Ren'erei had returned to the Ocean Elm well before midnight, after a second fruitless search. She had heard no word that The Raven had arrived in Arlen, though a force of Lysternan cavalry were now camped to the north-west and her anxiety was beginning to grow. The Captain was keen to leave no later than dawn the following morning; any later and they risked hitting the Arl estuary as the tide turned. Not normally any more than an irritation, with the winds as fickle as they had been since Lyanna's awakening began, it could present a real obstacle to escaping into the open ocean.
Erienne had been quite calm and Ren'erei drew strength from her total confidence in The Raven's certain arrival, late though it might be. But now, with her asleep and midnight upon them, her mind was unsettled again and she took a walk on deck, knowing deep inside that all was not right.
Outside, the night was quiet but the wind was starting to bite. She nipped up the ladder to the wheel deck where the dead-hours sentry was standing, elven eyes seeing far into the dark.
'All well, Tryuun?' she said as she recognised her brother.
Tryuun turned and shrugged. 'Well, Erienne's friends haven't shown up but apart from that, I've seen one drunk a little while ago and heard some shouting just now from over there.' He gestured towards the fish market, a low shape on the shore to their left. 'Probably arguing with someone over a woman or another drink, I expect.'
They both chuckled.
'And what about you, Ren'erei. Can't sleep?'
'No. I'm worried about them. The Raven, I mean. There's no word of them in Arlen, the Black Wings have been here and were only thrown out yesterday. There's an edge to the atmosphere.'
'Edge?'
Ren'erei held a hand out, fingers straight 'On one side, people who sense something's going to happen but they don't know why,
and on the other, people who think all their troubles rode out of town with the Black Wings.'
'And what do you think?'
'I think we need to get away from here as fast as possible.' Ren'erei looked towards the fish market; there'd been a movement, probably the drunk or, if she was lucky, someone come to tell her The Raven had arrived. Maybe even the great men themselves.
'Do you-?' she pointed over to the market, wreathed in deep shadows but Tryuun was already drawing his slender elven blade.
'Yes. Ren, wake the ship. It's the Black Wings.'
Tryuun ran to the wheel while Ren'erei slid down the ladder to the main deck. Pushing open the doors aft, she heard the bell sound and Tryuun's voice rise in the call to arms.
'Awake! Awake! Weapons to the decks. Weapons to the decks. Attack from shore. Awake, awake!' He would carry on until the first elves appeared from below.
Ren'erei sprinted down the narrow corridor, slapping her hands on doors as she ran for the captain's cabin.
'Up! Up! Black Wings attacking. Up!' Not pausing to knock, she entered the aft cabin. The Captain was already out of his bunk and pulling on breeches. Ren'erei unhooked his sword belt from its hook on the back of the door and threw it to him along with his leather jerkin.
'How many?'
'Maybe thirty,' said Ren'erei. 'Tryuun's topside. We haven't much time. They came out of the shadows by the fish market.'
'Get Erienne and get over the side. We'll hold them.'
Ren'erei hesitated.
'Go. She's all that's important.'
Ren'erei ran out. Two doors to the left was Erienne's cabin. She half-stifled a scream as Ren burst in, surprising her as she pulled a shirt over her head.
'Erienne it's me, it's all right.'
Her white face appeared out of the neck of the shirt, her movements to straighten it quick and nervous.
'What's going on?' she asked, her voice small. Ren'erei could see in her eyes she already knew.
'Black Wings attacking the ship. We have to get you off but I need
you to remain calm,' she said though she could see it was already too late for that. Erienne was shaking at the very name and suddenly her fingers couldn't button the shirt at her neck.
'What, I-' she trailed off, staring at Ren, her eyes wide and confused, resembling nothing so much as an animal caught in a trap.
Ren'erei picked up her cloak. 'Come on. We have to leave now.'
'Hold on,' she said, her eyes flickering about her, wringing her hands then wiping them down her trousers. 'I need to-'
'Now!' snapped Ren'erei. She stepped forward and grabbed Erienne's arm. 'Be scared later. Now we have to go.'
'Don't let them touch me.'
'Not while I have a drop of blood in my body.' Ren half led, half pulled her into the corridor where the sound of pounding feet and shouted orders echoed through the ship.
Tryuun watched them coming as he rang the bell and shouted. There were well over the thirty he'd guessed when they had first appeared and they came well armed and carrying three long planks as well as grapples and ropes. There would be no time to set sail and cast off. This would go hand to hand. Inside, the fear churned his stomach and his ruined eye burned with remembered pain. But he couldn't let it show.
With the first crew dashing up from aft, he jumped down to the main deck.
'Go forward, make sure they heard,' he ordered the first elf before turning to the others. 'They have gangplanks, they'll have crossbows. We can hold them there, but I must have shields. And you-' he tagged another as he ran past'-bows. We must have bows now.'
The Black Wings ran on, breaking into two groups. The larger, carrying the planks and some with shields, came straight for the Elm. The second, smaller group detached and fell a few yards back, slowing.
'Crossbows!' yelled an elf standing on the wheel deck.
Tryuun looked to shore. So little time. He was disappointed by the sound drilling of the attack but had grudging respect for its organisation. He couldn't rely on any mistakes.
'Get those shields on deck!' he shouted. 'And where are my bows. Gods crying, let's move!'
'Ward!' Crossbow bolts flashed across the deck, most clearing the ship to splash into the water behind it, the odd one burying itself in deck or mast. They had been lucky this time.
Fore and aft, the doors slapped open and at last the whole of the Elm's crew surged on to the deck. Bowmen ran to stations behind all three masts, seeking angles and cover while shields were brought up to the shore rail.
At a shout from the dock, the gangplank carriers moved forward, flanked by shield-bearing swordsmen. Another volley of bolts swept the deck, better focused with lower trajectory, four striking shields, another piercing the leg of a crewman. He dropped shrieking to the deck and was hauled away by two others.
One after the other, the planks were raised and dropped, two bouncing off the rail and sliding sideways, the third crashing right through and lodging fast between splintered struts.
'Get that rotten wood off my deck,' roared the skipper, barging his way to the rail. Elves stooped to shove the loose planks aside as the first elven arrows whipped into the enemy, felling a crossbow-man and two swordsmen. The Black Wings were already running up the third.
'Take them down!' ordered the captain. One plank was shoved off the side, the second was braced from the shore and the third was a disaster unfolding.
The Black Wings had nine crossbowmen standing. Their third volley hammered into the elves guarding the rail by the secure plank. Three went down clutching bolts in stomachs and legs, bones chipped, flesh punctured. Black Wing swordsmen poured up the gangplank, launching themselves into the shield cordon, their cross-bowmen in two ranks releasing regular volleys at the crew of the Elm. It was a well-disciplined charge and even with the elven bows picking off the early runners, the Black Wings made the deck and the hand-to-hand fight commenced.
For Erienne, a blur of noise and shadowy figures, the smell of fear, and the excitement of action left her senses reeling. Her pulse was thumping in her neck, her throat felt fall of bile and her mind fall of visions of blood in a tower, of her murdered sons and of Selik's cruel