Dreams of the Oracle

Chapter 27

Abdiel sat in the cargo hold of the Drusilla. He leaned back and looked at the simple wooden table before him. Five daggers each coated in water and bone dust were carefully arranged. His leather bag was sitting on his lap.

He hadn't slept much but he felt alert as his eyes watched the one entrance to the hold. There wasn't much more to do at this point. Jack was coming. He wasn't sure exactly when but he was on his way. The Rashakas would have his scent by now and Jack was not a patient man.

He took a swig from a flask that Maggie had provided. All those years ago when Alessa had told him that Jack would come, he had originally planned on simply fortifying the house and making a stand there. She had been the one that had told him that he would have to lead Jack away from the kids. It still troubled him.

He had been trained to compartmentalize his cares and worries. He had been trained to put things aside so he could focus on the task at hand. Yet in times like this when all he was doing was waiting it was easy to slip. His eyes moved across the glittering surface of the daggers on the table.

He knew a lot more than she had thought. He had heard her moaning in the night. She had never screamed like Cassandra but she had spoken plenty of times. He had pieced together much of what she had seen even though she refused to tell him. He looked down at the bag in his lap.

It was always going to be Port Silver. As soon as he had known that he couldn't make a stand at his house he had chosen Port Silver. It was poetic to end it here but that wasn't why he had chosen it. In the end he had chosen this city as a backup plan in case of his own failure. The Order was well entrenched here. They would never let Jack leave here alive. Plus, if Jack started burning up the town there was a chance that the Tsade might even intervene. That was an outside chance but it wasn't unheard of.

He felt the boat rock softly beneath him. He had always intended on finishing it on the water. Anywhere else and he risked Jack burning up common people. He had also taken the boat some distance from the dock and other ships in the harbor. He reached up and scratched his beard.

His mind turned back to a time so many years ago when he had had to steal bread just to survive. He never would have guessed at what he would eventually become. He thought of Jack at that time. He never would have guessed what that man would have become either. Both of them had been given a chance. Both of them had been given an opportunity that neither would have ever expected to receive in a million years. Now all these years later they were both preparing to destroy one another.

He looked down at the leather bag in his lap again. It had been ages since he had even seen a Tsade weapon up close. Yet his memory was excellent. He had always remembered a passing comment made by the Tsade corsair he had been with at the time. It had been a slip of the tongue and the man had caught himself almost immediately. Abdiel had recognized its import just as quickly and had never forgotten. If Faran had known that Abdiel had heard that comment he probably would have chosen the Rashakas over handing him one of their weapons.

He sat back and looked up at the entrance again. He had counted his steps across the cargo hold earlier. He knew exactly how much space he had to maneuver. He knew where he could get the best grip on the wooden floor and where the floor was slightly slippery. He knew where he would have to be to access the weapons he had laid out.

Of course his plan didn't require too much of a struggle but old habits died hard. And his plan could always go completely wrong. He didn't think it would or he wouldn't have chosen it but there was always the chance. He took another drink and let his mind turn to his meeting with the Hag.