Kai's plans for Actaea - A Ship of Contestants!

A mixture of confusion and terrifying elation flashed across Kai's face.

With the last storm passing over them and going to the west, no ship other than a galley could catch up to them within three days. That's why Andrik had been so sure about no interference before reaching Pentos. This new and supernatural appearance of a ship must have made Andrik question his seafaring skills for him to look so shaken, Kai knew.

"No need to feel down, Andrik," Kai said, smiling. "I've been expecting our friends for quite some time now. Let's go."

He followed Andrik to the deck and saw a relieved expression on the faces of the men. They must have been seeing this pursuing ship as their salvation. Kai sneered. He approached the foremast and looked up.

"Drop the far-eye," he shouted.

The barrelman dropped a bronze tube with ground glass lenses at either end. It was a telescope.

Kai caught the instrument, putting his one eye at its one end, and looked out into the sea. His chest rose suddenly. The least expected, and then later discarded, guess had come true, biting him in the ass. It was a galley, red of color, and Kai could even see the faintest hint of blurry oars, propelling the many-masted ship as if it was jumping like a frog.

Andrik was right, Kai thought, taking the far-eye off his eye. The galley would soon kill the distance between them. Sooner than he could have ever hoped for.

The corners of his mouth lifted.

"ALL HANDS ON DECK!" Kai roared, turning around, his voice booming in the crew's heads like forgotten thunder.

The seamen, whispering among themselves, shook and processed the newly found might in Kai's voice listlessly. It wasn't until Andrik approached one of them, sending him flying with a slap, that they came out of their stupor and lined up.

Kai nodded at Andrik and stepped forward. "Who wants to go home?" he asked, baffling the listeners.

Among the 11 men, other than Kai and Meg, only 10 were capable enough to man the ship now, including Andrik. They had too lost consciousness, along with Meg and the mate, and had just an inkling that they had survived because of Kai, the captain. There was respect in their eyes and gratitude on their faces for him, as he had saved their puny lives, he could tell. But fear had trodden over those emotions mercilessly in their hearts. These men weren't honor-bound to him, even though Kai was now Actaea's captain.

He was a pirate, and now an enemy of the crown. And pirates knew no honor. It was known.

Kai almost smiled. "Let me ask differently," he continued, almost whispering. "Who wants to become a pirate on this ship? Who wants to loot as a freeman, live as a freeman, and die as a freeman, and who wants his wife and his children to not sleep with knots in their stomachs anymore?

"And who wants to keep their earnings to themselves, instead of giving almost all of it to a lord who would kill you with one dirty look? Is there someone who wants all this among you? If there is, then bend your knee and rise as a pirate of the White Serpent Pirates. As you all have helped me this far, I promise, I will set the rest free upon reaching Pentos."

Silence engulfed the ship, following Kai's proclamation. He had grand plans for Actaea, even after he departed from this world. And for those plans to work, he must have a solid, loyal pirate crew at the end of this voyage. Rest he would leave on the shoulders of Andrik, the Twice-Drowned.

It was the mate himself who lunged instantly and bent his knee, his head almost approaching Kai. "I want all this, Captain Red," he shouted, his voice shaking the lesser men. "I swear my loyalty to the White Serpent Pirates. Let my honor know no salvation in the watery halls of the Drowned God after my death, otherwise."

Almost immediately, 7 out of the 9 stepped forward, and fell to their knees, chanting, "I want it too, captain…"

Kai stared at the 7. All were looking up at him, their eyes already blazing with the fire lit up by his words. Kai nodded thrice at them before putting his hand on Andrik. "Good," he said, looking at the 8 members of his pirate crew. "Now rise, as fledglings leave the confinement of the nest, first dropping, and then rising high towards the open sky. Rise, my pirates."

And they rose, shouting, their hands outstretched, fists pointing towards the clear sky.

Kai didn't even spare a glance at the 2 men who hadn't bent their knees. He let them have this moment, and when the joy seemed to bugger off, he said, "Here are your commands."

When all of them had calmed down, Kai turned around to look at the ship that could be seen clearly with naked eyes now. "See that ship?" he said, pointing at the red dot over the horizon. "That's another storm coming for us. You must have guessed by now about me. I am indeed a fugitive from a noble House. An heir, I was, but now I am Red, Captain of Actaea and the White Serpent Pirates. They are coming for me, and you would be a fool to think that any of you would remain alive to beach the ship on Pentos' harbor.

"Go now! Prepare the ship as you prepare it for a storm. Follow Andrik's orders, and then…" he doubled back, his expression hard and undecipherable, "go below the deck again. For only there you would live to tell the tales later."

They gaped at him like a toddler asking for his mother's nipple.

"NOW!" The crew ran off at the shout, almost falling over each other. All except Andrik, as Kai had expected.

"Never again, captain," he told Kai. "Never again will I leave the deck when the ship's under attack."

"Honorable words," Kai commented. "Remember what happened when you tried to see what you must not see." Andrik looked gobsmacked, a terror dancing in his dark eyes, shaking his legs. He looked down at Kai, then looked away towards the incoming ship, and then back at him. Words, honorable or not, refused to come out of his mouth.

"I will have to use Drowned God's powers again, Andrik," Kai continued, holding back a massive grin. "It's too soon for you to understand the profundity of HIS mysteries. Your time will come, as mine had come once. Till then, do as I told you."

Andrik pressed his lips into a thin line, giving Kai a reluctant nod. He had just marched off, bellowing out orders, when Kai recalled something and said, "Andrik." The mate turned around, and Kai whispered, "Those two men who didn't bend their knees. Be a good lad and kill them before reaching Pentos. We don't want strange tales about us circulating in stranger lands, do we?"

Andrik, who had once been called the Unsmiling as well, gave the briefest hint of a knowing smile.

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