Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2018 18:37:47 +0000 From: Nicholas Nicholby Subject: Boys Guild Chapter 11 Chapter Eleven This story is a work of fiction. It never happened, it never will. The characters and locations are all make believe and any resemblance to any place or person, living or dead, is simply in the mind of the reader and totally unintentional. Situations and sexual activities of the characters are fantasy, don't try dragon riding at home. The story is also the first in a series of stories about Kind Draviad's Realm. Please let me know if you enjoy by email to nicholas6996 (at) hot mail dot com Copyright 2018 by Nicholas Nicholby, all rights reserved. Not to be distributed or duplicated without express written permission of the author. The author hereby grants the Nifty Archive a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, and non-cancellable license to use, modify or alter and edit copy for clarity or style, reproduce, display, make compilations of and distribute the work. The Boys Guild The Wizard was silently fuming, his parchment wasn't. In fact it was obviously smoking and fuming enough that his teammates were casting worried glances between it, themselves and the exit doors. Undecipherable symbols were inscribing themselves on each of the 20 or so palm sized parchment squares in the stack, all at the same time. It was certainly disconcerting because it would appear the stack would burst into flame at any moment. It wasn't the parchment that was in imminent danger of combustion, that would be the Wizard's anger. He hated team activities. He hated `Team Building.' Right now he hated his teammates. He particularly hated his titular superior, the Magic Guild's Wizardium Magister Merlinius Montebanque Magnifico. "What a charlatan!" the Wizard fumed. The deep bell chimed. "Faker," the Wizard thought. "The normal timer not good enough for His Magnifico! Has to steal the toll from the central bell of King Draviad's Watch Tower. Idiot!" The vaguely yellow parchment pieces from in front of all the different work groups began to lift from the tables in a whirlwind like leaf blowing twister as they rose, intermingled and then streamed toward the back of the room and began sticking themselves to the wall creating a hodgepodge of apparent penmanship samples. The Wizard's were the only ones incised in three dimensions. The Wizard's were the only ones perfectly aligned with the floor, ceiling and decorative room columns. The Wizard's were the only ones smoking. The Wizard's teammates were visibly relieved to have the things off their table and way over there on the wall. Merlinius Magnifico intoned, "You will now have half a candle to review all the notes. Please feel free to move any to another place along the wall creating groupings of like ideas or concepts. We will then take a candle's break to enjoy refreshment." The bell tolled again and everyone began standing and stretching just a bit before moving toward the wall. The Wizard turned, ran his fingers along the air from one end of the wall to the other and turned and walked out the large glass doors on the other side of the room and out toward the sun, the beach and the small herd of waiters and waitresses holding drink and snack trays. The Wizard's teammates gave each other and Merlinius nervous glances. Several of them wondered if getting food poisoning during the refreshment break might be the better part of valor for the afternoon and remaining day's activities. Merlinius's color was rising. Just before the nearest team reached the wall there was a glissando of sweet chimes and in a crackling of electricity the parchment squares all lifted from the wall and flurried up and down and in and out totally rearranging before posting themselves back in neat and orderly rows. Now Merlinius was fuming and marched to the back looking for a few of his own parchment notes and very obviously picking them out and then posting them far away from any of the Wizard's still glowing pyro-holo-graphic calligraphy. Everyone else quickly picked a few posted notes and moved them to other locations, clearly finding one to put in Merlinius's column, but really not changing the Wizard's groupings much. Tension seemed to be relieved on the patio deck as drinks made their way quickly among the participants. The sparkling waters were noticeably avoided while the wines and spirits were quickly needing refills. The conference center manager was beside himself with glee watching the runners bring more and more bottles from storage to the assembled crowd. The Wizard drained his own glass but before the waiter could offer another it had refilled itself while still in the Wizard's hands. "Captain Apini, I must discover your secret for these Mermaid Tears," the Wizard thought savoring the cool yet spicy flavor on his tongue. He sighed wishing he was sharing the amazing sun and sea with the equally amazing Zekial instead of this rabble of misfit enchanters, diviners, conjurers, illusionists, and seers. He could overhear the augerer and the clairvoyant both trying to convince the soothsayer that they of course knew the eventual outcome of Magnifico's affinity diagraming exercise. The soothsayer was spouting off about all being clear in the fullness of the dark of the moon or some such incomprehensible babble since the dark of the moon was by definition empty and not full. The Wizard was interrupted in his not so sipping drink of Mermaid tears, "Sir? Will you be returning home yet this evening?" Turning the Wizard saw the new young shaman who had earlier attracted his attention as having both a somewhat intelligent and a perfectly gorgeous head. The boy deserved a third, or possibly it was even a fourth appraising glance. "Yes, I have received communication that suggests I may be needed," the Wizard smiled. Almost feeling as well as seeing the Wizard's full body scan the young Shaman blushed slightly but took a breath and seemed to stand just a bit straighter, "If I may be so bold sir, might I prevail upon you to deliver a small missive along the way? The King's Post between our two kingdom's takes so long to travel the distance and the security of message contents is not always so sacrosanct I am afraid." "Of course young man," the Wizard gave what he hoped was an inviting smile and not a lecherous lear. The Shaman reached into his left sleeve and retrieved a small letter and handed it to the Wizard. "If you could wait just a moment I'd be able to more appropriately package this manuscript." The Wizard accepted the letter and watched with approval as the boy pulled a very large box from within the sleeve and then twiddled his own fingers and recited a shrink spell. The box very audibly folded in upon itself several times and was then no more than the size of a small matchbox. Now accepting the tiny box the Wizard wondered if the boy realized that by enchanting it in front of him the spell and thus the reversal spell were now no secret. "Thank you sir. I admire your works greatly and look forward to my participation in your King's demonstrations. Please don't hesitate to call if I could offer you any assistance whatsoever." The Wizard watched the perfect bow and the likewise perfect butt as the boy walked away. He looked at the letter and broke into a large grin and headed toward Merlinius to inform him that he was required at home and would not be able to continue his participation. Merlinius seemed uninterested and barely turned from the circle of sycophantic admirers. The Wizard swirled away smiling at his need to deliver the letter and the box to the Nifty Archivist. He was well acquainted with the address at Nifty Archive Alliance PMB 159 333 Mamaroneck Ave White Plains, NY 10605 He snapped his fingers and clipped the suddenly appearing 100 Gold King's Note to the letter and walked towards the cabana where he knew he could have an hour or two of Mermaid Tears and solitude. He took delight in the young Shaman's obvious intention for him to know how to review the manuscript he was carrying. He loved a good story and had no doubt that the young Nicholas would be writing another worthy of many more donations to the dissemination of inseminational literature. Chapter 11 - The World turns Orange With a mischievous grin Kalpak led the boys through the downstream window in his aerie and they were stretched out soaking in the sun on the roof of the flour storeroom. Tomas had shuddered to think that if he started to roll he would roll right off the edge and plunge either the hundred paces to the meadow, or the two hundred paces to the catchment pool. He felt much better when Kalpak handed him the end of a rope that seemed firmly attached to the aerie and Zekial showed him how to encircle himself and tie it off. He had just made sure his rope was the right length to stop him quickly and far short of tipping over the edge. Zekial seemed to be doing the same. Mig however was in deep discussion again with Kalpak and the motions and gesturing of the Dhani were basically incomprehensible to Tomas. Mig's actions weren't. Tomas was once again stunned at the fearlessness of the Elt. Both Mig and Kalpak had walked directly to the edge of the roof and holding a length of their respective ropes tight back to the aerie they kicked the rest of the rope over the edge and then Mig essentially jumped backwards. Mig screeched as he dropped out of sight heading once again toward certain death. Tomas squeezed his eyes shut tight and rolled over on his stomach and willed himself not to have seen what he just saw. Zekial sat open mouthed staring after Mig as Kalpak gave him a little wave and made his own jump off the roof. Had they been below they would have seen the boys fall but a little way when the rope cinched up and held them tight and then there began a jerking start and stop dropping descent as Mig got used to how Kalpak had shown him to control his fall. Kalpak on the other hand went streaming past Mig but stopped himself perhaps a jumps distance from the ground. He hung swinging from his rope as Mig dropped towards him. As they leveled out with each other Mig gave a little howl and began pulling himself hand over hand back towards the top. Kalpak scampered up his rope and passed Mig as if he were standing, well hanging, still. Tomas and Zekial should not have been surprised to see their friends scampering up over the roof edge, but they had crawled back inside the aerie and were snuggling inside the covers working on their own method of getting the adrenaline pumping. Specifically Zekial was pumping his lance in Tomas with slow lazy strokes. Currently both boys were in deep yellow orechasm and Tomas was riding the wave of the pleasure coursing through his body from the compressed edges of his opening. If he could have thought about it he would have wondered how Zekial could cause such burning fire throughout his body by just touching such a small ring of muscle. He couldn't think about it of course. He couldn't think about anything except an idle wonder of why Mig was echoing him outside on the roof yelling "Again! Again!" right in step with his pleas to Zekial. For himself Zekial was feeling the tight ring of muscle pull against the loose skin at the head of his lance causing it to ripple down the shaft and then back up again. Each downward ripple stabbed his lance's point into the hot and slippery flesh of Tomas. The enveloping heat and raw stickiness of it shot Zekial's orechasm up to orange. When he pulled out the upward triple bump across the ridge around his lance head as first it passed Tomas' inner circle, then Tomas' outer circle and then felt his own soft skin slide across and covering over it was red deliciousness epitomized. He could feel on the tip of his lance what he felt on the lips of his mouth when he sucked his young lover. Either method swirled patterns in his brain and the orbiting celestial bodies of Silver Orechasm spun around his eyes as his nectar flowed and he plunged his lance deep inside the primed and hungry cavity. Zekial grunted with the effort of ejecting a tankard of his own special brew. Tomas squealed at the torrent invading his deepest grotto. Shooting stars and comets trailed silver-hot viscous tails within and across his consciousness. Hard rapid battering caused hot wet frothy foam to be whipped inside the well to percolate up and be absorbed as welcome essence or to leak down and out and be worn as a badge of puerile purfle. Silver night descended on the late afternoon of the aerie's day. The Wizard had been gathering the wildly abandoned invigorating epinephrines from the massive rushes Mig and Kalpak had been experiencing. He actually sat up a bit as the strength of Zekial's and Tomas' Silver Orechasmic pleasure wave coursed through the Mill. Shifting time and space with deft speed and precision he managed to experience the wave four times before it was too far out and too weak to be of benefit. By then he was at the edge of the woods and the Miller was bemused, but not alarmed, at the rapid disappearance of his drinking partner. Sliding back into his chair the Wizard took a long draught of his ale, "Somehow I feel you will have a bountiful time with an Elt and a Dhani in residence." "Aye, and your two will cause their own mayhem I am sure within the town walls and the castle keep," the Miller responded. "To youth!" the two toasted. "I do think that the plan should work," the Miller took another draught of his ale. "The woods are ready for more assistance. The Boy has found sleeping Dhani, they simply push him away and grumble about youngsters. I have contact with many of the animal beings and while there is no trouble at present, there is a sense of unease. More patrols, more interest, more anything would make much of the Forest happy I believe. Why even gathering downed wood and a charcoalers' kiln would bring a welcome sense of wood smoke." "Yes, well first there will be much change and discussion I am sure once we know the full extent on the ship. We must try and keep them believing that they are safe and will be free, but we can not let them free until we are satisfied about their health. There is definitely disease on that ship," the Wizard voiced his biggest concern. "I must go and discuss this with the King. We can not wait too long, already I am sure they have discovered they can not move, and the cordon of Naval skiffs will have everyone else curious too," the Wizard rose. "I'll take the carriage back, tomorrow I will probably just pop in." He strode to the carriage and soon had the driver leaving the mill at a far faster rate than they arrived. In the outer barracks mess the King sat with the task force he had summoned at the Wizard's discovery of the extent of the problem. There were two physicians from the Royal Navy, an Admiral, the Commander of the dockside Marine detachment, the Chief Quartermaster, the Chief Military Cook from the Castle, the Chief Armorer and various subalterns and aides-de-camp. "I want every man of the ship's crew taken alive. I don't care if they lose a hand or a leg, but let's leave them their heads and their hearts for the time being. We must track back and forward for every iota of information about who is behind this and how widespread it is," King Draviad was outlining the final plan. "There is soup and bread ready in abundance?" he asked the Cook. "Yes, we have broth ready from two kitchens and light bread. The Physicians have helped to see that we are not too rich with a first meal. They will be hungry, but they will not be able to handle very much," the Cook confirmed. "Hygiene will be as important as sustenance," the Marine Commander quickly added. "Once we have the crew subdued my men will have a field bath set on the afterdeck. We will isolate what clothing they may have and burn that, issue new basic breeches and shirts. All washing materials will be isolated and burned also. We will not be dumping used water into the bay, it will be kegged." The Armorer continued, "Once the cages are clear and the victims are on the upper deck my Dogs-bodies will have the scrubbing materials ready. The Wizard will provide excoriating fire and we will be sure it doesn't consume the ship, sorry Your Lordship," the Wizard had picked that moment to join the group. He nodded approval to the Armorer, "Once it is out and the filth is scrubbed to the bilge we will dismantle the cages." "My team has the hammocks and cots and pallets ready to provide whatever each person needs to shelter," the Quartermaster added. "We have a full team ready to go on board. We think we are prepared for just about anything," the Chief Physician was clearly troubled. "If there is anything horrendous, we will have to decide then. Every person that goes on that ship must be a volunteer and understand there is as grave a risk as if we were going into battle. And that the risk to the town and the populace could be as devastating as a total rout and sacking of the city. We all must be extraordinarily careful." "Be sure all your troops have those words from the Physicians," the King summed up the conference. "We will do a little more reconnaissance, the Marines will begin the operation at the sound of the Castle cannon. Let's to it, there are people's lives at stake." "We have concurrence from the Forest," the Wizard told the King. "If there are more Dhani or Elts or other Forest beings they will be welcomed here. Young Kalpak has done much good with the Miller, I wish I had visited sooner, but it would not have appreciably changed things. I expect he and the Elt will band together, the forest has much need. If there are more on the ship I think Miglodiandecidua would have known, but clearly there have been others captured." "Make one more casting aboard. Let's be sure the crew are incapacitated as you believe and then we will start this process," the King said. "Yes my Lord," the Wizard bowed and then took a seat and leaned his head down on his hands. No sooner had he appeared to nod off than his seeming boarded the ship and focused for signs of activity. All was quiet as he hoped. The spell he had launched put all but the seabeings to sleep. He would need to talk with them very soon. He hoped his message to the SeaKing had arrived. He didn't really know what to do about them. Working his way quickly through the ship he found the Captain poised over the log book and accounts book with a flint and steel and some type of oil. It looked as though he had just been in time. He would see if the Marine Commander had an Adept who could avigate into the cabin and immediately take the Captain under arrest. Leaving the ship he stopped at the dockside barracks and found the Commander and soon had his man in place next to the Captain. At the cannon shot the man would avigate the Captain out of the cabin and into chains. Then the log and accounts book would be secured and transported immediately to the secure room in the Wizard's tower. Returning to the King the Wizard informed him that it would be peaceful on the ship until he lifted the spell. The King sent a runner to be sure the Marines had the chains and irons ready as weapons would be less needed than confinement it appeared. At the report of the Castle cannon the Marines swarmed the sides of the ship and found the Wizard's spell very effective. All members of the crew were quickly located, slapped in irons and chained along the ship's rail. The Cook had a stream of young recruits taking small cups of broth and bread below to the cells. As the Wizard released the spell the crew woke to find themselves the captives and the captives began to understand they were rescued. There was no wild jubilation, the captives were too debilitated and the Marine and Guard recruits were too shocked at what they were finding. The Wizard remained slumped at the barracks mess where the King had set four Royal Guardsmen as his protection. The Wizard's seeming reboarded the ship and he life-delved for crewmen who might have been hidden below. There was one small altercation when two ships boys were found groggily stepping out of the bow line locker. They were soon tied and secured with the other crew, the irons and chains were too big to be of any use for their small size. As the broth and bread was distributed it was discovered that the First Officer, the ship's cook and his two boys and the cabin boy were chained like the captives in the last cell. For now the Commander left them there despite that like the captives they were filthy and had not fared well during whatever the length of their captivity had been. In the forward hold it was found that the two cells held 18 boys each and the bodies of two more who had recently succumbed. Right behind the broth and bread in the forward hold the medical teams began to work through the cells in conjunction with the Armorer's men. Chains and shackles were broken off where needed, immediate medical needs were assessed and triage of a sort was performed. The Physicians were progressively relieved as they worked that no signs of pestilence or contagious disease were detected. There were massively deadly cases of dehydration and malnutrition, the Chief Physician ordered all drinking water to be liberally spiked with citrus juices but citrus itself was still too strong for these captives. Open wounds from the shackles were treated and palliative care was set up for some who would probably not survive much more than their liberation. In the aft hold there was no chance that many of the captives could be sent above decks, the cleansing plan and refurbishment operation on the cells would have to be modified. The Armorer's Dogs-bodies and the Marines had begun a literal mopping up operation on the main deck where seawater, cleansing agents and dint of scrubbing were sending accumulated filth from there amidships and down the gutters which had been steered toward the bilges. As the very young can somehow seem to do the boy captives in the forward hold were just as debilitated but the signs of hope in a bowl of broth and a slice of bread seemed to rejuvenate them more quickly. While the Physician and nurses working those cells could hardly keep from crying at the open wounds, obvious signs of whippings and other abuse, they were also cheered by the boy's caring attitude toward their own youngest and each other. It was soon determined that they could manage to go above. When two boys were thought too ill to go the rest refused to leave them behind. They would carry their own or they would all stay below. The Physician arranged two stretchers and far too many small pairs of helping hands perhaps hindered the Marines doing the lifting more than helped, but no one was going to tell them no. The sun and air and bathing supplies did perform a miracle and soon sounds of laughter and happiness were heard on the ship for the first time in no one knew how long. The boy's tatters were burnt but none of them were ready to put on the new clothes. The sunshine and sea breeze caressing bare clean skin was too delicious a feeling to allow to end. As plans were being formulated for the other captives the Wizard returned to his body in the barracks mess. The King had returned to the Castle on other business so the Wizard thanked his guards and strode toward the door. As he stepped through it he avigated and was stepping through the Captain's cabin doorway on board the ship. He quickly collected all the papers that looked like correspondence, rolled up the charts as they sat on the chart table, and made a quick search for the ship's safe and any lock boxes the Captain may have had. He went on deck and had the Marine Commander station two guards in and outside the cabin with no one to enter without either the King or the Wizard present. Soon the captive boys were helping with small tasks where they could, taking broth below, carrying small things for the nurses or physicians helping in the decontamination of the space they had been held in. The Marines had moved the bodies of the ones not lucky enough to have survived a few more hours and set up a small morgue in the very stern of the ship. Once the forward cells were ready to be sanitized the Wizard took two of the oldest boys with him and walked through the hold. Asking the boys questions he decided there must have been about 45 boys total, with the 38 currently accounted for there were seven who must have died during the journey. The boys agreed that there were five they knew dead, but that two boys had been pulled out alive some time ago and never seen again. That would be another set of questions for the Captain and crew. Having the boys search any little hiding places that they had found brought forth a small trove of little boyish treasures. In addition to several coins there were some small rocks and shells, two silver chains and one ring. The Wizard asked the boys to take the things and return them to the owners and see if there was anything else that any of the boys needed to retrieve. They scampered up the hatch ladder and soon brought one of the smallest back. "Abhi needs to get his ring and dowry," the oldest said. The Wizard raised his eyebrows a bit at the word dowry, but waved the boy ahead. The tiny lad headed for the back darkest corner of the cell and seemingly crawled right up the side of the ship and began plucking at where one of the ribs met the top deck. Pulling out a slender sliver of wood the boy reached a finger inside and pulled forth a heavy gold chain that was threaded through a massive gold signet ring. As the boy came back the Wizard asked if he could see the ring. It was far too big for the boy, so probably his father's or grandfather's ring. The stone looked to be a blood red ruby surrounded by diamonds and each side of the setting held a signet seal. The Wizard knew this ring would make a memorable impression in sealing wax on any document. He did not recognize the devices in the seals though. Reaching in his own tunic the Wizard unfastened a slender belt and brought it out along with the purse it held to his body. Kneeling down he took the belt and wrapped it thrice around the small boy and then tipped out the coins from the purse. Indicating that the purse was now the boy's he said, "Hold those here, while your friends would protect you and them it would not be good to wear that kind of wealth right now." "No, I do not wear it, but the purse I had went with it's coins while I hid this," Abhi more or less whispered. "Were any of the boys your servants?" the Wizard asked. "No, they were not taken. Gopan," he nodded to the older boy who had brought him down, "has protected me. All of the boys have been good friends." "Gopan, you have done well. Go bring Abhi his shirt and put on yours too. Bring the others down and they can see this abomination destroyed if they wish," the Wizard clasped Gopan's shoulder and gave him a gentle shove in the direction of the ladder. When he was gone he turned to Abhi, "Do you know what land you are from? Who your sire or grandsire are? It may help us to return you." "I know, but there is no return. I was taken as all the others were slaughtered around me. I should have died too, but I was too slow with my knife. The one that kept me knocked it from my hands," Abhi continued to whisper. "We will talk of this with our King, do the other boys know?" the Wizard asked. "No, just that I am like them, captured and tortured and we know not where or when we will die." "Let us hope now that dying is very far off and we can find a new life for you until we can see about your old one. Here come the boys, slip on your shirt quickly to hide the purse, here, stand behind me," the Wizard tried to protect the secret of the great wealth in the purse. "No, we have no secrets from each other. They will respect my purse as I would respect theirs. We have learned much together," Abhi quietly asserted. "As you wish," the Wizard assented. "Boys, as painful as it is, please come back inside this cell. I promise you will not be locked in, I will stay with you," the Wizard said. "But you are a Wizard," one of the older boys spoke up. "You can lock the door and still leave. We will be there forever." "No," Abhi spoke. "Come, we will do as he says, his heart says he is true." The others followed Abhi in with no hesitation. Once they were all inside the Wizard took a heroic stance and raised his arms above his head. Crossing them and muttering some incantation he lowered his arms to his chest height and nodded and a coursing nebula of energy flared out and across the hold against the ship's side. He wove his arms back and forth and side to side and the energy flare moved and bathed every inch of the ship that was in front of them. The timbers would smoke momentarily as the energy beam left them, but to the boys' eyes the real change was that what had once been dark wood was now light. Lampblack, coal dust, the refuse of hundreds of cargos as well as any remains of illness or contamination from the time of slaving was burnt away. As the Wizard finished he shook a little from the effort of his labor, Abhi saw it and sent one of the boys above to find water or wine for him. Gopan stood so the Wizard could lean against him for strength. "Thank you," the Wizard sighed. "There was deeper contagion than I thought. Before much more the Physicians need to look at you all again. It would be terrible to die now that you are free." Abhi spoke again, "No, dying free would be almost as good as dying while we killed one of them. But you are right, there is no need to die now, we must help be sure this pestilence is eradicated." There was a murmor of assent from the boys, the Wizard could see that small and young as he was, Abhi was the leader of these boys intellectually. The Wizard drank a long draught of the wine and directed the boys to leave the cell and stand in the cleaned area. As he followed them he said, "Last chance, if there is anything else still hidden it will be destroyed as I do this side of the hold." Two boys ran back and rooted out small treasures and came back with sheepish smiles. "Okay, really last chance last chance, you can see no one it trying to steal anything." One tiny boy ran in and scampered up the ships ribs towards the upper deck, he clutched a small locket as he came back. Abhi asked to see it and then placed it around the boy's neck. He smiled and hugged the boy and went to the Wizard. "What can I do to lend you strength, I was apprentice to our Mage." "That would be good, place your hand on my hip, I may call on some of your force. Gopan can stand behind you and hold your shoulders. Gopan, you might feel as though you are getting very tired. Just catch Abhi if he falls so he is not hurt," the Wizard directed. As Abhi stepped beside the Wizard Gopan stepped behind him and all the boys moved and surrounded them. The Wizard smiled that no one would fall over or they all would and that would be an interesting tangle of legs and arms. Once again the Wizard called forth his excoriating energy and worked systematically across the entire hold. Both cells were scoured as well as the area behind, above and below them. He pulled some energy from Abhi, he could feel the boy open to him. He thought it interesting that one so young had enough training to channel, then he realized Abhi was channeling from every one of the boys. In essence they all were cleansing the cells of their confinement. It went quickly with Abhi's help and soon the Wizard broke the spell and gratefully let the boys lead, almost carry, him above deck where the fresh air and sun did feel wonderful. More wine helped and the Wizard called the Cook for more broth and bread for all the boys. They all sat around him in a protective circle and they watched the Armorer's men descend and listened to the clangs and bangs of the cells being dismantled and a living space being created. They sipped hot broth and took small nibbles out of the freshly buttered bread. There was nothing that had ever tasted so heavenly. Gopan and Abhi went aft with the Wizard after he was recuperated. They met with the Marine Commander who outlined what they thought the plan below should be. All the captives would be moved to the port side cells, it would be a little crowded, but since no one was really mobile it probably wouldn't matter much. The Wizard would excoriate the starboard side cells and the Armorer's men would begin dismantling them. Although the noise would be somewhat loud the quartermaster thought that hanging the extra sails between the two sides would muffle the sound greatly. Additionally one of the Marines had some experience with sea beings and had managed to talk with those in the tank. They were in desperate need of fresher water, at least they all could breathe air as well as seawater, so that made some things a little easier. Together the Marine and the sea beings had worked out a system of using a bilge pump to pull the polluted water from the tank and a second pump would bring fresh seawater aboard. They were only waiting on the Physicians to determine what to do with the soiled water and they would get started. As the tank was large but not huge the Wizard quickly calculated that the bilges could easily hold its contents. He would have to create a bilge cleaning apparatus anyway, so additional water there wouldn't hurt. As the Wizard and boys were turning to go down the hold ladder there came a small cry to Gopan from the two boys who had been discovered at the rope locker. "Gopan! Gopan! Come tell them we are not crew!" the Wizard heard. Turning he and the boys went toward the rail where the crew were chained and found the two boys at the end of the line. Gopan turned to the Wizard, "It is true! These are the two boys who were taken from our cells. I do not know where they were, or what they were doing, but they were captives like we were." "Commander," the Wizard called to the Marine commander. "These two are special cases, keep them detained, but away from the crew. We will see what it is about them later. They look like they have eaten and bathed far more often than you boys, they can wait a little longer for their fate," he concluded to Gopan and Abhi. There was no protest. Stepping from the ladder into the hold the smell was far more overpowering than had been true in the forward hold. In all there were ninety captives and four seabeings. The few dead had been transported to the mini morgue, everyone else was being moved carefully to the port side. The Quartermaster's men already were stringing up the sails and as they blocked off the starboard side the Marines were asking if anyone had anything hidden that needed to be retrieved. There was nothing that any captive mentioned, the Wizard did a quick testing for gold, silver or copper and nothing revealed itself. Either boys were better at concealing things from the captors or these people had had nothing to begin with. With Abhi helping and Gopan close by the Wizard blasted the starboard cells, deck and ceilings with his fire. He almost collapsed. Gopan and Abhi had been ready. Abhi told the Armorer that his men could dismantle the starboard cells but that work on the port side would have to wait for the next morning or even later. He and Gopan guided the Wizard back among the boys on the deck and got him broth, and buttered bread as well as wine. The three stretched out on the pallets which the quartermaster had supplied to all the boys. Abhi woke to the sound of loud voices trying to be quiet. He raised up and saw Gopan and the other older boys standing and blocking a man who was yelling. "Get out of the way urchins! I must get to the Wizard. The King demands his presence on shore to explain the progress. Now step aside or I will have the Marines arrest and chain you!" Abhi heard Gopan's voice quietly, "The Wizard is recovering from his exertions. He can not be roused. The King will have to wait." "What! The King wait! Guards! Guards! Arrest this vermin or kill them I don't care, get them out of my way!" The Marine commandant had waved his men to stand down as several had come running at the commotion. He walked over and stood pointedly on the boy's side of an imaginary line. "Sir, the Wizard is recuperating. You may tell the King that or you may tell him that the Wizard died while you forced him awake and down the nets to your longboat. Or you may tell him that the world has turned orange and boys have more sense than men. Whatever you tell him, go and tell him quickly before I have you dropped overboard where your longboat may or may not be waiting." The Commander put one hand ominously on his sword handle and the other on Gopan's shoulder. Seeing the fulminating anger rising on the functionary the Commander pulled his sword and used it to point just past the man's ear, "GO!" Grabbing his ear and screaming obscenities the man ran for the side of the ship and clambered down to his longboat. The Commander looked closely at his blade, "Damn, I must get more practice. I think I actually let that man run his ear into my blade! Ah well, never draw your sword son unless you are prepared to get it bloody." He wiped the drops upon his breeches and sheathed the sword and hugged Gopan towards him. "Well done lads," he included them all in his praise. "Come see me if things look like you need new occupations when this is all settled out. Not many could stand up to that kind of fool with such calm. Now run and tell the Cook's you boys are ready for something more substantial than just broth!" The boys did run and soon were bringing back more bread and some cheese and fruits. Everyone except the Wizard sat up to eat.