บท 12: Ch12: Danger?
Caden left the Cocoyasi Village behind, taking a job as a chore boy on a merchant ship. The ship sailed through the East Blue, going from village to village, trading goods from the last one to the next one and so on.
Caden's time here wasn't so bad for the last 2 months. He got food, a bed which was a hammock and some free time every day. Although his work wasn't very pleasant, he was glad that he even got the opportunity to sail with them without paying anything else.
The sailors here weren't very chatty from what he found so far. Although some talked to him, it was mostly just Mabar, who gave him different tasks when he finished previous ones. Sometimes he also managed to talk with Thomas, although the man wasn't very happy with being disturbed.
One time when he was working, Caden was working beside him on the lower deck. As he was sweeping the floor and talking to Thomas who wasn't responding, the guy stopped for a moment. He looked around and found nobody beside them, he focused on the kid.
With a quiet voice, he said. "Look, you seem like a nice kid, so I will give you some advice. Leave this ship on our next stop." The look in his eyes was very serious, but as he heard some steps coming from the stairs, he went back to work.
Later that day, when everybody went to sleep, Caden was laying down in his hammock, thinking about Thomas's words.
'Hmm, we will be stopping again after 3 days. From what I gathered, we are still far away from Shimotsuki Village, where I was planning to leave this ship.' He thought, making out a map in his head, with their ship swimming through it.
'I will look around for anything suspicious. If I find something, I will leave, if not, I will stay. I think I'm strong enough to run away if something unexpected happens.'
With that, he started to look around, trying to find anything amiss. Unfortunately, he found nothing for the next few days, so he stayed.
As he saw that nothing bad happened with him staying, he got more confident that nothing would go wrong.
He didn't see that, but once they went back on the sea, Thomas looked at him with pity, which he quickly hid the next moment.
Through the next whole month, Caden got a little more vigilant. Slowly he managed to notice that the amount of goods they brought in the ship started to become less and less.
It wouldn't be such a big deal, if not for the fact that the cost of their new wares also became lower.
That didn't make sense, a merchant should work towards getting more money, not less. Even though it was weird, Caden thought that maybe the Ganero, who is the Captain, got paid in a different way, so he let it go.
As they traveled, sometimes he saw that the ship stopped in some shady docks on the way. He thought that maybe that was what Thomas was trying to warn him about, but after the first few times, where nothing happened, he also ignored it.
As they were sailing at night, Caden was sleeping in his hammock.
In the middle of the night, when no lights were around for the next tens of kilometers, if not hundreds, two people were awake on the ship.
These two were Ganero and Mabar. Currently, they were sitting in the captain's cabin, talking with low voices and just a small candle between them. On the table were many things, one of which was a list of all the employed sailors on the ship, with Caden being at the very bottom. Next to his name was a small x.
"On this trip we didn't manage to employ many people." Started the Captain.
"Yes, only this kid Caden turned out to be a good find." Continued Mabar.
"Indeed, but the fact we have only one is a problem."
"Then we will need to fix that."
"Who do you have in mind?"
"Hmm.. Maybe Thomas. Lately he looked to be close to the kid."
"Oh really? I don't go around on the lower deck so I will believe you. Any others?" He said, crossing out both Thomas's and Caden's names from the list in front of him.
After a bit more talking, 3 more names were crossed out and both people went back to sleep. The night remained peaceful after that.
After the next few days, Caden realized that the crew seemed to be working with much more vigour in their steps. They acted like they wanted to impress their superior, which was a little weird to him. Looking at them, he also started to work more eagerly.
What he didn't see was that every time the sailors went away from him, they showed much more scared expressions.
The workers knew something and they didn't want to share their knowledge with Caden, so they ignored him and tried not to appear near him.
The next day, the word of their next destination reached Caden. They were headed to Boran island to trade something.
They still needed around a day to reach it, so the crew started working even more eagerly. Caden thought that maybe on the island is the real boss behind the merchant.
As the night fell, Caden got to sleep. Later, two figures were walking slowly to the lower deck. The only sound around was the splashing of waves on the sea.
The duo had only one small candle to light their way. One of them was Mabar, the other one was one of the workers.
"After I help you, I will be put b-back on the l-list, right?" Asked the man quietly, looking scared.
"Yes, I will make sure of that." Replied Mabar, going into the shared room of the chore boy's.
Going in, they located sleeping Caden. Going closer to him, Mabar struck him on the head with a metal pan, before putting handcuffs on him.
The other people woke up, but seeing the scene in front of them, they left a relieved breath and went back to sleep as if nothing happened.
Mabar and the man took Caden by the arm and legs and brought him onto the main deck.
Putting him down next to the other 3 people also in handcuffs with some bruises on their heads.
"That's all, right? I will go back now." Said the man, quickly trying to go back to his room.
"No, there is one more person that we are lacking." Said Mabar, stopping the guy.
"What? B-But you said you needed my help with only 4 of them." He quickly said, pointing back at the lying people.
"Sorry, but we need 5." He said, looking at him.
"T-Then we should go for the last one." Saying that, he turned around in the direction of the stairs.
At this moment, he got struck on the head by Mabar. Although he fell down, he didn't lose consciousness.
"Y-You said that I won't be one of them, you liar!" He shouted, before being struck again and falling to the ground near the other bodies.
"Money is money, what can I say?" He answered to the man, putting the last handcuffs on him.
Standing back up, he took out a weird whistle and blew on it.
The few trained sailors on the ship woke up, before joining him on the deck.
"Guys, we got the merchandise ready. Sail to our destination right now. If we don't get there before sunrise, I can't say that you won't join these 5." Saying so, he pointed to Caden, Thomas and the 3 others.
The sailors' faces turned grim for a moment before rushing to their posts, lowering the sails and bringing back the anchor.
The ship started going again, faster than most other times in a particular direction.
As the dawn started approaching, on the horizon Mabar saw their destination.
"Looks like we won't be getting any more people." He said, loudly enough that the sailors heard him, making them more relieved.
The ship got to the island's only port. There were only a few other ships, but all of them were smaller than theirs.
However, these smaller ships had pirate flags on them.
All of them were pirate ships, not very famous on the sea, but still active.
Looking at these flags, Mabar didn't see any that possessed particularly strong captains or crews.
At the port, in the place where their ship stopped, a few men approached. They looked just like some street thugs, with scars and some weapons on their bodies.
Putting down the desk, Mabar got down to meet these people.
"Hello, we got some merchandise to sell." He said, looking at the trio.
The youngest one of them started talking. "What are you talking about, old man? We don't buy merchandise, we buy slav-" before he finished, he was struck on the head by the older thug.
"Shut the fuck up rookie." He reprimanded, before looking back at the visitor.
"Hello Mabar, what brings you here?" He said, more politely than before.
"Hello Hank, as I said, we have merchandise to sell." He repeated, already accustomed to how the rookies acted around here.
"Yes, how many may I ask?"
"5 people, one is young and healthy, others are working adults."
"Oh, only one is a kid? Shame, but 4 adults will be enough to cover for the rest."
Hank got closer to the third thug and told him something to the ear. At that, the thug ran back in the direction of the grey building on the shore.
"Mabar, our boss wants to invite Captain Ganero for a small banquet tomorrow." Hank said, looking back at him.
"Hmm, what's the occasion? You know how he prefers to stay near his ship." He said, stroking his chin.
"Oh, he will definitely be interested in attending. Boss heard about his little hobby, so he bought something special." Said Hank, smiling at him.
"Ok. I will notify him, wait for a bit." He said, going back on the ship.
After a moment, he came back to bring the news.
"Captain decided to stay for a few days, he might as well attend the banquet."
"Great, as I said it will happen tomorrow night. Boss said that your captain can bring up to 2 people with him, so let him know of that. The banquet will be held mostly for our boss, as he got something amazing lately." He said, with reverence literally emanating from him.
In the next moment, a small carriage got there, from which 4 people jumped off.
"As always, they will take care of your merchandise." Hank pointed at the men, who went to the ship. All of them together with the young thug took a person and carried them on the carriage.
"Damn, this guy is heavy!" Complained the young thug, carrying Caden on his back.
"Remember to carry them gently, especially the kid. He is probably the most valuable one of them all." Reminded Hank, looking at how carelessly Caden was carried.
"Sure, sure." Said the thug, before uttering under his nose. "Can't believe a mere slave is more important than me."
As everybody went their separate way, the carriage reached the only building on the island. Going around it, doors appeared from which thugs guided the carriage deeper into the courtyard.
The mansion was surprisingly big, with two gardens at the front and back. The building itself had at least 4 floors, not counting the possible basements.
When the carriage stopped, some people went to it and took the merchandise to the basement. Going down one floor, second floor, they stopped after reaching the third one, which was the deepest one.
Going through the stone corridors, they reached their destination. A solid door with a slider to see inside.
One thug looked in, before opening it.
Inside were lying down people, some of them kids, almost no women. Among them only few were awake, looking as the new prisoners were put inside.
Everybody here was sitting in handcuffs or other types of shackles.
As the last prisoner was put inside, the thugs left, not before some of them spit on the sleeping prisoners, closing the door behind them.
Some hours later, Caden woke up.
~2073 words
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