'Ten slaves to the fastest man!' Bhim shouted after them, and their speed increased even more.
Dhraji quickly lost interest in watching the scouts race away. 'Bring me the prisoners,' she ordered and crowed in delight when she noticed the archer with the red-and-yellow turban, bleeding from a wound in his right arm.
'Tie him to the mainmast,' she ordered, 'and bring me a bow and arrows. That man tried to kill me!'
Bradan did not watch as Dhraji used the archer for target practice, firing arrow after arrow and puncturing her victim in his legs and trunk a dozen times, smiling as he writhed and groaned without the mercy of death. Eventually, growing tired of her game, Dhraji ordered all the prisoners thrown overboard and watched their struggles with interest. The sharks were busy that day.
'Men are such frail things,' Dhraji said to Bradan. 'I don't know why they are so brave, knowing that they have only a short spell in this world.'
'We all must die sometime.' Bradan felt sickened by her cruelty.
'Not I,' Dhraji said. 'I will live forever. Death fascinates me, and the manner of death can be so amusing.'
Bradan could not think of anything to say to that.
'Go away now.' Dhraji pushed Bradan astern. 'Go away, I said! My sharks are more entertaining than you.'
Bradan moved at once. If Dhraji decided he was no longer wanted, his life would be short. It was far better to get out of her way. He moved as far aft as he could.
'Did you see the sea monster?' Bradan asked the helmsman, who shook his head, wordless.
'Did anybody see the sea monster?' Bradan raised his voice. 'The many-armed thing that sunk the Chola loola?'
Nobody spoke, although there were a few shaken heads and down-turned faces.
'What do you think happened to the other loola? Do you think it just sunk by chance?'
Again, there was no response. Bradan began to realise that something was seriously wrong. Is it because I am a slave? No. There is something else. What is it? They were scared, Bradan realised. They were scared to admit that they had seen the monster. Why?
'Best keep quiet.' The helmsman spoke from the corner of his mouth. 'If you value your life, for the sake of Shiva, say nothing and see nothing.'
Bradan glanced at him, realised that Dhraji was watching, her eyes hooded, and shrugged. 'Maybe I imagined things.'
'That would be it,' the helmsman said at once. 'It's the strain of the battle.'
Bradan felt the atmosphere in the boat lift with his words and wondered again what was wrong. In the meantime, there was a battle to win. The Chola fleet was still full of fight.
Chapter Eight
The Thiruzha fleet had survived their fighting retreat back to Kollchi. They had lost seven ships to the Cholas and every vessel now carried the scars of battle. Sails were torn, oars broken, arrows stood out from each hull like the spines of hedgehogs and the decks were strewn with dead or dying men. In return, they had accounted for nine Chola ships as well as the loolas and had killed an unknown number of Chola warriors.
'You fought well,' Bhim shouted through his speaking-trumpet. 'Now it is time to stand behind our defences and watch the Cholas' attack splinter against the stone walls. Withdraw to the harbour!'
Like the excellent commander he was, Bhim waited until the last of his fleet had entered the harbour before he followed with his flagship. Once again, Bradan could only admire the Raja's tactics as his fleet slid past the defending island into the magnificent harbour of Kollchi and onto the horseshoe-shaped beach. The warriors filed out, to enter the Seagate of the city and take their places with the other defenders.
'Now we will see how skilled the Chola warriors are,' Dhraji said. 'Now we will see the breaking of bones and the ripping of intestines, the crushing of skulls and the spilling of blood.' Her eyes were bright with anticipation. 'Come with me, Bradan.' She led the way to the tower that topped the gatehouse, giving them a view over the harbour and the fortified island that was their outer defences.
'What is the island called?' Bradan asked.
'Kalipuram.' Dhraji seemed to have rekindled her liking for Bradan as she took hold of his arm. 'It will give the Cholas some surprises.' Her laugh contained genuine humour.
The Chola fleet, no doubt eager for revenge after their losses on the voyage north, formed two lines so they could pass on either side of the Island of Kalipuram. The island's defenders greeted them with volleys of archery that forced the Cholas further away from the fort and perilously close to the rocks on either entrance of the bay. The Chola archers fired back, standing on deck in positions that made them even more vulnerable to the defenders' arrows. Bradan saw Chola warriors drop under the arrow hail, and then the smoke started.
'Fire-arrows,' Dhraji said, with satisfaction. 'I told you Kalipuram held some surprises.'
Bradan could only watch as the archers in the fort fired volleys of fire-arrows that arched through the air to land on and around the Chola ships. The sails of one ship immediately caught fire, to flare up, dropping burning shreds onto the deck. When the crew fought the flames with buckets of water, they exposed themselves to the archery from the fort, with more men falling as the fire spread.
Dhraji watched, smiling, with her hands gripping the parapet.
The burning vessel veered to port, upsetting the tight Chola formation and forcing all the ships astern to steer to starboard. With the burning vessel now closer to the fort, the defenders' archers concentrated on this easy target. The sheer volume of missiles in the air and the smoky trails of the fire-arrows combined to darken the sky.
'I've never seen anything like this before,' Bradan said.
'My warriors know how to fight.' Dhraji's eyes seemed to glow.
The captain of the burning vessel tried to steer her away from the
