Chapter 20 – Preparations
When you have nothing left, no family, no friends, you take risks. And if you never take risks, they say you'll never get anywhere. So why do we have to lose so much to gain so little?
-Shadow, excerpt from his journal
As months flew by, Kyle's hold on the assassins began to falter. Over two thirds of the assassins still supported him, half of them knowing the truth. But the remaining third of the assassins were rebels recruited by Ernie. The rebels had yet to show their hand though and Kyle was oblivious to them. Liam had deemed it best that they should not worry their mentor if there was nothing more than a feeling to base their investigation on. As far as Liam knew, only himself, the guards under his command and Ernie knew about the potential plot. Ernie did his best to hide their presence by giving Liam false or simply no information about the uprising. Liam, for his part, seemed satisfied with the results, even though they all ended in dead ends. In secret, Ernie had gathered those most loyal to the old ways – before Mentor Kyle – which mainly consisted of those assassins who had been recruits at the same time he had been. They trained harder than Kyle's doctrine demanded and under Ernie's gaze, they flourished. The punishing training made them far superior to all but Kyle's most veteran assassins, who still honed their skills to a deadly edge. Ernie also served another purpose. He had been discreetly relaying information on numbers and movement to Shadow via Shadow's network of former thieves turned spies. This information proved crucial as it allowed Shadow and his band of assassins to strike where Kyle's forces were weak and avoid where they were strong. Day by day, Kyle's hold crumbled. They were preparing for his end.
Shadow was notorious for hiding his emotions, but he couldn't hide the glee when news had reached them from Ernie that Shadow's former ship – The Wolf – had been prowling around the coast, boarding and searching ships for any sign of assassin stowaways. He was looking forward to seizing his ship back again. He longed to be at the wheel of his own ship once more. He stood now on the docks at the base of the cliffs at the Davenport Homestead. Crew members were loading supplies on board and making final checks before they departed. Jae walked down the gangplank to her godfather and mentor, barely suppressing a grin as she saw Shadow's huge smile.
"How goes the final checks, captain?" Shadow called to her.
"We're all set up and ready to go!" She called back.
Shadow marched up to the ship and, as he was very superstitious (as all sailors are), he took extra care to place his right foot first on the gangplank, believing that stepping on with the right foot would lead to terribly bad luck. As he strolled up to the upper deck, Jae took the wheel and the Quartermaster yelled his orders to the men.
"Cast off, ye worms! Let's get going! Lower the main sail, into the wind! We've got work to do, lads!"
As the sail cascaded down the mast, it ballooned instantly with the strong wind and within seconds, everyone felt the Firefly slowly shift away from the docks. Some of the newer additions to the crew stumbled slightly as they did their jobs, not yet used to the steady swaying of the ship. It would be a nightmare for them if they hit a storm on this little voyage. In contrast, Shadow, Jae and the quartermaster stood strong on the ship, their bodies slowly swaying with the gentle rocking of the ship. They didn't falter. They'd sprouted good sea legs ages ago.
Jae, ever caring about her crew like a family, had feared for the new crewmates should they hit a storm while hunting The Wolf. And as lady luck would have it, the hit a storm. A big one. Even those most sure footed stumbled and collapsed. Several men had been washed overboard. Only two had been saved. Colossal waves smashed into the ship and tossed it about like a toy. High rising waves tilted the ship, sometimes to an almost vertical position. Jae stood firm, heaving the wheel of the ship this way and that to counter the storm, using every ounce of her strength. The quartermaster stood beside her, yelling a constant stream of orders to the men rushing about the deck, under a constant barrage of rain and sea water. Shadow was crouched on the deck, bracing himself against the waves and bailing water out of the ship whenever he could. As more lightning lit up the surrounding fog, he saw a silhouette in the distance. Passing the bucket he'd been using to a nearby crewmate, he leapt up onto the railing of the ship and holding onto the rigging with one hand, he scanned the area for the silhouette. Lightning struck again and he saw it. The silhouette of a ship, not far away, also braving this storm. It was a fourth rate ship of the line. It could be The Wolf, or it could have information on its whereabouts.
"Ship ho! Ship ho! Starboard side!" Shadow yelled at the top of his lungs, turning to Jae from where he stood balancing. Over the roar of the storm, his voice was barely audible, but she'd heard. She heaved the wheel around, into the direction that Shadow was indicating. As they approached, they could make out the finer details of the ship and they could see Jae's ship in return. Both ships had been pummelled by the storm, but neither had suffered too much damage. But Shadow's initial idea had been correct. After only two weeks at sea, they had located The Wolf.
"Battle-stations!" came the roar from both ships.
Sailors stopped what they were doing and began handing out muskets and cutlasses, or manning cannons or preparing boarding equipment. Both ships were so close to one another, that the sides of each hull ground against the other. The hulls screeched with the increased friction.
"Fire!" both ships demanded in unison.
Cannons roared and wood flew away in chunks as both sides fired at point-blank range. Men were struck down by cannon balls, musket shot or oversized splinters of wood that acted as large shrapnel. No side was unscathed as the two ships finished grinding against one another and began heading away from each other. Once they had moved away a little, they began to turn and circle each other. The crews of both ships reloaded their cannons as fast as they could. The Firefly loaded grapeshot as that would deal heavy damage to the crew of the enemy ship, but not do much damage to the ship itself. They did this because Shadow intended to reclaim his ship, not sink it. The crew of The Wolf, loaded cannon balls wrapping in cloth which had been soaked in oil – flaming shot. When the gunpowder exploded and propelled the shot forward, the oiled cloth would catch the flame and the shot would not only deal heavy damage to the ship, but also set fire to it, forcing less of the crew to man the cannons and more of them to fight the fire before it spread. They had the intention of sinking the ship. The Wolf was a fourth rate, so it brought more cannons to bear on Jae's smaller Firefly. As both ships fired their second volley, many of the crew of the Wolf fell down, dead or dying, whereas large holes punctured the Firefly. Fortunately, lady luck was on the side of Firefly as a large wave broke over their deck and smothered most of the flames, leaving only a few smaller fires to deal with. Knowing that they wouldn't survive a ranged battle, Firefly turned hard, angling to ram the Wolf. Wolf didn't have the speed or the manoeuvrability to avoid, so instead they hurried to fire off another broadside before the two vessels made contact. Once more, luck showed its favour as a large wave blocked the cannons from firing until Firefly was only inches away. The gunnery officer was halfway through giving to fire as the ram crashed into their hull. The connection made the Firefly bounce back slightly, making the boarding unsuccessful, but Shadow leapt through the air and onto his former ship. He rolled out of the jump, plunging his hidden blade into the stomach of an unfortunate sailor. As the man fell backwards, Shadow rose from his crouched position to stand tall. With his hood hiding his eyes, he was an intimidating figure. In one smooth movement, he drew his Bastard sword and pointed the tip at the captain of the ship. The message was clear: 'Get your bloody hands off my ship.'
As one, two sailors attempted an overhand strike at Shadow, but he raised his blade in front of him to block both strikes and the three swords met, creating an 'x' shape, with Shadow's sword holding them both in that position as a straight line down the middle. He pushed against the blades and both sailors stumbled back. He swung his sword in a large arc left, straight into the stomach of the first sailor, before pivoting on his heel and bringing the blade fluidly into an overhead strike at the other sailor, splitting his skull. Unfazed, Shadow continued to walk towards the captain. This continued all the way to him as sailors would charge, attacking Shadow, but he would kill them easily without so much as breaking his stride. He continued unhindered. After a matter of moments, Shadow was climbing the steps up to the upper deck where the captain stood terrified, drawing his sword. The captain was a veteran assassin under Kyle's employ, but he knew Shadow was a legend. He had every right to be fearful. Feeling as though offense was the best defence, he rushed at Shadow, hoping that a sudden flurry of attacks would throw Shadow off-guard and cause him to make a mistake. The number of attacks did in fact cause Shadow to parry and take steps back. Encouraged, the captain pushed forward, attacking more and more. He failed to notice that Shadow was blocking his attacks with minimal effort whereas the captain's arms were slowly tiring. Soon he was exhausted and Shadow circled him having scarcely broken a sweat. Out of desperation more than anything, the captain drew his pistol and fired at close range at Shadow's face. However, Shadow's reflexes were on-point, and he tilted his head slightly and the small metal ball missed its target, but it did scratch his cheek, drawing blood. The captain smiled at the fact that he'd at least hurt the legend, but the smile quickly faded as Shadow set his eyes upon him. Now Shadow was pissed off. Punching the pistol out of his hands and punching him once across the face, Shadow then dragged the captain back to the upper deck. He then roughly shoved the head of the captain in front of the ship's swivel gun. The captain died whimpering and blubbering for his life as Shadow fired. The captain's cries for mercy had fallen on deaf ears.
Shadow had recovered his ship, Liam had set up and rebellion and they had weakened Kyle's support. Their preparations were complete.
Author's Note: This chapter is dedicated to my good friend Tyler. Hope you feel better soon, bro.