Chapter 7 - The Face at the Window

The stars are bright, the wind is cold
The moon is drifting free
We're out to seek for pirate gold
Across a silver sea

Yo ho!

The sun sets over Tarakus, and as ever, it's quite the production.

Sunset flared crimson in the west, and a scudding wrack of wind-torn clouds gave ominous presage of coming storms.

The Pirate City is quite a-bustle tonight. Beneath its beetling and heavily-manchicolated walls, many ships lie at anchor, because Kashtar has summoned the entire pirate fleet to prepare for the invasion of Patanga (the City of Flame, apparently, hence the Flame Throne I guess.)

Oh, it appears that Kashtar hasn't yet captured all of Thongor's mates, it was just a cunning plan he had, and KK was his only actual captive, so it kind of sucks that he escaped. It also means that Kashtar's invasion plan is in danger of being leaked, should KK make it back home, so all the guards are out searching for him, through the city ablaze under crimson skies. Yep, that's crimson three times in as many pages.

What, this is ANOTHER Karm Karvus chapter? The fuck? *flips forwards* Ah, OK, Thongor is back in the next chapter, never fear, and this one is pretty short.

It is also pissing it down with rain, though I thought crimson skies at night meant a shepherd's delight. All the pirates are enjoying themselves in taverns (much as you'd expect) but Karm Karvus has decided to evade the guards by hiding on the rooftops.

Yeah, he's still alive. How did this happen?

The Tsargolian never quite knew how he had survived the weltering fury of torn black water wherein the dragon, goaded beyond endurance, floundered and squalled. Somehow, after an eternity of swimming blind through black cold water far under the surface - lungs near to bursting and red agony searing at his brain - he had come up, gasping and half-drowned, in the fetid air of the sewers.

Anyway, we get a few paragraphs of explaining how clever he was to decide to go on the rooftops, especially given the cover of a rainy night, but now he's decide he needs to get indoors for some shelter and looks for an open window. Of course he finds one, and has to strive Heroically to get through it:

Foot by foot, up the steep incline of slippery tiles - streaming all the while with cold rain - he inched his way to the haven of the open and unlit window. He could hardly see from the stinging rain beating at his eyes. His arms, shoulders and back were bone-weary from the strain. The icy, insubstantial fingers of the howling storm-wind plucked and tore at him, striving to claw him free from his slight fingerholds and pitch him over into the dark alley far below.

...and so on, for two more paragraphs, until he finally reaches the actual window. But there is a cloaked and veiled figure inside! He smashes through the window and grabs the figure, trying to choke the life out of it before the alarm can be raised....!



...yeah, that's it for this chapter. Told you it was a short one.