The Heron bobbed alongside the wharf of Raguza it had been a couple days since their arrival, and Hal and his crew were becoming desperate for any glimpse of the andomel they took turns watching the Raven, making sure she didn't leave, and hoping to spy something useful. Eventually their chance came, Jesper was on watch and he saw all of Zavac's men file off board his heart leapt and, before he had time to think he was moving silent and inconspicuous the former thief crept towards the ship he silently stepped aboard and stepped to the captain's cabin when he was jumped from behind a voice said.
"You called it boss, he fell right for it" the voice was gruff and weathered, much like the man to whom it belonged the next voice was almost oily, but had a sharp edge to it it said
"Of course I was right you idiot, just follow orders bring him" Zavac who Jesper could now see walked off the boat, the man holding him followed, the moonlight shone upon their faces.
"What'll we do with him, boss?" the man asked
"You'll see" Zavac eyed Jesper with a malicious grin, "You'll see"
Hal walked along the wharf attempting to be quiet. How does Jesper do it? He wondered to himself, just then he heard a small noise up ahead Zavac and one of his crew were approaching with Jesper! The two boys eye's locked for a moment and Hal saw the fear in Jesper's eyes.
"Zavac," Hal's voice cut through the silence "what do you want?"
"Here's the deal Skandian, you leave Raguza forever and I'll give you your crewmate back" he tossed Hal a map with a place marked "We will meet you here and give you your captive back"
Hal picked up the map
"Oh, and one more thing," Zavac continued, "you are the hostage"
"No Hal, It's a trick!" yelled Jesper
"I accept your deal," Said Hal, "Let Jesper go, I'll come with you." Zavac lunged, grabbing Hal by the hair.
"Let him go." he barked and gestured towards Jesper who grabbed the map and watched as the two men dragged Hal away.
Thorn was at the ship pacing the deck,
"Jesper should be here by now." Stig commented
"I know" Thorn replied, "It's not like him to be late" just then Jesper came tearing down the wharf
"Hal," he wheezed "Zavac's got Hal" The Heron practically exploded with questions, but after Jesper explained the situation all was quiet it was Thorn who finally spoke,
"We follow the plan, we'll take the Heron and leave Raguza Stig, Edvin can you navigate us to that point?" The two boys looked at each other and nodded the next day Heron left, pursuing the Raven who had left the previous day.
Hal was a prisoner, the man with Zavac who's name was Earl searched him and removed his sheepskin vest and his Heron cap along with his sax then tied him tightly to the mast of the Raven. It took all day for them to reach the spot marked on the map. Hal had been tied in the blazing sun all day without food and with very little water. He had also been mercilessly mocked by the crew of the Raven he had been hit and spit on so Hal was grateful when they reached the cove. Two ships met them there and Hal's heart sank. He looked for Zavac, but he was not in view. One of the crew saw him and laughed
"Thought we were going to let you go eh?" he walked up to Hal, looking at him with cruel scorn "Zavac never lets his enemies go, little boy I wouldn't trade places with you for the world" he punched Hal lightly in the shoulder and left, still laughing.
Stig prayed he was right his navigation skills were not bad, but no one had matched Hal in brotherband training so Hal took most of the navigation classes. Stig well knew that his best friend's life was at stake and that Zavac would not be kind to the young Skandian. Stig was determined not to leave Hal in that situation a second longer than he had to. The next morning they spotted the cove on the map the crew cheered.
"Good job" said Thorn grinning
"Are there supposed to be three ships?" asked Lydia and Thorn's heart sank
"Bring us in Stig, but be careful, and the rest of you, be ready for a fight."
Onboard the Raven the lookout yelled
"Ship!" and Zavac ordered Hal to be untied, Hal's muscles cramped up as a result of being tied up for so long and many of the crew kicked at his prone figure jeering.
"Thought you would be excited for your friends to get here." Zavac sneered and nodded to Earl, who forced Hal to his feet.
"I see Hal!" Lydia shouted. The Herons peered at the long, black ship and stared at the three figures at the bow as they drew nearer; they heard a voice shouting.
"Stay where you are!" Thorn bellowed back
"We made a deal Zavac!"
"Drop your weapons!" the speaker responded. The Herons dropped their weapons on the deck and the man gestured for their ship to move closer. They finally drew parallel to the Raven and Thorn said
"We have held out part of the bargain, Zavac give us Hal" Zavac smiled and shouted
"Archers!" archers stood up on all the boats surrounding the Heron.
"Now," Zavac smiled "you really are in no place to make demands now are you?"
Thorn bristled with anger and Stig shouted
"Zavac, you snake, we did what you wanted us to! Let him go!"
"Not before I teach you all a lesson." Zavac sneered "messing with a pirate doesn't pay, Earl?" The man holding Hal grabbed his hair, forcing Hal's head back.
"No!" screamed Stig "Zavac!" Thorn shouted Zavac met his eyes and smiled then he calmly slit Hal's Throat The Herons stood in shock as Hal's body fell to the deck then the Herons erupted Thorn bellowed obscenities at Zavac while the rest screamed, yelled, or just looked on in shock
"Now" said Zavac "leave while you can." Thorn looked around and said softly
"Take us out, Edvin" Edvin nodded and went to the helm Thorn grabbed Stig who was about to leap onto the other ship Stig struggled against Thorn.
"No Thorn" he moaned before collapsing to the deck in sobs. The Heron sailed out of the cove and wandered aimlessly around the ocean.
"What do we do now, Thorn?" Edvin asked. The rest of the Herons looked at him expectantly
"I...I don't know" Thorn answered
"We should head home" Stig said "Karina should know" The Herons nodded in reluctant agreement. He really has grown thought Thorn.
On board the Raven
"Will he live?" Zavac asked
"Yes" the young healer looked at him, her hands and apron were covered in blood, she moved to wash off but Zavac grabbed her arm
"How soon will he be ready?"
"Soon enough, he did just have his throat slit" Zavac let go of her and she cleaned up and began to prepare dinner.
Hal hurt, his neck felt like it was on fire each breath further burned his raw esophagus. He saw a woman come into the room. She prepared a salve and approached him, spreading it on his neck.
"This will take a couple minutes to take effect, but it should help with the pain." She told him he tried to nod but she quickly stopped him
"Don't move," she warned "you'll hurt yourself" Hal remained still as she left, closing the door behind her.
The next day the Raven came back to Raguza and Zavac dismissed the crew for shore leave. Hal found himself in a cramped room in a house in the center of Raguza. Hal was tied to the bed by his hands and feet. Hal was staring at the ceiling when the young woman came in
"How are you feeling?" She asked
"Sore" he croaked
"That's to be expected," she replied "you've been through quite a lot" she untied his hands and helped him to sit up his ankles still tied to the bed. She handed him a cup of broth.
"Drink up, it'll help."she said. Hal drank the broth eagerly ravenous after two days without food she sat and waited until he was done.
"May I?" she asked, gesturing towards his neck, he nodded and she removed the bandage to examine the wound.
"I'm going to change the bandage. Would you lay back down?" she said
"Ok" Hal replied, a sinking feeling beginning in his stomach he laid back down and she removed the bandage and applied some pungent poultice to his neck and replaced the bandage.
"There we are" she said smiling then she untied his legs and placed a metal shackle on his leg
"There, now you can sit up." Hal smiled in relief
"Thank you" he said and noticed that his throat felt better.
Over the next couple days Hal and the healer whose name was Katlina formed a fast friendship, but Zavac had not forgotten about the young skirl.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Herons had made it back to Hallasholm, Erak was walking the beach, Svengal had decided to join him on his daily walk along the docks.
"Chief," said Svengal
"What is it?" Erak replied, snapping out of his reverie with annoyance,
"I just thought you should know that the Heron's back." Svengal said matter of factly, it took a few seconds for the Oberjarl to find the little ship off on the horizon, but when he did his face broke out in a smile and he grabbed the nearest young boy and told him to find the parents of the Herons.
The Heron sailed dejectedly into Hallasholm where a small crowd came to greet them, their mothers smothered them with hugs and questions. Thorn looked past all of them until his eyes landed on Karina, Hal's mother looked at him, tears beginning in her eyes he walked over to her.
"I'm so sorry Karina" she broke down and sobbed into his shoulder all of the Herons looked downcast, not only was their skirl gone, but so was their friend.
Katlina had gone out when Zavac decided he had waited long enough, he opened the door to Hal's room, the young skirl looked up and his eyes widened when he saw Zavac instead of his friend and healer.
"Now," said Zavac sneering cruelly "It's time for you to pay for all the trouble you have caused." He motioned for the two crewmen to bring Hal down into the basement. At Zavacs instruction, they tied Hal to the low ceiling of the basement so that his feet barely brushed the ground.
"Leave us," Zavac ordered the guards, they shuffled out of the room, annoyed that they couldn't watch the show. Zavac moved towards the young skirl and cut through his linen shirt exposing his muscled chest and back, Hal shivered and a cold draft blew through the basement onto his now bare skin, he heard Zavac moving behind him, but couldn't quite see what the man was doing, suddenly there was a crack of a whip and Hal felt a line of fire across his back, he cried out in pain and surprise, it came again and again until Hal felt like the pain would never end.
Zavac surveyed his bloody work, the boy's back could now barely be seen through the latticework of stripes from the heavy whip when Zavac had first joined a pirate crew he had been known for his raw fury, and had been appointed to the task of punishing those who had disobeyed the captain, it was well known that Zavac had even killed a few men by whipping them to death. Thinking of this Zavac quickly checked the boy's neck for a pulse, and to his satisfaction he found it. Hal was young, and very strong Zavac smiled as he heard the door open above, the girl was back right on time.
Katlina came back to the house Zavac had bought for his twisted torture sessions, Zavac always brought the captains of the ships he deemed as pains back to this house to torture to death, the man derived a twisted sense of pleasure from it and normally headed out soon after each session to the whorehouses, leaving Katlina to either patch the unfortunate fellow up, or dispose of his body. When Katlina came in she saw the familiar sight of Zavac "getting ready" to go out and she hurried to the basement, fearing the worst the sight that met her was not uncommon, but still heartbreaking. Hal was covered with the stripes from Zavac's whip both his back and chest bled profusely; this was the beginning of the end if he was not dead already. Katlina quickly checked for a pulse, after she found it she spread a poultice over his back and chest to ease the pain and keep it from getting infected, then she wrapped his wounds with pads and cloth to stop the bleeding. She stood back looking at her work and that was when she decided that she was going to help him escape.
When Hal woke up they plotted how best to manage their escape eventually they decided that if they could get Zavac drunk and use the small fishing boat to sail over to where Mannoc was in port then they would be free. Katlina began to put the first part of their plan into action when Zavac returned already quite drunk she gave him more brandy and then a couple sleeping pills and told the two crewmates that they could go home and paid them, then she and Hal stole most of the food and all of the money in the house and left. They crept to the dock and found an old fishing skiff with a small sail tied to the dock, they quietly rowed out of Raguza and into the open sea. They spent a few days waiting anxiously on the shore for the wind to change and Hal designed a fore and aft rigging for their little ship and Katlina sewed a sail for it. They set out a few days later across the big lake they were nearly at port when Hal gave a shout, the raven was sailing from Raguza! Their little ship stood no chance of reaching port before the Raven would catch them Katlina and Hal looked at each other in despair, then from the port came the seahawk, Malcolm had seen the Raven and had set out with a couple other ships, they were surrounding the Raven in a flash and boarded and sunk her Hal and Katlina cheered. Malcolm finally saw them and hauled them on board, towing their little skiff behind him Malcolm and Hal embraced
"I thought that you were dead!" exclaimed Malcolm
"For a little while I did to, that was an expert save!" Hal replied
"Well you two led him right out into the open for us, we figured he was going insane, but it was the chance of a lifetime so we ran him down, but who is this vision with you?" Malcolm bowed to Katlina who giggled
"This is Katlina," Hal said "she saved my life, and helped me to escape." He smiled at her. She greeted Malcolm and they told him the entire story of what happened at Raguza.
"So what happened to my crew?" asked Hal
"They left to go back to Skandia," Malcolm answered, "speaking of, I found your glass ball," he grinned and produced the Andomel
"You've saved me twice today." said Hal as he accepted the ball.
The two travelers bought passage to Skandia on a merchant ship and they finally reached Hallasholm on the night of the great festival, Hal went immediately to his home and searched for his mother.
"It's the festival!" he exclaimed "The'll all be at the great hall"
"I can't go to a festival in this!" exclaimed Katlina Hal looked at her in shock, and then turned into his mother's room they both got cleaned up and put nice clothes on and went to the festival when Karina saw Hal she screamed and ran to him, crushing him in a giant bear hug the two young people were peppered with questions and exclamations, until Hal finally untangled himself from his mother and called to Erak "Oberjarl! I have brought back the Andomel!"