The ladder to the main deck quivered and shook in Raithen's hands as Bull climbed it. He was at the bigger man's heels and had just reached the top when the riverbank'soverhang cracked and sheared off thirty feet above them. He gazed upward in disbelief as sections of the overhang plummeted down like catapult loads.
A huge granite block dropped onto Barracuda's prow. The impact cracked timbers and tore sections of railing free. Barracuda rocked as if she'd been seized in a fierce gale.
A lantern tumbled loose from the hand of a pirate who had been knocked from his feet. Skidding across the wooden deck, the lantern swapped ends several times before disappearing over the ship's side.
Gaining the deck, keeping his knees bent to ride out the violent tossing of Barracuda fighting her mooring ropes, Raithen looked at the other two ships. Both cogs were fast on their way to becoming pyres. Flames already twisted through the rigging of the port ship, and the starboard ship wasn't far behind.
Who the hell has done this?
Ahead of him, the boy had almost used up all his running room. He stood with his back to the edge of the swaying ship's deck. The look he gave the black water around the ship indicated that he was in no hurry to try his luck with a swim.
Bull closed on the boy, yelling filth at him, ordering him to stay put.
Raithen yelled at his crew, ordering them to break out buckets and attempt to save both burning cogs. If their hiding place had been discovered, he wanted all of the ships so he could haul away as much as he could.
Kegs and crates floated in the river around Barracuda, but some of them sank only a moment later. Feeling the fat-assed way the cog sat in the river, Raithen knew she was taking on water. The impact that had struck the prow must have ruptured the ship as well. At least part of the damage was below the waterline.
Surveying the cracked riverbank overhang high overhead, Raithen knew the destruction wasn't a natural occurrence. Something had happened to cause it. His mindimmediately flew to Buyard Cholik. The ruins the priests poked through were underground. The pirate captain had a fleeting thought, wondering if the old priest had survived his own greed.
Then movement in the rigging caught Raithen's eye, and he knew someone was up there. He turned, lifting his sword.
EIGHT
Steadying himself in the rigging of the pirate ship Barracuda, Darrick reached for a ratline just as Mat landed beside him. Despite the sudden explosion that had taken out the line of supplies perched on the cliff's edge, he'd landed aboard the pirate vessel. His hands still ached from grabbing the coarse hemp rope.
"You made it," Darrick said, cutting the ratline free.
"Barely," Mat agreed. "An' where is that fabulous luck of mine ye were braggin' about earlier? That damned cliffside blew up."
"But not us with it," Darrick argued. The brief glance he had of the two burning cogs gave him a chance to feel proud of their handiwork. He checked the stone steps and saw Maldrin pushing himself to his feet. The explosion had knocked the first mate from his feet.
"There's the boy," Mat said.
Darrick scanned the deck below and saw the small figure chased into the broken prow by the huge man who followed him. He had little doubt that the boy was the king's nephew. There couldn't be many boys on the pirate vessels.
"Darrick!"
Looking up, Darrick saw Tomas standing on the cliffside near the surviving block-and-tackle rig. The other had gone down with the explosion that had restructured the riverbank.
Tomas waved.
"Get it down here," Darrick ordered. He took hold of the ratline and swung himself from the rigging. Even with theship foundering in the river-taking on water, he judged-he arced out past the big man cornering the small boy. Reaching the end of his swing, he started back, aiming himself at the big man.
"Bull!" a pirate behind the big man yelled in warning.
The big man glanced around instead of up, though, never seeing Darrick until it was too late.
Bending his knees a little to absorb the shock better, Darrick drove both feet into the big man, catching him across the shoulders. Even then, Darrick felt his knees strain with the impact, and for a moment he didn't think the man was going to budge and was going to smash up against him like a wave shredding over a reef.
But the big man tore free of the deck, sprawling forward, unable to stop himself.
Hurting and winded from the impact, Darrick released the ratline and dropped to the deck only a few feet from the boy. Scrambling to his feet immediately, Darrick drew his cutlass.
"Get him," a tall man in black chainmail ordered.
Darrick got set in time to meet two pirates who rushed him. He slapped their weapons aside with the flat of the cutlass, then stepped in, turned, and elbowed one of the pirates in the face. The man's nose broke with a savage snap. It wasn't the honorable thing to do, but Darrick knew he wasn't up against honorable opponents. The pirates would shove a blade into his back as quickly as he'd do it to them.
The pirate with the broken nose staggered to one side, blood smearing his face. But he didn't go down.
Still in motion, Darrick plucked a dagger from his boot, spun, and shoved it between the pirate's ribs, ripping it through the man's chest and planting it in the heart beneath. He kept moving, getting his cutlass up to parry the other pirate's clumsy attack and riposting.
Mat landed on the ship's deck only a heartbeat later.
"Get the boy," Darrick ordered. Then he raised his voice. "Tomas!"
"Aye, skipper," Tomas called from above. "On its way."
Darrick defended against the pirate's attempt to skewer him, aware that the mountain of a man was getting to his feet as well. From the corner of his eye, Darrick saw the block-and-tackle lower, a small cargo net at the end of it.
"Lhex," Mat said, holding up his empty hands and offering no threat. "Be easy, boy. Me friend an' I, why, we're in the king's navy, come here to see you to home safe. If you'll allow us."
The cargo net hit the bucking ship's deck in a loose sprawl of hemp.
"Yes," the boy said.
"Good." Mat smiled at him, reaching for the cargo netting and dragging it toward the boy. "Then let's be away." He raised his voice. "Darrick."
"In a minute," Darrick replied, bracing himself for the coming battle. He flicked the pirate's sword aside with his cutlass, then nipped in with a low blow, ducked and caught the pirate under the arm with his shoulder, and used his strength to lever the man over the ship's side.
"Get over here," the man in black chainmail ordered pirates on the starboard vessel.
Darrick turned to confront the big man, noticing the bandage that covered the side of his head. When he parried the man's blade, testing his strength, Darrick found the man uncommonly strong.
The big man grinned, filled with confidence.
Ducking beneath the big man's blow, Darrick stepped to one side and drove a foot into the side of his opponent's knee. Something popped, but the big man somehow remained on his feet, turning again with a sword cut that would have taken Darrick's head from his shoulders if it had struck.
Moving as swiftly as a striking serpent, Darrick kicked the man in the groin. When the man bent over in pain, Darrick performed a spinning back kick that caught the big man on the wounded side of his head. He howled in agony and went down, holding his head.
The man in black chainmail stepped forward, raising hisblade into the en garde position. He set to without a word, his sword flashing before him with considerable skill. "I am Raithen, captain of this ship. And you're one breath away from being a dead man."
Without warning, the swordfight took on a deadly earnestness. As skilled as he was, Darrick was hard pressed to keep the pirate captain's blade from finding his throat, eyes, or groin. Nothing was off-limits for the man's sword. Dead, blind, or unmanned, it appeared Captain Raithen would take Darrick any way he could get him.