City of Jade

47

ELVENSHIP

MID AUTUMN, 6E9

With the Rupt fled away, Long Tom sent sailors in two dinghies to the stone quay, the boats pulling mooring lines from the ship to the shore. They landed and once again tied the Eroean to the pier. Then, using long iron pry bars, they rolled the dead Troll into the water, and down it sank like the heavy-boned thing it was, to become fish food along with the two drowned Trolls some forty-seven feet below. After the ship was tethered to the dock, Long Tom had the crew loosen the port-bow anchor winch and pay out the hawser, and with the mooring lines along the starboard side they drew the Eroean back to the pier. Yet, when safely tied up, they once again cranked the anchor hawser tight-“Should we need t’ pull th’ same trick agin’, lettin’ th’ river ’n’ anchor rope swing us away from th’ quay.”

As soon as the crew ashore lifted the gangplank back into place, Aravan and a litter crew hurried to where James had fallen. The bosun was yet breathing, though unconscious. A grume-slathered Ruchen arrow jutted out from his back. The crew carefully placed him onto the litter and bore him back to the ship. As they went up the footway, Lissa and Vex followed.

“Where were you?” asked Pipper.

“Killing Spaunen, mostly Rucha,” she replied.

“I got seven with my sling,” said Pipper. He smiled, but it did not reach his eyes, for killing of anyone, even maggot-folk, did not set well on his mind. “And Bink, here, got eight.”

“I had twenty arrows,” said Lissa, “but I wasted one against a Troll. It did not penetrate that thick hide of his.”

“What of your other arrows?” asked Bink.

“Eighteen Rupt and one Mage.”

Even as Binkton gaped at the Pysk and breathed, “Eighteen?” Pipper blurted, “The Trolls!”

“Pip, she just said her arrows didn’t penetrate their hide.”

“No, Bink. What I meant is that by Liss killing the Mage, that’s what brought down the dead Trolls.”

“Oh,” said Binkton, the light dawning. “You’re right, Pip.” Binkton turned to Lissa. “You saved us all.”

“The Knight!” Pipper exclaimed. And even as Binkton groaned, Pipper said, “Lady Aylis’s reading. Liss drew the Knight of Swords upright, and Aylis said, ‘Victory over a dire foe, in this orientation, though perhaps at great peril.’ Don’t you see, Bink, Lady Aylis had it right all along, for a Necromancer is a dire foe.” Pipper turned to Lissa, adding, “And out there among the Rucks and such, well, you were indeed at great peril.”

“Vex kept me safe,” said Lissa. Then she looked about the ship. “What of the others? How did the warband and sailors fare?”

“Some took wounds,” said Binkton. “Arrows and slingstones. Most of the Dwarves avoided the missiles, or their armor kept them safe. The sailors took the largest part of the hurt. Desault has commandeered space belowdecks to be an infirmary, where he’s taken the wounded for treatment.”

Lissa said, “Well, I hope he knows about Ruchen arrows. They can be quite nasty, you see, as vile as they are.”

Even as Lissa spoke, as he carefully worked the shaft back out from the chief bosun belowdecks Desault said, “It is essential for us to get all wounds as clean as we can, for these Rucken arrows, they bear a festering disease. A person can die days, even weeks after taking such a wound. They turn the flesh black, and a dreadful rot sets in. Were it an arm or a leg, and that were to happen, we would amputate. But where James is injured, all we can do is wait and see. So, let the wounds bleed freely for a short while, and probe gently with these cleansing swabs to clear out as much of the dark filth as you can, even though it will pain the patient.” Desault then held up vials of yellowish liquid. “Then hold them down and pour this fluid in the gash.”

And so, amid groans of the injured, Aylis and others helped Desault treat the wounded-cleansing, pouring, bandaging, and giving the worst of them sops of poppy juice to ease the agony. As well, they set and splinted the bones of five sailors, bones broken by the large slingstones of the Spawn.

And up on deck lookouts watched as along the shore Dwarves dragged slain Grg into a pile, heeding the Pysk’s warning to touch not any of her shafts that might be protruding from Ukhs or the back of the neck of the Mage. And as to the dead Troll yet ashore, it took nearly all of the Dwarven force to drag that still-burning corpse to the pile. When that was done, they splashed oil thereon and the licking flames on the corpse of the Troll set the whole afire.

As black and grey smoke spiralled into the sky, Nikolai turned to Aravan and asked, “When we go City of Jade?”

“On the morrow, Nick. Tonight we rest and recover.”

And so that night, weary from the stress of battle, and glad to have survived, the crew entire took turns at watch and at sleeping, all but the wounded, that is, some of whom fell into drugged stupors, others to lie awake in pain. The captain and Aylis and Lissa and Binkton and Pipper and other comrades moved among them and spoke quiet words of support.

And even as they did so, the sky began to darken, and a wind began to stir, as of an oncoming storm.