With his silver tongue, Markris soon brought most of the prisoners in Greyfear Fortress under his command. Even the few dozen fishermen on the island had the misfortune of being swept into his ranks.
With his brother Sevan backing him, Markris not only governed an island of his own in the Stepstones but had also assembled a great fleet of a hundred ships. Saewan, however, had requisitioned it outright and incorporated it into the Holy Flame Fleet, leaving him with only a thirty-percent share of the profits.
Still, he personally commanded several dozen pirate longships, along with even more fishing boats of every kind, all plundered from across the world. He had thus successfully shed the label of pirate chief and become the Stepstones' sole minority shareholder, largest fishmonger, and largest slave trader.
Not only did he supply enough fish to feed the tens of thousands living in the Stepstones, but he had also brought back several thousand sturdy slaves and beautiful women of various races from around the world, greatly enriching the islands' ethnic diversity.
Grey Gallows Island, where he now lived, already had a population of over ten thousand. Rake Prince Town was now the second-largest port in the entire Stepstones, with entertainment venues rivaling the finest Garden of Lust in Lys.
Thanks to the excellent pasture grass, assorted plant seeds, and seedlings supplied by Holy Flame Island, more than a year of development had transformed Grey Gallows Island, like the other islands in the Stepstones, into a subtropical island with a distinctive charm.
The force directly under Markris's command had now grown to over a thousand men. All of them were seasoned fighters who had spent years roaming the world, so their fighting strength was certainly no less than that of three thousand regular soldiers.
After taking