Chapter 8

"Powers! That was close!" the crewman hissed as the flickering lamps of the patrol boat dimmed and were lost in the heavy vegetation that lined the shallow twisting channel the four smuggler's boats were slowly following. The shouts and calls from the Imperial patrol craft could still be heard although muffled and unintelligible from this distance.

"Too fucking close!" Gyorgy growled as he reached over and cuffed the vocal offender. "Be quiet, you ass! If we can hear them then they can hear us. Whispers only and then only if you really need to." Moving cautiously over to where Antal was straining at a boat pole his eyes darting between the channel, the three boats ahead of them and the patrol craft behind them.

"That was pretty fucking close," he muttered and Antal nodded. "They're getting better."

"Yes," Antal replied softly. "Which means we have to keep getting better."

"I think that little trick of yours worked," Gyorgy chuckled.

For weeks the patrols in town, the bay and the river's estuaries had been steadily increasing. Now there weren't just the Customs boats to worry about but patrol craft from the provincial Imperial navy. Antal had devised a little device made of waxed paper, a small pot of oil and a wick. It would float after a fashion and when lighted, looked like flashes from a hooded lamp if seen from a distance over water. Antal's thought was if they were pursued in any of the various small channels they would light the wick and their pursuers would be drawn to it thinking it was a smuggler's boat picking its way through the tangled vegetation. This was the first night they had had to use it and so far it had worked.

"So far so good," Antal nodded. "Hopefully they didn't get to it quick enough to find out what it was." It was designed to burn for only a short amount of time before it would flare and sink leaving only a few paper ashes on the surface.

"Everybody seems to be lined up correctly," he continued. Instead of operating his boats independently as had been his custom, Antal was now sailing with all four of his boats together in a group. It did tend to slow them down slightly but it reduced them to only a single target instead of four in the multitude of channels and river-lets that made up the swampy estuary. It also gave them a considerably better chance to defend themselves if they were found by a single patrol. Of course if they were found and taken they would lose everything but considering the outcome of any potential capture Antal believed the benefits outweighed the added risks.

"They're getting to be a thick as flies on a pile of dogshit," Gyorgy muttered spitting over the side. "I think I saw three patrols there and unless we're just powerfully damned unlucky tonight that means there's a crap load of them out there." He was speaking almost normally now as there could be heard only the occasional shout in the ever-increasing distance.

"Someone is spending a hell of a lot of resources for damn little return," Antal agreed. "I'm not sure I understand it, to tell the truth. Unless someone out there is doing a heck of a lot better than we are, all of the Guild put together is bringing in enough to feed the city but not much else. It's almost like someone is doing his best to starve Eregli, but I can't figure out why."

"It's like a farmer slaughtering his stock and firing his fields before an invading army gets to them," Gyorgy mused.

"Yes, something like that," Antal replied sounding surprised. "Although I think it's more like a thief trying to steal everything he can before the constables can get there and stop him. But that still doesn't answer the question as to why. Why is someone in such a hurry they'd kill the cow that was giving them milk for just a day's worth of meat?"

"Beats me," Gyorgy shrugged, squatted down and tamped a pipe full of smoke-weed. Taking a tapper he lit it from the small charcoal brazier and puffed.

"You know they can probably smell that a couple of miles away as it hangs in the air," Antal noted.

"I know," Gyorgy chuckled. "It'll probably drive 'em crazy."

"So, has that little blonde bitch of yours finally got you to slip her the meat yet?" Gyorgy continued companionably.

"How the hell do you know about that?" Antal frowned.

"I got my ways," his friend chuckled. "Well, has she?"

"You spend far too much time with my women and they talk too much," Antal said trying to sound aggravated.

Catalyn's prediction that Katta would soon want her share of their master's attention proved to be accurate. Less than a day after it became obvious that Piroska was now not just Antal's slave but also his bed companion, she began casting subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle hints that she would not only be receptive but eager for those same attentions. Body modesty wasn't something that overly concerned the members of Antal's household. A slave normally never had any say in the matter and Antal never complained; he saw four of them completely naked every night he was there and the bare breasts of the other two regularly as they fed their babies, so naked female flesh was not uncommon. Katta made sure she fed little Anna where Antal would be sure to see her, as opposed to Vrsula who exposed what was needed and no more. She delighted in stripping down to almost nothing when doing this necessary chore.

Antal was not unaffected by Katta's obvious charms but was very confused at first and determined to keep the promise he'd made about not forcing himself on any of the three new women. Before long he understood that she was trying to entice him into taking her and it became a game: She would do her best to make him as hot and horny as possible and he would do his best to ignore her. It really wasn't a fair game because Antal had four other women that would gladly bend over or spread their legs for him if he'd give them a glance, so pretending to remain noble and continuing with his vow of not fucking the rescued captives — Piroska excluded, of course — was fairly easy. Frustrated in her attempts to entice him with her body, Katta resorted to other more familiar and, for Katta, expected tactics.

It came to a head one day while Antal was working when Ilona entered the living area dragging a hissing and spitting Katta by her hair.

"Would you tie this stupid slit to the chair and fuck the crap out of her!" Ilona demanded angrily. "She's been a pain in my and everybody else's ass for the last two days and either you need to beat her till she can't move or fuck her until she can't stand up! I don't care which; just deal with her!" she exclaimed, shoving the cursing girl towards him.

So he did. She put up a good fight, hissing, spitting, biting and cursing as he tied her to the chair. She shrieked as he smacked her bare ass ten times but opened her legs as wide as possible when he moved between them to plunge into her incredibly wet and receptive pussy. He could feel her orgasm around his cock as he mercilessly drove into her again and again and then passed out when he finally exploded in her clutching tunnel.

That evening she matter-of-factly stripped, crawled into their now-crowded bed and spooned with Piroska as Antal first took Ilona, then Barbala and finally Catalyn before they all fell asleep.

"Yes I did, as if it's any of your business," he answered Gyorgy testily.

"It's ain't but it ain't stopping me either," replied an unrepentant Gyorgy. "I'm thinking maybe I should buy me a couple of little slave girls myself. Pay for it once instead of all the time, if you know what I mean. Families are selling off their daughters fer next to nothing nowadays just to get rid of the extra mouth to feed. I could get 'em clean and young and not have to worry about anyone's sloppy seconds, if ya know what I mean."

"Can't say that I'm complaining," Antal shrugged. "I might suggest that you get an older one also. She'll help keep your house in order and the younger ones in line."

"It's an idea," Gyorgy mumbled around the stem of his pipe. "Kind of like the young ones myself; but I ain't above stroking an older one now and then."

"You might be surprised," Antal chuckled. "I'm not saying the older ones are necessarily better, but they sure aren't worse and that's a fact."

"It's getting downright nasty in town," the old smuggler sighed and shook his head as he and Antal watched their men unload the boats and move the goods to waiting wagons. "It's like there is a war going on but no one knows which side anyone else is on."

"I know. I live there, remember?" Antal answered.

"Aye, that you do," the old smuggler grunted. "Don't know why you just didn't get out while you had the chance. Pick a nice little farm out here somewhere and never have to set foot in that cesspool again. Be a lot safer for yourself and that little harem you've been putting together."

"That's actually not a bad idea," Antal snorted. "Maybe I'll do just that. There really isn't much going on in the area where we live but I can see where it might not stay that way forever. No, that's not a bad idea at all."

"I hear they picked up some of your competition the other night," the old man said changing the subject. "Saw them stretched up on the gallows this morning."

"Yeah, Cero and his crew," Antal nodded. "Heard tell he thought he had one of the skimmers in his pocket but the son-of-a-bitch didn't stay bought. It's getting so you can't trust anybody anymore." They both laughed at that. "Besides, he wasn't really my competition. The dumb bastard would bring a load in right out there in broad daylight right up to his own dock. Talk about arrogance. I swear the horse you have pulling that wagon has more sense than he did.

"But it does sort of illustrate why relying on bribery isn't a good business plan for a long-term venture," he continued. "I hear tell that the skimmers get half the value of every load they find so it'd have to be a hell of a bribe to compete against that.

"Of course, over the long term the bribes would add up to be more than the reward for a single load," he mused and then shrugged. "But then have you ever met a skimmer that thinks any farther ahead than tomorrow? I sure haven't."

"Aye, especially when you consider the fact that if anybody in town finds out who they were they'd be nailed to a wall with their guts coiled around their feet," the old man nodded.

"Yeah, that's why I like staying away from taking anything directly into the city myself," Antal grinned. "I'd rather you take those chances. I don't make as much profit but then I'm alive to spend what I do make."

"Well I'm glad I could be of service to you, youngster," the old smuggler guffawed. "Actually it's not that dangerous doing it by land. To begin with, it's a lot more difficult to see us than it is out there in the open in a boat. Then there's the whole question of are we bringing it in, taking it out, or just moving it around? It's not as easy as picking up a boat that has to unload at a dock. There aren't enough skimmers alive to check every wagon coming in or going out of the city. Although I do hear rumors they may be calling in the army to help out with that. If they do, I just may retire and watch the city erupt. No telling what will happen if they truly do close down all the smuggling."