Chapter 6

"No! You can't make breakfast with a fire! We are close enough to the fortress that the smoke could give us away!" exclaimed Halt.

"Sorry," replied Edvin with a mutter.

Halt sighed. "Here, I have enough bread and dried meat in my bag for everyone," he said, handing out the food.

Hal smiled at the dialogue and came out of his tent.

"Good morning," he greeted everyone.

"'Morning," they all replied. They all went back to making their breakfast disappear except Roxie. Hal noticed she was simply nibbling on her bread.

"What's wrong?" Hal asked Roxie as he grabbed some food and sat next to her, starting to eat while looking at her with an attentive expression.

"I'm a little nervous. I haven't seen Sam in many years and he's probably changed a lot, not necessarily for good," she replied.

"I wouldn't worry so much. I know with my own friends, how strong the bond of friendship is. There might be a little awkwardness in the beginning, but I think you'll be able to get beyond that."

"Thanks," said Roxie with a tentative smile.

"Then again," continued Stig, who had been listening nearby. "He might have turned into an evil, insane pirate and we'll have to lock him up for his own good!"

Stig grinned at them and Roxie and Hal laughed.

"I doubt that," said Hal, half jokingly and half reassuringly to Roxie. "Now, eat up. You're going to need your strength for today."

Hal smiled at Roxie and she smiled back. Stig rolled his eyes at them but neither of them noticed.

After they finished eating, they cleaned up the area as best as they could, equipped and prepared themselves for battle ahead, and set out to take their positions.

"Come out right now you lazy pirates!" called Stefan in Zavac's voice. "It's time we stopped lazing around and actually started receiving some riches."

The group waited and a few pirates came running out of the fort.

"Aye, cap-" they started before falling down on their faces, dead, an arrow sticking out of their backs.

Then came a few stragglers, begrudgingly coming out to join their captain. They were quickly dispatched with a few swings of Horace's sword.

They waited some more until it was clear that no one else was coming out.

"Well, that was to be expected," Halt muttered half to himself and half to the other rangers standing nearby. "Not many pirates like listening to their captain."

"I don't see any more sentries," sail Will. "They must have all heard Stefan and come down."

"Yes," agreed Halt. "It is probably safe to go now but be careful and remember that when we find Zavac, we'll need to keep him alive to question about his plans." The other rangers nodded in agreement and then joined Halt in stalking towards the fortress.

The crept silently and invisibly towards the side door, left open by a pirate who had come out to join his captain. Creeping along the dark hallway, they listened carefully for any sign of a pirate. They finally came across a few in what appeared to be some sort of dining room. Five whooshes and thunks later, all the pirates were slumped over their food with arrows in their backs.

They continued on throughout the fortress killing the remaining pirates with minimal difficulty. The pirates did not know what was coming and had little or no opportunity to fight back. A few cried out but their cries were lost in the huge fortress. Only one archer managed to scratch Roxie's check before he was dispatched.

They finally reached the middle of the fortress. Slowly opening the door and peaking around it, Halt saw the pirate captain at a desk, scribbling on a piece of paper and muttering to himself. There were many more papers strewn about the desk and on the floor and piled high in a chest next to the desk. The only place without paper was the bed, in the far right corner of the room.

Halt turned back to the other rangers and mouthed Zavac. They nodded, slowly backed away and retraced their steps back to the others.

"All right," whispered Halt, causing most of the Heron crew and Horace to jump in surprise. "We disposed of as many pirates as we could find but there might still be a few more. We also found Zavac and decided it might be easier to capture him with more bushwhackers on our side."

"What? Three rangers couldn't handle a measly pirate captain," joked Horace. "You must be getting old."

Halt glared at Horace, resenting that comment. "No," he snapped. "We just thought we might hurt the mighty knight's pride by doing all the work for him."

"Besides," added Will. "We wouldn't want to deprive any of you of going through all the papers we saw."

Everyone groaned.

"Cool! Let's go!" said Hal, sobering everyone up and leading his crew after the rangers.

Unfortunately, the other warriors weren't as quiet as the rangers and by the time they got back to Zavac's room, he was gone.

Halt frowned at the Skandians and Horace and then motioned them to follow ten paces behind the rangers: enough to see them but not enough to scare away any pirates who might hear them coming. They crept along the passageways until they came to a tower. Climbing up the tower, Halt motioned for the others to stop when they heard voices. Zavac appeared to be yelling at a sentry who had fallen asleep. Slowly, Halt, Will, and Roxie crept up the steps and sure enough, there was Zavac and another pirate. They shot off a few arrows but only managed to hit the pirate and Zavac's arm as Zavac quickly ducked behind the other pirate, which was where he had been when the rangers came up. The others quickly ran up when they heard Zavac cry out and rapidly subdued him.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" demanded Roxie with an uncharacteristic fierceness in her voice.

"Why should I tell you?" he answered rudely and spat in her face.

Roxie jumped back and wiped her face on her sleeve as Jesper showed the pirate a packet of papers.

"This is why," he said with a maniacal grin.

"What?!" shouted Zavac. "How did you get that?"

"You're not the only one who's a thief," answered Jesper.

Jesper handed the packet to Hal who started reading them aloud.

"Hmm… here's a letter from Zavac to someone named Svend refusing him as a member of Zavac's crew. Oh, here it mentions that Svend is Zavac's…twin!"

"Twin!" Will exclaims, everyone staring at whom they had thought was Zavac. Svend visibly blanched.

"So, after being refused a spot on your twin brother's crew, you just decided to take his spot as a pirate captain!" exclaimed Thorn accusingly. "Didn't you think that people might notice?"

"That is why I came here!" retorted Svend. "I needed to read Zavac's papers in peace and plan how I was going to take Zavac's place! I tried going on my own but I was only able to capture a few small ships with few fighters."

"Ah…so that's what you were doing!" Halt said with a devilish smile.

"And admitting to piracy," put in Lydia, shaking her head.

Svend realized he had just given them what they wanted and cursed roundly.

"Well, that takes care of that," said Ingvar. "Now we can work on finding out what is written in those papers and what happened to Sam."

"You mean we will," grumbled Ulf. "You can't see."

"I can too!" said Ingvar. "I can read! I just can't see far away!"

"Good," said Wulf with a smile, then you won't need my help!"

"Or mine," quickly put in Ulf, Jesper, and Horace.

"We'll need everyone's help," said Halt. "Though I suppose we'll need some to guard Svend and bury the pirates."

Ulf, Wulf, Jesper, Horace, Ingvar, Stig, Thorn, and Horace all quickly volunteered to do just that. Everyone else followed Halt to Svend's room.

They went through the papers, finding proof of Svend's piracy and Zavac's death, the plans for building Raven II, and some half-baked plans of Svend's to continue piracy.

Lydia and Roxie found records of Zavac's riches and with the help of Hal and Edvin, were looking for any mention of Sam.

"Here it is!" shouted Lydia. Everyone raised their heads and looked at her expectantly. "He's…in Skandia."