No, I understood the man—and fully agreed with his point of view. The problem was, we couldn't just sit it out on remote bases either. The "great trust of the Fire Lord" had to be justified, and we had to do some Proper, Heroic Overcoming... otherwise, we'd run into problems with our own side.
Once I got my hands on the bastard who sold our route—the one this whole mess started with—I'd have Tandaо put all his skills to use on him. Whatever was left, I'd feed to his subordinates.
"Ah, Xinlan, it's not that simple. Out on the frontier is exactly where they'll be actively hunting us with specially dispatched forces. Here, we're far more likely to run into ordinary pirates than bounty hunters. Anyway, I'm going to wash up, clean my weapons, and give some thought to that rest. We really do need it."
"And what about eating and sleeping?" the medic protested. "Why am I even on this ship if no one listens to me?" he muttered under his breath—but loud enough for his superior to hear the thoroughly "unregulated" complaint of his soul.
"You can eat while you're thinking things through—and sleep after that."
Leaving the disgruntled medic behind, I headed for the ship's communal washroom. It was split into two sections. In the first, you could douse yourself with seawater and scrub off the worst of the grime; in the second, there was proper fresh water, which had to be used sparingly—our supplies were limited. Sure, we'd siphon a bit from the captured tubs before turning them into firewood, but even so.
After finishing my wash and changing into something clean(the dirty clothes—taken off during the examination and brought along—I'd dumped into a barrel of seawater to soak; there was no way to scrub off that much grime and blood otherwise, even from specially treated soft leather uniform), I made my way back to my cabin.
First, clean the sword, dagger, and throwing knives. Check them for any damage—just in case. And then I could finally sit down and think through a plan for what to do next.
I already had a few ideas. I hadn't pushed this deep into Earth Kingdom waters for nothing—throwing the raiders hunting our blood off our trail was only one reason, and not even the main one.
Near the southwestern tip of the mainland lay a small island called Kyoshi, home to a group of warrior women. The most remarkable thing? The island was considered neutral—and for over a hundred years, neither the Earth Kingdom nor the Fire Nation had touched it.
A damn fine island, too. A beautiful harbor just a couple of hours from the mainland. Set up a Fire Nation base there, and we could make life such hell for those Earth Kingdom bastards they wouldn't know what hit them.
And those warrior women… they're of interest to me as well. And no, not just in the women sense—though I won't pretend that wasn't a factor—but as potential reinforcements, and as a very powerful political lever.
All I had to do… was convince them to join the Fire Nation of their own free will.
And I even had a rough idea how.
***
Three days later. Kyoshi Island coastline.
"Is this really wise, Captain?" Tandaо made one last attempt to talk me out of my "idiotic" idea.
"Why wouldn't it be? They maintain neutrality, they're outside the war, and we're not coming at them with axes and pitchforks, either; we're bringing hard coin. Exactly the kind of rest in neutral waters Xinlan was talking about." I shrugged.
"Y-yes… but… I didn't think…" Under the first mate's 'kind' gaze, the physician practically shrank into himself, drawing his head into his shoulders. Yeah… that soldier knew how to unsettle people.
"Very well, have it your way—but at least take an escort with you!" Tandaо tried a compromise.
"No. Until I've spoken with the village elder, a fully armed detachment could be taken very badly. We won't get a pat on the head if we drag this island into the war against us as well."
"But going alone into potentially hostile territory…" the first officer refused to back down, still appealing to my common sense.
"You know perfectly well, Tandaо, that in a serious fight, bodyguards would be more of a hindrance than a help to me. At worst, alone I can break away and disappear from almost any opponent. A group wouldn't be nearly as lucky."
"You're not going to change your mind, are you, Captain?" The sailor let out a heavy sigh.
"No. But I appreciate the concern. Give me two days for negotiations. If there's no word on the third… act as you see fit."
"Aye, sir," the officer replied reluctantly. "Take care of yourself."
"I fully intend to. I've got far too many unfinished matters to let anyone kill me just yet. Standard contact," I added, nodding to the officer in farewell as I jumped into a small landing craft and headed for the shore.
The ship pulled back, keeping its distance from the island so as not to alarm the locals unnecessarily. Now it would only appear on the horizon again—either at my signal… or once the agreed time had passed
And in the latter case, it wouldn't be coming back in a friendly mood.
(End of Chapter)
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