Meanwhile, the boats had launched the other harpoons, and these boats were swung inward against the sides of the ship, and the crew cut holes in the skins and climbed through.
The mother ship had dropped also as its antagonist dropped, but it did not fall swiftly enough, and it sailed just above the Roolanga, the bottom of its hull missing the top of the Roolanga's. Its huge rudder did strike against the Roolanga near the bridge and tear out a huge hole in the hull. But at the same time its own rudder was severely damaged.
The Roolanga continued on her course and sailed between two enemy ships which almost collided after missing her. More boats attached themselves to the Roolanga, but the archers aboard shot the boarders, and the survivors scrambled back to their boats. There was no sense in their continuing to fight if the mother ships could not ram the Roolanga.
The enemy vessels turned to sail close-hauled while the Roolanga continued to beat to the wind. Presently, as time and the moon smiled down upon the Zalarapamtrans, the Roolanga turned and ran free. The others of the fleet were strung out behind the flagship for a mile. The enemy ships that had left the city turned again and quartered, but they had little chance of catching the Zalarapamtrans for a long time. The approaching fleet, having signaled the others with their firefly lanterns, changed course to intercept the enemy.
Even though the invaders were more heavily laden, bearing a cargo of firebombs which they had not had a chance to drop, they had a head start. Whether or not they could keep it was up to the fortunes of war and the wind. Ishmael did not give the order to unload the bombs and so enable them to run faster. He thought that the bombs might be used, and he was studying their possibilities.
The night wore on. The moon sank over the western horizon and blackness returned, relieved only by the running lights on the two fleets. Ishmael slept three times. The moon shone on the pursued and the pursuers six times. The sullenly red sun rose, and still the distance between the two, though narrowed, was wide enough so that Ishmael did not worry.
By then the damages to the hull had been repaired. And the ships had sailed three times through red-brit clouds and scooped up great quantities to increase the galley's stores and to feed the bladder-animals. The additional gas enabled the Zalarapamtran fleet to rise to a height of about twelve miles. The Booragangahns followed suit and then, as they slowly decreased the distance between them and the invaders with agonizing slowness, they also increased their altitude. At the end of the second day, they were about six thousand feet higher than the pursued.
However, since the air was thinner there, they began to lose speed. They had counted on encountering a stream of air with more velocity than that on a lower altitude, but this time the stream failed to appear. So the Booragangahns dropped back to an altitude about two hundred feet above the Zalarapamtrans.
The first mate commented that they would be overtaken before the next sun arose. "I am planning on that," Ishmael said. "In fact, I have been thinking about deliberately allowing them to catch up with us. But if we were to reduce sail, we would make them suspicious and so cautious. My plans call for them to approach boldly and confidently. They outnumber us so much they must think that we stand little chance against them."
Poonjakee's prediction was not quite accurate, but it was close enough. The Booragangahns did not catch up with them before the night was ended. An hour after the red sun came up, their lead ship was over the rear ship of the Zalarapamtrans. By then Ishmael had transmitted orders that all his ships should reduce sail so they could sail in side by side. The maneuver was executed swiftly enough, but the line was more ragged than he wished.
A moment after the ships had gotten into the formation ordered, and just after the enemy flagship was above its chosen antagonist, Ishmael got word of a new development.
The sailor who reported was scared. Not because of the impending battle, however, but because of what he saw dead ahead.
Ishmael turned and saw the vast purplish mass floating many miles ahead.
"That is the Purple Beast of the Stinging Death?" he said. "You are sure?"
"That is it," Namalee said, speaking for the sailor. She too was wide-eyed and pale-skinned.
That the enemy had also seen it was evident. The flagship abandoned its position above the other ship and retreated, reducing sail to do so.
"It is probably the Beast that killed my people," Namalee said.
She was guessing, but the creature could well be the same one. They were extremely rare, fortunately for humankind, and they did not move swiftly, if the lore of the Zalarapamtrans could be trusted. They often descended to the ground and fed on the creatures there. This one may have been doing so recently, because it was only about six thousand feet high, though rising.
Ishmael stood for a long time in thought. Poonjakee paced back and forth, looking sidewise at Ishmael and undoubtedly wondering why he did not order a change of course.
"The Booragangahns lured the Beast to Zalarapamtra," Ishmael said. "They were playing a very dangerous game, since the Beast, despite its immense size and weight, can be swift. It can propel itself by means of explosions, you say?"
"Yes, Joognaja," Poonjakee said. "Moreover, the kahamwoodoo can modify parts of its body to act as sails. It is as if it had a thousand and a thousand sails. And if it gets close enough to a ship, its tendrils shoot out and catch onto the ship, and it pulls the ship to it and then the tendrils seize the crew, and..."
"You must not continue to think about what it can do to us," Ishmael said. "You must concentrate on what we can do to it."
Ishmael gave no order to change course. Neither Poonjakee nor Namalee dared question him on this, though they were eager to hear what he had in mind. Ishmael watched the enemy fleet, which had dropped behind and veered away. Now all sails were being let out, and the ships were once more running free. Evidently their admiral had decided that the Zalarapamtrans were going to skirt as closely as possible to the Beast. In that manner, the Zalarapamtrans hoped to scare off their pursuers. But the Booraganganhs were not going to be scared off, though they were, doubtless, scared. Their grandmothers had frightened them with stories of the Beast when they were little children, and they had seen what the Beast could do when it settled over Zalarapamtra. Moreover, whaling ships had run across the Beast, and the few survivors had vividly described the results.
An hour passed. By then the creature looked like a floating island. It was a rough disk with a diameter of at least a mile and a half and a thickness of three hundred feet. It had no eyes or ears or mouths that Ishmael could see, but Namalee assured him that he would see the mouths soon enough. The body was purplish and the tentacles -- most of them coiled now -- were blood-red. The tentacles were on top and bottom of the thing. Its shape kept changing with depressions forming here and there and billowing at other places.
He looked back. By then the Zalarapamtrans must have been close to panic, wondering how closely he planned to sail before turning. They must also have been speculating that he hoped to turn in time to escape the Beast but to bring the pursuers into grave danger.