“I hear you,” Geran answered. “But that doesn’t mean Sergen will treat her well or protect her from Kamoth. It might not be up to him.”
“Hope for the best, Geran. There’s no point in dwelling on the alternatives.”
Geran snorted. “Since when have you become an optimist?”
“Don’t let anyone else know. I’ve my cynical reputation to think of.” Hamil squinted at the ship ahead of them and allowed himself a small smile. “I think that’s her. You can make out the black hull and the gilding on the stern now.”
Geran looked more closely and decided that Hamil was right. They were chasing Kraken Queen more or less directly into the westering sun, running as close to the wind as they could manage, but it was clear that they were gaining. The big pirate galley was not quite as slender or quick as Moonshark, and Seadrake held a noticeable advantage in speed over her quarry. “There’s an old saying in the Sea of Fallen Stars that comes to mind: a stern chase is a long chase. But we can outsail her, and I think we’ll overtake her in a couple of hours.”
“The afternoon is getting on,” Hamil warned. “We might run out of daylight before we catch Kamoth.”
“See? Now there’s the doomsayer I’m accustomed to.” Of course, the same thought had occurred to him, but the skies looked clear, and there’d be a half-moon early in the evening. He thought they’d be able to keep Kraken Queen in sight as long as they were within two or three miles. If they couldn’t catch her before sundown, he thought they’d catch her early in the evening.
The distance steadily narrowed throughout the afternoon, until sunset found Seadrake trailing her quarry by a little more than a mile. It was clearly Kamoth’s flagship they had in sight; ahead, on the horizon, the sharp pinnacles of Umberlee’s Talons rose out of the water. Soon enough the pirate ship would have to attempt some maneuver to break away from Seadrake, or she’d have to accept a fight.
Geran took a quarter hour to duck into his cabin, eat a few bites of food, and buckle on the scabbard of his elven steel. The blade felt good in his hand after the heavy, poorly balanced cutlass he’d relied on aboard Moonshark. Then he hurried back to the quarterdeck. Kraken Queen kept straight on for the stony pillars, as if they offered some refuge that the Hulburgan ship dared not enter.
I don’t like this, Geran decided. Kamoth was up to something, he was certain of it. He wished Tao Zhe was at hand; it was unlikely that the cook could have offered any real insights about Kamoth’s intentions, but he would have known these waters better than Geran. However, Tao Zhe was back in Hulburg, since Hamil had offered the old Shou a billet with the Red Sail Coster before they’d sailed. “Keep after Kraken Queen, but watch where she’s leading us,” he told Galehand. “Pass the word to clear for battle.”
“Aye, m’lord,” Galehand answered. The dwarf bellowed his orders over the deck, and Seadrake’s sailors and armsmen moved to take up their battle stations. The Shieldsworn and sellswords aboard the ship donned their armor, uncovered the catapult on the foredeck, and set up the arbalests in their mounts on the rails.
Kraken Queen raced on, just out of bowshot now. But Umberlee’s Talons loomed ahead. The pirate ship steered boldly between two of the outlying reefs without slacking speed and made for the narrow passage between two of the great stony claws.
“She’s threading a fine channel, m’lord,” Andurth warned.
“Follow her in,” Geran ordered. “If there’s enough water beneath the keel for Kraken Queen, there’s enough water for us.”
“Aye, m’lord,” the sailing master replied. He scowled but said nothing more, moving to stand beside the helmsman. Seadrake plunged between the towering stone columns, only a couple of hundred yards behind Kraken Queen now. In the pale light of the rising moon, Geran could see dark figures on the enemy ship’s quarterdeck-likely Kamoth, Sergen, and the Black Moon ship’s officers. He allowed himself a grim smile. They were almost through the Talons, and on the other side there was nothing but open sea, with no place for the pirate to hide and no way for them to delay the inevitable.
He was just about to order his archers and arbalesters to test the range when Kraken Queen began to lift out of the water. “What in the world?” Andurth muttered beside him. Other cries of alarm and consternation echoed from the soldiers assembled on deck. As the moonlight fell on the pirate ship, a silvery radiance seemed to grow around its black hull and scarlet sails. Luminous fins or sails shimmered into existence from the hull like the gossamer wings of an enormous dragonfly. Moment by moment the pirate galley rode higher in the water, until it barely skimmed the wavetops. And then, astonishingly, it climbed skyward, soaring into the air. It banked gently to the port side, looking for all the world like it was heeling over in a strong breeze, and Geran saw the dripping rudder shift in empty air. The corsair ship came around, passing Seadrake a few hundred yards to the south and high enough to sail over the highest of the Talons, and steadied with her bowsprit pointed toward the moon in the southeastern sky.
“Now that I did not expect,” Hamil murmured in astonishment. “I suppose we know how Kraken Queen appeared and disappeared.”
Geran stared at the airborne ship, watching it soar faster and faster as it climbed away from the sea. Far beneath its black hull the moonlight danced in a silvery road across the dark sea. He and the rest of the crewmen on the quarterdeck were so amazed that the bow lookout had to shout three times to get their attention. “Rock dead on the bow! Turn the ship! Turn the ship!”
Andurth wrenched his eyes from the spectacle of the receding pirate ship and looked forward again. With a startled oath, the sailing master leaped for the helm and spun the wheel to the right. Seadrake heeled sharply, and as her bow crossed into the wind her sails flapped loudly. But the ship missed the jagged fang of stone Kraken Queen had almost led her onto. The hull grated for one awful instant on submerged rock, but it was just deep enough and far enough to the port side for Seadrake to bounce away rather than rip herself open. The impact was still enough to knock crewmen off their feet and bring a cascade of loose stays and tackle from the rigging. Then Andurth turned the helm the other way, using the last of the ship’s momentum to recapture the wind as the deadly rock passed down the port side.
“The black-hearted bastard did that on purpose,” the dwarf muttered. “He tried t’ lead us right into the thick o’ it and hid that rock with his own hull until the last moment.”
The swordmage breathed a sigh of relief and clapped a hand on the dwarf’s shoulder. “Well done, Master Andurth. That could have been disastrous.” He stared at Kraken Queen, still climbing into the night sky. “Steer us clear of the Talons and then bring us around to the southeast. That seems to be the way Kraken Queen is headed.”
“How exactly do you propose to follow her?” Hamil asked. “At the rate she’s going, I don’t think we’ll keep her in sight for much longer.”
“I don’t know,” Geran answered. Mirya and Selsha were aboard that ship. No matter what happened, no matter where Kamoth fled, he meant to follow them. He refused to abandon them to whatever fate Sergen and his father had in mind for them. “I’ll find a way. I have to.”
EIGHTEEN
10 Marpenoth, the Year of the Ageless One (1479 DR)