Dark Empress (26 page)

In truth, there was some validity to that mission goal, but what Samir really wanted to achieve was twofold: to see M’Dahz once again after a decade gone, and to insult the satrap as much as possible by sinking his ships, preferably within sight of the town.

And two leagues from shore they had spotted a Pelasian scout ship. At such a distance, Samir couldn’t quite make out the pennant, and the vessel could belong to any satrap, but it was clearly Pelasian. At that point they had been a little to the west of M’Dahz, not far from the old Imperial border and their quarry had taken flight as fast as the small, nimble scout could manage, heading directly south toward land.

Samir, wary of getting too close to land so far west, had requested a decision of the captain, though Khmun had deliberated surprisingly little. The vessel had seen them and it was a matter of pride to chastise them for that. The Empress had a reputation to maintain, after all.

It was also a matter of pride to the officers and men of the Dark Empress that no vessel in the Sea of Storms could match her for speed. Khmun had set his considerable naval expertise to streamlining the hull, re-working the sails and masts and organising the placement of his oarsmen to maximise their strength. Every time the Empress chased down a fast ship or escaped one due to an extra turn of speed on the oars, those men were put down for an extra ration of liquor or share in the booty. The incentives had impressive results.

So, despite the impressive pace of the lightweight Pelasian scout, the pirate vessel continued to gain on them, closing the distance as the miles rolled past. The ships had quickly come into full sight of the coast, previously visible only as a thin line of hazy brown on the horizon. In what appeared to be a pathetic attempt at evasion, the scout tacked to port and began to run along the coast, some distance from shore. At this point, the hills and dips of the coastline had become distinguishable and a dark smudge rising from the horizon some distance to the east had to be M’Dahz. Samir smiled. If they timed this right they could sink the scout within plain sight of the port watchtowers.

The dark smudge that…

Samir shook his head. His eyes must be playing tricks on him.

The smudge had moved.

If only he had Ghassan’s sharp eyes.

No. The smudge was definitely moving. And that meant that it wasn’t M’Dahz at all.

He frowned and his eyes widened.

They were ships. There were definite sail shapes that could be made out if you looked carefully enough.

“Shiiiiiit!”

Samir turned and ran along the deck, shouting to the captain, but Khmun was already busy. Samir realised with horror that the lookout aloft on the main mast was shouting warnings, but pointing astern.

“Oh no.”

His heart sinking, Samir ran to the rail, casting his eyes to the wake behind them and then, with growing dismay, in a wide arc out to sea on the port side of the Empress.

The shapes of black Pelasian vessels were dotted on the horizon in every direction. What had to be a sizeable fleet was moving up from the east, the smudge on the shore, while a wide cordon of Pelasian warships tightened a net around the pirate ship. They were coming from almost every angle.

He ran to the shelter at the rear where Khmun was slamming his fist on the balustrade in anger.

“Should have stayed away from the shore, Samir. What was I thinking?”

Samir shook his head.

“My fault sir. I dragged us into this. Question is: how do we get out?”

The captain shrugged

“There’s no simple solution there, Samir. Whichever way we turn there’s trouble. Best hope is to pick a target and try and break through where the cordon’s weakest.”

“That’s not going to work, captain, and you know it. By the time we meet them, even the thinnest area will mean three to one odds. There has to be another way. Come on sir, you can do this.”

Samir tried to keep the note of desperate hope from his voice, but had clearly failed by the look on his captain’s face.

“You wanted to fight Pelasians, Samir. Now might be the time.”

The young first officer growled and shook his head.

“I didn’t mean a suicide engagement, captain.”

Khmun shrugged again.

“Nothing else for it. At least we’ll take one or two of them with us.”

Turning to the deck, the captain began bellowing orders. Samir ignored them, settling down to think as quickly yet clearly as he could. West and north there were ‘haraq’-class warships; south was the coast, and east was the fleet he’d mistaken for M’Dahz…

Mistaken as a blur on the coast.

The coast.

He turned back to the captain, taking a deep breath.

“Pardon this, sir, but…” he turned to the crew and raised his voice. “Belay those orders! Take us in toward the coast at full speed.”

There was a strangled silence. Khmun stared at Samir but, noting the grin spreading across his first officer’s face, he nodded.

“Do as he says, lads!”

As the changes were made swiftly and efficiently and the Dark Empress gave up pursuit of the scout, angling directly toward the coast, still two miles away, the captain dropped down from the raised deck platform to where Samir stood, grasped his shoulder and pulled him over to the rail.

“What’s your plan?”

“We can slip by them, sir” he shrugged.

“Are you mad?” Khmun blinked at him. “Slip by where?”

Samir grinned.

“Alright, sir. I’ve got good eyes, but it took me a while to realise that black smudge was ships and not the town. The heat haze on the land makes everything a little blurred and uncertain from out at sea. We need to get to shore as fast as possible. Then we’ll turn sharp west and head out deeper into Pelasian waters. With any luck, they’ll continue to close on where they think we’ll be. I’m sure they won’t expect us to head further west.”

Khmun slapped his forehead.

“You know why that is, Samir? Because there’s more and more Pelasian warships that way. We’ve no idea what we’ll be sailing into. Besides, you mistook the fleet because it was black against the brown land. Our sails are white. We’ll be visible for miles!”

Samir laughed.

“I’d rather sail into the unknown than into what we do know. And if we furl the sails and rely on the oars, we’ll be almost invisible against the shore. Trust me, captain. I know we can do this.”

Khmun stared at him for a moment and finally shook his head in amazement.

“You really are something, Samir. If you and that brother of yours were on the same side, no other ship on the ocean would be safe. Very well, let’s do it your way. Better than being sunk by a Pelasian haraq while trying to break out.”

They returned to the raised command platform that gave a clear view to every direction not obscured by a mast. The coast, brown and speckled, with rocky coves and inlets and low headlands, raced toward them, growing every moment. Samir smiled to himself. For every foot the coastline seemed to grow to him, the Empress would shrink to the slower warships closing in behind. Any moment now, even the masts would be visible against the backdrop of cliffs rather than sky.

Now was the time to pull his little manoeuvre.

“Furl the sails!”

The crew, taken by surprise, rushed to follow orders and, in a testament to their abilities, moments later, the three heavy sails crashed to the deck and were shuffled out from underfoot.

“Alright, men” Samir shouted. “Keep the sails ready. We’ll need to raise them sharpish when we’re out of danger, so that we can run. We’re going to head toward land for another minute or two and then bank sharply west along the coast. During that minute I want anything white or colourful or brightly polished below deck level. We’re going to blend in with the coast and slip past them, so we need to be as brown and unobtrusive as possible.”

There was a note of relief to the low comments and affirmative noises among the crew. Clearly they had been hoping for one of Khmun and Samir’s miraculous ruses and it looked as though the first officer had a trick up his sleeve.

As Samir watched tensely, the men went about their tasks, stowing anything that might draw unwanted attention and preparing everything for a sudden turn of speed the moment it was needed.

Counting down under his breath, Samir watched the cove and the headland looming ever closer. This had to be done right. They had to be as close to land as it was possible to be, but not quite close enough to beach, or they’d really be in trouble.

In his head he tried to estimate the distance to shore and then calculate the depth of the water. A dromon had a shallow draft for such a large ship, but this was still very tight.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment, expecting the crunch of gravel at any time.

“Starboard sharp!”

The oarsmen and the rudder master responded instantly and, without the wind in the sails to push them off course, the ship turned tightly and, mercifully, without the sound of wood grazing on gravel. Within a heart-stopping half minute the ship was turned and racing along the coast toward Akkad and the heart of Pelasia.

“Hold it steady now, lads.”

He and the captain shared a look for long moments and, as the ship battered on in silence, Khmun glanced up and called to the lookout.

“What are they doing?”

The lookout remained silent for a moment and then replied.

“I think they’re continuing on, sir…”

There was a long, tense pause.

“Yes, sir. They’ve not turned. I think they’ve lost us.”

An explosive venting of air echoed round the ship as almost every member of the crew released the breath they had held for over a minute.

“Samir, there are times when you surprise even me.”

The young first officer grinned at his captain and turned to look along the deck. Things were back under his control, where he liked them. A quarter if an hour’s journey along the coast and they’d be well away from any pursuers. Then they could set sail once again and head out into the open sea. His need to see his home town had almost cost them…

His train of thought was interrupted as an arrow came from nowhere and thudded into the railing a few inches from his head. He snapped his head round in shock to see a scout party of Pelasian riders on the headland, firing from horseback. There were only perhaps a dozen, but Pelasian horse archers were renowned the world over for their accuracy and rate of fire from the saddle. The Empire had employed them as mercenaries many times and, with the speed the Empress was currently achieving, the archers would have no trouble choosing targets.

“Get us out of arrow range of the coast, but no more!”

Scanning back along the deck, he spotted the artillerists loading the fire thrower and growled loudly.

“Stop that! If you fire that thing we’ll be spotted five leagues away!”

The artillerists, taken aback by the ferocity of his tone, changed tasks and began loading the bolt throwers and taking pot shots at the horsemen. They would never hit them, a moving target from on board a moving vehicle, but it was making the Pelasians wary and causing them to pull back a little, which would give the Empress time to get out of range. Once that was done in half a minute, nothing would catch them.

He turned, sighing with relief, to ask the captain’s opinion on keeping the bolt throwers loaded while they travelled the shoreline and realised in horror that Khmun was not where he had been.

His eyes dropped to the deck. The captain lay propped where he had fallen by the railing, an arrow protruding from his neck and blood running down his throat and back and soaking his tunic.

“Captain!”

Khmun issued a wheezing noise and grasped Samir’s breeches, hauling him down to deck level. In a hollow voice, accompanied by an unpleasant bubbling noise, the captain addressed him face to face and very quietly.

“Get them home, Samir. Get them to Lassos. You know where the compass is and how to use it now. Time to practice the hard way.”

Samir nodded absently, as he started to pull away.

“I’ll fetch the doctor…”

Khmun rasped what could have been a laugh.

“I’ll be dead before he gets here, Samir.”

The young man suddenly found he had tears in his eyes; most unfitting for a pirate officer. And yet, it had happened again. Every father figure he found was taken from him. Every father figure he found was taken from him by Pelasia! He growled and the flow of tears stopped.

“I will get them back for this, captain. I will string up every last Pelasian east of Akkad for this.”