As a great shadow descended, D'Averc leapt up and slashed at a creature which had flapped into the air again before D'Averc's feet returned to the deck. He wrinkled his nose. "Ugh! The stink! It can do my lungs no good."
Now, one by one, each of the creatures descended and struck the ship a few thwacks with its leathery wings. The ship shuddered. Men screamed as they were flung from the rigging to the deck. Hawkmoon and D'Averc staggered, clinging to the rail to save themselves from toppling.
"They're turning the ship!" D'Averc cried in puzzlement. "We're being forced round!"
Hawkmoon stared grimly at the terrifying monsters and said nothing. Soon the ship had been turned by about eighty degrees. Then the beasts rose higher into the sky, wheeling above the ship as if debating their next action. Hawkmoon looked at their eyes, trying to discern intelligence there, trying to discover some hint of their intentions, but it was impossible. The creatures began to flap away until they were far to sternward. And then they began to come back.
In formation the beasts flapped their wings until such a wind was created that Hawkmoon and D'Averc could no longer keep their footing and they were pressed down to the planks of the deck.
The sails of the ship bent in this wind and D'Averc cried out in astonishment. "They're driving the ship the way they want it to go! It's incredible!"
"We're heading towards Amarehk," Hawkmoon said, struggling to rise. "I wonder…"
"What can their diet be?" D'Averc shouted. "Certainly they eat nothing intended to sweeten the breath! Phew!"
Hawkmoon grinned in spite of their plight.
The crew were now all huddled in the oar-wells, staring up fearfully at the monstrous reptiles as they flapped overhead, filling the sails with wind.
"Perhaps their nest is in this direction," Hawkmoon suggested. "Perhaps their young are to be fed and they prefer live meat?"
D'Averc looked offended. "What you say is likely, friend Hawkmoon. But it was still tactless of you to suggest it…"
Again Hawkmoon gave a wry grin.
"There's a chance, if their nests are on land, of get ting to grips with them," he said. "On the open sea we had no chance of survival at all." "You're optimistic, Duke of Koln…"
For more than an hour the extraordinary reptiles propelled the ship over the water at breakneck speed. Then at last Hawkmoon pointed ahead, saying nothing.
"An island!" exclaimed D'Averc. "You were right about that, at any rate!"
It was a small island, apparently bare of vegetation, its sides rising sharply to a peak, as if the tip of a drowned mountain had not been entirely engulfed.
It was then that a fresh danger alerted Hawkmoon!
"Rocks! We're heading straight for them! Crew! To your positions. Helmsman…" But Hawkmoon was already dashing for the helm, had grabbed it, was desperately trying to save the ship from running aground.
D'Averc joined him, lending his own strength to turn the craft. The island loomed larger and larger and the sound of the surf boomed in their earsa drumbeat to herald disaster.
Slowly the ship turned as the cliffs of the island towered over them and the spray drenched them, but then they heard a terrible scraping sound which became a scream of tortured timbers and they knew that the rocks were ripping into the starboard side beneath the waterline.
"Every man for himself!" Hawkmoon cried and ran for the rail. D'Averc closely behind him. The ship lurched and reared like a living thing and all were flung back against the port rails of the craft. Bruised but still conscious, Hawkmoon and D'Averc pulled themselves to their feet, hesitated for a moment, then dived into the black and seething waters of the sea.
Weighted by his great broadsword, Hawkmoon felt himself being dragged to the bottom. Through the swirling water he saw other shapes drifting and the noise of the surf was now dull in his ears. But he would not release the Sword of the Dawn. Instead he fought to scab bard it and then use all his energy to strike up to the surface, dragging the heavy blade with him.
At last he broke through the waves and got a dim impression of the ship above him. The sea seemed much Calmer and eventually the wind dropped altogether, the boom of the surf diminished to a whisper and a strange silence took the place of the cacophony of a few moments earlier. Hawkmoon headed for a flat rock, reached it, and dragged himself on to land.
Then he looked back.
The reptilian monsters were still wheeling in the sky, but so high they did not disturb the air with their wing beats. Suddenly they rose still higher, hovered for a moment, then dived headlong toward the sea.
One by one they struck the waves with a great smashing noise. The ship groaned as the wash hit it and Hawkmoon was almost sluiced from his place of safety.
Then the monsters were gone.
Hawkmoon wiped water from, his eyes and spat out the brine from his mouth.
What would they do next? Was it their intention to keep their prey alive, to pick them off when they needed fresh meat? There was no way of telling.
Hawkmoon heard a cry and saw D'Averc and half-adozen others come staggering along the rocks toward him.
D'Averc looked bewildered. "Did you see the beasts leave, Hawkmoon?"
"Aye. Will they be back, I wonder?"
D'Averc glanced grimly in the direction in which the beasts had disappeared. He shrugged.
"I suggest we strike inland, saving what we can from the ship," Hawkmoon said. "How many of us left alive?" He turned enquiringly to the bosun who stood behind D'Averc.
"Most of us, I think, sir. We were lucky. Look." The bosun pointed beyond the ship to where the major part of the crew was assembling on the shore.
"Send some men back to her before she breaks up,"
Hawkmoon said. "Rig lines to the shore and start getting provisions to dry land."
"As you say, sir. But what if the monsters return?"
"We'll have to deal with them when we see them," Hawkmoon said.
For several hours Hawkmoon watched as everything possible was carried from the ship and piled on the rocks of the island.
"Can the ship be repaired, do you think?" D'Averc asked.
"Maybe. Now that the sea is calm, there's little chance of her breaking up. But it will take time." Hawkmoon fingered the dull, black stone in his forehead. "Come, D'Averc, let's explore inland."
They began to climb up over the rocks, heading up the slope to the summit of the island. The place seemed completely devoid of life. The best they could hope to find would be pools of fresh water and there might be shellfish on the shore. It was a bleak place. Their hopes of survival, if the ship could not be refloated, seemed very slight, particularly with the prospect of the monsters returning.
They reached the summit at last and paused, breathing heavily from their exertions.
"The other side's as barren as this," D'Averc said, gesturing downward. "I wonder…" He broke off and gasped. "By the Eyes of Berezenath! A man!"
Hawkmoon looked in the direction D'Averc indicated.
Sure enough, a figure was strolling along the shore below. As they stared, he looked up and waved cheerfully, gesturing them towards him.
Certain they were suffering hallucinations, the two began slowly to climb down until they were close to the him. He stood there, fists on his hips, feet wide apart, grinning at them. They paused.
The man was dressed in a peculiar and archaic fashion. Over his brawny torso was stretched a jerkin of leather, leaving his arms and chest bare. He wore a woollen bonnet on his mop of red hair and a pheasant's tailfeather was stuck jauntily into it. His breeks were of a strange chequered design and he wore battered buckled boots on his feet. Secured over his back by a cord was a gigantic battle-axe, its steel blade streaked with dirt and battered by much use. His face was bony and red and his pale blue eyes were sardonic as he stared at them.