Judah trudged wearily up the path that led to the docks. He was hungover and tired from having stayed out all night at a local inn drinking away his troubles into oblivion. He had no intention of attending Cullius’s feast and no intention of sticking around if he wasn’t wanted. With that in mind and remembering that sailors headed out early, just before dawn, he peeled himself off the floor, realizing that if he wanted to be gone before Cullius could find him, then he needed to get going.
Sure enough, though the first rays of light had yet to shine, the docks were all hustle and bustle. Cargo, food, and supplies all had to be loaded and sailors moved about in a flurry of motion, howling orders at each other in their vulgar tongue. He tended to think sailors were like soldiers – just with a lot less discipline.
His eyes squinted into the darkness desperately seeking out the familiar visage of the harbormaster whose job surely demanded that he be out and about, supervising the chaos even at this unearthly hour. Finally, he spied him, off to the right, a short stocky man with beefy biceps talking rapidly with someone else who appeared to be a ship’s captain. It looked like they were going over a list of something, maybe cargo.
“What do you want?” the harbormaster said warily when Judah approached. They knew each other rather intimately, Judah's official capacity for the governor involved regulating the harbor and insuring all the taxes were paid, with no gold withheld.
“Ahh my old friend, today, I am in search of a vessel traveling to Egypt.”
“Egypt ehhh? What business can our good governor possibly have there?”
“Actually, I am not here on behalf of the governor now, in fact I would much prefer it if the governor had no clue where I have gone.”
The harbormasters eyes widened a bit in surprise but he was much too experienced at his job to show more than that on his face. “You’re not stealing anything from him, are you?” He asked, suspiciously. “I could get into real trouble aiding you with that.”
“Why now, Me? No, I seek passage for myself, my sword and a single change of clothes. No other baggage.”
The harbormaster glanced surreptitiously at his companion who gave a slight shake of his head no. The habormaster turned back to face Judah “As it happens to be,” he said pointing, “this fellow here leads the only ship heading out to Alexandria today, but you just saw for yourself that he says he has no room.”
Judah frowned in consternation and gazed at the captain imploringly, No room? Are you sure that you have no use for a good soldier. I don’t take much to feed and am worth at least several men in a fight.
The captain shot the harbormaster a questioning look, “Well,” he said slowly, “I am short on guards and these days the seas are filled with terrible marauders[AL1] . How well can you really fight?
“And another thing, I don’t know,” he said, “I don’t like the idea of raising the governor’s ire, I have my future trading here in Achaea to think of.”
Judah appealed imploringly to the harbormaster who kindly stepped in to confirm his more than stellar reputation. “He’s a Roman Centurion from the auxiliaries who has fought across the continent to widespread acclaim. I imagine he’s more than capable of handling a few rogue marauders, at least once he’s gotten his sea legs under him.
“He’d probably be willing to help with handling the cargo,” the harbormaster added slyly, with a wink and a nod at Judahs well maintained muscles, “that’s no small amount of difficult labor either.”
The captain pursed his lips contemplatively, looking him over, up and down. “well it would be useful to have you,” he admitted grudgingly, “if you come as you say with no baggage then I have a tiny little room for you. The berth is right next to this one for a lady passenger I have aboard, with her two little ones, so you have to be on your best behavior.”
Judah nodded and stuck out his hand to shake hands with the captain before he could possibly change his mind. “It’s a deal,” he said.
Everything agreed on, Judah stepped to the side so that the captain and the harbormaster could finish their dealing in private. Before he knew it, they finished, and he found himself following the captain as they made their way down to the quay and onto the ship. Over there the chaos all around them was magnified. Mounds of food had to be loaded onto the ship and a crusty old seaman was supervising, urging on the slaves to eagerly throw their back into it. Men scurried to and fro, tying off different lines while soldierly looking fellows stood off to the side of the deck, forming protection around weighty cargo that seemed to be barrels of wine.
The captain looked about the deck warily, before grumbling to Judah “honestly, it’s more trouble than it’s worth figuring out how you could be of use in this hullabaloo. Just get yourself to the cabin I ‘ll show you too and stay out of the way.”
Judah mumbled an apology, secretly glad for the reprieve. It had been a long night for him, and he was both hungover and groggy, yet he was loathe to explain to anybody why he was of no use at all. He scurried after the captain, really just happy to find a place to rest his weary bones. The berth he was given was in the bowels of the ship. It was tiny and squalid, but he was beyond caring. After the captain excused himself, Judah undressed, heaping his clothing and weapons in a pile on the floor. Long before the ship had set sail he was fast asleep.
Judah lay groaning as he groggily came to his senses.
Swoosh, thump. Swoosh, thump.
His head was afire and he couldn’t shed the sickly sensation.
Swoosh, thump.
Nor could he place those sounds or the jolting sensation that accompanied it. After a few moments of befuddled panic, the dull truth finally broke through the foggy smoke which clouded his mind. He was on a ship, hungover and probably seasick to boot. He was heading to Egypt and had no long-term prospects to look forward to. He groaned again when the realization fully sunk in; that everything he’d worked for over the course of the last two decades was gone. He was once again truly alone in the world, without family, friends or status to fallback upon. Once, he had relished that sort of thing but now when the aloneness came, after loads of effort which left him with nothing to show for it but an aching aging body, he just felt exhausted. Emotionally empty.
Dully, it occurred to him how precarious his position was in regard to his place on the ship. He’d barely spoken to the captain, and he had no real clue what was expected of him. Or how the crew would treat him. His sleep deprived brain could barely handle it all and so he took the easy way out and let himself doze off, once again falling back into dreamland.
…Eventually Judah was awakened again by a light tinkling sound.
Swoosh, thump. Tinkle. Tinkle.
Then again, another Swoosh, thump. Followed by a long scraping sound. Immediately Judahs military senses came alive; years of training jerking him instantly awake. He’d know the sound of his weapons being moved anywhere. His instincts took over. As he slowly cracked one eyelid so as not to allow his visitor to know he was alert, he distinctly had the thought that it better not just turn out to be shiprats that disturbed his sleep.
To his utter surprise he found neither shiprats nor menacing intruder. It. Was a seven year old lad. The little rascal was going through his stuff, eyes so totally focused on the glint of the sword that he was oblivious to the attention he was arousing.
“Phsst, Phsst,” the desperate hiss came from the crack by the door. “What are you doing?” get out of this mans room this instant.”
There was a sudden intake of breath from behind the door as the toddler reached for the sword and then more urgently, “boy! Don’t you dare. I’m going to tell momma and then you’ll be in big trouble!” With the final words both she and the boy realized her mistake at the same time. She’d been too loud. Both of them froze with horrified looks on their face as their eyes flew towards the sleeping man lying prone on the pallet.
Judah suppressed a wry smile and opted to feign sleep for a bit longer. The truth was he wasn’t really sure how how to handle his miniature intruders.
With a grateful release of breath the girl by the door gently eased the door inward until she had enough room to reach her arm in and make a grab at the little rascals foot. The boy in turn made a sudden lunge forward toward his beloved sword, desire written all over his face. The pile shifted with a giant mettalic clatter and everyone froze realizing to their horror that this time they had really gone to far.
Judah slowly sat up in bed, a scowl he didn’t really feel plastered to his face. “Why, who the devil are you?” he exclaimed, in exaggerated amazement, at the same time tugging the blanket over his exposed chest. “I don’t believe it, two little intruders!" During the big pause that followed his words he gently used his toe to nudge his sword beyond the little tykes reach. And then clothing himself more fully in the ragged blanket he suddenly stood up and slung the door wide open so he could get a good view of the older sister.
As the two thoroughly caught culprits got over their astonishment and hurried to protest their innocence, Judah nearly doubled over with barely suppressed mirth. The girl looked about eleven and was on the verge of tears and the boy, who was the truly guilty one, wore a look of mulish stubbornness as he sulked over losing his prize. Together their shrill voices made such a clamor as to render their words incoherent. In the back of his mind Judah couldn’t help but wonder what others would think if they found them like this in his room.
“enough,” he finally said, planting a firm scowl on his face; his centurion glare. “You two will stand outside this door until I am dressed and ready to decide what to do with the two of you.”
“Don’t you dare flee,” he added in afterthought hoping they would be too frightened to disobey. When the boy moved sullenly to the other side of the doorway, Judah gave the door an intimidating slam before taking his time getting dressed.
His early morning bitterness cured he was back to his swashbuckling self but for a slight dizzy sensation. Slamming his long sword into place on the left and the dirk like one into place on the right he felt much more like the man he was. An adventurer, a soldier and a little adversity only meant greater opportunity for fun. It was time to face the captain and see what the ship was all about but first he needed to finish this unfinished business with the little ones.
He opened the door his face braced with a smile only to find the two little ones nowhere in sight. He looked around for a moment before decided though that though he couldn’t see them they must be nearby. He knew for one thing, the seven year old would never leave behind the exciting weapon he discovered.
“Well,” he called cheerfully to nobody in particular, “it’s too bad you left because I was going to offer to teach you how to use my sword. You know, lessons or something, as long as your mother lets.” He listened for a bit and sure enough he heard the scampering of little feet before he finally shrugged in confusion and headed on his own way, deciding to let the matter rest for now.
It turned out to be a long time before he bumped into their mother. She must have barely left her berth because though he saw those children again everywhere, always underfoot, there was no sign of their mother. As for himself, he filled his time getting to know the crew a little bit, hoping to better blend in. He was by nature a jovial fellow and even though he didn’t feel it, he called to mind a picture of how he usually behaved and did his best imitation of his usual self. “Let me hoist the sails, I always wanted to try that.” He also tried, “I’m a big strong guy, let me do the drudge work on deck.” That one definitely won him a few friends. Another trick of his was to spend time in the galley. There an endless amount of scullery work awaited and no task was too low for him to volunteer for. He quickly discovered the cook was the perfect person to talk to when he needed to find out information.
“So,” he asked, the second day he was there, after he had heard enough about the escapades of the crew last time they had leave to spend the night at port. (It ended in a major kerfuffle with the locals and a gathered mob shaking their fists at the receding ship as it hustled out to sea at dawns first light.) “I’ve been brought on for protection even though I’m new to the sea trade. Maybe you can enlighten me as to what kind of marauders are out and about these days?”
He tried to make the question as nonchalant as he could. He actually new quite a bit about the state of piracy from tracking shipping and supplies back in the legions, but he was trying to find out if there was anything specific out there these days that he ought to be worried about.
“Well the shipping routes always attracts the human filth of this world but it’s the ships enroute from Judea to Egypt that you’ve got to watch out for. The war over there is slowly turning that hilly country into a wasteland and its like they are throwing all the detritus over there, out to sea. It looks as if all the uncouth devils that roam, rob and rape have fled to the Mediterranean. If Vespasian ever marches on the coastal cities ‘tis only going to get still worse.”
Judah’s, mouth nearly fell open in surprise upon hearing that the men of his tiny insignificant country were the terrors of the seas. For a brief moment he even wondered whether the cook knew he was Jewish before ultimately dismissing that possablity. “Jews,” he finally said, with disdain, “they’re not fighters, I can easily handle them.”
The cook paused from where he was stirring the pot to brandish the spoon he was holding in Judah’s direction, “Stronger than them? Aye! I can see your bicepts and I’ve seen you wield your sword in practice abovedeck. But ruthlessness? Torturers? I should hope not. Theres no one who can match them.
“I would say its just the dregs and deserters,” the cook continued, “sniveling fellows without an ounce of honor in their bodies but in reality its all of them. When Vespasian finally sticks it to them, they all deserve what’s coming.”
A bit bemused by all he was hearing about his countrymen and not wanting the cook to somehow pick up on his nationality, Judah excused himself at the first possible moment. “I’ll deliver these to the captain,” he said, before scampering off with the captain’s dinner in his hand.
It was later that evening when Judah finally bumped into the childrens mother. It was nearing sunset and the sun was just beginning to turn the sky an orangish red hue, that he knew would soon burst into a panoply of pink, red and purple. It made him pensive and as he looked out over the lapping waves his mind turned to the state of his country and the things he’d heard from the cook. He found it perturbing to think of his quiet tiny country as a hotbed of unrest and it really didn’t fit the quaint outdated picture he had in his head of the village he’d grown up in.
That was when she wandered out on deck. She was muttering to herself, probably something her kids had done, and she seemed both weary and amused at the same time.
“you look pensive,” she said as she passed him by, coming to halt by the railing and gazing out at the rippling sea, “Thinking about lands far away perhaps, or is home close by?”
She spoke in lilting Greek but with a foreign trace he couldn’t quite place. Her words reigned him in and he turned to face her.
“Well and truly guessed,” he replied, “I have travelled all over this world and seen much ,but never has home seemed so far away as now as when I have heard reports of it that are unrecognizable to my ear and totally changed from the place in my memory.”
She sighed a long sigh, “Well then, good man, at least you have heard from home. That’s more than some of us can say.”
“That’s where you are wrong My Lady, my life has been transient and I feel I have lost my way. News of my past home merely reminds me how its hold on me has faded. So if you are feeling far from home then we are sailing the same ship, so to speak.”
“There is a difference,” he amended, “ I suppose, a well-muscled fellow carrying a sword as I am is much safer out, homeless, in the world than you, a lone woman travelling with her two children.”
At the mention of her children the Lady seemed to realize that they had hardly been introduced.
“You’re the man who is berthed across from me are you not? I’ve heard about you from my little ones. You’ve been kind to them.” She thanked him profusely and tried to make light of his offer to teach her son the sword, claiming her son was a bit too young for that.
Judah would have none of that, “If nothing else it will keep him out of trouble,” he insisted. She seemed doubtful yet grudgingly acquiesced. Then she introduced herself properly, saying her name was Kallendra. At that point the conversation turned back to where it had started: home.
“Where are you headed to,” Judah asked, “for that matter where are you from? Your Greek is well practiced but I can still tell you are no local. You must have a story.”
Kallendra seemed like a savvy woman, not the type to open up to any random stranger and perhaps she normally was. Whatever the case, in this instance, she seemed to have no concern telling him all about herself.
She said she was an Egyptian girl and it turned out she did have a story. She had grown up a youngest child in an upperclass Egyptian family, unimaginable wealthy but also unimaginably rural. The way she put it, their family holdings were far away from everything except cows and more cows. At sixteen she had been sold off by her father into a marriage with the young heir of a Greek shipping magnate who had a monopoly on the shipping routes up and down the Nile. Her father took home a handsome dowry while she was promptly whisked off to Corinth where the son lived. She, a country girl, would have had difficulty in a large Egyptian city, let alone a foreign country full of giant centers of commerce, where they spoke a strange tongue and she knew not a soul.
“It was a strange existence,” Kallendra admitted, “I eventually grew close to my husband and my marriage turned out to truly be a boon, however as a merchant involved in shipping my husband was constantly sailing all across the Aegon sea and the Mediterranean, while I was left home with the little ones. I did the best I could. I went out and about a lot, all the while perfecting my Greek and absorbing the many lessons of life I badly needed. Eventually, I became quite the worldly person. Of course that’s when disaster struck.”
Judah nodded in understanding, “ahh, was that was when your husband passed on?” he guessed, hoping to help her gloss over the painful memory.
“That’s coming,” Kallendra said, “but no not yet. First we were dealt a tremendous financial blow. My husband began to lose ships too many times. Whether it was marauders or weather or other sorts of accidents we lost a lot of ships. Superstitious people began to mutter that my husband was cursed and his business rivals only encouraged the wild rumors. We suffered loss after loss until finally the local governor called in a tremendous loan at a bad time. All the while my husband began to take bigger and bigger risks in attempt to stave off the inevitable. And that’s when my husband died. An outbreak of plague took him suddenly and I was left to deal with the massive debt.”
Judah listened politely, not interrupting her and giving her the space to feel the full range of emotions as she told her story. He fervently felt for her, this world could be a harsh place for a woman.
Kallendra explained that she’d become quite the go getter and having little choice she quickly threw herself into what was left of her husbands business to see if she could salvage anything.
“It was a long slog,” she said, “but over five hard years I eventually succeeded in paying back all the family debts and even began to turn a profit. After that I found that for the first time in a while, I had the space I needed to take a deep breath and truly take stock of my situation. Very quickly I realized this life I was living wasn’t what I wanted. I was in a foreign country raising My kids on my own and despite the fact my husband did have an extended family all around -who were very nice and friendly to me now that I was successful again- I realized I was homesick. My heart yearned to return to the Egypt of my youth.”
“And so,” she explained, “once I got started planning, it all came together very quickly. It turned out that my deceased husband’s family didn’t object to my taking the children once I agreed to sell them back the family business very cheap. A ship out to Egypt was no big deal for me to arrange, for through my business, I knew all the captains who commonly came to port. Eventually, I worked out passage on this ship with the captain who was a friend of friend of a business associate.”
Kallendra finished her tale with the air of one proud of all she had been though yet uncertain how it would be received. Judah, however, didn’t think she had anything to worry about. He thought she came out of her tale looking like a tough lady who could handle just about anything. She looked to be tougher than many of the legionnaires he was normally around, most of whom merely looked the part and all of whom lacked any deeper substance.
“It teaches you a lot, living with much gold and at times nearly losing all of it,” Kallendra observed.
Eventually, she bade him tell his story, to which of course he obliged, thinking it only fair. When he finished regaling her with tales of his escapades in Gaul with Cullius, he ended with the telling of Cullius’s sordid betrayal and how it led to him finding his way on board the ship. When he was done, they both fell into contemplative silence pondering each other’s tales and wondering where life would take them. For each of them it was to be a new beginning of sorts.
What he would remember most about that night was the way their conversation ended. It was quiet and darkness had grown until the blackness outside the ship loomed, with a thick, living quality. Kallendra gazed out into the blackness and murmered to herself, “It’s a strange thing going home. I don’t truly know if I ever really liked my family. Nor Do I know how Egypt has changed over the years and if it will be recognizable. Yet It brings me a cozy feeling inside, as if when I do finally get there all will finally be right in my world. As if it will be the balm that heals my soul and old wounds will fall away.”
The reason It stood out in his memory so well was that it was the first time in his life that he could recall ever questioning his own path in life. He looked back at his own life gallavanting around the world? chasing adventures and for the first time wondered where his home was and why he didn’t have one.
The marauders first came after they reached the coast of Africa. All had been going well and everyone could sense the end of their voyage, but the captain knew better than anyone that it was precisely here that they were most vulnerable. “We haven’t arrived yet,” he warned, one evening when Judah had taken up his usual role delivering the captain his evening meal. “This coastline lends itself to many a beautiful location for an ambush and this is where you will earn you’re your keep.”
The captains words turned out to be prescient. As it happened, the captain himself didn’t even live long enough to make it to Alexandria.
That day, the skies were overcast, the winds blew and the tides tugged with an unholy strength; everything combined to toss the ship around the way a child plays with a pebble. On deck chaos reigned as the sailors fought with their lines to hold the ship steady; the slaves rowed with all their strength fighting to maintain control. Through it all The captain was front and center, near the prow of the ship bellowing orders, his eyes were glued to the sea, navigating the treacherous rocky outcrops that lurked all around. Providentially, Judah was belowdeck trying to sleep in and to ignore the rising nausea the landlubber in him had no clue how to handle. He’d told himself he’d be useless above and would only get in the way.
The Marauder’s ship came out of nowhere, one minute all that could be seen was a light mist and swirling winds and the next minute the prow of a ship loomed in front of them, a hail of arrows rising up in a graceful arc to greet them, with a giant hisss. The captain barely managed to look up before an arrow took him in the breast sending him crashing to the deck for good. It meant their only true chance of successful defense was snatched from the outset, now there was no one to organize their defense. With terrible cries marauders came leaping over the sides of the ship and the sailors knowing they had no chance at all and yet also feeling they fought for the their lives, seized their weapons in defiance. Slowly the foggy chaos on deck descended into all out brawling.
Down below, at first, Judah didn’t realize what was happening. Yet when the clamor reached him through the depths of his sleepiness he who was experienced in all the sounds of battle, well knew right away what was going on. Immediately, he leapt into action; a sinking feeling in his heart that he’d let the captain down by being out of place.
He hustled down the passageway with thoughts of rousing a coordinated defense, only to discover upon reaching the the deck that fighting in a moving heaving ship and fighting marauders, who were desperate and experienced at taking ships, was like nothing he’d ever experienced. He exchanged blows with the first marauder who came upon him, using defensive parries, as he sized up the situation. His legs were slow from sleep and felt like jelly on the heaving deck. Seeing a knot of sailors in need, he quickly dispatched his man with a mighty blow and hurried over to help them. Seizing one marauder by the arm and tossing him overboard he rescued his friend the cook. He took a swing at one of the remaining pirates while he tried to get the cook and two other sailors to form a line and protect each other to no avail. They were hopeless. More used to uncoordinated brawling than anything else they were totally unable to take orders from him, a stranger.
Seeing the marauders beginning to quell the resistance and hearing from all around the ship, the ringing sound of the laughing, crazed enemy, forced Judah to begin to think of what came next. He was a survivor. It was what came to him naturally. Belatedly, he remembered his acquaintance, the young Egyptian-Greek lady and her two young children. He shuddered to think of the terrible fate that awaited them under the marauders. With a sudden roar of frustration, he leaped into action taking off in the direction from which he’d came, barrelling towards where their room was. He needed to get to where the woman and her children were before the marauders did; and he wished he’d thought to go protect them from the outset. It would have been way more useful than anything else he’d done in the course of mounting his paltry resistance.
When he got there, he found to his horror, the door to her berth was off its hinges. He found only one man in the room standing over the Kallendra as she lay cowering on the floor, her children nowhere in sight. Not waiting to see what was going on, or for the man to spot him, Judah launched a dagger at the man’s neck, the force of which sent the man toppling.
Judah scampered over to Kallendranonly to find her sobbing on the floor and looking no less scared with him there than with the man from before. Hovering to reassure her as well to assure himself she was alright, he attempted to summon modicum of calm reassurance. “Shhh, its going to be alright” He told her, “I will protect you.”
She looked at him piteously and just continued to weep. ”I don’t care about my fate” Kallendra wailed, “but for my children. They are doomed to a life of slavery. Who will protect them? What kind of master will they have?”
Out of the corner of his eye Judah finally spotted the children. He saw their little heads poking out from under the bed, as they struggled to see what was going on. He shooed them back into place grimly assuring them it was the safest place for them. Then, he, desperately ransacked his brain for a way to prevent them from seeing how the marauders were undoubtedly going to manhandle their mother.
“The ship is nearly taken. That is done with,” he told Kallendra, "and there is little I could do to protect your honor or your children; I will be as much a captive as you. But we shall see what I can do”
He hauled up the door trying to see if he could use it as a shield or a makeshift barrier and got ready for the long slog to survival. He looked around at his surroundings and saw that,here, all he had to defend was a narrow doorway. It was time to see, he told himself grimly, if the marauders had anyone who could take down one of the most lauded centurions of the generation. As he settled his mind to prepare for the numbing rhythm of battle, he began to think ahead. How long could he hold out and what was his plan was for getting them all off the ship alive?
The marauders discovered him and swarmed to attack. All around him the bodies began to pile up. As his battle progressed, conversely, the sounds of battle began to fade from elsewhere on the ship until he was the only one left mounting resistance. As the rumor of the mighty titan of war who resisted them below, traveled around abovedeck the amount of opponents who came to throw themselves at him began to increase. Soon it became a relentless tide that washed over him, uncontainable. First he was forced backwards into the room and then a eventually a marauder or two managed to slip behind him. Bleeding from many minor wounds Judah wheeled around desperately taking stock of his predicament, seeing himself surrounded, he conceding defeat. He dropped his weapons and threw himself to the floor, folding himself over Kallendras prone body, in attempt to form a human shield. Holding his head, shielded by his hands and body as he could, he braced himself to indure the beating he knew was coming. He wanted desperately to protect Kallendra. His useless fight had angered many marauders and now that he was finally reduced to a victim, he felt he should have to face the fury he’d brought down on them by himself.
Judah felt the kicks of heavy booted men begin to fall on his back and legs. He felt a gash rip in the side of his belly and blood began to seep everywhere. dizzily he felt himself growing steadily number and closer to unconsciousness. In a small miniscule, cordoned off part of his brain he was able to remove himself from the haze of pain his body was experiencing. From there, he watched what was happening to him as if from the point of view of an outsider, observing from above. Mentally he reviewed his course of action and told himself he was protecting others and yet he couldn’t help but fret he had ultimately served to harm those he sought to protect.
It all went on in a haze of tremendous mind-numbing pain, which his mind blocked out so that he hardly noticed, until suddenly he felt a quiet descend. Then came a respite from the hell he was feeling. Numbly he felt a hand forcefully pull pirates off from where they grappled with his flesh and then a hand descended, rolling him off the one he sought to protect and onto his back. Instinctively he shrunk into himself as small as he could curl up and at the same time gazed out through swollen black and blue eyes trying to make sense of what was going on. A tall skinny man emanating authority peered back, taking him in and surveying the whole scene.
“It seems you’ve been causing some trouble,” the man remarked mildly, “But where another marauder would take offense I see a man of spirit to be admired.”
Hearing the mans words, hope swelled up in Judahs forsaken soul. Perhaps all was not yet lost after all. He remained silent for a moment, slowly absorbing what was happening. He needed to tread delicately as he searched for a path forward; he chose his next words with great care.
“A man who lives by the might of his arm knows how to recognize another,” he finally replied, “and you will find I am quite graceful in defeat in all situations. However, it is hard to be graceful when I fear for the fate of those who I care for.” He glanced meaningfully at Kallendra who appeared to have blacked out.
“She is yours then?” the marauder leader inquired, “She appears quite Egyptian while your accent betrays you.”
“Oh no she is not mine, merely one who has made my acquaintance in the course of our voyage. You will discover that in fact I don’t even ask that you preserve her. Or in any way take a loss of gold. I know better than to attempt to convince you of that which you cannot be convinced and that from a position in which I hold no power".
“no,” Judah continued, desperately clinging to the scraps of a plan that he was beginning to form. “I merely claim I believe I know how you can make the most gold out of this and if we can talk alone I believe you will want to hear all that I have to say.
“Of course it behooves you,” He added, craftily, “to see that no harm comes to anyone before you know how that will affect my ability to get you the big pot of gold.”
The Marauder smiled at his pretensions and seemed prepared to indulge him.
“You heard him men,” he said turning to all the grumbling marauders, “You have won a mighty victory here today and I am feeling gracious enough to deal kindly with a fellow fighter. His spirit is to be admired. See that no harm befalls all in this room-” here he indicated the lady and her two young ones who had by then crept out from underneath the bed where they had been hiding, looking terrified and confused. “-until I give leave.” The marauder chief, grinned at his men and strode out muttering behind him, as if in afterthought to his men, "there is plundered wine available for all, above deck."
[AL1]Marauder is always meant to be a replacement for the word pirate