When Medorosa heard the news and took in the scale of the loss that had occured on the north road, he sat with his head in his hands for a long time. The majority of the routed Cynizia had arrived along the southern coast a day starved and unfit to fight. When he finally lifted his head, he told everyone in his tent, what passed for a war council, “Send the ships back to Puerto Vida and get more food.”

After joining with Erdro Karakale, the Cynizia had evolved, taking on the appearance of a proper army. They still lacked uniforms, but the men had been stratified into ranks, and Medorosa had hand picked his sub-unit leaders. Now they, namely the defeated Almir and the representative he had used to meet with Erdro, surrounded a table with a map rolled out across it, carved pieces of wood representing various forces and speculations.

The sycophant Medorosa had used at the Black Keep, whom Aisha had learned was named Omar, spoke up to ask, “With what funds?”

Medorosa rubbed his brow. Trickles of sweat were growing on him. “Didn’t we get a reward for recapturing that silver mine?”

Omar nodded, “Which we used to charter these ships to siege the port.”

“Then go to the slavers and negotiate a line of credit.”

“With what collateral?”

“Priority to buy the Vassish slaves we capture.”

“Medo-imo…” Almir said. The man’s spirit had been crushed and he could no longer stand upright. “The Vassish would never forgive something like that. If they knew their countrymen were slaves in our land. The war would never end.”

Medorosa pulled his honor blade from his sash and slammed it into the wooden table. “That is an issue we will have to face in the future! If we capture their treasury, we can pay off the credit without the need for slaves. I’ll burn down their temple to the water goddess and take her coffers if I must!”

Aisha unclenched her teeth and stepped forward. “When did you become so stupid, Brother? You’d bring the wrath of a goddess down on us for something so offensive! Vassermark is one thing, but Saphira(1) herself? I guess this is what you get for avoiding the temples like the plague growing up.”

Medorosa threw up his hands at her. “A foreign goddess! Shepherd will protect us. This is a problem for the future. We will cross that bridge when we reach it.”

Omar said, “If we reach it at all. Medorosa, if we send the ships back to get supplies, then how will we besiege Rackvidd? If they can simply ship in more food, we would never be able to pressure them.”

Again, Medorosa threw his hands up. “We always expected them to sail out, didn’t we? I never said we’d put them all to the sword. That would enrage their king at least as much as enslaving them, wouldn’t it?”

Omar rubbed the back of his neck and glanced to Almir for support, but found none. He even ventured to look at Aisha; but, she would have sooner bit his head off. “Medo-imo, I am not so worried about them bringing food as I am that they will bring in another army. For as long as they hold the port, the most dangerous part of transporting troops is trivial. They can disembark drunk for all it will matter. With those walls up around the city, what do they have to fear?”

Medorosa smiled and leaned back till he rested against one of the tent’s support beams. “Oh, Omar, don’t you know we have nothing to fear about the walls? Why do you think I went to all that trouble to get Erdro? Trust me, if we want to get in through the walls, we will be able to. Now, do as I have said. Send the ships back, and we will march on Rackvidd. If we’re lucky, we can catch a few foolish merchants on the way in.”

Almir asked, “What about Solhart? He can’t cross the north road, he’ll have to come here after us.”

Again, her brother sat with elbows to knees. “We’ll have to do something about that. I can’t imagine they’ll want an open fight on the path, but we can’t let them follow us all the way to the city. Raymi would just ride out and crush us… I’ll have to ask Erdro to block the way when we find the right chance. A bridge maybe…”

Aisha took a deep breath to steady herself, and she asked, “Brother, do you really think you can do this? Haven’t you gotten your nose bloodied enough times to know better?”

He scratched his chin and grinned. “Aisha, I’m the son of a merchant who simply knows how to fight, and I’ve forced an empire into a corner. Every time we clash, I learn a little bit more and that makes the odds that much better every time. When you’re on a hot streak, you don’t stop.”

“No,” she said. “You don’t stop until you’ve risked it all and lost it all, do you?”

She didn’t give him the opportunity to respond. She spun on her heels and left the tent. Her departure dissolved the meeting, as her brother had already given the orders. Along the coast of the South Sea, and in the foothills of the Ash Fall Mountains, the land was green and lush with palms and grass. The men had easily piled great heaps of fronds to revel in campfire blazes larger than themselves. It illumined the camp like orange daylight, with oily smoke belching to the skies. It blotted out the stars, hid from her the false signs of omens.

“Aisha-ima! Where are you going?” Almir called out as he came chasing after her. He grabbed her by the arm and spun her about so he could lean in and hiss, “The Kalekare men can’t be trusted. You need to stay on our side of the camp.”

“Let go,” she ordered, and ripped her arm free of him. “Didn’t you hear my brother? The ships have to depart. I’m going to the ships. I can’t think of a single reason for me to stay put here!”

He scowled and waved his hand at the coast where ships and barges bobbed, moored to the rocks. “Oh? So you can be at the mercy of mercenaries of the seas? These ships are one step away from the pirates they fight. All it takes is a change in the winds and they sniff their fortunes elsewhere. Why your brother trusts them is beyond me. It’s a trust of coercion.”

“Stop acting like you control me, Almir. You are not my keeper.”

The man sighed and his arms drooped to his sides. “Aisha-ima, you know I’m just trying to help.”

She stepped in to speak directly to his face. “Then you should have talked my brother out of this farce in the first place; before he had dreams of a fucking crown on his head. Now he thinks he can grab the reins of power, beyond anything a merchant could have ever done. He’s reaching into a fire!”

Almir frowned and straightened up to reassert his height over her. “Sometimes a righteous man must.”

He wasn’t listening to her, wouldn’t listen to her no matter what she said. That is a common facet of the human psyche; the last thing a person wants to do is admit they were wrong, that risks they took were undue. Almir had done as much to throw his lot in with Medorosa’s dream as her brother had, and was committed. His own actions tied him to the journey like chains.

She shoved him back and left him there in the camp. On to the beach she went, and for the smallest ship in the fleet. It was a fishing vessel dubbed The Sandskipper, though I’ve never been able to figure out just what bird a sandskipper is supposed to be. As best as I can gather, it was a generic term for a number of small, migratory birds and the sailors didn’t bother to differentiate between them. All that mattered was these so-called sandskippers had an eye for where fish schools were.

“Who’s the captain here?”

An older man, missing a few fingers apparently from bites, held up a smoldering pipe and said, “That be me.”

“I am Aisha Canta, Medorosa’s sister. How long will you be to ready for sail? I must depart at once.”

The captain kicked his first mate awake. The fat man had fallen asleep next to the fire, drooling and inviting insects into his mouth like an oasis if they could avoid the smoke. “Set sail for what?” the captain asked as the younger man awoke. “You don’t look like you’re going to try your hand at fighting. I doubt Medorosa would stoop to assassinations or something, so…”

“Trade negotiations,” she said as the first mate rubbed his eyes and sat up.

The captain puffed on his pipe a few times, stoking the tobacco to a yellow ember. “We’re not very large, you know. Can’t bring much by way of supplies back.”

“That’s fine. We won’t be the ones bringing anything back. That’s part of the negotiations. When can we leave? I don’t know if you noticed this, but our army just doubled in size and they need food.”

The first mate scratched his head, fighting with knots in his curly hair as he read the captain’s expression. “Less than a candle’s time,” he answered.

“Well, let’s not keep the lady waiting,” the captain said and rose to start untying the ship. A candle’s time turned out to be about a quarter of an hour, for they bought supremely cheap candles to see by. It wasn’t long at all before she was wading across the rocky depths to clamber aboard.

All the while, Erdro Kalekare watched from afar. The ships stretched across the shore, from the Cynizia in the east, to the mountain men in the west, and he had put his tent right at the boundary. A bold move, but also protective; the Cynizia would not be able to quarrel with his men without first quarreling with him.

He didn’t stop her flight. What lured him from his seat was the arrival of her brother shortly after, and he was the one to calmly inform Medorosa of where she had gone, much to his amusement.

For, as soon as The Sandskipper, was out to sea in the dark, drifting across placid water and out to the open sky, she told the captain, “take me to Rackvidd.”

The ship was both small, and slow. They could have unfurled more sail, but in the dark of night with only the moon to see by, the captain knew better than to fly across the sea. From his seat at the rudder, he scratched his white whiskers and asked, “Rackvidd? You sure this isn’t an assassination trip?”

Aisha took a seat near the middle of the ship, leaning against the railing and folding her arms while she waited for the bottom of her dress to dry out. “What you think it is doesn’t matter. I’ll make sure you’re compensated. Now are you going to continue prying into strategy?”

“No, I suppose I won’t. Rackvidd’s not going to turn me away, so long as we get there before the rest of this gaggle of ships.”

The first mate collapsed onto the prow, almost dangling off the front as he watched the reflected moonlight dance. “Going to be a long night getting there though.”

“Just don’t crash, alright?”

“We won’t,” the captain said, and he didn’t look back as Medorosa began to scream.

1. Name updated from Aquaria