'Survivors in the water!' the lookout shouted.
'Ours or theirs?' Jasweer asked.
'Theirs!' the lookout said.
'Ignore them. Row on!'
The oarsmen bent to their oars, with some of the blades cracking on the heads of the frantic swimmers. When Thiruzha scouts came within range, the Sharks met them with disciplined fire. Arrows hummed through the air, to splash into the water or thrum against the timber of the respective hulls. One Chola oarsman gasped as an arrow landed on the haft of his oar. Another swore as an arrow sprouted in his arm. He stood up, and another arrow smacked into his side.
'Marines! Take that man's place,' Jasweer ordered. 'Archers, keep firing!'
A Chola dharani powered up. Longer, heavier and more powerful than the loola, its archers supported Jasweer's vessel with four times the loola's volume of arrows. Melcorka grunted approval as a Thiruzha scout veered sharply away, with its commander and helmsman lying dead on the quarterdeck.
'Captain Jasweer!' the commander of the dharani shouted. 'Orders from Rajaraja. You have to delve as deep as you can into the Thiruzha fleet and then return.'
Jasweer raised a hand in acknowledgement. 'Did you hear that, my sharp-toothed sharks? We are given the position of honour! We are to lead the attack and lure the Thiruzha pirates back to our heavy units! Jasweer's Sharks!'
'Jasweer's Sharks!' Jasweer's crew roared. 'Lead on, Captain! Jasweer's Sharks!'
'The Thiruzha know I am aboard,' Kulothunga said. 'Rajaraja is sending me to kill the enemy.' He pulled his shoulders even further back. 'He knows that they will be scared of me.'
'That must be it,' Melcorka said. 'Even in Persia and China, they will know of Kulothunga's deeds.'
'I suppose they do,' Kulothunga said.
Jasweer looked down from the masthead. 'There are three Thiruzha scouts ahead and then a formation of their larger vessels. We are going to ignore the scouts and race for the larger ships. We'll fire on the closest, turn and run back to the fleet.' Jasweer paused as her crew contemplated her words. 'We might not all get back safely. We might all get killed. I do not know. All that I know is that we are Jasweer's Sharks and we will leave a name that will astonish the world.' She ended on a rising note that had the crew cheering. Even the wounded looked up from their beds of pain, to yell and shout once more.
'Jasweer's Sharks! Jasweer's Sharks!' The crew chanted the slogan as Jasweer guided her loola toward the centre of the Thiruzha fleet. 'Jasweer's Sharks!'
'Break out all the battle-flags!' Jasweer yelled. 'Let there be no mistake! Let the enemy know with whom they are dealing!'
A further two huge flags exploded from the masts. One depicted the royal tiger of Chola. The other showed Jasweer's own red shark.
'Jasweer's Sharks!' the crew yelled again, as the oarsmen hauled, powering the loola through the sea. As one of the Thiruzha scouts came close, the archers fired an accurate volley. Melcorka saw the arrows as a small dark cloud that seemed to hover in the air for a second, and then they sliced down on the enemy's quarterdeck. A chorus of yells and screams followed.
'Good shooting,' Jasweer yelled. 'Now, target the oarsmen!'
The arrows flew again, and two of the scout's oars jerked out of the water, showing that the oarsmen had been hit.
'Keep firing,' Jasweer ordered, as the loola raced on. A few arrows buzzed back in return, and a marine fell without a sound as he was hit in the neck. His blood spouted in gradually receding jerks that stained the deck and drained into the scuppers.
'Clear the decks,' Jasweer shouted. 'Throw that poor fellow overboard!'
A second Thiruzha scout came marginally closer, fired a salvo that fell short and rowed away, followed by derisive jeers from Jasweer's Sharks.
'Give me a bow,' Kulothunga demanded. 'I am a better archer than anybody on this ship.'
'There are plenty of bows under the deck,' a marine officer told him. 'It's about time you and that pale foreign woman made yourselves useful. Standing about waving your sword and weighing down the boat does not help anybody.'
For a moment, Melcorka thought that Kulothunga would kill the marine where he stood. Instead, Kulothunga lifted two bows and handed one to Melcorka.
'A contest, Melcorka,' Kulothunga said. 'I have already bested you with the sword and at wrestling. Let me demonstrate how to fire a bow.'
Melcorka smiled. 'You do like to boast, Kulothunga, yet I heard some girls giggling about what you cannot do.' She allowed the words to sink in before continuing. 'They mentioned something about inadequacy in bed.'
Melcorka waited to see the reaction. Most men she had known would have responded with bluster and an immediate rebuttal. Kulothunga, with his vastly greater ego, had no need for such things.
'Little girls can say such things,' Kulothunga said, 'but only before I have bedded them. Afterwards, their eyes are full of wonder and their bellies full of my seed.' His great laugh boomed across the boat.
'We'll have less hilarity and more work down there,' Jasweer shouted. 'Get to it, you two! If you can't row, then let's see what else you can do.'
The third Thiruzha scout was racing toward them, firing a constant stream of arrows from a platform in the bows.
'There's our target.' Kulothunga strode forward, bent his bow and sent an arrow across the sea in a single movement.
Melcorka watched as the arrow reached the apex of its flight and plunged down, to land on the hull of the Thiruzha craft. 'You missed, Kulothunga. You were nowhere near your target.'
'You try,' Kulothunga said. 'That was only a ranging shot.'
The bow was of an unfamiliar pattern to Melcorka; longer, double-curved and more powerful than those she had used in Alba. Pulling back the
