Gilmour thought for a moment. ‘It’s a gamble; I certainly shouldn’t do it, but we’ve been lucky with you before.’
‘I’m worried that was just the staff, not me,’ Steven said. ‘What if-’
‘Don’t get started with the what ifs. He may or he may not. You did plenty without the staff that Nerak never noticed, and if Mark doesn’t have the table opened, he shouldn’t be able to sense anything that would have got past Nerak. Mark’s only indestructible when he’s using the table; the rest of the time he must be about as vulnerable as Nerak was.’
‘Unless he’s been drawing strength from the table’s magic,’ Steven suggested.
‘That’s true, but if there’s no way past, we may have to risk it.’
Steven felt cold. He’d been trying to ignore it, but it seeped beneath his skin now, making him shiver. ‘He’ll kill us all, Gilmour.’
‘That’s already his plan. It’s just that we’re closer to the end now. All the edges are sharper from here on in.’
‘It’s an easy spell, I’ve done it-’
‘-plenty of times, I know,’ Gilmour said. ‘That’s not the issue. The problem is whether or not he’ll feel it. I’m betting he won’t, not the fire.’
‘What fire are we talking about?’ the captain asked.
‘Larion fire,’ Gilmour said, ‘a tough, resilient flame that’ll easily catch their ship alight; it’ll set the sails, perhaps even the water around them on fire.’
‘Great rutting gods of the Northern Forest,’ Ford whispered.
‘Larion like in Larion Senators?’ Marrin laughed. ‘Captain, I’m all for running up on them because we’ll have surprise on our side, but I’m not counting on any Larion Senators to magically appear from out of one of my Nana’s fairy tales and save the day for us.’
‘Don’t,’ Steven asked softly, still staring at Gilmour, ‘don’t run up on them, Captain. I’m sorry. You’re the master here and you give the orders, but please, I am begging you to keep to our current heading. Let’s try to sneak past them tomorrow, and if we can’t and they close on us, I promise you that I will help Garec fight them while you and the crew keep us on course.’
‘You and Garec alone?’ Marrin interjected, then realising what he had done, added, ‘Sorry, Captain.’
There was silence for a moment while everyone considered their options, then Ford sighed and said, ‘Very well then. Marrin, keep us on this heading. We’ll get as far to the southwest as we can before we have to come about, but I want us running north by dawn, and by running, I mean as if grettans are at our backsides. Understand?’
‘Aye, aye, Captain,’ Marrin barked, and was gone, a hundred questions left answered.
Ford said, ‘You and Garec can do this alone?’
Steven laid an arm across Garec’s neck and smiled through chattering teeth. ‘We can hit them when they are well out of range of normal archers, and if we need more help, Kellin and Brexan can shoot into their ranks. Kellin’s shoulder is good enough for her to manage a few rounds if need be.’
‘Tubbs and Sera can shoot,’ Captain Ford said, ‘though I’d rather keep them about their jobs.’
Steven’s reassurance was cut off by Sera, who shouted from the bow, ‘Captain, the cutter’s dousing her fires.’ As they all peered into the night, they saw the last of the cutter’s own watch-fires blink out. Just before everything went black, Steven thought he noticed something odd about the angle of the cutter’s bowsprit.
Captain Ford read his mind. ‘Did I just see what I think I saw?’ he asked.
‘I’m afraid so,’ Steven said.
‘There’s no way to tell,’ Garec said, grasping for straws.
‘No,’ Gilmour said, ‘they’re right. It’s as if he can see us!’
‘Marrin!’ the captain shouted, ‘the cutter’s gone covert, and she’s coming this way.’
Marrin’s voice reached them through the wind. ‘Understood, sir.’
By dawn, it was apparent the captain of the naval cutter had either seen them, scented them or second-guessed them perfectly. With the first rays of light whitening the horizon, Captain Ford rubbed his bleary eyes and shouted for Marrin and Sera. The whole crew had worked all night, keeping the Morning Star running west, away from the cutter, and half an aven earlier, they had changed course and were now heading due north. The rest of the crew had been sent below to sleep.
‘Is that her?’ he asked, ‘there, do you see her?’
Sera leaned over the rail, staring into the grey sky. Marrin jumped into the rigging, climbing towards the main spar for a better view. Sera was the first to pick it up.
‘Aye, that’s her, Captain.’
Marrin called down, ‘Captain, I don’t understand – how’d he do it? At this rate, we’ll be ramming the horsecock before midday.’
Ford leaned against the helm. ‘I don’t know how they did it, Marrin, but we’re going to stay on course and run past them just as fast as we can.’
‘Captain,’ Sera asked, ‘won’t he just tack to match our course?’
‘Probably, and that’s when we’ll trust our new friends to slow them down.’
‘Very good, Captain.’ Sera didn’t bother trying to mask her doubts.
‘For now, I want you two to rest. Tubbs and Kanthil can take over for a while. Nothing’s going to happen in the next aven, anyway.’
‘You’ll call us if he changes course, sir?’ Marrin dropped nimbly to the deck, despite his fatigue.
‘I will,’ the captain lied. ‘When you get below, see if Tubbs has any more rosehip brew going. I’m going to need a bucketful to get through this morning.’ He watched with quiet pride as his tired sailors, loyal even in the face of questionable leadership, disappeared.
‘They work hard,’ Steven said, ‘and it’s obvious they’re doing it for you.’
‘Nonsense.’ He shrugged the compliment off. ‘They do it because they love this ship.’ He changed the subject and said, ‘Steven, come with me, would you? There’s something I want to show you.’ He called over to Garec, sitting in the stern checking the fletching on a handful of arrows. ‘Garec, would you take the helm for a moment?’
Garec stumbled getting up and spilled his entire quiver. ‘What? You want me to steer?’ he stuttered, ‘to- to drive? But Captain, I don’t know how to- I mean, I’ll kill every one of those bastards for you, but you can’t let me drive – I can barely get my horse out of Madur’s corral most mornings. And I’ll be straight with you, Captain: I don’t have enough silver to buy you a new boat.’
The captain laughed. ‘It’s really not that difficult, and I’ll not be gone above a few moments,’ he said. ‘But let’s have a lesson, to make sure you can manage.’
Once he was certain Garec could keep the Morning Star on her current heading, he led Steven into the bow and pointed to a number of fixed ropes. ‘You see these standing lines?’ he asked quietly.
‘I think they’re called stays, or standing rigging,’ Steven said, ‘at least, that’s what we call them where I- well, I think that’s right.’
‘It is,’ Captain Ford said, steadying himself against one, ‘and they’re just about the most important part of the ship – can you believe that? Right out here, where anyone could get a sword on them… They’re keeping the mast up.’ As he spoke, he pointed to the separate cables. ‘These are the forestays, inner and outer, and those back there, just aft, are the mainstays, upper and lower.’ He ran a hand lovingly along one. ‘Now, the cutter will have some additional masts, but the ones I need you to remember are the fore, the main and the mizzenmast, and most especially, remember the mainmast.’
‘What do I do?’
‘If you can’t get the shrouds to ignite – and I’m hoping you can because it’s quick, and great at creating nervous tension-’
Steven chuckled. ‘Nervous tension? All the way out here in the middle of bloody nowhere with the only thing between you and hell being a ship on fire, yeah, I suppose you could call that nervous tension.’
‘They shit themselves, even the gods-rutting admirals,’ he admitted. ‘Anyway, if you can’t get the shrouds to light, I want you to try and snap these lines. At first, it’ll look like nothing much has happened, but in this wind, they won’t be able to keep all those sheets on her, and that’ll pull the masts down and cripple the cutter for a Twinmoon or more. She won’t be able to pursue us any more; she’ll have to limp into the nearest docks, at Landry, and we’ll be able to outrun her.