A couple of minutes later, Jack showed up in the uniform, and he was carrying me around like a rag doll with my new belt in one hand and his sword in the other. I was dipped in the kid’s blood, so it looked as though I was not in fighting shape anymore. I may not have looked great to begin with, but the fresh blood added a touch of authenticity. I argued that I should be in the outfit, but it was quickly overruled because I couldn’t carry Jack with one hand, and since I was an Elf, I would instantly stand out.

  When all this was ready, Jack opened the door only to find no one outside in the narrow hallway. He dragged me down the hall to the first door and listened. He didn’t hear anyone, so he opened it up, ready to throw me at the first chance he got. Instead of people, Jack saw a whole bunch of lidless crates. He swung me right back down to the floor and let go of me.

  “Ouch. You could put me down softer,” I complained, rubbing my head.

  “Look, all our gear.” Jack pointed to a massive collection of items, ranging from weapons to clothing to armor. He went immediately toward his ax.

  “No. I don’t think that is going to work. That kid wasn’t wearing an ax. I don’t think these people have axes with them. Did you see any?” I asked.

  “No. They wouldn’t have them on a ship.” Jack pleaded, “But I could kill so many with this thing.”

  “We aren’t concerned with just killing people. We are also concerned with stealth. You had a good plan, and we should stick with it. Just grab an extra knife or two that you can conceal,” I said while grabbing one myself. I was unarmed before because the kid only had a short sword, and Jack took that from him, as he also received the uniform. At least now, I had a small weapon in case things went south. He put down the short-sword and grabbed a regular sword and two extra knives to put in his belt.

  While a cache of weapons was great, not having people to use those weapons made them nearly useless. I got into position and let Jack carry me out of the door. Again, there was no one in the hall and only one more entry on this level. He approached the door and pressed his ear against it. He could hear voices inside. We devised a clever plan of misdirection that put me in harm’s way, while giving Jack a chance to avoid notice and keeping the guards from raising an alarm.

  Jack grabbed me with both hands, shoved the door open with his foot, and threw me across the room. He then shouted in their language, “This one heals fast. Gave me trouble.”

  Immediately, the guards took out their swords to look at who burst the door open and was shouting, but they followed the path of the person who was thrown. Me.

  Without hesitation, Jack cleaved the head of one of the guards, and it made a loud impact sound. Then I said in common language, “Take that!” while holding up my knife. The other guard looked back at me in bewilderment at how I could have attacked the other guard from afar with a knife. When that happened, Jack took his knife and stabbed it into the second guard’s throat.

  “Ow, that hurt,” I said, rubbing my head. “That worked perfectly, but you threw me hard against the bars. I’m glad I didn’t black out. Next time, we have to go ass first.”

  Jack laughed at that. “You said it, not me.”

  “Get this door open,” Kaylie hissed.

  Jack started to go through the dead people’s pockets while I was slowly getting up. Throwing me might not have been the best idea, as I was still recovering. I turned around to see the cages this time. There were two cages with our people in one of them and Dwya in the other. They were further chained to the wall with the cuffs extending to their hands, tying them together at the wrist. Our people were whispering frantically, while the Dwya remained dead quiet, staring at Jack and me.

  “Aren’t the chains overkill if you are already in a cage?” I asked while Jack opened it, then continued to unlock all the people individually.

  “No. It’s a sensible precaution. Remember, the closer you are to another, the more their resistance lowers your own attributes. That is why we are paired in twos. But ignore that for now. What is going on? What are you doing here?” Kaylie asked, surprised but glad to see a familiar face.

  “Listen up, everyone. I got on board to rescue you, and I have been able to get Jack and a healer up. He has probably healed at least one other person by now. We have found our weapons on board, and our current plan is to use stealth to take over the ship,” I stated with as much confidence as I could muster.

  Someone on the left, still in chains, said, “Why don’t we burn the ship and try to swim back to land? They wouldn’t fight us if we all had to swim.”

  “No. I think Alf is right. We need to take back the ship. Surprise will be on our side this time, and we have a good chance. If we try to swim it, some of us can survive like Jack, but I bet the vast majority will end up drowning,” Kaylie stated authoritatively.

  It seemed like the people listened to her because there was no arguing after that.

  When Kaylie was freed from her chains, she put both of her hands on my cheeks and stared into my eyes. Hers were bright green with a fiery gold ring. As she touched me, I felt flushed but didn’t pull away. “Thank you,” she said as sincerely as possible. I nodded, and she let go.

  To dispel my infatuation, I focused back. “Jack, after you’re done with unlocking the people, we should probably unlock the Dwya as well.” During the conversation, one of the Dwya was slowly talking in a different language while the others watched him.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The same villager from before spoke up again, “I don’t think we should do that. What if they are hostile to us? I mean, look at them.”

  He did have a good point. If I had to choose a side of good or evil, these creatures looked evil to anyone. They had black eyes.

  “I agree.” Kaylie jumped in. “We aren’t sure where their loyalty lies. They aren’t known as a violent race, but they have been on the wrong side of conflicts and owing fealty to the wrong type of person. On the other hand, they are primarily a builder race. I don’t think they will be that good at fighting. I don’t see the upside. They can either give us weak warriors or a knife to the back. However, if you did come aboard to save us, this should be your choice to make. We won’t overrule you.”

  At this point, Jack was done freeing people, and most were standing near the door, ready to rush anyone who came through. Jack gave his sword to the first person he encountered, who was at the front near the door. He then came over and handed me the keys.

  “Jack, I doubt that trick would work with this many people. I say you take them all back to retrieve weapons and get outfitted, and then let’s take the ship. I’m going to talk with these Dwya and see if they are with us. Can you bring me back armor and a weapon before we raid?” I said, looking at the prisoners.

  “I’m on it. Thank you for giving us a chance for our freedom, even if we don’t survive,” Jack said, putting out his hand.

  I grasped his wrist and said, “Us, lose? Come on. You have me on your side. How could we lose?” At that, they started pouring out the door as silently as they could.

  When everyone was out, I went to the two corpses and absorbed them. I had no problem with these two people. They were adults and slavers, so they deserved a fate worse than this. Then, the image of that kid popped into my head, and I froze for a second. Enough. I pushed it back down and out of my thoughts. This was not the time for that.

  Only the Dwya saw what I was up to, but I was pretty sure they weren’t telling anyone, and they likely had no idea what I was doing. Once more, the energy surged into me, and this time I felt completely refreshed. I was at full health and felt like I had slept a whole night, waking up well-rested. My mind was focused again, and it was time to talk to the Dwya.

  “Do any of you speak common?” I asked as I approached their cage door.

  “I do. My name is Mason,” said the Dwya, who was speaking earlier. The others were listening to what he was saying.

  “I think he was translating for the others. I have been listening and trying to learn their language. It will give us a good advantage if we know it and they don’t know we do. That way, if they speak to betray us, you will know before they know, you know,” Rabbit said.

  “What? You know that barely made any sense,” I said, still trying to work it out.

  “Listen. Have Mason translate these words and phrases I give you.” Rabbit started giving me words and phrases, and I followed his instructions exactly. Mason was confused, but as he was in a cage and I wasn’t, he did as requested. The words were things like ‘traitor’ or ‘kill,’ while the phrases made no sense at all. I guess Rabbit was trying to fill in gaps in the language that he didn’t pick up when he was translating what I said earlier.

  Once done, I switched topics without mentioning what all that was for, and oddly enough, they didn’t ask. Either they knew what I was doing, or it didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. I knew any Human would have asked the obvious questions, even if it didn’t matter.

  “I want to let you out, but how do I know you are on our side?” I asked carefully.

  The truth was, unless these people turned out to be truly evil, I was going to let them out. I did not care what the others thought. I was not going to stand by and watch anyone be sold like livestock.

  Not Humans.

  Not Elves.

  Not Dwya.

  If I had the power to stop it, then I would, no matter who wore the chains.

  The only question left was whether I should wait until we had secured our freedom or act now. And the only ones who could answer that were the ones still locked behind those bars, watching me.

  “We haven’t yelled for help,” Mason replied calmly.

  “That doesn’t prove anything. It just means you want a chance to get out of here. Not that you aren’t going to attack us,” I replied.

  “That is true, but we will not attack you. We want our freedom, and we will fight with you,” Mason promised.

  All of his people were watching us. I assumed they were all lost in what we were saying, but they didn’t bother Mason to translate. They waited there calmly.

  “Let me ask you a question,” Mason interrupted my attempts to argue circular logic. “Is what you said true? Did you come on the ship just to save us? You weren’t captured and got lucky?”

  “Well, I didn’t come here to save you,” I emphasized the word ‘you.’ “I came here to save the others. But, even if you don’t fight with us, I will not let you become slaves. I would rather die than see someone become a slave if I can help it.”

  He turned around and started talking to the rest. Everyone was talking at once. Even with a precise translation, I couldn't follow the conversation because they were talking over each other. But somehow, they seemed to understand each other.

  “Rabbit, translate,” I said.

  “It’s too much information for you. Trust me, I’ll warn you of any threats, but this is the gist of what I know. They seem to build on each other's words, adding logical arguments instead of the repetitive and argumentative talk common in Human conversation. It's fascinating. I need to learn more about this language. Right now, I'm unsure how much I understand, but I'm grasping about half of it. It's frustratingly annoying,” Rabbit replied, which didn’t help me because I was standing there like an idiot waiting for them to talk to me.

  As abruptly as it started, the conversation ended, and they all turned to me and knelt on both knees. It was strange since everyone I had ever seen knelt with only one leg, but it was another world, so the customs were different. They all communicated in tandem in a language I didn’t understand, but when they all spoke in sync, it was harmonious and beautiful.

  “I am 99 percent certain they pledged some type of loyalty to you,” Rabbit said.

  “Some type of loyalty to me? Like that, they won’t attack us during the battle?” I asked, baffled.

  “I think it may be stronger than that. I’m not sure if it’s a nonaggression pact or something more. It’s good at least for this battle, but I wouldn’t break faith and start attacking them. We may be fine for today. We can unpack the rest later,” Rabbit concluded.

  “Okay, sounds good to me,” I said to Rabbit, and I took a step forward within their reach and opened their cage. This was the moment of truth. They would either attack me or they wouldn’t. I was all alone and easy prey as I unlocked them one at a time.

  Even if they had attacked me, it would have been worth it. Letting them stay in chains just because I was afraid would have made me no better than the people who locked them up in the first place. If I died opening that cage, at least I would have died standing for something that mattered.

  They all got up off their knees at the same time, as though they had practiced it, and Mason said, “Thank you for your trust. Let us fight together and never apart.”

  Relieved, I patted Mason on the back and said, “Let’s go.” The Dwya followed me as I peeked through the doorway, only to find everyone waiting just outside.

  I took a step outside and said, “The Dwya are fighting with us.”