***

  Chapter 7: Pirate Ship

  Moments after the first cry split the night Zed stepped inside the violetwood chamber. The shaman held up a tiny squirming form wrapped in soft cloth. Sybil exhausted but radiant reached for the child with trembling hands.

  Zed moved to his wife first. He knelt beside the bed and gently brushed damp strands of hair from her forehead his calloused fingers surprisingly tender against her flushed skin. "How do you feel?" he asked voice low and steady eyes searching hers for any sign of pain or distress.

  Sybil gave a tired but genuine smile her voice soft and warm despite the exhaustion weighing on every word. "Tired... but happy. He is strong like his father."

  Only then did Zed turn to the newborn. The shaman carefully placed the baby in his arms. The child was small warm and perfect with a tiny tuft of dark hair and eyes that already seemed to hold a quiet intensity. A son. Zed looked down at the tiny face and felt something ancient and fiercely possessive stir deep inside him.

  "Enzo," he said quietly the name rolling off his tongue with quiet finality. "Your name is Enzo."

  He held his son close one large hand cradling the back of the infants head with surprising gentleness. "One day I will train you to be strong Enzo. Strong enough that nothing in this world or the next can ever take you from us. I promise you that."

  Zed continued speaking softly to his son his voice a low murmur filled with quiet determination as he told the newborn of the fortress they had built together and the future they would carve out of the jungle and the sea. The babys tiny fingers curled around his thumb in a surprisingly firm grip.

  Shinobi appeared at the doorway in a silent blur. "Master. A ship carrying a black flag has been sighted. It sails directly toward our island."

  Zed gently kissed Enzo on the forehead the brief touch lingering with a depth of feeling he rarely allowed himself to show before placing the newborn back into Sybils waiting arms. "Rest. I will return."

  He turned to the golem. "Show me."

  Shinobi led him to the highest platform of Strongroot. From there under the light of the three moons the ship was visible a dark silhouette cutting through the waves black flag snapping in the wind.

  Merlin chimed in Zeds mind with calm precision. "That is a cog. It is a type of ship used during the middle ages mostly for trade and transport but also in war. If such a ship exists it means there might be higher civilizations beyond the tribes."

  Zeds eyes narrowed as the vessel drew closer. He saw the horror clearly now. Men women and children were chained together and stuffed inside iron cages on the deck. A burly pirate with a scarred face cracked a whip across a womans back laughing as fresh blood welled and she screamed. Another lean crewman kicked a chained child in the ribs while his companion forced seawater down an old mans throat until the captive choked and gagged on his own vomit. A third drunk pirate dragged a young girl by her hair toward the rail jeering at his mates. "This one is mine tonight lads. Break her in before we sell the rest." Their laughter echoed raw and merciless as they tormented the captives treating human lives like broken toys for their entertainment.

  Zeds voice turned ice cold. "Call every golem. We attack."

  Rook and Shinobi stood at attention. The rest of the squad Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta Echo Foxtrot Golf Hotel and India appeared in perfect formation. These were the additional golems Zed had created over the months to patrol guard and assist with every task on the island.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  He explained the plan with ruthless efficiency. "We move in silence. Knock out every pirate and bind them with the special violetwood zip ties I created. Non lethal. We take the ship intact. The captives must not be harmed."

  The golems nodded as one. The squad vanished into the night.

  They moved swiftly and with urgency across the floating bridge and onto the water. The golems swarmed the deck in silence. Rook charged first his armored form smashing into the nearest pirate like a battering ram. The man flew overboard screaming as violetwood fists crushed ribs. Shinobi blurred through the shadows her blades slicing throats in sprays of hot blood. Pirates screamed as golems tore through them non lethal but savage. A fierce pirate burst from the lower deck saber in one hand and several flintlock pistols strapped across his chest. He screamed and opened fire. Bullets ricocheted from Rook causing the bullet to bounce back to the pirate hitting him right between the legs. One round grazed Zeds shoulder drawing a hot line of blood. The remaining pirates charged in a desperate frenzy. One swung a cutlass at Shinobi but she dodged and drove her blade into his gut. Another fired a pistol at Rook but the golem grabbed the man by the throat and slammed him into the deck. Zed watched as the golems subdued the last of them with brutal efficiency.

  Zed turned to the cages and opened them one by one. The captives stared at him with a mix of fear and desperate hope. Many flinched when he approached. One old man raised trembling hands as if expecting another beating. A young woman pressed herself against the bars eyes wide with terror.

  Zed spoke calmly voice steady. "You are safe now. I am not like them. Tell me what happened."

  He listened as each one spoke their story raw and broken under the three moons.

  A young fisherman named Josh told how pirates raided his coastal fishing village at night. He was only twenty two when they came. They killed his father defending the boats. Dragged his mother away. He fought back and woke up in chains. He had been at sea almost a year.

  A young woman named Mira spoke next her voice shaking. Her own brother sold her to the pirates to settle gambling debts. She had endured months of abuse on the ship her body marked with scars that would never fade. She pressed back against the bars as if expecting the whip again.

  A blacksmith named Torin described being forced to forge the very chains that bound other captives while pirates held his young daughter as leverage. He had not seen her since the day they took her.

  A teenage boy named Rike recounted how his merchant caravan was ambushed on the road. Pirates killed his father and sold his sister to a different ship. He had been alone in the cages for nearly a year.

  An old scholar named Torren in his mid fifties admitted he had been studying ancient texts in a coastal library when pirates raided the town. He tried to protect his students and colleagues but failed. The pirates captured him for his knowledge of old maps and runes. He had carried the guilt of every life he could not save ever since.

  An island healer named Vesper told how her entire village was burned during a plague outbreak. The pirates blamed her for the sickness and took her as punishment. She had watched her patients die while chained beside them.

  Zed listened to every word his face impassive but his mind cataloguing each story as potential leverage or future loyalty. He asked quiet questions drawing out details without offering false comfort. When they finished he met their eyes one by one.

  "You have my word. Strongroot is a place where chains are broken not forged. You will have safety food homes and purpose. No one will chain you again."

  The captives stared in stunned silence. Slowly one by one they began to nod though some eyes still held fear.

  He searched the entire ship for anything valuable. In the captains cabin he found books. Not ordinary books. Magic books. Tomes on runes and how to enchant items. Volumes describing several kingdoms across the sea. Zed was intrigued but he set them aside for later. There were more urgent tasks.

  He found the leader of the captives a sturdy woman named Lira who had kept the others alive through sheer will. She explained their situation once more. "We all come from different locations. The travel from where we are from to where we are now has taken over a year. None of us want to take the chance of traveling such a lengthy time again at sea."

  Zed looked at the freed people then at the island fortress glowing under the three moons.

  "Then stay," he said simply. "Become citizens of Strongroot. You will have safety food homes and purpose. No one will chain you again."

  The captives stared in stunned silence. Slowly one by one they began to nod though some eyes still held fear.

  Zed turned toward the island the black flagged ship now under his control.

  The monster had just gained an entire ship full of new subjects. Soon the kingdoms across the sea would learn exactly what kind of monster they were dealing with.