Dhraji squeezed Bradan's bicep. 'Are you thinking the same as I am, Bradan?'
'I was thinking of you, My Lady,' Bradan lied.
Even approaching battle, Dhraji wore three strings of pearls, with one large pearl in the centre of her ornate head-dress. 'Of course you were.' Dhraji moved her hip against him. 'If you ever stop thinking of me, I must get rid of you, and I'm not at all ready for that yet.'
'I'm glad to hear it, your Majesty, for I am not yet finished with you.' Bradan managed what he hoped was a lecherous leer.
Dhraji slapped him sharply. 'Have patience, Bradan. You are only a slave.'
'Your slave, My Lady.' Bradan bowed and salaamed. He thought of Melcorka in her foul dungeon and bent lower. 'Always your slave.'
'Here they are!' the lookout called from the masthead. 'The outriders are returning, with the Chola loolas in pursuit.'
'How many loolas?' Bhim asked.
'I see fourteen, no, fifteen, Lord Bhim, and maybe more on the flank.' The lookout was counting as he reported, balancing on the masthead as the ship bounced to the rhythm of the waves.
'Stand to your oars!' Bhim roared. 'Archers! Prepare your arrows! Drummer, increase the beat by one-half.'
As the Thiruzha scouts withdrew before the pursuing Chola loolas, the Thiruzha fleet spread even further out, with the flanking vessels increasing their speed faster than the others.
'Can you see what we are doing?' Dhraji asked.
'I see,' Bradan said. 'We are luring the Chola ships into a trap.'
'Exactly so.' Dhraji nodded. 'Now, come with me and watch.' Agile as any monkey, Dhraji climbed to the masthead, balanced easily on the slanting yardarm and smiled as the initial stage of the battle developed. Bradan followed, every bit at home on the ship as Dhraji was. He looked out to sea, enjoying the view of the limitless horizon and wondered if he and Melcorka would ever again find themselves sailing in Catriona, free of the land.
We will. I must not think otherwise. We will get away.
When the leading Chola vessels finally realised that the entire Thiruzha fleet was surrounding them, they turned to flee.
'You're too late, by Shiva!' Bhim roared 'We have you! Close the mouth!'
Like the jaws of a leopard, the two wings of the Thiruzhas closed, catching the bulk of the Chola loolas in between. Three of the Chola vessels managed to escape, with Bhim ordering his scouts to hunt them down before they reached the Chola fleet.
'Catch them and sink them!' Bhim shouted. 'Don't return until they are all destroyed. I'll have the head of any shipmaster who fails me!'
The entire flotilla of Thiruzha scouts raced after the three Chola loolas, with the drums hammering like the hooves of a galloping horse and the slave-drivers cracking their whips on naked shoulders and backs.
'Without their loolas, the Chola admiral is blind,' Dhraji said. 'He can only blunder forward, not knowing what we are doing or where we are.' Her smile broadened as she borrowed Bhim's speaking-trumpet. 'No quarter!' she shrieked. 'No quarter!'
The Thiruzha fleet closed the net, with the Chola loolas, fast vessels but much smaller than their adversaries, searching frantically for a gap that did not exist.
Dhraji licked her lips, eyes bright with excitement as the Thiruzha archers poured volley after volley of arrows into the Chola loolas.
'Take that one!' Dhraji pointed to the furthest forward of the Chola loolas, which was trying to break through the Thiruzha line by speed alone. A second Chola loola followed the first, speeding toward a hopeful weakness in Bhim's trap.
Dhraji's ship altered course slightly, with the drummer pounding his drum and the oarsmen hauling as if their lives depended on it – as they probably did, Bradan thought. Dhraji watched with her mouth slightly open and her tongue flicking around her lips.
'Catch them,' Dhraji whispered and then raised her voice. 'Archers! Aim at the oarsmen! Loose!'
A volley of arrows hummed through the air, some to thunk into the hull of the Chola craft, one or two to plop into the sea and a few to transfix the Chola oarsmen.
'Archers, keep firing,' Dhraji ordered as the Chola vessel replied in kind, so arrows flew in both directions. An arrow ripped into the sail a handspan from Dhraji's left foot. She looked down in amazement. 'Somebody's firing at me,' she said and laughed. 'It's that man there!' She nodded to an archer who balanced in the crosstrees of the Chola vessel. 'It's that man in the red-and-yellow turban. What fun!'
Bradan inched closer to Dhraji. 'Stay close to me, your Majesty and I'll protect you.'
'Oh, Bradan, you are the most amusing slave I have ever owned. Let's play a game with this archer.' Dhraji stood and stepped further along the spar, spreading her legs and arms. 'There, you impudent little man. There's a target for you. Let's see if you can hit me, or not.'
Bradan shook his head. 'No, my Lady!' If the Chola archer killed Dhraji, Bradan knew his life would be short and unpleasant, leaving Melcorka very vulnerable. 'You are too valuable. I need you, Lady Dhraji!'
'Oh, Bradan, where did I find you? Are there others like you in Alba?' Despite the arrows that hummed and screamed around her, Dhraji smiled at Bradan. 'Perhaps I should order a raid on Alba and bring home a hundred men like you!'
Bradan thought of the fierce swordsmen of the Lord of the Isles and the disciplined Pictish spearmen. 'As Your Majesty pleases,' he said.
'You could guide us there.' Dhraji toyed with the idea. 'We'll discuss it later.'
A second archer had joined the first, with both firing at Dhraji as she stood static on the spar. She laughed as the arrows zipped and plunged around her.
'We're going to ram!' Bhim shouted. 'Up oars!' The Thiruzha oarsmen rapidly lifted their oars as the prow of the Thiruzha ship
