Shards of a Broken Crown (31 page)

They had reached
the second level of halls below the abbey proper before encountering
any soldiers. Through the door at which Arutha listened they heard
voices in casual conversation. Arutha moved back to where Dominic
waited, and whispered, “Is there any way around this room?”

Dominic shook
his head and quietly replied, “If we go back down two levels
and return up the other side, we’ll still come into that room,
but through a different door. There are three doors, the third being
to a stairway to the level above.”

Arutha nodded.
He had memorized the drawing Dominic had made. “We’ll
wait here, then storm the room when it’s time to take the
abbey.”

He glanced at
one of Subai’s soldiers, who carried a timing glass, filled
with sand. At sundown the day before, he had turned it, starting the
time-keeping. Within the dark confines of the basement under the
abbey, there was no natural way to mark the passing of time. And
timing was critical.

“I wish I
could get a look and see how many soldiers were there.”

Dominic said,
“We could chance one late at night, when they’re all
asleep.”

Arutha turned to
a soldier and said, “Tell Captain Subai I want him to send half
the men back down two levels, and up the other side, to the second
door into this chamber ahead.” The soldier saluted and hurried
off to carry out his orders. To Dominic, Arutha said, “It
occurs to me we’ve encountered no barriers to the lower
chambers, but this door or the other may be blocked. I’d not
want this raid to fail because someone moved a bunk in front of this
door. Whoever gets in first can insure the other door is quickly
opened.”

Dominic nodded.
He glanced over at the soldier holding the sand clock. “Another
day and a half.”

Roo waited
impatiently. The last two days had dragged, moment by moment, second
by second, until he thought he would lose his mind. Then suddenly it
was time to leave.

He looked at the
men John had rounded up. There were sixteen of them. All looked
disreputable, but none looked particularly fearsome. Still, he had
seen enough harmless-looking men who turned out to be killers in his
days to judge too much on appearances. He said, “Do any of you
know how to work aboard ship?”

Five of them
held up their hands. Roo shook his head. Pointing to the first one,
he said, “You, if you hear me shout, cut loose the anchor.”
To the second, he said, “If you hear me shout, raise whatever
sail you can reach.” To the last he said, “And you, head
for the tiller and steer us for open water.” Glancing at the
other men, he said, “The rest of you, do whatever those three
tell you. If we take that ship, I want to be able to get underway if
anyone on shore tries to help.” To himself he silently added,
and get the hell away from Sarth if the attack fails.

“Ready?”
he asked, and the men nodded. “Once we start moving, don’t
stop for anything unless I tell you or we’re attacked.”
He opened the door to Vinci’s store, and said, “Let’s
go.”

The men followed
Roo into the predawn gloom, down the street where Vinci’s store
sat, then around a corner that put them on the main street through
the town, part of the King’s Highway. They followed it, moving
quickly without running, and when the road turned north again, they
followed a smaller street that led down to the southern end of the
docks. To Roo’s mind, Sarth looked like nothing so much as a
right hand slapped down on an otherwise northwest-running shoreline.
The thumb was where the road turned west for a while, and the bulk of
the town rested between, until the road turned north up the index
finger. The docks started at the crook of the thumb and followed the
highway for a distance, with several blocks of houses between the
highway and the bay.

As they reached
the docks, Roo found Vinci had instructed other men to leave the
warehouse unbolted. It was the last one on the lower dock, the
westernmost part of the thumb in Roo’s imagination, and inside
were two boats. Each boat was lifted by six men and quickly moved
down a boat ramp, set in the water, and pushed off with eight men
climbing into the first, and Roo and the other eight climbing into
the second. They almost held their breath trying to be silent, but
everything around them remained quiet.

Two men in each
boat put oars into the water and rowed lightly, moving across the
water to the ship, a dark silhouette against the grey of sky and
water. As they neared, Roo felt a cold chill in his stomach. Softly
he said, “Damn.”

“What?”
asked a man nearby.

“It’s
a Quegan trader.”

“So?”
asked a second man.

“Nothing,”
said Roo. “I’m in enough trouble with Queg that a little
more won’t make me any more dead if they catch me.”

A low cackle
from a third man answered the remark, then the man said, “No,
but it might make your dying a little nastier.”

“Thanks,”
said Roo. “That makes me feel so much better.”

The first boat
reached the stern of the ship, a two-masted trading vessel. A man in
the bow of the first boat leaped to a rear anchor line and nimbly
climbed to the gunwale. He peeked over, turned, and nodded down to
those in the boats below.

Silently, men
started climbing aboard.

Up on deck, the
sailor assigned the night watch sat against the rail sleeping. Roo
motioned, and one of the men struck the sleeping sentry hard on the
head with the hilt of a sword. The man slumped over, unconscious.

Roo motioned for
the men to move fore and aft, and down into the ship they went.
Things were quiet, then suddenly a shout from the bow of the ship
sounded, answered quickly by the sound of blows. Other voices were
raised, then it was quiet again. A minute later a group of
downcast-looking sailors emerged from the fore hatch, followed a
moment later by men coming up the aft. There were only twenty-two men
aboard, including the Captain and mate. All had been asleep and had
been easily roused from their berths to find themselves facing armed
men.

Roo breathed a
sigh of relief. The ship was his.

Roo looked at
one of the men, who didn’t look like a sailor. “Where did
you find him?” he asked one of the smugglers.

The smuggler
said, “In a little cabin next to the Captain’s.”

Roo came to
stand before the man and said, “There’s something
familiar about you. Who are you?”

The man remained
silent. Roo said, “Light a lantern.”

One of the
smugglers did so and brought it over. Roo held it close. “I
know you! You’re one of Vasarius’s men. Your name is
Velari.”

The man politely
said, “Mr. Avery.”

Roo laughed.
“Don’t tell me this is one of Lord Vasarius’s
ships?”

“It is,”
said the high-placed servant. He had been the first Quegan to meet
Roo on his first visit to that island.

“Isn’t
that something,” said Roo. “Well, I’m sure Vasarius
is holding me personally responsible for every injury done him since
I last saw him, so this additional offense won’t surprise him.”

Velari said,
“He’ll eventually find out, Avery.”

“You can
tell him,” said Roo.

“Me?
Aren’t you going to kill us?”

“No reason
to,” said Roo. “In fact, we’re doing you a favor.
Sometime in the next few hours a full-scale war is about to erupt
around here, and by that time I plan on being safely out of this
harbor and on my way south.”

“War?”
said Valari.

“Yes, the
very one you were told was the signal for you to sink this ship in
the harbor.”

“Sink this
ship?” said Valari. “Why would we do that?”

“To keep
Kingdom ships out of the harbor,” answered Roo.

“We have
no such orders,” said Vinci.

“Then what
are you waiting here for?”

The question was
answered by silence.

Roo looked as if
he was turning away, then he rounded hard and slammed his fist into
Valari’s stomach. The man collapsed to the deck, unable to
breathe for a moment, then he crawled to his knees and vomited on the
deck. Roo knelt and grabbed him by the hair, pulling his face up and
saying, “Now, what are you waiting for?”

Again the man
looked at Roo but said nothing. Roo pulled his dagger and held it
before Valari’s eyes. “Would you speak better if parts of
you were missing?”

“We’re
waiting for another ship.”

“What
ship?”

The man was
silent until Roo put the point of the dagger in the meat of Valari’s
shoulder and started to push, slowly increasing the pressure so that
it became painful quickly, without doing serious damage.

Valari winced,
then his eyes watered, then he cried out. “Stop it!” he
begged.

“What
ship?” asked Roo, letting the point dig deeper. He knew it was
a light wound, but he also sensed that Valari wasn’t a man who
knew that and was not used to enduring pain.

Valari sobbed,
“My Lord Vasarius comes to Sarth.”

“Vasarius!
Here?” said Roo, wiping his blade and putting it away. “Why?”

“To escort
us back to Queg.”

Roo stood up,
eyes wide. Turning to the leader of the smugglers, he said, “Get
ready to raise sail. If I shout to get underway, I want to be moving
by the time I’m back up on deck.”

Roo hurried to a
hatchway and half-jumped down the companionway to the lower deck. He
ducked through a low door into the main cargo hold and saw crates and
sacks lashed down along both sides of the hold. He grabbed a large
sack and tried to lift it. It was too heavy to move. He used his
knife to cut loose a small cord tied around the top of the sack, and
gold spilled out onto the deck.

As loud as he
could, Roo shouted, “Get underway.”

Men shouted up
on the deck, and the sound of a fist striking a jaw informed Roo the
smugglers were insuring the captive sailors were obeying orders. He
heard an ax fall and knew they had cut away the anchor and chain.

Roo found a pry
bar and opened a crate. Inside, in the gloom, he had no trouble
recognizing riches. Gems, coins, jewelry, a bolt of expensive silk,
all had been haphazardly dumped into the chest and it had been nailed
shut.

Roo knew what he
had stumbled across; it was the booty of Krondor and Sarth, boxed and
stored aboard this ship to send to Queg. As he made his way back up
to the deck, Roo began to wonder. Why would General Fadawah be
sending riches to Lord Vasarius?

He saw sails
falling from the yards and his appointed man on the tiller as the
ship slowly began to move forward, toward the mouth of the harbor.
Roo moved to stand before Valari and said, “What is Fadawah
buying from Queg?”

If Valari had
any inclination to refuse to answer, it fled when Roo produced the
dagger and showed it to him. “Weapons! He buys weapons.”

“What
weapons?”

“Swords,
shields, pikes, and bows. Arrows, crossbows, and bolts. Catapults and
ballistae. And fire oil.”

“And it’s
being shipped here?”

“No, it is
already delivered, to Ylith. But the gold was here and Fadawah
arranged for it to be secretly stored on this ship.”

“Why
wasn’t it guarded better?” asked one of the smugglers
nearby. “I mean, if we had known, we’d have taken this
ship ourselves, days ago!”

“Because
guards would have called attention,” said Roo. “They
circulated a rumor it was a blockade ship, to be sunk in the harbor
mouth.” He grinned. “Lads, you’re going farther
than we thought. We’re not going down the coast to the cove and
then ashore to meet the army. We’re heading down to Krondor
itself.”

“Why?”
asked one of the smugglers.

“Because
I’m claiming this gold for the crown, and the crown owes me
gold beyond imagining, so I’m taking this cargo in partial
payment of my debt, and because all of you will be paid a month’s
wages for each day we’re at sea.”

One of the men
got a calculating look and said, “Why shouldn’t we just
split it up? We don’t work for you, Avery.”

Suddenly Roo’s
sword was out of its scabbard before the man could react. The point
touched the man in the throat and Roo said, “Because I’m
the only real soldier on this ship, and you copper-grubbing thugs are
getting a chance for some real gold. Why die so a few of you can
share this, when you can live and get enough to keep you drunk for
the rest of your life?”

“Just
asking,” said the man, backing away.

“Besides,”
said Roo, “Vinci knows each of you, and if I don’t make
it alive back to Krondor and you show up anywhere in the West with
gold, he’ll know to send assassins after you.”

That was a
bluff, but Roo didn’t think any of these smugglers were smart
enough to suspect it was. He turned and shouted, “Get as much
sail on as you can once we’re out of the harbor! And find a
Kingdom banner if there’s one in the Captain’s cabin and
hoist it aloft! I don’t want to get sunk by one of Reeve’s
attack ships before we can explain we’re on their side.”

As they exited
the harbor, the lookout shouted, “Galley off the starboard
bow!”

Roo raced to the
fore of the ship and looked where the lookout indicated. Sure enough,
heaving out of the morning mist came a Quegan war galley. Roo didn’t
hesitate, but dashed back to where the Captain of the ship still
stood under guard. “How tight to the southern headland can you
turn this ship without killing us all?”

The Captain
said, “At this speed, not very.”

“So we
either slow down and get overtaken, or we turn south and shoal out.”

“Yes,”
said the Captain with a smile.

Roo looked
toward the canvas and saw the luff of the sail. He was not a true
sailor, but he had served aboard ship on two long voyages down to
Novindus. To those sailors aloft, he said, “I’ll give
every man here a thousand pieces of gold if we get away from that
galley!”