Chapter 254: Way into the East 3

Isaac opened the door as the stone faced manager stood to the other side of it’s swinging frame, bowing low as they flanked the shadowy entrance that only showed a descending grey stone staircase, smeared with fading blotches of what were undoubtedly dried blood.

We didn’t dally any longer there, and immediately began walking down the eerie stairs, until we reached the bottom almost a full minute later, where we were then faced with a straight long corridor at our left hand side, lit with intermittent bundles of candles, placed periodically along the walls.

The manager then took the lead, ushering us into the tunnel.

The doors to our right were all fashioned as holding cells, with barbed steel bars and heavy portcullises. While the rooms to our left seemed to function a variety of different purposes. Some were obviously interrogation chambers. Others were for the acts of torture. One room in particular that I had noticed, which was only half open, looked to be where they brewed their poisons. And some were even used as storage compartments, housing crates upon crates of pickled vegetables, fermenting wines and cured meats for the inn above. But I had noticed a gleaming rack of blades tucked away behind a few barrels in there as well.

My observation was cut short however, when the manager suddenly paused beside one shut door and bowed once more.

We understood that to mean that we had reached our destination, and nodded to him, as he then quickly took his leave.

"He doesn’t speak much." Nizam muttered, looking at the departing man.

"He’s no Hecatomb, if that’s what you’re wondering my prince." Isaac clarified. "He’s merely struck with nerves." Isaac added with an amused smile.

"Nerves?" Nizam questioned.

"It’s not every day you are face to face with the emperor, is it?" Horus said.

"And his majesty does possess a certain, shall we say, sanguine reputation." And then Isaac added, by which point I had already unlocked the door and entered.

"Your majesty!" The loud and cheerful voice of Khairuddin boomed through the once quiet space, as soon as I’d stepped over the threshold.

He had done away with his characteristically flamboyant attire, wearing an ordinary set of linen clothes and leather sandals, along with a long white scarf that travellers often used to cover their faces when embarking upon a desert voyage. But while his outerwear had shifted to a demure style, his attitude it seemed remained utterly unchanged, as he then jumped over the table in the middle of the room before landing in a graceful bow.

"Admiral." I greeted him casually, as I stepped around him to take a seat upon the chipped wooden table, while the others remained rooted in their place, non more so than Nizam, who was stunned by the man’s shocking eccentricity.

Khairuddin then rose, gave them all a beaming smile and then returned to his prior seat, now facing me.

"It’s been too long my liege." He said.

"Indeed it has been Admiral. But I trust you haven’t been too bored during these times." I replied.

He boomed his usual loud laugh. "No. No. Though those pirates are as slippery as eels, and as cowardly as mice when cornered, but it was worth it when I finally wrangled them all beneath my command, and we occasionally faced those Yue bastards in the open sea. Their traders only had a feckless fight to offer us, but it has been a right old party recently. Especially in the past few months. They’ve had their navy begin to escort their merchant ships, on account of how much we’ve been preying on them, so it was a right struggle beating them in the beginning, but once I started properly training those mangy pirates with the aid of a few of my officers from the Eastern Navy, we started teaching those Dynasty fools how a war at sea is truly fought." He finished with another booming laugh.

I merely nodded and waited for him to finish his ecstatic laughter, while my guards took their usual spots behind me and Nizam took a seat beside me.

"On to business now Khairuddin; as we’re rather strapped for time. Have you secured our cover?" I asked.

"All done and ready sire." He replied. "You will be impersonating a band of smugglers aboard one of my pirate vessels, reselling the stock from a merchant vessel we commandeered not a few days ago in the illegal markets of the Yue Dynasty."

"And where will this be happening?" I asked.

"You majesties will take harbour in Hei Sha port. The most corrupt anchorage in the entire east, which just so happens to be a days journey from the capital." He explained.

"Hiding in plain sight." Nizam muttered in approval.

"Like concealing fish in the see." Khairuddin laughed.

"And our means of transport?"

"My finest ship and crew." He boomed. "Waiting for you on the southern most tip of the docks as we speak."

"And the duration?"

"A fortnight. With favourable winds and all the necessary stops along the way that are required to not draw unnecessary eyes of course." He said.

"It will have to be a fortnight and a day then, Khairuddin." I cryptically told him, yet the clever fox quickly understood my meaning.

"Your orders sire?" He quickly asked, his eyes narrowing.

"A brief stop at a specific beach a few lieges south of the border. And it must be during the waning hours of twilight."

"...Very well then, my liege." He said with a wisened gleam in his eyes.

"How soon can we set sail?" I then asked, not caring that he’d figured out what I had in mind.

"Within the hour, should you command it my liege." He assured me with a confident grin.

"Then I command it Khairuddin."

"Very well then, sire." He said, rising from his seat and leaving through the door.

"So soon brother? Should we not rest at least a while for sister’s sake at least." Nizam whispered to me, as the flamboyant admiral disappeared behind the door and down the lit corridor.

"If you want to anger her then be my guest Nizam." I said chucklingly. "There is nothing she would appreciate less in this moment than having us delay our mission due to her."

"...Sister-in-law’s pride." He said, habitually running his hand through his hair.

"Exactly." I smiled, as I then stood to quickly retrace our steps back into the inn.

Once there, it didn’t take us more than a few minutes to make ready ourselves. Eve was feeling far better by that point, even as we once again headed into the bustling city.

Out trip to the harbour was again marked by our attempts to skip past the most populated areas of the city, which even with all the detours we took, did not delay us by more than a few minutes.

Once there we quickly located the ship Khairuddin told us about, we wasted no time quickly boarding it. The ship was quite clearly a converted fishing vessel, after being captured by the pirates now manning it. Or so I would say, had I not witnessed the military like discipline in some of their actions, and the subtle salutes they offered as we passed by.

No matter how well Khairuddin has been training the pirates, they would not have this air to them. No these men were no pirate rabble, they were professional seamen of the eastern navy pretending to be sea scum. Undoubtedly taken by Khairuddin to serve in his expanding pirate fleet.

Making our way to the captains quarters, we were unsurprised to see the eastern admiral waiting for us along with another man, standing straight as an arrow beside him.

"My liege, this is captain Sinan. One of my finest. He has already been informed of the slight change of plans you requested, and will be commanding the ship that will take you to your destination." He said.

The bald and bearded man stepped forward then, and boldly declared with his rough voice "Sinan Malvan. Captain of the third swift assault galley of the second squadron. At your service, your imperial majesty!"

"Captain." I nodded to the man, as he went about explaining a few more of the finer details of the voyage, while the rest of my party busied themselves with other matters.

"My lord." Khairuddin called out to me with a slightly awkward little tilt of the head, as his eyes portrayed the utmost graveness half an hour later, mere moments from the crew announcing the completion of the final checks before departure. "A word to the wise my liege." He said as we both came to a secluded corner of the ship ."When you land in Hei Sha, take care not to dawdle around too much, even at the cost of rising suspicion. My men will take care to keep your cover up. But make sure you depart as quick as possible. There are far worse things than little thieving rats and greedy blood hounds patrolling those filth ridden streets."

"Like foxes for example?" I asked with a small smile.

He stared at me in shock for a moment . Little did he know that those in question, those who even he, the Pirate King of the East and the Admiral of all my eastern armadas, grew weary of were in fact the underlings of Eve’s blood relation. Those who served the whims of their vixen of a mistress and her vulpine vows.

"Worry not Admiral, I would rather face a dozen of the fiercest tigers the eastern hegemon has to offer, than get entangled with that particular fox." I assured him with a pat on the shoulder, as I then turned back to my party of five, just as the calls for final preparations having been completed rang out across the ship.