Friday, September 12
Belly of the Beast: Part 8 – The Rings
The prisoners left their afternoon's work at a quarter-past five, so as to be all collected by half-past. The slanting rays of the sun threw long shadows from the cutters over the water, and the evening light sparkled warmly upon the tide, and danced as it caught every polished point of the dense mass, while the boats advance towards the hulk.
On the cutters reaching the hulk, the prisoners streamed up the gangway in single file as before - then poured down the hatchways, into their respective wards, where gruel was at once served out to them. They were allowed to rest till chapel-time, at half-past six o'clock.
Kham was exhausted. He was practically slumped over the table.
“Ye should choke somethin’ down,” said Scarbelly. “Or ye’ll only get weaker.”
Kham looked up at the orc. “Why do you care?”
Scarbelly took a deep breath. “Truth be told, I’d rather gut ye myself. But ye were done wrong, just like I be, by Kenzil an' his legacy. Ye lost a father t' him. Me, I just lost an eye an' a leg.” He rapped one calloused fist on his wooden peg leg.
“This doesn’t mean we’re friends, orc.”
Scarbelly nodded. “I wouldn’t be havin' it any other way. But if we’re goin' t' survive here, we’d better learn t' trust each other. If I wanted t', I could snap yer neck while ye sleep ye know.”
Kham swallowed hard. [MORE]
Labels: arcanis
posted by Mike Tresca at
6:39 AM
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