Oathbreaker, Book 1: The Knight's Tale - Colin McComb

Tell no one of what you have seen here tonight, unless you wish them to be hunted, tortured, and
executed, as befalls traitors to the Empire’s glory.”
He drove his sword into the floor and left. Its handle was thorn-strewn and dripped with
blood. It hummed for a moment and died as the door closed behind him.
Silence followed him out the door, and the place exploded with talk and shouts.
“Leave? But we just got here!”
“No way I’m following him. No way.”
“But what about the Empire?”
“Are we supposed to be pirates now? I don’t hold with piratin’, but I ain’t no landlubber,
and I can’t give up the sea.”
“What are you going to do? Try to explain to the constables—hell, the damn army!—why
we’re standing around the corpses of four knights?”
“Why can’t we hide the bodies, deny they were ever here?”
“You think you’d hold up under torture? I don’t know that I’d trust any of you not to
break! I wouldn’t trust myself!”
All the while, I was packing my gear quietly. When I finished, I shouted to make myself
heard over the babble. When everyone quieted down, I said, “There’s one good reason we have to
leave now.”
“What’s that?” someone asked.
“Remember how the captain said they found him?” I pointed to the sword Pelagir’d left
on the floor. “They know he was here. They think he’s still here. And all the time you’re standing
around talking about it and not packing your gear, they’re getting ready to mount a raid in here
that’ll be able to take that man down. You think we’d be able to fight against that? No way. I’m a
sailor on the Ocarina, and a sailor I’m gonna stay. We’ve got no other ships to run to, we don’t
know our way around the land, and they’ll crush us if they catch us here. Best bet for you is to get
on the Ocarina, get to another port, and sign on to another vessel. I’m going to stick with the
vessel I love, if Early Jon’ll have me after we’re done with this. But one way or another, I’m
leaving this place and these bodies, and I tell you that you’d best get out of here before they
come.”
I shouldered my bag and walked toward the door. Pol did the same, and we strode down
the hill to the waiting ship together. It was all we could do to keep from running, but we didn’t
want to draw attention.
Colin McComb Oathbreaker, Book 1: The Knight's Tale
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