by Jean Rabe
Rig found his balance, threw the rope up, and cursed when it missed its mark and splashed in the water behind him. He rolled it up and tried again.
“There’s nothing to hook it on,” Blister said. “You’ll have to try the other side.”
Rig shook his head and coiled the rope over his arm. He pulled two daggers from his belt and worked them into the ship’s hull, a few feet above the waterline and between the oar ports.
“Hey, that’s pretty clever!” the kender squealed. “He’s making a ladder. Maybe I could...”
A cross look from Dhamon and Jasper silenced her.
Rig took two more daggers and wedged them in higher in the hull. Then he stood on the first two daggers and climbed to the higher pair. Precariously balanced, he wedged in another couple, and continued climbing, using his makeshift footholds. Several minutes later he was out of daggers, but he was at the top. He disappeared over the side.
Blister fidgeted. “I don’t think he should be up there all by himself,” she whispered. “I’d like to have a little of the fun.”
The rope dropped over the side, as did a rope ladder the knights probably used for boarding. Rig hung over the railing, motioning to Groller. The half-ogre pointed to the sack under Blister and Jasper. Dhamon brought it out and carefully tied it to the rope.
Dhamon climbed up the ladder, retrieving two of Rig’s daggers in the process and sticking them in his belt next to his long sword. He guided the sack up the side, careful to avoid scraping the hull and shattering the jugs inside. He helped Rig lift it over the rail and joined the mariner on deck.
“Same as before,” Rig whispered.
They looked toward the ship’s starboard side, where nearly two dozen Knights of Takhisis stood against the railing, watching the fire.
“I don’t think so,” Dhamon said quietly. He pointed at midships, then gestured at the mainmast, where a knight stood perched in the crow’s nest. The knight had noticed them.
“Pirates!” the knight bellowed, instantly drawing everyone’s attention away from the fire. The knight waved his arm toward Rig and Dhamon.
“We could use some help up here!” Rig called over the side. He felt for his daggers. “Damn! Used ’em all.”
“Here!” Dhamon passed him the two daggers he had retrieved, then darted forward, meeting the charge of the first three knights. This is suicide, he thought. He ducked below a wide swing and stabbed up with his long sword. The blade dug into one knight, and Dhamon leapt back just as the man pitched forward.
He did not leap far enough, and the knight’s falling body knocked him over. Dhamon scrambled out from under the corpse and leapt to his feet as one of the other advancing knights stabbed his thigh. Dhamon swung toward a knight wearing black chain mail. The sword bounced off the armor. Dhamon jumped back a few steps. Both of the knights rushing toward him were wearing chain mail; four more in leather were behind him somewhere.
“Suicide,” he repeated half under his breath.
Several yards behind him, Rig was engaging a pair of unarmored knights. A third lay on the ground with two daggers protruding from his chest. The mariner had snatched a sword from the body and was deftly parrying the knights’ swings and hurling insults at them at the same time.
The thunder of more footsteps from below made Dhamon swallow hard. He was good with a blade but overwhelming odds were another matter. And a ship this size would have dozens of men on board – not to mention dozens of slaves chained in the hold and at the oar ports. Suicide definitely.
“Oh no you don’t!” taunted Blister. “You leave Dhamon alone!” The kender had climbed onto the deck and was expertly pelting the knights attacking Dhamon. Sea shells she’d gathered from somewhere struck the backs of their heads.
The knights lifted their hands to protect them from the fusillade, giving Dhamon an opening. He kicked out at one knight, forcing the man back and impaling him on the out thrust sword of one of four advancing knights. At the same moment, he slashed hard to his left, cutting through links of chain to find the skin beneath. The knight howled, and Dhamon followed through with a strong thrust that pushed the long sword deep into the man’s belly.
Dhamon tugged his blade free just as Feril darted past him. The Kagonesti was heading toward the mast, down which the knight who’d been in the crow’s nest was climbing. Agile as a monkey, Feril scrambled up the rigging and kicked out at the man. He held tight to the mast and drew his sword, but she kicked again, ferociously and repeatedly, until man and blade fell to the deck.
“Cut the sail while you’re up there!” Rig called to her.
She paused.
“Unfurl it!” Rig bellowed. “Let it down to catch the wind!”
A quartet of knights drew Dhamon’s attention back to the battle. He guessed that counting the ones who’d just come up from below, there must be at least three dozen on deck to contend with. He backed toward the rail, parrying blows, although one got through his defenses, wounding his arm.
“Swim for it!” one of the knights shouted.
Dhamon had no intention of jumping over the side, he just wanted to feel the rail at his back. Several feet away, he noticed Fiona, her armor gleaming in the light of the lanterns spaced around the deck. She had her back to Rig, and the two of them were keeping another quartet of knights busy. Other knights crowded around, looking for an opening.
“The carracks!” Feril called from the rigging. “They’re raising their sails. All three of them!”
Rig muttered a string of curses. “We’re gonna have more company than we can handle!” he yelled. Under his breath, he added, “I didn’t think they’d all come over here.”
“Let’s finish this fight quickly!” Fiona called.
“Finish it?” The voice belonged to Jasper. The dwarf awkwardly climbed over the rail and fumbled with the sack at his waist. Groller climbed over behind him and headed toward midships. “Finish it? They’re going to finish us.” Jasper pulled the Fist of E’li from the sack and smacked it into the leg of an approaching knight. The man doubled over and Jasper swung the Fist into his head, grimacing as he heard the man’s skull crack. The dwarf stepped over the body and waded into the fray.
“The half-ogre!” a knight bellowed. “And an Ergothian! These are the ones we came here for! And they came right to us! Kill them all! Malys will reward us!”
Groller met the charge of two knights, pitching one over the side. He barreled into the other, pinning him to the deck. His big hands found their way to the man’s throat and squeezed. The knight struggled for several moments, then lay still.
Groller pushed himself off the knight and caught a blow to his arm. The cut was deep, and the half-ogre howled as he brought his uninjured arm up to punch the knight. The man was momentarily stunned, and Groller pressed his attack, kicking the knight in the chest, then tugging a belaying pin from his belt and cracking it against the side of the man’s head. Four more knights were heading his way.
“We can win this!” Rig shouted above the clash of swords.
“Losing’s not an alternative I want to think about!” the kender called back. She’d climbed onto the capstan and was hurling sea shells, rocks, buttons, and an assortment of other oddities with her sling. She caught a couple of the knights off-guard, buying Rig a little time with his cutlass. Then she looked about for Dhamon.
The mariner had downed two men and whirled to take on one of Fiona’s targets.
“I don’t need help!” Fiona yelled.
“Just being honorable,” he returned.
“Be honorable to those over there!” She gestured toward a pair of knights who had stepped up to take their fallen comrades’ places. Rig leapt back from one of the two Knights of Takhisis, who thrust upward with his blade. Had the mariner not moved, the sword would have pierced his heart. Rig ducked below another swing, then twisted to the side and drove his blade into the knight. A moment later, he heard Fiona’s target fall to the deck.
More than a dozen knights h
ad been killed, but there were three times that many still on their feet. Rig suspected there were still more below deck putting on armor and grabbing weapons.
“See why we couldn’t steal a galley?” Rig called as he stood back-to-back with Fiona again, careful not to trip over the bodies. “It takes too many sailors to man her!”
“Too many to man a carrack, too,” Blister muttered.
The canvas dropped from the mainmast and billowed, and the Kagonesti dropped in a crouch.
“That’s great, Feril!” Rig yelled. “But we aren’t going anywhere with the anchor still down.”
“I’ll get it!” the Kagonesti called to him, then sprinted toward the rear of the ship, leaping over a fallen knight and sidestepping another.
“It’s got two anchors!” he yelled. But the Kagonesti was too far away, and the sounds of the battle drowned any hope of being heard. “One at the front,” he added to himself.
“Get the kender!” a knight cried.
“No!” Dhamon had dispatched the four knights in leather, suffering more than a few cuts in the process. Now he was fighting a towering man, whom he could tell was a commander, perhaps the man to whom the spy was supposed to report.
“Dhamon Grimwulf,” the towering commander hissed between clenched teeth. “Don’t quite match your description. Thought you had blond hair. Malys wants you alive.” The commander shifted the grip of his sword, intending to strike Dhamon with the flat of the blade. “I can take you alive.”
“Not if I can help it.” Dhamon parried the man’s wide swing, forcing him toward the capstan. As the knight drew back for another blow, Dhamon stepped closer, thrusting the blade up and through a gap in his armor. The wounded knight stepped back, clutching his stomach and brought his long sword down. The impact knocked the weapon out of Dhamon’s hand. The sword clattered to the deck.
Blood flowed from the knight-commander. “Malys wants you alive,” he repeated through clenched teeth. He coughed deeply and backed Dhamon toward the rail. “But I’m not going to see tomorrow. And now neither are you. Don’t know why Malys is so keen on you. Word is you were a knight.” He coughed again, rosy saliva spilling over his lip. “That would make you a traitor.”
The knight-commander drew back his blade, careful not to give Dhamon room to escape. “Rogue knights carry a death sentence.”
His sword arced toward Dhamon but stopped short, falling from his grip even as the knight-commander dropped to his knees. Dhamon’s sword stuck through the man, and Blister’s hands were on the hilt.
Dhamon bent and retrieved the commander’s sword, just as Blister huffed and tugged Dhamon’s sword free. Her hands were trembling.
“I think you better use this sword,” she said. “Too heavy for me. I like my sling better. I have to admit, though, he just wasn’t gonna be stopped by my buttons.”
“You saved my life,” Dhamon panted, as he plucked the sword from her grasp and dashed forward just in time to stop a knight from reaching Blister. He glanced over his shoulder and spotted the kender heading toward the rail, where Usha was climbing over.
“You saved my life,” he repeated as he parried the thrust of a new opponent. “But Palin will take my life sure enough if something happens to his wife.”
Feril had managed to pull up the rear anchor. A burly knight was headed her way, sword out and cursing.
“You’re the wild elf,” the knight said. He slowed and stood a few feet away. “Tattoo on the cheek. We’re ’sposed to kill you. Pity. You’re a pretty thing.”
He moved forward, and Feril spun to the side. Then she darted past him, her bare feet sounding on the deck. She ran hard, leaving him behind, but she still heard the pounding of his footsteps. She rushed to Dhamon’s side. He had just dropped another knight and was standing in front of Usha and Blister, trying to keep them safe.
The Kagonesti glanced around. Bodies littered the deck. Dhamon was bleeding from cuts on his arms and legs, and there was a gash across his stomach. Several yards beyond him, Jasper kept two knights at bay. Despite their longer reaches, they gave the dwarf a wide berth, keeping their eyes on the scepter.
Feril got Dhamon’s attention, pointing to the dwarf, and then to Rig and Fiona on the other side of the ship. Five knights jockeyed for position around the Solamnic and the mariner.
Dhamon pushed his sword into Feril’s hands, and bent to scoop up a blade from a fallen knight. “The Knights of Takhisis use slaves to man their oars,” he shouted above the din of battle. “They’d be down in the hold.” Then he spun on his heels and headed toward Rig and Fiona. “Free them if you can!” he called over his shoulder.
“We have to try,” Usha said, her voice difficult for the Kagonesti to hear over the clang of swords.
“Then let’s go.” The Kagonesti darted toward the open hatch, Usha at her heels. Blister followed, but paused to pelt a knight with a slingful of buttons.
Feril stepped over the body of a knight lying at the edge of the hatch. She bent and pried a long sword out of his cold fingers. She held it out to Usha. “Take it!” The elf pressed the pommel into Usha’s hands. “There might be more knights below.”
The Kagonesti and Usha disappeared below deck. Blister stood at the hatch, sling ready, watching for any knights. None seemed to be interested in the kender any longer. They were directing most of their efforts against Dhamon, Rig, and Fiona and Groller.
“I’m not afraid of you,” Blister taunted softly. “I can take you. I can... hmmm. Maybe weapons aren’t the answer.”
The kender glanced toward the rear of the ship, at the sack Rig and Dhamon had hauled over the side. It sat undisturbed. “Or maybe a different kind of weapon would work,” she said to herself. Blister took a look into the hatch and strained to hear Feril and Usha. “Nothing. Must mean they’re okay so far and not in trouble.” She stuffed her sling in her pocket and headed toward the sack.
At midships, Dhamon was fighting at the side of Rig and Fiona, quickly slashing through two of the five men who surrounded them. That left one foe for each, and Dhamon faced the one in armor.
Several yards beyond them, Groller struggled against three knights, with another three heading toward him. Dhamon tried to keep the half-ogre in sight as he continued to assault his foe.
“There can’t be more than two dozen left now!” Rig cried cheerfully. The mariner was hurt badly, bleeding from a gash in his side and from several deep cuts on his leg. Fiona was exhausted, but uninjured. Her Solamnic armor had protected her well. “We can take ’em!” Rig continued. “We can...” Out of the comer of his eye he saw Groller slump to the deck, six knights around him now. “Groller!”
Dhamon saw what was happening to Groller too, but he could not get past the armored knight in front of him.
The mariner summoned all that was left of his strength and swung his sword. But each thrust was parried, preventing Rig from reaching the half-ogre. “No!” he screamed, as he watched one of the knights shove a sword in Groller’s back. The knight stepped on the half-ogre, tugged the blade free, then pointed toward Rig. The six men turned as one and advanced.
Dhamon tried not to think about Groller as he fought on. He managed to stab his opponent. The knight howled in pain, and when Dhamon struck him again, he dropped his sword and fell to his knees. With one swift stroke, Dhamon whipped his blade across the man’s neck. So much for honor, he said to himself as he stepped forward to fight the half-dozen knights who’d finished off Groller.
Dhamon met the lead knight head-on, plunging his long sword into the man’s unarmored chest. The sword lodged deep and stuck, as the man fell.
Behind him, he heard a throaty groan and a loud thump, but he couldn’t afford to take his eyes off the five men in front of him. Two of those he faced carried shields, black as night with lilies gleaming around the edges. One wielded a wicked-looking morning star.
“Bastards!” Rig, clutching his bleeding side, raced past Dhamon to grapple with the two knights with shields.
&nbs
p; “Rig, don’t be a fool!” Dhamon called to him. “You’re badly hurt!” He scanned the deck, spotted a discarded sword, and dove for it, his fingers closing on the pommel, just as three of the knights reached him. He jumped to his feet, and out of the corner of his eye saw Rig reeling from blows.
“Dhamon!” Fiona screamed. “Rig’s down! Help him!” She had her hands full, dueling with two knights. She cast worried glances at the mariner, while swinging her sword erratically.
Rig slumped to his knees, in a growing pool of blood. Somehow he raised his sword just in time to block one of the knight’s blows. Another cut at his sword arm. Rig screamed, and his sword spun away.
“Fight me!” Dhamon challenged the three men in front of him.
“All right, let’s be done with this,” the one with the morning star returned. He took up a position in front of Dhamon, while the knights with swords lined up alongside him.
One of the other two swung again at Rig, and the mariner pitched forward. The knight placed a conquering foot on the body.
“You used to be honorable!” Dhamon snarled. “Honorable!”
The knight with the morning star grinned. “Only you and the lady knight left,” he said as he whirled the weapon in a circle above his head. “And the women who went below decks. We’ll take our time with them. Save ’em for last. I’m not too worried about the kender.”
Or the dwarf, Dhamon thought, wondering where Jasper was. He growled, feeling the morning star pass over his head as he ducked. Slashing to the right, he caught a knight in the abdomen, and quickly repeated the stroke, downing the man. At the same time, steel bit into his left side. The other knight had scored a cut. Dhamon felt his side grow wet and warm. He spun and stood, slashing at the knight on his left side, while dodging another blow from the morning star.
The knight stopped, his blade suspended, his mouth gaping in surprise. Dhamon had pierced the man’s stomach with his long sword.
