Chapter 10.1 Pirate Attack

Amon was certainly exhausted, because he had not stopped working. After resolving the chaos in Barrowdock he had returned to Barrowton, but just after returning he had new orders.

The orders were not the usual ones that went to the Gestapo, to search for spies and suppress enemies, but were more like the orders Wolfgang had given him in the past; for assassination.

His first objective was now complete, the murder of the unfortunate lady of Old Anchor, of House Melcom. At first Amon did not understand such a mission, would they travel so far for a simple assassination? But Amon was not a person, he was a weapon; Wolfgang Dustin's weapon.

The murder was by poison, one that helped camouflage death as natural. It wasn't a Tear of Lys or anything of that level, even with House Dustin's money it would be impossible to get such a poison without leaving a trace; it was something much more basic and cheaper. However, House Melcom was a tiny house, and they did not have access to an expert eye capable of identifying such a poison.

Wolfgang had been waiting for a year for such an opportunity; that of the truly natural death of the Master in the service of House Melcom. Without the Master, no one would be able to identify that such a misfortune was the product of poison. By the time the new Master would arrive, it would be too late because of the poor condition of the body.

After the successful assassination, Amon prepared for the second step of the mission. He had moved away from Old Anchor and was currently in Runestone, a little to the south. The young man was waiting for a ship to come for him, and in time he could see it. No sail of any note. No, in fact, the galley had nothing that would attract attention; it was totally ordinary.

As the ship came ashore, Amon quickly boarded it, and saw some familiar faces. There were about 10 Gestapo men, including Reek and Simyo, as well as about 20 unfamiliar faces.

"Pirates" Amon whispered, and his eyes looked at them in disgust. "Who's the man in charge?" the young man asked Reek.

"Him," he said as he pointed to a scruffy looking man with a long beard.

"You're his commander?" the pirate asked Amon, to which the young man nodded, his face covered by cloth. "Then we're all set," smiled the man. "It's just attacking a couple of ships right? Piece of cake for all they paid us" said the man, and let out a loud laugh that was reciprocated by all his companions.

Reek put a lot of money in front of their eyes, and that was only half of the payment. The other half would be given to them after the job was done. Even half was quite a lot, which made the pirate captain think for a moment about simply sticking his sword into Reek, but in the end he decided to do the job. It was simply finishing off two or three galleys, it couldn't be that hard.

'The only negative is the foul stench of that bastard' thought the pirate; a common enough thought among the crew.

The ships set sail, stopping at House Elesham's island of The Paps to replenish supplies, and wait for a courier. A member of the Gestapo was always guarding the tower of the Master of House Elesham, 24 hours a day; evidently rotating in shifts. The raven did not actually bring a message; the raven itself was the message, since despite having no letter it had a green ribbon on its leg; one that the man stationed by Amon could visualize.

That meant it was time to act.

"We're setting sail! It's time to go!" commented Amon.

"Finally... I was already getting bored on this shitty island" replied the pirate captain reluctantly. 

After setting sail, the ship lost a bit of stability. The reason was because the pirates, on Amon's orders, were changing the crew's flag to that of House Borrel; the white crab on a green background.

"Are we pretending to be other people? You cunning bastards" commented the pirate captain. "We're not going after any big fish, are we?".

"Nothing worth mentioning, have you ever heard of Dustin House?".

"Dustin? Sounds familiar."

"They, with help from House Manderly, ship monumental amounts of gold. A contact told us they would be doing a monumental transport, we simply want to take advantage of that."

"Gold?" the pirate asked, and greed flashed through his eyes. The man was evaluating whether it would be better to simply kill Amon and his men and keep all the gold for himself. Now he understood the reason for the generous payment. He brought his hand to his sword, but finally stopped. They were already one ship against two, even if they were mainly cargo. If he attacked Amon and his 10 men he would inevitably lose one of his own, and he might be left without the gold and without the payment. He would do so once he had the gold on his ship.

"Yes, gold" Amon commented, but a smile was hidden in his bulging robes. Amon was smart, and understood Wolfgang's entire plan after hearing the entirety of his orders. 'After all, we are not going for mere metals, we are going for the entire property of House Manderly.'

After the passage of a few hours, an ice cold voice spoke.

"Targets located."

"Targets?" asked the captain, hearing, for the first time, a somewhat childish voice. It was small in stature, so, who looked like a dwarf to his eyes, turned out to be a child.

"There," indicated Simyo in the distance, where apparently there was nothing. "There are two galleys."

"There? Well I don't see shit."

"Go there" spoke Amon. "The boy has good eyesight, follow his judgment."

"If you say so" whispered the captain. "Turn the ship and move forward! Let the bastards learn!".

"Aye!" shouted the pirates.

The ship began to draw closer, and they could see the figures of the ships more clearly, even being able to visualize the crest of House Manderly imprinted on the great sail.

But the pirate captain noticed something strange; the same member who had visualized the enemy drew a long bow, and perched on the forward part of the deck.

"Is he going to shoot an arrow from there?" remarked one pirate.

"What are you saying idiot? Such a shot is impossible, it's too far away."

However, ignoring the pirate's voices, Simyo located his target. He already had his description beforehand; Wyman Manderly's description, and it just so happened that his target was sitting on a stool, perfectly still.

It was a difficult shot, but all the way out Simyo practiced archery on the boat, and he already felt ready to take the shot.

"Are you ready?" asked Amon.

"Yes commander, I'm ready."

"The two targets?"

"They're on target, but I can't guarantee that the second target can't be covered."

"Well, we'll have to assault them anyway. Just give it a try."

"Understood," the young man replied deadpan, and released the arrow.

From the other side, the arrow traveled straight until it hit Wyman Manderly's eye, who didn't even have time to react.

"Father!" cried Ser Wendel in fury and sadness, seeing that, in front of him, his father had just left this world.

"We are under attack!" shouted someone on board the deck towards the other ship, the one that had a late reaction. They had only just begun to position themselves amidships between the Manderly and the apparently invading ship, but it was too late.

"Father wake up!" cried Wendel again, and his eyes filled with tears. But Wendel was a man, not a boy, and he had to react. Sadness turned to anger, and he turned to look at the enemy ship with eyes full of rage.

In his state of maximum concentration he could see something heading straight for his face, so he quickly stepped aside and felt the wind collide with his face as he propelled another arrow, which luckily only grazed his ear.

"These bastards..." the man muttered as he put his hand to his right ear; it was bleeding.

"It's still raining arrows!" said another soldier under the Manderly, which made everyone take cover.

"We need to move forward and ram them ourselves!" ordered Ser Wendel. The distance was currently benefiting the enemy. "Ram them!" he shouted again.

Wendel's thoughts were complicated. What motive would House Borrel have for attacking them? Ser Wendel could not think of one.

The ships continued to approach, and 5 more sailors fell victim to the illustrious pirate archer until finally there was a collision. It wasn't head on of course, no one wanted to destroy their own ship, but the Manderly escort ship pulled alongside the pirate ship, allowing the boarding.

"Let's get the gold from those bastards!" shouted the pirate captain, and they boarded the enemies.

The Gestapo soldiers were much more reserved, but they did not remain inactive either. The only ones who stayed on the ship were Reek and Simyo. The former to defend the latter as he attempted to search for his second target; Ser Wendel.

"The gold? You wretched bastards... We have no gold whatsoever!" shouted the leader of the escort ship, Ser Malecott, one of the great warriors of House Manderly, as he crossed swords with the enemy captain.

"Don't lie you bastard! We know about your fucking gold!" replied the captain, still crossing swords and trying to find a weak point in the enemy, but with each crossing the difference in skills began to become clear.

"Three Sisters scum... We'll show them their place!" the captain replied, but a dagger was thrown at his forehead, as he forced his sword against the enemy's.

The dagger penetrated to his brain, and made his body collapse like mud. The pirate captain looked back and saw Amon, the author of such a throw, and nodded his head in thanks, still with a macabre smile; with quite a lack of teeth.

Unfortunately the rest of the pirates were not so lucky, and that is because mere pirates cannot compare to trained soldiers, and in time almost all of them were slaughtered. The pirate captain at some point found himself surrounded, so he looked for Amon with his eyesight, to see what chances of support he had.

A few seconds before such a situation, Simyo finally had a clear shot, and with a whisper of, "Bingo," he fired the arrow.

"Ser Wendel!" shouted the soldiers, seeing the second death of a Manderly today. But it seems that the man was still alive, the arrow went, as budgeted, close to Wendel's heart, but not exactly into it.

"It's done!" shouted Reek, and Amon gave a special signal to his men.

The Gestapo soldiers, who had stayed behind the pirates in the confrontation, began to board the ship again, while dragging with them some pirates as well; especially those engaged in navigating the ship. Some of the navigators had stayed on top of the ship, but most of them were not only navigators but also fighters, so they advanced to the attack.

Those who refused were simply left in place, but most decided to retreat when they saw the situation in which their captain and the rest of their companions found themselves. They were pirates after all.

"You bastards! We can still win!" shouted the pirate captain, as he saw his passengers, as well as some of his subordinates flee at the first sign of trouble. The pirate captain's words were true, but with the Gestapo members retreating the odds were stacked against the pirates.

The Manderly's second ship, where the late Wyman and his son, also deceased, Wendel were traveling began to approach from the other side, preparing to board the pirate ship, so the situation was becoming more desperate.

"Speed up!" ordered Amon, and the pirate crewmen had to obey. They too saw that the situation was critical.

Amon ordered his men to throw some barrels at the enemy ship; they had liquor inside. When they fell with the enemy ship they broke into a thousand pieces, spilling all their contents, to which the Gestapo commander wasted no time in throwing a torch on them. The whole ship quickly caught fire,

Taking advantage of the confusion the pirate ship, apparently belonging to House Borrell, began to sail away, while its own captain was burned alive on an enemy ship. The other ship, with its troops still in perfect condition, had to make a decision. Either pursue their lord's murderers or help put out the fire and save the lives of the rest of the Manderly sailors. Then there was Ser Wendel himself. He wasn't dead yet, though he wouldn't stop bleeding. If they stopped, there was a small, almost minimal chance of saving his life. This was also considered by Amon himself. He had instructed Simyo not to make an instant death; that Wendel should die a slower death.

In the end it was decided to rescue his comrades, and not to pursue the enemies. They had already seen the shield on their flag; they thought they knew those responsible. 

To do a more perfect job, Simyo took it upon himself to finish off the lucky ones who did not have the misfortune of being burned to death. Some pirates had fallen into the sea, so the expert archer finished silencing them all.

The job... was done.