Aravan shook his head. “Dinny is too young, Tom, and I would have thee aboard the ship, and I can’t risk both bosuns.”
“Wull, then, Oi’d say James be swifter’n Noddy.”
Aravan looked at First Bosun James. “Are you up to a risky, mayhap fatal venture?”
James nodded. “I am, Captain.”
“All right. Then James and I are two. Who else?”
The planning went on throughout the rest of the day, but at last all was decided.
In the darkness, Aravan, Long Tom, and four crewmen rowed a dinghy away from the ship. They payed out a hawser attached to the port-bow anchor winch of the Eroean , the other end tied to the shaft eyelet of that anchor in the rowboat with the crew. They fared some two hundred feet upstream and perhaps fifty toward midriver, where Aravan called a halt. All six aboard lifted the heavy weight and dropped it over-side, its blunt but heavy tines turning as the mass fell to the bottom. When they returned to the Elvenship, Long Tom and the crewmen cranked the winch to make certain the anchor had dug deep into the river bottom.
When the hawser grew taut and the mooring lines tying the ship to the pier groaned under the strain and the men could wind no more, “She be well anchored, Cap’n, she be, she is,” said Long Tom.
“Then, we are ready.”
In the light of dawn, Lissa on Vex led the way down the footway ramp, followed by Aravan, with James and Finn after, and Dinny coming last. In spite of his youth and in face of arguments to the contrary, Dinny convinced Aravan he should be allowed to act as bait with the others, for he was truly swift. Each bore a bow and two oil- soaked fire-arrows.
Aboard the Eroean , the warband made the ballistas ready, and Long Tom and other sailors with boarding axes stood by the mooring lines as well as the staysails, should they be needed.
Pipper counted his sling bullets, and Binkton his arrows, while Aylis, her heart pounding in fear for Aravan, stood by, a bow in hand as well.
Sailors with nought to do fingered the hilts of their falchions as if making certain the weapons were there, or checked their bows and arrows again and again. .
. . And all waited, as into the jungle along the path went Aravan and three others, with a Fox Rider ranging far ahead of the quartet.
In the concealing foliage crept Vex and Lissa, until she had the Spaunen in sight. The Ruch acting as lookout was completely unaware of the tiny scout.
Lissa fingered a lethal shaft. It would be so easy, but no, he must see Aravan and the others, for we must draw all to the ship, especially the Trolls.
Lissa turned Vex, and back toward Aravan and the others she stealthily went.
“Now ’tis no more than thirty of your paces, Captain,” whispered Lissa, and she pointed in the direction of the Ruchen sentry.
“And the Trolls?” murmured Aravan.
“Another twenty paces beyond.”
“What of the Human?”
“Him I did not see. Would you like me to-?”
“No, Lissa. ’Tis enough. Now, hie thee back to the ship.”
Off into the foliage slipped Lissa and Vex, while Aravan silently used his bow and a single shaft to indicate to the three others the direction and angle to loose the arrows. They each set two shafts to the string, all but Aravan, who held the striker. When they were ready, Aravan lit the oiled batting wrapped about the arrowheads that James had, and then Aravan and the others lit their own fire-arrows from those two.
Then all drew the shafts to the full and aimed and yelled and loosed, the flaming arrows to arc through the air past vines and greenery and into the waiting trap.
Trolls roared in startlement at the fire flashing down among them. Hloks yelled, and Rucks squealed, sounding much like swine.
Still shouting battle cries, Aravan and James and Finn and Dinny turned tail and fled. The Rucken sentry cried out, and moments later, and upon the orders of their leader, the dreadful mob howled in pursuit of the fleeing four, for their ambuscade no longer held any surprise.
Shouting, Eroean! Eroean! down the trace the four sprinted, the ship some half mile away.
“Save thy breath for flight!” called Aravan, as soon as he heard the shouts of the rout in pursuit. “They will soon be on our heels.”
“Not mine,” called Dinny, and he slowly pulled away from the others, all of them running flat-out but Aravan, who deliberately brought up the rear.
Yowling, shrieking, Rucks and Hloks and Ogrus thundered after, their quarry just then coming into view.
Several Rucks paused and nocked black-shafted arrows to their twisted bows and let fly, the missiles to fall short and left and right and long.
As the arrows sissed down among the runners, Aravan called, “If ye have anything left, now is the time to use it.”
James managed to add to his speed, but Dinny ahead began to flag, while Finn maintained his own swift pace.
The Eroean came into sight, and those aboard burst into cheers, and then into shouts of encouragement. . and then into cries of anxiety, as the Spawn in pursuit also came into view.
The great Trolls with their mighty strides began overhauling the four. More black shafts whistled down among the runners.
And then James fell, pierced through and through.
Aravan paused at his side and knelt down.
The Trolls thundered toward him.
Aylis screamed and loosed a shaft, and it flew a long flight, only to shatter against the stonelike hide of an Ogru, even as the creature hurtled toward Aravan.
Dinny ran up the gangplank, Finn right after.
Captain! Captain! shrieked sailors and warband alike, even as the massive Troll reached for Aravan.
But then, in a silver flash of light, Valke exploded forward in a hammer of wings, and Long Tom shouted to the crewmen with the boarding axes, “Now!”
Chnk! Whnk! The axes sheared through mooring lines, and in the river current and tethered by the anchor upstream, the Eroean slowly began to swing away from the pier, the gangplank to slam down onto the stone.
Howling in frustration at being denied the prey that had suddenly turned into a bird, the Trolls thundered forward, racing for the ship.
“Hold, hold,” called Brekk to the Chakka at the ballistas.
Even as Brekk gave that command, Valke swooped to the deck, but from a bright flare ’twas Aravan who landed afoot.
In that same moment, the Eroean stopped swinging outward, and she lay off some fifty feet from the dock, where she fared at the end of the anchored hawser in the flow of the Dukong.
Aravan called for Desault and, as the chirurgeon came running, Aravan turned to see where the Rupt had gotten to, just as the two charging Ogrus in the lead reached the pier and could not stop, and, shrieking in fear, they slid across the stone and into the water.
Down like rocks they plummeted, their massive bones too heavy for them to be able to swim. And in water forty-seven feet deep, they clawed at the vertical rock face of the pier, but found no purchase. They fought one another, trying to climb each other’s back and, still struggling, they drowned.
Even as those first two fell into the river, the remaining pair of Trolls managed to stop ere doing so.
“Loose!” cried Brekk.
T-thunn! sang two ballistas, and fireballs smashed into the Ogrus and set them ablaze. Shrieking and burning, unable to cast off the tarlike clinging fire, back toward the oncoming rout they fled.
“Loose!” cried Dokan.
T-thun! two more ballistas sang, hurling lances to slam through each of the fleeing Ogrus, and yet aflame, they fell slain.
