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.
Chapter 17
Dawn. The fifteenth since their escape from Shell Island. No different from the last five, as far as Blade could tell when he woke to face it.
He woke reluctantly, as soon as he realized the night hadn't brought the rain they so desperately needed. He hadn't reached the point of refusing to wake in the hope that sleep would turn peacefully into death.
Three more days without water would see the end of him. Rhodina wouldn't last that long. Khraishamo could last a day or two longer than Blade, because in an emergency his body could cope with drinking salt water better than the two humans. That wouldn't be enough to save him without rain.
A splash from over the side, and Khraishamo reappeared dripping. With the sun and the lack of drinking water, he needed to bathe in the sea two or three times a day. Fortunately he still had the strength to do it. When he lost the strength he'd die of thirst before he could die a more painful death from his skin drying out, cracking, and bleeding.
Rhodina muttered feverishly in her sleep as Khraishamo climbed into the boat, but didn't wake up. Blade looked at her, then at the pirate chief, and they both nodded. It would be better to let her sleep as much as she could, since there wasn't anything else they could do for her.
And the voyage from Shell Island to Mythor had started so well! It was a waste of strength to curse sheer bad luck, but Blade felt like doing it anyway.
They pulled up their anchor as soon as dawn let them tell direction, heading east and slightly north. Finding a channel through the reefs and sandbars would be a matter of luck rather than steering any particular course. Steering slightly north would keep them as far as possible from the Goharan ships bound to and from Shell Island.
In spite of this precaution, they were sighted twice. Once it was a single-masted merchant ship, which came lumbering up and hailed them.
«You our pilot?»
«He's on his way,» replied Blade. «We're looking for a boat with four men in it. They didn't come back last night. Orders are to cover every channel.»
«If'n you haven't found 'em by now, you're not going to find 'em in one piece.»
«I know that,» shouted Blade. «You know that. But does the commander know that?» The sailors laughed, then went forward to lower the anchor. The captain stared at the boat so long that Blade began to suspect something was wrong, then: «Good luck.»
In an hour the merchant ship was hull down astern. In two hours it was gone and a Goharan galley was coming up rapidly to starboard. She would have been a much more formidable proposition than the merchant ship, but she passed half a mile off. The men on her deck waved, Blade and Rhodina waved back, and the galley drew quickly away.
As soon as she was safely out of sight, Blade changed their course to nearly due south. «Just in case the galley talks to the merchant captain and smells something rotten,» he said. They ran south until evening without sighting any more ships, then anchored for the night with the wind from the open Sea already blowing over them. At dawn they set sail again, and by noon they were safely away from the last of the shallows, heading southward across the Sea.
They had to gamble that the gear from the shelter and what they found in the boat would be enough. The prisoners of Shell Island were strictly forbidden to have any sort of boat gear, including water jugs, oars, and so on. There was no hope of bribing a guard for any without instantly arousing suspicion. Stealing some might be possible, but it would be risky, and almost certainly take more time than they could afford.
So they gambled, and at first it looked as if the gamble would pay off. There were two jugs of water in the boat, and they had their own fishing gear. At this time of the year rain wasn't common, but in an emergency they could drink the blood of seabirds or the body juices of fish.
«The only way we can't get those is the Sea drying up,» said Khraishamo. He should have added-«Or not being able to catch them in the first place.»
They didn't worry about their fishing gear at first. They were more worried about bad weather and being sighted by Goharan ships. Summer storms were rare but when they came they could be savage, littering the shores of the Sea with the wreckage of ships and the bodies of sailors. Goharan ships were also rare at this time of year in the middle of the Sea. When they sailed at all, they usually crept along the eastern shore to catch whatever land breezes they could. Even galleys hugged the shore, landing every few days and resting their rowers.
The guard Blade pulled overboard took all the arrows in the boat with him, so there wasn't much they could do to the seabirds. They were luckier with the fish-until on three successive days they lost both their hooks and the fishing spear.
Suddenly dying of thirst was no longer a possibility but a real danger, coming closer each day. They turned east, willing to risk being sighted by Goharan ships in the hope of reaching land and finding water.
«If we find only a small merchantman, perhaps we can capture it,» said Khraishamo.
«And a galley?» said Rhodina, then answered her own question. «Never mind. A quicker death than thirst, for sure.»
Unfortunately they sighted no Goharan ships on the first two days, and on the third day the wind died completely. The sea turned to glass, blazing under the sun until even Blade was half-dazzled. Rhodina's tan didn't keep her from getting a murderous sunburn, and Blade found himself turning red and peeling. They both would have started wearing clothes if the sunburn hadn't made it too uncomfortable.
The third day of the calm, the last of the water ran out. Now their only hope was rain, which seemed unlikely, or a lucky encounter with a Sarumi ship, which didn't seem very likely either.