7.
After dropping that bomb, Strand cheerfully volunteered Eliza to clear the table and wash the dishes. Dropping the stack of plates in her hands, he directed her to the kitchen behind the bar and left her to it. Leaving her standing there grumbling, he returned to the dead silent table and cocked his head. “What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue?” “Morrigan, when were you going to tell me you were planning something big again?” Cindy smiled sweetly but her eyes were cold as ice. “I couldn’t have told you anything.” Cindy frowned “Well why not?” “How am I supposed to tell you something that I don’t even know yet?! Strand you haven’t even told me what the plan is!” “Ah.” Strand nodded. “That should be the first order of business then. Let’s all get on the same page, shall we?”
Morrigan buried his head in his hands, feeling the most defeated he had in quite a while. “Fine. Just get on with it.” Strand turned to Cindy and she nodded. Clearing his nonexistent throat, Strand reached into an inner pocket and pulled out a map, spreading it along the table. Cindy waved her hand and the tabletop curved, holding the papers edges in place. “Our first order of business,” he tapped the Roy Kingdom, “We will need to send scouts to determine how strong the Kingdom is currently. While we have a bargaining chip, it will only work if they aren’t overwhelmingly strong. We will need to sound them out and work from there.”
Morrigan nodded, “Sounds doable. We have a tribe of specters living in the Capital, I can give them some enhancements to make them strong enough to remain undetected.”
“Good. After we know how strong we are we can proceed with negotiations, or on the off chance they are weak enough we can invade directly.” Strand paused. “Here the princess becomes somewhat of a liability. We attacked the ship carrying her when they were about a week off landfall. Accounting for the fact that the Blood Sea can do weird things to ships inside it, I say we have two weeks, maybe three before the royal family starts wondering why the princess is missing. That means we have less than a month to assemble an assault team. I don’t think just the crew will cut it this time.”
Morrigan hummed. “Bowen will be coming too, and I guess we can put out a recruitment notice—”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“I’ll be coming as well.” Cindy interjected. Morrigan opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off. “Don’t bother trying to convince me otherwise, its been forever since we’ve been out together. Besides, I’m still pretty powerful you know.”
“She makes a good point; her communication abilities would be useful in maintaining the army.” Strand jumped in. “We’ll need someone to organize the troops and Cindy fits the bill.”
Morrigan gave up. Cindy had always been something of a free spirit. If she was coming, he better keep her by his side so she didn’t cause too much trouble. The thought of leaving her unattended among clueless humans made him shudder. ‘Like a dragon in a goat pen.’ Except dragons usually didn’t play with their food. Shaking off his thoughts he replied, “Fine, welcome aboard… Communications Officer Cindy.”
Cindy smiled and gave an exaggerated salute. “Yes, sir!”
Morrigan laughed. “Alright, then it’s decided.” Looking back at the map he cleared his remaining doubts away. “I’ll leave the House of Life here with the crew to restock and prepare for battle. Me and Strand will go to the Specters tomorrow and get them going right away. Afterwards we’ll travel around and recruit more people. I think I’ll pay the lords a visit and see if I can borrow their guards. Cindy, I want you and Bowen to stay here to organize and train anyone we send your way. I’m staying at my usual place, but I’ll stop by and tell Bowen the plan before we leave. Any questions?”
Strand shook his head, but Cindy asked “What are we going to do with the girl? Are you taking her with you or should I, ‘look after her’, while you’re away?”
“I think we better take her with us. Even if she can’t escape Haven I would hate to have to waste time tracking her down.”
“But then you should –”
“And in case we need her as a bargaining chip, she would have to be sane. I doubt the royals would want a mad princess.”
Cindy pouted. “Aw, but I had such fun things in store…”
“I’m sure you did. Speaking of the princess, I haven’t heard anything from the kitchen in a while, you were keeping an eye on her right Strand?”
Strand looked confused as a skeleton could. “I don’t have eyes captain.”
Morrigan facepalmed and turned to Cindy who shrugged “I though you were keeping track of her.”
“Arghhhhhh, must I do everything myself?!”
Passersby stopped briefly at the desolate scream coming from the Inn before once again going about their business. No one paid attention to the young girl disappearing into the crowd.