6Chapter Eight: Hard choices
"Aye!" Jojo cheered, and set off for the refugees. I tried not to watch as they began to scream again as Jojo and a few of the bigger men threw their family members overboard. I tried not to listen to their screams. I tried not to.
A shudder ran down my spine, and I was having trouble keeping my breathing in check. I had to do this. It was necessary, that didn't make me a monster. I didn't actually touch anyone, Jojo is the monster.
The thud of an arrow nearly catching my head made my heart leap into my throat. The ships behind us began to relent and I signalled for Jojo to stop throwing people overboard. Around the arrow was a letter, secured in fishing wire. What purpose did they have for sending a letter?
Shaking any dark thoughts out of my mind, I pulled apart the wire and rolled open the letter.
By now you've surely noticed the disappearance of your captain, beast of a man he is, and wondered how such a thing could occur. The royal legion of the King of Matalai welcomes you to come retrieve him, invites you, encourages you. We would love to discuss your earlier nautical maneuver and take a hand in liberating that knowledge for our naval units. Your captain will be put to death the evening of the new moon.
May Ilia smile on your souls.
Lord Marcus Elsevier the fourth, high commander of the Matalai navy
Well look at that, I had two weeks to decide if my revenge would be worth risking the ship. I had two weeks to plan a rescue or plan a new life for the crew. I wasn't sure where to approach either and I knew after my orders a few moments ago I'd quickly taken a second to the least liked man on the ship -Jojo. My abilities to overthrow a captain, a stranger they barely knew, who had saved them might be much slimmer than I'd liked. The captain was ruthless and cunnning. The captain would eventually show his true colors if I bided my time right?
If I let him die at their hands I'd be stripped of the chance to exact the price of Arlo's life in blood. I couldn't risk that. Arlo deserved the peace derived from pieces of Gonzaku's flesh bleeding on the floor. His soul wouldn't rest and my thirst wouldn't be quenshed until I'd achieved that. The end game would have to be mine, internalized and slow but eventually victorious.
I had to rescue the bastard. I rewrapped the letter and stuffed it into the breast pocket of my overcoat. The ships around us had stopped their pursuit and I shuddered again thinking of the lives we'd just lost. Had I waited another short while we might not've needed to send them on a walk.
I cussed quietly, and grabbed a rope to swing myself down onto the deck. The people were frantic, and resisting the men of the crew.
"Stop. It's over for now." I bellowed at the top of my lungs.
Jojo grunted his acknowledgement and dropped his latest conquest reluctantly.
"We've a captain to rescue." I continued loudly and Jojo's head snapped up.
I turned away from the crew, and tugged myself up the rope onto an overhead beam. Easing myself down into a sitting position, I addressed the families aboard.
"Ladies and gents, we've barely managed to escape with our lives. Those of you still here are the best of the best, the brightest, the strongest and the most fit to survive what might become the most difficult times of your lives. Not all of you will survive, I won't lie to you, but if we don't fight back... Well, then none of us will. You'll rely on us as much, or more than we'll come to rely on you and for now we set sail for i'Lrac isles to restock. There will be no more deaths today." I shouted.
Turning to face the rest of the crowd, I paused for theatrics.
"If the king had his way, you would all be dead right now or back in the mines. You'd be slowly starving, you'd be dying and you'd be beaten for sport." I continued.
Turning back to the other side of the crowd, I smiled coyly.
"You could be back there with them, in a heart beat we could take you back if that's what you really desired?" I put forth the question. No one rose to the occasion of answering.
"OR." I continued a few moments later after a pregnant pause.
I looked around the ship at the tired broken faces, the faces of slaves. The longer I didn't answer, the more antsy the crowd became.
"Or?" Someone finally shouted back at me. A young child shouted back, too covered in dirt and malnourished to look either male or female.
"Or you can fight back, you can reclaim your lives, you can show them that you will not be pushed around. You will not be punished for surviving." I shouted with as much vigour as I could.
The crowd hummed in agreement.
"You can show them that every voice matters, you can show them that the crown does not make a good man but that the people make the crown." I continued to their chorus of cheers, feeding them anything I could think of to get them on my side.
"All we have to do," I stated, a little more quietly and relished in their straining to hear my voice over the waves. I didn't continue right away, instead I looked around making eye contact with as many of them as I could.
"-Is hit them where it hurts and shame them so badly that they have to re-evaluate their whole system of beliefs. Can you do that?" I shouted, thinking about how many of them would likely perish on this mission.
Their excitement was almost contagious. As they all began to talk amongst themselves, I slipped away from the crowd and down under the deck.
First things first, I would need to find Cee. She would offer a tactical advantage, because of her Allabastrian heritage and without Orodra I had no idea how we would find a way into the capital otherwise.