Chapter 12

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The Silver Eagle slipped into a small cove. Behind it numerous huts were there, some obviously meant to house sailing crews, other storehouses, others stables and shipwrights. Two large and heavily manned canoes came out to meet him, but when they recognised the ship they peeled off, returning to the port. He beached the ship next to the port and jumped out of his boat. He breathed in the smell of spring water and cooking meat slightly intermingled with sea air- the smell of his childhood. A greyish old man hobbled over to him, leaning heavily on a cane. “Thomas, you’re back! Did you bring the cheese that Holton wanted? He asked. “Tommy. You can call me Tommy, Morgan,” he said distractedly. “Where is Holton?” Morgan gestured with the stick. “At the stables, ever since he got that horse from the southern something kingdoms.” A member of the crew, from that particular kingdom, said angrily, “The southern united kingdoms, old man.” Morgan shrugged.  Tommy started walking. “Come on, Wilson. Also, make sure that someone keeps an eye on Giant.” He walked quickly to the stables and was soon in deep conversation with Holton, the leader of the town. Within one hour, Tommy and Wilson were on horses and riding to Tommy’s hometown.

Charlie studied the two distant horsemen closely. Visitors weren’t very common, as few people even knew of the town’s existence. He followed protocol. “Halt and state your business!” He yelled. The two horsemen came to a thundering stop. “We need to talk to Jeremy, urgent business.” Charlie frowned. No-one outside the town would know Jeremy. “Samuel! Come here!” The young doctor moved to him. He shaded his eyes. “Who the hell is that?” he asked. Charlie shrugged. “That’s why I called for you.” Samuel shaded his eyes. “I hope that’s not who I think that is.” Charlie frowned. “Why?” Samuel put two fingers up. “First, if he came back he has bad news for us. Second, now Lucy’s gonna be torn.” Charlie understood the first one, but was thoroughly confused by the second one. “Whatever. Justin, take a squad and bring them in.”

Jeremy called a meeting in one of the larger houses. Toby, Matthew, Charlie, Justin, Harley, William, Samuel, Anton, and Lucy attended, along with Tommy and Wilson. Tommy smiled at Samuel and Lucy. “A long time, my friends.” Samuel returned the smile while Lucy blushed. He treated the bandits with a cautious welcoming, but opened up a little when he heard their actions at the battle against the Black army. Just a little. He related the events off the port of Atlas, the city he’d been trading with. There were a number of Atlases, so it took a while to locate the city. As soon as William located where the city was, he promised to try to convince the Church of Hope to send an army to liberate it. “I’ll try,” he said to Jeremy. “But we’re already stretch thin protecting the City of Fire and the City of Light. We’ve had skirmishes. Nothing serious, but small build-ups around the City of Fire.” Jeremy nodded. “And our town has nowhere near the troops to be able to retake the city.” He gestured to Tommy to continue. “Well,” Tommy said, “I forgot to mention one thing. When you started discussing events, I finished by saying that we were almost run down by a black vessel. What happened was that it actually almost destroyed the Silver Eagle, but just before it hit us it just... disappeared.” Toby and Matthew exchanged a glance. “Amaro,” they said at the same time. William nodded. “From what you told me about this person, I believe that he was a mage, someone who can create illusions. I’m not sure how, but given enough of them, and with proper direction, they can make the illusion of a whole army! That’s why we’re so concerned about these small build-ups- they could just be illusions and we might be putting many of our troops where no offensive is going to take place.” Toby stood up. “Me, Matt, Justin and Charlie should go back with Tommy and Wilson. We know what they look like.” Jeremy nodded ascent, but Toby noticed that he glanced at Samuel and Lucy. “I approve.” Lucy raised her hand. “I’ll go to.” Tommy stared at the group. “We leave at dawn.” 

Toby patted Cruncher on the nose. “Sorry, boy, or girl, I don’t know, but I got to leave you here. Good bye.” Tommy yelled, “You coming, Toby?” Toby waved his hand and ran to the gangplank. Cruncher had already refocused his attention on some hay in a bucket, completely oblivious that his new owner would be gone. As he boarded, he almost slipped, but Matthew grabbed his hand. “Thanks, man,” he grinned at his best friend. Matthew patted his back. “No problem.” Soon the ship was away, heading away from the harbour. Tommy walked over to them. “We’re heading towards that harbour. Jeremy asked me to scout around there and report back what I found. Also, I’m putting in special orders. For you bandits,” he said the word with distaste, “I’m putting some of my crew on watch of you. Keep away from the crew except the ones watching you and keep away from Lucy.” Toby shrugged. “Are you two friends?” Tommy waved his hand in dismissal. “None of your business.” Wilson suddenly waved his hand. Tommy waved back and said to Toby, “You should tell your friends of the news.” Toby did as he was told. Charlie and Matthew accepted it as part and parcel of being a bandit but Justin exploded. “They have no right to hold us like this!” he yelled. His yells were audible to the crew. “We are helping them and they’re treating us like criminals!” Matthew pointed out, “We are reformed bandits.” Charlie waved his hand. “Well, not as strong as reformed because we still know how to stop convoys and use weapons and other skills. More like... we changed our jobs.” Justin whirled around to face him. “How can you think that? We are citizens of the middle mountain kingdoms! We are not bandits! We are the militia of the town who were outlawed because we accidently raided a King’s town which we had mistaken for a forest bandit camp!” Matthew nudged Toby. “He’s a nice kid,” he whispered, “But sometimes I wonder if it was right for Harley to send his Nephew into one of those fancy pancy schools in the city.”

On the third day of the voyage, Toby paced around the deck. He found himself constantly staring at the horizon, just waiting for a ghost ship to appear. Wilson was welcoming to the bandits, hearing of their bravery defending the town, but Tommy remained suspicious. “He keeps away from people,” Wilson remarked one night after a game of cards. The bandits, not behaving like bandits, had declined to gamble. “He’s just like that. I had to fight beside him for a number of months before I actually became his friend.” Still, Toby thought it was a little suspicious that Tommy was suspicious of them. After all, they’d already proven that they could be trusted. “Don’t worry. He’ll warm up to you guys,” Wilson assured him. Toby looked at his friends and saw that they were all thinking the same thing. Eventually. Tommy walked down and saw Wilson talking with Toby. “Wilson, you’re needed above. And it’s not your turn to watch these bandits yet,” he stabbed a thumb at the group who were sitting a little away from the game of cards. Toby, Matthew and Charlie ignored him, but Justin pounced on his feet. “Easy for you to say!” he said, his voice extremely harsh. “I have lost one third of my friends to the black army, and I’m sure some fought bravely. Have you ever felt this pain? I’ll make you!” Justin drew his sword, and Tommy’s hand went to his knife. A hand touched Tommy’s shoulder, and he was surprised to see Lucy standing there. “Let it go.” Lucy had grown fond of Justin, with his puppy dog eagerness to try to do his best. She didn’t want him or his spirit hurt. Tommy glared at her. “I’m surprised to hear you say that, out of everyone here!” As he stalked off, Lucy glared at Toby like it was his fault, but the anger soon drained out of her face. “Keep Justin safe,” she told him. Justin turned toward her. “I don’t need to be protected!” Lucy took a step towards him, and he instinctively shrunk back. It wouldn’t do to anger someone, even Lucy, he thought, especially when they all had knives and they were on a ship. “I say you do,” she told him. “Keep out of fights with Tommy.” She walked out of the cabin without looking back. Justin sheathed his sword and was walking out when Charlie said, “Don’t even think about it.” Justin whirled around and was surprised to find that Charlie hadn’t even bothered to look up. “You didn’t see me!” he told Charlie. “I don’t have to.”

A shadow fell across Toby. He looked up and saw Lucy standing above him, the sword Charlie had made her in her hand. “I want a match.” Toby himself had been cleaning his blade and he shrugged. “Why not?” Wilson on the mast tower suddenly yelled out, “Ship off the port side!” Lucy helped him up. “Fight now before we might have to fight them.” Toby yelled out, “Begin!” Some of the off duty crew gathered around them and a low murmur of shock came when they saw that Lucy had been able to fend off all of Toby’s attacks. Suddenly Toby received this terrible rage at Lucy. For some reason he couldn’t remember, he just wanted to kill her. He launched a series of swipes that were almost to the best of his ability. Lucy was suddenly surprised. She’d never actually seen Toby fight his best, even at the stockade. She managed to cut into his arm but he carried on fighting. He knocked her down and raised his sword above his head. Some sailors reached for their knives while others thought this was like an act. He looked into her eyes and saw fear, but before he could lower his weapon a silver shafted arrow knocked the sword from his hand. There was a gasp and everyone looked up at the mast, and they all saw a man like creature with tall pointed ears... “An elf,” Charlie said with wonder. The creature saluted to Lucy and fixed Toby with a warm smile. Then it simply dived into the ocean, swimming away from the ship toward the mainland that was close by. Tommy had rushed down from the tiller. “What was that?” he asked. “I believe,” Toby said, “We just saw a display of power from the crystal inside Lucy’s sword.” He was about to go on when an arrow hit him in the back, and the world went back. 

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