With a rush of beating wings, they dived, then pulled up and swung around just above the reach of spear or sword. They circled over the deck, rose, and prepared for another onslaught.
Deyv turned his back to them, uncoiled his rope, and tied one end around the hilt of his sword. Then he closed his hand on the middle of the rope. When the khratikl came down in close formation, they found the blade suddenly in their midst. The sword swung at the end of the rope, its edge scraping a beast across the front of its grotesquely outshelving chest, another across the front of its head, and a third through the leather of a wing. Two of the creatures flopped onto the deck and then got up to run. Vana speared one.
Hoozisst smashed the head of the other with his tomahawk.
Shrieking, the rest withdrew to the yardarms to confer.
Deyv turned around. Their chasers were within spear range of the humans now. The closest numbered twelve. The rest of the flock had, fallen behind and would never catch up.
All of the spears were thrown. Three found their mark, but one went through the skin of a wing without hurting its owner. The hole, however, made it unable to keep up with the rest.
"Nine to go!" Deyv shouted.
Vana fitted a dart into her blowgun, took aim, and blew. Another shriek, another casualty. She hit two more, and then, amidst the cheering, buzzing, barking, and yowling of the defenders, the khratikl turned.
They were quickly lost in the dark.
Those on the mast made one more dive. It was a half-hearted attempt. Deyv's sword sliced the rear leg off one. Hoozisst's tomahawk thudded into the breast of another. Crying, the survivors flew off for home.
21
VANA said that they should rest, perhaps sleep, while the fires kept Feersh from attacking. They could take turns on guard duty.
"No," Deyv said. "I realize we've been through an exhausting ordeal. I'm shaking, I'm so fatigued. But we can't allow them any breathing space. There's no telling what ancient devices she might have aboard but which she can't get to yet. Besides, she's vindictive enough to drop our soul eggs over the side. We'd never find them, and all this would have been in vain."
Sloosh started to buzz. Deyv kept on talking.
"Another thing. She may have more than one plank. She could send her slaves and children over it to take us by surprise. For all we know, she may be doing it now or may have already done it. But I'm hoping that if she does have one, she hasn't thought about using it. Or maybe she lacks the nerve to try it; though, from that one glimpse of her face, I'd bet she lacks fear, whatever else she lacks.
"So, I say we put our planks across and storm her tharakorm. Now! Before she gets over the shock of seeing her khratikl fail!"
"Excellent!" Sloosh buzzed.
Vana said, "You're right. But I'm so tired. I don't know if I can even lift my arm any more."
"You're as tough as the rest of us," Deyv said. "If we can do it, you can."
"Besides, we've eaten," the Yawtl said. "We'll begin feeling stronger shortly."
"There's a point at which food doesn't help," she said. "But I'm not letting you down. Or my tribe."
Deyv understood by this that she meant her tribe was the inferior of no other. She knew she was no longer a member of her people, but she still had hopes of rejoining them. She hadn't given up, though her body was warring with her will at that moment.
He was ashamed that he had thought only of dying when his egg had been stolen. She'd not even considered the idea. She'd set out at once on the trail of the thief. Her people didn't look at things the way his did. Was their attitude superior? Considering the way events had gone, they were. If he'd let himself perish in that terrible room in the House, he wouldn't be here now.
Suddenly, he was aware they were looking at him. He shook himself, like Jum just coming out of a river, and said, "Then here's what we'll do."
After igniting two torches, they went belowdecks and got the plank. They carried it to another room, the window of which was opposite another in the tharakorm occupied by Feersh and brood and slaves. She might be thinking by now of doing the same thing as they were. Just from habit, she might use the same window.
The board was just long enough to span the entrances with a few inches extra on each end. Feersh must have had some trouble finding the window across from her, and she must have had great confidence in her ability to estimate distances. But she had probably gone through drills many times. She wasn't one to ignore what might ensure her survival. Not if what Hoozisst said about her was true.
She also must have been very strong despite her scrawny physique. Deyv had trouble holding down his end of the plank against the edge of the window when it was almost fully extended. However, he told himself, he was almost exhausted.
Once the board was on the rim of the window opposite, he started across it. Below was an abyss, the bottom of which he couldn't see and was glad he couldn't. The Yawtl followed. Vana and the two animals were next. Deyv and Hoozisst held the board steady for the Archkerri. Before Sloosh was halfway across, his weight had bent it down so that the few inches within the edge of the window had become less than an inch. Deyv hissed at him and then told him, in a low voice, to go back.
Sloosh walked backward and gingerly eased himself, rear first, through the window. Deyv would have liked to call to him to ask what he intended to do next, but he was afraid that his voice would be heard above. The sides of the two tharakorm curved up and joined, forming a canopy. Those above couldn't see him, but there was a slight chance that they might detect a loud sound from the window.
"We need him," Deyv muttered, "but we don't have him. So ..."
They left the torches in the room because their light might be seen by those on deck. The corridor was dark, the fires having burned out, though the stench of the fumes and of burned bodies was heavy. Deyv led the way, groping along, until he went up the stairs into the cabin. Light from torches outside the cabin enabled him to distinguish objects in it. The stink of the charred corpse of a slave made him feel like retching.
He walked softly through the door and looked around the corner. The fires and the torches revealed
Feersh, her children, and the slaves behind the cabin. The witch was saying something to them in a low voice. When she'd finished, she put her hand on Jowanarr's shoulder. The daughter turned toward Deyv, who quickly ducked back around the corner.
"Get to the other side!" he whispered.
A moment later, they heard their enemies enter the cabin. Someone was climbing onto the roof. Deyv stepped back from the side of the cabin, where he'd been crouching, and he dared a quick look upward.
A slave woman was standing on the roof, her back to him, trying to see through the fire and smoke along the railings.
He shot back to the cabin wall and said, "They've left a lookout up there. But where are the others going?"
The Yawtl said, "I think they're going to do what we just did. But in the other direction."
"Then they have other planks."
"Wouldn't doubt it." The Yawtl chuckled.
"Then they'll see the lights of the torches we left behind!"
If they ran to the fore cabin, they might be seen by the sentinel. A scream would alert the witch. There was, however, no time for much consideration of action.
Without telling the others what he was going to do, he leaped up, slapped his hands on the edge of the cabin roof, and pulled himself up and over. The woman whirled on hearing him, but he was on his feet and lashing out with his tomahawk. Its edge caught her above the ear, and she crumpled without a sound. He leaped off the roof and ran toward the fore cabin. Those below might hear his feet, but there was nothing he could do about it. Behind him Vana and Hoozissf s feet thudded and Jum's and Aejip's paws slapped the deck.