The black-and-white shimmer reappeared between Bradan and Melcorka. Formless and shapeless, it wavered, as if uncertain which of them it wished to touch, and then vanished into nothingness.
'Melcorka,' Bradan said again. He could do nothing, as the man with no name, together with the copse of palm trees, dissolved before him. One second, Bradan was watching Defender sink into the water and the next, he was lying on the deck of Catriona with his back pressed onto the wood and the mast slowly spiralling beneath the vacuum of the sky.
'What happened?' Melcorka was at the tiller, staring around her.
'You threw away Defender,' Bradan said. 'You threw Defender into the hole that the magician created.' He looked around. They were a couple of miles off an unknown green coast with a distinctive, double-peaked hill directly to starboard.
'I know.' Melcorka gave a strangely vacant smile. 'Can we get it back now, please?'
'We have more immediate problems,' Bradan said. 'Look there.'
A mile to port, a dozen two-masted vessels with sails set were spread out in line, abreast. They were closing fast, with the distinctive beat of drums urging them on.
Chapter Four
Melcorka looked dazed. 'My sword,' she said. 'I've lost Defender.' She felt at her shoulder. 'I threw it away.'
'You did,' Bradan agreed.
'I must get her back.' Melcorka stared over the side of Catriona, desperate to find the white island with its mysterious occupant.
'We have other things to worry about,' Bradan said. 'Get on the tiller, Mel, and I'll hoist the sails. These vessels may not be friendly. They may be the Thiruzha pirates that Chola shipmaster warned us of.'
The fleet was spread out, with the vessels extending from the coast to the horizon. Drumbeats throbbed across the intervening water, ominous, dangerous, as the drummers marked the time for the oarsmen who propelled the vessels toward Catriona with frightening speed.
'That looks and sounds bad,' Bradan said. 'No peaceful merchantmen would use a formation like that, or have drums to keep them at the same pace.'
'We'd best sail away then.' Melcorka's eyes cleared for a moment. 'We can come back later and get Defender.'
'They're travelling faster than we are,' Bradan said, 'but I'm damned if I'll sit tamely by and allow them to catch us. Come on, Mel!'
'My sword!' Melcorka looked dazed again. 'I can't leave Defender!'
'We'll come back for Defender.' Bradan shoved her hard onto a rowing bench. 'Come on, Mel, row like the demons of hell are after us, and they might well be. Run, and live to fight another day!'
By now, the dreadful booming of the drums was echoing around Catriona as the strange fleet closed. Bradan could make out men on the cross-trees of the masts, with others standing in the bow of each approaching ship, watching them. The sun glittered on metal, either sword-blades or the points of spears, he could not be sure.
'Row!' Bradan checked the sail. It was drawing as full as it could, gliding Catriona over the long rollers. He hauled on the slim oars and watched as Melcorka pulled feebly. 'Come on, Mel, at least try!'
'Defender,' Melcorka said. 'I want my sword back.'
The first arrow fell well short; the second was twenty yards to port, landed on a shallow trajectory and skiffed across the surface of the water. The third arrow whizzed past, to fall in the water with barely a splash. A fourth followed, and then a fifth, missing the hull of Catriona by only a handspan.
'I don't think they're friendly,' Bradan said.
Melcorka smiled at him, wordless.
Facing astern, Bradan could see the strange fleet clearly. Each vessel was five times the length of Catriona; ocean-going craft with two masts and a score or more of warriors to augment the oarsmen. A forest of spears protruded from behind the wooden bulwarks and rows of round, white objects bounced along the hull. Only when the vessels closed to thirty yards or so did Bradan make out what the white objects were.
'Row, Mel,' he whispered urgently. 'Can you see what they have along the hull?'
'My sword.' Melcorka shook her head, still dazed. 'I've lost Defender.'
'They're skulls – human skulls!' Bradan hauled at the oars again, trying to increase the speed of Catriona although he already knew it was hopeless. 'Mel! Try, please try!'
As Bradan spoke, each ship of the unknown fleet hoisted long, swallow-tail flags from their mizzen mast and stern. Each flag showed the head of a snarling yellow animal against a blue background.
When Melcorka said, 'That's quite pretty,' Bradan knew that her mind had snapped. A grown-up child had taken the place of his Melcorka.
'Stay with me, Mel, and we'll try to get you back.' Bradan stopped rowing. He might need his energy for whatever ordeal lay ahead.
The strange fleet surrounded them and closed the net, with brown-skinned, bare-chested men standing in each ship, pointing arrows or spears at Melcorka and Bradan. When a tall man shouted an order, two arrows sliced through the air, to thrum into the rowing bench at Bradan's side.
'That's it now,' Bradan said. 'We can fight and die, or just surrender, and I don't fancy being the prisoner of this lot.' Lifting his staff, Bradan stood over Melcorka. 'Come and take us then, if you can!' He feinted right and left as a horde of men swept over the side of the boat. 'Get off my ship!' Something hit him on the side of the head, and he slumped down. Something else hit him, and he lost consciousness.
'I've lost my sword.' Melcorka smiled up at the man who crashed the butt of a spear on her head.
* * *
Bradan woke with his head pounding and his wrists and ankles tightly tied. He opened his
