, the city authorities waited for the troops and the crowd was quickly dispersed. But the reputation of a floating coffin had been established for a ship that was not so lucky.
Captains and sailors feared it like fire, and when promoted prayed to all known and unknown gods, only for one thing, not to get on board this ship. It was about this time that Maser was promoted, he was not a local, and his superiors put the problem into the hands of the Webb Trading Company, and they in turn into his tanned hands.
Having exhaled they continued to do their business, as well as Maser, this ship became his faithful friend, more than once he brought it out of even the most difficult troubles, and Maser reciprocated him at his own expense put new cannons, the public ones were no good, got money from Rigord for plating the hull with copper sheets, and most importantly gave the name.
To his surprise, the ship didn't have one at the time he received it, everyone just called it a heavy frigate and that was it. He named it Red Sandstone, in honour of the site of an ancient battle, the victory of which was celebrated every year in his homeland.
Maser stepped aboard the ship, and touching the helm with his hand quietly said. "Well mate, we have a difficult job to do again, and if we do well I swear I'll put silk sails on you." The man tapped the helm a couple of times and looked around. His subordinates were running everywhere, which wasn't surprising, they were due to depart in a couple of hours.
"But knowing our fleet, we'll be sailing well past midnight." Maser smiled at the thought and opened the door to his quarters, where his deputy was waiting for him - a short, dark-haired boy with a perpetually sullen face.
"Is everything ready?" Asked Maser smoking a cigarette.
"Yes, we are ready to go," calmly answered the deputy, looking somewhere out the window.
"Let's show, I remember the last time, how it was possible to confuse gunpowder with sugar, we then barely got away." The deputy lost his eyes in the floor, this time is not the first time when the commander puts this case in his reproach, although he was drunk as a cattle and ordered to load these boxes.
"Maser, you ordered us to..." every time he tried to clarify the situation, and every time Maser rudely interrupted him, not letting him finish his thought, this time was no exception.
"Alan, I was shit-faced drunk, and there were a hundred and fifty of you there, didn't anyone, not a single soul want to check what the fuck was in those fucking crates, or steal something." Alan just took a deep breath.
"Never mind,' the captain waved his hand to dispel the nasty smoke and continued." Did you see that thing?
"Even a blind man could see it, and yes, I know it's coming with us."
"Everyone knows, but I don't, it's not right, we'll deal with it later, but now let's go and check it out, the target is far away and we won't have the right for a stupid miscalculation." Alan nodded and both men left the cabin.
The evening breeze playfully tickled his skin, under the rays of the setting sun, Maser finished his cigarette and threw it overboard, staring up at the sky, even if he was in another country, or even on another continent, but his God always saw him.
Closing his eyes, the man quietly said. "Menos you have always looked after me, so don't miss out this time, you know I won't be in debt."
The man finished his self-soothing session and followed Alan into the hold.