I fingered my one brass earing that I had found in a chest and worn. I could see very clearly. In the distance, just as Rubelle had claimed, there were fourteen black ships. They were coming toward our vessel very quickly, and they had a black flag up on each one. “Mekro!” I called to one ferret sailor. “Put all sails up!
I want every scrap of cloth acting as a sail!” He hurried to obey. I jumped down the stairs to where the oarslaves were sitting on benches, rowing. “Sathon!” I called to the weasel, who was the slave keeper. “Make those oarslaves row as never before!” He cracked his whip and saluted smartly. Then I said to the slaves, who were already rowing furiously, “ I’ll give you double rations and two days rest if we outrun this fleet!” There was no time to explain what fleet we were fleeing from to any of my sailors that were working below deck. I left that to Rubelle. “Keeko!” I called, looking up at the searat who was watching the fleet with his spy glass. “How close are they?” He didn’t look down as he replied, “Not too close, but they are getting closer.” I had heard enough. First, I checked to see that the file I always kept in my pocket was still there. “Lower the lifeboat!” I called to a passing stoat. When the small row boat was lowered, I called out to Diringe. “I leave you in charge. Keep the boat racing away from the fleet, and don’t worry about me. Worry about the ship and the crew!” I had barely finished speaking when I jumped down off the QueenDark and into the rowboat. I began rowing furiously towards the oncoming black fleet. When I was a fair distance from the QueenDark, which was moving in the opposite direction of me and moving away fast, I stopped to wait for one of the black ships to pass. It took a while, but the moment came. I stood frozen for a moment. Then I took out my crossbow from the bottom of the row boat, fitted an arrow to the string, and released it. It was a perfect shot. I couldn’t miss in such short range. The black searat I had shot at fell with a scream. Good, I thought grimly. Let them know I’m here.
“Who did that?!” Came a loud cry. The biggest, blackest rat I had ever seen peered over the deck of the passing ship. He snarled, shouted some orders in a language I couldn’t understand, and disappeared. I noticed that that ship slowed down, but the rest of the fleet didn’t. Suddenly, about fifteen black rats appeared and glared down at me. Then all at once they started chattering in a strange tongue, and about six of them jumped into the rowboat beside me. It took a while, but they finally dragged me down and hauled me onto the ship. I was nervous when they stole my cutlass from me, but they didn’t find my hidden throwing knives, or my file. Just as I suspected, they brought me down below decks and chained me to a bench. I was surprised that there weren’t any woodlanders that were slaves, or rats. It was obvious that this was the fastest ship. I had noticed that it was the largest, and the benches were full of slaves, ferrets, stoats, weasels, and foxes. It all seemed very odd. I couldn’t see how fast they were going, but I heard a blackrat report to the slavemaster that they were caught up to the rest of the fleet, and gaining on the queen ship fast. I took out my file. ~to be continued~