CHAPTER 24 #3
I nocked an arrow. The Cavendaffe captain was in sight. He was tall and dark-haired, and even from a distance, I could see the man’s self-confident smirk. I’d have to change that.
Steady aim. Beside me, the other archers saw the same and adjusted their sights.
When the far Inraen ship moved close enough to release their volley on the Calanya, they hadn’t realized it brought them in range of the Helgana, whose archers all had longer range and better aim than any Inraen could hope to achieve.
Our advantage came from the wood we used, which only grew in the Riht.
Release.
Fuck. My first shot missed. I was quick to draw a second, which embedded itself into the captain’s shoulder. Of the rest of my crew, only half of their arrows reached the deck, but it was enough to disrupt their archers.
Arrows thudded all around me, and the shield crew popped up and down, deflecting the blows. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I’d lost my focus on the nearest ship. They’d reformed ranks enough to line up their archers.
I needed to rally our forces back to the nearest threat. “AS ONE TO THE—”
“AAAHHH!”
The scream beside me curdled my blood. Anweh’s shieldsman was dead at her feet, an arrow to the heart.
A second arrow plunged clean through her thigh.
“Cover,” I cried to my shield and dropped to my knees.
The shield came up, covering us both. I ripped a strip off my tunic and wrapped a makeshift tourniquet above the shot through Anweh’s thigh.
Little blood flowed from the wound—a good sign.
Her femoral artery was likely intact. “Keep her covered,” I commanded my shield.
I glanced at the body of her fallen shieldsman beside us.
I knew him, but not well. He had a wife and twin toddlers, plus an elderly mother he cared for.
I made a note in the back of my mind to solicit Dane’s aid for his family when we returned home.
“AS ONE TO THE NEAREST SHIP,” I called down the rank.
The shieldswoman to my right repositioned herself between me and the archer next to me, popping up to provide cover for us both.
At the end of the row, a woman screamed and fell to the deck.
I didn’t spare a moment to see if she was alive.
We were already two archers down. A runner came up behind me swapping my quiver and continuing down the line swapping others.
My eyes burned from the spraying sea mist. An arrow slipped past the reach of my shieldswoman, grazing my left shoulder.
“Fuck, sorry!” she shouted.
“I’m good,” I assured her. It was shallow and stung but didn’t impair my movement. I nocked another arrow as my eyes narrowed on my next target. The captain on the nearest ship had just emerged from the hull.
“CAPTAIN ON DECK!” someone bellowed.
“brING HIM DOWN!”
Eight arrows released toward the man. They pelted into and around him, killing him before he could react. The men on deck went berserk. Some jumped to the sea, swimming for the far ship. Some swung on ropes, aiming for the Calanya. Some fled below deck. Then, the sails shifted.
I turned to a runner taking cover nearby. “Get a message to Longven. The near ship readies to flee.” She took off, keeping her head ducked and following the relative cover of the siding.
Within a minute, Longven was shouting new commands, echoed by Plankh on the Calanya. I still hadn’t spotted my brother. He better not have gotten himself killed after all the effort I put into retrieving his ass less than three months ago.
Our sails shifted in tandem with the Calanya’s.
Now one synchronized craft, our joined longships moved.
Together, we could take down a craft by ramming it head-on, or we could drop the bridge last second and sandwich it.
Sinking a craft was never the preferred option.
If I knew Longven, he would try to capture first. The role of the archers was about to switch to providing cover. My skills were best suited elsewhere.
“Go.” Anweh gripped my pant leg from her position against the back railing of the prow. “My voice works as well as yours. I’ve got this.”
I tensed and shifted my weight, regarding Anweh. She’d snapped off the head and tail of the arrow, leaving only the shaft bisecting her thigh.
“You know I’m right. Go!” she repeated. Then, she pulled herself onto a crate just high enough to peek over the siding by the stempost. She ducked back down and turned to the line. “GET READY FOR COVER VOLLEYS!” she shouted.
I dropped my quiver at her feet, gripped her forearm, and said formally, “You command the lead.” Then, I took off. I leapt across the benches to mid-deck two at a time. Longven was at the center of his crew on the keelson, and I pushed my way through to meet him.
“RAISE THE PLANKS,” he called out.
Men and women worked in unison heaving the ropes, separating the two Riht ships. Another crew was readying hooked leads to lash all three ships together after the Cavendaffe carrack was surrounded.
A large hand gripped my shoulder. “You’d better earn that nickname of yours if you ever want me to use it. Once the bridge drops, you command the lead from this side. Plankh will mirror you from the Calanya.”
I nodded and gripped Longven’s forearm. “Have you seen him?”
Longven shook his head, then bellowed, “BEGIN THE DROP.”
We were already level with the Inraen ship, and the planks of the bridge were acting as a shield for the pathetic remnants of their opponent’s archery squad. I unsheathed my twin swords and brought myself to stillness.
Inhale.
Exhale.
The planks dropped, and one by one, I heard the satisfying clicks of their locking mechanisms.
“TIE THE LASHINGS,” Longven yelled.
“WARRIORS WITH ME,” I shouted, but they were already in formation behind me. I grinned and charged.
An Inraen soldier tried to meet my charge.
One swipe of my sword cut the man down. I dodged the next soldier, who was impaled by the warrior behind me.
Steel rang out as I parried the next man’s wild swing with my left and stabbed him in the side with my right.
These were not trained men. A uniform didn’t teach you to fight.
“FAN OUT, TAKE CONTROL.”
My warriors moved on command, spreading over the ship like a blight. We cleared straight across the deck before the Calanya’s bridge crew was set up.
“BEGIN THE DROP,” Plankh called out from the deck of our other ship. In moments, my warriors would double.
“CLEAR THE WAY. PUSH!” The death shouts of the Inraen were so loud that I could barely hear my command.
A double line of Riht warriors cleared a path down the center, bisecting the ship and making room for more to fill in between.
Forming two ranks, we pushed in opposite directions, forcing the Inraen soldiers outward toward their bow and stern, leaving the midship clear in our wake.
More thuds and clicks sounded as the second bridge latched, and a new flood of Riht warriors appeared at our backs right on cue.
“Find any commanders and take them down,” I told the warriors nearest me.
“That won’t be necessary,” a familiar voice called from behind.
I turned to my brother, who was swaggering from the captain’s quarters.
In one hand, he gripped a man by his scruff with his arms bound behind his back.
His other hand was holding a dagger at the commander’s throat.
“All Inraen weapons down, if you please.”
A few clanged to the deck, but most of the soldiers had stilled. They were waiting for a command.
“Kill them a—” The commander’s last words were cut off by a sick gurgling sound as the knife plunged into his throat. A river of blood spilled down his red uniform.
“None of that,” my brother growled as the captain’s body slumped to the deck.
“You’re an idiot,” I said by way of greeting. I turned back to my warriors to help with the real work.
It took the better part of an hour to clear the ship, toss the survivors overboard with their lifeboats, and get the clunky Inraen vessel ready to return to Port Drakha.
I sent their highest-ranking officer with a note to his margrave that any further scouting or attacks would be considered open hostilities.
I’d let Dane follow with the consequences of those actions as he saw fit.
With everyone’s help, the Inraen carrack was the first off, followed closely by the Helgana.
Plankh and I stood side by side at the prow, monitoring the captured ship for any sign of trouble.
The Calanya took the longest to ready, but it finally pointed northwest back towards Port Drakha.
After a quarter hour, I looked back and frowned. “They’re not keeping pace.”
Plankh studied our wake, then groaned. “Prayers to the Great Dragon that it’s just because your brother’s being a pain in the ass.”
I chuckled and turned forward while my thoughts turned to Cavendaffe.
Why the scouts if they’d brokered for peace that the Riht was upholding?
Why offer up a treaty through marriage if they didn’t intend to keep it?
There was Gerta to consider, already returned to Cavendaffe, and then Serae herself.
I had a hard time believing either could be the cause of this.
There was one more Inraen in our midst. Perhaps there was more to that prisoner than we knew, but even then, why not just write requesting his return?
Yes, there was a lot to discuss with Dane.