The first loola returned within an hour, her oars churning the sea into a silver-white froth and her master urging more and ever more speed.
'I think your loolas have made contact with the Thiruzha, your Majesty,' Bradan murmured. 'Now, Bhim's scouts will try and lure them into a trap.'
'You said that Bhim used that tactic with my previous fleet,' Rajaraja said.
'That is what happened,' Bradan said.
'Then we will do the same to them.' Rajaraja said. 'Bring the captain of the loola to me.'
The loola captain was a slim, elegant-looking youth with a ready smile and a thin moustache. Rajaraja gave him orders, patted him on the shoulder and sent him away again. The loola hurried to another vessel of the same class, and within a few moments, the instructions had been passed from ship to ship around the fleet.
'Your Majesty,' Melcorka called out. 'May I crave your permission to serve on one of the loolas?'
Rajaraja looked at her. 'I prefer you to remain where I can see you,' he said. 'I do not wholly trust you yet.'
Kulothunga smiled and touched the hilt of his sword. 'If you wish, Your Majesty, I can go with her. I have already bested her in swordplay and wrestling. If I see her doing anything against your Majesty's best interests, I will cut off her arms and feed her to the sharks.'
Rajaraja nodded. 'If anybody can control a female, Kulothunga, you can. You hear that, Melcorka? My best swordsman will be watching every move you make.'
'I heard,' Melcorka said.
Kulothunga touched a hand to the hilt of his sword and frowned at Melcorka. 'Don't forget, woman.'
'I will also keep your man here, Bradan the coward.' Rajaraja smiled. 'If you do not fight your best for me I shall hang him from the yard-arm by his ankles and let the sun roast him to death.'
'There is no need for threats, Your Majesty.' Melcorka said. 'I have rights to wrong with Dhraji and Bhim.'
'So you claim,' Rajaraja said. 'Keep both eyes on her, Kulothunga.'
'I will,' Kulothunga promised. 'Come, Melcorka, and we shall see if you know anything about using that graceless old sword of yours.'
Rajaraja signalled to the closest loola. 'Take these warriors with you,' he ordered, 'and make sure the foreign woman is at the fiercest of the fighting.'
The loola's captain was named Jasweer, a shapely woman with a scar on her chin and chain mail covering her from throat to thighs. For a moment, Jasweer looked disgusted that a foreign woman should burden her vessel, and then she replied, 'Aye, Your Majesty!' She raised her voice to a clear shout. 'You heard Rajaraja! Bring this useless luggage on board and steer for the enemy!'
Melcorka found that the deck of a loola was very different from the quarterdeck of the royal yacht. Men, woman, weapons and equipment took up every square inch of space, and the crew were all vibrant young people, wiry rather than muscular and eager to get to grips with the enemy. Most were sailors, but, in common with every other vessel of the Chola fleet, the loola carried a contingent of marines, who looked capable of taking on anything.
'Come on then, Kulothunga,' Jasweer said, 'and, if you must, bring that ugly foreign woman with you. We can use her for ballast, I suppose.'
The crew and marines laughed. The sailors pulled at the oars in unison as the lookout sat cross-legged at the masthead.
Jasweer nodded to Kulothunga's sword. 'Do you think you'll get close enough to use that?'
'I hope so!' Kulothunga said. 'I want to kill the Thiruzha.'
'We have archers and marines for fighting,' Jasweer said. 'Landsmen are better on land. They can't handle the sea.' The crew laughed again. 'And as for that,' Jasweer jerked a thumb toward Melcorka, 'what can I say?'
'You can use her as bait,' one of the forward oarsmen said, as others gave alternative and cruder uses for Melcorka that caused Jasweer to laugh and shake her head.
'You! Ugly foreign woman! You stand over there and keep out of the way.' Jasweer pointed to the mast. 'When the fighting starts, you can either hide or dive overboard, I don't care which, as long as you don't get in the way or put any of my crew in danger.'
The loola raced onward with her prow kicking up spray and the wind whining in the rigging. The smell of sweat filled the air as the crew bent to the oars, hauling like heroes. A breeze kicked spume from the wave-tops, cooling the rowers as Jasweer scampered to the masthead, agile as a teenager despite her chain-mail.
'Enemy ahead!' she shouted. 'Two, three, four Thiruzha scouting craft and they've seen us. Archers, get ready!'
'Are we going to fight them?' Kulothunga drew his sword in readiness.
'Naturally!' Jasweer said. 'Do you think we've come here to salaam politely and worship Shiva?' She raised her voice. 'We're the point of the sword! We're the sharp end of the Navy! We're Rajaraja's finest killers! We're Jasweer's Sharks! Who are we?'
'We're Jasweer's Sharks!' the crew shouted.
Melcorka remembered hearing similar chants when her mother had first taken her to war against the Norse. Some things transcended cultures, races and continents. People were the same, despite outward differences.
'I can't hear you,' Jasweer said. 'Who are we? Tell the Thiruzha!'
'We are Jasweer's Sharks!' The crew called again. 'We are Jasweer's Sharks!'
'Break out our battle flag!' Jasweer ordered and a lithe sailor hoisted a second flag from the stern of the loola. A red shark on a black background, the flag snarled defiance at the leopard of Thiruzha.
The three Thiruzha scout ships spread out and headed toward Jasweer's loola. Melcorka heard the rhythmic beat of the Thiruzha drums, repetitive, unhurried and sinister through the swish of the oars and the lap of the sea.
'Helmsman!' Jasweer shouted from her position at the masthead. 'On my word, break to port.'
'Aye, Captain.' The helmsman was a broad-chested, sturdy man with a
