The stones of the altar were stained red as was the ground around it. Jim stooped down and picked up a small bone out of the dust and glanced at me in quiet horror for the bone was that of a child's.
I'd seen enough, it was time to leave!
I turned to go when something stung my neck. I reached up to my neck and my hand came away with a wooden dart no bigger than a toothpick. I stumbled against the altar as the world seemed to slide away from me.
Christina had already fallen to the ground and Matt was on his knees about to join her. Big Jim reeled back and forth on his feet as he tried to bring the shotgun up. All I could hear was laughing.
Blinking my eyes I saw through my blurry vision members of the Salria all around us laughing uproariously.
Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! I lambasted myself with deep self-reproach-meant.
I'd really blown it this time!
My desperate grip on the altar let loose and I was falling toward the bloodstained ground with the sound of laughter ringing in my ears.
If they thought they were going to make a slave out of him then they had another thing coming. It was called buckshot and he'd see that they got plenty of it in ample supply.
He glanced off to the headland of the island beyond the dock worriedly. It had been a long time. Too long.
Something had gone wrong ashore. The Captain would never have let so much time go by without checking in.
It was hard to judge time as the sky covered in fluorescent clouds never changed. He hated to admit it, but he was growing tired.
Nothing, but a helpless old man anymore, Flynn groused to himself disgustedly.
He hadn't heard any shots or sounds of commotion on shore, but all the same something was wrong.
Something bumped against the bowel of the boat and Flynn leaped up to his feet surprising the onlookers who'd almost all drifted off to sleep. Keeping a wary eye on them Flynn moved up the boat towards the sound ready to blast away at anything that stuck its head up.
Reaching the side of the boat that the sound had come from he looked over, but saw nothing. He glanced back at the awakened crowd of onlookers and made his way up to the wheelhouse never turning his back on the crowd on the dock.