Raise the Banner by A. C. Cobble

Author:A. C. Cobble [Cobble, A. C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy
Publisher: Cobble Publishing LLC
Published: 2021-11-30T16:00:00+00:00

The harbor master looked like he could have been the older brother of the official unconscious in the hold of the ship. He was overdressed, likely underpaid, and clearly hankering for a bribe the moment he realized Duke Vincent wasn’t on board.

“You shouldn’t have been allowed to dock, you know,” he mentioned, speaking quickly as if he wanted to settle the matter before the other official appeared from within the captain’s cabin and tried to share in the next round of payments, “but now that you’re here, it’d be an awful chore to turn around, wouldn’t it?”

The captain dithered, pretending he didn’t know exactly what the harbormaster wanted. The two soldiers who’d accompanied the harbormaster shifted, looking bored and letting their gazes rove over the deck. If the ship were to stay on dock, Rew imagined that those soldiers would be tasked with searching it. Just the two of them. It could take all day.

The soldiers were bored, but Carff was on high alert, and they were doing their jobs, if not very quickly. The pair of soldiers saw when the bulky assassin crept up from below, casually walked to the gunwale with a pack on his shoulder, then tried to climb overboard as if no one was looking.

“Hold!” barked one of the soldiers, his hand falling to the sword at his side.

“Who are you?” demanded the other. “What are you doing?”

The harbormaster looked on confused, and down on the dock, Rew heard calls from other men in Valchon’s service inquiring what the commotion was.

“Just, ah…” began the assassin, then he bellowed, “Leaving!”

He charged the two soldiers, bowling them over before they had a chance to draw their weapons. He leapt up on the gunwale, gave Rew a wink and a nod, and then hurled himself overboard, crashing down into the cloudy water of the harbor with an enormous splash.

“He’s an assassin!” cried the captain. “Take him. Take him! He killed a man in Shavroe and has been holding us captive all the way here.”

It wasn’t clear if the other soldiers on the docks believed the captain or not, but when your job was protecting those docks and someone arriving there was accused of being an assassin, you captured him.

Dozens of armed men swarmed the sides of the wharf, trying to look around the ship to see the man swimming and splashing about on the other side. They were calling for a boat, but so far, none of the armored men looked eager to jump into the filthy water.

The captain grabbed the harbormaster’s shoulder and dragged him to the edge of the ship to look down at the fleeing assassin. He was babbling loudly in the official’s ear.

Rew and the others sauntered down the gangplank, calling and pointing any time a soldier glanced their way. A few looked as if they would have stopped the ranger and his party, but they couldn’t ignore a man who’d assaulted the prince’s men and was in the process of fleeing toward the city.

Snatching

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