One pirate ship on Otto’s side pushed to the riverbank and quickly unloaded, thinking they could break through the line of archers and join up with the two hundred and fifty marching up beside the river. The last two ships in the back of the procession, saw what was happening and began to back-stroke. The current helped them, and they soon got out of range. Margueritte let out another quiet “Damn.” Nearly half of their ships will escape, and we still have a small army of pirates on the other side of the river.”

“No, Lady,” A fairy said as she fluttered up close on butterfly wings. “Leodek the dwarf brought his whole troop of a hundred down from the Alpilles. A hundred gnomes of Camargue brought their bows. And my people are not so many, but we brought our bows as well. The pirates stopped moving and looked for cover when the arrows began to fly. They panicked when Leodek and the dwarfs charged, though I think it was mostly the three ogres and the mountain troll that really caused the panic.”

“Yes, Lady Tamarisk,” Margueritte said, knowing the fairy’s name without having to hardly think about it. Margueritte tapped her shoulder, and the fairy beamed for joy at the invitation and carefully came to sit on the shoulder, hardly tugging at all on Margueritte’s hair to get comfortable, while Margueritte moved slowly to where she could see how things went.

“Well,” Lady Tamarisk continued. “Some of the pirates got chopped to little pieces. I cannot lie about that, but I did not have to watch. Some tried for the river. Maybe they wanted to let the current take them away from the slaughter, or maybe thought to swim across the river if they could. But every one that went in the water got pulled down into the deep and never came back up. That is sad. Some ran back the way they came. I think they escaped, but I am not certain.

“And the shipload that attacked the other side?”

“They were stopped. Some surrendered. A few got close to the slaughter and decided to turn around and surrender. I guess they decided it was no good trying to surrender to a berserker dwarf or an ogre.”

“No. That would not have worked.” Margueritte took a deep breath and thought hard to Leodek, the dwarf chief, to make sure he let the men go that ran away. He protested, but only a little.

She approached the men in the three front ships and the two ships that edged up to the riverbank on her side, one being before the blockade and the other being beyond. Her four hundred surviving soldiers had nearly a hundred and fifty prisoners. She imagined Otto saved most of his hundred and fifty and maybe had fifty more prisoners. She also imagined there might be two hundred pirates and five ships where the river met the sea, and they would escape. It was a terrible toll for the pirates to lose more than half their ships and more than half their men, but you never know with pirates. All it might do is make them plan more carefully next time, and maybe not try to bite off such a big target.

“Thank you Lady Tamarisk for your information. I am sorry there are so many men around here. Maybe you should return to your troop. Please thank them all for their help and thank the gnomes too.”

“And the dwarfs?” Lady Tamarisk asked.

Margueritte sighed as she nodded. She blinked and missed the sight of the butterfly that flew from her shoulder. Her eyes were taken by the vision before her. It was Leibulf. He found her at the edge of the river. He came up, his sword drawn and dripping with blood. He looked painted with blood, and he was smiling. Margueritte could not hold back the tide. Genevieve yelled in Margueritte’s head until Margueritte relented and let Genevieve return to her own place and time, and right in front of a bunch of men. Genevieve immediately slapped Leibulf hard on his cheek and turned her yelling on him.

“Men died. Maybe bad men, but they died. I don’t ever want to see you smiling about killing. Not ever. You owe God an apology. And you owe your father an apology as well. You did your duty. Good for you. But you were not supposed to even be in the fighting.” Genevieve found some tears, and no one disturbed her in her grief. Leibulf gave her a quick hug and wisely went to find his father.

Genevieve sat right there on the ground overlooking the river and thought of nothing. She decided her armor felt really comfortable, even when she was in her eighth month. She might wear it more often, but then she might just get some fairy weave that she could make to look like a dress. Fairy weave had the remarkable ability to stretch to fit and be comfortable no matter how big she got, not that she could exactly be comfortable in her eighth and ninth months, regardless. She remembered from last time.

She had to get a passing soldier to help her up when she saw someone she recognized. It was not who she expected, but it was also no surprise. She followed behind the man who walked trapped between two guardsmen, a lieutenant of sorts leading the way.

They stopped short of Otto, who was presently instructing the men in the cleanup of one ship stuck on the riverbank. Genevieve thought of converting the pirate ships to merchant vessels, but they would have to be pulled up into dry dock and given a good look. Some appeared hardly better than salvage.

The prisoner who stood between two soldiers looked around when Otto turned to them to listen. The lieutenant spoke.

“This man claims to be friends with your wife, from Breisach. He claims to be a poor merchant whose ship got caught up in what he thought was a trading expedition. He swears he did not know they were pirates. He says they killed most of his crew and replaced them with wicked men. He says the only reason they kept him alive was because he knew his own ship and could navigate.”

“Please. You have got to believe me…” the man begged, and Genevieve remembered the grating voice as she recognized the man. He was older, perhaps older than Otto, but not so changed that she would not know him.

“Liar,” she shouted.

The man spun around and shouted her name. “Genevieve!”

“Signore Lupen.” She named the man. “You have been a liar from the beginning.”

“No. You know I am quick to take advantage of the chance to make money, but legitimate money. I did not know these men were pirates. I swear.”

“Liar,” Genevieve repeated herself. “Is Antonio with you, and Baldy, what’s-his-name.”

“Berlio? No, they are home, looking at other venues.”

“Charles is not here,” she said abruptly. He tried not to grin, but it was enough to convict in Genevieve’s mind.

Mister Lupen looked down at the ground and muttered very softly, “Mercy.” The guards loosened their grip and he sipped a knife from his sleeve. The guards were not that lax, however. He did not get far, and one of the men in the crowd that gathered to watch hit the man on the back of the head with the pommel of his long knife. Mister Lupen’s knife fell to the ground.

“God may have mercy on you,” Genevieve said. “But down here, you are a danger to yourself and others, too dangerous to let live.” She frowned. “At the risk of sounding like the Queen of Hearts, off with his head.”

The lieutenant looked at Otto, but Otto did not hesitate. “You heard my wife. He may be the first, but he won’t be the last of these pirates to lose his head.”

The guards gripped Mister Lupen tightly by his arms. He was not going anywhere except to the chopping block, and he knew it, but he had one more thing to say.

“Charles is not the only target.”

Genevieve was not surprised by that revelation. She gave Otto a quick kiss when she turned her back on the man and the soldiers dragged him off. Otto looked dirty, but not splattered with blood like Leibulf. “I may lie down for a bit,” she said. Let me know if anything exciting happens.