Corsair

rudder, if you please.”

The crewmen started to move as Hamil badgered them. Some started aloft to begin reefing in the sails, while Murkelmor motioned for a couple of his fellows to join him on the quarterdeck. Two more men came up to carry Khefen below. Sarth leaned close to Geran. “You’d better have that cut tended,” he said in a low voice. “If you pass out on your feet, we might have to repeat the whole round of challenges.”

Geran lifted his hand from his side and saw blood on his palm. He winced and then looked around for Tao Zhe. The Shou cook was the closest the ship’s company had to a healer. “Tao Zhe! Fetch some hot water and your sewing kit,” he said. “Narsk left me something to remember him by.”

Murkelmor and his helpers began to lay out a new rudder cable. Geran didn’t bother to press him to hurry his repairs; the dwarf knew that the ship’s participation in the attack on Hulburg depended on regaining the ability to maneuver as soon as possible, and he drove his small crew of woodworkers and ropelayers as hard as they could be driven. Geran remained on the quarterdeck, watching Murkelmor work as Tao Zhe in turn worked on him. Narsk’s blade had left a deep gash, but he’d been lucky not to have worse. “I thought Narsk had killed you with this one,” the Shou told him as he stitched the wound. “You were fortunate this morning.”

“It’s not so bad.” Geran gritted his teeth against Tao Zhe’s work. He’d had his wounds sewn more than once, and each time it seemed worse than receiving the wound in the first place.

“Truly I did not expect you to move so quickly against Narsk when we left Zhentil Keep that morning,” Tao Zhe remarked. “Nor did I expect you to be adept in magic. You seem to be a man of hidden talents.”

“Narsk forced this fight on me. I had no intention of challenging him, but he left me with no choice.”

Tao Zhe nodded. “I am not greatly troubled, mind you-Narsk was not much of a seaman, and he was a greedy and vicious brute. Almost anybody would be a better captain than he was.”

Geran snorted. “My thanks for your confidence.”

The Shou smiled. He glanced around and leaned a little closer, lowering his voice. “What really puzzles me is why Sorsil was attempting to leave the ship. It seems hard to believe that she would desert Moonshark without anything from her cabin, or that she would subdue the other two men on watch and hide them under a canvas but leave you and your friends free to stop her from going. I am not a very clever man, but it would seem much more likely to me that three men who’d only been aboard for a tenday were instead conspiring to steal the boat. But if that were the case, then I would still be left to wonder why they wanted to leave Moonshark. How strange that events transpired in the manner you described!”

Geran studied the old Shou carefully. It seemed unlikely that Tao Zhe was the only crewman aboard Moonshark entertaining such thoughts. “Speculation is pointless, Tao Zhe,” he said after a moment.

“Of course. But it is certainly not speculation to observe that you and your comrades are hardly the typical sellswords or outlaws who sail under the Black Moon.”

“What does the crew make of this, then?”

“Because they fear your magic, they will follow you for now,” Tao Zhe answered. “No one liked Narsk-or Sorsil. But you should watch your back. And you should not expect the crew to deal with challengers for you, not until you demonstrate that you are a captain worth following.”

“I understand.”

“I only say what is plainly true,” Tao Zhe answered. He finished with his needlework and covered the wound with a hot compress. “There is little more I can do. It will trouble you for a tenday or so. Try not to get stabbed there again.”

“I’ll take it under advisement.”

The old Shou grinned. He collected his medicine kit and retreated to his galley.

Murkelmor managed to rig a working rudder cable only a couple of hours after sunrise. With the rudder repaired, Geran was able to turn Moonshark back to the northwest and Hulburg. But the strong autumn wind was directly out of that quarter, and so he had to resign himself to a west by southwesterly tack, heading back out toward the middle of the sea as the pirate ship fought its way back to windward. A gray, stiff chop arose by afternoon, so that Moonshark battered her way through whitecapped waves as she ran, soaking the decks with cold spray. The rough seas ruled out any idea of taking in sail and putting out oars that Geran might have entertained; rowing was possible under such conditions, but just barely.

In midafternoon Geran decided that he couldn’t afford to extend his tack any farther to the south, and came north to run across the wind. He wasn’t sure if he’d strike the coastline east or west of Hulburg at this point, but he was fairly certain that he’d be nowhere near as far west as the ruins of Seawave. Due to their night of sailing off course and the morning of drifting ahead of the wind, there was no way they’d reach the Black Moon’s rendezvous point. If he had been intending to join the raid on Hulburg, he’d have to steer straight for the city at this point and join the rest of the flotilla there.

Since the afternoon was growing late, he figured he’d better prepare the crew for a change of plan. He called Murkelmor, Tao Zhe, and a few of the other fist leaders together on the quarterdeck about an hour before sunset. “Between the rudder damage and the shifting of the wind, I think we’re too far east of the Black Moon rendezvous to meet up with the other ships,” he told them. “They’re gathering a good twenty miles west of the town in just a couple of hours. But I think we can reach Hulburg by midnight without too much trouble, and that’s what I intend to steer for. We know that’s where the rest of the Black Moon is bound, and we can join the flotilla there.”

“The High Captain will no’ be pleased with us,” Murkelmor said.

“It can’t be helped at this point,” said Geran. “If the attack on Hulburg succeeds, I’d wager that many sins will be forgiven. If not, well, I’ll take the blame.”

Moonshark kept on her northerly tack for the rest of the afternoon and through the sunset. Still no sight of the northern shore greeted them, and Geran began to fear that he’d somehow completely lost his reckoning in the last few hours. He couldn’t bear the idea that Moonshark might be too far away for him to get some word of warning to Hulburg. At least the raid would be one ship short if that were the case, but then he and his companions would have to deal with an extremely-perhaps lethally-disappointed crew. Finally, as the last embers of sunset gleamed low in the sky to the west, the lookout aloft called out “Land ho!” Geran hurried to the bow, peering into the gloaming to see what he could make of their position, and his heart sank.

They were still ten miles east of Hulburg, perhaps more. He quickly calculated time and distances in his head, trying to envision the course they’d have to follow. With this wind, Moonshark could make perhaps seven or eight knots running close-hauled, but they’d have to cover maybe three times as much distance on the tack as they actually managed to make good against the wind. That meant another four or five hours of sailing before they reached the Arches. He returned to the quarterdeck, thinking furiously.

“Do you know this stretch of coast?” Hamil asked him. “How far from Hulburg are we?”

“I do, and we’re too far east,” Geran answered. “I think we’re out of time.”

Hamil and Sarth exchanged looks with each other. The sorcerer frowned. “So what do we do now?” he asked.

Geran didn’t see any other alternatives. He pointed at the coastline, perhaps three miles distant. “Unless I’m badly mistaken, that’s Sulan Head. It’s about ten miles east of Hulburg by the old coastal road. I’d bring the ship in to land on the beach at its foot, but that might take another hour, and I don’t dare let the crew see me do something like that. They would surely suspect treachery. Sarth, can you reach the coast from here with your flying spell?”

Sarth studied the distance and nodded. “Yes, and perhaps a little more.”

“Then I need you to leave the ship, get to Hulburg, and warn Kara, the harmach, whomever you can find that the Black Moon raid is on its way. I don’t know if I can beat the Black Moon ships to Hulburg from here, not with the way the weather is running, but you may be able to on foot. By my reckoning, you’ve got three or four hours to cover the distance. Can you do it?”

“It must be done, so it will be done.” Sarth looked back at Moonshark’s deck. “What about you and Hamil? If the crew notices that I am missing, they may rise against you.”

“I’ll tell them you’re below, using Narsk’s cabin to study your spells. That should work well enough for a short time.” Geran paused as a stray thought crossed his mind. “That reminds me-Hamil, what’s in that letter you found in Narsk’s pocket?”