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.Reaching out to sense the Mana-flow around me, I quietly darted along thewooden corridors of the ship.I only had to step around four sailors whoworked belowdecks, my bare feet silent on the wooden floors.Shortly, myefforts were rewarded - I sensed Mana-flow on the deck above me.Judging bythe patterns, it was tatter-robes and my items.I went up a gangway, steppingaround two more sailors, then followed the indications to a door.I tried thehandle, pleased to find it was unlocked, then opened the door as quietly as Icould.Tatter-robes was seated at a desk, poring over a tome before him.Knowing hewore my own ring of protection, I snuck up behind him and swung my staff atthe base of his skull as hard as I could.Some small sound, some instinct must have warned him, for he started to turnin his chair as the blow landed, and took the blow along the side of his headinstead.He fell to the floor heavily, blood flowing freely from his splitscalp, but was still breathing when I checked him - my ring of protection hadsaved him.Quickly stepping back to the door, I closed it and threw the latch.My spell of invisibility couldn't have more than a few moments left, thoughI'd drained my staff to make it last as long as I could.I quickly pulled my rings off his fingers and slipped them back onto mine,then activated my ring of protection to armor myself.I then walked over andpicked up my grimoire from his desk, the book he'd been reading with suchinterest, and slipped it back into its protective bag.Lifting up a jewel onmy right thumb ring to reveal a tiny compartment, I slipped the enormous bookback into the enchanted extra-dimensional space that the ring contained.Ithen searched his cabin for the rest of my items.If mages today were anythinglike mages were in my day, he'd have saved all my items.He may have no needfor the knife, gloves, boots and magic skeleton key, but ensorcelled itemswere too valuable to simply throw away.If he'd ever run across a mage who didhave a need for them, he could trade them for a spell or two.I was rewardedin my search when I opened his footlocker - he'd retained not only my knife,the boots and gloves, the little silver skull-key and hair-ring, but he'd alsokept the elf-chain garment.This at least showed he had some brains - even thelittle scraps of elf-chain in it were valuable, and an elf would give him afair price for it.The garment I'd made out of the thieve's chain shirts he'dapparently tossed away, however (which made sense, as they were non-magicaland not worth much).I also found his own grimoire, a thin tome written in ascratchy hand.I tucked it in my thumb-ring's compartment, and was relieved todiscover it fit.Though I doubted he knew any spells of interest to me, nomage with half a brain ignores the grimoire of a defeated foe.Page 70ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlAfter using the skull-key to rid myself of the manacles, I dressed in theelf-chain garment again.I noticed as I did so that my groin and inner thighswere a mess from dried blood.This brought a flare of anger as I remembered myordeal, and I drew my knife as I stepped up to the unconscious mage.I wassimply going to slit his throat, then came up with a better idea.Cutting hisrobes into strips, I bound and gagged him tightly with his hands behind him ashe lay there on the floor.Sheathing my dagger and searching him, I found healso had a dagger, apparently his wizard's staff, and Darian's littleartifact-amulet.I drew his knife and tossed it aside, slipped Darian's amuletover my own neck, then took my staff and smashed his hands to a bloody pulpagainst the deck.He awoke during this with a muffled shriek, and instantly willed his staff tohis hands.Unfortunately, his broken and smashed fingers couldn't grip it andit slipped to the deck, out of his reach.He couldn't even snap it to try tokill me in the explosion that would follow."You should have killed me,Tatter-robes.Now it is you who shall pay," I croaked hoarsely, and drew myknife.He tried to throw himself to the door to escape, but I leaped upon him,rolled him face up and sat on his chest, then pulled his robe up.He let out amuffled, high-pitched squeal as I cut, the blood pouring from between his legslike a river.I got off of him, then looked down at him as he struggled topress his thighs together against his groin in a useless attempt to stop theflow of blood."I'll bet you'd like me to finish you, Tatter-robes.I'll bet if you couldspeak, you'd beg me to slit your throat.I'm not going to, though.You didn'tshow mercy to me, so I have no reason to show mercy to you.No, I fully intendto stand here and watch you bleed to death, just as you intended to allow meto die of thirst and starvation while you and the men of this ship raped meover and over again.Oh, and here - you can have this," I rasped, and tossedhis genitalia on the floor before his face.He screamed through his gag, thenfainted.After a few minutes, his breathing grew faint, then stopped.Hisuseless dagger shimmered, then crumbled to dust.He was dead.And that, somehow, was immensely satisfying.I'd killed many men in my time - most in battle, but some in duels.Nearlyevery man who had fallen to my spells or my staff had been a thousand timesmore worthy than this little cockroach whose corpse lay before me.Yet, hisdeath gave me more satisfaction than any other ever had.I realized I still had the rest of the ship to deal with, and sat down tomeditate on a spot of the deck not covered in the mage's blood.After a couplehours, I felt a little better.My body needed rest and food to fully recover,but I had enough strength for a simple battle-illusion.Without a mage todefend them by dispelling the illusion, I was certain I could beat them.Iblocked the door with the desk, hid myself in a corner and covered myself witha blanket, then relaxed.I merely had to wait.Finally, I heard a hue and cry as my absence from the storage room wasdiscovered by the latest group of sailors, come to pay their respects.I thencast my spell of astral projection, and sent my spirit soaring through theship to the top deck.A sailor came running up a gangway from below, bellowingabout my absence.I then cast the illusion, crafting it carefully.I was weakPage 71ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmland trembling afterwards, as the strength for any spell cast on the Astral waslimited by that of the physical body one's spirit was tied to, but the spellwas successful.Each sailor on deck was now covered with an illusion of me,and they knew not which was friend or foe.I then let my spirit return to mybody, uncovered myself, then gave them a minute or two to begin killing eachother as I rested to recover my strength again.An age ago, I used spells like that to confuse enemy soldiers, to send anentire company into a self-destructive melee as they suddenly saw themselvessurrounded by the enemy.Its area limited its effectiveness in battle, but itwas a simple spell that hardly drained my old body at all, and as such wasuseful for conserving my strength as I eliminated a single company of men.Bythe sounds coming from above my head, the men aboard ship were fightingfuriously with each other.I pulled the desk away from the door, thenunlatched it and stepped out of the cabin.It was time to join them above
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