Drake pulled back his hood to reveal his face. That was dangerous and reckless since it left him open to an arrow through his eyes, but it was his first shot at getting the opening he needed. It would also suggest he wasn’t scared of the people arrayed against him.
“And you’d be the Asp!” he shouted back. “Any reason you’re hiding your face from me? Got some old battle scars? Are you shy, maybe?”
If he could get the Asp to pull her hood back, he would have a clean shot at sucking her blood out of her eyes. He could still see the yellow glow he saw inside the heads of other people, though on her, the glow was much more faint. Muffled, but still present.
“I’m afraid the sight of my great beauty costs more than you’ve offered!” the Asp shouted back. “Now state your purpose here. If I like your job, I just might take it!”
She wasn’t pulling back her silverweave hood. He also wondered if she was referring to an offer he might make her... or his job as manor lord. Either would be what she believed. She was already taunting him with doublespeak.
“I’m not here to hire you!” Drake called back. “I’m also not here for a fight! I’m here because you have someone who belongs to me!”
Drake had no intention of fighting the Asp and her mercenaries. That was true enough. It didn’t mean he wouldn’t if she forced the issue.
“You’re most likely mistaken, lord!” the Asp called back. “We have not abducted any of your blood thralls, nor do any of my people have any open contracts with you!”
Most likely mistaken. Clever. It wasn’t a lie, because the Asp could conceivably believe he might be mistaken about this. She didn’t know who he was here for yet. He filed her ploy away under “weird shit he could say in the future” and moved on with his plan.
“Then I’ll make this real easy for you!” Drake called. “You’re holding a man named Darion Bressos in the belly of your boat there! He’s already agreed to join my manor and become my blood thrall! So if you’ll simply return my property, you can go about your day!”
“Has this man signed an official contract to join your manor?” the Asp called.
Of course she’d asked that, and of course he hadn’t. “He said he wished to join me! My thralls heard it too!”
“And did this man speak to you directly?” the Asp called tauntingly. “Or did you hear about his uncommitted musings from another source? A woman, perhaps? His sister?”
Damn, she was good. Drake would have almost liked the Asp if she hadn’t ruthlessly melted an entire village because they pissed her off. He knew from his chat with Samuel that even a direct conversation with a person where they agreed to join a manor wasn’t ironclad. They had to sign an actual paper contract or be inducted into a blood pact to be off limits.
Yet the Asp had also slipped up just now, at least if he’d heard her right. It was easily possible that she could know Lark had called for help simply by the fact that he was here, but she couldn’t know that Darion hadn’t spoken to him directly about joining his manor. Not unless Darion had told her that, which he’d only do if she’d tortured him.
Drake hoped Darion wasn’t going to be all burned up and scarred after whatever the Asp and her people had done to him. That was a horrible fate he wouldn’t wish upon anyone... except maybe Lord Redbow. That fucker could melt in a vat of acid.
“Still two below, lord,” Emily said softly. “Along with the third one.”
Time to escalate. “We had a verbal agreement! Darion Bressos intends to join my manor, which means you, lady, are holding one of my blood thralls hostage! I’m fully in my rights to retrieve him! So if you want to keep this boat and your lives, get him up here!”
The Asp straightened and stepped back from the railing of her vessel. When she spoke again, loud enough to echo across the docks, her voice contained a clear note of feigned offense. “Are you threatening us, Lord Gloomwood? In the middle of Korhaurbauten?”
He’d keep playing his role. “It’s not a threat! It’s a promise!”
“But we’ve done nothing to do you, and you’ve already admitted that you have no legal claim on this man! Do you intend to order your people to illegally attack a licensed mercenary company legally fulfilling a contract? In sight of these witnesses?”
Drake glanced around for eyes on them. There were already people gathering on the other docks and onlookers gathering by the rails of other boats. Even if the noble court didn’t have spies here, he had plenty of witnesses. So far, so good.
“Last chance!” Drake called. “Return my thrall or face the consequences!”
“He’s not your thrall!” the Asp said confidently. “Now step back!”
Even as she spoke her previously relaxed mercenaries leapt into motion. Two hopped up and gripped the handles on the crossbow turrets on the aft and side of the boat facing his people. A moment later he had two huge crossbows pointed at him.
Drake glanced at Gaby. “Ready up.”
She bit her lip, visibly tense, and nodded at him. She then raised one hand toward the boat and focused her attention on the space between them. If the mercenaries did fire, they’d all find out if Gaby’s fullstop rarity could stop crossbow bolts as well as flutterstepping Lydias.
It made sense that Gaby could stop those hurtling bolts. He suspected she could. But if she couldn’t, that was why he had a wall of armored zarovians holding big spears and bigger shields gathered in front of him. They were, quite literally, meat shields.
And zarovians had a lot of meat on their bones.
A single armored mercenary leapt off the boat like a ninja, easily leaping what had to be fifteen feet across open ocean. He landed smoothly on the dock. As he went to untie the ropes binding the boat to the docks, Drake whistled loudly.
Ice crackled around the post that contained the rope. The nimble mercenary recoiled as a layer of ice overtook the post, freezing the rope there and making it impossible to unwind. A moment later the other post abruptly iced over as well. Then, ice crackled all the way up both ropes to freeze the rings on the boat to which they were tied.
Drake fired a grin over his shoulder at the single cloaked figure standing on the next dock beyond this one. She was just within range of the docking posts. Flashfreeze might not be able to do much against silverweave and ferrocite, but that didn’t make it worthless in a fight.
“Return!” the Asp ordered.
The armored ninja bent, flexed, and then leapt into the air like a pole vaulter who didn’t need a pole. He easily cleared the distance between the docks and boat with multiple feet to spare and landed smoothly. So his rarity was probably something like “super jump”.
Whatever. Lydia and Robin both did it better. This guy was basically a giant frog.
“You have no right to detain us!” the Asp shouted. “Release my boat!”
“Release my man and you can go!” Drake shouted back.
“I already told you, he isn’t yours!” The Asp, finally, sounded a little frustrated. “And the person who owns him is more terrifying than you are, so all you’re doing is wasting my time!”
Ouch. That actually hurt a little. Still no one new had joined the Asp on deck, and still he couldn’t execute his brilliant plan. Time to pull out the big guns... or in this case, the big vanguard. Drake whistled again, then made a circling up motion with one hand.
Armored shadows emerged from the warehouses and stomped down the docks in a loose group. More zarovians—almost his entire contingent—had been waiting in the shadows this whole time. They formed up around Korrag and the others and his people. Once the armored march finished, Drake stood on the docks with five thralls and twelve zarovians.
Drake now had the Asp outnumbered two-to-one. “One last question for you!” Drake called up to the boat. “How many zarovians can you take in a fight?”
“We’ve done nothing to you!” the Asp shouted for her witnesses. “We’ve offered no offense and haven’t assaulted you in any way! But if you harm us, we will defend ourselves!”
“They’re moving, lord!” Emily said excitedly, followed by an “Aww.”
“What aw?” Drake asked quietly.
“Just one is moving. The other is staying below.”
Drake shrugged. “Guess that guy is fucked, then.”
One of the mercenaries who wasn’t manning the crossbow turrets, standing in the crow’s nest, or staring him down expertly rotated a large valve-looking ring on the outside of a metal door on the side of the boat. The hinged door opened. It looked heavy. One additional mercenary dressed the same as the others hurried out.
Eight above. One below, plus the prisoner. It was the best he was going to get. Drake glanced at Carl. “Meteor kaboom time.”
Carl sighed heavily. As those on the boat watched in increasing alarm, Carl spun his hands. Molten rock manifested as he did so, forming a large molten ball that spun rapidly as burned with flame. It was an intimidating display.
“Hold!” the Asp shouted to her people. “Lord Gloomwood, stop! This is madness!”
Her people tensed across the boat. They couldn’t unload their crossbow turrets and rarities on Drake’s people until they attacked first, but Drake suspected they’d go full bore the moment Carl tossed his flaming projectile at their boat. Worse, since he’d ordered his thrall to blast their boat with meteor kaboom, he would have struck first and committed a crime.
Fortunately, that wasn’t his plan at all.
Carl shouted and tossed his meteor... straight up. It rocketed into the air almost directly above Drake’s people and their zarovian vanguard. Once it was at least eight stories above the docks, it exploded in a brilliant shower of rock, flame, and embers. It was completely harmless... but everyone across the entire docks and beyond had seen that explosion.
It wasn’t an attack. It was a signal. Only one enemy now waited in the belly of that boat, guarding Darion. He wasn’t going to be nearly enough.
Now to stall, Drake thought silently.
“Hey!” he shouted up to the Asp. “I have another question for you!”
She stepped forward and spread her hands. As she did so, glimmering globs of hissing acid manifested there. She must be immune to acid. That was a pretty cool trick.
“What is this mummery?” the Asp shouted. “Will you flee, or fight?”
“I think I’ll just keep wasting your time instead!” Drake shouted. He looked to his people. “Zarovians! Drum show!”
In unison, his zarovians started banging their spears against their shields with deafening clangs. They were as perfectly choreographed as a marching band, and Drake wasn’t the first person to wince and resist the urge to put his hands against his ears. He might have some serious tinnitus after this scheme... but that was better than having arrow-in-ear-itus.
It would also prevent the mercenaries on the boat from hearing the sound of Cresh and the others literally chomping through the hull from below. Zarovian jaws were stronger than alligators from back home, and Cresh was stronger than the average zarovian. The drum show would also hide any urgent, desperate shouts from the single mercenary in the belly before Cresh and the three zarovians with him ate that guy.
That was the problem with using a boat as a home base. The cell bars might be iron, but the boat’s hull was still mostly made of wood. The only reason that hadn’t worried the Asp was likely because most of her enemies couldn’t chew through the bottom of her boat.
Still, they’d have to hope Darion was in a condition where he could hold his breath long enough for Cresh and the other zarovians to haul him out from beneath the boat, through the water, and back to a part of the Korhaurbauten docks not patrolled by the Asp’s people.
Lark had been confident Darion could do it. Drake was confident in Lark. And it wasn’t like Cresh and the zarovians who’d swam out to assault the boat from below would give him a choice. It would be literally sink or swim... or, in Darion’s case, be dragged.
As he, his people, and the mercenaries on the boat all watched in increasing confusion, his zarovians slammed their shields together and beat their feet on the dock with a rhythm that almost Drake want to dance. The deafening clamor was audible across the docks and maybe in the city. Their hissing joined the drumming and became white noise that filled in the gaps.
Drake stood tall and endured a full song. All the while he stood braced for an attack that never came as those on the Asp’s armored boat did the same. He’d commit a crime if one of his people freaked out and struck first. She’d commit a crime if hers did.
Finally, the last spear hit the last shield. His zarovians unleashed one last loud “Huh!” that shook the docks, then stomped their tails in unison in their version of applause. Finally, they fell back into formation with shields raised.
Ears ringing in the aftermath, Drake rubbed at one. That had certainly been loud enough to cover the sound of Cresh and his chosen zarovians bashing in the hull of the boat from below. That was one great thing about zarovian soldiers. While they couldn’t actually breathe underwater, they could hold their breath for a very, very long time.
Emily shouted something at him. He glanced at her and leaned close. She shouted again.
“What?” he shouted over the ringing in his ears.
“He’s out!” she shouted back.
Drake barely heard the words, but he’d heard enough to grin. Emily’s rarity allowed her to see that Darion’s soul was no longer inside the boat. Cresh and the others had rescued him and gotten out clean... other than the one mercenary who’d likely been eaten alive.
This victory wasn’t as satisfying as draining the blood out of the Asp’s eyes and mouth, setting her boat on fire, and sinking it into the bay, but it was also a victory no one in the bay had seen. No one could prove he’d done anything. Darion was simply not in the boat now.
“We’re done here!” Drake shouted to his people. “Roll out!”
At his orders, the zarovians nearest the docks marched off. He and his people fell into close formation behind them as the other zarovians formed a wall blocking off the boat. Surrounded by his large vanguard, Drake marched away from the docks and the boat. They left the now angry and befuddled mercenaries tracking them with crossbow turrets.
“Lord Gloomwood!” a woman bellowed across the docks.
Drake winced at the volume. That woman had a set of lungs. Too bad she couldn’t see souls through the hull of a solid boat. Otherwise, she might have seen this coming.
“All you are is bluster!” the Asp shouted. “You stand like a child in the boots of a manor lord!”
And you’re a real bitch, Drake thought without a glance back. But I’m not going to jail for killing you. Humiliating you is enough for now.
He doubted simply humiliating the Asp would be enough for Robin, but who knew? Maybe the Asp wouldn’t forgive him for what he’d done to her and she’d come after him with her folks. In that case, Drake would happily kill all of them... or let Robin do it.
“All who stand here now saw you flee in cowardice!” the Asp shouted. “Remember that, people of Korhaurbauten! Remember how Lord Gloomwood fled like a rat!”
Drake chuckled at an inside joke. They were now far enough away that he had no fear that their rarities could reach them, and they’d see the bolts coming a mile away. He turned around and stepped back just enough for him to see her head.
“Just one more question for you!” he shouted. “Then I’m done!”
She glared across the distance between them.
“Is your boat okay?”
Her eyes widened.
“Because from where I’m standing, it looks like it might be sinking!”
Though he couldn’t hear her curse or the others as the boat listed, now visibly lower in the water, he could easily imagine them. He imagined the water flooding the belly of the boat, their desperation as they realized bailing was pointless, and their panic as they realized their home base was rapidly sinking to the bottom of the Alicean Bay.
That was fun.
Drake pulled back his hood to reveal his face. That was dangerous and reckless since it left him open to an arrow through his eyes, but it was his first shot at getting the opening he needed. It would also suggest he wasn’t scared of the people arrayed against him.
“And you’d be the Asp!” he shouted back. “Any reason you’re hiding your face from me? Got some old battle scars? Are you shy, maybe?”
If he could get the Asp to pull her hood back, he would have a clean shot at sucking her blood out of her eyes. He could still see the yellow glow he saw inside the heads of other people, though on her, the glow was much more faint. Muffled, but still present.
“I’m afraid the sight of my great beauty costs more than you’ve offered!” the Asp shouted back. “Now state your purpose here. If I like your job, I just might take it!”
She wasn’t pulling back her silverweave hood. He also wondered if she was referring to an offer he might make her... or his job as manor lord. Either would be what she believed. She was already taunting him with doublespeak.
“I’m not here to hire you!” Drake called back. “I’m also not here for a fight! I’m here because you have someone who belongs to me!”
Drake had no intention of fighting the Asp and her mercenaries. That was true enough. It didn’t mean he wouldn’t if she forced the issue.
“You’re most likely mistaken, lord!” the Asp called back. “We have not abducted any of your blood thralls, nor do any of my people have any open contracts with you!”
Most likely mistaken. Clever. It wasn’t a lie, because the Asp could conceivably believe he might be mistaken about this. She didn’t know who he was here for yet. He filed her ploy away under “weird shit he could say in the future” and moved on with his plan.
“Then I’ll make this real easy for you!” Drake called. “You’re holding a man named Darion Bressos in the belly of your boat there! He’s already agreed to join my manor and become my blood thrall! So if you’ll simply return my property, you can go about your day!”
“Has this man signed an official contract to join your manor?” the Asp called.
Of course she’d asked that, and of course he hadn’t. “He said he wished to join me! My thralls heard it too!”
“And did this man speak to you directly?” the Asp called tauntingly. “Or did you hear about his uncommitted musings from another source? A woman, perhaps? His sister?”
Damn, she was good. Drake would have almost liked the Asp if she hadn’t ruthlessly melted an entire village because they pissed her off. He knew from his chat with Samuel that even a direct conversation with a person where they agreed to join a manor wasn’t ironclad. They had to sign an actual paper contract or be inducted into a blood pact to be off limits.
Yet the Asp had also slipped up just now, at least if he’d heard her right. It was easily possible that she could know Lark had called for help simply by the fact that he was here, but she couldn’t know that Darion hadn’t spoken to him directly about joining his manor. Not unless Darion had told her that, which he’d only do if she’d tortured him.
Drake hoped Darion wasn’t going to be all burned up and scarred after whatever the Asp and her people had done to him. That was a horrible fate he wouldn’t wish upon anyone... except maybe Lord Redbow. That fucker could melt in a vat of acid.
“Still two below, lord,” Emily said softly. “Along with the third one.”
Time to escalate. “We had a verbal agreement! Darion Bressos intends to join my manor, which means you, lady, are holding one of my blood thralls hostage! I’m fully in my rights to retrieve him! So if you want to keep this boat and your lives, get him up here!”
The Asp straightened and stepped back from the railing of her vessel. When she spoke again, loud enough to echo across the docks, her voice contained a clear note of feigned offense. “Are you threatening us, Lord Gloomwood? In the middle of Korhaurbauten?”
He’d keep playing his role. “It’s not a threat! It’s a promise!”
“But we’ve done nothing to do you, and you’ve already admitted that you have no legal claim on this man! Do you intend to order your people to illegally attack a licensed mercenary company legally fulfilling a contract? In sight of these witnesses?”
Drake glanced around for eyes on them. There were already people gathering on the other docks and onlookers gathering by the rails of other boats. Even if the noble court didn’t have spies here, he had plenty of witnesses. So far, so good.
“Last chance!” Drake called. “Return my thrall or face the consequences!”
“He’s not your thrall!” the Asp said confidently. “Now step back!”
Even as she spoke her previously relaxed mercenaries leapt into motion. Two hopped up and gripped the handles on the crossbow turrets on the aft and side of the boat facing his people. A moment later he had two huge crossbows pointed at him.
Drake glanced at Gaby. “Ready up.”
She bit her lip, visibly tense, and nodded at him. She then raised one hand toward the boat and focused her attention on the space between them. If the mercenaries did fire, they’d all find out if Gaby’s fullstop rarity could stop crossbow bolts as well as flutterstepping Lydias.
It made sense that Gaby could stop those hurtling bolts. He suspected she could. But if she couldn’t, that was why he had a wall of armored zarovians holding big spears and bigger shields gathered in front of him. They were, quite literally, meat shields.
And zarovians had a lot of meat on their bones.
A single armored mercenary leapt off the boat like a ninja, easily leaping what had to be fifteen feet across open ocean. He landed smoothly on the dock. As he went to untie the ropes binding the boat to the docks, Drake whistled loudly.
Ice crackled around the post that contained the rope. The nimble mercenary recoiled as a layer of ice overtook the post, freezing the rope there and making it impossible to unwind. A moment later the other post abruptly iced over as well. Then, ice crackled all the way up both ropes to freeze the rings on the boat to which they were tied.
Drake fired a grin over his shoulder at the single cloaked figure standing on the next dock beyond this one. She was just within range of the docking posts. Flashfreeze might not be able to do much against silverweave and ferrocite, but that didn’t make it worthless in a fight.
“Return!” the Asp ordered.
The armored ninja bent, flexed, and then leapt into the air like a pole vaulter who didn’t need a pole. He easily cleared the distance between the docks and boat with multiple feet to spare and landed smoothly. So his rarity was probably something like “super jump”.
Whatever. Lydia and Robin both did it better. This guy was basically a giant frog.
“You have no right to detain us!” the Asp shouted. “Release my boat!”
“Release my man and you can go!” Drake shouted back.
“I already told you, he isn’t yours!” The Asp, finally, sounded a little frustrated. “And the person who owns him is more terrifying than you are, so all you’re doing is wasting my time!”
Ouch. That actually hurt a little. Still no one new had joined the Asp on deck, and still he couldn’t execute his brilliant plan. Time to pull out the big guns... or in this case, the big vanguard. Drake whistled again, then made a circling up motion with one hand.
Armored shadows emerged from the warehouses and stomped down the docks in a loose group. More zarovians—almost his entire contingent—had been waiting in the shadows this whole time. They formed up around Korrag and the others and his people. Once the armored march finished, Drake stood on the docks with five thralls and twelve zarovians.
Drake now had the Asp outnumbered two-to-one. “One last question for you!” Drake called up to the boat. “How many zarovians can you take in a fight?”
“We’ve done nothing to you!” the Asp shouted for her witnesses. “We’ve offered no offense and haven’t assaulted you in any way! But if you harm us, we will defend ourselves!”
“They’re moving, lord!” Emily said excitedly, followed by an “Aww.”
“What aw?” Drake asked quietly.
“Just one is moving. The other is staying below.”
Drake shrugged. “Guess that guy is fucked, then.”
One of the mercenaries who wasn’t manning the crossbow turrets, standing in the crow’s nest, or staring him down expertly rotated a large valve-looking ring on the outside of a metal door on the side of the boat. The hinged door opened. It looked heavy. One additional mercenary dressed the same as the others hurried out.
Eight above. One below, plus the prisoner. It was the best he was going to get. Drake glanced at Carl. “Meteor kaboom time.”
Carl sighed heavily. As those on the boat watched in increasing alarm, Carl spun his hands. Molten rock manifested as he did so, forming a large molten ball that spun rapidly as burned with flame. It was an intimidating display.
“Hold!” the Asp shouted to her people. “Lord Gloomwood, stop! This is madness!”
Her people tensed across the boat. They couldn’t unload their crossbow turrets and rarities on Drake’s people until they attacked first, but Drake suspected they’d go full bore the moment Carl tossed his flaming projectile at their boat. Worse, since he’d ordered his thrall to blast their boat with meteor kaboom, he would have struck first and committed a crime.
Fortunately, that wasn’t his plan at all.
Carl shouted and tossed his meteor... straight up. It rocketed into the air almost directly above Drake’s people and their zarovian vanguard. Once it was at least eight stories above the docks, it exploded in a brilliant shower of rock, flame, and embers. It was completely harmless... but everyone across the entire docks and beyond had seen that explosion.
It wasn’t an attack. It was a signal. Only one enemy now waited in the belly of that boat, guarding Darion. He wasn’t going to be nearly enough.
Now to stall, Drake thought silently.
“Hey!” he shouted up to the Asp. “I have another question for you!”
She stepped forward and spread her hands. As she did so, glimmering globs of hissing acid manifested there. She must be immune to acid. That was a pretty cool trick.
“What is this mummery?” the Asp shouted. “Will you flee, or fight?”
“I think I’ll just keep wasting your time instead!” Drake shouted. He looked to his people. “Zarovians! Drum show!”
In unison, his zarovians started banging their spears against their shields with deafening clangs. They were as perfectly choreographed as a marching band, and Drake wasn’t the first person to wince and resist the urge to put his hands against his ears. He might have some serious tinnitus after this scheme... but that was better than having arrow-in-ear-itus.
It would also prevent the mercenaries on the boat from hearing the sound of Cresh and the others literally chomping through the hull from below. Zarovian jaws were stronger than alligators from back home, and Cresh was stronger than the average zarovian. The drum show would also hide any urgent, desperate shouts from the single mercenary in the belly before Cresh and the three zarovians with him ate that guy.
That was the problem with using a boat as a home base. The cell bars might be iron, but the boat’s hull was still mostly made of wood. The only reason that hadn’t worried the Asp was likely because most of her enemies couldn’t chew through the bottom of her boat.
Still, they’d have to hope Darion was in a condition where he could hold his breath long enough for Cresh and the other zarovians to haul him out from beneath the boat, through the water, and back to a part of the Korhaurbauten docks not patrolled by the Asp’s people.
Lark had been confident Darion could do it. Drake was confident in Lark. And it wasn’t like Cresh and the zarovians who’d swam out to assault the boat from below would give him a choice. It would be literally sink or swim... or, in Darion’s case, be dragged.
As he, his people, and the mercenaries on the boat all watched in increasing confusion, his zarovians slammed their shields together and beat their feet on the dock with a rhythm that almost Drake want to dance. The deafening clamor was audible across the docks and maybe in the city. Their hissing joined the drumming and became white noise that filled in the gaps.
Drake stood tall and endured a full song. All the while he stood braced for an attack that never came as those on the Asp’s armored boat did the same. He’d commit a crime if one of his people freaked out and struck first. She’d commit a crime if hers did.
Finally, the last spear hit the last shield. His zarovians unleashed one last loud “Huh!” that shook the docks, then stomped their tails in unison in their version of applause. Finally, they fell back into formation with shields raised.
Ears ringing in the aftermath, Drake rubbed at one. That had certainly been loud enough to cover the sound of Cresh and his chosen zarovians bashing in the hull of the boat from below. That was one great thing about zarovian soldiers. While they couldn’t actually breathe underwater, they could hold their breath for a very, very long time.
Emily shouted something at him. He glanced at her and leaned close. She shouted again.
“What?” he shouted over the ringing in his ears.
“He’s out!” she shouted back.
Drake barely heard the words, but he’d heard enough to grin. Emily’s rarity allowed her to see that Darion’s soul was no longer inside the boat. Cresh and the others had rescued him and gotten out clean... other than the one mercenary who’d likely been eaten alive.
This victory wasn’t as satisfying as draining the blood out of the Asp’s eyes and mouth, setting her boat on fire, and sinking it into the bay, but it was also a victory no one in the bay had seen. No one could prove he’d done anything. Darion was simply not in the boat now.
“We’re done here!” Drake shouted to his people. “Roll out!”
At his orders, the zarovians nearest the docks marched off. He and his people fell into close formation behind them as the other zarovians formed a wall blocking off the boat. Surrounded by his large vanguard, Drake marched away from the docks and the boat. They left the now angry and befuddled mercenaries tracking them with crossbow turrets.
“Lord Gloomwood!” a woman bellowed across the docks.
Drake winced at the volume. That woman had a set of lungs. Too bad she couldn’t see souls through the hull of a solid boat. Otherwise, she might have seen this coming.
“All you are is bluster!” the Asp shouted. “You stand like a child in the boots of a manor lord!”
And you’re a real bitch, Drake thought without a glance back. But I’m not going to jail for killing you. Humiliating you is enough for now.
He doubted simply humiliating the Asp would be enough for Robin, but who knew? Maybe the Asp wouldn’t forgive him for what he’d done to her and she’d come after him with her folks. In that case, Drake would happily kill all of them... or let Robin do it.
“All who stand here now saw you flee in cowardice!” the Asp shouted. “Remember that, people of Korhaurbauten! Remember how Lord Gloomwood fled like a rat!”
Drake chuckled at an inside joke. They were now far enough away that he had no fear that their rarities could reach them, and they’d see the bolts coming a mile away. He turned around and stepped back just enough for him to see her head.
“Just one more question for you!” he shouted. “Then I’m done!”
She glared across the distance between them.
“Is your boat okay?”
Her eyes widened.
“Because from where I’m standing, it looks like it might be sinking!”
Though he couldn’t hear her curse or the others as the boat listed, now visibly lower in the water, he could easily imagine them. He imagined the water flooding the belly of the boat, their desperation as they realized bailing was pointless, and their panic as they realized their home base was rapidly sinking to the bottom of the Alicean Bay.
That was fun.
