“What are our options here?” Lucius asked.

The captain spat over the side of the railing and barked a new order to adjust the sails. “Not good,” he answered, producing a tin of chewing tobacco and packing his lip.

“Do you have cannons?”

“You mean those things they’ve got on the walls of Rackvidd? I heard what they did to the rebel fleet, but no, I ain’t got any. They use ley, don’t they? The stuff out of the wastelands?”

Lucius nodded. “That they do, and some fine craftsmanship. I wonder what the bishop is doing right now…” He had plenty of time to muse on that. In the age before cannon shots, piracy wasn’t particularly quick. The best option was to pull up alongside the other craft and volley arrows, which meant they had to be close enough to see one another. There were no long distance scuttling shots, only a harrying of prey and hoping that the lesser vessel would run afoul of a shoal.

As it turned out, his life would have been largely the same if he had been with the bishop in the wastelands, but fighting the cannibals instead of fighting the eastern theocracy.

For the second time that year, he was relegated to watching as triangular sails chased after them. He meandered to the back of the ship and took from one of the sailors a large bow. The poundage was immense, fit for an oarsman, but he was able to draw it back. Even still, the pirates weren’t close enough.

Lupin walked up behind him, wringing his hands. “It’s the Cyclops,” the merchant said.

“The what?”

“The terror of the seas. She never loses her prey.”

“Is this some kind of person? Or a monster?”

Lupin shrugged. “She’s not human, that’s the only thing people know for certain. Some say she’s a skald, mixed with the trolls. Others that she fought her way out of the wastelands, one of the man-eaters. Or perhaps born of the emissaries themselves.”

Lucius sneered. “Legends grow, and that’s only one ship. If the Cyclops is aboard it, I’d like to meet her.”

Lupin nodded. “Aye, maybe we’re lucky. Maybe this is just one of her dogs, but even then… well… perhaps I should be blunt that there are multiple reasons that merchants are hesitant to do business down here at the bottom of the world.”

Lucius looked about himself, at the misty islands to either side. They almost looked like the stumps of enormous trees, felled by giants and left to fester in the water. All about him, mossy cliffs were home to colorful birds, climbing goats. The archipelago was a maze, and that favored the vandal, despite how far from home they were.

“Vassermark doesn’t control the southern coast, do they?”

“They barely control Giordana at the moment.”

“How is Raymi going to shuttle his troops?”

“I dare say he won’t be. They might have to march.”

“That will take them months.”

“And will cost them a great deal of money.”

Lucius snarled and drew the bow back. He strained it till the lacquered wood wanted to splinter in his grasp, then he loosed. It soared and faltered in the wind, slanting over before the sea snatched it with a wave. The distance had given him a measure though, and he nocked a second arrow.

It seemed to give the pirates a measure as well, and they slowed their approach to his utmost limit. Of course, he cursed himself for not giving them a false measure and then attempting to pick off the captain. It seemed, however, that despite the wind, the pirates decided for a parley. One of their number stood up at the prow of their ship and cupped hands around her mouth–Lucius had to assume it was a she based on her voice alone, for the outfit couldn’t have been more ambiguous. “You happen to be the new lord?”

The two ships were distant, but the wind was with him. He had no need to call for someone with the [Roar] stigmata, indeed at the time he wasn’t even sure that Lupin employed such a man. He bellowed his answer back, letting the wind carry it. “And if I am?”

“Are you? Or is he just a rumor?”

“Why don’t you come over here and find out?”

“You’re not a merchant ship, are you?”

Lucius paused to glance at Lupin. The merchant could only shake his head and fetch from a coat pocket a flask. The ship was still getting up to speed, and both vessels were started to jam through the waves and fight the current. Impacts shuddered through the deck and they had to brace against the railing as water spilled from one end to the next.

The pirate shouted again, “No merchant would set a fire like that, but you’re not much of a war ship, are you? And if you had a cannon, you’d have shot us by now, yeah?”

“Are you the Cyclops?” Lucius shouted back, and glanced to the crew. Half a dozen had assembled near him, squeezing bows and looking to him for direction.

The pirate seemed to laugh, but the wind muted her for lack of her stigmata’s empowerment. “You’re not the lord then, are you?”

Lupin scoffed. “How could she conclude that?” he asked.

The hair on the back of Lucius’ neck stood on end. The verge of danger loomed in his mind and he spun about. The ship was careening past a cliff, the sheer edge of a volcanic mountain like a wall to the sea. The haze of mist seemed almost endless before them, particularly in the top down light of the noon sun, but he could see the waves ahead of them. The rose and fell in line with the current, but the wind was shearing across their tops so fierce sea water was ripped free and splattered across the island like horizontal rain.

The captain noticed it too, that freak gust storm. Both he and Lucius screamed out, “Brace!” as the nose of the ship entered the cross wind and twisted. Worse than throwing anchor at speed, the nose of the ship was thrown to the side. Men screamed, the deck bucking beneath them. Lucius was tossed into the railing so hard he flipped over, grasping the rope as his feet danced across the waves. The ship began to drift sideways, fighting the current and wind, twisting between them. Sails jerked and flapped as men scrambled to adjust heading. The wheel was fought with and the crew scrambled to regain control before slamming into a reef.

And in doing so, they lost speed.

The pirates slid up like a dancer. The only thing Lucius could do was kick his feet against the deck and shout, “Archers!” The pirates took the first volley just before their ship slid into the crosswind. Iron-tipped shafts pelted into wood and flesh. One guard fell without even a cry, blood merely squirted from his mouth before he pitched over the side and vanished to the waves. Another struck Lucius through his armor, punching through the plate and jabbing into his muscles. “Return volley!” he commanded, kicking his feet against the hull to find purchase.

The only thing his feet found was a below deck port window, and his boot nearly smashed the glass out before he found purchase. Sammy stuck his head up from below deck, still blotted in the blood of his patients–the prisoners–to shout, “Save him, he can’t swim!”

“I can too!” Lucius roared as half the crew adjusted the sails and the other half scrambled to line up along the side. They loosed arrows back, scattering shafts across the pirate vessel before another volley bounced back at them.

Lupin threw himself halfway over the side and grabbed onto Lucius' armor to haul him up, saving him from another swim with pirates. Both men sprawled across the deck as the helmsman caught a current and shot their ship around the corner of the island. For a moment, the two ships were too distant for arrows. Men rolled over one another and shouted in pain. They called for the doctor and ran the wounded men back for bandaging.

Then the reprieve ended as quick as it began. They were almost set for another volley of arrows when one of the men stood up at the back, hands empty. He was a young lad, too young to understand his own mortality as he stood with middle fingers raised to the pirates. He shouted vulgarities at them and activated his stigmata. As if possessed by spirits, their arrows twisted in the air and soared up. Some ripped holes into the sails, but most flew harmlessly past to the waves beyond. “Loose!” the kid screamed, dropping his arms.

The sailors leapt up and nocked arrows. Their own volley soared true, felling three pirates from their deck. No other volley came, the Aillesterrans turned, breaking their advance and putting distance between the two ships. “What are you doing?” Lupin shouted. “Kill them!”

Lucius grunted, ripping the arrow out of his back, and said, “It’s too far.”

“Then turn around! Let’s slaughter the rogues. With that power–”

“Ah, sorry,” the kid said, dropping to his ass on the deck. Sweat poured from his brow and stained his shirt. “I probably can’t.”

“It’s fine,” Lucius said, scratching his chin as the pirate ship began to shrink from view. “Clearly, I should have asked about stigmata before we began this trip.”

The kid laughed as the captain stomped across to see what had happened. “I’m not very useful in a fight. Just, sometimes I can help get the ship free of sand.”

“No, no, your power has much better uses than that,” Lucius said as he walked over and offered the lad a hand up.

“You flatter me, m’lord.”

“I’d like to hire you,” he said, clapping a hand on the boy’s shoulder.

The lad blinked and gaped, then looked down at Lucius’ waist. “Uh, sir.”

“I’ll pay you a fair wage and compensate your captain. Trust me, i can make much better use of you and your ability.”

The kid cleared his throat. “I’m not much of a fighter, m’lord, but I think maybe you should see the doctor?”

Lucius laughed. “No, not fighting. A bit of wind is hardly useful in war. Trust me, I’ve got a much better use.”

“Sir,” the kid said, grabbing Lucius’ arm to steady him. “You’re bleeding heavily.”

Sammy stuck his head into the conversation with a scowl, and gave Lucius a firm shove. He had lost feeling in his legs without realizing it and toppled like a felled tree. “Roll him over, would you? We have to get that armor off him,” the doctor said as Lucius groaned and finally realized how light headed he was, for his healing hadn’t kicked in yet. He hadn’t even thought about the presumably minor injury, because he had been too taken with the notion of how to use a man who could summon wind from nothing.

There was a fantastic use for such an ability, one which would solve one of his biggest issues.