There are probably a lot of mistakes; I wasn’t at my best today. If you spot any, please leave a comment. Thank you.

# # # # # # # # # # # # # # #

Chapter 16: I am

Navigating wasn’t that hard, the closest ship was a large blob of magical energies that I could easily home in on. Someone else might have started with the largest ship, but I had no idea if what I was attempting would work or not, so I simply started with the closest one. The Navy’s kraken spears back home weigh fifty-seven pounds and travel at the blazing speed of over seventy-four leagues per hour until their energy runs out. The copies from the Kingdom of Fata seemed to be almost exactly the same, though they might be slightly heavier. But ship’s rudders are normally built of extremely tough and thick wood, would a single kraken spear be enough to severely damage one? I didn’t know the answer to that question but I guess I was going to find out.

I had two problems. Even with the weight of the added spears my fish shaped bubble wanted to float, so it took additional power from my flight harness to hold it down. Furthermore, the water pressed on my shield far more than I had expected it would, so I was forced to use extra energy from my war jacket to compensate for that situation. Of the two, the first problem was the worst but it was manageable so long as I kept feeding energy into my flight harness’s two new larger butt reservoirs. Controlling my personal shield and the movement runes, was much more like casting a tricky spell than anything else that I could think of, it took constant attention from me, especially since I had made some hurried unbalanced modifications to both enchantments. The environment, that I was in, only made my task harder.

I let the enemy ship do most of the work; if a wizard was watching me with witch sight it would look very suspicious if I “swam” directly towards them.

Getting behind the brig, I invoked my invisibility ward and I let my fish ship rise to the surface. All three kraken spear were lying in the bottom of my personal “sea creature,” with my hand I pushed two of them away from the third, so that they wouldn’t interfere with its launching.

I flew my fish upwards and held it no more than ten steps away from the top of the brig’s rudder. I opened up the front of my shield and launched the kraken spear. The spear shattered the wood and actually did more damage than I had been hoping for. As quickly as I could, I closed my shield and dove beneath the surface once again. It was time for the frigate.

------------------

Captain Fisher, aboard the HSMS Manticore, had just gotten word from the Wolfhound, that their rudder had been totally destroyed and that they were heaving to, in order to make repairs. It was reported to him that many of the wizards on board that brig, had sensed some modest magic just before the rudder had been smashed to pieces and while they recognized that it might have been some sea monster that did it, their collective feeling was that it had been a deliberate attack by a human magic user however if that was the case, that person had not only attacked unseen but even now their current whereabouts remained completely unknown. The invisible magic user might have fled or more worriedly, they might be preparing another attack on the brig or on another vessel in the little flotilla.

Captain Fisher ordered all those with witch sight to the sides of his ship. If something was coming for him, he wanted to kill it before it even scratched his vessel.

Lieutenant Adolfo Vue was posted at the stern of the Manticore; he was nervously watching a large fish approaching. The fish came closer and closer until suddenly, it disappeared from his witch sight altogether. That shouldn’t be possible! Just minutes later the rudder of the Manticore took a tremendous blow. It shook the frigate and startled Adolfo to such a degree that he fell down; when he regained his feet he saw the “fish” swimming away and diving deeper into the water.

How was he going to explain this to his Captain?”

---------------------

This time the spear had done less damage than I had been hoping for but I’m pretty certain that it had done enough. As I approached the third vessel, I started hearing strange noises outside my fish bubble. Suddenly I saw passing just in front of me, a kraken spear powering through the water. Those Swamp Leeches were shooting at me! They weren’t very friendly at all.

-----------------------

Captain Tristan Locke watched as his starboard broadside launched twelve spears at the “fish,” most of those spears missed but three or perhaps even four hit the peculiar creature, causing it to spin down and into the depths. However, Tristan knew better than to let down his guard. He would keep his crew alert and at full combat status while he chased down and captured that wandering schooner.

Captain Fisher had ordered him to continue pursuit while the Manticore and the Wolfhound, made temporary repairs. Such repairs would take ten hours at the minimum, according to what he was told.

----------------------

When those spears hit my bubble I thought that I was in trouble but the water had slowed them down and lessened the impacts. Deciding to dramatically die, I spun my bubble fish down into the depths, which nearly did kill me, because of the way my shields consumed energy while resisting the weight of the water that was above me. It was so bad that I had to let my “fish” contract in size.

Then for some odd reason, once I ceased my panic dive, my bubble no longer wanted to float back up to the surface. It wanted to continue to descend and I was forced to use quite a bit of energy to get it back near the surface once more. I began to feel pretty crappy for some reason and not having the luxury of time to slowly get better, I instead drank a dose of healing potion. Currently I was beneath the keel of the ship that had sunk me, and I was trying to figure out what to do and how to get revenge for their rude behavior.

While the impacts of those three spears hadn’t pierced or broken my shield, they had drained one reservoir considerably, which had forced me to switch to my second set of shield buttons. The new huge energy reservoirs on my flight harness made the enchantment so imbalanced that I was only seeing a benefit of two thirds of that power in terms of flight/movement duration. My war jacket was seeing a similar energy benefit ratio. The result was that because of the kraken spear attack and my own journey into the depths that both my jacket and harness would be empty now, if I hadn’t had poured more of my personal energy into them. All things considered, I was down about half of my internal power, with my harness and jacket both holding only a small fraction of a full magical energy charge. I needed time to recover and I needed fresh air to give me that time.

I didn’t think it would be smart to surface and fire my last kraken spear. They were ready for me now and they were likely to blanket the area with spears and fireballs when I got too close, even if they couldn’t see me when my invisibility ward became effective. Additionally, to fire the spear I would have to drop a portion of my shield and stand off at least a minimum safe distance from the rudder. I had no urge to commit suicide today, so what to do?

I started inventorying my supplies; partisan, check; kraken spear, check; medical potions, check; short sword, check; knives, check; water flask, check; three pounds of jerky, check; piss bag, check; crafting potions, check; miscellaneous poisons, check; twelve suppression darts, check; two doses of suppression concoction, check; and a whole bunch of paralyzing darts.

My mind focused on that last item. I hadn’t dared to attempt to capture a fleet of three ships with combined crews of perhaps a thousand men but there was only one ship now and those other two vessels were growing smaller in the distance. How many free crewmen were there on the ship above me? At a guess, somewhere between 150 and 200 considering that at least a quarter of the crew were probably slaves, at least according to Emile and Delta. But did I dare do it? On the other hand, I might not have any other choice. Did they know that I was beneath their ship, or was everything that was between the wizards and me, blocking their witch sight? I know that I certainly couldn’t perceive them, through the hull and the many steps of solid matter that lay between us.

Did I forget that I needed to refresh the air inside of my bubble? The answer to that question was a definite yes, what with the headache I was developing. Having no other choice I crept to the bow, thinking that it would be the one place where they might not have the best watch, keeping close to the hull I opened up some vent holes in my shield.

One good thing happened; whoever launched that fireball missed me by a wide margin. The bad thing was that they probably now knew that I wasn’t a fish.

-------------------

Captain Tristan Locke came running to the bow after one of his midshipmen, a young wizard by the name of Maximo Prado, yelled and launched a fireball down into the water.

“Captain, it’s a magic user inside some kind of shield, sir! I saw him but I only caught a corner of his shield with my spell.”

Suddenly, from the other side of the vessel a kraken spear came shooting out of the water and heading straight up. Captain Locke cursed as he watched the spear rise high into the sky, the focus of all the ship’s wizards had been drawn to the bow, instead of watching the ocean as they had been ordered them to do, all because of Prado’s actions.

Tristan ordered the brig hard to starboard because whatever goes up must come down, and while the spear would probably miss, he wasn’t taking any changes with his vessel. Once that was done, he yelled orders out to his wizard officers, for them to get back to watching the sea.

-----------------------

After launching my remaining spear on the port side of the brig, I had quickly propelled my fish under the vessel and to the other side. There I used my flight harness to climb up the hull of the rear starboard quarter of the ship. With the aid of my invisibility ward, I was soon hiding next to a dingy stored on deck. But I was worried that someone from outside the effective range of my ward might see me and call out. I was definitely dressed differently from everyone else that I could see. I needed to get below decks so that anyone who saw me would have to be within the range of my ward and thus not see me, did that last thought make any sense? My bracer darts had about the same range so I certainly had to worry about any lookouts in this ship’s crow’s nest or those stationed on the masts’ fighting tops.

I wish that I had dared to enter through the stern windows and into the Captain’s cabin but they were sure to be carefully watching that area since it was so near the rudder. But if I now walked aft, any watchers would be within the range of my invisibility ward and I could then safely use my flight harness to descend to a window. That should be a much more prudent course of action than if I tried sneaking to a ship’s hatchway. My ward will trick eyes and because of that it will defeat a magic user’s witch sight as well. As for other magical senses, those are ordinarily crude in comparison and if I don’t magically draw attention to myself, I should be okay.

I set off cautiously for the stern rail, which was mere steps away from my current location; once I was back over the side I should be safe at least for a little while. Hopefully I will have enough time to fully recover my internal energy reserves, while also recharging my jacket and harness.

As quietly as possible, I moved between the two wizard lookouts. I was so nervous that I had stopped breathing. Using my harness, I lifted myself over the railing and then lowered myself down the stern of the ship. I stopped my descent when I reached the windows of the Captain’s cabin. There was actually a little balcony there on which I could stand, so I didn’t even need my flight harness any longer. I don’t recall seeing balconies on the sterns of any GKS vessels; I think I was a little jealous. I had been hoping for the window to be open or at least unlatched but it was both closed and latched. However, a little work with my knife had it open and in short order.

This time I was going to do things differently, I was going to wait for my prey. I had gotten a look at the man, who I was sure was the Captain of this warship, powerful magic just roiled about him. Besides that, the man was actually wearing armor and he looked extremely comfortable in it too, which is something I hadn’t encountered in a wizard before.

I looked around for the perfect place to ambush him. In the starboard rear corner of the cabin was a tiny room that contained a private toilet. I figured that despite how powerful and competent he appeared to be, he just had to take off his armor and lower his guard when he went to use his own privy.

I looked at a large mirror that was on the wall before I entered that tiny bathroom. I didn’t know how I could look at myself. I was very a bad man who fought using underhanded and despicable means, I knew that. The last few days had driven that point home. But that honest self appraisal of my character wasn’t the problem. I was still using my invisibility ward, so how come when I looked in the mirror my eyes weren’t being tricked by the ward? Oh well, something for later consideration, after I killed every single wizard that was aboard this vessel and looted their corpses.

--------------------

Delta and Emile looked behind the schooner. Two of the pursuing HSMS vessels had lowered their sails and stopped, however according to their ship’s lookout, the third vessel was still following them but it was very far behind. Was James still alive? They had no signal from him, so they didn’t know his fate. Anxiously they waited.

------------------------

I had to wait three whole hours before I heard someone enter the cabin. At least it gave me time to recover my magical energies.

------------------------

Captain Tristan Locke was furious. Not only couldn’t his vessel catch up to the fleeing schooner but they might actually be falling further behind that craft. As for the mystery magic user that Midshipman Prado had seen earlier, there was still no sign since the launch of the kraken spear into the air.

Locke was tired, hungry and a little constipated. He took off his helmet, then his brigandine, bracers, hauberk, and finally the gambeson. Just as he was about to enter his privy, the bloody door of his cabin opened! Irritated, he looked over his shoulder and saw his two slave girls bringing in a covered silver serving tray.

“Not now, you damn scuts! I’ll ring for you when I want something and not before. I hope you’ve kept my whips well oiled because when I do call for you, I’ll be vigorously applying them to your flesh. NOW GET OUT!” He roared.

They ran out in fear, nearly dropping the tray. Locke knew that they were only doing their job and exactly what he always told them to do, in regards to bringing him food but he didn’t care; their primary job was to relieve his frustrations and if he killed one or both of them, it was no big deal, he could always purchase more. The worthless female mongrel bitches didn’t even have the value of a stray dog. On the other hand, it would be better and cheaper if he could find some young foreign girls to enslave. Suddenly his stomach clenched with pain, which curtailed his thinking about slaves, Tristan was out of time. Deciding to take off his greaves later, he opened the door and stepped into his tiny toilet. Why did he suddenly feel so weak, perhaps he should have eaten?

---------------------------

How to take care of the Captain, I was almost tempted to use my partisan but the room was simply too small, so when he stepped inside he got four paralyzing and one suppression dart.

The man was absurdly powerful as a wizard, so I decided to tie him up before I did anything else but I made a slight mistake. In my terror, instead of tying his hands, I accidentally put his leather belt around his throat and now he’s not breathing and I think his heart has stopped too. Oh no, I was ready to cry, what will I do now? Oh well, wizards you can’t live with them and you can’t kill them fast enough.

A few moments ago, I had heard him talking to someone that I assumed had to be a slave. I wanted to keep people out of my way as much as possible, so finding what looked like the same kind of bell pull that Donna and Alex had in their house, I decided to give it a yank.

Within three minutes I heard running feet and two very young girls came in carrying a tray. Their faces were all blotchy, as if they had just stopped crying. They both looked around in confusion, probably because they didn’t see anyone. They closed the door and set the tray down which is what I had been waiting for. I shot them both and controlled their falls so that they didn’t get hurt.

I carried one of the girls over to the large bed. On the bed was Captain Jerk’s armor. It looked like fairly nice stuff and it might even fit me since his body had looked to be, only a little larger than my own. I laid the first girl on a corner of the bed and I moved all of the armor to make room for the second one. His armor looked very flamboyant and expensive. It was made of steel but it had been coated with a hard brilliant red enamel finish. Certain parts of it had been gold plated, including the visor of his helmet. I checked the helmet with my witch sight and it looked all right. On a whim I put it on, it fit perfectly and it didn’t impair my vision in the least. While I couldn’t wear any of the other armor since it would cover my buttons, I could wear this helmet and while it couldn’t hurt, it might just save my life. I’d keep it on for now.

I moved the second girl to the bed and then tied them both up. I stayed invisible but I tried to speak some comforting words to both of the very young ladies. I lifted the visor on my helmet so that they could hear me clearly. “I am sorry for scaring both you. It is my plan to release you in a little while and take you to a better place, a land where you’ll both be free. For now though, I have to leave you tied up. Try to sleep and if you can, dream happy dreams.”

I reloaded my bracers; it was now time to go hunting. I floated myself flat along the ceilings of the passageways, that way if anyone came along they wouldn’t bump into the invisible guy wearing their recently deceased Captain’s helmet. I am a bad man, stealing from the dead. How low can I possibly go? I had even promised myself that I would forgo robbing the people that I killed for the whole week but I had already broken that resolution. I decided to punish myself by vowing not to eat liver for a week; it’s a good thing that I hate liver. Fore, I would hate to get the reputation that I was a man without even a shred of honor.

I did a little bit of scouting. I found that the slaves were kept in room, located in the hold of this vessel. I think that they were all inside there, and for now I would leave them locked up.

I went looking for wizards, if I took them all down then I would have an excellent chance of succeeding with my plans. There have been a great many ships over the decades that have been defeated by a single magic user, when they didn’t have one of their own.

There were some private cabins on the tube deck, I started there. The first cabin that I came to, there was no problem. I simply opened the door and shot the man inside with three darts. I left him lying on the floor.

Things went wrong at the second cabin. I quietly opened the door and something fell down with a clatter. The man inside made an alarmed sound but it wasn’t quite a shout. I fired two darts at him but he already had his shield up. What the heck was going on? Wizards shouldn’t be able to raise their shields that quickly! Hoping that he wasn’t that tough of a magic user, I attacked him with my partisan but I didn’t get a good hit in and his shield deflected my winged spear. He yelled again but luckily no louder than the first time for some reason. My second thrust was right through his throat and it nearly took his head off.

I immediately put myself flat on the ceiling and watched the cabin door, waiting for someone to charge inside. This could be really bad.

A young man came inside the room. I shot darts at him but he too had his shield up, he yelled loudly which made me cringe. I dove down upon him with my spear and vertically bisected his spine.

Unbelievably, no one came in response to his shout. I searched the other rooms and I finally came to the last door on this deck. Upon opening it, I found two very young men sleeping soundly in their hammocks. The cabin looked easily large enough to hold eight or more people. I shot them both with darts and departed.

It was now time for the sterncastle. I peeked inside the Captain’s cabin and I discovered that the girls were still there, I breathed out a sigh of relief.

I could hear the sounds of conversation and dishes clinking next door. I reloaded my bracers. When I opened the new door, I tried to mimic the action of a gust of wind performing the same job. There were four wizards sitting at a dining table, with either glasses or forks half raised to their mouths. While they looked over at the door with curiosity, there wasn’t a trace of concern on their faces. I shot each man with two paralyzing darts and one suppression dart; the same as I had done with those down below.

I left the aftcastle, going onto the waist deck and from there I took the stairs to the quarterdeck. I put myself behind the ship’s wheel watching carefully. There were two officers standing behind the helmsman. The young seaman seemed nervous and kept his eyes straight ahead. I crept up close to the officers, trying to be as quiet as possible. I shot them both with darts and slowed their falls with my hands. The nervous seaman twitched at the sounds but he didn’t turn around.

There were four normal sailors posted at the very stern of the ship. They had their eyes glued to the sea. I shot them all with one dart a piece as quickly as I could; none of the shots were further than fifteen steps.

The nervous seaman at the ship’s wheel still hadn’t turned around. I had to wonder what those officers had done to cause him to be so focused on his job. I went back to those paralyzed officers and one at a time, I flew them to the side of the ship and sent them for a nice swim, after first searching them of course. I felt better; at least I wasn’t robbing the dead this time. I stole from those two officers and then I killed them, which is a completely different thing.

I started searching the weather deck. I didn’t find any more wizards until the bow. I knew that I was feeling overconfident but I only had two more to go it seemed. They were standing side by side. I put three darts into each of them and they went down. I flew up into rigging to look into the crow’s nest and the fighting tops. I only found one man in the nest and I gave him two darts.

Sailors were gathering around the two fallen officers, I shot them with a single dart a piece and then I reloaded. I walked back towards the quarter deck, shooting at every man I saw. I tried to make sure that no one made it below decks but two men were able to gain the hatchway.

The helmsman stayed at the wheel but he definitely knew that something was wrong. Not seeing anyone else, I let myself go visible. He noticeably jumped when he saw me. It had been dark for a few hours but the moons gave him enough light where he could see my outline. I flew towards him and with my witch sight I could see that the front of his pants had a growing wet spot.

I landed on the deck to his right side and spoke. “Would You Like to Live?” This was my first time speaking with the visor down on my new helmet and it made my voice sound powerful and menacing. This was great; I should wear it when I attend my classes at the University or when I’m ordering food in a restaurant, I bet I would get better service then.

The man was nodding his head “yes,” so fast that he looked like a woodpecker. It seemed like his fear was so great that he couldn’t even speak. I tried to imagine myself in his shoes, the wizards were gone, everyone else looked dead and I was wearing his Captain’s helmet. Yep, I would be scared too. I am a really bad man.

“Stay at Your Post and Guide this Ship Carefully. I Will Return.” Ooh, I sounded like I could command an army of the dead.

I flew myself to the hatchway. I started checking rooms as I went past them. I didn’t find anything until the dining room. Someone had left four drunken wizards passed out around the table. They were officers and wizards, had they no dignity, no shame? Why is it me that always has to clean up the messes? After making sure to secure the men’s valuables including their shoes, coats and belts. I decided that a late night swim would sober them up. Luckily this dining room shared the stern balcony with the Captain’s cabin. I hoped the men remembered to thank me in the morning and I wished them the best with their hangovers. Personally I would have been terrified of diving into such deep, dark and cold water but they didn’t say a word as I hoisted them over the railing.

I checked on the girls and they seemed to be okay. Deciding that I couldn’t risk leaving them tied up any longer, I carefully undid the strips of cloth that I had used to bind them. Being a nice guy, I made myself visible and I even lifted the visor of my new helmet.

“Do not be afraid, ladies. I am in the process of securing this vessel. I’ve defeated thirteen wizards including the Captain and I think that’s all of them. Now, I have to take care of the free crewmen and release the slaves down on the orlop deck. I want you two, to stay here and keep safe. Okay?”

The nodded their heads fearfully back at me. They had tears in their eyes. Surprisingly one of them spoke to me. “There were only thirteen wizards on this ship.”

“Thank you for telling me, I appreciate it.” I wouldn’t fully trust her but the information did help.

For the next hour, I was running and flying all over the ship, while paralyzing crewmen. Because of my shield they couldn’t do a thing to stop me, unless they shot me with a kraken spear or doused me in burning oil but neither of those two things happened. It was exhausting and I wouldn’t have found them all, at least I think I found them all, without my witch sight.

I checked on the helmsman twice but he was staying at his post. Finally I was back down in the hold and opening the door to the prison.

I had a lantern and lifted it high. The place smelled and everyone woke up with expressions filled with despair. I had deactivated my invisibility ward but I had decided to leave my helmet on, because I liked how I sounded when I spoke with the visor down.

“Hello, this vessel was threatening the schooner that I was on. I disabled the two other ships that were sailing with it and I’ve captured this one. All of the crew except for the helmsman have been paralyzed or killed.

I am from the Gulf Kingdom and we’ve recently learned how the Kingdom of Fata has been enslaving people, changing their appearances and making it impossible for them to talk about their pasts. If you wish to come with me, back to Sweet Port, you can but you will have to sail this vessel. I’ve left a lot of two legged trash lying around, deal with it as you see fit except for the helmsman. Only send him for a late night swim if he’s truly been cruel to you.” Noticing all of the women in the room, I added something to that last statement. “I consider forced intercourse to be justification enough.

We have no time to delay, this ship is without an active crew and you need to be doing something or I need to be leaving. But I will not force you to do anything.”

They quickly started getting out of their hammocks and moving at my words. I knew that this helmet would work but I wasn’t sure if I liked its colors.

-------------------------

Jillian Valdez had been a slave for over twenty years. Before that she had been a young apprentice navigator on a merchant man. She now answered to the name of Roka and couldn’t say her real name without being stabbed by a blinding headache and getting a nosebleed.

She looked at the strange man, who had just said such impossible things and was worst yet wearing the Captain’s red and gold helmet. “Who are you sir?”

“I am Iron-Balls!” The words came out in a deep, commanding, echoing voice.

All of the slaves stood there in shock at such a ridiculous name. Suddenly they heard the sound of laughter coming from inside the helmet, the laughter grew in volume and finally the man raised his visor while still giggling. He was very young and not bad looking either.

“I’m sorry but you should have seen your faces. My name is James Drake. I too was once a slave. But we don’t have time for that right now. I’ve scared the helmsman, to stay at the ship’s wheel but he’s the only one that can move and I don’t know anything about sailing. I’m an enchanter and a potion concocter, not a sailor. Do any of you want to go to Sweet Port?”

The cheer that answered his question nearly deafened James.

--------------------

Reyes, Margo, Emile and Delta were eating in the Captain’s cabin. Discussing what they should do since they hadn’t received any message from James. They were heading south and away from Sweet Port, soon they would be forced to turn once again to the west but would those HSMS vessels be able to intercept them and what was James’s fate?

Suddenly, one of the three very large runes that was engraved into a piece of wood that was three steps long by two steps wide, lit up. That piece of wood was attached to the wall and it drew everyone’s attention. The rune glowed four times in a row, paused for three minutes and then did it again. Delta walked to the board and put her hand on a different rune, closed her eyes and concentrated. The rune she touched glowed twice in succession; then a few minutes later, she had it repeat that action.

All those gathered in the dining cabin looked at one another with relieved expressions. Delta spoke. “Four flashes of that rune, tells us that James thinks it’s safe for us to head for Sweet Port once more. It also means that James is alive. I sent him two flashes back, which tells him that we received his message.” There were happy exclamations from Margo and Reyes.

Emile though had a more somber expression. “But he didn’t tell us to activate the magic beacon so that he could find us. That worries me and he didn’t give us the message to slow down either.”

Everyone’s expression turned slightly somber but the only thing that they could do, was hope that their liberator was safe and well.

---------------------

I had certainly freed one enraged group of former slaves. The crew that I had liberated on that last schooner had been rather tidy while disposing of the garbage but this group was making a mess and I wasn’t going to be the one cleaning it up and I told them so. Death by drowning or strangulation is just as effective as hacking someone apart with an axe. Frequently they didn’t even wait to take the boots, clothes or any other valuables off of their prey.

Don’t they understand if you’re going to kill someone, you might as well rob them too! A slightly older woman named Roka was the acting Captain. She seemed to understand my frustrations but I guess things had been really bad on this vessel.

Well, at least she had half of the crew sailing this ship while the other half took care of vermin disposal. I ignored them and did my own careful search of the brig. I needed to find the tag or tags that might be hidden on board. Even knowing what I was looking for, it took me over three hours to complete my search. One was hidden in the forecastle and the other in the sterncastle.

I appropriated the Healer’s former cabin that was in the aftcastle. It was also designed to berth up to four patients in bunk beds, so the quarters were almost as large as the Captain’s cabin. I was exhausted but there was still work to be done. I had to collect the wizards’ belongings. It was probable that some of them or all of them were trapped, just like on the schooner, and bad things would happen if someone sprung one of them.

I also needed the wizards’ things for another reason. I had used up quite a bit of my medical potions on the other ship but now I had a bunch of new patients. So I needed potions and ingredients. There were some things stocked in my new cabin but not enough in my opinion and their quality was low too, though I might be able to enhance them with a little bit of work.

Once I had all the of the wizard’s chests safely moved, thanks to my personal shield, and seeing that the ship’s new crew still wasn’t settling down. I decided to finally get some sleep after informing Roka. She was diligently trying to get us to Sweet Port as quickly as possible since we didn’t know how long those other two vessels would be disabled or if there were other enemy ships nearby.

The next morning I woke up and made my way down to the galley. The bodies were all gone but there were too many freaking blood stains all over the place. I guess if I have the time, I might make a potion that will help with the clean up but I doubt that I will have any spare time.

I spoke with Franco, the new First Officer, before going back to my cabin. I told him that I would be ready to start seeing the crew for health checkups in two hours but if he had any people with serious illnesses or injuries, to send them right away.

Upon arriving at my room I sent three timed rune pulses, indicating that I was okay to Emile and Delta. I got back two pulses showing that they had received my message. Too bad we hadn’t made up a code for saying “hey, I’ve captured another ship and I’m heading towards Sweet Port.” Well, maybe next time I’d be better prepared.

I took a better look at what I had to work with in this cabin and I wasn’t impressed. As for my personal stuff; I was out of health potions but I had seven doses of healing potion, two of the red longevity series, two regeneration series, thirteen doses of different kinds of fever concoctions, four doses of the blindness medicine, five doses of my hearing cure, miscellaneous anti-toxins, and two jars of beauty/scar cream. Before I left the schooner I had given Emile a full set of the regeneration potions. He was to alternate using it along with the red longevity series, taking a dose every for four days. I had also warned him to do stretching exercises and to eat lots of meat. I think that the two concoctions, taken in an alternating fashion might have an interesting and beneficial effect on that old man.

I desperately needed some health potions, thankfully they are an easy concoction for me to make and while I know that I can make a far better one using ingredients found in my swamp, thanks to Professor King I knew how to make health potions while using more common lower-grade ingredients.

By the time my first patient arrived, I had fives doses completed and five more simmering. The name that her former masters had given her and she was stuck with for now was Nena. She was going blind, possibly from too much glaring sunlight, being reflected off the ocean during her years as a sailor. Nena’s back and joints were also bothering her just like with Emile. Also like him, she looked to be one of the oldest former slaves that I’d met. I dosed her eyes and started her on the red series. I was delighted to discover that unlike Emile, she had the aptitude to be a better “lesser mage” than Delta, which is saying something. When I told her about her potential and how I needed her help, she seemed to come alive.

She had no duties right now, so I put her in one of the vacant bunks with a simple light rune that I quickly engraved onto a small wooden box lid and then enchanted. I gave her some instructions and let her play while I examined my other patients. Occasionally I would direct a tip her way.

The next patient was a woman with an infection in her vagina; she had no problem giving me a sample. I gave her dose of health potion, but as for her infection, I would have to concoct something special and she would need to check back with me that evening. It could be that there was a proper fever potion somewhere in this cabin and I just needed to locate and identify it. I mean the free crew had to be getting the same diseases, so the ship’s healer had to have been at least treating them.

I met a woman who was attractive but she too had an infection down below and someone had knocked her teeth out. She got some health potion and was also told to come back later.

That is how my day went. I primarily dispensed health potions and fever concoctions. I saw twenty-nine patients and everything went as I had sadly expected, that is if not counting five notable exceptions of which Nena was one. I had thought Emile and Delta to be a fluke with them both being lesser mages amongst such a small group of people. Back in the Gulf Kingdom, according to Dean Marks, only about one in a thousand has the potential to be a lesser mage, yet there were only twenty people back on that small schooner and two of them, were lesser magic users. On this vessel, I had identified five people with the same or greater abilities. There was one thing that they all had in common. They had all been slaves for at least fifteen years and from what I could tell they had been routinely, physically and magically tortured during that time. It could be that they had some magic all along and that magic helped them to survive such terrible conditions. So what I was encountering was only the strongest of the survivors.

My new temporary part-time apprentices included Nena, Roka the Captain, Franco her First Officer, Rudolf, and Minnie who was tiny a little thing but quite fierce. She also had her teeth knocked out and was forced to wear an eye patch because of a missing eye. I gave her a regeneration potion and Rudolf got my last red concoction.

That evening, I sent another signal to the schooner that I was still safe and I got back two pulses in return.

I was frustrated that I didn’t have enough materials to heal all the ills of the crew on this vessel but they all seemed to understand that they would have to wait until we reached Sweet Port for me to fix things like bone and joint damage. I know one thing for sure; all of them were getting a dose of the red longevity potion, as soon as I could arrange it and maybe some of the blue series too. They deserved to get back some years.

It took me two days to break into those deceased wizards’ chests and equip the former HSMS Staghound with shield runes.

I decided that I should finally make a return trip back to the schooner, so I sent them the signal to activate the third rune, so I could locate them. The magical beacon was over nine leagues away, which was further than I wanted to travel by bubble fish; I was afraid of sea monsters, and it was far too distant for me to fly. I sent a second message, asking them to slow down. They sent back six pulses, saying that they would.

-------------------

Reyes, Margo, Delta and Emile were all confused. For days now, James had been sending the “he’s okay” signal every morning and evening. But how could that be? According to him the maximum range of his pulse rune signal board was at most one hundred leagues. Yet, he was still sending them pulses, which meant that he had to be following them.

Emile for some reason was sporting a secret smile, like he had figured out what was going on. He had been doing a lot of that lately, despite the fact that he was essentially teething.

-----------------

Finally, the lookout in the crow’s nest spotted the schooner far ahead of us. I didn’t want them to panic, so I decided that I should leave now while the brig was still distant from them. In that way, I could get to the schooner and explain what was going on before they got upset, when they saw the Staghound. Reluctantly, I flew into the ocean and sped off after the small ship inside my fish bubble. I had made a few wards to carry with me but I would be traveling too fast for them to be very effective.

About forty minutes later I was at the schooner and flying myself on to its upper deck. I was greeted by a happy group of people.

I was forced to tell them about my adventures. Reyes kept the ship’s speed down so that the Staghound could catch up to us. When I described what had happened, when I first released the slaves on board the brig and said that my name was Iron-Balls, they found it so hilarious that some of them nearly fell down laughing. They were sorry that I hadn’t brought the helmet with me, so that I could show them it and they could all hear my Deep Commanding Voice.

I spent the night on the schooner and the next day I flew back to the now far closer brig. For the remainder of our trip back to Sweet Port, I planned on spending alternating nights on the two ships. For some reason, my presence seemed to help with the general mood on board both vessels.

I made a lookout table for the brig and a signal board. I discovered how the wizards were making their small ships invisible; it required at least three magic users and some peculiar runes to cast the spell. I also found their magical communication device, which according to some notes that I found; they called it a message caster. It’s very similar to the crude signal board that I made just recently.

It took me a full day to make two large send and receive communications boards. I didn’t know the codes the Navy used and the “send” board that I made would talk to all Naval boards; within range as my reception board should receive from their “all GKS” transmit boards.

Using an extremely simple code developed by Professors Tanner and Lee, one that even I could remember, I sent a message spelling out “James Drake, returning to Sweet Port with two captured ships.”

# # # # # # # # # # # # #

Okay, so he’s not home yet. But my muse needs some time to percolate, so please forgive me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s7_WbiR79E

Captain Tristan Locke’s Personal Armor

http://www.darkknightarmoury.com/p-16148-visored-barbuta-helmet.aspx

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigandine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hauberk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambeson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greave