by John Booth
“Look to the Steam Dragon, they will come from there. Pick your target’s left to right according to your position on the roof. Aim for the armed traders first and shoot to kill. Don’t bother reloading; use your crossbows in sequence. The Lord Protector wants as many dead as is possible. Ignore any attempts they make to surrender.”
Win paused and listened to the sounds of his men breathing. A good commander could learn a lot from that. He could hear that at least one of them was getting too excited.
“Wait for my order to begin shooting. We want to stop them reaching safety once we start the slaughter. Patience is a virtue, men.”
Daniel checked the bonds of his captives. The last thing he needed was for one of them to escape. He had gagged them to stop them giving the alarm. So far, neither of the guards showed any signs of waking up.
The doors to the lock-up had a sophisticated multi-lever lock on them. Unfortunately, someone made the mistake of leaving the key with Captain Waters and so it was a work of a moment to unlock them.
Daniel opened the door a crack and peered inside. It was pitch black inside. He took a deep breath and pulled both doors wide, stepping to the side to present less of a target. Anvil was at an angle for its pale light to shine into the lock-up, revealing it to be empty except for the bags of swords.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Daniel turned towards the Steam Dragon and waved to tell them the lock-up was secured.
Back on the Steam Dragon, Grilt relayed the message to Hadon who paced impatiently along the gangway.
“About time too,” Hadon told Tonas, who nodded in sympathy. Waiting in the bowels of the boat was difficult. Everybody was eager to get out and start moving the swords.
“Now where is that al’Dare bitch with the all-clear signal?” Hadon continued. “Why I ever agreed to send a girl to do a man’s job I’ll never know. What is keeping her?”
Jalia moved slowly across the roofs. Given the limited light from the moons, unless someone was stupid enough to stand against the skyline they would be difficult to see. She was well aware she might trip up over a crossbowman if she didn’t check every shadow before she moved.
One shadow she didn’t see was the figure following in her wake. Keeping well clear of Jalia and only moving when Jalia moved, her stalker kept low to the roof and used the shadows as additional cover.
“Degar’s plan is going well so far,” Dor remarked to Jant.
The two men crouched on the viewing platform that ran around the Steam Dragon’s funnel. The platform was enclosed to a height of three feet six inches, where a handrail ran in a circle around the funnel. On the far side of the boat, relative to the dock, a steel ladder gave anybody brave enough the opportunity to climb to the platform and watch the world go by as the ship steamed up and down the river Jalon. At the bottom of that ladder, Mal kept watch with drawn sword. He was there to make sure the men had an escape route.
Dor used a magic object to view the dock. The Daylight Lenses had been in the possession of Dor’s family since the time of the Magician Kings. The Fairie rarely traveled as far north as Slarn, and the family worked hard to keep its existence a secret.
The lenses consisted of two eyepieces held in a block of silver. Held to the eye the lenses allowed the user to see the world as if in daylight regardless of the actual conditions. The lenses saw through the dark, mist, fog and rain as if it was not there. A single knurled metal thumbwheel allowed the wearer to zoom in on any image he saw, though it required practice and steady hands to stop the image from shaking. The Daylight Lenses were intricately etched and enameled black. They were virtually invisible in the dark.
“May I observe for myself, my Lord?” Jant asked. Dor passed the Lenses over and Jant quickly took in the scene below.
“He has not killed the guards,” Jant said in some surprise. “Do you think that Degar is squeamish over such matters, my lord?”
“Stop calling me that. Just because you think we are alone doesn’t mean someone won’t hear you. Call me Dor, if you must call me anything at all.”
Dor paused for a second to let the message sink in. Then he continued. “I think it is more a sign of strength than weakness. He did not need to kill the guards and so he has not. However, this plan of his has a fatal weakness. There is no possible way that the al’Dare woman can deal with the four crossbowmen on the roof.”
Jant moved the Lenses to point at the roof of the third building along. He saw the bowmen as they crouched on the roof. Their crossbows rested on a low wall that ran around the top of the flat roof. The viewing platform was higher than the roof and Jant had a good view.
The crossbowmen were stationed across the edge of the roof a good six feet apart. Jant saw the concentration on their faces and it was disconcerting as they appeared to be aiming straight at him. Jant knew they were aiming at the gangplank thirty or more feet below him, but he still felt sweat forming on his brow. If they spotted them on the platform, they would be dead in seconds.
“Can you see her, Jant?” Dor asked impatiently. “She was creeping towards them from the roof on the left.”
“No…, yes, my…, Dor. Even with the Lenses, she is difficult to spot, she stays so still between steps; it is as if she becomes a statue.
“It doesn’t matter how good she is. She faces four men armed with crossbows and they are positioned too far apart for her to attack them. She might kill two by throwing her knives and one with her sword but the fourth man would kill her for sure. Even Jalia al’Dare cannot kill men so silently that not one of the others notices.”
“Do you think she will go back for help when she recognises the situation?” Jant asked. Even when he missed out the ‘my lord’ at the end of the sentence it still seemed as if he was saying it.
“It is what a wise soldier would do. Dying against overwhelming odds is heroic and makes for good songs, but is fundamentally stupid. She did not appear to me to be a stupid woman.”
“And it would be a shame to lose such a pretty member of the fair sex,” Jant remarked appreciatively. Their recent mission left no time for dalliances and it had been over a month since he last bedded a wench. ‘I would certainly like to bed that one’, he thought.
Daniel spent a few minutes moving the bags from the inside of the lock-up to just outside the doors. He knew it wouldn’t make much difference to the time it was going to take to move them to the boat, but it was something to do while he waited for Jalia. He knew the danger of impatience in situations such as these.
Hadon Mallow on the other hand was getting incredibly impatient. All the adrenaline running through his blood made him want to smash his hand into a wall in frustration.
“What is keeping the al’Dare woman?” he whispered at Grilt. For a whisper, it virtually came out as a shout and the traders shifted nervously. Cara glared at Hadon, willing him to shut up. It was bad enough waiting as it was, without him complaining about it.
“It takes time to search the roofs in the night,” Grilt said reasonably, though his own nerves were beginning to fray with the tension. He had just looked out and seen Daniel sitting on the dock with his back to the lock-up wall and his eyes closed. How could he possibly doze at a time like this?
“She’s probably fallen down somewhere and broken a leg. We will be still waiting at dawn the way things are going,” Hadon complained. “We must move soon, whether she gives the all clear or not.”
“Give Jalia a little longer,” Cara whispered furiously. “Or do you relish the idea of a crossbow bolt through your heart?”
“You women all stick together,” Hadon grumbled. He leant against the wall and tried to slow his breathing. Where was the damned woman?
Jalia located the crossbowmen. They were thirty feet away across an open roof. There was no cover to use. To Jalia’s mind, they had stationed themselves deliberately far apart as an insult to her. ‘Look, we are much too clever to bunch together where a clever knife fighter like you would have the advantage.’ Their backs seemed to b
e saying. ‘We are much cleverer than you.’
Jalia considered going back for Daniel. Even a crossbow in her hands would give her the edge she desperately needed. Any plan of attack she thought of still left one of them with the time to turn, aim his crossbow and kill her stone cold dead. The problem was that going back might alert them just as much as moving forward. The thought of making a sound and having four crossbow bolts shot into her back did not appeal.
She could throw her knives and take out two of them. Her sword might take out a third if she got close enough, but the forth man would kill her for sure. Jalia was certain there was a way she could win this fight, if only she thought about it hard enough. Then she came up with a plan.
“Jant, you have to see this for yourself.” Dor handed over the Lenses to his man. Jant took the Lenses and aimed them at the roof.
“She is creeping towards them,” he stated in astonishment. “What can she be trying to do?”
Almost as soon as the words left his lips, he saw her plan. “She plans to kill the first man by stabbing him in the back and then throw that knife at the farthest man. If she can kill the two with her throwing knives and get her sword out fast enough, she can kill the next man along and all of them will be dead.”
“A daring plan,” Dor commented. “Only someone insane or insanely confident would attempt it.”
Dor tapped Jant urgently on the shoulder, “Give me back the Lenses. It looks as if our traders are about to commit suicide.”
Time crawled by in the Steam Dragon. Every minute that passed seemed like an hour. Hadon looked at the sky and he was sure he could see the first traces of dawn. He knew they were going to be too late if they didn’t act soon. The al’Dare woman must have got lost. They had to go.
“Come on,” he told his fellows, “Let’s go and get our swords while we still can.”
“Jalia hasn’t given the all clear signal,” Cara protested.
“If you want to get paid you will come with me,” Hadon snarled. “If I get halfway across the dock and you are still here then the deal is off. Come on.”
Daniel sensed rather than heard the movement on the gangplank. He opened his eyes and was instantly fully awake. His first thought was that Jalia must have given the signal and he looked to Grilt to give the signal they had agreed upon.
Grilt was difficult to spot in the dark, but not one of them was waving his hand as they had agreed. Daniel stood clear of the building and waved his arms like a bird flapping his wings. Grilt was supposed to respond in the same way, but not one of the men was giving the signal. Daniel stepped back to the safety of the wall as he realized something had gone very wrong.
Jalia stopped dead. She could tell by the sudden tensing of muscles that the crossbowmen had seen or heard something. Their reactions didn’t make any sense. The traders were safe in the boat. It must be someone coming onboard. But that didn’t make sense either as the men’s crossbows were moving right to left. That implied they were tracking people from the boat.
Indecision was something Jalia rarely experienced. The men in front were now in hunt mode and their senses would be on full alert. Moving in either direction was out of the question; they would hear her for sure.
If they shot their bolts and reached for the next loaded crossbow there was also a good chance they would see her. All options led to her imminent death.
“The idiots,” Dor said breathlessly. “They are going to get themselves killed, not to mention getting the al’Dare woman killed. What unforgivable stupidity.”
Up on the roof, Win watched happily, as the traders walked into the open. It was time to kill them. His men would be taking aim and they never missed. His own target was a tall woman. She was the fourth person, counting left to right, wearing a sword. Win knew his bolt would go through her heart, killing her instantly. He never missed easy shots.
“Now,” he said to his men and pulled his trigger. Down on the docks below, four people fell to the ground.
Win grinned with satisfaction as his target fell. He knew instinctively that his aim had been true. That was four traders dead and seven to go. He pushed the empty crossbow from him and reached for the next loaded one. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a shadow move.
Daniel watched in horror as three traders crumpled to the ground. A fourth flew back as if hit by a mighty hammer, landing sprawled on their back. Daniel was almost certain that one was Cara. There was nothing he could do, to join them on the dock was to invite his own death and would accomplish nothing.
Apart from the initial whish of the bolts, the massacre was silent. The others in the party were too surprised to do anything sensible. They stopped in their tracks, as they looked to see what had happened to their friends.
A few seconds later, another four of the group collapsed besides their fallen colleagues, leaving only three on their feet. Daniel wanted to shout at them to run, but common sense told him they were already dead. There was no place of safety they could reach soon enough.
“All clear!” Jalia shouted from the rooftops, her voice carrying strongly in the dark. Daniel ran towards the traders, wondering if there was anything at all he was going to be able to do when he reached them.
Jalia reacted as soon she heard Win whisper ‘now’. Whoever the guards were firing at were probably dead, but for Jalia the important point was that not one of the guards were armed until they picked up a loaded crossbow.
At a tempo that would have sounded like the fast beat of a drum, Jalia drew and threw her knives at the two men who were farthest from her. Her aim was inch perfect and her knives embedded themselves deep into their backs, spelling certain death. Even at the speed she acted, the men managed to fire their bolts at the targets below.
She pulled her sword free of her scabbard as the other men fired their bolts. The nearest turned as she bore down on him as he reached for a loaded crossbow. Jalia sliced her sword through the air starting low and to her right. It cut through the man’s throat before his hands could touch his bow. He fell back, hands reaching to his neck to stem the flow of arterial blood spurting through his fingers.
Jalia whipped around, still more than six feet from the last bowman. She looked into certain death as Win faced her with a loaded bow pointing at her.
Win took out a second trader before turning and reaching for his next crossbow. He could hardly miss seeing the bodies of his men. Jalia’s dispatch of the last of his men gave him time to pick up his bow and take careful aim. He paused to savor the moment before he shot. Win rarely got to see the eyes of a victim who knew she was going to die.
He caught a glimpse of flashing sliver reflecting the light of the moon and felt a massive thump followed by a tingle of ice cold fire running through his guts. Win looked down in astonishment to see a throwing knife embedded in his gut.
Cold rage rolled through his mind. Win saw Jalia closing in on him as if in slow motion, her sword swinging to cut his head from his body. Behind Jalia and off to his right a dark figure stood outlined against the sky. Win instinctively aimed his crossbow and before Jalia could reach him, let off his bolt at the figure behind her, the person who had dared to end his life.
Even as Jalia’s sword chopped Win’s head from his body, Win saw the convulsive movement that showed he had hit his target. That person would soon be joining him in oblivion. Win died satisfied that he had taken his killer with him.
Jalia ran to the edge of the roof and shouted out ‘all clear’ to the people below. From what she could see on the dock there wasn’t much point in shouting as only three people were still standing.
Jalia turned back and saw the headless body of Win clearly in the light of the two moons. She recognized the hilt sticking out of his belly.
“Hala,” Jalia gasped. There was no one visible on the roof in the direction the knife had been thrown from. All Jalia could see were dark shadows from the walls. She dragged the knives from the bodies and started hunting in the dark of the roof for the young girl who had
saved her life.
“And if you dare to move out of this cabin for anything at all, I will make sure you can’t sit down for a week,” Jalia warned one last time as she slammed the cabin door. There was only an hour to go until midnight and she had to get back to Daniel.
Hala sat on her bunk and fumed. It was just like Daniel and Jalia to cut her out from everything, just as it was starting to be fun. Hala knew she was better at throwing a knife than any of the traders. Most of them didn’t even wear a sword, so it was totally logical that she should have been out there guarding them as they brought the swords into the boat.
Jalia hadn’t seen it that way and had slapped her when she suggested it. Hala’s bottom still stung from that slap as she sat with her arms folded tightly across her chest. As far as she was concerned, Daniel and Jalia were spoilsports of the worst kind.
She fumed in silence for almost ten minutes, occasionally stamping her feet in frustration. Then it occurred to her that everybody else was in the dining room and the coast was clear if she wanted to leave.
She knew the plan. Daniel went over it twice before the grownups noticed she was sitting in the room, listening to every word. That was when Jalia had dragged her off.
No one would notice if she left the boat. Even if there were guards watching the boat from the roof, they wouldn’t pay much attention to a twelve year old girl, even one carrying a small sword.
Hala made her way silently through the bowels of the Steam Dragon towards the gangway to the dock. Her heart thumped with excitement as she trod the corridors, being as silent as a mouse. Daniel was giving her lessons in how to walk without being heard and she had proved to be a quick learner.
She crept down the gangway to the dock and ran for cover as she heard riders approaching. Hala barely made it into the shadow of the buildings before they reached the gangway.
