Johan lifted his eagle's beak eastward. "Your prey are a roving pack of mercenaries and a talking tiger. They will arrive within days. Adira Strongheart is their leader."
"I've heard tell o' her," said the corsair. "Sovereign of the Sea of Serenity, some fancy. I doubt she wrestles sharks for supper."
"So spake many a man whose bones are coral," chided Johan. "Don't underestimate her, nor the tiger. His brain is keener than yours, I'll warrant, and he can sow slaughter like no man. Just do as you're paid. Kill whom you can of Adira's crowd and loot their carcasses. I'll add a further reward for their scalps."
"Where'll we collect that?" asked the brigand, but Johan ignored him and turned away to enter the tavern.
Having gotten what he needed from Buzzard's Bay, Johan would roust his entourage and shake this town's muck from his feet. No need to linger and risk running into Strongheart and Ojanen. Lesser men could scotch those annoyances. Johan had a continent to conquer.
In four centuries, Buzzard's Bay had seen many strange sights wash from the sea and descend from the mountains, but none so strange as a tame tiger walking on two legs, calm as if going to market.
As the sun set three days later, Adira's troupe plodded into town on horses weary from crabbing down the switchback road from the mountains. Fishermen and loggers, foaming jacks in hand, stepped from taverns and shops to see the tiger-man. Many locals and children trailed the party just to watch what happened.
' Having sailed here before, Adira steered straight for Seafarer's Quay, famous all over Dominaria for its deep bottom and welcoming Adventurers' Guildhall. While the humans straggled on horses sinking hock-deep in mud, Jedit Ojanen padded alongside, watching everywhere, learning as he went. Murdoch and Simone and Virgil licked their lips to see brimming mugs in local hands. By the time the party reached the guildhall at the quayside, half a hundred coasters formed an impromptu audience.
The tavern was huge, built like a lord's mead hall, stout stone on the first floor able to withstand a battering ram, with beams and stucco for the second and third floors. Up there, separated by sexes, weary travelers could stretch out on thin pallets and sleep in safety.
Sliding off her mount on stiff legs, Adira signaled Heath to accompany her and the rest to stay with the horses. Ignoring her newfound audience, the irate chief pushed into the hall.
Fifty Buzzard's Baymen faced nine pirates, and all studied Jedit Ojanen to see what he'd do. The tiger stood stock-still, whiskers shivering in the wind, and studied the town, only the second big human enclave he'd seen since leaving Efrava.
Locals sipped beer while Adira's pirates drooled. The pirates were amused at how the locals all looked alike, like one big family. Indeed, they all resembled Lieutenant Peregrine, whose ancestors hailed from here. Adira's pirates, on the other hand, were of all sizes and colors and dress, though the bay folk were used to seeing every race descend a gangplank. But the upright tiger provoked curiosity too hot to hold in.
Clearing his throat, a red-faced man asked, "Where're ye from?"
He'd asked Murdoch, who still wore remnants of his green-gold uniform, now tattered. The sergeant scratched his jaw and replied, loud enough for the whole crowd to hear, "Yerkoy."
"Ye're all from Yerkoy?" asked the man in amazement. That seaport lay halfway across Jamuraa.
"No, just me," said Murdoch.
"Well, I didn't mean just you!" chided the man. "I meant all of ye!"
"Oh." Murdoch's face was wooden, and even his comrades wondered if he teased or not. "We're from all over."
"I can see that!" snapped the local. "Y'er every color from sun-baked to half-dead! What I meant was-"
"Where'd we catch the tiger?" Murdoch grinned, and people relaxed.
"Aye, that's it!" Glad to gain ground, the local asked, "Aye. Where'd you get this big cat?"
"Palmyra," said the sergeant. "We found him in an alley. The rats in Palmyra grow big, you see, big as dogs. So the cats that eat the rats grow big too. You wouldn't believe it, but when this one was bom, he was not but a ball of fluff you could cup in your palm."
"No," said the local, not smiling, "I wouldn't believe it."
"Oh." Murdoch pretended to think. His comrades stared, and Simone beamed, glad to see another joker. "Well, you could always ask him."
"Ask who?" asked the local. Townsfolk watching the exchange were bewildered or bemused, but all were entertained.
"Ask the tiger."
Sister Wilemina rolled her eyes and huffed in disgust at Murdoch's lack of manners. Jasmine snorted. Lieutenant Peregrine drummed her fingers on her saddle and shook her helmeted head at the sergeant's puckish sense of humor. Drawn by the crowd, more locals wandered up to hear the strange conversation.
The bayman sipped beer for time to think. Finally he said, "The tiger talks?"
"I think so." Murdoch looked dim, then asked Jedit, "Do you talk?"
Having listened the while, the tiger turned baleful green eyes on the former sergeant. "No."
"Oh." Murdoch turned back to the local. "Sorry."
"What?" asked the local. "No, wait. The tiger does so talk!" To Jedit, he asked, "You. Where d'ya hail from?"
Jedit Ojanen stood unmoving except for his tail, always with a mind of its own, that swished and lashed, betraying his agitation at unwanted attention. The tail tip spanked a horse's flank and made it jump.
Finally, with hundreds of eyes watching, Jedit conceded, "Efrava."
"E-far-va?" asked the man. "Where under the stars is that?"
"Near Yerkoy," rumbled the tiger.
"What?" It was Murdoch's turn to be surprised. "It is not! I'd know if a herd of talking tigers lived nearby!"
"Perhaps you're not really from Yerkoy," countered Jedit.
"I am so!" Hoisted by his own petard, Murdoch grew indignant.
Locals hooted, chuckled, giggled, and buzzed. One man said to the red-faced spokesman, "Want us to chuck him in the bay, Cefus?"
"Eh?" The local snorted and killed his beer. "No, he's all right. For a bloke from Yerkoy. If so."
"Hey, you-" sputtered Murdoch.
The big door swung open, and Adira Strongheart tramped out with Heath in tow. "That's set! We can spend the night." She stopped. "What sort of trouble have you been up to?"
"Nothing," said Murdoch.
Suspicious, Adira told her crew, "We'll bunk here the night. Haul your kits up the stairs, men on the second floor, women on top. You can eat here or elsewhere. We'll ask after you'know-who on the morrow. We know he's in town."
"No, we don't." Jedit's announcement made everyone look up. "His spoor leads into town, it's true, for I sniffed it out. Nor does it lead back out the mountain road. Yet the one we seek may have departed by another route, or even on a boat."
If Jedit expected a reward for his canny observation, he was disappointed. Adira glared. "Don't contradict your captain, sailor, or I'll have you lashed to the grating and given a new coat of stripes. Clear?"
"Aye aye, cap'n." Simone joked to break the tension. "But there's something else we should do first."
"What?" snapped Adira.
"Pitch Murdoch in the bay!" crowed Simone with a laugh. "What say, you all?"
"Aye!" shouted near two hundred people.
Murdoch yelped uselessly as, grabbed and hoisted over a hundred heads by locals and pirates alike, he was ferried to the edge of the quay and lobbed at the scummy water to land with a tremendous splash.