Chương 42: 41 Trial by Tide

"Wake up." I flinched as the psychic suppression dropped from my mind. Lunging to my feet, the shackles around my wrists snapped tight, the bolt secured to a stone block on the sand. Laughter rippled as I cast frenzied looks around me. Harsh glows resolved into sharp torchlight as my eyes focused. There had to be forty figures around me, diverse in build and ancestry. Drake-kins, Fowl-kins, Aqua-Primords, Halflings, and a few Vulcans. I shook my head, trying to reorient myself.

I was surrounded, my captors standing on planks that rose four feet off the sand, mounted on pilings. Cold iron gripped my wrists, and icy water numbed my knees. I glanced down. I knelt in the sand, two inches of water soaking my pants. My chains ran through a bolt in a stone, grounding me in place. <<16 new messages>> I winced at that. Just how long had I been out?

"Welcome—" the half-Ogre's deep voice boomed.

"To your trial!" My gaze snapped up. The Ogre stood before me, the Raven Reaper standing to his right, beaked mask still concealing his face, and the Psionic woman—Lonnie grinned, stooped in her shawl. She didn't look like a fey hag or a witch, but more like a grandmother who spent her time baking treats and doting on her grandchildren. My body tightened, and I forced myself to relax. A fresh wave of water rolled past my knees, climbing up my legs.

"Well, Captain Anton," the Ogre grinned, chewing on a lit cigar.

"What to do with you?" I shrugged, forcing my face to remain impassive.

"You could let me go." Another wave of snickers rippled around me. Jaser shifted from behind the Ogre, face tight with apprehension. So the rat found his way home. I opened my messages, scanning briefly. Most of them were from Ingred and Bianca, which meant they were no longer in the hold. A few came from Naomi, demanding status updates; no doubt the other girls were in communication. I dismissed all the notifications, forcing myself to focus on the moment.

"Let you go?" The Ogre clicked his tongue.

"I don't see that happening. You see, you're an outsider, trafficking in my territory. That doesn't work for me." I focused on him, scanning with my terminal. <<Name: Thaddius Calder >> <<Race: Half-Ogre>> <<Class: None>> <<Rank: Head Driver in the Slavers Guild>> <<Lvl: None>> <<Total: Not synced to Oruabora>> << Equivalent Level: Martial-6; Physic-6>> <<Stats: >> Might (STR) — 11 Will (WIS) — 07 Focus (INT) — 07 Resilience (CON) — 11 Grace (DEX) — 06 Cunning (CHA) — 10 I swallowed. Thaddius, the name at the top.

This was him.

"We're wasting time," The Raven Reaper grumbled.

"Let's kill him and get it over with."

"So uncivilized," Thaddius said, plucking his cigar from his lips and exhaling a plume of smoke.

"We live in a society, and when one trespasses in society, we hold a trial." He shoved the cigar between his teeth and grinned.

"Witnesses." Lonnie clapped her hands twice, and the crowd above me shuffled. My prisoners arrived first, to my left, dragged in chains. The slavers forced them to sit on the dock's edge, fresh shackles restraining them. Ingred's eyes widened when she saw me on the sand below. The spectators shuffled, and my captors drove my mercenaries to the dock, forcing them to sit on the edge. Mordisco's eyes met mine, his lower lip split. One of Drogo's eyes was swollen shut, but Needles had taken the worst of it.

The goblin's entire head was lopsided with swelling, rust-brown blood caking the hair on his head. A new message flashed in my vision. <<Ingred: Tony, get ready, we'll attack on my signal. >> My jaw tightened, and I shot off a reply, trying my best not to let my eyes flicker. <<Tony: No, we're not burned yet. Play along>>"Well, Captain Anton," Thaddius said, shifting his bowler cap further back on his brow.

"You have until the tide rises to plead your case. Why should we let you live?" My brow climbed. Until the tide rose? Another wave washed over my knees, climbing higher up my leg. Then I understood. Anchored as I was, the rising water would soon cover my head.

"Why should I die?" I croaked, trying to force confidence into my voice. I failed.

"Who are these people?" Thaddius asked, motioning to the prisoners on my left. I inhaled sharply, composing myself.

"That's my cargo," I said.

"You've robbed me."

"A confession," the Raven Reaper grumbled.

"Let's kill him and be done."

"Slow down, Reaper," Lonnie chided, a grandmother standing among slavers.

"We've never had anyone get this far before." Thaddius frowned at his lieutenants, then he leaned down towards me.

"Conducting business in my territory. That's what you stand accused of." I rolled my shoulder, feeling the stiff ache run through it. The wound on my shoulder had scabbed over, half healed from the potion I stole.

"Last I heard, you claim the entire World Archipelago as your territory. That's a monopoly." I grinned.

"No competition? That's bad for a healthy market." Thaddius flashed teeth, lips spreading. He liked that answer.

"I'm more than fair," he said.

"Fair?" I laughed, tugging on the chains.

"This is fair?"

"You're breathing, aren't you?" The tide climbed another inch, washing up the side of my thigh. I lifted an unamused brow.

"For now."

"No outsiders," Thaddius grunted.

"That is our law." I forced myself not to glance at my comrades, to take comfort in their presence. We weren't helpless. We wore chains, but I had a pistol and a saber hidden in my inventory. In a blink, I'd be armed. Ingred could deal some serious area damage, and no doubt Bianca could hulk out on the crowd.

"Can a kindred spirit truly be an outsider?" I reasoned.

"When I look at you, I don't see rivals, I see comrades." Thaddius scratched his brow with a thumb.

"Let's say I agree with you. I watched you fight the Raven Reaper. There's no denying—you know your stuff, kid." A ribbon of white foam washed over my knees, the tide creeping higher.

"So, it's for that reason I'll give you the opportunity—" his eyes slid towards my hobgoblins.

"Say the word, and I'll swap your position with your men." Mordisco tensed, and a Drake-kin slapped a heavy hand down on his shoulder. <<Ingred: Tony, do it. You have to get out of—>> I exited the message terminal entirely. She didn't see what was happening here. That wasn't a courtesy; it was a test.

"Put my men in the cold seat for my actions?" I snorted.

"Don't think so, pal."

"Responsible," Lonnie mused.

"Brave—""Loyal," Thaddius' voice rumbled. He spat the butt of his cigar into the water, then drew a fresh one from his breast pocket. He bit down on it, flicked a match to life, puffing twice before waving the flame away.

"I didn't mean to disrespect you," I said at length.

"Too late for that," the Raven Reaper grumbled. I shot him a glare.

"I did it to get your attention."

"Well—" Thaddius blew more smoke.

"You have it. Not for much longer." I inhaled sharply, spine locking as the icy water reached my groin. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

"Look," I said.

"My actions weren't a challenge; they were an audition. My sword, my ship, my crew. They could be yours."

"Let's say we are kindred spirits," Thaddius grumbled.

"Say you're not an outsider, per se. We always train our help in-house. There's no precedent."

"So make the precedent," I growled.

"He can fight," Lonnie said.

"Nearly as good as Reaper."

"Muscle is easy to source," Thaddius said.

"Not skill like mine," I countered.

"I'm one of a kind."

"So cocky!" Thaddius grinned.

"Confidence like this—it's rare."

"I have a ship. Scorched Navy," I said.

"You had a ship, boy. Thanks for that, by the way." My lips puckered sourly.

"And my crew? You really think they'll just flip to you like that?"

"They will," Jaser spoke up, stepping into the torchlight.

"You may have rescued them, but they're all convicts—in it for themselves." My shoulders slumped. I didn't want that to be true. After the Titan Crab, after training and sailing together, surely the Crew and the Hammers would side with me.

"You don't have a helmsman as good as me," I said.

"I guarantee it. No one can run a deck of guns more accurately." Lonnie's head cocked. That was important to her somehow, so I pressed it.

"I evaded the Paradise coast guard and a Hobgoblin ship-of-the-line. Given time and the proper manpower, I could have sunk all three."

"He is good," Jaser confessed.

"He's got skill on the waves."

"Fact remains," Thaddius shrugged.

"I can't trust you."

"So don't trust me." I shivered as the water climbed.

"Use me." Lonnie shifted.

"Let me probe his mind. I'll tell you if he'll turn on us." I tensed, a chill unrelated to the water taking me. She was a psionic. Of course, she could bypass the facade. Uncover my true identity. Message notifications flashed in my terminal, and Ingred and Bianca fidgeted in their restraints. I ignored it all.

"Do it," I invited, shrugging.

"You probably won't like what you find in there." She raised an inquisitive eyebrow at Thaddius. He nodded once. Two of her fingers rose, old and wrinkled. A ghostly blue light trailed the tips.

"Tell me the truth," she said.

"Would you betray us?" I tensed, her influence touching my mind. <<Autocast Minor Resist Charm… Resistance Check Passed>> My mana dropped, and I let out a light gasp. Her fingers dipped, her frown deepening. Her fingers rose a second time. <<Autocast Minor Resist Charm… Resistance Check Passed>> Sweat beaded on my temples as the waterline passed my navel.

"How are you doing that?" she demanded, face darkening.

"Never got along well with Psionics," I grunted.

"Why don't you try it again? Should work eventually."

"Enough," Thaddius said, stroking his chin.

"We'll use his ship for the job. I liked you, kid, but the risk of an outsider outweighs what you're bringing to the table." To my left, Ingred's hand curled, preparing to summon from her inventory.

"I have a buyer!" I blurted out, trying to stop my team members from blowing our cover. Even with surprise on our side, we wouldn't win here. Not shackled and surrounded. Thaddius leaned forward, towering over me from his elevated platform.

"That's why I sought you out in the first place," I said, as the water climbed my chest.

"Go on." I heaved in shuddering breaths.

"Getting a little chilly down here. Why don't you take these off and we'll—""So talk fast," Thaddius growled.

"She's a Shad," I said.

"Disgruntled kinsman to Aunt Flavia Myrkrath." That was Naomi's cover—rehearsed and normed.

"Family to an Aunt?" he tensed, grinding his cigar.

"I want nothing to do with the High Family."

"A resentful rival!" I called.

"She wants to challenge Myrkrath for Fel Rock!" He hesitated.

"A war, you say? Wars need soldiers, not just slaves."

"That's the thing about Necromancers, isn't it?" I hissed as the water washed over the bottom of my shoulders.

"All they need are bodies; then they get their armies."

"So, rob graves," Thaddius said, inspecting something under his nails.

"Fresh bodies," I said, voice climbing.

"Ones that can walk to the altar. That's how she needs to raise an army. Think about it. You're supplying the Bloodwake. You can pump bodies into two war efforts at once. With that type of wealth, you could do anything!" Water touched my collarbone, and I started pulling on the chain in earnest.

"Thanks for that, kid," Thaddius grinned wickedly.

"I'll be sure to tell her you said hi after we make contact." I caught Ingred's face, twisted in horror as the water climbed my neck. She wouldn't let me die. In a few moments, she'd attack, and the Guild would murder us all. Mordisco jerked his chains.

"He's her brother, you fools!" A blow to the face staggered the hobgoblin. Thaddius's gaze snapped over.

"Explain?" Mordisco spat blood, his split lip bleeding anew.

"You think she'll treat with you after you murder her brother?"

"He said she was a Shad," Lonnie said.

"The boy's human."

"Shad families work differently!" Mordisco snapped.

"They were raised together. They trained with the same knife."

"The Raven Reaper knows!" I called, the water licking my jaw.

"Madam Thornsong was a Derk, yet he calls her mother." The raven mask flinched, just a fraction, then it stilled.

"So rather than acquiring an asset," Mordisco rasped, his voice almost lost as water reached my ears.

"You're choosing to make a powerful enemy!" My eyes flickered wildly, meeting Thaddius' eyes. He watched me, waiting far too long. I inhaled sharply as the ocean climbed up the side of my face. Thaddius turned to Lonnie and nodded once. Then I slipped under the waves. I reached for my inventory, unsure how I was going to get through the chains. Try to hack through with my sword? My lungs tightened, a burn smoldering in my chest.

I accessed my inventory— The shackles snapped open, and I blinked in the dark water, confused. Psionic bands seized me, binding my arms to my sides and my ankles together. I lifted out of the water, coughing. Lonnie grinned at me, two fingers outstretched. She rolled her hand and flicked the fingers in a come-hither gesture, and I floated closer. I dropped onto the planks, coughing as water dripped off me. All three Guildmasters crowded close.

For just a heartbeat, I was tempted to summon my saber and strike, claiming three heads in one system-fueled cut. Foolish. Impossible. But the image replayed in my head. Thaddius squatted beside me.

"So you're not a rival, you're a client. Why didn't you say so?"

"No," I panted, water dripping off my hair.

"I meant what I said. I want to join you. I love my sister, but this is my calling." Thaddius rumbled, a noise that resolved into a laugh. His meaty hand slapped my back, nearly driving me to the deck.

"Well, boy, do you really have what it takes to be a slaver?" I glared up, wiping water from my face with my hand.

"I could use your sword, your ship, your crew," Thaddius continued.

"But what good will it do me if you're soft?"

"Why don't you ask your bird boy if I'm soft?" I growled.

"Oh, fighting a combatant, anyone can do that." Thaddius held out a hand, and a driver pressed a bullwhip into it.

"Oh," I said, eyes flickering at the lash.

"I can take it."

"Of that I have no doubt," Thaddius said.

"Question is, can you give it? Does the yoke of mercy encumber you?" Chains rattled behind me, and the drivers forced my six prisoners to their feet. Blood drained from my face, and I prayed he didn't clock it in the dark. He stepped up to the line, hand hovering over the rooster Fowl-kin.

"No," he moved down the line, hand passing over Bebi, then the cabin boy, then Ingred. The edges of my eyes tightened, near imperceptibly—but it was blood in the water, and he was a shark.

"Oh, yes. This one, I think." A Halfling and a Vulcan seized Ingred's arms and dragged her forward. They cast her down on her face; the Vulcan grabbed the back of her shirt and tore it down the center. I flinched at the sight of her bare back. For an instant, I saw her across the classroom as a kid, then later studying beside me as a candidate. Now she knelt bare before my lash. The patches on my face and forearms prickled, and the handle of the whip burned in my grip.

"Oh? Is this weakness?" Thaddius purred. She shivered as she hugged the rags of her shirt to her chest. No. Heat flushed through me. She'd want me to do it. To continue the cover, but I wouldn't. She tensed, as if she could read my thoughts, and glanced over her shoulder, her icy-blond hair half-covering her eye, which begged me to go through with it. I couldn't. My sword belt formed in my mind—"Well, piss me a bloody billycan and call it tea, is this how baby slavers are made?" a voice called, and I froze.

I turned to find Bebi on his knees, stubby horns smoldering.

"Aw, what's the matter? Yer lady bits get too cold, Captain? Ya couldn't juggle yer stones if ya kissed a barn cow and begged her to smile." Something flickered across his eyes, an acknowledgment. A driver cuffed him on the ear, and he laughed.

"Yer hands're softer than a woman's rose." The driver wound up another strike.

"Silence!" I snarled, stepping forward. The Coredwarf hawked loudly and spat a wad of mucus right into my eye. I flinched back, cursing as I wiped it away.

"If yer going to prove ya have balls, why don't ya take off these pretty bracelets and face me like a man?" His face twisted into a snarl, but his chin dipped once. Permission. My jaw tensed, a shudder ripping through me. He was offering himself in her place—a Coredwarf who had grown up in captivity. Someone who'd already earned his stripes. A knot welled in my throat.

"Lip's trembling like a Fey-kin baby without his candy. Bet ya can't—" I struck, backhanding him across the face, jerking his head to the side. His eye returned to me, blazing, blood coating his lip.

"Yer going to need more to break a Core—" With dozens of eyes on me, I lunged, seizing him by the throat and hurling him to the ground. My vision blurred, a lump rising in my throat as I whirled the lash.

"C'mon, Jackbloke, is that all—" The lash snapped down, and he flinched as it slashed through his shirt. A howl of laughter escaped him, pained and wild.

"You better open me to the bone if you don't want me to put a foot in your—" I struck again. Every snap of the lash felt like it landed on me. The whip whirled, cracked like a gunshot. Bebi howled. Ingred had turned, hands clasped together as tears streamed down her face. A husky breath tore from me, and I glimpsed the backs of my hands darkening and itching. I snarled, rage at myself flaring, and I lashed again. The whip scored his shirt, drawing a new track of red that crossed a dozen other scars.

"Don't—stop—ladyman!" Bebi hissed.

"That's all you got—" I hollered as I brought it down again. The Coredwarf convulsed, groaning.

"More!" Thaddius sang, clapping gleefully. I obeyed, striking once, then twice. Laughter rippled through the crowd. Lonnie's eyes gleamed like she was watching a sacred rite. The braided leather cut across my friend's back. All done by my hand. I reared up—then froze. What had I done? Bebi groaned in a collapsed heap at my feet. I couldn't take it back. Cover or no cover—I had become one of them. I slumped, chest shaking as I suppressed a sob.

"Hey," Thaddius whispered.

"There, there." He stepped over to me, offering a hand. I didn't meet his eye. I accepted the hand, and he helped me up. Then he embraced me.

"It gets easier the second time," he whispered, tobacco carrying on his words.

"Welcome to the brotherhood, my son." <<Time to Seal Collapse: 04: 00: 06: 13: 41: 22>>