Black Spice (Book 3) (13 page)

“That’s
time enough to get some spice ashore,” Pallan said.

“Forget
the spice.  Forget your gear.  Abandon ship at once!”

Kyric
ran to Lerica.  She wheeled to face him, and then her eyes filled with
moonlight.  They were the eyes he had seen in his dreams.  They weren’t human.

“You’re
only in the way here,” she said harshly.  “Go.  Now.”

Aiyan
stood at the far end of the dock, his longbow in hand.  Kyric went to him, and
Aiyan looked him up and down, seeing him in full combat gear and nodding in
approval.

“It
might come close enough for us to get a few shots in,” he said, “but we’re in
the line of fire here.”

Kyric
looked around for Mahai.  No telling how long it would take for him to find Jascenda. 
A crowd had gathered at the harbor side.  They milled about uncertainly.

“Everyone
get back,” Kyric called.  “Get away from the harbor.”  He saw Caleem coming
towards them.  “Caleem.  Get them back.  Get them far back.  Clear all these
buildings.”

Mr.
Pallan had driven the crew ashore.  Ellec and Lerica weren’t far behind.  Ellec
went once around the deck as Lerica dashed down, then up the companionway to
the cabins, her arms full of chart cases and navigation instruments.  They ran
down the dock, and Lerica began handing her load to anyone who would take
something.  Kyric took the ship’s spyglass.

Ellec
had two lengths of slow match burning in his hand.  He gave one of them to
Lerica.  “We’ll have to go for her magazine,” he said.

She
pointed along the shore.  “There.  We can use one of those boats.”  She flashed
her uncle a feral grin.  “They picked the wrong night to attack us.”

They
sprinted towards a rack where the smallest canoes were stored, faster than the
fastest runner at the Games of Aeva.  They slid a little two-man job into the
water and vaulted the gunwales, paddles in hand.

The
carrack bore down on
Calico
.  Aiyan led Kyric across the harborside road
to a low shed where seasoned lumber was stored.  They reached the roof by way
of a water barrel and had a good view of the area.  All the streets into the
town lay clogged with people pushing in both directions at once.

A
flash came from the prow of the Baskillian ship, and the boom shook the shed
beneath their feet, the echo sounding across the harbor.  The carrack had fired
her bow chaser.  The shot went high, ripping through a warehouse on the other
side of
Calico
.  The people in the streets screamed, and it was like
they were swept away from the harbor by a strong wind, some of them scattering
into the alleys and yards.

Kyric
raised the spyglass.  The carrack steered closer to the wind.  They would pass
Calico
broadside to broadside at a range of less than a hundred feet.

“There,”
he said to Aiyan.  “On a platform above the main yardarm.  A sharpshooter with
a musket.”

Aiyan
nocked an arrow and drew.  Even knowing where the man stood, he became a shadow
against the mast when Kyric lowered the spyglass.  Aiyan loosed and the shadow
disappeared.

“We’ll
wait until they’re about to fire, then try for the gunners,” he said.

The
carrack edged closer.  The distance wasn’t so great now, but the deck was
crossed by moon shadows.  Kyric missed his first shot, finding the range on the
second shot and hitting a sailor who walked in front of his target at just the
wrong time.  Aiyan shot down a man who might have been a gunner, but someone
took his place immediately.

The
Baskillian ship came abreast of the little caravel and fired its three guns one
at a time. 
Calico
threw a spray of splinters into the air as a section
of her bulwark ripped away.

“That
last one was a skip,” Aiyan said.  “They’re aiming for the waterline, trying to
sink her.”  He held up his hand as Kyric prepared to loose another shot. 
“We’re not doing much good, and we may need all our arrows soon.”

This
is probably my fault, Kyric thought.  It was stupid to have told Soth Garo that
Ellec would run when his army arrived.  He did it so that Soth Garo wouldn’t
factor the ship into his battle plans, but he may have ordered this attack to
prevent them from escaping with the knowledge of what was happening on
Mokkala.  The smarter lie would have been to tell him
Calico
wasn’t
seaworthy, and that he could capture her from the land.

The
carrack sailed past, canvas spread on every yard, and began to come about for
another pass, its unfired cannons ready on the other side.  Ahead of it, a tiny
canoe streaked across the inlet, two figures paddling furiously.

Kyric
watched with the spyglass.  The canoe easily caught the ship as it tacked,
coming under its bow.  Without a pause, they leaped, catching hold of the hull
and scrambling up the side, slipping over the rail to merge with the moon
shadows.

Nothing
happened at first.  Then there seemed to be some confusion among the crew, but
they were still completing their tack and most of them remained at their sheets
and lines.  Suddenly a fire broke out amidships.  Not a big one, but bright
enough light the deck.  Some of the sailors beat at the fire with their shirts,
others arriving with buckets of water.

A
group of men with muskets drew Kyric’s eye.  They were uniformed marines, and
they circled to surround a man near the fire.  It was Ellec.

He
crouched in a posture of submission — and sprang twenty feet into the air,
landing on the main rat lines then leaping again to the sharpshooter’s
platform.  The marines began firing as he found a loose line and swung toward
the mizzen mast, letting it snap him into a summersault.  He caught himself on the
sail, clawing his way up it to reach the top of the mast, marines continuing to
fire as he went.

A
spot on Ellec’s shirt erupted in a jet of cloth and blood.  He had been hit. 
But he hardly seemed to notice.  He located a taut rope leading back to the
main mast and mounted it with a cartwheel.

Kyric
scanned the deck for Lerica.  He couldn’t find her.  The fire now only
smoldered, and almost everyone on deck stood looking up, fixed on Ellec and his
impossible stunts.

He
cartwheeled along the line to the main mast, the marines below him frantically
reloading.  A tongue of flame shot up from a hatch.  There was another flurry
of movement on deck, and the ship passed its chance to fire on
Calico
a
second time as it failed to complete its maneuver and veered toward the far
side of the inlet.

Ellec
cut one of the lines from the topsail, and with a running start along the
yardarm, launched himself into a long arcing swing that took him away from the
ship, letting go at the end and dropping into the ocean.

There
was a low thud, and then the carrack exploded.

Kyric
dropped the spyglass.  The sea glowed red from the fireball, and shattered
fragments of the ship seemed to hang suspended in the night sky.

“Lerica!”

He
leapt from the roof and hit the ground running.  He headed for the canoe rack,
but Caleem intercepted him in the road.

“Paddling
will soon exhaust us.  We need a boat with a sail to conduct a thorough search.”

“Not
this time,” Kyric said, dragging Caleem along with him and hauling a canoe out
of the rack.  “I have a direction.”

But
to what will it lead me?
he wondered as they quickly got in and paddled a
zigzag course through floating debris.  If Lerica had been aboard the ship,
nothing would be left of her.  And then there’s Ellec.  He had been rather
close.  He could have been knocked out and drowned.

He
heard her before he saw her, calling out to whoever might be there.  She bobbed
and splashed like a child learning to tread water, lunging for the canoe as
they came close.

“You’re
alive,” Kyric said.  “And then some.”

She
coughed and spat seawater.  “I’m also wet.  Help me in.”

“How
did you not get blown to bits?”

“I’m
tough that way.”

They
hauled her into the canoe like a big fish, and she sat in the bottom, dripping
and wringing her hair.  A shout came from the beach.  Lerica raised her hand
against the glare of the moon, then waved.

“Uncle
Ellec has already made it ashore,” she said.  “He knows how to swim.”

“You
don’t know how to swim?”

She
shrugged.  “I can . . . dog paddle.”

Kyric
started laughing.  “You serve on a ship, you live on the sea, and all you can
do is
dog paddle?
”

She
began to laugh too, and suddenly Kyric couldn’t sit upright.  They laughed together
until it hurt, and Caleem looked at them in puzzlement.

“Don’t
worry,” Kyric said as he caught his breath.  “It’s only nerves.”

The
morning dawned to an overcast sky, the air thickly humid.  The Baskillian
carrack had been more than a hundred yards out from shore when its gunpowder
magazine detonated, and still the dock and the harborside road lay littered
with debris.  Some of it had fallen on
Calico
, and only Pallan’s quick
reaction saved her from catching fire.

She
had a hole in her side.  It was well above the waterline and the ship was in no
danger of sinking, but she couldn’t take to the high seas until it was
repaired.  For now they patched it with what looked like a piece of canvas
soaked in hot tar.

They
had all been up half the night.  Ellec and Lerica didn’t come out till noon,
moving slowly when they did, like they were deeply sore all over.  But Ellec
showed no sign of having been shot.

King
Tonah summoned his army to the field.  He divided most of them into lines of bowmen
and spearmen, and had them practice moving one line through another.  One time
he might have the archers fall back behind stationary spearmen, another time he
would instruct the spearmen to charge through the line of archers.  The Bantuan
kept to themselves, and for once did not have their dogs with them.  They all
massed in one group and practiced changing formation from a column to a solid
square, then back to the column.  They did it stationary at first, then they
practiced it on the run.  For nomads with no formal military training, they
could sprint in formation remarkably well.

The overcast remained all day, the clouds
pressing down, and the rains never came.  A group of Bantuan scouts returned in
the late afternoon to report that Soth Garo’s army had arrived and was encamped
only a few miles away.

“Do
you have a plan,” Aiyan said to Ellec, “if the battle does not go well?”

They
all sat at the captain’s table, dining together on the eve of battle as they
had done at sea.  Lerica poured
rass
wine for everyone.

“After
we have completed our little task, we will stay in the harbor,” Ellec said, “hove-to
and ready to sail.  I will wait for you until the very last minute.  With fair
weather we can make it to the deserted island off the north cape and hide there
while we effect repairs.”

“Don’t
wait for me,” Aiyan said.  “If the battle is lost, I will surely have been
killed.”

“What
is this task?” Kyric said, looking to Aiyan.

“Yeah,”
Lerica said to her uncle, a little annoyed that she hadn’t been told.

“Alright,”
Aiyan said, “but it doesn’t leave this cabin.  I mean it.”

“When
the enemy is engaged,” Ellec said, “we will help ferry the Silasese to the far
side, past Tiahnu Rock, and land them behind the lines.”

Kyric
took a drink and waited.  “That’s it?  That’s the big surprise?”

“No,”
Aiyan said.  “That’s the little surprise.  I could tell you about the big one,
but you’ll sleep better not knowing.”

After
dinner, Kyric and Lerica went to the quarter deck and watched the sun slide
toward the horizon.  They held hands and didn’t say anything.  At last, the sun
touched the sea.

“Time
to go,” Kyric said.  “I have the first watch this evening.”

She
released his hand.  “Remember what Mahai said — don’t try to fight this thing.”

King
Tonah’s house stood wreathed in cardamom incense by the time Kyric and Aiyan
got there.  Ilara was crouched down and crawling backward in full feathered
regalia, attendant priestesses on either side blowing bamboo whistles.  They
made a chirping sound, and Ilara moved her lips as she lay a trail of spice
from a painted wooden gourd.  It took nearly an hour to encircle the house and complete
the ceremony.  By then, twilight had fallen.

“Sea
spice and black cardamom will stop the demon,” she told them.  “Take care and
do not step on it.  If the line of spice is broken, so too is the spell of
protection.”

The
larger Tialuccan houses were built around an inner courtyard, and Tonah’s was
like two of these joined together.  The Mokkalan royalty had developed the
custom of sleeping in separate little houses within the courtyards, being no
larger than a normal bedchamber.  The family slept in one courtyard and royal
guests in the other.

Kyric’s
watch ended at midnight.  Not that he would be able to sleep that night — he
simply traded places with Aiyan, who had been sitting on the front steps.  After
the king had met with his four field commanders, discussing the day’s exercises
and the growing water problem, he went directly to his sleep house with the
queen.

How
could he sleep at a time like this?  No one else could.  Kyric couldn’t figure
it.  Caleem had wanted to keep watch all night in full combat gear, but Mahai
had persuaded him that they needed some rest in case Soth Garo attacked in the
morning.

A
couple of hours passed, and Tiah grew as quiet as it ever did these days. 
Kyric had time to think, and the question came to him again: 
What kind of
life was this?

In
the days since he and Caleem had brought Mahai out of Mantua, everyone in Tiah
had become his friend.  He was constantly returning smiles and waves everywhere
he went.  He could get a free meal at any house.  Families sent baskets of
fruit and jugs of
rass
wine to him aboard
Calico
.  It was like
winning the silver arrow at the games, only better — or maybe worse, because
strangely, it made him feel lonely again.

He
needed to talk to somebody, and Lerica was the only one, but he couldn’t talk
to her because she was the very person that troubled him.  It wasn’t her,
actually.  It was his love for her, this feeling that he didn’t love her
enough
,
as a man should.  If he really, truly loved her, how could he have been tempted
by Dinala’s clumsy advances?  Even last night, when he hadn’t been sure that
Lerica was alive, he still didn’t know.

He
closed his eyes and let his mind wander, slipping halfway to sleep.  In his dream,
he stood in Soth Garo’s tent, watching him lie naked on his sleeping mat. 
Wisps of white vapor rose from his second skin, gathering into a low fog that leaked
out below the flaps of the tent.  And then the skin stood up, leaving Soth Garo
asleep.

Kyric
snapped awake with a start.  A ground fog had risen all around the house.  Shouts
echoed from inside, and he leapt to his feet, flying through the entryway and
down the central hall.  He turned the corner into the courtyard and stumbled to
a halt.

The
demon skin was there.  Tonah and Caleem faced it with shields and spears and
full armor.  It swung its arms, driving them towards the corner with heavy
blows to their shields, and when they could no longer retreat, knocked them to
the ground.  Mahai closed with it, his war club held high, but he seemed unsure
about what to do.

Aiyan
had circled behind the demon skin, his sword aflame.  He launched himself into
a two-handed slash, catching the entity on the back of the neck.  His blade
only bounced away with a high-pitched ring.

The
skin turned and pushed, throwing Aiyan halfway across the courtyard.  Mahai saw
his chance and ducked in, grabbing Caleem by the collar and dragging him away. 
Tonah tried to regain his feet, but the entity turned back and seized him by
the throat.  Then came a sudden gust of wind, and the flutter of giant wings.

A
monstrous bird landed in the courtyard — one of the Gavdi birds that Lerica had
told him about.  It raised its wings for balance and shrieked, a long deafening
cry so painful that Kyric could do nothing but cringe with his hands over his
ears.

Without
warning, the skin shattered.  A cloud of ice crystals drifted towards the
floor, each one sublimating into a wisp of vapor.

Everyone
watched, too stunned to move, as the Gavdi bird cautiously clawed at the place
where the entity had stood.  It cocked its head.  It seemed . . . confused.  It
leapt to the roof with a hop and a flutter, looked around, then flew off in a
storm of feathers.

Tonah
climbed to his feet, one hand at his throat.  He held his spear to the sky. 
“All honor to Ubtarune,” he said in a rasping voice.  “His oneness with the
Gavdi has not been in vain.”

“Does
this mean the demon has been banished?” Mahai said.  “Is Soth Garo without his
skin now?”

“I
doubt it,” Aiyan said, dusting himself off.  “As you told us, the demon is
possessed by him.  I believe it will be part of him as long as he lives.”

“How
did it get in?” Kyric asked.  “I was out front and saw nothing.”

“It
came through here,” Aiyan said, going to the entry to the side hall.  He led
them across the hall.  The door to the practice yard lay shattered on the
floor.

They
followed Aiyan through the yard and the gate, to where the line of spice ran
past it.  A torch burned at the gate and they saw nothing amiss.  Aiyan took
the torch and followed the line.  In the darkness at the back of the house, the
circle of spice had been broken.  It wasn’t from someone stepping on it. 
Something thin, a stick or a spear, had been drawn across it.

“We
must discover who did this,” Caleem said.

Kyric
shrugged.  “It could have been anyone in the whole town.”

“By
sundown tomorrow,” Aiyan said, “it won’t matter anymore.”

King
Tonah eyed the westering moon.  “Dawn is only an hour away.”  He raised his
spear.  “Let our warriors awaken.  Let the spears of our clans be raised.  Go
and make your final preparations.”  He gave Aiyan a subtle nod.  “Our troops
will take the field before sunrise and lay in their hiding places, so that the
enemy will know nothing of our trick.”

They
went back in the house, Tonah to have a final word with Aiyan in his private
chamber, Caleem and Mahai to don the last of their armor and accoutrements of
battle.  Conchs sounded and the whole household came to life.  Kyric wandered out
to the street, mainly to get out of the way.

From
the grassland beyond the town came an uproar of barking and yipping.  The
patter of a Silasese drum drifted in from the waterfront.  Tiah itself was
quiet.  The army had camped in the fields that night in case of a sneak
attack.  So he was surprised to see lines of spearmen coming in from the east
side of town and forming up where the main road ran into the marketplace.

He
walked down the street until he could see them clearly.  They carried the oval
shields and short spears of the Bantuans, without the customary straw hats.  They
all sat down in the road, anticipating a long wait.  A Bantuan sorceress walked
down the row sprinkling fennel on their heads.  Naran stood at the front of the
column.  A man near the back had a few dogs with him, but he was the only one.

When
he got back to the house, he found Aiyan sitting beside Tonah’s rock garden, a
bowl of breadfruit in his hand.  The stars had begun to fade away as the
eastern sky grew light.

“They’ve
all gone to take their places in the field,” Aiyan said.  “Eat if you can. 
You’ll need the energy.”  He took a huge bite.  “Helps me hold down the
butterflies.”

Kyric
had never thought about Aiyan having the jitters.  The man seemed so utterly
still inside — so calm, and so confidant.  Perhaps Kyric should follow his lead;
his own stomach was plenty aflutter.  He went ahead and ate a piece of the
fruit.  Breadfruit was always bland, but this one tasted like an old potato. 
“Could use a dash of cassia, maybe a little nutmeg.”

Aiyan
chuckled softly.  “Only been here a month, and already you’re like an islander,
wanting spice in every dish.”

Kyric
forced down one more mouthful.  “If everyone is in their place, where are we
supposed to be?”

“With
the Bantuan.  But we have plenty of time.”  He smiled with a mischievous
thought.  “I’ve come to think of them as poor man’s cavalry.”

“They
certainly know how to run.”

“You
and I will have to keep up with them,” Aiyan said, looking him in the eye, “no
matter what.”

Kyric
looked away.  “I want you to know something,” he said.  “ If you had left me in
Aeva I would not have lived this long.  I would have got myself into some sort
of trouble that ended with me dead.  So if I get killed in this battle, don’t
feel bad about it.  It would have happened anyway for no good cause.”

Aiyan
nodded.  “I know.  It’s the same for all of us.”

He
led Kyric down the street, past the column of Bantuan soldiers to where the
road exited the town and turned toward the river crossing.  It was more of a
creek, really.  Shallow and no more than twenty yards across, it could be
forded at any point, but it carved a deep scar into the earth, enough to allow
concealment of the men hiding in the streambed.

King
Tonah and his entourage stood on the high ground behind the center of a thin
line running from Tiahnu Rock to the woodlands on the east side, a front of
about a half mile.  Kyric noticed that Ilara stood with him, bright in her
crimson robes and feathered headdress.

A
few men had come from the streambed to have a talk with the king, and now a
runner struck out, heading for where Kyric and Aiyan stood.  As he approached,
they could see that it was Tonah’s nephew.