NEXT CHAPTER IS UP! So please review and uh I'll say thank-you or something. So Dag and Boars meet up and formulate a plan! Read away! I end everything with a exclamation point! I'm really hyper!
After two days of travel by horseback, Sir Dagonet arrived at the doors to Sir Bors' stronghold. The exhausted Lord collapsed into a deep sleep for three days. Sleep however only lasted for two, the last day Dag speant in a half asleep, half awake dream walking and resting, and sitting and dancing in his suit.
Lord Bors, Lord Dagonet and the lesser Lords of the South congregated together at the rectangular table in the Green Room. Bors sat at the head and Dag in the seat of honor opposite to him. Five lords flanked them and the group was completed by the presence of Christopher Darcy.
"The matter at hand is that our lands are at threat of corsairs. Geographically speaking," began Bors as he rolled out a large map of Western Europe and Northern Africa, "they are probably coming from the seaboard of Algiers. Since the real threat is from the Barbary Coast, these may be wayward ships, all the same though still very dangerous, we do not need them to raid anymore of our settlements."
"Did see the bodies?" asked the oldest man. He was a blind cryptic bag of bones, but one of the wisest men in Britain, he was Lord Crownan. His question was directed to young Mr. Darcy.
"Yes.", managed the trembling Darcy.
"Did you see the blood?" the man asked.
"Yes."
"Did you see any dead men?"
"My father."
"No doubt he was old. Did you see none more your age?"
"No."
"Exactly.", he seemed to conclude as he now seemed to turn his attention to the rest of the table, "Corsairs do not kill. They take prisoners; slaves for their ships. Those that don't die at the oar however, are taken to the Bagnio."
A lull fell over the group as the old man continued with his talk.
"I was there once. For a long time. Five years I was held prisoner in that complex. It was like an enclosed town, with its own shops and taverns, but don't let that paint a pretty picture for you. I had a lifetime of hard labor ahead of me, I was lucky enough to escape though by bribing a guard, not that you lot would understand what is worth not having wine for three years. I had to give up my god for it too, I'm not called a took of a Turk for nothing. It is a life I would wish upon no one.", he had now raised himself to his full height, supporting it with a tall staff.
Darcy just gaped, his mouth not making up its mind whether to speak or shut up.
"Then all the more reason to get them! I strongly suggest that we send ships after the corsairs to get back our people!", said one of the lord, Lord Branen to be exact, with a forceful pound of his fist on the table.
"Here here!" agreed Lord Lillance raising his glace of wine.
"Privateers... possibly." started Lord Bors slowly.
"They'd never make it.", stated Lord Crownan in quite a matter of fact manner.
"Old man they are young not like you!" said Lord Branen angrily.
"They are green then, I was like that too once upon a time. Those go first. Do not think that I have not considered that. An insult to my own virtue! I have not lived for the likes of you to tell me such lies."
All eyes ashamed became suddenly remarkably interested in the table.
"We should set up a trap. If they are still in the vicinity, we will want to catch them and dispose of this petulance." where the first words to escape Dag's mouth for days.
"Very good. Now we are getting somewhere!" said Bors chuckling like his usual self again, "We will set up bait, here in this little hamlet. I want hidden ships posted in the small bays surrounding it."
"I would be honored to supply ships." Dag quickly chirped in.
"Thank-you, and we will all be there in the hamlet. Good strong fighting men too, to be set as sentries."
"All of us?", said Darcy stupidly, although not being the only one there thinking it.
"Yes."
"But they will take me!", he protested. He had lost his brave front and was now no more than a child; scared.
"Most certainly not. You are in safe hands now.", said Bors laying a hearty smack on Darcy's back.
Within seven days, the trap was complete. Now all they had to do was sit and wait. Bors was commander on land, in charge of the troops, and Dag was commander to the nautical forces. His longboats had shallow draft to easily unload men, and his other ships were similar to small galleons, had rams on the nose in case of on-water fighting, but then again, his fleet only consisted of four boats so it was not close to as impressive as a description may give. His other ships were in indispensable, needed in his own county.
The men sat for another seven days in an immense heat; waiting and waiting. Dag paced his boat, seeing odd things. His crew was working, but he wondered, had they always been so skinny as for him to see their bones? To him the water was orange and his hair was a large spider that on the fifth day he started fighting with. He pulled at its eight legs trying to stop it from feeding off his brain. He yelled that if he killed it, it would also rain. He was quickly tied up and left to rest in the covered canopy at the high stern.
On the seventh day, they got their wish; RAIN. Thunderous rain pounded the decks for a day and a night. By dusk the rain had lifted. It was drizzling lightly, when over the horizon, coming forward racing before the sun, the silhouettes of two galleys, hidden on a black sky, made their way slowly toward the hamlet in the late hours of night. In the dark night the galleys were not to be seen.
OK! Another chapter down! Not that anyone cares... but I do a little ï so this chapter was kinda boring in my opinion but it obviously means that there will be excitement in the next chapters to come!!! Next chapter will be about Gawain... he's my angst-filled character ï