Two years have passed.

“I haven’t been aboard ship for months, and to be honest, don’t miss it,” Nicholas griped.

“I don’t often agree with your complaining, but not this time. I forgot how much I hate being at sea.” Connor replied.

The soldiers stood at the bow of the ship and stared out at the endless expanse of ocean. Only a few days into their trip, there was no land to be seen in any direction. Behind them was the rest of the fleet; twelve warships in all, fully manned and fitted for battle. It had taken many months for Regina King’s engineers to reverse engineer the cannon that they had captured from the pirates. King Trading had contributed four ships to the effort, and the members of the King’s Table had added eight more to the tally.

“Looks like they are getting serious. We could take over a country with this level of firepower.” Nicholas said.

“To a degree, that’s what we’re doing. They keep discovering more islands, and there is a whole chain of them in the North Sea. That, plus they’ve been ruling the seas for the last year. When they attack in two or three places at a time, it's hard to catch them.” Connor patted his breast pocket. “We have letters of Marque, license to kill or capture any enemy vessel. If we see any of those Mavit Tomar ships, I’m giving the order to sink them.”

“How the world changes. You’ve gone from rebellions squire to army Centurion to deserter, and now you’re a fleet Admiral.”

“I guess the gods have smiled on both of us.”

The days dragged on and though the sailors had their duties aboard ship, the soldiers had to content themselves with training and exercise. When the level of boredom had nearly reached its peak, they saw a ship on the horizon.

“Ship ho!” came a call from the crow’s nest.

Connor ran from over to join the captain and Nicholas at the bow of the ship, “Do you see it?”

“Just there,” Nicholas pointed. “The kid has good eyes.”

“Should we give chase, milord?” the captain asked.

“I’m not a lord. Yes, all ships change course to intercept.”

Sails were adjusted for maximum speed, and the crew of every ship was set into motion. They closed some distance, but then the ship turned and was able to match speed.

“They aren’t getting away, but we’re not getting any closer,” the captain noted.

“We know where they’re going. Keep us in their wake and keep an eye out for other ships. They may be pulling us into a trap where their other ships sail in from the flanks.”

For the rest of the day they followed the ship, through the night and into the early hours of the next day. The captain called for Connor to meet in the officer’s cabin. When Connor entered, the man was standing over a large map that was spread across the dining table.

“Captain?”

“Connor, come see this.” He pointed to a point on the map. “This is approximately where we are.” The location on the map was very close to a series of poorly drawn islands. This was the location of the Pirate base.

“They ran back to their base of operations. I’m surprised that they would reveal the location of their base, especially if they can see how many ships we have.”

“I’m not sure what you have in mind, but I smell a trap. They could be leading us to rocky shoals, or gods knows what.” The captain became pale at the thought of his ship heading for certain doom, “Should I message the other ships to turn back?”

Connor thought hard about it, then in a minute or so, turned to the captain and nodded in the affirmative. The captain darted out of the cabin, and Connor could hear him shouting directions to the signalman. Several minutes later, all twelve ships began executing sharp turns, half to port, half to starboard.

“Ahoy! Enemy flyer directly above!” came the call from the crow’s nest.

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Everyone looked up at the same time, a hundred feet up they saw a giant snowy owl with a goat-headed rider who was scouting their position. They scrambled around the deck, most of the crew had never seen such a thing as a Mavit Tomar, and certainly not one riding a giant owl. He was flying so high that no one even picked up a bow.

Connor yelled to the captain, “Have the crew ready fire-control barrels! They might try dropping fire jars on the deck to burn us out. Message the other ships!” A crewman ran to the foredeck with a pair of hand flags and began hurriedly signaling to the next ship over. The message worked its way around the fleet.

“I’ve heard about these guys,” Nicholas said, running up to his partner. “The mage took out thousands of the buggers on his own, he was still a wet-behind-the-ears boy at the time.”

“A boy who became the most powerful mage in all of Xoran. I hope the mages we brought with us can help to fight against these bastards.”

“We have Dulcinea with us, Ingram on the Northstar, Micheal Boorman on the Defiance, Luri on the Gold Coast Queen, and Yochana on the Dalmouth. That Luri kind of creeps me out.”

“Yeah, me too. He was already in his late fifties when he discovered his ability to do magic. I guess he was self-taught when Michael discovered him,” Connor replied.

“I don’t suppose that owl rider is the only one they have,” Nicholas wondered.

“The question is, do they have dozens of them, hundreds… or thousands.”

“Ahoy, more owl riders coming down from the North,” the boy in the nest cried.

The captain took a report and ran up to Connor, “Word from the trail ship. Several more pirate vessels are on the horizon.”

“We have an unknown number of pirate ships behind us and possibly a swarm of Mavit Tomar knights ahead. Looks like we stay and fight.” Nicholas stated. “I’m going to fetch my gear. I suggest y’all do the same.”

The thunder of cannon fire echoed out over the waves as the pirate fleet attacked. What they may not have been expecting was that their intended victims also had cannons. Regina King spared no expense to get all of her trading vessels retrofitted with the most modern artillery. The cannons that they removed from the captured pirate vessel were smooth bore; but through tireless experimentation, they had developed rifling and that gave them much greater accuracy and distance. When the pirate ships were in range, the Allied fleet opened fire on them. They could only get in a half dozen salvos before the pirates came within ‘their’ range, and the fight became more evenly matched. Balls of steel pierced the darkening sky, crashing through wooden masts and hulls.

Bjorn Oliver and Helios Perkins stood at the stern of the last ship in the line. They dipped their arrows into a fire pot, lighting the oil soaked rags that were tied just behind the steel arrowhead. He turned to the dozen or so soldiers that were currently armed with bows, “Light 'em up boys!” When every man had a flaming arrow nocked, he gave the order, “Loose!”

A dozen flaming arrows lit the darkening sky and almost all found a home in the sails of the closest pirate ship. The crew was able to put out fires near the deck, but the arrows that hit high up, near the center of the sails were unreachable by their water buckets. It took a few minutes for the fires to really take hold, but soon their sails were giant torches lighting up the night sky.

“Looks like they are in a bit of a pickle,” Helios chuckled. “They can't board us because if they get too close, we set their sails on fire, and then put burning arrows into the sides of the ship.”

“Hope you brought some ‘special’ arrows.” Bjorn pointed upward at a flock of Mavit Tomar riding owls. Both men picked up their longer quivers, the ones with the long, black steel arrows. Each ship had two or more of the legendary Lochmar riders, each man armed with a Giant Slayer bow. The special bows could launch a four foot long steel arrow twice as far as any other bow, with considerably more force.

Owls were already dropping from the sky, their riders and their flaming pots either crashing into the ocean or striking the wooden decks with bone crushing force. When a few were nearly overhead, Bjorn and Helios pulled their bowstrings to the maximum extension. Few men could draw the Giant Slayer to the necessary extension to properly fire a special arrow. At will, they fired, each of them scoring a direct hit. Bjorn saw his arrow intersect the path of the owl rider and he watched as the arrow passed through both rider and mount. Helios put his arrow through an owls neck, and they both were rewarded with the scream as the goat man hit the water’s surface from a hundred foot height. Some firebombs got through, but they were taken care of by the crew as the archers continued to bring down the owls.

“How are we doing?” Nicholas asked. He had his buckler strapped on and Soulbane in his hand.

“Much better than I thought we would be doing. The Windsor and the Romain are afire, but I see boats in the water. Looks like most of the crews will be able to get to the other ships.”

A pirate ship was fifty feet away and closing fast. They would be in grappling range in minutes and then the pirates would swarm aboard. Connor was waiting at the point where the hulls would come together, and he mentally prepared himself to repel the invaders. Nicholas was behind with two dozen fully armed soldiers and knights, and to the rear were their archers.

“Quick question. Why didn’t you use that fancy sword of yours? A sixty-foot long Phoenix could make ashes of their fleet in minutes.”

“That was my first instinct, but something in my gut tells me to reserve it. I can only do it so often, and then not again for a day or so.”

“You think there is a greater threat coming?”

“Just a hunch,” Nicholas said, pointing Soulbane at a point in the sky. Far above and coming from the direction of the islands, were three large shapes, giant dark silhouettes against the darkening sky.