Astra saw that the two approaching ships were not flying Lords of the
Sea pennants like the Gold Coast did, but ones which were
unfamiliar to her, which at first encouraged her. But then she thought
about the situation more deeply: The pirates must think that these are
merchant vessels, ripe for the plucking, or surely we would not be
approaching them so closely. But if they should turn out to be
naval vessels, then even that could be a bad thing. I doubt whether our
ship would surrender. And if it should come to a battle, then at two to
one odds we might well be sunk. The crew might take to the boats, but I'm
far too big for that. And I'm not too sure that I could take off from here
without the lift of the hot-air balloon to help me; there's not very much
space in which to get airborne. I suppose I could transform to human and
join them in the boats. However I don't see any cannon, so these are
probably just
merchantmen. If that's the case, why aren't they fleeing, though? Perhaps
they think that they can't outrun us? But if they split up, we could only
follow one. And surely they can see that we are being handicapped by our
makeshift sail? Could Charlie be using magic to affect their judgement or
even to control them? If so, then might that give me a chance to contact
Sartoma whilst he is distracted?
By now, the distance between the Gold Coast and the other ships was down to a few hundred yards.
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2/9/2005 2:38:54 AM
Extending Enabled
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