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Thursday, September 11

Belly of the Beast: Part 7 – Hard Labor

The rowers held their oars raised in the air, as the brown line of men flowed rapidly into the cutter below. Some seated themselves in the stem, but the large majority stood in a dense mass in the bottom of the long low craft, dotted here and there by the dark dress of the officers planted in the midst of them. In fine weather no less than one hundred prisoners were landed in each of the boats.

The long boats glided slowly to the pier, their dense human freight painted brown on the stream. And scarcely had one boat landed its felon crew before another was filled, and making for the shipyards and the shore.

“We’re building ships?”

“Aye.” Scarbelly continued to row in sync with Kham. Because they were chained together, they were learning to do a lot of things together. “Freeport’s lookin' t' build itself a fleet.”

“For what?” asked Kham.

“For war,” said Scarbelly. [MORE]

Labels: arcanis

posted by talien at 6:44 AM

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