Blood Shaper

Book 3: Chapter 12

Kay was never that interested in the natural sciences in school. He took the required classes to pass at each level of school he ended up at, but he never really retained the information. Still, he thought that some of the environments around the peninsula were weirdly situated. A huge forest right next to a rocky wasteland of stone pillars, both of which bordered a massive plateau that formed a valley with a nearby mountain, seemed off. And those were only the areas closest to Avalon. There were even more mountains to the west, and a lot of land left unexplored. Who knows what could be out there?

Thankfully, the area around the bay the pirate port was in acted like normal land, at least from what Kay knew. There were no giant mountains incongruously next to the beach or anything else strange, and the land sloped gently down towards the shoreline. That let Kay and the team of scouts with him get a good view from above the port from far enough away to make out most of it while remaining unnoticed.

"I still can't believe they call it 'Darkport'." Kay muttered as he looked the place over with one of the two spyglasses they'd brought. "I can think of at least three better names right off the top of my head?"

"Are any of them puns on shipwrecks?" Halloway asked from next to him?

"…Yeah."

"Then your ideas are marginally better at best."

"Marginally better is still better."

Halloway grunted and went back to inspecting the port.

The entire pirate town was formed out of broken pieces of boats and ships, hence Kay's ideas for names. There were buildings that looked like a number of fishing boats hastily lashed together, the hulls of larger ships that had doors stuck in the side or just openings cut into available space, and even one building that was an entire ship beached far enough back from the tide that it wouldn't float away. Kay even spotted a flat-bottom barge that looked like it was the town's bar or eatery of some kind, with people lounging around eating and drinking, looking like tiny specs from Kay's vantage point.

"See anything noteworthy?"

"From here? Not much." Kay heard Halloway crawling around through the tall grass they were lying in as he shifted positions. "That slaver guard was tellin' the truth though, looks to be about a dozen ships down there."

Kay turned, dragging his vision across the port towards the water, trying to see the ships. "Should we move closer?"

"Hard to say. Might be worth it, or it might be too big a risk."

"Huh." Kay took a moment to come to a decision. "Let's stay back; for now, try and find something worthwhile."

"Cautious is good. Keeps you alive longer." Halloway reached up and twisted his spyglass to focus it. "Welp, they're unloading one of those ships. And those are definitely captives."

Kay tried to figure out which ship he was talking about, but he didn't have enough magnification. He'd given the better of the two spyglasses to the more experienced man to get a better look.

"Yeah, they just put something 'round the neck of one of the people they dragged off the ship. Definitely enslaving people."

Kay growled wordlessly for a moment as he took in the port, then sighed. "Can't do anything about it now; we don't have enough people."

"A dozen or so scouts, one old huntsman, a Noble with magic blood, and a couple of newbie adventurers? Nah, we'd get cut down in a flash."

"Then we gather as much information as we can so we can come back better prepared and in greater numbers." He collapsed the spyglass and started inching backward through the glass. When he was a good distance back, he pushed himself up into a crouch. "I'm going to see if anyone knows more about ships," He whispered to Halloway,

"A few of 'em are from Tumblin' Rapids; they're most likely to know what you want," Was the quiet reply.

Kay crept back to the camp his people had set up a good distance back from the line of sight to the port. When he got there, a few people looked up from the minor tasks they were taking care of. "Anyone know anything about ships?" He asked the group quietly.

Three of them raised their hands.

"Who knows the most?"

Two of the three volunteers pointed at the third, a young man who suddenly looked nervous.

"Ah, I guess I do, sir."

"Take this." He held out the spyglass, "And head over to where Halloway is. I want you to look over the ships they've got docked and come up with an estimate on how many people they'd need to run them all. Give me a minimum and a maximum that they could carry."

"Uh, sir, I know a bit about river ships and the like, but I don't really have any experience with sea ships," The scout replied hesitantly.

"I don't need perfect answers, just good estimates." He rattled the spyglass at the man.

"Got it." He gently took the tool and started making his way towards the vantage point.

"Switch with Halloway if you need the better spyglass."

The scout nodded, then vanished into the dim light.

Kay glanced around the small camp at the rest of the team. "Where's everyone else?" There were only five people hanging around.

"Joseph's in there," Someone volunteered, pointing at the largest tent, "Looking over the wounded. Couple of others are checking out the area and keeping watch."

"Good. Anyone find a good spot to look over the area? I don't need to be able to see the port."

"Go that way a few hundred feet, and you'll find a decent hill," The same woman answered, turning and pointing over her shoulder.

"Thanks," Kay started to walk off, then paused and looked down at the woman. "Probably a good idea to bring someone with me, isn't it?"

"I was about to recommend it, sir."

Kay nodded and looked at her, considering. The leadership dynamics of the expedition had been fairly free-flowing, with the exception of his position and Halloway's. This particular scout was near the top of the rest of the nebulous totem pole, though, and knew the specifics of everyone's skills, and Skills, better than he did at this point. "Who should I take?"

She glanced around at the available hands. "What're you going to be doing?"

"Mapping out the area. Might move around a bit, although I'm betting I'll spend a good amount of time on that hill. If we're going to come back and wipe out some pirate scum, I want to know the lay of the land."

She raised her eyebrows at that but didn't respond directly. "Sam!"

"Yeah?" A man over near the healing tent looked up from his boots.

"You're running with the Mayor. Watch his back."

"Right!" He looked over at Kay, "Mind if I take a moment to grab some gear, sir?"

"No, go ahead."

"Thankee." He ducked into one of the other tents, and Kay heard him rummaging around.

"Sam's good at being quiet and hard to spot. He won't distract you, and he'll make sure nothing sneaks up on you."

"Good pick." Kay desperately scrambled to remember the woman's name but kept coming up blank. He knew he'd heard it more than once, but it just wasn't coming to him.

A few moments later, Sam came back with a crossbow and a couple of daggers in sheaths on his belt. "Ready, sir."

Kay nodded and pointed towards the hill. "We're going that way." He only took a few steps before the woman stopped him.

"Sir?"

"Yeah?"

"If you decide to head for another spot, let us know first, please."

Kay hadn't even thought of that, and he tried to restrain his blush. He wasn't really sure if he'd succeeded, but he hoped that in the dim light of the setting sun and the shadows spread by the small grove of trees they were using for cover that she couldn't make out his face that well. "Will do."

The hill wasn't that tall in comparison to a lot of others that Kay had seen, not that that meant anything. It was tall enough for Kay to get a decent view of the area as he started compiling a map. He worked on a new method of cataloging what he saw, making a three dimensional model of what he was looking at out of floating blood as he slowly and meticulously took everything in; once he got done with everything he could see, he used the blood model as a reference while drawing the actual map.

It's too bad I can't make actual maps out of blood yet. I can't make it snap back into a perfect replica of what I've made before and solidifying it turns it into something like a metal or a crystal, so it's too damn heavy to work as a map. I wonder if a future Skill will let me make some kind of memory blood. He snorted at the idea and finished drawing the small cluster of rocks he was working on.

Finishing the last bit of the map of what he could see around him, he noticed the sun was getting really close to the horizon. Noting the dwindling light, he decided not to move to another spot that evening. "Let's head back to camp."

Sam popped out of his crouch and nodded. He'd been exactly as advertised, quiet and unobtrusive, barely moving for the entire hour and a half Kay had been drawing.

Kay thanked the man for standing watch when they made it back, and Sam replied with a single nod before heading inside one of the tents. Spotting Halloway sitting by the small fire they'd made for cooking, Kay made his way over.

"Been busy, Mayor?" Halloway asked after spotting Kay.

Kay held out the map he'd made. "If we can stay in the area for a day or two, I can expand it and get a wider coverage."

The hunter looked it over and nodded appreciatively. "Good quality. And yeah, I think we should stay around for a bit longer." He looked around and waved someone over when he spotted them.

The young man Kay had sent Halloway's way for his knowledge of ships came over, "Sirs?"

"Tell the Mayor what you came up with."

"Well, just trying to guess at the number of crew based on the ships we can see, I'd say there are about fifteen hundred pirates done there. That's not including anyone who permanently lives in the port or any captives they have."

Kay frowned, turning slightly to stare in the direction of the port. "Seriously, that many?"

"Yes, sir. There's fourteen ships down there that look like actual pirates. The other four we counted look like prizes they took that they're either unloading or taking apart for materials. Nine of the fourteen ships are smaller sloops or similarly sized vessels, and a normal crew for them would be around twenty people," The young man started to get more confident in himself as he talked, "But pirates tend to cram on more than you actually need so they can overwhelm other ships, so I'd say sixty on each of those. Then there's slightly larger ships, not that big but bigger than the first set, and I'd say a hundred or more pirates on each of those. Finally, there's one that'd I'd call a medium-to-large sized ship that will probably have three hundred or so crewing it."

"That's a big ship."

"Eh," The young man shrugged, "It's decent sized for a trade ship, but there's a lot bigger. A real warship would probably be two or three times the size of that one."

"You know a lot more about ships than I'd have thought when I asked you to go look."

He shrugged, looking a bit bashful and his hesitant manner coming back a bit, "Well, my uncle's a captain for one of the ships that runs river trade to Tumbling Rapids, and he's always been talking about how he wants to buy his own ship someday. I guess him and my cousins have rubbed off on me a little."

"Well, I'm happy they did." Kay reached around and patted him on the shoulder, "Good job."

"Thank you, sir."

"Here," Halloway handed him a bowl of food and gestured with his head. The young man nodded and took off.

Kay stared into the fire. "Fifteen hundred, and that's just the ship's crews. That's more than we can handle right now."

Halloway shrugged, "Then we build up and come back later. You don't always have to take down your prey right away,"

Kay chuckled a little and glanced up, "Is that a bit of hunter's knowledge for me?"

"Damn straight." Halloway grinned back. "We learned a few other things from watching them; want to hear it now?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

"They aren't a united group; it looks like there's a number of ship captains that all have some kind of loose deal, just from watching them move around. There are clumps of pirates moving about in groups, and it looks like they're all staying to their own territories down there. A few of them got in fights that no one else messed with, and at the end, some fancier dressed folks showed up and shouted at each other."

"Some kind of uneasy peace between pirates from different ships then."

"Yeah. Best guess, they all stay mostly peaceful with each other, so they don't ruin the good thing they've got going on."

Kay mused over the information. "Sounds a bit like Tortuga."

"Like what?"

"It was a pirate stronghold back home when there was a lot more piracy. They apparently had some kind of code they lived by and mostly got along because of self-interest."

"Ah. I'd say that's probably the long and short of it, though we won't know for sure without going down and asking 'round."

"Which we aren't doing." Kay tapped his thumb on his leg as he thought. "I wonder why they feel safe."

Halloway gave him a questioning look.

"Pirates are a threat to people's, and sometimes nations, livelihoods. Why do they feel safe hanging out here? What's stopping people from attacking them to get rid of the problem?"

"I don't know. But we might be able to find out if we watch the area some more."

Kay nodded in agreement. "Right. Let's hang around for a day or two to see what we can see, then we'll decide what to do next."

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