Blood and Steel (The Cor Chronicles Volume I) by Martin Parece II
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Captain Naran paced his deck with an impatience to which he was not accustomed. He never agreed to sail with other ship captains, and as such he set his own schedule. Naran preferred leaving port at the moment he saw sunlight, and instead it was halfway to noon before Kosaki’s cargo finally arrived. And when he saw it, he swore and spat over the side. Cor came to stand next to the captain.
“Gods be damned! The bastard Kosaki deals in slaves now!” Naran shouted, gesturing his open hand toward the dock.
A long line of perhaps fifty wretched souls made their way across the dock, the first starting up the gangplank to Kosaki’s ship. Men, women and even a few children, the slaves were filthy and smelled worse. Their ribs projected from their sides, bellies sunken in for lack of proper food, and most had signs of whips upon their backs. Cor could see Westerners and Tigoleans, even a few Shet, and one tall man with skin the color of night.
“That one is from Dulkur far to the east,” Naran said, following Cor’s eyes. “I will not sail there. It is five or six months, depending on the winds. And you’ll be lucky if their rulers do not set you aflame on sight.”
“I’ve never seen slaves before,” Cor said quietly. “It’s horrible.”
“It is and don’t forget it,” answered the captain. “There is no greater evil than taking the warmth of freedom from a man. It is the only thing I truly have, and the only thing I need in this life.”
“The priests of Garod back home told me much the same thing.”
“And they were correct in that at least boy. I live, I sail and I am free. And I will kill to protect that.”
“You won’t sail to Dulkur, but you will sail to the Loszian Empire?” Cor asked. At this Naran turned his head to search Cor’s face whose eyes were still fixed on the slaves.
“Ha! Fear not young Cor! The Loszian necromancers would never set foot upon this ship! I fear the sea more than I fear those godless bastards!” Naran blustered and turned toward the deck. “We do not wait for Kosaki to load his ‘cargo’. Cast off! We make sail for Katan’Nosh now!”
Cor remembered the teachings of the priests at home, and he was fairly certain the Loszians were not godless.
3.