LMS VI: Shadows & Dragonfire - Chapter 2.7

Last one and then I'm up to date! I'm here both for the sense of completion and also for the pirates. I'm a complex being. It took me a little bit longer than I'd hoped so sorry for that.

We've got a whole lot happening in this particular part so I'm going to try and break it down a little. I really liked the description of the captain's room, and the kind of mysterious introduction that's been given. It reminded me a bit of Pirates of the Carribean - that scene where they're trying to find a boat and a crew and stumble across Barbosa. Or the scene where Jack is looking for a crew and then meets Penelope Cruz's character. Anyway, those vibes.

Emrys' background is interesting, because this is kind of the first we've heard about it in any detail and I think this was a good way to throw it into conversation without us being dumped with a whole load of info. The whole thing with Lorne though felt like we could have had some more foreshadowing. When he agrees to go back to his family with Issy there's no real indication of how hard his family has been looking or that pirates (for example) might want to capture him. I'm guessing he's known only by name and not by face, but he hasn't seemed to be cagey about his identity before now.

Emrys scowled, gently tucking Lorne behind him and out of sight. Lorne huffed, not fully appreciating his friend's protection. "What's it matter to you?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest. Lorne rolled his eyes, shuffling to the side so he could see the two pirates again. "And how would you even know we have friends?"

"You said 'we'," the captain said and pointed at Lorne, "and somehow, I don't think you meant just the two of you." He chuckled and tilted his head a little to the side. "So how many of there are yer? Five?" Lorne twitched, gaze darting away. "Ah. Six, huh?"

This part didn't feel as strong - it's maybe too much of a stretch for the captain to assume they have friends just based on this one comment.

"And what shall we call you, captain?" Emrys asked, barely restrained venom in his tone. "I'd like to know the name of the man who's decided to keep us captive on his ship."

I think it could be stronger implied that they're being kept captive as technically they did ask for passage. Or, don't have Emrys mention that part and then Lorne being hit on the head is more shocking!

This feels like some real danger, so I'm hoping the situation doesn't resolve itself too quickly. I want them to all be ok, but I love the drama!

I'm not sure whether you've continued with this one considering it was for LMS and I haven't seen you post for a while but if you do either edit these or upload further parts please do feel free to tag me for a review (or ask me any questions about the parts I've already read).

Happy Friday!
Icy

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night(whichever one it is in your part of the world),

Hi! I'm here to leave a quick review!! And so we have arrived at the end. Wouldn't be right to get almost to the end and not catch up this last bit so, let's see what happens here...(I definitely do want to see how this pirate situation goes)

First Impression: AHHHH well something finally does actually go wrong like the hints point to. Hoping this isn't the start of a cascade of all their other problems also catching up to them, this is probably not the worst way for this situation to have gone down for them.

Anyway let's get right to it,

"What do you want?" demanded a gruff voice from somewhere on the other side of the lowly lit room. Lorne hesitated, glancing towards Emrys before examining the room a little more closely--a low-banked fire, a table, a bed, playing cards spread across the table as if the entire pack of them had been knocked over and left to spill haphazardly across the surface. There was even an empty bowl and plate, both metal and dull silver, dented in a couple different places--and a goblet, also metal and dull silver, and dented. "If yer not 'ere to offer yer services, get out."

"Cap'n," the big pirate said, crossing the room and bending down to speak lowly to someone sitting in a high-backed chair facing away from them. Lorne eyed the wooden back warily.

There was a hushed back-and-forth between them, some kind of conversation that was not in common--possibly Asturian, but Lorne couldn't tell, not from across a room and in such low tones--and then the large pirate stood up, scowling and moved back towards the door. Startled, Lorne stood there until Emrys pulled him aside. The pirate glowered at them before he stalked out and slammed the door shut behind him.

Ooooh well at the very least it looks like we've got ourselves a pretty intriguing figure with this pirate captain. There's no telling exactly what's about to happen here, but at least it seems this wasn't just an ambush to immediately kill them which I am going to count as a win for the moment.

Trust me, Emrys mouthed at him and Lorne's gaze narrowed. He gestured at him to get on with it. The other prince rolled his eyes and stepped in front of him, putting himself between Lorne and the pirate.

"We're sorry to disturb you, sir," Emrys said, using his hand to keep Lorne back before taking another step forward. "But we were wondering if we could book passage on your beautiful ship downriver to the coast."

There was a long pause before something was set down--something that sounded like glass to Lorne--and the chair creaked. Emrys glanced back at Lorne and then focused on the other side of the room again. Lorne leaned sideways a little to peek past his friend. There was still no sign of the pirate. He clearly hadn't moved to get up.

Well it definitely looks like Lorne thinks they are doomed somehow but the fact that Emrys still appears to trust in whatever methods he has at the moment is giving us a little bit of hope although once again there is simply no telling with these things.

"Let's just say," the other man said slowly, "that we'd rather not alert the local authorities to our presence if we can help it."

The pirate snorted. "Yer mean the military hoverin' about the city like rats about a bunch o' corpses?"

"Yes."

"Hmm."

There was no movement for a long, tense moment before the chair was suddenly shoved backwards and the captian stood, moving to lean back on the table behind him. He was more attractive than Lorne thought he'd be, and older, too, with dark hair shot through with grey, brown eyes and tanned skin, and a wicked looking smile on his face. Not to mention the scar cuting through one side of his face, barely missing his left eye and carving a ragged curved line across his cheek and back towards his ear.

Okayy well that doesn't exactly seem like its headed towards a yes but on the bright side it also looks like we aren't exactly headed towards a dead nope either so I suppose things could be worse than they currently are at the moment.

"We can offer your weight in gold if we get where we want to go," Emrys said, then slanted a look at Lorne. "And a favour, from Sankarian royalty."

The pirate looked at Lorne, then at Emrys. "You?" he asked, sounding unconvinced. "You're from Sankar? You know they've been searching for their prince for years now, right?"

Emrys shrugged. "I forfeited any right to the throne when my cousin took it by force--"

The older man snorted. "You must've been livin' somewhere very remote, then."

"Oh?"

"Sankar wants their rightful king back."

Oh...well well that's unlocking an entirely different situation here. I have a feeling Emrys new a little bit more about this whole situation than what he might let on at the moment because you have to assume his entire confidence stemmed from that but this feels like it almost may have stepped further than Emrys initially anticipated.

"I didn't expect this to happen, Lorne--"

Well there's our confirmation right there.

"Oh, yes," the pirate said, smirking now, and started forwards again. "Oh, I know exactly who you are, pretty boy." He started to circle them, grinning widely. "Your family's been looking for you for near on a decade, little prince, and here yer are, just fallin' into my lap." The pirate laughed. "Oh, this is my lucky day, ain't it? Twice princes fer the prince of one."

Lorne sent Emrys a panicked look. "E-Emrys--"

"CETHIN!" the pirate suddenly yelled, turning towards the door. "GET YER LAZY ARSE IN HERE!"

There was a bit of a scuffle outside the door and then it banged open, revealing the pirate with the wicked scar from before. "Yes, Cap'n?"

Oh dear, it seems I breathed a sigh of relief a little too early. That bargaining chip has backfired rather spectacularly and it seems we are very much on the path to this entire lot being taken on the pirate ship but not in the way they perhaps intended. At least they might go where they wanted to so that's a plus.

Emrys scowled, gently tucking Lorne behind him and out of sight. Lorne huffed, not fully appreciating his friend's protection. "What's it matter to you?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest. Lorne rolled his eyes, shuffling to the side so he could see the two pirates again. "And how would you even know we have friends?"

"You said 'we'," the captain said and pointed at Lorne, "and somehow, I don't think you meant just the two of you." He chuckled and tilted his head a little to the side. "So how many of there are yer? Five?" Lorne twitched, gaze darting away. "Ah. Six, huh?"

Lorne swallowed but it was Emrys who hissed out a sharp burst of noise.

"Cethin," the pirate suddenly said, jerking the big pirate out of his staring. "Go get the rest of the crew and move these boys to the ship." He laughed--more of a cackle, really--and turned to stalk back across the room. "Then go find their friends. Should be six or so in total."

Well that captain is a very sharp one and these two are the opposite of that at least when it comes to interrogations. Well this has all gone rather poorly. I suppose with the many many things that seemed poised to go wrong it was only a matter of time before one of those things actually went through and did go wrong.

"Maverick," the captain said, not looking back as he rifled through the objects left on the table before glancing back over his shoulder at them. "Captain Armyn Maverick, at yer service, boys."

With that, something suddenly hit him over the back of the head and Lorne went down hard. He saw Emrys go down a moment later and tried to focus past the blurriness of his vision, the darkening edges of his sight. He noted blood at the edge of Emrys's hairline, his ear, his cheek--and then something hit him again and darkness dragged him down into unconsciousness.

Well...yeah that was about as well that could've gone after the order to take them all captive. At the very least being taken hostage and possibly sailed towards their home anyway for ransom is better than having no transport or well just straight up being killed.

Aaaaand that's it for this one.

Overall: Overall, well we have our first major roadblock to their quest happening. It's probably not the worst thing that could've happened to them so its not too much of a reason to be panicking but it definitely looks like things are getting derailed pretty badly here and this is also a cliffhanger ahhhhhhhhh.....well I look forward to seeing what comes next (pls tag me when it come out... )

As always remember to take what you think was helpful and forget the rest.

Stay Safe
Harry