In the dark of night, a small rowboat bobbed across the bay toward the merchant ship Dominion.
Found adrift that morning, the Dominion had been quarantined by Saintstown’s port authority and towed to a safe anchor point far from the city’s docks. To a certain element among the citizenry, this was just barely a deterrent. To others, it was practically an invitation.
The rowboat came to a stop alongside the ship, and two figures clambered up the side of the hull. First on deck was Eli, a reedy man barely out of his teenage years with the air of a nervous rabbit. He leapt over the banister with ease, pausing only to light the lantern he’d brought with him.
The sudden burst of flame illuminated a body, lying prone not more than a yard away.
Eli yelped and sprang backward into the banister. The lantern swung in his hand, its light dancing erratically across the deck.
It was littered with the dead.
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