We watched them carefully. You would too, if your life depended on it.” 

“Why would they do that?” Frater Jonas asked.

“You would need to ask them,” Lorenzo said. “I just know that’s the way they went.”

“What’s up river?” Kormak asked.

“Elves,” said the boy. “And a lot of them. We used to see them watching us from the edge of the forest.”

“They ever attack you?”

“Why should they? We never attacked them and we always respected the woods. The Preacher made us.”

“Then we’ve caught him,” said Jonas. “All we need to do is wait here and we’ll catch him when he comes back downriver.”

“If he comes back downriver,” Kormak said.

“He has to,” said Zamara.

“We can’t be certain of that. There are two more estuaries within a score of leagues from here. Your own charts show that. How do we know that those rivers are not connected? They might be able to take another route back.”

“We could split the fleet and cover the river mouths,” said Frater Jonas.

The captain shook his head. “It would surrender our main advantage. We have three ships to his one.”

“We could follow him upriver,” said Kormak. He watched the captain make some calculations in his head.

“The Marlin and the Sea Dragon are ocean-going cogs converted for war. They draw too deep to go far upriver. Only the Ocean’s Blade could follow under oar.”

“And we would surrender our advantage,” said Frater Jonas.

“Not necessarily,” said Zamara. “We could pack the ship with marines. We’d have a numerical advantage in fighting men.”

“You’d need to carry supplies as well.”

“We have the supplies, Frater, and we could put the men on half-rations.”

“Are you seriously considering following this pirate upriver?”

The captain nodded. “There’s a chance we may overhaul him and take him by surprise. And it certainly beats waiting here for an indefinite period of time for a foe that might never come back this way. Who might even get lost in the jungle.”

Zamara was convincing himself. He was one of those officers who preferred glory to waiting. And the Kraken had a large bounty on his head. This expedition might make Zamara’s fortune if he was successful.

“We can leave the other two ships here to blockade the river mouth in case, he somehow slips past us.”

He began to shout orders. Within ten minutes the village was clear and men and provisions were being transhipped to the Ocean’s Blade. The survivors refused to leave their village. Kormak wondered what would become of them.


Kormak stood on the prow of the ship once more, studying the forest as it glided by. At this point the nameless river was wide and slow. A sailor with a plumb-line stood nearby measuring the depth and counting it off.

The Guardian wondered what would happen if the river became too shallow to navigate or was blocked by some obstacle. He consoled himself with the thought that anything that could impede the progress of the Ocean’s Blade would also stop the pirate as well.

Or would it? The Kraken was a sorcerer and now there was this Black Priest to consider as well. He had asked the survivors about his magic but he had not got any more out of them than from his initial questioning.

Sandaled footsteps from behind him told him that Frater Jonas was approaching.