After a tedious lunch with Lazarus, Iesha retreated to her room. She closed the curtains of her window, and pulled out her mirror – this time, its pair was outside, carried around by Carlos on the deck of his ship while he was giving some commands to his crew.

  “Hey man!” the elf said.

  “Oh, hello Iesha!” the captain stared into his mirror.

  “Lazarus went for a nap in his room. You guys should be good to go.”

  “All right, will do. We practiced a lot.”

  “Heh, I wish I could see.”

  “Is everything good on your end?”

  “Yea. Just...”

  Someone tried to open her door, but they failed due to it being locked. They started knocking rather aggressively.

  “Gotta go,” Iesha said quietly. Carlos nodded.

  She put the mirror in her bag and pushed it under her bed. As she opened her door, she was face to face with Fabio, the half-eastern captain of the town guards, with his signature pointy mustache.

  “Were you talking to someone?” he asked suspiciously.

  “Just to myself. What do you want?”

  Fabio revealed a wooden sword he was holding behind his back, offering it to the woman. She stared at him indifferently for a moment, shrugged, and took it. “Thanks?”

  “I challenge you to a fight. Come with me!”

  “Oh. Right now?”

  “Yes, right now. We will go to the camp of your men where you will grab your best ten. My best ten are ready and waiting. We will use wooden swords.”

  “Why all this?”

  “I want to see what you guys are made of.”

  Iesha sighed, pretending to take this like an unnecessary drag, while really, she was considering her options. She had a bad feeling about this, but declining the challenge felt like it would only make the guy more suspicious. “Fine. We won't hold back though.”

  “I don't want you to.”

  Meanwhile, Ike Lazarus sat down on his bed. His gaze wandered to his magic mirror on his drawer, which was facing the wall right now. Should he turn it around? “That coward won't show himself anyway...” he mumbled, then he y down, csping his hands and resting them on his belly. He was in quite a good mood ever since the elf woman arrived with his retaken ship, Annabelle.

  He almost dozed off when he realized he is hearing some noise. It wasn't coming from outside. It was from the mirror. He snorted, coughed, sat up, and put his ear closer to it while it was still facing the wall.

  “This thing? I dunno man, I don't think you should...”

  “It was on the bottom of this chest full of random shit, he won't even notice!”

  “But...”

  “We will dip anyway as soon as we can, won't we? Carlos is a lost cause. We get back to Midridge, sell some of this stuff, and try to get by. I think this one's pretty good quality.”

  “But how will we dip? On Scalehide, we can't really...”

  Then Ike heard some footsteps, a door opening, and a few seconds of (presumably awkward) silence.

  “Roy, Owen! What are you doing here?” a third voice was heard at st. It was polite, stern and a bit tired too all at once. Was it Carlos Wayne? Ike never actually met the man.

  “We just... wanted to talk to you! Yes, we were waiting for you to come back, captain.”

  “Well, go on then!”

  Ike carefully turned his mirror a bit just so he could peek into it a little, from the side. He saw the wooden wall of a cabin, and his line of sight was slightly swaying back and forth. One of those wannabe thief guys must have held the other mirror behind his back.

  “Uhm... when are we gonna get there? To Scalehide?” that guy asked.

  “We will be there in a few days,” the captain replied.

  “And then? What's the pn?”

  “Don't worry about it.”

  “But Captain Carlos, we are all dying to know what's next! We just lost that battle, a bunch of our men died, and Goliath isn't gonna support us anymore either. We all heard him procim that Murky Bay will stay out of this. So what are we gonna do now, really?”

  “I told you not to worry about it.”

  “But the ds, they are worrying, captain! You should tell us something!”

  “We will hunker down on Scalehide, that's the pn. It's a remote isnd not known by many, and I'm in good terms with the locals, it's the best pce for us to hide in order to disappear from the scene for a while. Lazarus is a minister of Midridge, his connections reach far, but he won't be able to find us there. We will be safe there, and we will be able to get by modestly for a long time. Months, even years, if we have to. We will wait until things calm down, and I will try to think of something in the meanwhile. That's all I can... hold on a moment! Is that...”

  “Dammit! Captain, I was just...”

  “Give me that!”

  The mirror was taken over, and its new holder stared into it: a pale man with a pointy beard wearing a green tricorn hat. Ike saw him for a split second, got startled, and clumsily got out of the mirror's sight, knocking a golden candlestick off his drawer. Fortunately, it didn't seem like those on the other side noticed.

  “Do you know what this is?!” Carlos fumed. “This was the magic mirror of Captain Kraus! Ike Lazarus has its pair, he could have heard us, spied on us!”

  “But...”

  “You're lucky it's facing a bnk wall! If he knew where we were going...”

  “I'm sorry, captain, I swear I didn't know!”

  “Of course you didn't, you fool! But no, I can't have this damn mirror spoiling our escape pn. I should have gotten rid of it a while ago!”

  There were footsteps again, then it sounded like the holder of the mirror was outside, on the ship's deck.

  “Captain? Are you gonna...”

  Then there was a spshing sound, and the wind and the waves all quieted down. Ike carefully peeked into his mirror again, and saw the other one descending, clearly underwater. Ike Lazarus smiled widely.

  Ten sellswords of the League of Bold stood side by side on a meadow, facing ten of the town guards. Their leaders, Iesha and Fabio, watched over them. They were some five minutes of walking away from Newchance, just to avoid drawing the attention of the locals. A group of curious kids followed them though, but Fabio seemed to be okay with just those bystanders.

  The captain of guards said he wants them to have one-on-one duels, one at a time so that they can all spectate and pay close attention. They would use wooden swords, and the first one to touch his opponent with it wins. The mercenaries didn't really get why, but they didn't care much either, they were ready – Gator, the rge reptilian sellsword was rubbing his hands eagerly.

  And so the matches began. The local kids looked shyly from a distance at first, but they soon got closer and started to cheer the fighters on loudly. The duels went pretty close to 50-50, and while Fabio was watching them attentively, Iesha was mostly just watching him. The eastern man gnced at her triumphantly after the guards' first victory, then his expression turned almost accusatory, but he didn't say anything yet, just continued spectating. And Iesha started to get an idea of what this is about.

  The tenth fight was between Gator and a rather bulky faun guard, they were the heaviest members of both teams. Gator won that one rather quickly.

  “That's six to four,” said Iesha. “I guess my team won?”

  “There's one more match,” Fabio extended his hand towards the faun, took the wooden sword, and turned towards the elf.

  “Yea yea,” she grabbed Gator's one and got in position.

  “Uhm... you wanna fight a woman, captain?” one of the guards asked his boss.

  “She is not just any woman, you fool!” Gator decred, and the other sellswords nodded in agreement. After all, they all saw the aftermath of her defending herself from those two sellswords who attacked her in the middle of the night on their voyage here.

  “That's right, she is supposed to be special,” Fabio nodded. “As the leader of the mercenaries who defeated Carlos Wayne, she must be a real piece of work. She better be.”

  “You got that right!” Gator replied.

  “Count us down, then!” Iesha said. And one of the guards did.

  She was fighting with all she had, she knew she had to. If only she could beat this guy convincingly enough... but it got clear to her fairly quickly that she couldn't. Fabio was stronger than he looked, a lot of force was behind his sword swings, and he was quick and agile as well.

  To be honest, Iesha had the element of surprise against those two wanna be rapists sellswords on the ship, they really didn't expect her to fight back, let alone with a dagger. She acted a bit helpless first, then she did what she had to. But this was different. This guy was obviously a very disciplined and experienced fighter, and they were battling it out fair and square. Iesha was really trying to hold her own, but eventually, she failed, Fabio hit her on her knee. It didn't even hurt her much, the man had enough control to soften his finishing blow.

  “Six to five,” he said, taking some deep breaths.

  “Well, we still won then!” said one of the sellswords.

  “Just barely.” Fabio turned to Iesha again. “But did you really won against Carlos Wayne? I don't believe it.”

  “Why not?” the elf panted. “He is just a pirate.”

  “Not just any pirate, but the most dangerous one in the world. He is the one who defeated Warren Crown.”

  “According to him. But Warren is still around, I told you and Lazarus the other day. That's what they say.”

  “How did you beat him then, huh?” Fabio now turned to the rest of the sellsword. “Tell me, how did that battle go?”

  “We breached his ship in the middle of the night,” Iesha said quickly. “Managed to surprise him. We got lucky to notice them first.”

  “That's right! But we didn't just kill them while they were sleeping, they had time to get up, and then it was a good old battle to the death. Those fuckers were not as strong as they thought themselves to be!”

  Gator, for fuck's sake! Iesha thought.

  “Ahha. They weren't as strong...”

  Two of the kids were now pying with wooden sticks near them, and one of them hit the other on the head, making him cry. The offender seemed a bit guilty, but then he just ughed awkwardly and ran off.

  “Hey! That's not nice!” Iesha yelled after him, and walked to the crying boy who was left alone. She crouched down, asking him to let her see his head. “You got a nasty bump there, but it's gonna be all right. Say, did you know that an elf's kiss eases pain?”

  “Huh?”

  “Some say so at least. Do you mind?”

  The boy sniffed back his tears then nodded, and the woman kissed the bump on his head. “There there. What's your name?”

  “Ali.”

  “What are you doing?” Fabio asked, stepping closer to them.

  “You are a strong boy, Ali,” Iesha ignored the guard. “One day, you might just become a real warrior.”

  “Really? But... I cried.”

  “Everyone has some defeats sometimes, raw power is not all that makes someone strong. Getting up again is just as important.”

  “Fabio! Silverlight!” Ike Lazarus was walking towards them, escorted by a handful of other guards.

  “Go now, Ali, I'll see you around!” The elf stood up, the boy looked up at her and smiled before he jogged off. Fabio shook his head and turned towards his arriving master.

  The minister was hurrying, as much as a man like him could, and his face turned rather red by the time he caught up to them. “What's... going on, guys?” he wiped his forehead with a purple handkerchief.

  “We just had a little bit of friendly practice, sir,” said Iesha, watching Fabio from the corner of her eye. She expected him to say something, but he didn't for now, which was almost more worrying.

  “Good! Good, you all need to be well prepared. Because... guess what, Fabio! I know where Carlos Wayne is running with his tail between his legs.”

  “Is that so... my lord?”

  “I'll tell you two all about it.”

  The whole group walked back to town. Gator gave Iesha a friendly nod before he and his fellow sellswords walked off to their camp, Iesha couldn't help but nod back. He did appreciate the man's fondness of her, even if he wasn't always the brightest.

  Her, Fabio and Lazarus walked inside the minister's house, and sat down around the dining table. Lazarus told them what he saw and heard in his magic mirror excitedly. Fabio looked suspicious, but he stayed silent still. His master's command was for him to take three quarters of their force, 150 soldiers, to finish that “cowardly pirate” off for good. Lazarus himself would stay, as he was no warrior, but he also told Fabio to take the sellswords too. Even now, the captain of guards didn't argue at all. Iesha felt like she really has to figure out what the guy is thinking.

  “Uhm... does it sound good? You think 150 men will be enough?” Lazarus asked Fabio. His ck of comments seemed to even make the minister a bit doubtful.

  “I think so, sir. You need a few of us to stay with you here too just to be sure.”

  “Right, just a few should suffice. From what I heard in the mirror, Murky Bay won't interfere with us, it's just that damn Carlos. Doomed Carlos,” Ike grinned. “So, did you warm up to our dear Iesha? I need you two to work together.”

  “We will, sir,” the man replied. “We sure will.”

  Iesha nodded. “I'm down with the pn too.”

  “Good! You shall get going tomorrow morning.”

  A servant brought in a pte of after-lunch sweats to Lazarus, who offered some to his two underlings, but they both declined and let him enjoy his treat alone. As Fabio walked out the building, Iesha caught up to him.

  “You wanna talk, man?”

  Fabio ignored her and went towards the main street of the town, but Iesha kept walking next to him.

  “You clearly dispyed that we have nothing to talk about, did you not?” the man asked without gncing at her.

  “But as our boss just said, we will have to work together. So...”

  “Fine by me.”

  “You distrust me though, I know you do. You surely get that sharing a ship with more than a hundred soldiers who's captain hates my guts doesn't seem too appealing.”

  “No need to worry. I'm not gonna just kill you, you have my word for it.”

  “Then at least let's have dinner together tonight! We should get to know each other a little better. It couldn't hurt, could it?”

  Fabio stopped and turned to the elf. “There is one and only one reason I joined Lazarus in his project here. He is the rival of Carlos Wayne, and I want that pirate dead. I don't know if I can trust you, and I don't know if I can trust what Lazarus saw in his mirror, but I have to see for myself. It's my best bet.”

  “A personal vendetta, huh?”

  “That's right. Wayne sunk my father's ship years ago. My father was a merchant and he refused to surrender to pirates, so he drowned. Now you know my reasons, sellsword, and I know yours. You're in it for the money. How about we leave it at that? Or you want me to be sceptical of you?”

  “No, I wish you weren't,” the woman sighed. “But so long as long as you won't turn against us on our way to Scalehide, I'll be content.”

  “And you have my word for it. See you tomorrow, Silverlight.”