Splintered oars and the rib-shards of broken hulls bobbed in the wake of the Roaring Axe. He had seen to the sorting of the survivors with but a word to his captain: the high-born were bundled away as gilded hostages to be bled for ransom or to be used as hostages to bring the noble families of the sand to their knee, while the rest were chained for the slave markets, their backs destined for the whip and the sun.
It was a victory, however bothersome, and by nightfall, men would be screaming his name into the bottoms of ale-horns. His brother Cain , who had been in part responsible for the whole plan, would likely receive no thanks for the brilliance of it. It had been Cain's vision to let the fractured armada limp back to their ancestral ports, giving the local lords just enough hope to spark a civil war where it mattered.It pained Blake a bit to see his brother be treated so unthankfully, especilaly since in the past he had been part of the unthankful batch.
