Corsair

“He doesn’t mean to bring us to shore,” Skamang said angrily. “He’s up to some black treachery! Can’t you all see it?”

Geran held his course, fuming. He wanted Kamoth’s ship … but he couldn’t take her by himself, and he couldn’t trick Moonshark’s crew into helping him to do it. His best chance to deal with Sergen and Kamoth lay ashore now, but he couldn’t bring another ship full of pirates into the city. Kraken Queen’s catapult threw again, and this time her volley of darts fell across the center of the ship. Even with the instant of warning the darts’ passage through the air provided, several more men fell to the iron javelins.

“Why did you strike Daring?” Murkelmor demanded. “What’s your game, Aram?”

Geran spun the wheel to starboard and turned Moonshark’s bow seaward. “Get them rowing, Murkelmor! We have to get out of the flagship’s range before we do anything else!”

The dwarf glared up at Geran, but he handed the baton back to Tao Zhe. “Battle speed,” he agreed. “Go ahead, get her underway again.”

The deckhands bent their backs to the oars, and Moonshark began to pick up speed. Kraken Queen’s next catapult throw brought another ball of burning pitch. This one struck Moonshark low on the hull, a few feet aft of her sternmost oar. A great gout of stinking smoke billowed up from the side, but the shot was too close to the waterline and was soon extinguished by the choppy waters of the harbor. By the time Kraken Queen was ready to fire again, Moonshark had drawn back out of range. The pirate flagship was still tied up alongside the old Veruna wharf and did not appear inclined to pursue while most of her crew was engaged in a pitched battle ashore.

Geran surreptitiously eased the helm over to approach the Arches from their harbor side. Hamil’s idea about running the ship aground was worth a try. There were places in the forest of stone columns where a small boat could slip through, but nothing Moonshark could manage. Unfortunately, Murkelmor no longer trusted Geran’s judgment at the helm. The dwarf moved to the side of the ship and leaned out for a good look forward. “Slow down or come about!” he shouted at the quarterdeck. “We’re running short o’ sea room here!”

Geran ignored him. After a moment, the dwarf swore to himself. “Did you no’ hear me the first time? Where are you steering us, Aram?”

Murkelmor and Skamang won’t let us run her aground, Hamil said. Perhaps it’s time to leave?

Geran stood his ground a moment longer, trying to think of some ploy that might mollify Moonshark’s crew. Murkelmor swore again and began to shake the crew around them, getting them to drop their oars and stand up from their benches. The looks the crewmen turned on the quarterdeck ranged from slack-jawed puzzlement to dark fury, but none boded well for his continued command of the ship. He and Hamil might be able to hold the quarterdeck ladders for a long time-at least, until the crew remembered the crossbows below in the ship’s armory-but what was the point? Moonshark might turn back to the docks and join the attack, but that would mean coming within range of Kamoth’s catapults again. He’d already bloodied the Black Moon. There simply wasn’t anything more he could do aboard Moonshark short of sinking her, and the crew wasn’t about to let him do that.

“Come on!” Skamang roared. He pointed at Geran and Hamil. “Kill those miserable dogs before they do any more harm! They’ve betrayed us all!” The Northman seized a boarding pike by his bench and led the way as the crew surged up out of the benches and swarmed toward the quarterdeck.

“I think you’re right,” Geran said to Hamil. He retreated to the ship’s wheel, spun her bow toward the Arches, and looped the keeper over the top spoke. Then, tossing his cutlass aside, he moved to the sternrail, swung his legs over, and leaped into the dark water astern of the ship. It was bitterly cold, and when he surfaced he gasped for air. Hamil followed a moment later, dropping into the water a few feet behind him. Moonshark swept away from them, carried by the momentum of her sprint even though her oars were no longer pulling in unison.

“Somehow I knew it was going to come to this,” Hamil spluttered. “You and I in the water, watching the ship sail away.”

“I think they’ll keep her off the rocks,” Geran said. “If we could have kept them at the oars just a little longer …”

“I’ll point out, for the record, that your command of Moonshark lasted less than a single day.”

“So noted,” Geran answered. The water was very cold, and he couldn’t stop his teeth from chattering. “Come on, we’d better get ashore. Skamang looked mad enough to come around and try to run us down.”

Treading water, Geran watched the ship recede. There was a flurry of activity as the crew swarmed the quarterdeck and regained the helm. Skamang glared over the rail at him, and several other corsairs joined him. Then cries of alarm distracted the pirates; someone had noticed that the ship was drifting into new danger. The crew rushed back down to their benches, and the oars slowly began to dip into the water again. A moment later Tao Zhe leaped over the side, hitting the water with a large splash. The Shou surfaced and began to swim in the direction of Geran and Hamil.

“The ship’s back the way you came, Tao Zhe,” Hamil said.

“I know it,” the cook said. He glanced over his shoulder and laughed. “I like my prospects better in the water. Everyone on board knows I’m your friend.”

“Suit yourself,” Geran answered. “It’s a long swim, though.”

They struck out for the closest land, which was the point east of the Veruna docks. It was hardly near the center of the action, but it already looked to be a swim of several hundred yards, and Geran was not about to lengthen it by swimming all the way to the city’s wharves. It took them a quarter hour before they staggered up the pebble-strewn shoreline near the mouth of the Winterspear, shivering and exhausted. He turned and looked back over the harbor; Moonshark had turned her nose toward the wharves again, but she hugged the west side of the harbor, staying away from Kraken Queen and her catapults.

“Did we do enough, Hamil?” he asked his friend.

Hamil flopped to the ground and started to wring water from his braids. “We sank one ship for certain, and the other ship that was between her and the pier likely isn’t going anywhere soon either. We kept Moonshark out of the fight for most of the evening, and I’ll wager that Kamoth won’t have much use for Narsk’s ship after tonight. I don’t know what more we could have done.”

Tao Zhe looked at them both, his eyes wide. “I knew it! You are no pirates. Who are you?”

“No, we’re not,” Hamil said. “I’m Hamil Alderheart of Tantras. This is Geran Hulmaster of Hulburg, nephew to the harmach.”

“Don’t worry. You don’t have anything to fear from the harmach’s men,” Geran told Tao Zhe. “I’ll see to it that you get a pardon and an honest sailor’s berth, if you want it.”

“You rammed Daring on purpose! And you meant to ram Kraken Queen too!”

“It would’ve been hard to manage it all by mistake,” Hamil told him.

“I’d like to know how Sarth fared,” Geran said. He shivered in the cool night air. He’d lost his boots and his cloak in the swim. For that matter, he was unarmed as well. Still, he sighed and straightened up. “Come on. We might as well go see who’s in charge of the town’s defense and whether we can lend a hand.”

Hamil nodded wearily and climbed to his feet again. They set off along the shore toward Bay Street. This corner of Hulburg’s waterfront was still covered in the ruins of the older city that had preceded the town, and they stayed by the water in order to avoid the old rubble. Suddenly Hamil reached out and caught Geran’s sleeve, pointing seaward again. “Geran, look! There’s Seadrake!”

Standing into the harbor under oar and sail, Seadrake gracefully swept past the city’s Arches, making for the wharves in the center of town. Her white sails glowed a dull red in the reflected firelight. In the distance Geran heard the ship’s bells of the Black Moon vessels begin to ring in alarm. Ashore, the fighting began to slacken as bands of pirates broke off their battle against Hulburg’s defenders, beginning to retreat