Mall moved fast, but she was still on the stairs when the Wolves padded forward, swift and silent as their namesakes, out of the shadow-pool below. They caught her on the bottom step, sword-arm encumbered by the rail, and while one dared his cutlass against her long blade another swung around to the side and jabbed at my legs with a great spear-headed pole-axe. Still only a few steps down, I ducked below the deck, snatched the forgotten pistol from my belt and tried to cock the hammers with a rake of my hand as Pierce had. The springs were so stiff that the metal tips gouged right across my palms, so painfully I almost dropped the gun. But there it was, cocked; I leaned out, levelled it – and in my hurry pulled both triggers. The priming hissed and sizzled, but for an instant nothing happened; the powder had got damp. I was just about to throw the gun at the man’s head instead when with a loud pop and a dazzling flash one barrel went off. The gun bucked madly and wrenched itself out of my unpractised grip, but at three feet I could hardly have missed. The Wolf’s head exploded and he was flung back into the shadows, just as Mall twisted her opponent’s guard around and passed her blade through his throat. She sprang down over him, slashed another across the belly and ran him through the back as he doubled over; a fat Wolf hacked at me with a cudgel and hit the sailor behind me as I dodged. Then a loud bang went off behind his feet; that damn pistol had only been hanging fire. He skipped and stumbled, I hit him clumsily with my axe and he vanished with a yell, tumbling down yet another ladder. We went rattling down after him, but he was sprawled silent at the foot.
‘We’re below their waterline here,’ panted Mall, holding her lantern up. ‘Abaft the hold. So those’ll be the charge and shot magazines down here – still open, we caught ’em napping! And maybe – aye, a lazarette!’
It was a heavy door, brassbound and barred across the little window at wolfs head-height. I caught the bars and hauled myself up to peer in. There was another door with a wider window, and as Mall held up the lantern –
‘Clare!’
There she was, blonde hair straggling and face smudged, smart office blouse hanging in strips, crouched away on a narrow cot and staring at me with utter horror. Then her jaw dropped and her voice came out as a dry croak.
‘St – Steve?’
‘Hold on!’ I shouted, trying to fight down a weird hysterical play of feelings. Seeing her there like that, so familiar from my ordinary, everyday life, filled me with a shocking sense of dreaming, of unreality, so strong that the solid timbers around me seemed to turn misty, the threat they contained to lose all meaning. The temptation to ride with the dream was overwhelming, to just let things happen and wait to wake up. But I reached out to her, and could not come. Whatever was between us, door or dream, was all too real.
‘Hold on! We’ll get you out!’ And dropping down I began to swing at the door with my axe. One of the sailors, a huge round-shouldered ape of a man, snatched up a Wolf’s axe and joined me with great swings that sent chips and splinters flying. On either side of the lock we struck, and deep gashes were opening up when a louder crash resounded from behind us, and a sullen yellow lantern-light flooded in. The sailor’s stroke faltered. Behind us another door had been flung wide, presumably leading from the hold. Wolves were crowding through it, and at their head the biggest I’d ever seen, a stubble-bearded sunken-eyed brute dressed in a filthy red frock-coat, embroidered breeches – even filthier – and a battered cocked hat with a red bandanna beneath. Round his neck hung a net of gold chains, and on one of them a heavy key. Beneath his breeches his feet were bare, and I saw why Wolves wore such massive boots; each elephantine toe was tipped, not with a human nail, but a narrow yellowish claw.
‘Off swine-spunk!’ he roared, barely understandable. ‘Stand’ee back o’there!’
‘Keep at it!’ hissed Mall urgently, and skipped lightly back. The hulking creature growled something and behind him a dozen muskets were levelled. Mall laughed aloud, and flung wide the first door she’d tried. ‘Thou’d let fire down here? Go to, my buckie! Best lock thy magazine ere thou play’st so! One bullet there and we’ll to the angels, thou to thy black masters! Art in such haste for Hell?’
Even before she’d finished the Wolf gave one savage hiss of frustration in that horrible voice, and the muskets sank.
‘I larn thee meddling, man-bitch! I lay thy stinkin’ lights open and feed’em thee!’ He snatched out an ornate broadsword as long as Mall’s. ‘Take ’em!’ He charged. With a baying yell the rest followed. Mall elbowed past me and met him, caught his blow on her blade, but even she stumbled under the force of that rush. Then the whole howling pack of them crashed into us, drove us reeling back into a crush so tight that only the giant and Mall could use their weapons freely, swinging and hewing at each other over our heads as the mêlée separated them. I clung desperately to the door-frame so as not to be swept away, tearing at the shattered wood with my fingers; a minute more and it would surely give –
But more Wolves were pouring in from the hold, and the little corridor became a slow, struggling scrum. Sheer strength told, and inch by inch we were forced back towards the stairs. I felt my feet leave the floor, I couldn’t breath under the pressure and my hold tore free. I struggled frantically to get back, but a wolf slipped across it, blocking me, and I was borne away, still struggling, with the rest.
‘Away!’ shouted Mall. ‘Away back up! We’ll do no more good here –’
‘No!’ I yelled desperately. ‘Jesus, we can’t leave her! Not now –’
The edge of the stair caught me painfully across the calves; my legs slipped from under me and I slid down right into that deadly trampling crush. A hand grabbed my shirt and hauled me up onto the step.
‘Don’t be daft!’ panted Mall, shaking me. ‘What shall we do else? We’ve found her now, there’s small gain in getting gutted! An it go well on deck we may gather and sweep this rat’s nest clean i’seconds –’
‘Clare!’ I yelled. ‘Hang on, girl! Hang on!’
‘Steve!’ I heard her shout. ‘Steve! Don’t –’
‘We’re coming back! You hear? We’ll get you out –’ I was choked off, literally. With a howl of rage the giant Wolf plunged forward, hacked down one of his own kind who couldn’t clear the way, and struck over at Mall. Trapped at an awkward angle in the stair, she was slammed back into me, but she managed to get her arm up to block the blow and hold it a moment, no more. I decided fair play wasn’t exactly the burning issue round here, and with every bit of two-handed muscle I could manage I lunged out over her shoulder and brought the boarding axe down on the Wolf’s head. I half expected the blade to break; it didn’t. It split that fancy hat right down the middle and thumped into the skull beneath with a noise like split kindling, and stuck there. He screamed, a high shrilling sound, his sword dropped from convulsing fingers and he whirled about, wrenching the axe from my hands, and sagged down, gaping. I think he died there; but in the crush he couldn’t fall.
‘A very palpable hit!’ whooped Mall, as the dismayed Wolves swayed back an instant. Left weaponless, I snatched at his sword as it slithered over their pinioned shoulders and whacked at them with it; to my surprise I found it more manoeuvrable than the axe, and they gave back again. Our last man living reached the stair and ducked past us, and Mall and I backed slowly up, her sword defending the narrow way and mine faking it. But the moment we reached the top Mall ran, hauling me after her, and the long-delayed fusillade came whistling at our heels, striking splinters from the timbers as we bolted for the deck.