The Sea that He Commanded (джен)

There was a moment of disquiet when his boot first struck pebble beach, and the slippery stones skidded under him, setting him stumbling. In that moment, he saw that one of the Low-Shore men had rope in his hands, coarse and thick as a man's wrist, unwound from the coil over his shoulder to an armspan and held at the ready like he was approaching a beast to tame.
Though Aelius was under no illusion about his fate, that sight stopped him in his tracks: the realization that they'd come to meet him not as surrendered enemy commander, nor even the willing hostage that he was, but to yoke him as an animal.