The King's Courier

II

When they stepped aboard the ship, they did not speak, though their flag hinted that they were from a nearby island city-state. They were more heavily armed than the crew that Costis had been with for the previous night, so he had little idea what to do. Costis simply watched and waited.

Finally one of the armed men spoke, "Hello lads, we're here to question what you are doing in our waters."

Another followed immediately afterwards, "Yea, we don't take too kindly to no trespassory!"

"Hush, friend," the first man, who appeared to be their leader, said, "We wish not to aggravate you all. You see, we're privateers. Our governor, he's given us orders to scavenge any ships within his waters not bearing our colors for resources. You all also just so happen to be within our waters. So, now I ask you all, what do you think I'm to do in this position?"

There was a silence that, however short, felt like a millenia. Rain began lightly showering the deck, though the sun still shown. Suddenly, someone broke the silence.

"There's not a sovereign nation for hundreds of miles yet! They're looters," The voice shouted. It was the navigator, she'd had her sword drawn already, its hefty blade holding a slight curved point directed at the men who just boarded the ship.

The man leading the accused looters let out a sigh, followed by a chuckle, "Is that really the response you'd wanted to give? Go on, I'll give you one more chance lads. Don't blow it, or this ship will be blown apart."

The looters laughed and made explosion noises from behind their leader, who remained silent as he awaited a response.

"You expect us, real privateers, to obey the ramblings of some sea-faring scum?" Costis's captain noted, "We'll not succumb so easily."

A grin crept onto the leader's face, "Good choice, good choice."

He and his men drew their scimitars from their belts and began to charge, leading to Costis's crew drawing their blades in retaliation. This is exactly what Costis didn't want. He looked around for a place to hide, but found nothing of relative cover.

He'd simply stood in the back, and hoped that no one went in his direction. Out of the corner of his eye, Costis had noticed that Gren wasn't next to him anymore, and he'd begun looking for him in a frightened, defenseless state.

"You seem bored, kid," said a voice from above him, "You're armed, aren't you gonna go feel the thrill of the fight?"

Costis flinched slightly, then looked up. It was the quartermaster for the ship.

"Well, you're not fighting either," Costis snapped after processing what the quartermaster had said.

"Now isn't necessarily the best time for arguing, though, is it?"

After shooting a slight glare at Costis, Quartermaster Solorius drew his blade and jumped off of the Jacob's ladder of which he was hanging on to, landing next to Costis.

"Up, kid, you've got a very fancy looking sword, now use it. No one will stay here to protect you, if that's what you're expecting." In the next moment, he'd ran off into the fray of clashing steel.

Costis sighed, "So much for hospitality." Then he got up and scanned the ship for a relatively unsuspecting swordsman.

Costis drew the heavy glaive from his sheathe and progressed around the expanse of blades, making his way to the far end. There stood another targetless boarder. Costis advanced towards him, lunging with as much speed as he could muster in the short distance he had.

As Costis expected, the attempt to contribute to the deadly squabble had failed. A swift, strong check from an unseen direction knocked Costis to the ground, sending his sword flying into the water. A tall, imposing figure loomed over him with his weapon in hand. The man raised his arm, cocking a large mace all the way to his back. In an instant, Costis rolled out of the way, and the mace swung down, breaking apart some of the warped top-deck wood in the spot where he had been laying moments before.