Chapter 188: Storm in Assak

Book 4, Chapter 29 - Storm in Assak

The Scarlet Reaver groaned as it pulled through waves sloshing against its hull. Rain had come during the hours ere dawn, giving rise to a mist that hid the ship. All was dark aboard the Reaver's deck, its wood a deepened brown from the rainwater trapped inside and the sun not yet fully risen.

Eksa shifted the helm several inches to her left. She closed her eyes and loosened her grip, breathing in the moist morning air, feeling on her skin the ocean's breeze, and getting a read of the winds to come and the waters below. The sea was mellow this faithful morn, but that would not last long. The passing rain was a prelude of what was to come. Though the sky remained hidden to her, Eksa could feel the inevitable approach of storm clouds somewhere in the distant horizon. Sometime this morning , she thought.

The waters stilled further in the minutes of sunrise. The Reaver was near land —near the small port town of Assak. Eksa had passed through this area several times in the past, getting glimpses of the town through her monocular. It was little more than an evolution of what must have once been a fishing village. From what she'd seen, most houses were of one floor, their rooftop tiles painted a hideous black, and the walls holding them of old wood logs. The mist hid the eerie town from her sight this morn just as it hid the wide sails and the red serpent flag flapping just above them.

A hundred armed men crowded the deck below, standing in silent rows like a proper military squadron of sorts —though their mismatched and unruly appearance dispelled that illusion rather quickly. Cross and Azul stood with them. She'd insisted they stay behind to lead their respective crews, but they'd both insisted on coming, neither one providing sufficient enough reason as to why.

Well, Eksa suspected their intents long ago. Aaron was gone, and these captains thought they now had an opportunity to win her favor .

“Tell them to prepare themselves,” Eksa hissed to Severum. The fool was squinting through a monocular as if it would make the mist any shallower. “We're near.” Near enough that voices of fishermen setting out during dawn carried through the fog in whispers. Eksa steered further toward the right, hoping to park the ship in an unoccupied berth. “And lower the flag afterward.” With luck, they could slip into Assak unseen and be out with their booty before anyone knew what'd transpired.

“Buckle up and weapons out lads!” Severum called. “Land ahoy!”

Eksa groaned. But of course this imbecile would shout than take a hint and use secrecy. It wasn't as if every man aboard had stood in solemn silence for the past several minutes. The fool was already scrambling up to take down the red serpent flag before Eksa had a chance to reprimand him. It was easy to forget that before more dangerous men like Cross and Azul had shown their interest in her, men like Severum and the Foura twins had long coveted her attention. Their slow minds at least allowed them to have a sense of decorum in the matter.

Left unpleased too long, Eksa suspected Cross and Azul would either force their hands or turn against her. She needed this victory as much for her own safety as she needed it to secure her place in the fight for supremacy on Kovar. Fed this victory, those captains would have more faith in her as a leader than reduce their opinions of her to their basest desires.

The Reaver gave another groan as dark, triangular shapes appeared in the wall of fog. “Drop anchor!” Eksa ordered. There was no need for secrecy any longer. She could hear boatmen mumbling songs. A couple surprised cries carried across the waves as the fishers of Assak finally noticed the larger vessel at their harbor. Eksa glanced up. Severum had taken her flag down. To the naked eye, her vessel could easily pass as a simple merchant's caravel. “Weapons sheathed!” she hissed, turning to the armed men ready to slaughter. Looks of confusion followed, while some larger ones itching for a fight scowled.

Eksa closed her fists. Her nails dug into her palms. The day had grown brighter than it should have. There had to be a crack in the clouds. With the sun out, the mist would not stay for long.

The anchor was lowered. The Reaver pulled to a stop right next to Assak's pier —a pier stretching for several hundred meters. Only a third of the space was taken by long boats and dinghies. Eksa's ship had pulled to a stop at just the right place. “You five,” she began, pointing to the five sailors nearest her. Qisa was among them. He sported a rugged beard with that absurd black stache of his now. “Find some empty crates below and pretend to unload them onto the pier. Go back and forth so Assak's people assume us merchants and drop their guard.”

Qisa jumped to obey almost immediately, whilst the other four spent several seconds sharing looks between themselves before shrugging to follow orders.

Just another reminder to Eksa that she did not hold as much sway over these men as she once had when Jackrin and Aaron were around.

A gangplank was dropped and Eksa marched down the pier followed by several dozen of the fighters Cross and Azul had brought along with. Only few from among the Reaver 's original crew were with her. She did not have on her oversized coat —it was getting too warm for that, and it would be a hindrance if a fight did break out.

If a fight breaks out… Eksa bit her lip. She was here as a raider. A bandit. A fact she could not forget. Her fate was intertwined with the violence she sought to avoid. All of it to conquer Kovar and put an end to the madness and fear that plagued the island town's citizens.

Eksa undid the top button of her shirt. She had on a black girdle that pressed down on her waist and lifted her bust. No harm in using a bit of appeal if it meant avoiding a fight. A wary fisherman was hastily undoing the ropes binding his boat to the pier, constantly glancing at Eksa and her followers as he threw a piled net into his boat. “You there,” Eksa said. “Any idea where the nearest inns are? And the Trillian temple too? Might as well offer prayers 'fore we head off on the morrow.”

“You're… traders?” the man asked, slowly stepping on to his boat. His accent was thick. Different to a Tarmian or a Euralite accent, but not something she expected from a Xenarian town.

“Just food items and wares.” Eksa stepped closer to the man's boat, hand to the pommel of her father's gifted cutlass. She leaned forward, letting her neckline show, along with a near full inch of cleavage that forced a shameful blush to appear on her own face. “And some luxury paintings ordered by the local lord,” she whispered.

“L—luxury? Lord Cargan? No. That can't be right. He's a pious and—” the fisherman paused to swallow, his eyes flickering for a hair of a second to steal a glance at Eksa's chest. He dabbed his bare chest with a rag hanging from one shoulder. “No. Lord Cargan wouldn't. He donates all wealth to the temple.”

Eksa put her hands on her hips. “Hmph. Not as pious as he strives to appear then,” she shrugged. “Anyway, I would like to give prayers and an offering to almighty Trillia.”

“Uh, well, down the widest street there,” the man pointed. The mist was clearing away fast. A jaded, and grey sky was revealed, but there was a gap between lingering rainclouds and the deeper storm clouds approaching from the horizon. A gap the sun took full advantage of. “Er, are you all sailors?” the fisherman asked. “For that one ship?”

“Nah, ferrying some men going farther inland. They've been away from home a long—”

Thump!

The fisherman fell backwards, falling from his boat with a splash into the sea below, a quarrel buried in his chest. A splotch of red shown in the foamy waters before being swept away by a shallow tide passing by. Eksa wheeled around. One of Cross' fighters held a crossbow in his hand. “What have you done?” Eksa hissed.

Cross turned to his own man and swung hard, taking two front teeth. “You idiot? Why'd you fire?”

The killer stumbled back, spitting out a glare of hatred toward his own captain. “Man was getting suspicious,” he managed to say from the blood dribbling down his unshaven chin.

Ashes! Even my captains don't have good control over their men. “I had the situation under control!” Eksa said. “He gave us what we wanted. He was about to sail off to go fish.”

“He coulda turned around while we wasn't here and informed others,” the man said, holding his mouth with a hand that quickly turned red. He spat out into the ocean.

Cross gave his man an angry shove. “Nothin' for it Captain,” he told Eksa. “The mist hid the kill and the sea hides the body. The sooner we're out, the better.”

Eksa had more to say. She had far more to say and scream, but she simply ground her teeth while spewing as much venom as she could through her eyes at the bleeding murderer. Perhaps Aaron might've thrown this man into the ocean. Jackrin might've been coaxed into carving a number into the man's back. Without them, Eksa was too hesitant to order discipline to men not her own. She spared a glance for the fisherman's boat, considering diving below for a span of a breath. Mikael von Raudsol would not hesitate .

Then again, her father would've never allowed men he could not trust set foot aboard his ship.

Eksa buttoned her shirt and carried down the pier. Tyles pushed his way to the front, marching alongside her. “A shame he didn’t tell us which of these drab buildings the nearest whore den is,” he said.

Eksa turned her glare on him.

Tyles threw up his hands. “Just a joke, Captain. Didn't mean nothing by it.”

“I should hope so, Tyles. Or has the scar Jackrin carved into your back faded from memory already?”

The sailor paled visibly. “No, er, of course not. Um, Cap, where is he anyway? Haven't seen him at your side for a while.”

“Oh he's around,” Eksa lied with a smirk. “And he'll deliver just the surprise to Crow and his ilk when its time.”

“Hm. Just the surprise,” Tyles echoed. “I'm not sure I want to see it.”

“Oh you don't.” The pier was ending and the group neared the town proper. “Tyles,” Eksa said, “pass the word along. I want several men stopping to order drinks at inns or taverns we pass by. Act natural. We don't need the town guard breathing down our necks. Won't need many of us to break out of the temple with our loot.”

“Are you sure we should be splitting our manpower, Captain?”

“Just do as you're told,” she hissed, setting foot upon the cracked cobbles of Assak. The heels of her boots clacked along. The people here dressed in greys and browns. What an oddity for them to mimic the mirthless atmosphere their black rooves already represented. Many of them clutched pendants with a trillium flower. Surely it wasn't that pervasive religion of theirs forbidding them from letting a semblance of joy into their lives? It almost seemed like a speck of color was far too ostentatious or arrogant for these people.

“This place looks boring.”

Eksa turned around to now find Severum standing at the head of her column, followed by Cross and Azul. Several fighters from the rear had already split off. They were all too eager to wet their lips with something sweet. Eksa knew that feeling. Her own throat itched with the need of a sweet wine. What few local gazes had watched them on their stroll through the town soon turned to other menial tasks need be done as Eksa's group grew smaller until little more than a dozen remained.

The final group stumbled upon the Trillian temple purely by chance. Its build was similar to every other home in Assak; a single storeyed structure with an angular roof made of tiles as black as any other. It was a hard tell if not for the large double doors at its entrance bearing the mark of a trillium flower carved into the dark wood grain. Eksa paused before the open entrance. A single man stumbled out, muttering a curse unbefitting of the religious robes that clothed him. He barely spared a glance for Eksa and her crew, instead settling down a few meters from the entrance with a bucket and a wash rag to scrub down the temple's blue stained glass windows.

Eksa motioned for her men to enter into the cavernous darkness within. “Sit together in the pews and survey with your eyes only for a few minutes,” she said. Blue lances of daylight filtered through the few stained windows the temple had to offer. “Place is small. Get a read and see if there are any hidden trapdoors leading to a secret cellar or the like.”

The men shuffled inside, Cross leading the front with the miserable scowl of a weary sailor and Azul bringing up the rear whilst whistling, hands shoved within deep trouser pockets that undoubtedly hid one weapon or another. Severum paused in the gateway. There was a tremor to the hapless sailor's legs. “Captain, I don't like this,” he whispered. “More people out and about in the streets since we came down this way.”

Eksa shook her head. “Just the locals waking up you bumbling fool,” she said. At least he'd whispered this time around. “Get going already. The mist is clearing and the sun is out. Of course people will be out on the streets now.”

Severum nodded, turning to follow the group. Eksa, for all her harsh words, gave a glance down the street they'd come. There were in fact a lot more people now. Perhaps more than early morning could possibly bring. She clicked her tongue. That fool second of hers had induced an anxiety she'd kept hidden with anger thus far. Why did I make Severum my second anyway?

Eksa unbuttoned the top buttons of her shirt again. She approached the lone cleric grumbling one obscenity or another while he scrubbed at windows. “Picking up another's slack, huh?” she asked, leaning against the wall on a shoulder.

“Nonsense,” the cleric said. “I'm more than happy to serve the Goddess' house.”

“Uh huh.”

The cleric dropped the wash rag into the bucket full of soapy water. He turned to face Eksa with a sigh. “Was I making it so obvious?”

'Very' she mouthed without actually speaking. He was a fresh faced young man with a clean kept jaw and nearly bald kept head. There wasn't a hint of a rugged edge or dangerous light in his eyes like Aaron had. He also wasn't very good at hiding the color in his face either.

The cleric wiped his palms along his pristine robes, sticking a hand out thereafter. “Bale,” he said.

Eksa smiled, shaking his hand and pressing a coin into it. “Eksa,” she replied. “Merchant extraordinaire of Estraean origin.”

Bale thumbed the copper crown in his palm. “This is…?”

“A gift of goodwill to a servant of Trillia. And of course, the coin you will use to buy me a drink later this evening.”

“I will?”

“You won’t?” Eksa countered.

“Er,” Bale began, looking about himself whilst shrinking visibly. “You see, it wouldn't be proper for a servant of the Goddess to go out drinking…”

Eksa rolled her eyes. “I swear you Trillians are adding new tenets to your faith every other month. I can barely keep up with the principles already given. Next you'll tell me marriage is wrong and I'm going to die alone without a man to hold me.”

“Er, see our guidelines are decided by the holy Vicegerent, who hears the voice of the Goddess and—”

Eksa folded her arms, pushing her bust up further, and revealing even more cleavage. She offered a flat stare, swallowing down her shame and keeping color from appearing on her own face.

“—but of course I won't bore you with the details,” Bale finished. “Um, I'll meet you at the Fisherman's Catch before sundown?”

“Hmm?” Eksa asked. She leaned forward, lowering her voice to a whisper. “I was more hoping you've a drink and cuts of cheese your own stored in a cellar here or some sort. You know, bring it somewhere quiet where we can enjoy it?”

“Oh. Oh, uh, no. I mean, we have a small cellar closet for the temple's treasury but, no drinks. Is that… what they do at other temples across the kingdom?”

Eksa frowned. “Unfortunately.” That seemed the right answer to this young man of seemingly outstanding integrity. Some small part of her admired that of him, but her long residence among lesser men had jaded her own sense of integrity. She was using sex appeal for Flame's sake, to loosen this poor man's lips —a method the Eksa of several years past would never have even considered.

You did this to me, Aaron. You. You took my innocence and left me stranded with pirates. I hate you.

Liar , argued another voice in her mind. You did the same with Severum, Qisa, and several others . Eksa ignored this voice. Why, after all, would she listen to it when she could blame all her problems on Aaron?

“Well, Fisherman's Catch, was it? Before sundown then,” she said with a smile. “Oh and Bale, don't wear yourself out too much serving the Goddess. I should hope you'll be more than capable of entertaining me throughout the night.” Eksa set off with a wink, having what information she needed. No sooner had she disappeared from the red faced cleric did she feel the heat of the terrible shame she felt from her own words.

She rid herself of those unpleasant thoughts and focused on the task at hand. There was a cellar not hidden by any trapdoor where the Trillians kept their coin. Silver chest or not, there had to be a decent amount stored there in the form of donations she could take back.

Eksa found Cross and Azul sitting across from each other, both with their own groups of fighters, keeping watch on their dull surrounds. “Two at the door,” Eksa said as she passed them by. A lone cleric was dusting away an idol of the Goddess. “Keep anyone coming inside out. The rest with me. They've a cellar they store their treasures in.”

Cross sent two of his own to the door. Azul took up position behind Eksa's heel. She marched forward without hesitation, startling the lone cleric whose gaze passed between the hand Eksa kept on her cutlass and the cleavage she still showed.

“Can I help you?” the cleric asked.

Azul was on top of him before Eksa had given an order. He pulled knives from his pockets, striking the cleric with the hilt, toppling him in an instant.

“Gag him and tie him up in some corner,” Eksa ordered just as Azul had bent low for the kill. The cleric opened his mouth to cry out but another sailor jammed his boot straight into the hapless man's open mouth, knocking his head back into the feet of his Goddess. His eyes rolled back as he lost consciousness and two fighters were on him no sooner, binding his arms and mouth.

Eksa loosened her cutlass, not expecting to draw it in this mostly empty temple. She turned a corner to her left, hoping it to be the right one. There were only two side passes from the prayer hall, and judging by the size of the building, there shouldn't have been more than a single room on each side. Eksa kicked open the only door available, revealing a cubby illuminated by a single palm sized orange luminite stone. A lone ladder led into a darker room beneath. Eksa motioned with her hands for the men to descend.

Several men climbed down while the rest waited above, watching the prayer hall for any disturbances. “You wager it's there, Captain?” Azul asked. He scratched at the thin beard blacking out almost half his face, two knives held in a backhanded grip.

“I should hope so,” Eksa said, keeping her eyes off the other captain. Azul wore an open vest, his toned form bared for all to see. A spiralling tattoo ran up one arm, reaching out in tendrils towards his chest where it was masked by a lush carpet of chest hair and… Flames, quit staring Eksa.

“Hope, huh. I've never been one to put much faith in it. But I've faith in you, Captain, even if there's nothing of value down there.”

Eksa held the man's gaze. He towered over her by several inches. A bead of orange reflected in the darks of his eyes from the shining luminite on the wall. “If there's no coin down there, we're in for a long siege on Kovar.”

“Hmph. Suppose we'll have to rob the townsfolk here of some of their food then.”

Eksa cringed internally. He'd said that so casually, as if stealing from someone was the most natural thing in the world. Of course, she agreed with his sentiment. She had to. She'd resolved herself to doing what it would take to conquer Kovar.

Conquer Kovar because the man I hate has asked me to…

The men below reappeared, holding chests in hand and wearing giant grins. “We got the stuff, Captain,” they told Azul rather than Eksa.

Again and again I'm reminded just how little sway I hold here. Azul was their captain, but he served her and his men showed little semblance of respect toward her for it. “Then let's leave this Flame forsaken t—”

Sudden cries from the prayer hall cut Eksa off. Everyone stumbled out of the corridor to find two dead fighters at the temple's entrance, and a dozen armed men in civilian clothes standing over their bodies.

“Red Serpent!” their supposed leader said. “By order of Lord Cargan and Admiral Hawthorne, you're under arrest for mutiny, and banditry!”

So began the vicious melee.

Admiral Hawthorne? This all but confirmed Xenaria's enlistment of the Flaming scoundrel. The soldiers charged between the pews with spears forward. The pirates drew their short swords and jumped on to the pews, entering their enemy's formation from the sides, utilising the weakness spears represented in close quarters. Eksa had her own blade out, tremors running up her arms. She started forward, unsure of what it was she planned to do as screams echoed in place of prayers, and blood stained the holy house. Her men made quick work of their foes, knives and short swords proving better to spears in an enclosed skirmish.

The path out was cleared.

Eksa ran down the aisle. Two from among her survivors hauled out the chest of silver they'd taken with them. Eksa broke into Assak's streets, briefly catching a glimpse of Bale, who was slumped before the temple's gates in a pool of his own blood. She clamped a hand down on her mouth to stop from gagging. They killed their own cleric? Or did my two gate watchers do this? And how on earth did so many armed foes get here so fast. We've barely been inside for several minutes…

Eksa turned her eyes down the street and towards the pier. Dozens of town guards were assembling there, cutting off her escape. Severum's fears came back to her. It occurred to her that she'd been watched the moment she stepped foot in town. This had begun from the moment a ray of sunshine had caught in her Flaming hair.

No. No this goes farther back… The merchant Edlen… it was all a setup. Edlen. That name rung familiar for it was the name of a man whose goods Eksa had once raided. A merchant with a grudge against her. A lie sold to her in a time of desperation. And a conniving trap set in the dreary town of Assak.

Who else was to blame but The Man with a Hundred Plans?

Eksa and her men rushed down the street, shoving aside anyone in their way. Their afore-left men poured from taverns they'd paused at when called for, quickly following suit. A hundred meters lay between them and the pier, and a wall of Assak's guards led by an old man with a cane standing at their head.

“I bid you halt, Red Serpent of Kovar,” the old man said. His white hair that shone in the sun changed to the color of dead grass as the shadow of storm clouds passed over head. “By my authority, I place you under arrest. Do not resist and you shall be treated with respect.”

Eksa pulled to a stop. Lord Cargan, she assumed, was truly a man of little, dressed as he was in a plain laced shirt and dull brown trousers. “You don't want this fight, old man,” she sneered, holding her cutlass out and trying to appear menacing as Cross and Azul took position at her flanks.

“So be it, then,” Cargan said. He clapped his hands once.

Eksa sucked a breath of air, feeling her heart hammer harder than it had during her run. She expected the town guard to charge, but instead, screams of pain erupted behind her. She turned to find fighters among her own group slaughtering their brethren. They were of Cross' arms. He, their captain, stood dumbfounded until a stray sword found his gut and toppled the one eyed man.

Azul sneered, bending low whilst brandishing his knives, but there was no fight to be had. Traitors had been hidden in their rank, and they'd done their job, reducing the crew to a mere twenty sailors.

Lord Cargan clapped his hands again and the town guard finally moved, surrounding the group. “Now,” he began. “I'll only ask this once. Sheathe your blade, Serpent, or—”

Eksa moved without thinking. She slammed a fist into the Cargan's nose, yelping at the pain shooting through her knuckles. How did Aaron so effortlessly brutalize people with his fists? Cargan stumbled back, blinking with wide eyes, a trickle of blood rolling down his nose. Eksa moved before he could recover, pulling the old man in by the collar and kicking away his support cane. She held Assak's lord to her bosom, pressing the edge of her cutlass to his neck. “Let us pass, or your beloved lord dies,” she said, gaze passing over each and every guardsman barring her path.

A breath of silence washed over the scene, broken only by a lone screeching gull somewhere nearby. Cargan sighed. “He predicted this too,” he muttered.

“What?” Eksa said.

“You've made enemies with the wrong man, lass. Her majesty did right in hiring him as a privateer. I've heard tell of your feats on the sea, felling Lord Coraine's fleet. But the Basin's new overseer… He predicted you'd hold me hostage if I got close enough, and he demanded I let you go in the event.”

“That's impossible,” Eksa breathed. She watched the guards for any hint of knowing in their postures. They looked relaxed. Their eyes held not a sliver of nervousness that would be expected of them if a fight were near. This was all going according to plan.

Eksa ground her teeth. Her blood boiled further when she spotted Tyles, one of the Reaver' s longest serving sailors, lounging next to Cargan's guards, peeling away at an orange as he watched her. “You sniveling, treacherous rat!” she spat.

Tyles shrugged. “Sorry Captain. Crow had a surprise of his own waiting for you.”

Eksa forced down bile brought up in a mix of panic and fear. Her throat stung with the effort, and she squeezed Cargan's wrist with her hand, letting her nails dig into his flesh. The old man did not even flinch. A tide of curses flooded her thoughts, but not one among those vicious words would deal her enemies the physical harm she wished upon them. The wall of guards parted at Cargan's command, and what remained of Eksa's crew walked between them, wearing a mask of shame made clear by a streak of lightning passing through the skies above.

Thunder followed.

Eksa and her company marched down the pier, holding Cargan hostage all the while. With a final bout of spite, she shoved the old lord into the sea and boarded The Scarlet Reaver , Azul, Severum, and what remained following after her. “Weigh anchor. Set sail for Kovar,” she said.

Sails were unfurled. Another streak of lightning passed. The winds picked up and rain began as a passing drizzle. “Captain!” came Severum's urgent cry. “Our iron bolts. They're gone!”

Eksa cursed. It was one mishap after another. They'd stripped the ship of her weapons. The implication struck her a second late. She rushed to the edge of the ship and put a monocular to her eye. Sure enough, several vessels were on the horizon. She could perhaps out-sail them in these turbulent conditions, but she could not fight them.

The full weight of Eksa's situation finally settled on her shoulders. Crow had wanted her to escape. He wanted her to flee Assak, broken, weaponless, and lacking manpower. A devious plan crafted with a single purpose: to relish in Eksa's capture when she was at her lowest.