Corsair

SIXTEEN

8 Marpenoth, the Year of the Ageless One (1479 DR)

Rain and wind lashed Geran’s face as he steered Moonshark into Hulburg’s harbor. Firelight painted the whole harbor a ruddy red, and threw garish shadows against the streaming pillars of smoke rising above the town’s burning buildings. His heart sank at the sight, but then he realized that the whole town wasn’t aflame-five or six different fires were scattered across the harbor district, and the wet weather was doing its part to keep the flames in check. In the murk and firelight he could see bands of warriors fighting furiously on the streets leading up from the harbor. Whether Sarth’s warning had reached the harmach in time, he couldn’t say, but the fact that someone was still fighting by the docks was a good sign. If the Black Moon had surprised the town completely, there would have been very little fighting at all.

“It seems the issue is still in doubt,” Hamil murmured beside him. The two of them were the only ones on the quarterdeck. Moonshark was somewhat shorthanded now, and Geran had ordered every man to the rowers’ benches in order to make the best time he could to Hulburg. “Now what do we do? If we land, our crew’s going to join the melee ashore. Ifwe don’t land, they’ll likely throw us over the side and land anyway.”

“I can see it,” Geran answered under his breath. Then he lifted his voice and called out to the crew, “Well done! It’s been a hard run, but we’re not too late!”

The crewmen raised a ragged cheer as the ship slid past Hulburg’s Arches, and bent themselves to the oars with renewed vigor. At the foredeck, Tao Zhe beat the time with a baton and a small drum. Geran gave the helm an easy turn to the right, angling around the last plunging column of the Arches. After hours of furious tacking and crowding on reckless amounts of sail for the strong winds, he’d finally reached Hulburg, only to find that he was not exactly certain what to do now.

“Somehow we need to throw the attack into confusion,” he said quietly to Hamil. “We’ve got to do what we can to limit the damage to the town and catch Kamoth in a snare. I don’t want him to get away again.”

“Run Moonshark aground. That should keep us out of the fight.”

“A good idea, but not enough,” Geran said. The town-parts of it, anyway-was burning in front of his eyes, and as they drew closer he could see hundreds of people battling on Bay Street. Shouts, screams, and the shrill sound of steel on steel rang across the harbor. Those were his neighbors and friends fighting to protect life and property, fighting because of the greed and murderous designs of Sergen and his black-hearted father. Geran’s eyes narrowed and a dark tide of anger surged up from the soles of his feet to his hands on the ship’s wheel. “That’s not enough by half,” he continued. “I mean to hurt these bastards. They’ll think twice before they attack my city again.”

He quickly scanned the waterfront, searching for an opportunity to strike some telling blow. Four pirate galleys lay alongside the city’s wharves, along with the usual handful of merchant ships and small craft. On the east side of the harbor, he could see Kraken Queen by the old Veruna wharves; straight ahead of him two more galleys lay side by side at the wharf in front of the Marstel storehouses; to the west one more galley was tied up near the Jannarsk docks. Geran wanted Kraken Queen most of all, but the Black Moon flagship was protected by a wharf that was in Moonshark’s way. Instead he pointed the bow at the two corsair ships in the middle. “Increase your tempo!” he shouted at Tao Zhe. “Battle speed!”

The Shou looked startled, but he began to strike his drum more swiftly. In the rowers’ benches, the rest of the crew could not easily see where Moonshark was headed; they sat with their backs to the bow, and the covered bench galleries were low along the sides of the ship anyway. But the crewmen looked at each other, and many tried to catch glimpses forward between oarbeats. “Are you sure of your speed, Captain?” Murkelmor called from his place between the rowing benches. “It’s no’ so big a harbor!”

“Maintain your beat!” Geran called back. “We’re going to ram!”

“Ram?” Murkelmor asked incredulously. “Who’s there to ram?” The dwarf started to climb up to the main deck to look for himself.

Ram? Hamil repeated. He looked up at Geran. Have you lost your mind?

“There’s a Hulburgan warship dead ahead of us, and she’s got one of our galleys pinned to the pier,” Geran answered. “We’re going to make sure she can’t pursue us when we leave! Now back to your places!”

A bold ploy, Hamil said. He winced, steadying himself by the rail.

Geran watched the distance narrow. At the last instant he shouted, “Raise oars! Bring ’em in and brace for impact!”

Carried forward by momentum, Moonshark buried her iron-sheathed beak in the side of the outboard Black Moon galley-Daring, if Geran read her name right in the uncertain light-with an awful sound. Timbers groaned and snapped like thunderbolts, the horrible sound echoing across the harbor. Daring was driven into Seawof beside her, which in turn plowed into the wharf with enough force to upend the pilings and send the planks making up the boardwalk hurling through the air like matchsticks. Men screamed in terror or shouted in dismay. Aboard Moonshark, the hands at the rowing benches hurtled forward at the impact, and every loose item on the deck-barrels of sand and water, coils of rope, blocks and tackle-flew forward. One of the top yardarms aloft broke free and landed in the wreck of Daring.

Geran rebounded off the ship’s wheel and found himself lying on the deck near the ladder to the main deck, tangled up with Hamil. The halfling groaned. “That is something I never want to do again,” he muttered. “Ramming, indeed! That was the best you could come up with?”

“Once the notion struck me, I didn’t want to examine it too closely,” Geran answered. He staggered to his feet. Daring was already beginning to settle, her side stove in by the impact. He couldn’t make out anything of Seawolf on the other side, since so much of Daring’s rigging and the wreckage of the pier covered her decks. “Back to your benches!” he shouted at the crew. “We’ve got to back out now, or the wreck will take us down with her!”

The crewmen started to untangle themselves from their seatmates and the benches around them, more than a few with groans of pain or muttered oaths. Murkelmor climbed to his feet and weaved forward uncertainly, taking in the damage to Moonshark. From the wreckage of Daring rose cries for help, the screams of the wounded, and more than a few streams of profanity. Suddenly the dwarf whirled back to face the quarterdeck, outraged. “You damned fool!” he shouted at Geran. “That’s no Hulburgan! That’s Daring you’ve killed, one of ours!”

“I can see that!” Geran answered. “Now get the crewmen to their benches, or we’re going to sink with her!”

Skamang picked himself up from the oar benches and looked for himself. “You bloody traitor!” the Northman snarled. “You did that deliberately!”

“And I’ll answer for it, but we’re going to sink too if we don’t back out! Now get to your benches before Daring takes us down!”

The deckhands looked from Geran to Skamang and Murkelmor. Fury darkened the dwarf’s face, but he abruptly wheeled and began to shove men into their places. “Reverse your benches!” Murkelmor shouted at the crew. The men stood, turned in place, and sat down again to seize the oars that would have been behind them in normal rowing. Skamang glared at Geran, but he joined the rest. All too often a ramming ship went down with its victim, and Moonshark’s crewmen understood that they were at risk of joining Daring on the bottom if they didn’t act swiftly. But angry glares were fixed on Geran and Hamil as the crew seized their oars.

“Oars in the water!” Geran ordered. “Tao Zhe, standard beat! Pull us out!”

Moonshark lay tangled with her victim for a long moment, her oars groping for purchase in the waters of the harbor. Then, with the groaning and popping of tortured wood, she pulled herself free from the wreck and backed off. Scores of Daring and Seawolfhands clung to their battered ships or the ruined wharf or shouted angrily from the street just beyond.

“What’s our damage, Murkelmor?” Hamil shouted.

Murkelmor shot Hamil a resentful look, but he hurried forward and peered over the bow. Then he ducked into the forecastle. While he was below, Geran continued to let Moonshark back slowly, and put the wheel over to swing her bow toward Kraken Queen.

Trying for the big one next? Hamil asked. The crew won’t stand for it, Geran!

“Kraken Queen’s the one I really want,” Geran answered under his breath. He just couldn’t imagine how to convince the crew to ram another ship. “Avast rowing! Reverse your benches again!” he called to the crew. “We’re going ahead now.”

“Where, Aram?” Skamang demanded from his seat. “Where are we going?”

“I’m bringing us about,” Geran replied. “Now sit down and row!”

With grumbling and a few suspicious looks, the crewmen switched positions again. Geran fixed his eye on the Black Moon flagship, only a few hundred yards away and still moored at the pier. He could see pirates hurrying to man the ship and spotted a flurry of activity by her quarterdeck. There was a muffled thump from the pirate ship, followed three heartbeats later by a shrill whistling in the air.

“Darts!” Hamil cried. “Cover!” He threw himself against the gunwale, crouching under its cover. Geran ducked down behind the helm. An instant later, a dozen short iron javelins sleeted across the deck. Most clattered on empty space or stuck quivering in gunwales or masts, but a few fell among the crew packed on their rowing benches, wounding several men. Screams of pain and howls of dismay rang across the deck. One dart hissed over Geran’s shoulder and took a deep gouge out of the ship’s sternrail. Then a catapult on Kraken Queen’s foredeck snapped against its frame, and a ball of flaming pitch streaked across the smoke-filled sky to splash into the water a little short of Moonshark’s bow.

“Kraken Queen’s firing on us!” shouted one of the crewmen.

Geran grimaced. Moonshark had no shipboard artillery. Very few ships in the Moonsea-warship, pirate, or otherwise-did. Their only attack was to ram or grapple their foes. “Oars in the water! Give me some steerageway, or she’ll rake us again! Tao Zhe, full speed!”

Moonshark started to glide forward as Tao Zhe struck the beat and the crew found their stroke again. Now she was moving forward, her prow toward Kraken Queen. Another flight of darts hissed through the air, most of them overshooting this time. Then Murkelmor climbed back up to the deck. “We’ve sprung seams by the stem!” he called. “Some oakum ought to hold her for now, but she’ll need repair soon.”

“Understood,” Geran replied. “Get your carpenters to work on stuffing the leaks.”

Murkelmor called out several of his men from their places and sent them hurrying into the forecastle. He glowered at the iron darts littering the deck, the wounded men in the benches, then ducked as flaming pitch sailed over the midships deck to explode in the water on the far side of the ship. The dwarf swore and turned to yank Tao Zhe’s baton out of his hand. “Avast rowing!” he shouted. “All of you, stop! You’ll drive us right into Kraken Queen next!”

“Stand aside, Murkelmor!” Hamil shouted. “We’re sitting ducks for the catapults if we’re not moving!”

“That’s as may be, but none of us’ll row a single beat more until the captain makes his intentions clear!” Murkelmor retorted. “Get us alongside a pier, Aram, or by Moradin’s beard we’ll take the wheel and do it ourselves!”

“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 to their surviving ships. “By Tymora, but Kara’s got good timing!” Geran said with a grin. “That’ll be a hundred more swords on our side. With a little luck, we might catch all of them now!”

The two companions hurried to Bay Street, with Tao Zhe tagging along after them. After being briefly confused for pirates due to their dress, they fell in with a band of Spearmeet who were pressing westward from the Lower Bridge, sweeping the street clear. By the time they reached the foot of the wharf where Kraken Queen had been tied up, the pirate flagship was already rowing her way clear of Hulburg’s docks. Geran grimaced. He should have guessed that Kamoth would flee once a warship appeared to threaten his ability to escape. All they could do was stand on the wharf and watch the chase develop across the harbor.

“It looks like Murkelmor’s thought better of landing now,” Hamil observed.

Geran followed his gaze and glimpsed Moonshark reversing course to slip back out to sea, evading Seadrake. “I’m not surprised. He’s not the type to throw in with a losing cause.” He found he was a little relieved that the ship would get away for now. Skamang and his lot Geran had no use for, but Murkelmor and a few of the others were decent fellows after their own fashion. He hoped he wouldn’t have to cross swords with them.

Seadrake tried to close with Kraken Queen, but Kamoth proved an elusive foe. The pirate flagship was handier under oars than Seadrake, and Kamoth demonstrated it by backing one side and stroking ahead with the other, spinning the ship on a copper piece and then darting away before Seadrake could turn around. The two vessels exchanged a few volleys of catapult fire and plenty of arrows during their close pass, to no great effect. For a brief moment, Geran feared that Seadrake would miss all the pirate ships, but then she turned and bore down on the last one-Wyvern, he guessed-catching her before she got more than a bowshot from the wharf. The fighting was over quickly; Geran couldn’t see well from the dock, but he could hear the angry shouts and fierce battle cries of the Hulburgans aboard their warship as they threw themselves against the pirates who’d attacked their town.

As the fighting between Seadrake and Wyvern died down and the remaining two Black Moon vessels disappeared into the blackness of the Moonsea night, Geran caught sight of a tall man with skin of brick red and a prominent pair of horns sweeping back from his forehead. He stood at the waterside watching the pirate vessels attempt their escape. After a tenday of seeing Sarth every day in a human guise, it took Geran a moment to recognize his friend. “Sarth! You’re here!” he said.

The tiefling turned at Geran’s call and gave him an uneven smile. “You sent me, in case it slipped your mind.” He looked at Geran’s sodden clothes and bare feet. “Might I guess that you are no longer captain of Moonshark? And Hamil is no longer first mate?”

“The crew was sorely disappointed by Geran’s decisions during the attack,” Hamil said. “It became clear to us that our presence was no longer required. Regrettably, we parted ways with Moonshark in the middle of the harbor.”

“Did you get here before the Black Moon?” Geran asked.

Sarth nodded. “Yes, but not by very much. I became lost in those hills east of town and missed the coastal track. By the time I found the path I feared that I would be too late and pressed on with all the speed I could muster. When I arrived at Griffonwatch, no one recognized me until I resumed my normal appearance. That finally impressed upon the Shieldsworn the earnestness of my mission. They sent runners to muster the Spearmeet companies and summon the merchant company armsmen, but the town’s defenders were still massing when the Black Moon ships appeared. If I’d been delayed by even half an hour more, the attack would have been much worse.”

Geran reached out to grip Sarth by the shoulder. “Thank you, Sarth,” he said. “You saved scores of lives tonight, perhaps hundreds. I won’t forget it.”

The sorcerer inclined his head. “I only did what I could.”

Hamil looked around at the waterfront and sighed. “It looks like the Red Sail’s tradeyard was hit hard,” he said. “We’ll have plenty of cleaning up to do.”

Geran gazed out to sea after the fleeing Black Moon flagship. He had unfinished business with Kamoth and Sergen, and he meant to take it up again soon.