again after you diving into them sharks like that. You do it again, though, you better hope them sharks have at you. I'll chomp on you myself if they don't.'
Jherek ran the cutlass and hook through his work apron strap, then took the short bow and quiver of arrows Hagagne offered. He was one of the better archers among the crew.
'Hawlyng!' Finaren yelled.
'Aye, Cap'n,' Hawlyng responded.
'I'll want to be using that fire projector today, Hawlyng!'
'Aye, sir. I've got 'er up and ready. Just you say when.'
'Now!' Finaren howled. 'I'm up to my arse in these damned deep devils!'
Jherek stepped to the railing as the crew made room for him. He notched an arrow to the string as he surveyed the manta coming around. The sahuagin clung to the sides as well as manning the oars. Their scaled bodies writhed in the effort of propelling their craft along with the oars. With the darkening sky full of storm clouds, they were crouched in shadow, but Jherek could easily spot the silvery eyes that haunted many sailors' dreams.
A sahuagin drummer stood in the prow, croaking out a rhythm. Jherek recognized it as serving the same purpose as a drum beater on a trireme. Flaming arrows from Butterfly's crew fell into the water and occasionally sunk home in the manta, creating bright spots of yellow flame against the darkness as they flew. When they hit the sahuagin craft, the oarsmen pulled back from the fires, but one of them would always fin a wave of water over it and put it out.
'You get that girl back?' Finaren asked.
“Aye.' Jherek smoothed his wet hair back from his face, getting the measure of Butterfly's lunges across the uneven ocean. They were rising and falling little over fifty paces opposite each other, but at the distance, that fifty paces stretched out even further, making shots difficult.
'Good,' the captain growled, 'but that was a damn fool thing you did.'
'I couldn't let her drown or get eaten by a shark.'
'You ever stop and think you ain't got much choice in some of those matters, lad?' Finaren sounded angry, hotter than Jherek had ever heard him.
Irritation and insecurity stung the young sailor at the same time. 'You mean you think it's possible the sahuagin out there are going to take Butterfly this evening?' He meant it to come out harder, but he really wasn't sure. There were a lot of sahuagin out there.
'Not my ship,' Finaren answered. 'Leastways, not while I'm able to draw a breath. Now be a good lad and put a shaft through that croaking monstrosity in the prow. They have us on speed, but they're a brute while Butterfly's a lady who knows how to dance. Still, they're going to run us down if we let them. Even this puny wind won't always be in our favor as we move around.'
Jherek concentrated on his shot and loosed the fletchings. The arrow caught the sahuagin in the thigh, causing it to bark in pain. Still, it snapped the arrow off and went back to croaking cadence. The young sailor drew another shaft, watching the manta draw nearer. When the craft was less than thirty paces away, he released the second arrow.
The fletching suddenly appeared in the sahuagin's thickly muscled neck and the croaking halted immediately. It toppled over the side, clawing at its neck as it tried to dislodge the arrow.
'Hard to starboard!' Finaren shouted.
The boatswain yelled the order back and the ship's crew and helmsman made the adjustment. Butterfly came about regretfully, losing the wind and slowing immediately.
Jherek fired four more arrows, hitting targets scattered across the manta. The thick sahuagin hide turned two of his arrows as surely as chain mail when they didn't hit flush. At the distance, it was almost impossible to avoid hitting something.
Finaren held onto the railing as the ship crested a wave that slammed into her side. Quarrels from the sahuagin crossbows stuttered into Butterfly's side and ripped through her sails. A man screamed only a few feet from Jherek, clutching the quarrel that suddenly appeared in his chest.
'It burns!' he screamed, falling to his knees. 'Selune watch over me.' He lasted only a moment, praying fervently to his goddess before he passed out.
'Poison,' Finaren noted. 'Umberlee take them deep what use such things.'
Jherek fired another pair of arrows before the manta closed on Butterfly. For a moment, he thought the sahuagin craft was going to strike the cog, then the manta cleared Butterfly's stern by inches, charging past. The sahuagin hurled spears and tridents as they went by, croaking angrily.
The cog's crew started to cross over to the port side.
'Stay, you dogs,' Finaran shouted. 'Helmsman, bring us around harder to starboard. I want a hundred and eighty degree turn.'
'Aye, cap'n,' the helmsman called back.
Butterfly came about. Sailcloth cracked overhead as the crew flipped the booms around. She caught the full breeze again in heartbeats. The spinnaker blossomed like a night rose in full passion and pulled the ship forward.
'Crafty though them creatures may be,' Finaren said, 'they still don't understand the wind and what a kind mistress she might be.'
Jherek watched as the sahuagin struggled to bring their craft under control. Finaran was right about the speed the sea devils had, and they would have outrun Butterfly had the attack led into a race.
'Bring her around, helmsman, toward them sea devils,' Finaran commanded. 'I want to shear her oars off on the port side. In another minute we're going to wake them up to what a war at sea is all about.'
The manta almost stalled in the water as the sahuagin struggled to regain control of their craft. They floundered, struggling to turn the manta around.
'They got no draw on that boat,' Finaren said. 'It sits flat on the water, and once they get it started in a direction, they can make it go fast, but maneuverability becomes an issue. Hawlyng…'
'Aye, cap'n?'
'That fire projector, Hawlyng, are you ready with it?'
'Aye, sir.'
Jherek glanced over his shoulder and saw the fire projector mounted on pivots come around to point at the stalled manta. The projector's maximum range was forty yards. At the moment, the manta was out of range, but the young sailor didn't doubt that it would come in again.
'Helmsman,' the captain called out, 'shear them oars. The rest of you dogs hold onto to whatever you got, and Umberlee take them beasties what's come upon us!'
III
9 Mirtul, the Year of the Gauntlet
Butterfly bore down on the manta, speeding closer. The sahuagin stared at her, their silvery eyes picking up light from the oil lamps swinging crazily from the railing. A renewed flurry of spears and quarrels thudded against the cog, finding few targets. A sailor went down with a trident through his guts, squalling in fear and pain.
Jherek held himself steady, an arrow pulled back. When Butterfly came down again, her prow nosing toward the manta, he fired arrows as quickly as he could draw the string. Even under Malorrie's tutelage, he didn't come close to the skills of an elf bowman in terms of speed, but he was deadly accurate at this range. He aimed at the sahuagin on the port side of the manta, driving them back into their shipmates when they fell.
A string of sharp thundering cracks followed Butterfly as she sheared through the sahuagin oars on the manta's port side, her prow cracking the paddles like kindling. When they finished the pass, Jherek saw that nearly every oar on that side of the sea devils' craft had been splintered and rendered useless.
A ragged cheer ripped free of the throats of Butterfly's crew.
'Hawlyng,' Finaren bawled.
'Aye, Cap'n.'
