than anyone had imagined the Calzirans would bring.
Paludan Bruglioni and those few bold servants willing to help a Bruglioni followed Else to the Castella dollas Pontellas.
Grade Drocker himself led a company across the Rustige Bridge, above Krois, then attacked the beached and moored Calziran boats and ships. Drocker exploited his vestigial powers to confuse and panic the guards protecting the fleet — mostly boats so small they could have carried no more than five men. The guards were the Calziran sick and injured and elderly.
During a lull Else stared across the Teragi. He saw no sign of anything happening there. Closer, the Brotherhood began barricading the Blendine Bridge to fix the returning pirates for archers on the Castella battlements.
Sergeant Bechter observed, “They'll be here soon.'
'They should be. Yes.'
Drocker had not brought enough men to fortify the bridge and overwhelm the boat guards, both. Not quickly enough. Sheer numbers of boats and raiders slowed the attack. Drocker seemed unable to do anything useful once resistance stiffened. Scarcely a hundred of the smaller, beached vessels had been fired or holed when Drocker approached Else.
'We're already having trouble… holding the bridge. I have to go … help. Keep after it here. Concentrate on the… biggest boats. That will bother them… more. They'll do… stupid things. Oh. And keep an eye out… for a woman.'
'Sir? A woman?'
'Somewhere in this mess… there's a woman sometimes known… as Starkden. A witch. She's here… with the fleet… amongst the boats. Otherwise, my power… would be adequate. Catch her. Take her alive. She has much… to answer for to… the Brotherhood of War.'
'Sir, this isn't a situation I've faced before. How do I catch a witch if she doesn't want to be caught?'
'She will be badly stunned… now. I hit her hard. But that won't… last. Don't waste time. And don't forget to… drag her along if we can't hold… the bridge.' Drocker had less trouble talking these days. His health had improved over the last year.
'Yes, sir.'
'Catch her and… we'll win this easily, Hecht. Once they know… we control the source of their… good fortune. And know that… the Collegium will be waking up… any minute.'
'Yes, sir.' Else wondered why the Collegium was not involved already. Had the Calziran sorcerers managed to neutralize them somehow?
Drocker hurried off toward the Blendine Bridge. Else finally relaxed. Although Drocker was unaware that Else was responsible for crippling him, Else never felt comfortable around the man.
Bechter observed, 'That ain't a man with much personality, but he's loaded up on willpower.'
'Oh, he's got plenty of personality. All snake.'
'Hey. That's the Special Office. They recruit people worse than the ones they hunt. So they only sign reptiles.'
'Let's find this witch. Anybody know what we're looking for?'
Bechter said, 'Amazingly enough, everybody in the Brotherhood does.' He described a swarthy woman in her fifties who could have been Paludan Bruglioni's sister or mother — or any fortune-teller on the streets of Brothe.
Else said as much.
'Which explains why she comes and goes as she pleases all around the Mother Sea.'
'Who does she work for?' Else was puzzled. He had not heard of Starkden before the events in Runch. She seemed to have a fabulous reputation on this side of the water.
'Interesting question, Captain. She appears to be an independent contractor. Look, we're in the middle of a fight. You want to have a conversation, drop back there with the masked man and his sidekick.' Bechter meant Paludan and Gervase, who was back from his mission. They were not inclined to become directly involved in the rough work. 'I've got unbelievers to punish.'
'And a witch to find.' A Praman witch, apparently.
The resistance offered by the boat guards declined as the strongest succumbed. The most easily panicked launched their boats or ran away. Calzirans across the river shrieked at those on me north bank to bring the damned boats over.
Else's wrist began to ache. His amulet had lain dormant for so long that he had forgotten it. Almost.
He dealt with a weak attack by a Calziran trio who appeared to consist of three generations of the same family, all injured in previous fighting. He dispatched them without emotion.
'Good on you,' Bechter said. 'Now you're getting to work.'
'Let's just slash the rigging. I don't think we'll get much chance to start any more fires.'
The pirates initiated a spirited effort to clear the Blendine Bridge. Lesser forces rushed the bridges above Krois and the Castella, too.
'We have smoke down there,' Bechter said. 'Not a good omen in a city.'
Else eyed the smoke. Anna Mozilla's house lay in that direction, though farther away.
Else said, 'There's a crowd on the towpath by that dhow flying the red pennon.' They had damaged the majority of the beached craft now. 'Would that mean they think there's something to protect on board?'
'I'd bet Oh, for a company of Aparionese crossbowmen about now. We could rip that crowd apart without getting close.'
The ship with the red pennon was one of a hundred larger craft that had not been hauled out of the water. Those were tied up downstream from the majority, side by side, in places forming ranks of as many as eight vessels. The shoreward ships were tied up to the flood wall where it ran along the river's edge, making the bank a set of sheer stone faces stepping back from the water at intervals, providing a narrow towpath and landing, whatever the water level. The south bank was built up similarly starting at the foot of the Blendine Bridge and running upriver. The decision to build that way must have had something to do with the curve of the stream.
Else told Bechter, 'We can't break through that mob. There're too many of them. You distract them. I'll go around. Gervase. You and Paludan stick with the sergeant.' The Bruglioni group had not scurried away, but they did make a point of hanging way back.
'Around, Hecht? How?' „
Bechter was talking to the air.
Else dodged between fishing craft. That put him out of sight. He shed mail and clothing, slipped down into the fetid brown river. The water was colder than he expected.
Swimming while carrying weapons was not easy. But you learned how in the Sha-lug schools. A soldier had to be able to take the fight anywhere.
He went under, swam with the current, surfaced behind the outermost ship in the first moored rank, then worked his way toward his target, a dingy coastal trader. One of the biggest Calziran ships, it was small compared to war galleys Else had seen crossing over from Dreanger.
He rested against the dhow's hull briefly, listened, heard only the creak of timbers and groan of strained rope.
Boarding proved difficult. Even amidships, where the vessel had the lowest freeboard, the rail was too high to reach. There were no ready handholds, either.
Else pushed his knife into the caulk and tar between strakes, above his head. He drove it deeper with palm blows, then relaxed, focused, surged. In a violent, one-handed pull-up he launched himself high enough to get his other hand over the gunwale. He let his sword fall, grabbed hold, and continued onward.
He rolled over the rail, recovered his weapons, looked for opposition. No one came at him. Redfearn Bechter had everyone's attention ashore.
Else dashed aft, severed the after mooring lines, then scampered forward. The dhow's stern began to swing out into the current.
As Else cut a forward mooring line, he realized that he had not thought this out. He would not be able to steer the ship as it turned end for end, descending the Teragi.
