And the ship sped through the roaring blackness, death to the left and right, her bow crashing, waves smashing, spume flying, water drenching all.
"Now, Alos! Now!" shouted Arin.
"Now," shrieked Alos, haling hard on the tiller, "bring her about!"
Zzzzzz… Loose ropes buzzed against cleats as strong hands haled hard against the lines. 'Round came the bow of the Brise, a tall rock to the starboard looming but an arm's span away.
As the ship heeled over, Whoom! a great wave crashed into stone, the curl smashing down to the decks as Arin shifted toward the larboard rail. She lost her footing in the thundering wash and hurtled hard into the coaming. Floundering a moment, at last she reached up to grip the larboard side rail, and groggily she struggled to her feet. Shaking her head to clear it, she leaned out and peered to the fore, as spume and spray and roaring water crashed down on the Brise.
"Alos! To starboard!" she screamed. "Starboard now!"
Even as the oldster hauled the tiller hard over, a great darkness loomed on the left and-gwrrrwwwkkk…-the hull ground against stone, the speeding ship shuddering as the rock juddered along its side; but a surge in the water lifted the Brise banging and thudding up and away, and suddenly they were clear of the fang and racing toward disaster beyond.
"Starboard, starboard," cried Arin above the roar of the hammering waves. Again Alos hauled on the tiller, and the Brise responded, and moments later Arin called out, "Now swing larboard a point and square her up and stand ready."
As the ship flew along its new course through fangs and thunder and spray, Alos tried to cry out, but all he emitted was a thin squeak, and so Egil shouted to the crew, "Stand ready to come about to larboard, ten points on my command!"
Whoom! Waves thundered into rock, water leaping to pour over all, and yet Arin cleared her vision and cried, "Stand by!… Stand by!… Stand by!… Now! Now, Alos, now!"
"Now!" shouted Egil. "Come about, now!" Zzzzzz… Again wet rope buzzed against cleats as the Brise swung leftward 'round a great striated stone to veer sharply larboard, from north-northwest by the compass toward a southwestern run, Alos hauling the tiller hard over to make the sharp-angled turn, the jib and main luffing as the bow swung through the eye of the offshore wind; then the canvas snapped taut once more as it filled with the sharp-driving air and the sloop put her shoulder to the sea and ran through a tangle of deadly rocks for the cove beyond.
"True southwest," called Arin. "Steady as she goes." Past her fangs, past her rocks, past her booming surf, into the throat of the serpent they sailed, the Brise battered but running true. And as they came into clear water at last, pressed beyond his meager limits, Alos fainted dead away.
CHAPTER 61
As Aiko carried unconscious Alos to a bunk below, Egil took the helm. "Keep a sharp lookout, there's a Rover town somewhere ahead, and perhaps a Wizard's tower. Arin, love, I'll especially need your eye."
Into the narrow cove they fared, the inlet but a mile or so wide, and they tacked southeasterly along its length for a league or so before the snake began to bend, swinging sinuously to the right. To either hand stood jungle shores, trees thick and tall, vines dangling down, fronds and undergrowth choking the way below, or so Arin said, for in the starlight only she could make out the lay of the entangled surround.
As they came 'round the turn, Arin hissed, "Fare to the larboard, chier, I see lights ahead. Lanterns." But Egil had already pushed the tiller over, for he had espied them as well. “Trim up," he called to his crew, keeping his voice low.
They swung to the larboard and more lights came into view, the distant yellow glow of lanterns scattered here and there, some shining through windows, others aswing in the breeze.
" 'Tis a fair-sized town," said Arin, "tucked in the curve of the land. Ships lie at anchor or moor at piers along the starboard shore."
As they drew closer, Egil said, "It's after the turn of the night. I ween for most part the town lies asleep as do the ships' crews. But even so there'll be watches aboard as well as patrolling the streets. Take care and keep talk low, for well does sound carry over water. We'll slip past along the larboard shore."
"I'll ply a plumb line," said Aiko. "It wouldn't do to run aground on their very doorstep."
Egil grunted his assent. "Signal only if the depth is less than two fathoms."
Aiko moved forward, pausing at a midship deck locker to dredge up a sounding line, then she stepped to the bow and began casting the bob.
Egil changed course again, for now the headwind was blowing directly down the channel and he had no choice but to tack. Still he clung to the larboard shore, hauling into the wind, beating forward in short tacks, changing direction often to remain as far away as practical from the town on the starboard shore.
Steadily they drew nigh the town, and now they could hear a man singing somewhere, while elsewhere a woman shrieked in a rage cut short. A dog barked, and then another, to lapse into yips then silence as a gruff voice shouted imprecations in an unknown tongue- Kistanian, they presumed.
Keeping to the darkness cloaking the larboard shore, they tacked opposite buildings and ships across the channel on the southeastern end of town, and from the stern of one of the dhows there came a muted giggle and the slap of a hand on broad flesh.
Once again Egil turned on a new tack, the only sounds issuing from the sloop were that of rope gently creaking and the soft plash of Aiko's leaden bob. And still the Ryodoan had made no signal, the water being more than two fathoms deep where they fared.
Again, somewhere, a dog began barking in the stillness, this one to keep up its clamor, but whether it was sounding a warning or after a rat or some such, none aboard the Brise could say, and none ashore seemed to care.
Finally they slipped past the northerly end of town- with its buildings ramshackle, and its weatherworn ships anchored sparsely or beached, fishing vessels mostly, or so did Arin describe.
And tacking and beating on close hauls, soon they were beyond another turn of the snake, the Brise now out of sight of the town and running in midchannel once more.
Dawn found them yet faring more or less westerly within the long, long cove, some fifteen miles past the Rover town in all. And still Arin had seen no Wizard's tower ensconced on the jungle slopes. Nor had she seen signs of any other dwellings along the tropical shores: no beached boats, no piers, no pathways, no buildings or huts, not even a lean-to. All seemed abandoned, or as if it had never been inhabited in the first place. Yet clear-water streams tumbled down from the slopes and into the brackish inlet; fish could be seen in the channel; trees bearing fruit stood along the shore; and as the day came unto the land, monkeys began chattering in the high canopy and iridescent birds sang and flitted through the air, these dawnlight movements and sounds adding to the incessant whirl and whine of midges and gnats teeming 'round, the swarm now joined by tiny, blood-hungry black flies, all held at bay by the pungent liquid Arin had smeared on the flesh of the crew.
"Well," said Delon, as he scanned the shores nearby and found no sign of habitation, "it seems as if there isn't anything worth coming here for, else we'd've seen signs of living."
At his side, Aiko said, "Either that, or something dreadful lies ahead."
Burel looked up from the blade he was oiling. "Your tiger?"
Aiko nodded and said, "She begins to whisper of peril."
Burel grunted and took stone to the curved edge of his saber once more.