would pay doubly or triply for their swords, and we would have nothing to fear.
Who could they complain to? Their purpose was even more illicit than ours.
'I fell in with Drott's scheme. In truth, I despised the scaly killers and feared them greatly. To cheat them seemed both just and profitable.'
The ghost paused and the silence grew long. Sturm finally said, 'What happened when you reached Coastlund?'
Rasp. 'A dragonship was there, waiting. The leader of the dragonmen came aboard to accept transfer of the weap ons. Drott laid out his demand for more money. The leader must have expected such a ploy, for he readily offered to pay half again the original price. Drott insisted on double the amount. The lizard resisted for a time, then conceded.
He departed for his ship and returned with a second chest of treasure. This time a human came with him, a dark cleric wearing a metal mask that mimicked a dragon's face. This one frightened me very much. He stood by, watching and saying nothing. Drott laughed and joked as the second box of money came on board. He was drunk with success, and when I ordered the crew to begin transferring the cargo to the dragonship, he drew me aside and whispered another wicked design in my ear. 'Shall we not keep some part of the cargo ourselves?' he said. 'Could we not wring a bit more sil ver from these flush pigeons?''
'That was pretty stupid,' Kitiara said, 'with a boatload of draconians alongside.'
'We did not fear their force, for our crew was numerous and skilled in the use of saber and pike. We did not sail the pirate-infested seas unprepared.'
'But the dark cleric — that was someone you weren't able to counter,' said Sturm.
'Indeed, mortal man.' The ghost's right arm dropped off.
Part of the unreal flesh touched Sturm's booted foot. He withdrew it hastily and shivered. The ghost's touch was more frigid than the wind off the Ice Wall.
'We held back five hundredweight of arms. The dragon men's leader discovered the shortage and complained. Drott jeered at him from the rail, saying there was a tax on illegal weapons and the dragonfolk had yet to pay. The dragon man threatened to storm the Werival and slaughter us all.
The crew manned the rail with bare blades and taunted them to try. The dragonmen, less than a third our number, began to arm. I wanted to weigh anchor and be off, but
Drott said we should stay and fight. After we killed the scaly folk, he said, we could take back all the weapons we'd sold them and sell them again.
'There was no battle. The dark cleric came from his place on the stern of the dragonship and threw his arms wide.
'Go, greedy vermin, and take away your dishonored gold. I curse you and yours forever! Those who lust for gold shall lust for the flesh of their fellows, those who jeer at the min ions of the Dark Queen shall know her wrath! They shall hear her mocking laughter forever! ' he said.
'It was a terrible curse, and the full weight of it did not fall on us for some weeks. We left the shores of Coastlund for
Sancrist, but never saw land again. Strange, circular winds blew us farther and farther from land. The crew began to hear voices — a woman laughing — and they slowly went mad. The few healthy sailors that remained chained the mad ones below decks. Food and water dwindled, but try as we might, we could not bring the Werival to shore.
'Drott changed. He had always been a vain man, proud of his quick mind and good looks. Now he ceased to care for himself, allowing his beard to grow and his clothes to fall to tatters. The meat shrank on his bones and his skin whitened to a ghastly color. As the days passed, my first mate and friend perished as the hideous curse worked upon his wretched body. Drott prowled below, snaring rats in his hands and eating them alive. Soon rats were not enough for him. He had become a Gharm, a ravenous ghoul that feeds on the flesh of men.'
'Why didn't you kill him?' Kitiara said sharply. The drumming of feet had stopped, but they could still hear the
Gharm's cackle as the monster capered madly in the rigging.
'I could not, for as much as his new form disgusted me, I pitied my lost friend. The crew, poor wretches, learned to keep him at bay by giving him those who died of madness and starvation. When there were only five sound men left, they decided to try to put an end to the Gharm. Our young cleric, Novantumus, wove a temporary protective spell.
The sailors armed themselves and drove the Gharm to the fore end of the ship with fire and sword. Novantumus meant to imprison the fiend in the anchor locker, and he fashioned a magic seal to keep it in. The Gharm attacked the men savagely and killed them one by one. With his life's blood spilling on the deck, the brave Novantumus succeed ed in compelling the Gharm into the locker. I alone lived, and here at my table I died of hunger, thirst, and despair.'
The ghost had shrunk throughout his telling, and the cold glare that it cast had diminished to a firefly's sparkle. Sturm was deeply sorry for the captain.
'One question,' said Kitiara. She picked up the skull that had been set between the captain's feet. 'Who is this?'
'That was Drott's head. One of the sailors cut it off before the Gharm killed him.'
'But that thing out there has a head!'
'A new one it grew afterward.'
Sturm said, 'Can the Gharm be killed?'
The ghost shriveled to a slender coil of white mist. 'Not by steel, iron, or bronze,' it said, a tiny, far-off voice. 'Only purifying fire will make this ship clean.' With those final words, the ghost vanished.
'This is wonderful,' Kitiara said bitterly. 'A monster we can't kill unless we burn up the ship that's keeping us out of the water!'
'What we must do is stay alive until the storm ends,'
Sturm said. 'The gnomes will be looking for us and we'll be able to leave this cursed ship — ' A splintering sound halted
Sturm in midsentence. The Gharm had rammed one bony, clawed arm through the thin, louvered panel of the cabin door.
'Something tells me our moment of immunity is over!'
Kitiara said. Sturm leaped up from the table, drawing his sword in one smooth motion. He brought the keen blade down hard on the grasping talons. The Gharm roared in pain and withdrew the stump of its left arm.
'Suffering gods!' Kitiara kicked the severed arm away.
The limb rapidly decayed to bone, and then to dust. The
Gharm put one of its baleful eyes to the hole that it had made and glared at them. Sturm raised his sword again and the monster backpedaled.
Kitiara went to the cabin's rear and started tearing through the captain's bunk.
'Kit, what are you doing?' he called.
'Don't worry, just keep that damned thing away a minute longer!' He heard wood being split behind him, then felt heat on the back of his neck.
Sturm turned and saw that Kitiara had made a torch from a bunk slat and a strip of ticking. Doused with oil from the captain's lamp and ignited by flint, it blazed furiously.
'Ha! Try this, ghoul!' she shouted, brandishing the flame before the door. The Gharm howled and hissed, its fangs dripping saliva. 'I'll give you something to chew on.' Kiti ara kicked the smashed door frame open. The rain had almost stopped, but a fierce wind still raged across the open deck. Kitiara dashed out, whipping the torch to and fro like a fencing blade. The Gharm crouched back on its rail-thin haunches, spitting and hissing.
'Kit, be careful!'
'It's my fault this thing is out. I intend to kill it!'
She moved on the ghoul again, forcing it to retreat up the rigging. It hung twenty feet above the deck, giggling in an obscene parody of humanity. Kitiara paced below it, wav ing the torch to keep it bright and hot.
Sturm closed behind her. 'Don't let it drop down on you,' he counseled.
'If it does, it'll go back up a lot faster than it came down.'
The ceiling of black clouds scattered into streams of dirty white as the blue of clear sky shone through. The
