“How will we get on the ship?” Whitepaw asked me from the rowboat. We were beside the blackrat ship, and rowing hard to keep up with it. I stood up. “Keep rowing.” I found a thin but heavy and strong rope with a hook on the end in the bottom of the rowboat. It took several tries, I admit, but I finally hooked the end of the rope to the deckrail of the blackrat ship. I then tied the other end around one of the benches on the rowboat.
“Anyone want to go first?” I asked, motioning toward the rope. Nobody looked that eager, so I said, “Alright. I’ll go first.” So I’m not the best climber. So what? OK, It took me about seven minutes to pull myself up the rope. The deck was bare. I looked back at the already conquered blackrat ship and smiled when one of the archers threw me a grin and saluted. The blackrats were cowards, and my archers were doing good. I looked down at the rope and saw Whitepaw pulling herself up expertly as only an agile ferret can. She was standing on deck beside me in a matter of seconds. Then Sanik came, and then Quickfoot. Surprisingly, the stairs down to the slave benches were bare. We didn’t meet any blackrats. I opened the door carefully and peered in. What I saw was terrible. There was a blackrat, the slavemaster, and he had two whips. He was whipping furiously at a hunched over form that looked like a ferret or a weasel, I couldn’t tell. The blood was running freely down his back. I was filled with rage, but not as much as the three beasts behind me, who had actually felt the whip. Before I could move, Whitepaw, Sanik, and Quickfoot were on him, using their teeth, thrashing him, and kicking him. I thought I heard Whitepaw saying over and over again, “Coward! Pick on someone who isn’t chained up!” While they were doing this, I slipped over to the bloody figure and began to file at his chains. That was before I realized that he was already dead. So I handed the file to a stoat behind him. As I silently watched my three friends fighting the slavemaster, I suddenly realized that I had deprived them of any revenge they might get by slaying the former slavemaster. I really had no reason to kill him, but those three had felt him whip them. I shook my head. They were getting enough revenge for the present.
I watched the stoat finish freeing himself and hand the file to a pine marten sitting behind him. He didn’t look at me. Then I glanced back at my friends. The slavemaster’s dead carcass lay trampled on the floor. Sanik spit on it. The remaining slaves were too bewildered to do or say anything. Then Whitepaw took out a file that she had found on the previous ship and handed it to an ermine.
When all the slaves were free, I nodded to Quickfoot, who adressed them.
“I was a slave on the fastest blackrat ship,” He began, “But Zyneera here freed me. We want to put an end to the blackrats and their fleet, but we cannot do it without your help,” He paused and drew a rapier he had found on the previous ship. “With all of us together, and the element of surprise, we can slay all the blackrats on this ship and take it as one of our own. Then we can sink the remaining twelve ships.”
The slaves cheered. I smiled, even though the original plan was to sink this ship. One more ship was always good. ~To be continued~