Manorborn: The Battles Between

Chapter 17

As Galen and Silent Killer prepared to face their foes, high above them, aboard the Leal, Jaryd and Benjamin were making plans of their own with Mahrmia and Beag.

"I don't care what these two say, waiting around here for that blonde pretty-boy to come back to us with word of them Sea People joining us or no makes no sense."

The dwarven first mate stood beside the table where a large map, the same one they had been looking at before, lay as she spoke to her captain, finger pointed at Jaryd and Benjamin who stood on the opposite side of the table.

"The longer we wait here, the more chance there is we'll have Blood Sails coming down on us like zralock on a dead velryba!"

"We are not saying we need to wait here for Galen, Beag," Benjamin rumbled, his voice calm, sure, and easy as he regarded the short female who barely reached his waist. "All we are saying is that we must have a sure direction in which we are to go"

He gestured to the map before them with a sweeping motion to encompass in all.

"We have several options before us, and each bears merit. Do we seek to find the other pirates and join with them in a great fleet to take on the Blood Sails? Or, do we seek out the Blood Sails ourselves; strike quick and fast, then disappear quickly. A good plan, but one you have been attempting for some time with little success. Then there is the island, and the Well, which is clearly of vital importance to the Usurper King. Do we seek to take the island and cleanse the well, thus removing not just the Usurper's source for soldiers, but that of the entirety of the Emperor of Darkness's army as well? We must also keep the island villages in mind for, as Arlia pointed out, they seem to be the most vulnerable of all to attack from Blood Sails. To try to do all would be possible folly, yet we must seek what is our best move next, and we cannot leave from here until we decide."

Jaryd nodded to the mist just off their starboard.

"We stay by the mist for, if needs be, we can slip back into it and hide from hunting Blood Sails, but we cannot stay here indefintely."

Beag shrugged her shoulders, arms crossed and feet planted well apart.

"Aye, I know all this, but we stay here much longer, and they'll get wind of us, or find us here for sure."

Jerking her head to indicate the claimed Blood Sail ships, now being refitted with new sails while the scarlet ones were being burned, she continued.

"Word of what was done here is sure to spread. Mark me, that one sitting the throne, foul though he may be, is cunning and tricky. He's ways of knowing what goes on in his kingdom; if he does not already know what happened here, he will soon. Then, well, he's not one to let something like this just pass on by."

"You can be sure of that."

Mahrmia looked up to the crow's nest, and the lookout who peared out across the waves, seeking sign of of ther ships, and other Blood Sails, her face showing her concern as she spoke.

"The Usurper is known for his sadism with those who offend or stand against him. I remind you what Arlia said; on every island, including Xirba, he has a garden unlike any other; a garden of tortured and tormented prisoners kept alive only so he can stroll through the devices he keeps them in and listen to their pitious cries and moans, their pleas for mercy, even beggings for death. It is said, these sounds are as rapturous music to him."

"He sounds more evil than the Midnight King," Benjaamin muttered to Jaryd, both clearly upset by Mahrmia's reference to the twisted garden of the Usurper.

"We knew Derog was the least of the four," Jaryd replied, "though it would seem he may have been the least of them in evil as well as in station. Either way, there can be no doubt that Almakhadie is truly wicked and in need of being removed from his current position."