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When the last of their guards died, the slaves cheered and then continued with their tasks so they would be working when Zalko approached. I hid next to the road that Zalko would use. Wanting him alive so we could question him, I readied my seldom used but often practiced with sling to knock him out, watching as he slumped sideways and fell off the horse. Just from the way he fell, I had little hope that I’d be able to question him. Thinking that he was still alive, the slaves from the sawpits ran over and held him so he couldn’t escape. When I reached him, they followed the first group of slaves into the woods. They had taken Zalko’s key and removed their own shackles, putting a set on him and then gagging him. Checking for Zalko’s pulse, I found what I expected. He was dead.

After dragging the body into the woods and hiding his horse, I led fifty of our troops as we walked towards town. A group of a hundred waited outside of town while the remainder surrounded the town and remained in hiding. My group clustered together in small clumps, talking to each other and trying to act nonchalant. None of us wore uniforms, having left those aboard our ship.

“New recruits go to barracks one,” the first pirate we met told us, stabbing a finger in the direction of one of the buildings. We entered the barracks to find a dozen men inside, including a man who looked to be the pirates’ version of the captain in charge of signing up new recruits that I met when I first reported in Bellcaava.

He looked at me, looked at the line of men behind me, and stared back at me. With a dismissive wave of his hand, he hollered, “If none of you is man enough to move this youngster out of the way and take his place, you should leave.”

“Maybe they know something you don’t,” I replied snidely, “like how dangerous I am with swords. Why don’t you test me? The loser ends up feeding the fish and the winner comes back inside to sign these men up.”

“Easy for you to say since I’ve only got one good leg,” he growled, sticking his wooden peg leg out where I could see it.

“I’m willing to let one of your men tie one of my legs up behind me. That way, you’d have the advantage with a leg and a half.” That made him take a longer look at me.

“Maybe it’s just the face that makes you look so young,” he conceded.

“No, I’m only sixteen,” I replied.

“I have a suggestion,” Nkoza, one of the clan warriors interjected. “I’m the second-best swordsman here. If he’ll slow down a bit, we can go outside and show you what he can do with a sword. We have even more men waiting outside of town who want to sign up, too.”

“More men?” he asked.

“We are a mercenary company that was fighting in Jmoria until they ran out of money to pay us.”

“Fine, let’s see how good he is. How many men are with you?” he asked Nkoza.

“None, we’re with Koyle, all one hundred-fifty of us,” Nkoza replied with a smirk.

“A hundred-fifty experienced mercenaries are following a sixteen-year-old?” he asked incredulously.

“If his swords don’t convince you, then pick your best men at hand-to-hand combat, a staff, and a bow. If you still aren’t convinced, we’ll leave because you aren’t very smart,” Nkoza chuckled.

“Fine,” the man growled angrily, motioning to the far door of the barracks. I sent one of our men to bring the other hundred men into town. The man in charge sent one of his men along, too.

There was an open area outside where the men obviously practiced. “Which of you is the loudest?” I asked the men who followed us from inside.

“I am,” one of them boomed out.

“Do me a favor. Stand by this guy. When he’s seen enough, shout, ‘Ki,’ and we’ll stop,” I said to him. He looked at the guy in charge who nodded his assent.

“Start slowly and build up. I’ll match your speed,” I told Nkoza loud enough for the pirates to hear me—but after the rest of our group had positioned themselves behind the pirates. I heard the first gasp as we both began swinging two swords. After that, all I heard was the singing of clashing steel as we sparred.

I know they let us continue for at least a quarter mark, mainly because of the huge number of spectators who showed up to witness what had to sound like a full-fledged sword battle between dozens of troops. That gave the men who’d waited outside of town time to surround the knot of pirates.

Suddenly cries of pain and shouts of surprise filled the air around us. “Ki,” a much different voice shouted, although we both recognized the voice as belonging to one of the other clan warriors here with us. Nkoza and I grinned at each other and turned towards the crowd. With sweat already running down our bodies, we waded into the crowd of surprised pirates, our swords slashing. By the time we finished hacking our way through the crowd of pirates, the only pirates still standing had their weaponless hands raised in surrender.

The pirates had initially been packed together so tightly to watch us that many couldn’t even draw their sword until we began thinning their number. Even then, the pirates were still grouped together tight enough that they had a difficult time. When one tried to dodge a thrust, he bumped into another pirate, upsetting the balance of them both.

The men on the inside of the circle closest to us had turned to see what was happening and had fallen even before they knew what was happening. Most of the next inner ring had fallen while still trying to draw their swords.

I directed four men to take horses and gallop towards the point of the peninsula. One of them carried a large red and yellow flag in a backpack. They were to tie it near the tip of the peninsula where it was visible out at sea. The flag would let our ships know they could safely enter the port to load prisoners, as well as slaves and loot from the town.

Eighteen more ships should have followed our departure from Bellcaava by two days, six destined for each of the three pirate home ports. One ship in each group carried archers to protect their convoy. The other five ships were empty, destined to haul the loot and slaves back to Congra. The ship that had dropped us off and the two merchant ships were docked well before sunset.

The slaves who had hidden in the forest had returned to find out what had happened, so I took the opportunity to speak with them. Many had armed themselves with a sword or bow from the sentries we’d killed. “Those of you who have a home to return to may take a horse and food, as well as weapons, and strike out on your own or in groups if you wish. If it will be easier to get home after sailing to a nearby port, come with us to the Congraian port of Kaljata. I’ll pay your passage to a port closer to your home. If you have no place to return to, feel free to join us. Our province has fertile soil, and we can grow crops year-round everywhere except in the mountains.

“If you prefer, there are mountains on three sides of us where you can live, although the northern mountains get snow in the winter. I don’t think anybody has looked for minerals in the mountains. There are small valleys where groups of twenty to a hundred families can start a village. While you’re deciding, I ask you to help us take everything of value from the town here and load it aboard our ships. We have six more empty ships due here, probably tomorrow. We’ll shackle the pirates and take them with us as slaves. When we leave here, this place will be burnt to the ground,” I told them, getting a loud cheer.

While everyone else worked at emptying the town, the other clan warriors began dealing with wounds. I used Xanbo fruit and questioned several captured pirates, asking where they hid their valuables. I was surprised to learn that the town had been built atop a large cave. Originally, the mouth of the cave had exited west of town, well above the high tide mark. The pirates had closed off the mouth of the cave with a thick wall of mortar and rock which they covered with soil. Now, grass and weeds covered the entrance.

The only access was through a shaft beneath barracks 1. One side of the wide shaft had three ladders. Up in the rafters of the barracks were ropes and pulleys attached to canvas slings they used to lower the valuables into the cave. Each man with a box or chest wore a leather thong necklace with a copper medallion that had his chest number stamped on it.

The men who met us had been in barracks 1 and were standing guard. The primary job of the man with the peg leg was maintaining an account of what each man put into or removed from his chest. Only coins and ingots were allowed in the cave. Jewels were too hard to describe and keep track of.

Zalko’s personal strong room was a walled off branch of the cave. Its entrance was beneath the floorboards of his house. Even though he no longer sailed, he still received a full share of the loot from each captured ship. He also owned the saloon and the brothel, both extremely profitable enterprises.

By the time we finished dinner, I had a better idea of what we would be dealing with. Fifty-one of the slaves wanted to head south, hoping to make their way home. I gave each of them what I’d offered, plus enough money to buy food for two months. Fifty-four wanted passage to a port near their home. I told them to locate the man with our clan banner when their ships docked and that he’d arrange passage for them to the ports they wanted.

Four hundred forty-seven wanted to join us in Teopaqa Province, including the women who’d been forced to work in the brothel. Several of the men in the group joining us made sure to gather the tools they’d been using to cut and limb the trees, the chains they used with the horses to drag the trees, and the saws they used to cut them into planks.

And we had just over two hundred pirates who had survived and who were now our slaves, although most would require time for their wounds to fully heal. Fortunately, there were more than a thousand sets of shackles in town, and another five hundred aboard the captured pirate ship. For five days, we loaded ships with former slaves and captive pirates. The former slaves brought everything up from the cave and loaded it aboard the ship filled with the archers. Tools and extra food filled another ship. Livestock and anything of any value from the town were loaded aboard the remaining ships. With extra room aboard the last ship, we even loaded cut lumber and the furniture, glass windows, and fittings that we’d removed from the buildings.

We waited a day after the rest of our ships sailed for home since all three groups were supposed to burn the harbor towns on the same day. That morning, we used some of the coal oil we brought and left a trail from the docks to and through every building in town. Each building had piles of straw inside it, with kindling stacked over the straw to make sure every building caught fire.

The hull of the ship under construction was far enough along that one of our ships towed it back. We stripped the other partially completed ship of anything useful and beached it in the town to include it in the inferno we left in our wake. As we sailed away, the smoke was visible in the sky until dark.

I’d have loved to stay to see who first discovered the ruins of the town and the reaction of the next pirates who sailed into the harbor.

As we neared the island of Daobhat late on the third day, we again saw one of our three-ship patrols. This one had a pirate ship trapped in the harbor. The small harbor was shallow enough that our ships couldn’t maneuver close enough to attack without docking. We sailed on to the next village. Finding the dock empty, our ship docked. That night, guided by one of the men from the village, I led half the troops aboard our ship on a five thoup overland trek to the port where the pirate ship was trapped.

The pirates had enough sentries and the terrain had been cleared to prevent us from sneaking up on them. The stone sentry towers and two-pace high stone walls told me they’d put in a lot of effort over the years to protect their positions here. Right now, the pirates were spread out, trying to defend their position against possible attacks from every direction, as well as to protect their ship.

I sent four clan warriors to circle around their defenses to the west side while we stayed on the east. At the false dawn, shouts of alarm from the pirates guarding their west flank rang out when several were struck by arrows. Two dozen of their men rushed over from other positions to help against the attack from the west.

I knew the men with me who could see me would be watching and passed hand signs to them. Those who couldn’t see me would watch the next person in the chain. I stood up behind the tree I was hiding behind and saw the men closest to me stand. Nocking an arrow, I turned to face the pirates, chose my target, and released the arrow. My second arrow was in flight before the first found the chest of the primary sentry.

Many of the pirates guarding the east flank were trying to see what was happening on the west flank, wondering if they were needed there. They never saw the flight of arrows and crossbow bolts that severely thinned their already diminished numbers.

By the time they realized their east flank was also under attack, the continuous flights of bolts had reduced their number even further, causing the remaining pirates to panic. By then, they didn’t have enough men to hold the east flank. The men on the western flank didn’t want to reduce the number there, and the remaining men to the north worried about an attack from their direction if they left their positions to help elsewhere.

While the pirates were distracted, shouting back and forth at each other, I sprinted for a huge chestnut tree twenty paces closer to their wall. Several pirates tried and failed to get a shot off at me when they suddenly sprouted crossbow bolts. Knowing that my Orangewood bow would be a hindrance up in the tree, I had carried a crossbow on my back as well as three quivers of bolts.

The base of the tree was wide, at least four-paces in circumference. I grabbed a lower branch and pulled myself up, a task made difficult by having to stay shielded by the trunk. I finally managed to get to where I could stand on a branch about twelve paces off the ground while remaining protected by the trunk.

I felt that there were enough branches and leaves that the pirates would have a difficult time spotting me. I took a quick peek, which assured me that I was undetected. I rested the crossbow on a branch and identified the man who seemed to be giving orders. He stopped giving orders when the bolt penetrated his head, even though he thought he had been safely protected by the wall. Recognizing the serious threat I posed, the remaining ten pirate bowmen turned towards the tree as they tried to locate me amidst the branches.

I had almost as much trouble as they did because I had to pick targets where my bolt wouldn’t be deflected by small branches or leaves. A leaf wouldn’t deflect it much, but could make a difference in the one-hundred-pace flight of the bolt. My shots were slow and deliberate, sometimes waiting for the gentle sea breeze to move leaves out of my way.

After my bolts felled the fifth man, one of the remaining pirates behind the east wall broke and ran, heading for the ship. I picked off another man when he turned to watch the man running away. Two more men ran, leaving only one man—the one farthest from the ship. I knew he would follow the others, and sighted in where he would be when he turned to run. As soon as his muscles flexed, I released the bolt, hitting him in the side, dropping him, but not killing him outright. Rather than make him suffer, I sent one more bolt to finish the job.

My whistled signal—one short and one long—let the Clan warrior with me know the east wall was clear. He stood and watched, arrow nocked, as the rest of our men ran for the wall eighty paces away. He picked off two men trying to move from the north wall. I picked off two men trying to move back from the west wall.

Once our men reached and took a position behind the two-pace rock wall, they began using their crossbows to attack the men remaining at the other walls. Less than ten of the pirates made it back to the ship, half of them wounded. While I climbed down from the tree, several men climbed over the wall and opened the heavy wood gate.

Our troops swarmed in and made sure that every pirate was dead or shackled. We frightened the poor people in the village when we burst into their homes to make sure that pirates weren’t hiding inside. Then we advanced on the ship, using any available cover. With the Clan warriors by my side, everyone advanced to within two hundred paces of the ship and began picking off targets of opportunity. After unleashing three arrows or bolts each, we had to use volleys of arrows arced high into the air because most of the pirates were hiding behind the gunwales.

Nkoza and I led several men even closer to the ship. We ran behind the warehouse closest to the village and entered it through the rear door. After searching the warehouse to make sure nobody was hiding inside, we entered the second warehouse, the one closest to the ship. Once we were sure it was unoccupied, I sent most of the men back outside to each end of the long warehouse. After giving them enough time to get into position, Nkoza and I each attached a length of rope to the inside of one of the two big doors facing the ship.

When I nodded, we both pulled our door open. “Now!” I shouted, staying behind the door and watching as a volley of arrows flew through the open, empty doorway. When I yelled, the men outside at the ends of the warehouse had stepped around the corner and released their arrows. I then used my knife to widen the gap between two boards on the side of the warehouse facing the ship and peered out at the ship. “Go,” I said a lot quieter just a moment after the volley of arrows from the ship met nothing but empty doorway.

Ten men inside the warehouse stepped into the open door and released their bolts before the pirates could take cover again. The other Clan warriors hadn’t let up. They took full advantage of the opportunity when the pirates had exposed themselves, thinking that we’d be pouring out of the open warehouse door to attack the ship.

I hurried back to one of the houses we’d searched earlier. I’d noticed a small urn with a narrow neck on a table when we searched the house. I promised to pay the family for the urn and poured the olive oil from the urn into a bowl for them so as not to waste it. I scooped hot coals into the ash bucket and hurried back to the warehouse. I’d sent one of our men to retrieve my backpack from where I set it down when I ran for the big chestnut tree.

Once I got back, I had ten men climb onto the back slope of the warehouse roof. I nodded and Nkoza threw small rocks up at the roof to let the men know it was safe to look over the top ridge of the roof. They would shoot at anything they could hit. From my backpack, I removed a marketplace jug of coal oil and filled the small urn. Tearing a strip of cloth from my shirt, I stuffed it into the jug’s narrow opening and made sure it was soaked with coal oil.

Nkoza watched through the open doorway and motioned to me when it was clear. I sprinted for the capstan nearest the ship, carrying my crossbow on my back. One hand held the urn filled with coal oil and the other held the bucket with hot coals. When I looked back at Nkoza, he nodded, grinning viciously.

Taking a deep breath, I touched the oil-soaked cloth to the red-hot coals and blew on it once. Flames immediately covered the cloth, so I stood and heaved it over the gunwales of the ship before ducking back down behind the capstan. I heard the ceramic urn break on the wooden deck of the ship and heard cries of panic from the pirates. Several turned into cries of agony as the archers on the warehouse roof and our Clan warriors targeted anyone trying to put out the fire.

“If you throw your weapons on the dock and surrender, we’ll let you put out the fire. If not, we have lots more of those and we’ll set the entire ship ablaze and let you burn to death,” Nkoza shouted. In the space of several heartbeats, bows and swords began landing on the dock.

“Now you can put the fire out,” Nkoza shouted. He motioned for me to climb a rope, which I assumed was the one tying up the bow of the ship since it was closest to me. He also signed that four men aboard the ship still had swords.

Near the top of the rope, I peeked through the hawsehole and spotted the four men still hiding behind the gunwales with their swords. With a last look at Nkoza, who signaled that it was clear, I heaved myself over the gunwale and stood on the deck. “You four men with your swords need to throw them overboard or draw and use them,” I shouted.

In their anger they forgot about our archers, and drew their swords to attack me. When the archers didn’t drop them, I grinned even wider than the four pirates did. As the first one neared, I drew my short sword and parried his sword, drawing my longsword and slashing horizontally across his stomach. Spinning to my left, I beheaded the man right behind him as he stared at his friend’s guts spilling onto the deck.

The other two men separated and came at me from opposite sides. Taking a step towards the man on my right, I blocked his sword with my longsword, ducked, spun, and blocked the sword of the man behind me with my short sword, slashing across his abdomen with the longsword as I continued the spin. My short sword parried the second swing of the pirate now on my right and my longsword gutted him.

The rest of the pirates had extinguished the fire by then and just gawked at me and their four dead comrades. “Everyone off the ship,” I ordered.

Once the pirates were ashore and shackled, the other Clan warriors and I began treating any wounded pirates we thought we could save and ended the suffering of those we couldn’t save. Then we began searching the ship to make sure that no additional pirates were hiding. We didn’t find any pirates but found eleven captives shackled in two locked cells. The five teenage girls were naked and had obviously been raped. They shrank back from the cell door when we reached it. One of the clan warriors ran back to the crews’ quarters and returned with his arms full of clothing. The other men continued searching the ship.

“It’s not much, but it’s the best I could find,” he apologized as we stuffed the clothing, as well as keys to the shackles, through the barred window of the cell door. Once the girls were clothed, we released them, and then the men, sending the male prisoners topside when I saw the girls edging away from them.

“What are you going to do with us?” one of the girls asked fearfully.

“Unless your home is here on the island, I’ll take you with us to the port of Kaljata. If you have family to return to, I’ll pay your passage to the closest port. Otherwise, you can come with me,” I replied.

“What happens if we go with you?” the oldest of the girls asked.

“You’ll live with our Clan where you’ll be treated just like everyone else. Eventually, you’ll marry and have a family,” I replied.

“Unless you ask to be one of his slaves,” the other clan warrior chuckled.

“Why would we want to be his slaves?” one of the younger girls asked angrily.

“Because he can take you to his bed when you’ve recovered physically. If his first wife likes you, she’ll ask you to join his household as a wife or consort.”

“He already has a wife?” the oldest girl asked.

“He has several,” the warrior chuckled, “including two princesses and two daughters of a Duke.”

“Then why would he want us after what we just endured,” the second girl asked.

“Several of the women in my household, including some of my wives, experienced something similar,” I replied. “My wife chooses additional women based on their personality and how well they fit into our family.”

“Your wife chooses the additional women, not you?” a third girl asked disbelievingly.

“I chose her. She chooses every other woman. That’s how it works in our clan. The wife is in charge of the household and selects any additional wives or concubines. The only exception is any captured slaves I bring home. They can remain as part of our household for up to a year, although we release most of them from our household quickly so they have a better chance to find a husband.” I then explained a bit more about the way things worked in our clan.

“So you have the right to take us to bed if we want to be your slaves?” the oldest girl asked as she leaned seductively against me.

“I have the right, yes, but won’t take anyone to bed unless they are fully healed and ask me to. Once we get to my home, my wife chooses who ends up in our bed each night. Or, you could also choose one of the other five clan warriors here with me, instead,” I suggested.

“Wrong,” the clan warrior who brought the clothing laughed. “The women of the clan made it abundantly clear that you were to bring home any new female slaves. Besides you, only Nkoza can bring any home.”

“Why just him?” the second girl asked, motioning to me, a question I’d been about to ask.

“My wife told me that the slaves he’s brought back so far have integrated into our clan much faster than usual. He treats them well and releases most of them from his household within a month. He’s even taken the unprecedented step of telling the Patriarch that his wife has his permission to release any of the slaves from their household. His wife Karela is a keen judge of character and does a good job of suggesting women whose personalities match the other clan wives when they ask her for thoughts on the girls’ personalities. So far, he’s brought more than six hundred women to the clan—widows, single women, and captured slaves—and more than half have already joined a family. And it’s been less than a year since he started bringing and sending women home,” he explained.

“Six hundred?” two of the girls asked in unison.

“The former King of Kahjohng treated women poorly. Many of the young men in the country followed his example and adopted the same attitude. When I explained how our clan treated women, many of the single women chose to join our clan instead of dealing with the attitude of the young men in their own country. We also accepted any widows of the Kahjohngi troops who died during the invasion of Donnak, along with their children,” I explained.

“How do you go about claiming me as your slave?” the oldest girl asked as she pressed her body against me.

I cupped her face in my hands and kissed her. “Consider yourself my slave,” I said.

“That’s it? All you have to do is kiss us and claim us?” she asked.

“No, all I have to do is claim you. I prefer to give each woman a choice. If they have family, I give them a chance to return to their family. Otherwise, I give them the option of joining the clan without being my slave.

“So, you could just claim us, but let each of us decide?” the second girl asked.

“That’s right,” I replied.

“No wonder the women you take back adjust so quickly,” the third girl commented thoughtfully.

We finally made it back topside and found one of our ships docking nearby. “The other ships are chasing down a Jhalavan merchant ship,” the captain chuckled, explaining the absence of the other two ships.

With help from the shackled pirates, we began loading goods from inside the warehouse aboard the ship that had just docked. One warehouse was still empty. The just-captured pirate ship had arrived right before our ships arrived and hadn’t unloaded yet.

Two of the girls quickly attached themselves to Nkoza. The older two attached themselves to me. The youngest girl followed us around nervously, looking lost.

“You can stay in our group without being my slave,” I assured her, so she relaxed and joined us.

Two men from the village approached when I paid the family for the urn and returned the ash bucket. “What do you intended to do with us?” one of them asked apprehensively.

“Nothing,” I replied. “We know you were forced to let the pirates use your village. I intend to burn down the warehouses unless you want them for something.”

“Would you take us with you?” the second man asked.

“You don’t want to stay here now that most of the pirates have been captured?” I asked.

“We would have left a long time ago, but the pirates would have killed us if they caught us,” he replied.

“We understand you’re the baron of a new province,” the second man said, sounding hopeful.

“I am, and you’re welcome to join us. We have plenty of unclaimed fertile land and you can plant crops year-round.”

“Is there a place we could build a fishing village?” the first man asked.

“There are at least two places, but I want to build a wall around the area where the villages will be before anyone lives there. Otherwise, pirates could still raid them.”

Rather than a quick raid to empty and then burn the warehouses, we were there for three weeks. Our ships had to sail to Bellcaava or Kaljata to unload and then return to the island to load again. The King had teams of assessors working at both ports since the three groups had sent back so much loot. I sent a sealed suggestion to the Clan Patriarch on one of the first returning ships.