Chapter 18

The night had fallen, and the whole sea was quiet and hauntingly silent. But the island was alive with noise and lights. They had made a clearing in the forest by cutting off the trees and set up a big camp in its place. It was like a small town had been erected in the middle of the island, a town in which everyone was on the payroll of one man. The man in question, Knox Frank used to be a merchant with a small company of salt and other small sea products. Over the years, he had risen up the ladder, taking over businesses and crushing down those who opposed him. There were rumors about the crimes the man committed to gain power like this with such speed, but in Slarveg everyone was a bit of a lawmaker, so no one could really point fingers.

Knox was standing under a shade since it had started raining now, with some other men and they were looking over a table full of papers. He was a typical merchant, large and fat, someone, who hadn't set foot outside much in his childhood and lived a life of comfort and abundance. He looked out of place, wearing a tracker's uniform, and standing beside men who were miles opposite of him. And the fact showed itself with the tension on his face.

Ash was looking at all of this from his vantage point up on a tree. He had gotten lucky; since the rain had started, the guards on the lookout had moved inwards towards the camp, allowing him to get as close as possible. Ash had some close encounters with Knox, the first was one he was fourteen and Knox had come to his house to ask his father for some business deal, no doubt something related to their ship. He was a bit less of an asshole than; the humbleness of having to go himself to people's homes had affected his attitude. He still remembered the calm and almost pleading tone in which he had talked to his father. The next meeting was two years later, Knox was already a big name now, and Ash had to go to his warehouse to deliver some product. Knox was present himself and had recognized him, he had made sure to point out all the mistakes and delays they had done in the delivery and had not paid them the total amount. The first impression of a struggling merchant had changed to a fat-rich prick. Even though Knox, had all kinds of rumors floating around, about his various businesses, none of them ever mentioned Knox himself, where he had come from, or his family, which Ash found odd. In the meeting in the warehouse, Ash had first seen Knox's right-hand man, Trav, a tall and broad man with a mean contemplative look. The man spoke rarely and could be seen everywhere with Knox after that. Today, however, he was not here. Instead, there were other men present with him. He had never seen them before and their attitude towards Knox was not of subordination or taking orders, rather they were standing confidently around him listening. Ash moved ahead on the branch slowly, and it moved down from his weight until he could listen to what they were talking about.

"We have started from here, we'll dig for about fifty feet then move on through here" Knox was saying pointing down at a rough map of the island, Ash observed.

"If only we knew what we were looking for, the process would be faster," Knox said to a white-haired guy with dark skin and he had a strange symbol on his face.

"Nobody knows what it looks like, but it's definitely not an actual flower like you had stupidly thought it was," the man said with contempt.

"Whatever then, the point is we'll find it sooner or later, so the thing we talked about," Knox said this time sounding afraid.

"Patience Knox, patience, you do your part of the deal and we'll do ours; you don't need to worry about the thing just yet," the main said smirking a little bit, and left, followed by the other two men. Knox was now alone looking down at the map, Ash leaned closer looking at the map, he took note of the location Knox had mentioned they were digging and the other places they had marked. If the flower was not actually a flower and rather something underground, they'll have to dig too, if Knox was digging on one side of the island they'll start on the other. Maybe they'll get lucky, if not they'll have to think of other ways.