I told them about the diversion that was going to take place in the harbor and I watched as the hope lit up in the tired avenues of their worried faces.
"When he runs off to investigate unlock the doors and all of you head for the forest. You'll all have to work together. The young will need to be carried and those unable to keep up will need to be helped along, because we have to be fast about this! Boats will be waiting at the shore of the old ruins when we get through the forest. Everything clear about as to what needs done?" I asked.
The small group nodded as one.
Hands that ranged from black to white reached through the bars to touch me with reverence as I watched their faces quiver with suppressed emotion.
"Everything is going to be all right and soon you're all going to experience freedom!" I said confidently before I crept back to the opposite end of the clearing where the men who'd come with me waited in concealment.
Settling down in the bushes we commenced to wait quietly. It was all that we could do for now.
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Flynn looked through the narrow wheelhouse window at the harbor ahead and smiled grimly. Just like old times. Recent times anyway.
He was starting to become quite the pirate in his old age. He patted the wheel before him that still bore evidence of crustacean growth. She was old and damp from being drowned, but she was still a fine ship.
They were heading into the harbor with a fine head of steam built up. There was just one more thing to do to complete the picture and put a seal on the best moment of his life spent at sea.
He rooted around in his pocket and came out with the stub end of a mostly burnt cigar. He'd been saving this for just such an occasion. Taking his last match he lit it up and puffed on the cigar for a moment before rolling it to the side of his mouth.
"All right me mates it's time to give'm a taste of hell!" Flynn said before laughing maniacally for a brief moment.
The moment of hilarity was abruptly ended as he choked on the smoke of the cigar. The cigar fell out of his mouth to the floor and he stamped it out with a foot, even as he hacked out a piece of it that he'd accidentally bit off and half swallowed.
"Bloody things will kill you!" He muttered out sourly, as he glanced forward again out the narrow window even as he heard Jim's voice bellow out of the recesses of the ship, "Open gun ports!"