The Jongurian Mission (37 page)

“I always carry a few extra daggers just in case,” Iago said, pulling three small ivory-hilted blades in leather sheathes from his pack.
He handed one each to Rodden, Millen, and Pader.

“I’ve got my own,” Pader said as he was handed the blade.
He pulled out a small dirk from his pack, a simple leather-hilted blade in a matching sheath. “Give that other one over to Bryn. He’ll need it as much as the rest of us.”

Iago handed Bryn the knife and after a moment he pulled it from the sheath.
It was finely-worked Shefflin steel he saw at once as the blade caught the lamplight in the cabin and shined. He put it back in its sheath and fastened it to his belt, then picked up his own pack and secured it to his back before heading back out on deck.

Conn still had the wheel and Edgyn was anxiously looking through his glass at their pursuers.

“Where’d you get that,” Halam asked, pointing down at the knife on Bryn’s belt.

“Iago gave it to me. He gave two others to Millen and Rodden as well. Sam’s down in the hold now, looking for more weapons,” Bryn reported.

“Do you think it
’ll come to that?” Halam shouted so that Edgyn could hear.

Edgyn put his spyglass down again and fingered the hilt of the cutlass sheathed at his side.
“It becomes more and more likely with each passing minute. Without all four sails up we’ve no chance to outrun them.”

“We don’t yet know their intentions,” Halam yelled.
“I’m not ready to declare war on the high seas without provocation.”

As if the Jongurians had heard him, two loud booms rang out in the air behind them, and a few seconds later they saw the distinctive splash of two cannonballs hitting the sea just off their stern
, each sending up large white columns of water behind them.

“Is that provocation enough for you?” Edgyn asked.
“Conn, go tell Flint, Dilon, and Trey to ready the lifeboats. Make sure they’re well-stocked with provisions.”

“Aye,” Conn said, returning the wheel to Edgyn as he hurried down the stairs and climbed up the rigging to the other men desperately trying to secure the crosstree.

“I thought you said that it would be fatal to take a lifeboat into a stormy sea like this,” Halam shouted over the wind.

“Aye, but it
’ll be just as fatal to stay on this ship while the Jongurians blow us out of the water. At least in the boats we have a chance.”

The other men from the cabin came back onto the deck and joined them at the wheel.
Rodden and Millen looked sicker than ever bundled up as they were in two large raincoats.

Two more cannons sounded behind them and they looked back to see the white clouds of smoke rising from the bow of the lead ship, followed quickly by two large splashes in the water behind them.

“They’re getting closer now,” Edgyn said. “A few more shots and they’ll hit the stern.”

Sam and Jal appeared then with two large canvas bundles in their arms.
They laid them on the deck and unfolded the canvas to reveal a cache of weaponry. There were four bows, each with a sheaf of arrows, as well as an assortment of small swords, dirks, daggers, and two small hand-axes.

“Well, it’s not much, but certainly better than nothing,” Iago said when he saw the weapons.
“Do you think there’s any chance of us lighting up fire arrows in this weather?”

“None at all,” Edgyn replied.
“They’d go out as soon as we lit them, or while sailing through the air. Besides, the sails of the ships are so wet right now that nothing would catch.”

“Even if we got close enough to fire at them, with the weather what it is and their greater numbers, it wouldn’t make much of a difference,” Pader said.

“So we take the lifeboats then?” Willem asked.

They all looked up at the two boats that were now lying flat on the deck. Flint and Trey were carrying bundles from the cabin and the hold and securing them under the canvas coverings as they watched.

“I don’t see as we have much choice,” Edgyn replied, his jaw clenched in frustration.

The loud roar of cannons filled the air again and drowned out the sounds of the weather for a moment. Both ships had fired this time. Two of the shots landed harmlessly in the water behind them while another went sailing far overhead to their right. The last fared better, blowing through the rigging and snapping lines before burying itself into the mainmast with a large shower of splinters. Trey dropped the bundle he was carrying and threw his hands up to his face. Blood could be seen seeping through his fingers. Flint got him down on the deck and ripped a piece of canvas sail to use as a bandage. He twisted it around Trey’s head, and they were soon stocking the boats again.

“So how do you suggest we proceed with abandoning ship, Edgyn?” Pader asked after they watched the bloody spectacle.

Edgyn kept his hands firmly gripped on the wheel, but threw quite a few glances over his shoulder before speaking.

“We’ll put seven men in each boat,” he answered after a minute, staring forward at the sea ahead of them. “Your only chance is to head toward the coast, which is a good ten leagues or more over the starboard side. The boats have a small mast and sail that can be put up or you can use the oars fastened to the sides.”

He looked back at the two ships as another round of cannonballs were thrown their way.
Two fell short while the other two landed in the water to either side of them. He returned his gaze to the rigging above.

“Our best chance
is in catching them off-guard. They’ll not be expecting us to take to the lifeboats in weather like this, and so won’t be looking for it. If I can grab their attention by swinging the ship around to come at them head on, the boats can be lowered in the water from the port-side when their view is blocked. The surprise will buy you enough time to get clear.”

“You’re not coming with us,” Willem said more than asked.

“I’ve stood on a lifeboat and watched one ship go down, I don’t mean to see another.”

“But that’s suicide,” Millen shouted.

“No, it’s suicide to have all of us take to the lifeboats and have those two ships bear down on us in a matter of minutes. We’d be sitting ducks for them. This way you men have a chance, and there’s a possibility they might just take me captive, if I give up without a fight.” Edgyn said the last with a large smile, and Bryn knew that he wouldn’t live out the night. The other men seemed to sense that as well, for they only nodded at his words.

“Now get over by those boats and get ready,” Edgyn yelled at them.
“I’ll make the turn as long as I can, but I want to still have some distance between us when I’m coming at them. You’ll have to be quick getting those boats over the side.”

He motioned for Sam to come closer and spoke into his ear as they quickly moved down and helped the crewmen push the boats across the deck to
the railing, and then halfway up it. They tied ropes to the metal rings fastened on the bow and stern of each, and then fastened the other ends to the railing, looking up at Edgyn when they’d finished. He flashed them his white smile once again, then began to turn the wheel hand-over-hand hard to the right. The ship began to turn under them so they had to move fast. Pader, Willem, Halam, and Iago pushed one boat up and over the railing while Flint, Sam, Dilon, and Rodden pushed the other. Fess, Trey, Jal, and Conn each held one end of the rope tied to the boats in their hands and slowly lowered them down toward the water. When they were just a few feet above the waves they stopped, and Flint, Sam, and Dilon tied the ropes securely to the railings so the boats would remain in place halfway down the ship’s hull and with the waves licking their bottoms.

The sound of cannons firing continuously filled the air around them, and Bryn could feel the ship shudder as a few of the shots hit the hull below deck.
Rodden and Conn were the first to throw their packs down into the boats and then climb down the ropes after them, and the others quickly followed. The ship was still turning, but they would soon be facing the other way. They needed to move quickly to get the boats into the water before their port-side was visible to the Jongurian ships. Bryn climbed down the rope as fast as he could and dropped the last few feet to land in the boat beside his uncle and Fess, then quickly moved out of the way so Willem could do the same.

As they began to come out of the turn only Sam and Trey remained on the deck.
Edgyn appeared beside them and motioned for them to climb down the ropes. Once they were both in the boats, Edgyn grabbed the cutlass at his belt and hacked at the ropes securing the rear boat to the railing, dropping it several feet to land with a loud splash in the water while the ship quickly moved past it. Bryn looked up to see Edgyn give them one final wave before cutting the ropes of their boat. They fell through the air for a moment before splashing down into the water and very quickly the ship was past, leaving them in its wake. He saw Edgyn hurry back up to and straighten out the wheel, and the
Comely Maiden
was suddenly sailing straight at the two Jongurian ships.

The cannons continued to pound away as they floated in the sea.
It appeared they managed to pull off their escape successfully, for the Jongurians didn’t send any shots their way. They were too busy firing at the ship sailing straight toward them. The rigging of the
Comely Maiden
was falling apart around it and Bryn could see several large holes in the starboard side. A few more sails fell away with a few more shots and the ship slowed considerably. The two Jongurian ships were close enough at that point where it wouldn’t be long before they were able to board their prey.

All of a sudden flames began to lick up the fluttering sails
that still remained on
The
Comely Maiden
, and they soon spread into the ropes and rigging around them. Bryn saw a flurry of activity from the two Jongurian ships as the men tried desperately to lower their sails, but it was too late. They glided in beside the flaming ship and soon their sails were alight as well. The night was quickly filled with the bright orange-red glow of fire.

“What happened?” Bryn asked as all of the men on the small boat stared in shock at the growing conflagration.

“Edgyn told me to bring up all the lamp oil that was below deck after the crosstree snapped,” Sam replied.
“While the other men were up in the rigging assessing the damage and doing what they could to fix it, I was pouring oil over as much of the rigging, sails, and masts as I was able. I figure when Edgyn came out of the turn he must have dowsed a cloth in oil, lit it, then simply thrown it up. With that much oil it was bound to light somewhere, and it sure did.”

They watched
for a few minutes as the
Comely Maiden
burned and spread the flames to the other ships, and then took out the oars. The winds seemed to be on their side, and the waves pushed their two small boats toward land, located somewhere far ahead of them. There were enough oars for four of the men, and they pulled on them with all of their strength. Soon they were well away from the ships, all three of which were now engulfed in flames.

The wind and rain continued all night and into the next morning and still they had not sighted land.
After the flaming ships had faded over the horizon or sunk down below the waves, they couldn’t be sure due to the low visibility, they’d managed to row hard enough to bring the two boats together. The men were cold and wet, but they had to come up with some sort of plan.

“Edgyn told me that we were most likely off the coast of Bindao or the Dongshui River,” Halam had said, every inch of him drenched with water.

“Our only chance is to get to land,” Trey had told them, his bloodied head bandages now soaked through with water.

“Are you crazy?” Millen had shouted.
He was in bad shape. The sickness he’d felt on the ship was much worse on the small boat. “The Jongurians were ready to kill us, and you think that we should head onto their coast, right next to a city we besieged during the war?”

“Trey is right,” Sam had said.
“Our only chance at surviving is to get to land. What we do then is anyone’s best guess, but if we stay in these boats the storm will do us in or the sea will swallow us up.”

No one had argued with him after that.
Out of all of them Sam was now the one with the most seafaring experience, and he and Trey became the undeclared captains.

The two boats managed to stay within a close distance of one another after that.
They could yell to each other if they needed to, but there was nothing to say. Each man knew that they had to get to land and to do that they had to put their backs into an oar and pull with all their might. Talking didn’t make that any easier. Fess and Sam had tried to rig up the small mast on their boat, but the sail nearly blew away on them so they were forced to take it down. The storm might die down enough for another try, and the last thing they needed was to be floating about without anyway to harness the wind; their spirits were low enough already. All they could do was continue pulling at the oars and hope that land appeared soon.

It did.
While the rain didn’t let up any, the clouds did part to make the visibility better. Jal was the first to call out land from his spot on the bow of the lead boat. At first it was just a distant line on the horizon, but Bryn passed his spyglass around and each man took a good look. They could see a sandy beach with forest behind it. The relief at not spotting Bindao was great, and Rodden was the first to point out that they could probably hide in that forest for a long time if need be. The sighting gave a boost to the men’s strength and they pulled at the oars with a greater purpose.