He floated in starlight, the moons bathing his body in pale luminescence. The world's heart beat in rhythm, slow and inexorable. He opened his eyes as a voice in the wind spoke. Awaken. He was tired. He wanted to go back to sleep. He wanted to float in the starlight, to bask in the peacefulness of the night.
The voice grew louder. Awaken!
Ovidius opened his eyes to the sting of a cold sea, his lungs half flooded. Ovidius fought for life, and swam to the moonslight at the surface. After breaking the surface he floated on his back, coughing up sea water while fighting off encroaching oblivion, his diaphragm heaving in convulsions. His fight seemed weak to his own ears, and the world was bathed in violet darkness.
After several long agonizing minutes of near unconsciousness, Ovidius finally floated freely on the surface of the sea and was able to assess the situation. Satricola's lights blinked hundreds of paces away. Land lay in the opposite direction, a dark jungle coastline. Ovidius floated for a few more moments, getting as much of his breath back as possible before swimming towards land. The moment Ovidius made landfall, the lights of the Pirate Ship were doused and the Scarlet Man and his band of rogues were in search of Dawnchaser. Considering a powerful Witch at the helm, and no warning, Ovidius thought it an even match.
After heaving on the rocky beach for several more moments rest, the lanky Dog Soldier struggled to his sandaled feet. Weaponless, Ovidius felt naked despite his leather armor. At least he had the climbing gauntlets. Even at a full run, Ovidius would be hard pressed to beat Satricola to warn Dawnchaser. Instead, Ovidius cast his eyes to find Paolo, Sirius, or even the skiff with the rest of Paolo's squad.
The sea was empty except for flotsam and jetsam floating on the surface. Then Ovidius noticed the first body floating face down. Soon he counted a dozen floating under the twin moonslight. None moved but still he had to know. Struggling to get his breastplate off, he used the steel talons to cut the lacings. Swimming in the night sea would be easier without the cuirass.
Each Dog Soldier he found bore the same marks of fire and wooden shrapnel; the Witch's doing. Masym, Finy, Altes, Thamas, Waltom, Cerue, Anach, Eneches, Athas, Eusos, Servus, Sirius, Aublius and Gaiuso all floated dead in the sea. Only Sirius' wounds differed from the rest, but no Paulo. Perhaps the old Dog had made it to shore? But what was the underwater explosion about? It had to be the Witch. Paolo must still be on board Satricola; no Dog Soldier could be tortured to give up intelligence, but what other powers did the Witch possess?
Ovidius thought about the issue as he pulled his brothers to shore, refusing to let them become grist for the ocean's mill. Witches were notoriously unpredictable beings with powers beyond the ken of a simple Dog Soldier. Supposedly the descendent of an ancient union of Man and the Heathen Gods, Witches were hunted by the Orders of St. Michel and St. Absolom within the Empire. Hunting a Witch certainly was not covered in his training at Blackrock Tower, and their intelligence on the Scarlet Man had proven woefully inadequate. He had recovered ten of fourteen bodies when Ovidius could find no more of his squad. Paolo never made it to the sea; the old grizzled Dog Soldier was captured or bought it on Satricola.
"Liar... there is no wheat farm."
After laying out the corpses of his fellows on the shore, Ovidius stared across the coastal water glimmering in the moonslight. Wispy clouds swirled and eddied as the twin moons Elune and Unele basked the World in their white and violet shine. Distantly he heard the hymn of havoc and the howl of the dogs of war. The jungle tree line illuminated with sporadic flashes of crimson-umber light followed by peals of thunder. Ovidius knew that his fellows on Dawnchaser were dying at the hands of the Scarlet Man. Retrieving a steel warhammer from the corpse of Corporal Merius and a half dozen daggers from the other Legionaires, Ovidius trudged with determination through the waters towards the sounds of chaos shattering ship and souls.