Last time on Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 11
“We need to get off this island! Now!” Nerod began looking up into the sky and then left and right on the beach.
“There is some kind of curse here. Our flesh will be torn from our bodies! We need to leave this island! Day, night, it matters not! We need to leave! All my men were devoured here!”
Raiders of the Middle Sea 12
Three hours past midday Leland stopped the men in their foraging activities.
“Alright! Pack it up! We head for shore!” Leland ordered. A chorus of “Yes Captain!” answered him back and the men began taking their baskets of picked fruit and urns of fresh drinking water back over the hill towards the beach. “Stay within sight of everyone else! No separations!”
Nerod walked beside Leland, his hands still bound and his legs tied so the man could only take short steps. “Why do we stop now?”
Leland grimaced at the stranger. There was something untrustworthy about the man. Leland had the feeling that if it came to choosing to do the honorable thing and saving his own hide, this Nerod Ar An Barga would choose himself.
“Tell me something Nerod.” Leland said and noticed again how the man reacted in shock at his use of the man’s first name so casually. “How long did it take for your men to be decimated on this island?”
The man frowned. “The loss of life… the killings… happened in one night…”
Before the man could continue Leland interrupted him. “And so then the remaining men aboard your ship left you here to die?” Nerod’s eyes widened at Leland’s words and that was all that he needed as confirmation. “So you were their Captain.”
Nerod stared at Leland for a hard couple of seconds. “You are smarter than I at first made you out to be. You are merely ignorant then.”
Leland nodded. “I had meant no offense to you or your kin by addressing you casually. Also… you expected my men and I to react merely by learning your name, you said it as if hesitant. It means nothing to us, but this side of the sea it does. I would like to learn more.”
“That’s all good and well for you yes.” Nerod said to him, the castaway captain getting a wild look in his eyes. “But what do I get out of it?”
Leland shrugged. “We saved you out of the ocean. I can keep you alive.” The man snorted. “Or I can steak you out on the sand overnight and see if anything is left over come morning.”
The man barked a short and bitter laugh. “You will be dead alongside me.”
“I think not.” Leland said and looked up at the collection of men. “Nich! Escort our guest here! We head for the beach! Holdt! Get the boat and start ferrying back the supplies with two other men to the ship. Rest of you will stay armed and ready for trouble!”
Soon enough, the men had arranged themselves in a semi-circle around their stockpile of fruit and water on the beach. Leland, Nich and Nerod stood in the center, Leland watched the beach sand intently. There were ripples in it that were irregular, it was something that he found almost familiar but not quite. Nerod kept muttering about spirits and ghouls that would feed on their flesh in the night.
Within another hour Leland stepped into the boat with his tied up guest and they made their way back to the ship.
“Surely you do not intend to start setting out now?” Nerod scowled at the sea. “The tide is all wrong. And your supplies will not last you to the nearest safe port.”
“I do not intend to leave.” Leland said. “Everyone is coming aboard our ship.”
“Why? It will take you hours to…” Leland did not let Nerod finish, he could see that this frustrated the ex-Captain greatly.
“Because ‘Captain’, you only lost men at night. So did I. At night and on shore. I plan on staying on the water for the night, out at sea where you were floating about. What’s out there is no spirit. It can’t swim or you would have been dinner.”
The foreigner shut his mouth with an audible click.
Nich chuckled at the man. “See why we chose him to be our new Captain? He’s clever!”
After a moment Nerod nodded. “Aye. He is.”
Later that evening the men sat all on main deck, weapons near them in case ‘Leland’s beast’ could swim after all. The cook, Bugsby, had taken some of the fruits and had peeled them and sliced them up. A little salt and a garnish and the men ate on the fruits as is. It was not a hearty roast, but the men were grateful for a wholesome intake.
The men grouped together in conversations on the deck. Leland sat with the only group that had a table and chairs. Nich, Holdt and Franco sat with Leland and the captive.
“So tell me… Captain.” Leland began. “What is the Clans of Leimos?”
“I cannot tell you. You are an outsider.”
“Yet you expected us to know who you were either by hearing your name or the reference about the Clans of Leimos. So why the secrecy? People around here are supposed to know who you are. So I am just looking at having the same knowledge.” Leland picked a sliver of sliced orange fruit from his bowl and put it into his mouth. It was sweet and had a slight aftertaste that made him a little thirsty.
Nerod kept quiet a long time and Leland decided to wait patiently. The man had had neither food nor water since morning and Leland did not intend to give him any until he was satisfied with what the man had told him.
“Yes. It is true that you should know of us.” Nerod rubbed his wrists where the rope had shafed him. “I cannot actually understand how you came to be in these waters without knowing of the Clans of Leimos.”
Leland shrugged. “We don’t usually come this far out. We come from Railor and this is far outside the maps generally circulated amongst all the seafarers of our beloved Kingdom.”
Nerod grunted and stared out into the sea. “I have heard of this ‘Railor’. It’s not too far away and yet there is so much going on this side of the sea that there is no need really for us to go so far east and north.”
“Well, we still suffered under pirates.” Nich said.
“Well, that could happen anywhere and they could not even be connected to the Clans.” Nerod said defensively.
“So the Clans of Leimos are pirates?” Leland cut in. The foreign Captain’s eyes widened as he looked at Leland, then nodded.
“We are the best and most powerful pirates in the world” Nerod boasted.
“So what were you then doing on this island then? Surely you had not stopped by to pick fruit.” Leland said.
Nerod looked down at the deck at his feet. “Nothing. We just investigated the island to see if anything was useful.”
“He’s lying!” The old sailor name Rogger yelled from a nearby group on Leland’s left. “If them pirates when ashore where there be monsters then there is gowna be treasure!”
Leland watched Nerod’s eyes tighten for a fraction of a second before the pirate’s face assumed a relaxed and bored expression.
“Completely untrue!” Nerod said.
Completely true Leland noted to himself.
Next time on Raiders of the Middle Sea
Before anyone could move, they were forestalled by a blood curdling scream that they would remember for the rest of their lives.
The scream went on and on and seemed to be coming closer to the cave mouth. The scream stopped for a second and the man cried out in pain and then went silent.
“Gather close to me you sea monkey filth and let Captain Leland tell you what just happened. This is how we are going to get rich and still keep our hides...”
New to Raiders of the Middle Sea? Begin Reading previous Episodes!
Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 1
Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 2
Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 3
Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 4
Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 5
Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 6
Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 7
Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 8
Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 9
Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 10
Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 11
World of Kedra