There was something deeply comforting in the way the ship rocked and groaned as it pushed its way through the waves. Without realizing it, I’d accepted the ocean as a kind of home. I felt relatively safe out at sea, away from the medieval values and monstrous leaders on the mainland. We hadn’t spotted so much as another sail for an entire day now and almost everyone on the ship was enjoying the free air. Even though we had been more or less free for days, it didn’t feel like it so long as we were under that oppressive tower. The exceptions were the few who couldn’t stomach travel over water and the crew who harbored a bit of a grudge for the murder of their mates. Gromm kept them on a tight leash though. Disarmed and outnumbered, they behaved, even if they weren’t happy about it.

The breeze whipped past, bearing us further west and away from the Empire’s naval traffic. I couldn’t take credit for the strong wind this time. My broken fingers itched and throbbed under Liam’s expert binding. I felt particularly useless. Unable to help wrangle the ropes or witch the weather I was left with rationing out the food in my inventory, telling stories to pass the time, and fumbling with my sextant while I watched the horizon with Weather Eye. We were out of the woods, but we weren’t home yet.

At the end of the first day, the sea monster attacks began. Gromm warned me what would happen when we left the well-established trade routes but I’d rather risk a handful of monsters than a ship full of Marines.

If I wasn’t watching the water with enhanced vision I might have missed the unnatural shadow streaking towards us. As it was, I managed to shout out a warning in time and most of the people crammed onto the deck were able to duck before dozens of flying fish burst from the water. They came and went in less than a second, flying over the ship like a volley of sparkling arrows. Several people were too slow to react and fell to the deck screaming or in silence depending on how many fish struck them and where. I kept my eyes on the shadow moving rapidly under the surface and when they struck again, we were ready. A respectable shield-wall formed up and stopped the fish with a sound like a hailstorm. Only a few fish escaped, the rest stuck fast to the shields by their pointed noses. The ones that fell to the deck writhed around, lacerating anyone nearby with their sharp but fragile spines until they were stomped to death.

Liam was busy for a while after that. He used most of our remaining bandages too but he couldn’t do anything for the man who had a fish buried in his eye-socket. It was a gruesome way to go. I don’t think I’d ever forget the way the tail jutting from his skull kept thrashing around, cutting up its victim’s face. I hadn’t lost anyone up till now. At least no one who hadn’t betrayed me. It didn’t hurt exactly. It was more like someone had scooped something important out of my chest and I was collapsing in on myself. I started telling stories with more forced mirth and pulling extra shifts at night. Anything to paper over the guilt that was gnawing away at my core. Killing to free these people was one thing. What was I going to tell myself if I did all that killing, just to lead these people into the jaws of some terrible sea-beast?

Despite my worry, the next few days passed without any more deaths, though the phosphorescent jellyfish that attacked on the second night did incapacitate a full third of our people. No one could get past the sprawling tentacles that could paralyze at a touch and our crossbow bolts passed through its watery body without doing any significant damage. In the end, it was Jordy who braved the paralyzing stingers, falling on the monster and squeezing it until it burst. He spent a couple of days in bed recovering that but the episode had earned him a lot of respect, especially from anyone who shared the red welts left from the monster’s excruciating attacks. People began spending more time in the smelly hold while those on deck kept a tight watch on the surrounding waves. This backfired when toothy serpents snuck in through the portholes one night. There was no telling what would come for them next and everyone was on edge.

Just when I thought we were getting a handle on the monsters I spotted an island that wasn’t supposed to be there. When I asked Grom if we should make landfall and see if we can find some fresh water he smiled.

“That’s no island.” He said cryptically, refusing to elaborate. I gained a new respect for the ocean when a plume of mist spouted from the island’s peak, and then a massive tail slapped the water sending a tidal wave out behind it as it swam away. I really needed some sort of identify spell, or a pokedex.

My strained mana channels finished healing after a week and I began using more mana bolts and Arcane Cannons to support the fighters. With the crossbows, we could keep up a steady stream of distracting or deadly fire as the situation dictated. Unfortunately all of our slings were useless without a supply of rocks. Most of the bolts that missed their targets couldn’t be recovered either. Thankfully Cutter proved himself adept with my knives while Jordy was a demon with Gromm’s sword and Liam returned the injured to fighting fitness in less than a day usually. It made me nervous to give our former goons the best weapons on the ship but we needed every good fighter we could get. We were only taking so many injuries because most of the former slaves were peaceful by nature. They were the ones who had surrendered when the Empire came calling after all. Cutter and Jordy were the only military men on board. Arming them would normally invite mutiny, but you need co-conspirators to pull off a mutiny. While the majority were inexperienced fighters, they were learning quickly. Most of them viewed me as a savior and had vivid memories of when Cutter and Jordy bullied them. Considering that I held all the food and could navigate while they couldn’t, I felt pretty secure.

Two weeks into our journey, we skirted around a plume of smoke on the horizon. A few days after that our luck ran out. A cluster of black sails climbed over the horizon. On the largest of the sails, a stylized crane flared its wings as if to say “come at me bro”. The sails were mounted on a truly massive warship. It’s hull towered over the water, looking more like a wooden fortress than anything else. I had to watch it crawl closer while my broken useless fingers itched.

It was good at crawling. Two ranks of oars swept the water constantly like hundreds of spindly legs. I got to watch it for a day and a half before it caught us. Even with the rowers and the impressive collection of sails it took time for them to chase us down from the edge of the horizon. We had plenty of time to appreciate the Scorpion mounted at the bow of the ship. After an exhausting afternoon trying every trick Gromm knew, he finally grew frustrated enough to complain.

“This is all your fault” He grumbled, “You just had to pick my ship for this ill-fated venture didn’t you?”

I didn’t argue with him. In fact, I agreed on both points. Besides, my mouth was too dry to speak.

“Some escape this turned out to be. You ran straight from the slave pens into a pirate’s hold.” He continued, chuckling morbidly at the irony. Some of the passengers grumbled in agreement but his words caught my attention. I looked back over the approaching ship. There were at least fifty men on the deck, efficiently going about the business of eating up the distance between us, but there were easily two hundred oars in motion.

“Gromm, those oars, they’re not manned by crew are they?” I asked

“No, it’ll be their victims, people like us.” He sighed fatalistically.

I started to laugh. Everyone gave me a little room while I had what must have looked like a nervous breakdown. When I finally regained control I explained my idea, the faces around me grew even more grim. We all understood that there was no escape, we could all see the black squares and triangles growing closer despite Gromm’s maneuvering. There was some pushback. Not many people were willing to be chained again. There was a lot of talk about going out in a blaze of glory and instead of quashing it, I used it.

“You want glory? On that ship there are hundreds of slaves, maybe even more in reserve. Is it more glorious to die before landing a single blow, or is it more glorious to free the slaves, kill the pirates, and take that enormous ship for our own? You want blood? There will be plenty. We don’t have to commit to a suicide attack though. I can hide our weapons in my magic pocket and once we’re on their ship, they can’t burn us out or use their height advantage. They’ll have to fight man-to-man and we should have the numbers.”

Cutter chose that time to ask an unfortunate question.

“How do we know you’ll stick to your word? You’ve got one of their badges.” He reminded everyone with a thumb pointed at the growing ship. “Maybe Teagan was right. Maybe you’re just trussing us up for your pirate friends.”

I ground my teeth for a moment before mirroring Cutter and pointing at the ship.

“Does it look like they need to sneak around? There’s an enormous crane on their sails! These are the types of criminals who like to brag about how powerful they are while stealing and challenge people to stop them. Why would they send me on a risky, month-long, secret mission just for a handful of the Empire’s less desirable slaves when these waters are stocked with fat merchant ships?”

Cutter seemed to accept my reasons but doubt lingered on many faces.

“Who are you calling undesirable?” Cadel challenged. He was the sort to make a lot of demands and complaints while not contributing anything himself. When everyone was preparing for our departure, he was visiting Liam daily to complain about cramps from the sudden richness of his diet. When he was given the chance to train with shields his feet suddenly hurt and when he was given lighter duty to get him out of the way, he skulked off and lounged. The accurate description seemed to irritate him. “I say it’s time we start thinking for ourselves. This entire adventure is cursed! We’ve had monsters nipping at our heels for weeks, eating us one bit at a time.” He waved a bandaged hand in the air, reminding everyone about his missing pinky for the fifth time that day. “Now this fool wants to serve us up to the cranes!”

“Yarr!” agreed a few of the more miserable passengers. I bristled at the accusation again but this time I felt the edge of fear.

“Shut it Cadel.” Pierre snapped “You’ve been happy enough eating his food and taking his orders up ‘till now. Would you rather die under the empire’s lash? At least we got some fresh air out of the deal!”

There was a much louder cheer at the Chef’s words and I relaxed a bit. This wasn’t a mutiny yet.

“Thank you, Pierre,” I said before addressing everyone. “Cadel says that I’m a fool. He’s not wrong. Only a fool would risk his neck for a bunch of strangers.” Cheering and shield banging erupted from the passengers in response. When they settled back down I continued.

“He thinks we’re cursed. I think we’re blessed! We’ve been blessed with the chance to stop that warship from terrorizing innocents ever again! The empire sent you all away to die. The cranes will scoop us up regardless of what we decide here and now. It might look like the gods have abandoned us, but they’ve put us right where we’re needed most. We’ve had a rough week at the end of a rough month, but just think of all the people on that ship with no hope. We’re here for them. This isn’t just about our survival anymore. We can fight and we can die without accomplishing anything, or we can take a chance, be foolish, and maybe pull off the impossible!”

“Yaaaah!” most everyone shouted their defiance.

We kept our weapons that night in case of another monster attack. I doled out the rest of my meat pies in an attempt to keep morale up as well. The next morning, the Captain was the only original member of the crew left. No one admitted to seeing what happened but Cutter was adamant that they would have betrayed our secret stash of weapons and it was better that they “disappeared”.

Part of me was disgusted. Another, larger part was relieved. Their hatred for me was no secret and I had been unwilling to do anything about it myself. It was as good an excuse as any to start collecting the weapons though. I left a few shields and whips out as well as the ship’s harpoons. It would be unbelievable if we were completely unarmed. That meant Gromm needed his Cutlass back. When I handed it over and his eyes flashed I was sure he was going to cut me down. Instead, he sheathed the blade without comment and went back to his post. Without the sailors, our progress had ground nearly to a halt and the pirates caught us quickly. They brandished an assortment of sharpened steel and bronze as they jeered at us. A few flights of arrows peppered our ship but most of the people were crammed ass to elbows in the hold. A few brave volunteers used shields to defend themselves as they cut our sail loose, effectively communicating our surrender. A disappointed groan issued from the pirates.

Their scorpion jumped as it discharged with a crash that sent visible shockwaves through the ship. It’s iron-tipped projectile pulled a strong rope through the air behind it, uncoiling with alarming speed. It bit into our stern and we were reeled in like some huge wooden fish.