### 297

The tide of battle has turned in your favour. The pirates came in search of easy plunder, but your furious resistance has broken their nerve. They flee from the decks, scrambling into the longboats to escape. The captain follows them, hewing at them with his sword. He cuts his way to the ship’s rail and grabs the pirate leader by the neck. He rams the man’s head against the mainmast, once, twice, three times, with a rage that splits the timber and the pirate’s leather-clad skull.

‘Ha!’ he cries gleefully. ‘I’ve always said the Deldenians have no head for a fight!’

The battle ends as swiftly as it began, with the surviving pirates melting away like phantoms into the fog. There are few casualties amongst the mercenaries, but the boat’s crew have been decimated. The pirate berserkers trapped them below decks and slaughtered them—only one escaped their murderous blades.

The captain takes command, marshalling repairs and overseeing the burial of the dead. As the bodies sink beneath the dark waters, the Kazonara emerges from the mist to the welcoming sight of Luyen.

Turn to 19.