We went down to the slave pen. In the weeks that we had been on the island, the ship’s crew had done a good job of cleaning below decks. If I hadn’t experienced it, I never would have known that the floor of the place had been inundated with water from the sea. We washed the grime of the last few days from our bodies and collapsed on the deck. The orcs returned to wherever it was they were comfortable sleeping, and soon it was just the three of us once again. Since Bowen didn’t seem to mind even a little bit, I cuddled up with Aleyda and was soon fast asleep. The exhaustion and stress of the last few days had caught up with us all.

We all slept for a long time. I don’t know how I was able to ignore the sounds of a ship’s crew preparing to sail, but I did. When I awoke, my neck hurt from sleeping in a twisted position for so long, but my enhanced healing quickly sorted it out. I was either the first to wake up or the others had already woken up and decided that they needed more sleep. I badly needed to urinate. Although there were chamber pots in the hold, given the ship’s position near the end of the dock I though I probably could get away with going topside and doing my business off the deck off the ship into the sea below.

When I made it outside, I was surprised that the sun was already high in the sky. From its position, I realized that it was already late morning. I took care of my bodily necessities and then went to find Captain Serxio.

When I approached him, he was busy giving orders to some of the sailors, so I waited silently and respectfully until he was done. Finally, he turned his attention towards me.

“James, you look more alive today than you did when you boarded last night,” he said. “With as tired and drawn out as you looked, I was afraid you would sleep the entire day away.”

“Our time on the island has been difficult,” I replied. “I am so glad to be heading back home.”

“That makes two of us,” Serxio said. “Although I want to get back and do a full repair and refit of the ship, I am not looking forward to delivering the news to the families of those who were lost in the storm.”

“I hope there are no more storms,” I responded. “I don’t think we’d survive another one.”

“Oh, this ship is hardier than you think it is,” he said. “But that storm we survived, that was not typical at all. This is the sixth trip to the island that we have made and it is the only one like that that we ever encountered.”

“Have any of the others returned yet?” I asked hopefully.

“Not so far,” he replied. “There are still several hours left before we sail, though, so there is still hope. Was the island everything you hoped it would be? Did you find wealth beyond imagination?”

“Although I trust you, I would ask you not to share this with the rest of your crew,” I said in a low voice. “Yes, those of us who returned are fairly wealthy. We found a gold seam up high on the mountain. We brought back as much as we could carry.”

“I am happy for you,” he replied. “Not everyone who comes to this island is so lucky.”

“Where is your home port, anyway? I asked him.

“In the eastern portion of the inner sea on the southern coast,” he replied.

“I may be relocating in the near future. Once we are under way, I want to discuss chartering your ship from Shroud Hallow. There might be as many as twenty five of us. You could drop us off on your way back home. I am going to confide something to you that I hope won’t go any further. Many of my people are five fingered slaves that I purchased at market in Westfield. They came from this island. If something were to happen to me, I don’t want them to be split up and sold again on the auction block. I need to take them somewhere that they can be free, and the territory of Clan Galwick is not that place.”

“You could move to my country,” he said. “We don’t practice slavery there. That cage you sleep in. It has rarely been used. Many of my trips to the island have been ferrying merchants back and forth. Of the companies I have transported, only one managed to capture a slave and it was a single one. I am not in favor of the practice. Our fellow humans are not animals, even if they were cursed to be lacking in the fingers and toes department.”

“After living among them, I agree with you,” I said. “They are people just like the rest of us. I am going back below decks to rest and relax. Please let me know if any of the others return.”

“I will do that,” he said.

When I reached the hold once more I started brooding. I couldn’t help myself. What if the others were merely delayed and we left without them? Then, I would be doing to them what I feared they would do to me. I realized that common wisdom proclaims that turn about is fair play, but I was not certain that I could subscribe to that point of view. Maybe we should wait an extra day just to make sure that we weren’t leaving anyone.

The day passed slowly. Soon, Aleyda and Bowen woke up in that order. Aleyda crept over to me and we had a whispered conversation.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I am not certain that leaving today is the right thing to do,” I said.

“They would have left us,” she noted.

“I still don’t know that makes it right,” I replied.

“You are too forgiving,” she said. “By their actions, they declared themselves to be your enemies. Enemies deserve no quarter.”

“I don’t think they were all our enemies,” I replied. “I think some of them didn’t have the strength of character to abandon people they were familiar with, that they had known for a long time. If you were asked to choose a stranger who you barely know over the people that we have back home, what would you do?”

“I would side with our people,” she said.

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“Even if you knew our people were in the wrong?”

“Yes, even then.”

“Then you can see my point,” I said. “Blind loyalty certainly has its place. I am not certain that punishing everyone for the actions of a few is that place.”

By this time, Bowen had woken up and come over to join us.

“What are you talking about?” he asked.

“Blind loyalty,” I replied.

“Blind loyalty just gets you killed,” he said with a laugh. “In my world, there was no place for it. Although, in this world I may feel a bit differently.”

I smiled at him. “You be you,” I said.

By this time, the orcs were also up and moving around the hold. Dumbuk poked his head in. “Can we come over for lunch?” he asked.

“Of course you can, my friend,” I answered.

The orcs were rounded up and we ate yet another meal of trail food. The thought of those flatbread sandwich things back in Shroud Hallow was almost enough to bring a tear to my eye. I decided then and there that once we made it back I was going eat half a dozen on our way out of town.

Of course, since we needed a distraction, the dice came out again. Hours passed, but none of us were really into the game. We all had our minds on other things. Time was passing and soon we would be back out to sea. And nobody else had made it back yet.

Finally, I had enough. I sat out a round and went back up on deck. It was already the middle of the afternoon. I wasn’t certain exactly when we would be leaving but I knew it would be soon.

“How long until we depart?” I asked a passing sailor.

“Not long now,” he replied. “The tide is still rising but we will be at high tide soon.”

I walked over to the port side of the ship, the one closest to the dock since its prow was aimed out to sea. I stared at the port that I loathed so much. I would never see it again, at least not willingly. I had no doubt that in time I would feel a bit of nostalgia for our adventures on the island but that time was in the distant future. If I was somehow able, if I had the power, I would summon the hand of God and scrape this cesspool into the sea. I stood there for quite awhile, burning the place into my memory. The activity on the deck was reaching a crescendo and I thought soon the order would be given to cast off.

Down the dock I spotted movement. My stomach clenched in worry. I wondered if I had been seen, if the movement was a squad of soldiers coming to drag me off the ship. As the group got closer, though, I realized that I recognized some of them. Some of our company was returning but they were much diminished in numbers. There were only four of them.

I ran over to Captain Clemenzio. “A few more of our company are returning down on the dock,” I said. “We need to wait for them to get aboard.”

“They better hurry,” he replied. “If we wait too long, we will have to delay our departure until tomorrow.”

I ran down to the hold. “Some of the others made it back,” I cried out and then went racing over to the gangplank. I was soon joined by the rest of our company who had already boarded.

By this time, the returnees had made it to the foot of the gangplank. They looked like battered shit. Most of them bore some sort of injury and they were disheveled, covered with mud and looked disgusting. They were clearly struggling with their portions of the gold. The rest of us ran down the gangplank and helped usher them onboard. Once they made it up, they collapsed on the deck. Aleyda immediately started to tending to their injuries.

I noticed that only four people had made it to the ship. Among them were Brokil, Gento and Rilug, our former gaming partners. The other one was Dirty Brown. I really needed to learn his real name. Learning one name couldn’t be that difficult, right?

“What happened to you all?” Yam demanded.

“We should have left with you,” Brokil said. “Things took a major turn for the worse after you left. After you had been gone a little while, a large squad of soldiers came down from the Gremmans camp. Yahg and Tikter thought they were coming down to rob us, so they grabbed their weapons and tried to fight. James, you were right. We can’t stand up to trained soldiers, at least not with our numbers. They didn’t last very long at all. Then, the Captain came down and he separated us. He started asking us all questions, mostly about you and whether we were prepared to sell you out for our own profit. We must have passed the test. Someone else didn’t. We could hear his screams as he was dragged off. The Captain then addressed us as a group. He thanked us for our loyalty and reminded us we would all be dead if it wasn’t for your efforts. He told us they would try to draw away the main part of the enemy force so we could make our escape.”

Wow, I thought. The Captain must really value us if he was willing to go to those lengths to try to ensure our survival. I tried to feel bad for the people that were willing to sell me out. I really did. But that feeling never could find root in my heart. If they had made it back, then we would have had to deal with the problem when we were out to sea. One way or another, they were never going to make it back to port. The Captain had just allowed me to keep my hands clean.

“How did you get so beaten up,” Yam asked.

“On our way down the mountain,” Brokil responded. “We ran into some trouble. There was a group of three scouts from the Clan. They demanded to know what we were carrying. When we wouldn’t tell them, they attacked and tried to rob us. We won in the end but none of us were unscathed. We took a little time to see to our injuries and then hurried down the mountain. It looks like we barely made it.”

“Let’s get you down in the hold and tend to your injuries the best we can,” I said. “You look exhausted and it it time to go back home.”

First, we carried the others’ packs and gold down to be stowed, then we gently moved the others down into the hold as well. Aleyda cleaned and bound their wounds, which were clearly caused by the pointy ends and the slicing edges of weapons. While we were doing this, I felt the ship move as we headed out to sea, putting the island behind us.

The mood below decks was subdued. There were seventeen of us when we set out on this expedition. We were full of hope and dreams for a better life. There were only eleven of us remaining. Some had fallen to the monstrous wildlife of the island. Others were victims of their own greed, laziness and stupidity. Those of us who remained had accomplished what we set out to do. We were returning rich, if not whole. Aleyda, Bowen and I had found a way to save a number of five fingers that far exceeded our wildest fantasies. We weren’t coming home with any new members of our community, but right now that seemed like a good thing. At least on their voyage to their new life they would hopefully be treated as people and not as chattel to be abused and discarded when they no longer had any value.

When we woke up the next morning, there were only ten of us. Gento’s wounds were too grievous and he had died during the night. We buried him at sea. It turns out that he had a wife and a couple of younger children that he had never talked about to me. We all swore a pact that his share of the gold would be delivered to them. Hopefully, by sacrificing his own life he had made a better life for his family. Sadly, I was not at all certain that I would ever know.

Oh, and I finally learned Dirty Brown’s name, who at this point was very, very dirty. It was Rogan.