Pirates Of Gohar

Chapter 16

A wave rose to Blade's chest, then sank down and rolled on past him. He easily stayed on his feet, but the tide was definitely coming in. The water was already deep enough to let sharks in through the reef. In another hour he and Khraishamo would have to tread water. After an hour of that, they might as well swim back to shore and hope nothing caught up with them on the way. They'd be tired enough to make it too dangerous to attack a guard boat, even if one came by.

In the darkness Blade heard Khraishamo cough. He looked toward the sound but could see only a vague shape. If he hadn't known, Blade couldn't have told if it was alive or not, let alone whether it was human. The combination of soot and fish oil they'd smeared on themselves made good camouflage. Hopefully it would also repel hungry fish.

«If it stinks to the fish like it does to me, they won't come near you,» Rhodina said after she finished smearing them both. Now she waited on shore, ready to load their gear aboard a captured guard boat if Blade's plan worked.

And if it doesn't work? They could certainly try to ambush a guard boat two or three more times before Khraishamo had to go out on his next fishing trip. Each time, the chances of their being spotted by the guards or attacked by fish increased. After that Khraishamo would have to go back to work, and Blade couldn't lay the ambush alone even if he'd been willing to abandon the pirate chief. By the time Khraishamo returned, the secret of Blade's presence on the island might be out. While they could try to escape without his being able to masquerade as a guard, the odds would turn against them.

Even tonight someone might come along the beach. Then if Rhodina couldn't explain what she was doing there, she'd have to fight.

«Fight anyway, if you don't come back,» she said to Khraishamo. «I make an end here, not go back to being thrown around, among all the men. Make an end of a few guards, too. Animals!»

Blade turned back to look along the shore and stiffened. A faint reddish-yellow glow showed in the blackness. It was the color of the lanterns carried by the guards, but for a moment Blade couldn't tell whether it was moving along the beach or in a boat. Then he saw that it was rising and falling in a rhythm possible only if it was aboard a boat.

For some reason the guard boat was rowing its rounds inside the reef tonight, rather than just outside it. That could make the escapers' work even easier. Khraishamo moved closer to Blade, and they whispered together briefly. Then they slipped into the water and swam silently toward shore, on a course to intercept the approaching light.

It grew steadily larger, and now they could see a second, smaller light in the stern of the boat. They could also count the guards in the boat-four of them, unfortunately. They still had to keep any from escaping to give the warning. That would be a disaster for all of them, and it wasn't much consolation to Blade that Kloret's wrath would probably descend on the guards who killed him. He intended to avenge the Prime Minister's victims, not be avenged by him!

It was time. «All right,» said Blade. He gripped Khraishamo's shoulder. «Good luck.»

«And to you.» The pirate dove out of sight, silent and hopefully invisible. With his lungs well filled beforehand, he could stay underwater a good five minutes, then surface still ready to fight.

Blade was supposed to be noisy and visible. He started thrashing wildly, churning the water into foam and shouting at the top of his lungs.

«Help! Help! Over here! Help!» He made his voice sound as panic-stricken as he could. The wind was behind him, so his words easily reached the guards. He saw the boat come around on a new course, but didn't dare stop shouting. He wanted those guards to come straight on without thinking about possible traps, until Khraishamo could reach them.

«Help! Help! I'm bleeding! Get me out of the water, you fools!» Now he was putting not only panic but authority into his voice.

A guard stood up in the bow of the boat, holding the lantern and looking down at Blade. «How'd you get here?»

«Damned boat sprang a leak! Went into the water, and sharks got the others. Don't know why they didn't get me too.»

«All right, all right. Don't have a fit.» Two of the guards hauled the sail around until it was slowing the boat down. The guard in the bow perched the lantern on a seat and knelt down.

«Hey! Haven't seen you around here. I think-«

«Think after you get me into the boat, you idiot! Or do you want to be in the middle of a feeding frenzy?»

That got the guard into action. He didn't want to be in the middle of a school of sharks ready to attack anything in sight, including a boat. He reached for Blade with both hands. As he did, Blade saw Khraishamo's head suddenly appear above the opposite gunwale of the boat.

Blade shouted again, this time a war cry, and pulled hard on the hands reaching out for him. The guard went headfirst into the water, his mouth open with surprise so that he gulped in water and starting choking. Before he stopped, Blade pulled the man's head back with one hand and stabbed him up under the chin with the knife in the other. The bone point reached the man's brain and he went limp without a struggle.

Meanwhile Khraishamo was climbing into the boat, fishing spear in one hand and brooga spike in the other. One guard flung himself straight at the attacker and was neatly impaled on the spike. He went overboard, knocking the bow lantern with him. Blade heaved himself into the boat and joined the pirate against the other two guards.

The first one was foolish enough to attack Khraishamo with nothing but a club. The pirate blocked his wild swing, then lifted him into the air by the neck and one leg. The boat rocked wildly as Khraishamo held the guard over his head for a moment, then smashed him down on the deck with a gruesome crunch.

Khraishamo took just enough time with all this to leave himself open to the last guard's attack. Or at least he would have been open to it, if Blade hadn't been ready. He met the guard's short sword with his own knife, blocking the man's attack. Then he chopped the man hard across the side of the neck and as he went down chopped him a second time across the throat. They couldn't afford to take prisoners, and Blade didn't want to get any blood on the guard's clothing. They'd already lost two of the guards overboard, and they'd really need three sets of guards' clothing for their masquerade.

As the boat stopped rocking wildly, Blade saw that Khraishamo's first victim was bobbing only a few yards away. Blade was swinging himself over the gunwale, ready to drop into the water and go after the body, when Khraishamo bellowed: «No, Blade!»

A moment later Blade saw the high black fin cutting the top of a wave just beyond the body. Then another fin broke water beside the boat, only a yard from Blade. He hastily rolled in over the gunwale, landing in the bottom of the boat as a mouthful of six-inch teeth snapped shut where his foot had been seconds before.

Now there were fins, tails, and snapping jaws all around them. The dark water began to turn pale with foam as torpedo-like bodies sprang ten feet clear of the water and fell back. Khraishamo hastily doused the second lantern, and Blade pulled the sail around until it caught the wind again. Slowly the boat gathered headway, and the sharks seemed willing to let it go.

Gradually the splashing and snapping died away astern. Apparently the two bodies hadn't leaked enough blood into the water to drive the sharks into a true feeding frenzy. Khraishamo spoke for both of them when he said, «Good thing those bastards didn't come along a couple of minutes earlier.»

Blade nodded. «We'll have to keep watch while we're loading the boat.»

They found Rhodina without any trouble, and she was as eager to go as they were. In fact she was about to swim out to them when Khraishamo's desperate shouts warned her to stay on land. So she waited until the boat grounded in knee-deep water, then splashed out to them with the first armload of gear.

They loaded quickly, without lighting a lantern, then shoved off again. A few hundred yards out Blade slipped the other two bodies overboard, then set sail for the reef. The onshore wind made it a slow business beating out to open water, but it also raised the tide over the reef. They easily slipped across the mass of jagged coral heads. Long before the two bodies could have reached shore, the boat was heading on what Blade hoped was a southerly course.

They only ran for an hour before they found a sheltered patch of shallow water where they could anchor and light the lantern. Even during that hour, Blade was as alert as a cat on the prowl for the first sign of breakers ahead or the first scrape of the boat's planks on a reef. The guard boat drew much less water than any seagoing ship, so it could find navigable channels where ships would run hard aground. On the other hand, its light hull would split at the touch of rocks and reefs a heavier ship could shrug off.

Besides the danger of rocks and shoals, there was the danger of losing their way. They had to bear south and east, across the shallows and out into the open Sea. Any other way would bring them into Goharan territory, or even worse, into land held by the horsemen of the plains.

«I'd rather cut my throat and get it over with quick than face them,» said Khraishamo. «We know them too well. They kill all strangers, and not slowly.» He was quite certain that a few men had escaped from Shell Island, only to reach the wrong shore and die horribly among the horsemen.

So they'd have to wait until daylight came, to show them clear water and let them navigate. That was the reason for the masquerade in guard's clothing. They couldn't hope to get clear of the waters around the island without being sighted. A guard boat crewed by three nearly naked people would certainly be suspected. A guard boat crewed by people in guards' clothing would look perfectly normal.

Fortunately the guards of Shell Island were chosen for size. Blade found one guard's outfit an easy fit, and Rhodina managed to get into the other. There was nothing to fit Khraishamo, but he didn't care.

«I'm not going to pass as one of you, no matter what I wear. Best I lie down in the bottom of the boat when anyone comes in sight and you cover me up. If they don't come close enough to see these»-he squeezed Rhodina's breasts and she made a face at him-«she'll make a better man than I will. If they do come that close, we're finished anyway.»

Blade nodded. He didn't have anything to say that would make it easier for them to get clear of the shallows, sail fifteen hundred miles in an open boat, land without being detected, and reach the rebels of Mythor.

Once they'd done that, the really hard part would begin.