You organize a catboat, pack the supplies you will need for the journey and head off for Mirandola as soon as possible. Even only a few hours away from Venice, it is apparent that something is amiss. For each rare boat you see heading South with you, there are a dozen fleeing North or East, away from Florence and Rome. Most are stuffed full of cargo and have passengers loitering on their decks.
Your travel goes uninterrupted until you pass the Island of the Damsel and begin to head up the Po River. The sun is setting, forcing you to dock and make camp in the next hour or so before it gets too dark. Sailing the open ocean is risky, but navigating a river at night is almost impossible. Ahead of you, coming from around a bend up river is the unmistakable silhouette of a war galley. It has two masts and a dozen oars on each side but isn't displaying a flag of any kind. Unlike most of the other vessels you have seen so far, this one has only a minimal crew above the deck and the portholes are covered and it's hatches are battened down. From this distance you think you might have two or three minutes before the galley passes you.
"O happy dagger!
This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die."
- Juliet Capulet
"Your guess is as good as mine senor. Let's be careful. Unless they bother with us, I say we don't bother with them. Any delay could be catastrophic to our cause."
Ferran is wary of this encounter, and tries to discern anything useful to the ship's identity.
"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."
― Touchstone
As the vessel comes closer you hear the sound of a drum being beat in time for the men rowing and you get a better view of the few men above deck. They are wearing turbans and bright silk clothes, have bushy beards and are equipped with curved swords or crossbows. They don't appear to have taken any notice of you yet.
"O happy dagger!
This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die."
- Juliet Capulet
"These look like Gatti's men, heathens from the East. Let's ignore them and pretend that we are fishermen."
With that last remark Ferran throws a fishing pole to Marco, lowers his hat to hide his face, and steers the boat away from the ship's path.
Then he adds with a sly wink.
"For now senor my name is Antonio, a Venetian boatman and fisherman. At least until we put these folk behind."
"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."
― Touchstone
The galley rows swift and relentless down the middle of the river, ignoring you entirely and forcing you to the shallows of one side. As the galley is passing close by you hear from inside the shriek of a woman in distress followed by a gruff man's command "Eahirat hadia!" in Arabic. Ferran understands this to mean "Quiet whore!"
"O happy dagger!
This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die."
- Juliet Capulet
"Gatti is a shady merchant, reputed to control a fleet of arab pirates and slavers. He is the man Blasio struck a deal with. In essence these heathens are Venice's naval reinforcements, or on a second thought Venice's unsavory allies - for now.
Remember when I confroted Blasio about this the day we met? I'm sure that Gatti is informed of my meddling at that time. Not to mention he set his men after me when I was searching for Rocco at the docks. It is a good thing they are not paying attention to us.
My heart is bleeding by knowing that a woman is abused by those brutes. Our mission however is more important, so we should keep going.
Allies or not, these villains are up to no good. Seems that they have a woman captive on board.
What if we pay them a short visit and rescue the girl before we go on?"
"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."
― Touchstone
- That's not the best idea. Ferran, we cannot risk. They are armed. If anything goes wrong, we might lose our chance to succeed in our quest before we even reach Mirandola...
Ferran looks at Marco, then at Giorgio, then the ship, and finally he turns to his comrades.
"You heard that woman shrieking and someone telling "Eahirat hadia!"? You couldn't know, but I do. This means "Quiet whore!" in arabic. Seems our "allies" are doing much more than simply safeguarding Venice's waterways.
Besides, I am not suggesting to fight the entire crew to save a stranger. But I'll be damned if I let a girl to these heathen brutes.
What I'm thinking is this: first I swim up to the back of the ship and ruin their rudder. Then two of us sneak on board and get that woman out of there with as minimal fuss as possible."
"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."
― Touchstone
- Please don't start this. When I was helping Francesca, the situation was different. Now the most important thing is to save my father and I won't detour from the plan. And getting on a galley full of those people is not the safest thing to do. If you want you can go, but don't expect me to stay here in case all hell breaks loose when they discover you. I must reach Mirandola no matter what.
Giorgio sits quietly listening to Marco and Ferran. When Ferran asks him what he will do his mustache twitches a few times. "Aye, but we can't fight a war galley's worth of men head on. A ship like that... that's a minimum of twenty five rowing, plus the ones of deck and whoever we don't see, it could be as many as fifty people. So if your best plan is to swim over there and climb aboard, you can count me out." He looks around considering the surroundings. "It's almost dark, so they will have to stop for the night soon. Ferran, what do sailors do when they night over in port? They sure as shit don't all stay on the boat if they have the chance to get off."
"O happy dagger!
This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die."
- Juliet Capulet
