Lorik The Protector (Lorik Trilogy) (11 page)

A sense of relief washed over Lorik, and until that moment he hadn’t realized how cold he was. Two of the volunteers continued to row the Norsik ship further into the harbor, and the third man was pulling the rope toward the boat, hand over hand. Stone had the rope clenched in both fists as they were slowly hauled toward the boat.

They were far enough from the harbor to feel safe from the Norsik when Lorik and Stone finally reached the boat. The men rowing stopped long enough to help haul Lorik and Stone aboard, then they returned to their oars.

“Are you okay?” the third volunteer asked.

“I’m fine, but Stone is hurt.”

“No,” Stone croaked. “Just got too much smoke in my lungs.”

Then he started coughing again.

It took them almost half an hour to reach the
Dancer
. Stone and Lorik were both shivering with cold. They climbed into Yulver’s ship and pulled their wet clothes off. Vera, looking stern, threw the quilt over their shoulders and they sat naked on the deck, shivering together as the sail was raised and the ship sailed into the mouth of the Sandah Gulf.

It wasn’t long before dawn broke. Lorik and Stone found dry clothes and had just lain down to get some rest, when a raucous cry shattered their hopes of sleeping.

“Ships!” cried the lookout. “Ships are following us.”

Lorik got slowly to his feet, his body aching from running and climbing onto the roofs of the buildings in Ange Point the the night before.

“What the hell did you do back there, Lorik?” Yulver growled.

Yulver hadn’t slept either, and his reaction to the news of ships behind them was more than gruff. The sail was still full and they were making good time into the gulf. They could see towering rocky cliffs to the east and north. Sandah Gulf fed out into the sea through huge bluffs of sheer stone that soared hundreds of feet above sea level. The land beyond the mouth of the gulf flattened out, and there were long-established settlements on both sides. The Norsik were tribal people, nomadic and fierce. Still, they had regular encampments near the gulf that served as staging points for raids across the water where they pillaged the more permanent Ortisian settlements. Their ships were broad and low, little more than barges. They used long banks of oars rather than sails and skirted the coast if they ever left the gulf. The ships following the
Dancer
were obviously Norsik.

“It looks like your friends from last night aren’t finished with you,” Yulver continued. “Perhaps I should toss you overboard and let them have you.”

“It’s a different group,” Lorik said. “We scuttled their ships.”

“Not the ones in the harbor,” Stone said. “The two we used to get back to the
Dancer—
we
just left those behind. It looks like maybe somehow they got them back.”

“Of course they did,” Yulver complained.

“You should have had us sink them,” Lorik argued. “You’re the sailor, not me. I had no idea they could swim out that far and fetch their ships.”

“You dolt!” Yulver thundered. “Ange Point is built right on the sea. There must have been small fishing boats and skiffs all up and down the shoreline.”

“I didn’t think of that,” Lorik said sheepishly.

“Well, you better think of how to keep them off my boat or you’ll have me to answer to.”

“Stone, did you find any bows in your weapon hoard?”

“No,” Stone said. “We only found steel.”

“Damn, that’s too bad.”

“What about the spears?” Stone asked. “We’ve got a few of those on board.”

“No, they won’t do,” Lorik explained. “Even if we covered them with pitch and lit them on fire, it would just burn the ships in one spot and would be too easy to extinguish.”

“Well, you’d better think of something,” Vera said. “It looks like they’re gaining on us.”

“The wind’s poor,” Yulver said. “We’ll have to row to stay ahead of them.”

“No,” Lorik said. “They’ve been rowing hard for a long time. They’re bound to be exhausted. Our men should rest. That’s one advantage we’ll have over them.”

“I’d prefer not to have my ship boarded at all,” Yulver said.

“It’s inevitable. We’re bound to run into more Norsik further up the gulf. The last thing we want is to get trapped between two opposing forces.”

“Well, I’ll see how much speed I can coax out of the ship,” Yulver said. “You figure out how to deal with the Norsik.”

Lorik leaned against the railing, watching the Norsik ships slowly close the distance behind them. Vera made sure everyone on board had eaten. Then she moved to the bow. Stone wanted her as far from the Norsik as they could get.

“Any chance we could beach the ship and fight them on shore?” Stone asked.

“No, the cliffs run right down to the sea. We’ve no place to get away from them. They’ll catch us in an hour or two.”

“You sure outrunning them isn’t the best option?”

“I don’t think we can. Yulver’s only got half a compliment of rowers. The rest of us are farmers and fighters. We can’t match the discipline of the Norsik. Look at how their oars move as if they were all connected. They’ll out-row us, that’s for certain.”

“But with the sail helping us, surely we can stay out of harm’s way.”

“No, better to deal with the bastards now, on our terms. Even if we did outrun them today, there’s no assurance that they wouldn’t keep following us. They might catch us when we least expect them.”

“So what do we do?” Stone asked. “I haven’t fought on board a ship before.”

“First, we need to clear the deck. Anything that can be stowed below should be.”

“Vera too?”

“No,” Lorik said. “If the ship sinks, I don’t want her trapped down there. She might be safest in the crow’s nest.”

The
Dancer
wasn’t a large merchant vessel, but more of a traditional long boat. The mast was sturdy, rising as high as four tall men. At the top a long iron spike had been driven horizontally through the mast. A sailor could climb the mast and then sit on the flattened top with his feet on the spike, which stuck out on either side. There were short ropes tied to the spike on either side of the mast, which the sailors used like reins. In heavy seas the crow’s nest at the top of the mast was a dangerous place, as it swayed violently back and forth.

“You want Vera up there?” Stone asked, the uncertainty clear in his voice.

“It’s the safest place for her.”

“She could fall.”

“We’ll be fighting in close quarters down here,” Lorik explained. “She’ll be captured or killed, if she isn’t knocked overboard.”

“All right, I see your point,” Stone conceded.

“Let’s get this stuff stowed away.”

They moved everything out of the way. The oars were cinched into the hooks along the railings. The rowing benches were moved into the narrow ship’s hull. Ropes and buckets were secured and the sails around the raised platform that served as a cabin were tied up so that a person could see from one end of the deck to the other.

“Now what?” Stone asked looking back at the approaching ships. “They’re gaining on us.”

“We’ll have to fight back to back if they board us,” Lorik said. “But they may not be expecting much resistance. We didn’t fight them last night.”

“What are you saying?” Stone asked.

Lorik didn’t answer, instead he turned to Yulver.

“How will they board us?” he asked the sour-looking sea captain.

“Grappling hooks and ropes, I suppose. They’ll lash the ships together, one on each side. Then they’ll come pouring in like a plague of locusts.”

“What if we cut the lines?” Lorik asked.

“They may have pikes or some other type of wooden hook that will do the same job as rope.”

“All right, Stone, I think I have a plan,” Lorik said. “We’ll keep our weapons out of sight. They may not know about them, and if they think we’re terrified and helpless, our attack may catch them off guard.”

“You want us to hide our weapons?” Stone asked.

“Yes, let’s stow them by the rails where the men can retrieve them easily. We’ll split the men into two groups. I’ll lead one, you lead the other.”

“All right, we can do that,” Stone said.

They got their weapons hidden and then helped Vera get situated onto the crow’s nest. She had an almost unobstructed view from her seat high above the deck. She sat with her feet on the spikes and a rope curled around each hand.

It took the Norsik ships only a short while to get close enough to use their grappling hooks. Stone had a big sword on his shoulder and Lorik had his massive battle axe. They were the only two weapons in sight. When the hooks came flying toward the ship, the sailors and volunteers scattered out of the way to avoid being hit. The Norsik pulled the ropes, but as soon as the hooks caught and the ropes tightened, Lorik or Stone rushed forward and chopped the ropes. They did their best to look as awkward and frightened as possible.

Soon the Norsik were shouting and cursing in their native language. No one on board the
Dancer
understood them, but the gist of what they were saying was clear: they were planning to kill everyone on board.

It took a while for the Norsik ships to close the distance and pull out their harpoon hooks, mounted on long wooden poles as big around as a grown man’s forearm. The crew on board the
Dancer
tried their best to knock the harpoon hooks away, but it was useless. Once the hooks snagged on the
Dancer
’s railing, the Norsik sailors pulled hard, and the metal dug into the wood. Then the ships themselves became like anchors that pulled the hooks deep into the wood, so that the sailors with Lorik and Stone couldn’t pull them free. The Norsik then used the poles to pull their ships closer and closer, walking their hands up the long poles.

Lorik and Stone had their two groups bunched together, huddling in fear. Then came the dreaded thump as the first ship crashed into the
Dancer
. The Norsik began to move forward but Stone was faster. He dropped the big sword and dashed forward, followed by a dozen men. They grabbed their weapons and jumped onto the Norsik barge. The raiders were caught completely off guard. Most were still holding the long harpoons, and Stone carved his way down the nearest one, his knives moving so fast only the flying blood from ruined flesh could be seen. The Norsik were shouting and released their harpoons, falling back from Stone’s savage attack. There were two dozen men on board their ship, and with the addition of Stone and his group, the ship slowly lost ground.

The sailors and volunteers with Stone were screaming like demons, all hacking and stabbing with their weapons. The Norsik were skilled fighters but they had been caught off guard, and Stone’s group evened the odds before the Norsik fully understood that they were being attacked.

Lorik watched his friend long enough to see that the ploy had worked. Then he looked back to the other Norsik ship, whose men were watching their comrades and shouting about the treachery of Lorik’s plan. They were still too far apart for Lorik to lead his group in an attack and they had stopped pulling closer. Suddenly, their captain shouted an order and the Norsik raiders released their harpoon hooks. They rushed back to their oars.

“They’re going to help their friends,” Lorik shouted.

“Cut the sail!” Yulver cried.

Two sailors dashed toward thick metal cleats where the sail lines were tied. They sawed at the thick ropes with knives and cut them in two. The sail dropped to the deck and the
Dancer
slowed her progress. Yulver spun the ship’s wheel and the
Dancer
turned slowly toward the other ship, which was falling back to aid the first Norsik vessel, where Stone was reaping a deadly harvest among the raiders.

Yulver couldn’t maneuver the
Dancer
fast enough to block the ship’s way completely, but he did get the bow of his ship close to the ship’s rail for just a moment. It was all the time Lorik needed. He still had his massive axe in his hands. He sprinted for the bow, jumped up on the
Dancer
’s railing, and then dove toward the other ship.

“Lorik!” Vera screamed.

He could have landed with a crash onto the deck of the Norsik ship if that had been his goal. His outlandish attack would have surprised the raiders and probably given him time to get to his feet before they rushed forward to cut him down. But Lorik wasn’t aiming to land in the ship. Instead, he fell just beside her and swung the big axe with all his strength as he descended. The axehead smashed into the side of the Norsik ship, just at the waterline. The massive steel axehead, swung with all Lorik’s might and diving momentum, tore a hole in the ship the size of a pumpkin.

Water flooded into the ship. Several of the raiders left their rowing benches to grab buckets and begin bailing the water. Lorik used the axe to pull himself up, then placed his feet on the sides of the ship and worked his axe free of the hole. The heavy weapon was difficult to swim with, but he rolled onto his back and laid the axe across his chest, then used his free hand and legs to propel himself away from the Norsik vessel.

“Throw him a rope!” Vera shouted. “Lorik needs help.”

The enemy ship was listing already, despite the bailing.

“To your oars, men!” Yulver shouted his orders.

The sailors reacted at once, pulling oars free and feeding them into their slots so they could steer the ship. There was no time to raise the sail and they needed forward motion for Yulver to steer the long vessel. Jons threw a rope out to Lorik, and it splashed beside the big man, who was struggling to keep his head above water.

“Grab the rope!” Jons shouted.

Lorik reached out with his free hand, his legs kicking in an effort to keep himself afloat. The rope sagged under the surface just as Lorik’s head dipped below the waves. Jons wasn’t sure if Lorik had gotten hold of the rope, but with his broken arm the injured sailor couldn’t dive in to help his friend. The
Dancer
was starting to make way, moving forward and turning toward the other ship where Stone and his small group of fighters were now meeting strong resistance from the raiders. Jons turned from the railing, hooked the rope over his good shoulder, and began walking from the stern of the ship toward the bow—the only way he could reel the rope in with only one good hand.

Lorik felt the tug of the rope. It slipped through his hand at first, but he gripped the rope as tightly as possible and wrapped it around his arm as best he could. He was drowning and he knew he would have to drop the big battle axe to have any chance of getting back to the surface, but something inside him wouldn’t allow him to relinquish the weapon. The rope began to pull Lorik through the water and he felt himself rise a little. He opened his eyes and saw the surface only an arm’s length away. He renewed his efforts, kicking harder, and finally his head broke free of the water.

Vera turned her attention back to Stone as soon as she saw Lorik’s head break the surface. She could see the rope, taut and dripping, wrapped around Lorik’s hand. She felt a brief flash of relief, then terror for Stone stabbed at her heart again. She could see that Yulver was guiding the
Dancer
closer to the Norsik ship, but on the crowded barge, Stone and his small group of fighters were slowly being pushed back. They had evened the odds with the larger Norsik crew quickly, but with every raider that fell, the deck became more and more difficult to fight on. Stone needed more space to spin and twist. He was not a defensive fighter, but the deck of the barge had become so crowded with debris and human carnage that he had no room to maneuver.