Our destination was in sight. Seeing the finish line created a sense of urgency in all of us. With a final burst of speed, we recklessly pushed our horses into a trot over the final length of rutted dirt path. Going faster didn’t make our ride any smoother. The wagon I was driving started moaning and groaning every time it slipped out of the rut or hit a pothole. Would it break a wheel or otherwise fall apart before we made it into the village? We were close enough that it really wouldn’t have mattered. We could carry our possessions from here if we had to.

We slowed the horses back to a walk as we made it to town. Although the place had seen better days, at least a little care had been taken to maintain the lanes and streets of the village. The sun was up and people were out and about. Having witnessed our headlong flight into the village, they looked at us like we had lost our minds and I guess they weren’t that far off the mark. We tried to move through the village in a safe and dignified manner, but our approach must have soured the attitudes of those who had witnessed it. Until we got deeper into the village, nobody so much as greeted us. Instead, they stared at us with wary eyes.

Once we made it deeper into the village, though, people got a little more friendly. Some called out questions, others asked for news. I tried to reciprocate but I was probably too short in my responses for them to be considered friendly. The village was small and it didn’t take us very long to reach the dock that jutted out into the bay. Standing at the foot of the dock talking to some of the villagers, I saw a familiar face. I didn’t know his name, big surprise there, but it was the sailor who had taken over as first mate after the previous one’s unfortunate demise in the storm.

“Ah, our passengers are here,” he said to the villagers he was talking to. “We best get loaded.”

He walked over to me, taking in the condition of our wagons and horses. “Rough trip?” he asked.

I pulled him off to the side so we could speak privately. In a low voice, I answered. “I think we are being pursued,” I said. “We need to get loaded and out to sea as quickly as possible.”

“How do you want to do this?” he asked. “Getting everyone out to the ship will require at least two trips. The boat is not that large.”

“We’ll send the noncombatants and our more valuable items first,” I said. “Then you can come back for the rest of us. We have a dog with us. Do you think Captain Serxio will allow him on board?”

“If you clean up after him and he is well behaved, and as long as your gold is good I doubt it will be a problem.” he said.

“Let me get things organized,” I replied.

I ordered Mero, Mariam, Helvia, Jahhaf and Werner to board the boat. Of course, Kadar went with Mero. Kadar looked pretty uncertain about being out on the water but Mero managed to calm him. Besides Werner’s pack, the only other thing that we loaded onto the boat was our bags of refined gold. Even so, the combined weight of everything was enough to cause the boat to sink down into the water. I didn’t think the first trip out was going to be very quick. Besides the sailor I had talked to, there were two other who manned the oars. I heard them curse as they slowly maneuvered the boat out towards the ship. They were working hard. I would need to make certain that they got something extra for their trouble.

As the boat laboriously made its way towards the ship, we unloaded the rest of the wagons, stacking the remained of our possessions out on the dock so that they would be out of the way. Then, I turned to one of the villagers who was still hanging around.

“Do you have a stable in this village?” I asked. “Or anyone else that buys and sells horses and wagons?”

He was obviously someone who was down on his luck – a medium sized orc dressed in clothes that were dirty and so patched that I couldn’t tell what was patches and what was part of his original garments. He stared at me dully when I questioned him but his memory markedly improved once I slipped him a handful of silver coins.

“We don’t have a stable,” he said. “Our general store has a barn and buys and sells livestock, though.”

“Do you mind telling me where that store is located?” I asked, hoping I wasn’t going to be shaken down for even more money.

“Sure,” he said and then he turned and pointed. Sixty or seventy feet down the lane that bordered the docks, there was a building with a nondescript sign out front that said “Vagan’s Place”. If I had taken a minute to look around, I probably could have saved myself some money.

“Do you want to earn even more money?” I asked him.

“Yes sir, I do,” he replied.

“Some people might come inquiring about us,” I said. “If they show up, will you hand them this letter? I’ll pay you a piece of gold to do so.”

He didn’t even pause to think about it’ “You have a deal!” he cried out excitedly. So I handed him the coin and the letter.

“Don’t open the letter,” I said. “If nobody shows up in the next couple of weeks you can burn it and your duties will be done.”

“Don’t worry, I am trustworthy,” he said in a fashion that led me to believe he was anything but trustworthy.

Gesturing to Patrick, we went back to the wagons and drove them over to the Vagan’s Place. Leaving him outside to mind the teams, I entered through the rough, weather beaten door.

The inside of the establishment was pretty much what I expected. There were a variety of rough wooden shelves that virtually filled the place. Glancing around, I thought that the store likely contained most things a person would need to fish, farm, or ranch and a great many things that I couldn’t begin to guess their purposes. Some of those things were covered by thick layers of dust. They weren’t big sellers, I surmised.

I was the only person in the room other than a thin, gray haired orc sitting on a stool behind the counter. I walked up to the counter.

“Can I help you with something?” the orc asked.

“Are you Vagan?” I replied.

“No, Vagan was my father. My name is Hagu. I’ve owned this business for going on twenty years, ever since my papa died.”

“Well, Hagu,” I said, “are you interested in buying four horses and two wagons?”

“Mister,” he said, “business hasn’t exactly been thriving recently. This town has been dying the last decade or so. Too many of our youngsters with dreams of adventure have been going over to Shroud Hallow and signing on with the companies. Those that make it back, let’s just say they rarely return here. I am interested, but I doubt I can pay you what they are worth.”

“I was in Shroud Hallow not too long ago,” I said. “Things have dried up there. Maybe your town is due for a resurgence.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“I hope you are right,” he said. “I’m getting too damn old to move somewhere else.”

We walked out to the front of the building. “Here’s what I am selling,” I said, gesturing at the teams and the wagons.

He took some time inspecting them, even looking at the horses’ teeth, which is something I had only seen done in movies. I had no idea what he was looking for. I should ask Mariam. She would know.

“I’d be willing to buy these things,” Hagu said. “But like I told you before, I can’t offer a whole lot.”

“What’s your offer?” I asked.

“How about thirty gold?” he replied.

He was right. He really didn’t have much. We had much more invested in the teams and wagons, but if I didn’t sell them to him I probably wouldn’t be able to sell them at all. Some money was better than no money, and we needed to be gone. I didn’t have time to haggle.

“Can you go thirty five?” I asked.

“I can do that if you are willing to take the last five as credit,” he said.

“Fine, let’s get this done,” I replied. We drove the teams over to his barn, which was behind the business bordering a different street, and stabled the horses. Going back inside, he painstakingly filled out a bill of sale, which I signed. While he was doing that, I had Patrick grab five gold worth of food and drink, emphasizing to him that he should focus on smaller and higher value items. What he ended up getting barely filled a pack but that pack contained some candy for Mero and a couple of dusty bottles of wine he had found on a shelf somewhere. After I received the thirty gold, we quickly exited the store.

I glanced out towards the ship and noticed that the boat was making its way back to the dock. We hurried over to meet it.

“Did you sell the wagons and teams?” Xeng asked.

“Yeah, we got screwed in the process but some money is better than nothing.”

“I guess that’s true,” he admitted,

We stood there silently as the boat drew closer and closer to the dock. Finally, it arrived and was tied back up. I noticed that the original two rowers had been replaced with other sailors. I imagined that they were on the ship still trying to recover from their ordeal.

“Let’s get out of here,” I said.

After loading the rest of the cargo, we boarded. I got on last so I was stuck in the seat at the stern. The sailors cast off the lines and started rowing for the safety of the ship.

I spent my time watching the shoreline slowly recede. When we were about half way to the dock, I saw a burst of activity as a squad of guardsmen dressed in the livery of Shroud Hallow burst onto the scene, their horses lathered from hard riding. At the front of the squad was a familiar figure. There was Sergeant Tola, the female orc I had talked to on a couple of occasions, who had warned me against, well, me.

I turned to the sailors rowing the boat. “You may want to row faster,” I said. “Our pursuit has arrived.”

The First Mate started calling out a quicker cadence and the boat picked up speed. I turned my attention back to the shore.

Sergeant Tola was stomping around looking at the boats that were tied to the dock. It looked like she was about to commandeer one and continue her pursuit out onto the water. As I watched, the orc I had paid to deliver my missive approached her and handed her the letter. She shoved it into a pouch without opening it or reading it and then started giving commands to her men. A couple of them ran over and boarded one of the boats. The villagers were not very happy about this disregard of their property and I could see several running off deeper into town, I assumed to summon reinforcements. If we didn’t get caught, things might get a little dicey for Sergeant Tola and her people. I didn’t think they would have trouble defeating the whole village if it came to that. This place didn’t look like it raised a whole lot of fighters. I could be wrong, though. I hoped I was wrong.

More people started filtering onto the areas around the dock. First they arrived in a trickle, but then they started to stream in. While this was happening, Sergeant Tola and several of her men had boarded the boat and begun rowing after us. Given that they weren’t sailors, they were uncoordinated in their efforts and weren’t making good time.

As we reached the ship, they had only made it approximately a quarter of the way out to it. Getting boarded and hoisting the ship’s boat, though, was going to take some time. After sending our packs up in a cargo net, we scampered up the rope ladder that had been dropped to aid our ascent. Then, lines were attached to the boat on hooks that had been installed for that purpose, and the ship’s crew slowly hoisted the boat up.

During this time, Tola’s crew had started to smooth things out and were making better progress. They had made it about three quarters of the way out to the ship when Captain Serxio ordered that the anchor be hoisted and preparations made to sail. I heard Sergeant Tola’s voice cry out across the water.

“Halt in the name of the Shroud Hallow guard,” she yelled. “James Smith, you are under arrest for murder.”

I walked over to the rail to I could see her. It was going to be close. They might make it to the side of the ship before we got moving. What they thought they would do when they got here, I had no idea. There was no longer a ladder hanging over the side. Maybe they had grappling hooks or something, but I didn’t imagine Captain Serxio would take kindly to someone trying to board without his permission.

“Read the letter I wrote you,” I called back.

“What letter?” she responded.

“The one the orc delivered to you at the dock. I didn’t write it for my benefit, I wrote it for yours.”

Suddenly, she seemed to realize what she had in her pouch. She pulled it out as they continued to draw closer and broke it open, quickly scanning it.

“Is what you wrote true?” she demanded. “If so, you should come back to Shroud Hallow so we can straighten things out.”

“That’s not happening,” I said. “I don’t trust your town’s version of justice. Before long, I will be gone and you will never see me again. I urge you to reconsider your next actions. You are at a serious disadvantage. If we fight, you will not survive. That would be a shame. I have always admired you.” Then, I quickly used the ring of disguise to shift my features to Dakota Brown’s before quickly reverting them to my own.

Realizing that she had me in her grasp on more than one occasion seemed to enrage her. She reached down and swung up a crossbow that was hanging at her side. Carefully sighting down on me, she let loose a bolt. Firing on dry land is one thing. Firing on the sea, where both you and your target are bobbing up and down, is another. The bolt didn’t come anywhere close, instead lodging itself in the side of the ship.

Anxo stepped up beside me, his bow in hand. “Do you want me to fire back?” he asked.

“No, she’s just trying to do her job,” I said.

I could hear her enraged scream echo across the water. At this point they had drawn closer to the ship but preparations to get under way were completed and wind started filling the sails that had been raised. Sergeant Tola’s rowers were no match for the power of the wind and the gap between us started increasing. I’ll give her credit. She didn’t give up. Instead, she loaded her crossbow and fired a couple of more times but those shots were no more accurate than her first. As we exited the bay, I saw her boat had turned and started moving back towards the dock where a horde of angry villagers awaited their arrival.

I went to find Captain Serxio. “Sorry for the trouble,” I said.

“Are you really a murderer?” he asked.

“I killed two men but it was in self defense. They tried to press gang me.”

“If someone did that to me, I would kill them as well,” he said.

“You realize you probably will never be able to return to Shroud Hallow,” I said. “If that will cost you profit, I will try to make it worth your while.”

“It’s fine,” he replied. “I never want to return to that port anyway. Business there is dried up and I’m getting too old for voyages on the deep sea. I think we will confine our business to the inner sea and the coasts from now on. Where did you decide to get dropped off?”

“We haven’t yet, but I will have an answer for you in the next couple of days,” I replied. “Sorry about the dog. I didn’t know we had one.”

“It’s fine, just keep him under control,” he replied. “You have to pay for any damages he causes.”

“I doubt he will cause too much damage,” I said. “He seems like a good boy.”