Calliope caught the dagger as the camp erupted into chaos. She lunged towards one of the two guards holding her chains but the other reacted instinctively and jerked her off her feet. She tumbled to the ground the collar biting into her neck as the other guard pulled his own end taut. Calliope pivoted and flicked her wrist, the first guard screamed and clutched at the hilt of the dagger suddenly protruding from his right eye, dropping the chain. The second guard jerked her towards him but she turned and leaped allowing the momentum to carry her towards her captor, he realized his peril and grabbed for his sword a moment before she hit him in the chest with both feet sending them both tumbling down the stone tiers between the legs of the two struggling captains and plunging to the floor of the amphitheater below. The pirate holding her chain hit first with a crack, his body breaking her fall. She rolled to her feet pulling the sword free of the man's belt and thrusting it into his belly, though judging by his lack of reaction the ten foot fall had broken his neck.

She stood for a moment with her back to the stone wall. Above her she could hear Markus and Mahal exchanging furious blows, the acoustics of the ancient structure making it sound like battalion at war rather than just two men. Blood Axe pirates shouted in anger and confusion, their instincts dulled by drink and uncertainty. 

“Lass look out,” Sketti roared and Calliope pivoted in time to avoid being disemboweled by a pirate with skin the color of polished mahogany, artlessly she hacked into his back dropping him screaming and twitching to the ground. She turned and tossed the bloody sword to the Dwarf who snatched it out of the air and howled a dwarven war cry at his staff wielding tormentors.  The rest of the crew were on their feet also Haldvar throttling a distracted guard while one of the others pulled his sword free and hacked inexpertly at the chains that held them together. Calliope took a step towards them but a pair of Blood Axes steeped into her path, both brandishing rusty spears. Calliope's hands grabbed the long chains still attached to her brass collar and lashed out with the iron links like the tentacles of a cuttlefish. Instinctively the pirates raised their weapons to block and, as the chains wrapped the hafts of the weapons she jerked them out of their wielders hands. One of the pirates opened his mouth to scream but a seconds slash of the chain smashed his face into ruin spraying blood and teeth as he staggered back. The second chain hit the second pirate but this one was quicker than the first, catching the punishing stroke on his forearm and ripping Calliope towards him. She kept her feet out of desperation and struck hard at the pirate as he pulled her close, the flat of her hand crushing the cartilage in his throat with a pop that was audible even over the unfolding battle.

Sketti had reached the crew and was cutting them free, using the narrowing effect of the stone benches to buy time while the crew of the Weather Witch freed themselves. To Calliope’s amazement she saw Jim snatch up a lose flagstone and hurl it at an onrushing pirate braining him and dropping him to the ground with grey matter oozing from his ear. Calliope grabbed at the collar and tried to pull it free, but there was no obvious method of opening it, perhaps no method outside of magic. Flecks of razored stone grazed her arm and she yelped in pain as a Blood Axe musket ball missed her by inches. She turned and ducked into one of the entrance tunnels to avoid a second musket blast that struck sparks from the stone a few feet from where she had just been standing. Fortunately for her and her crew firearms were much less common in Arad Lind than they were in the northern kingdoms as a massed volley of shot might have ended the fracas before it began. Desperately she tugged at her wrist-cuffs, but the ensorcelled brass was even more securely fastened than the collar. 

A blast of arcane fire washed over the doorway she was hiding within, setting fire to the passion fruit vines that were working to demolish the ancient stone work. Yelping in fear and swatting at cinders she ducked back into the tunnel, looking out to see a Blood Axe mage striding across the sand towards her. Lacking any obvious way to fight she raced back into the tunnel, heading down underground into the darkness. She emerged into what must have once been a holding cell for combatants or a storage room for props, it was difficult to tell in the darkness that filled the unlit subterranean space. Desperately she cast about for a means of escape but the only obvious exit was a collapsed tunnel filled with tons of fallen masonry and dirt. 

“So you are the sea bitch that killed my brother on the Al-Hakim,” a sneering voice called from the tunnel.

“Mahal wouldn’t let me cut out your tongue when he was going to keep you as his slave girl, but killed while trying to escape… a different matter.” Judging from his voice he was in the tunnel doorway now, blocking any possible escape. Desperately she reached for her magic but, as before, found nothing.


Now is the time little drake. The voice thought/spoke in her mind. She felt the tattoo pulse with heat and then felt the heat sliding down her wrists into the cuffs. The metal grew hot against  flesh, so hot that she couldn’t believe she wasn’t burning. She wanted to scream in agony but something inside her stopped the action. Suddenly she realized that the bracelets might be meant to hold a djinn, but only one djinn. Her eyes grew wide and her mouth opened in a primal snarl as she felt her flesh ripple.

The Blood Axe wizard stepped around the corner and raised his hands, a curtain of spellfire ripping from his fingertips to incinerate the foreign witch. The fire splashed across something black and glistening for a moment before the shock of what he was seeing caused his concentration to waver and the spell crumbled. The fading spell lingered just long enough to illuminate a pair of serpentine eyes the size of pomegranates and the double row of white finger long fangs that were the last thing he ever saw.