About five peaceful days had passed since they left the City of Volantis, and the previous day they also passed by the little paradise island of Lys, but they didn't make a stop at Lys on this trip (which was quite disappointing for all the young sailors) as their ships were already full with the goods.
The Sun had barely set about an hour ago and the all-consuming darkness had already claimed the night, but the sailors on the ships were still as busy as during the day, trying to work using the light of the stars and the flickering torches.
While the Northern fleet had a habit of always travelling during the night, the number of sailors awake was quite different, as usually, only a few people would remain awake to make sure that they were going on the right path while the rest would go to sleep.
"How long till we reach the Stepstones?" Merchant Sam asked Jon, a hint of dread in his voice.
They had already passed this treacherous part of the sea more than a few times in the last couple of months but no matter how many times he did it, it would still be anxiety-inducing passing through these island dens filled to the brim with bloodthirsty pirates. This was also why most of the sailors were awake and alert so that they could react instantly if anything happened.
"About two hours," Jon replied with a shrug.
He was standing in his favourite position on the deck looking out at the brilliant night sky with innumerable stars that were even more visible at the sea.
He broke out of his fascination when he saw the anxious expression of his merchant friend from the corner of his eye.
"Don't worry my friend, we'll easily pass through—" Jon abruptly stopped mid-sentence as his eyes widened and his head swirled towards the sky as if something had called him.
"W-What's wrong?" Sam asked uneasily, after seeing the frown on Jon's face.
Jon glared at the night sky for a few minutes before he took a deep breath, and turned towards the merchant with a serious expression and said, "Tell the ships to lower the Sails!"
"B-But—"
"Now!"
Sam swallowed his questions and nodded before running towards the first mate to follow the instructions. "Lower the Sails immediately! Slow down the ships!!". His shouts immediately sent the sailors on all the ships into a flurry of activities as they hurried to follow the orders.
"Quickly pull the ropes!!"
"Hurry"
"Tighten the rope!!"
A few minutes later the order had been followed through until the last ship had slowed down to crawl and only then did Sam come back to Jon.
"What happened? Why did we slow down?" Sam asked, his eyes frantically looking out into the darkness.
"Some rats are snooping around," Jon replied faintly. His eyes were closed to avoid any distractions and he was focused fully on looking through Frost's eyes. At that moment, the blue-feathered mystical bird was high up in the sky right above the archipelago of Stepstones, looking at small candle-like lights which were faintly visible intermittently between the pebble-like islands.
Jon lowered Frost's altitude and slowly zoomed in using her eyes while focusing on the little lights until he could finally make out what they were...
The islands of Stepstones were like massive steps situated haphazardly in the middle of the sea in such a way that a humongous giant would be able to move from Westeros to Essos using them as a bridge. Some islands were close enough that only several ships could pass between them at a time while others were far enough that the other islands wouldn't seem more than a dot.
Right now each of those passages between islands was being occupied by small boats with people in them. The bigger passages had more than five boats while the smallest one only had a single boat.
It was clear for Jon to see that these boats weren't acting as a barrier to stop ships from passing through instead they were there to scout and identify and to raise the... alarm.
It was obvious to see how exhausting and resource-consuming this method of scouting was and normally no pirate captain no matter how rich would partake in it, especially during the night, unless... unless they knew that someone was sneaking past them and they were lying in wait to catch them.
"It seems someone figured us out..." Jon sighed with a wry smile.
He had known for quite a while that some pirate scouts were snooping around his fleets every now and then when they docked at Braavos, but they were too numerous and belonged to too many different groups, for him to do anything so he had left them alone as he knew that their normal methods of ambushing wouldn't work on someone like him. But it seems like he had underestimated their intelligence and persistence as one or more pirate captains seem to have made him a target and are determined enough to set up such an elaborate trap.
"Jon! JON!" Sam's anxious shout pulled Jon out of his musings.
"Hmm?"
"W-What are going to do about these... rats? Do we turn back towards the Lys?"
'That's the question, isn't it...' Jon could think of two solutions to this problem in front of him.
One was to follow Sam's suggestion and go back to Lys to hide for a while but... the problem with that method was that he wasn't quite sure how long these scouts had snooping around here and how much longer could they hold on. He didn't quite adore the idea of fighting a blind battle of attrition with these unknown pirates. Plus this was only his third trip and it would hurt his bludgeoning reputation a lot if he didn't deliver in time.
The second solution... was simply to force his way through.
The boats didn't have any capability to battle so it would be very easy for Jon to just destroy them and pass through. However, the risk of an accident happening and alerting the pirates in the surrounding islands was quite high. He could almost imagine the scene of innumerable pirates swarming towards his trade ships which would never be able to outrun the sleek pirate ships and he would be left with no choice but to use his secret weapon... which he didn't want to.
The best choice for him is to...
"Blow out all the torches and order the ships to sail forward slowly in a single line... we'll sneak past them." Jon ordered, his eyes focusing on the smallest passage between the islands with only a single boat between them.
...
"Ugh... Why don't we just run away, Uncle Frank," the man whined while trying to not sit on one of the aching bruises all over his body but it was hard for him to find a comfortable position on the small boat which was already cramped with the two of them, the torch and the rations.
They were in the middle of the sea on a small fishing boat with just the flickering light of a small torch and the stars above them to keep away the darkness. Their bodies were still very thin and weak due to what they had suffered when they were put into the cage by their captain. And that bastard Jack hadn't given them much ration either so they weren't able to eat their fill since they didn't know how long they would have to be here for.
"And how do we do that, boy? Because if you forgot, we are right in the middle of Stepstones at the moment," Frank replied absentmindedly, his eyes alertly looking out into the darkness to search for the elusive fleet because of which he had suffered so horribly, "You may as well try your luck in swimming to Westeros from here instead of trying to sneak past Captain Jack in Stepstones."
"Fuck Captain Jack! And what the fuck are you looking so hard for, Uncle?" The man asked looking disgustingly at his uncle who was diligently following the advisor's order to scout, "You're such a fool, Uncle. It's not like that bastard Jack will ever reward us even if we find them. We always get in situations such as this exactly because you're such a stupid halfwit... I bet that bastard will chuck us right back into those cages as a reward," he said darkly.
"You're right, Boy, Captain Jack may not reward us but... the advisor just might."
"Huh, What? What are you talking about?"
"The advisor gave me a promise that night that if we succeded in finding that fleet t-then...we won't have to stay on Captain Jack's ships anymore," Frank said with an excited gleam in his eyes, "H-He said that he would give us the chance to join the pirate king Ravager's fleet."
"Ravager? The Captain's father?" The man replied, hurriedly sitting up to look at the ugly mug of his shitty uncle in the light of the torch. "I-Is that true?"
"It is," Frank said smugly as he saw respect in his nephew's eyes for the first time.
"I-Is that Ravager's fleet really as great as they say? Are they really that rich?"
"Of course they are." Frank replied in a tone of surety, "The Ravager is one of the three most powerful pirates in Stepstones, and the ships in his fleet are second only to Salladhor Saan. If we join his fleet... We can become as rich as the nobles in Volantis, we can loot merchants left and right all over the Essos, and fuck as many fair maidens as we want and their ships are filled with never-ending booze and..." he chattered fanatically as if describing a paradise.
"Truly?!!" The nephew asked, panting in excitement as he thought of those noble girls squirming under him, "Then can we—" Suddenly out of nowhere the excited gleam in the youngster's eyes was replaced by alarm and terror.
Frank looked on with confused eyes as his nephew slowly raised a shaky finger towards something behind with eyes widened in alarm, "B-Behind—"
But before the perplexed Frank could so much as turn his head a swaying tentacle cut through the air like lightning and grabbed Frank up before pulling him down into the sea, and all of this happened without the man letting out so much as a squeak.
The nephew started shivering and hyperventilating in terror at what he had just witnessed. His heart thumping like a horse, the man tried to resist the urge to scream to not alert the monster when the man's eyes suddenly widened as every single hair on his body stood up in alarm. Realisation dawned on his face as he slowly turned his head. There, swaying eerily behind him was a massive tower-like shadowy tentacle.
"AH—" That was the only sound the man could let out before he too was gobbled up by the tentacle and followed his uncle towards the bottom of the sea.
A few seconds later the swaying boat suddenly overturned, snuffing out the lone torch, letting the darkness reclaim the night.
A moment later, a fleet of ships started passing through the area one after another silently without anyone abroad letting a single sound out. They passed through this small stretch of pass between the islands slowly but surely, without alerting anyone to their presence and about half an hour later they were out.
"Set off. Lower the sails! Go Full throttle!" Jon shouted, his body sagging a little in relief at having passed the situation safely.
...
But what Jon didn't know was that he didn't, in fact, pass the situation safely, a lone sentry had been waiting on one of the two islands where they had just passed. And the moment the torch on the small boat had been snuffed out he had been alerted, and almost immediately the sentry ran like a rabbit straight for a nearby tent.
"Advisor! Advisor! Wake UP!!" he shouted anxiously while standing outside the tent.
"Hmm... What's wrong?" the man yawned while coming out of the tent.
"T-The Torch! The light just disappeared, just like you said it would."
The sleepy eyes of the advisor instantly opened up fully and took on a delighted gleam, "We got him!!"
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