John Flanagan - The Emperor of Nihon-Ja

Eiko too had a look of satisfaction on his face. These were the men who had killed his friends and neighbours and destroyed his village, while he was forced to stand by and watch. It was good, he thought, to see the shoe was on the other foot.

But Shigeru was looking troubled. He indicated the bloodstained forms on the ground.

'Arisaka will hear of this. He'll hold you responsible and he'll declare war on the Kikori people,' he said.

Jito threw a disparaging glance at the dead raiders. His shoulders straightened and his head came up proudly.

'Let him! Lead us to Ran-Koshi and teach us to fight, Lord Shigeru. The Kikori are declaring war on Arisaka.'

There was a growled mutter of agreement from the people of both villages as they heard his words. They gathered around Shigeru, touching him, bowing to him, pledging their loyalty.

Shukin and Horace exchanged grim smiles.

'We have men,' Shukin said.

Horace nodded. 'Now we just have to turn them into warriors.'

The pirate ship was a long, low galley, narrow waisted and mounting twelve oars a side. She had a small mast and a square sail but for the moment the sail was furled. As she approached the wolfship, the two banks of oars rose and fell in perfect unison.

'Can we outrun her, Gundar?' Halt asked.

As ever, Gundar glanced at the sky, the sail and the other ship, then sniffed the air experimentally before answering.

'As long as this wind holds, no problem,' he said. He called an order to the sail trimmers and they hauled on the sheets, bringing the sail to a harder curve. At the same time, he nudged the tiller slightly so that the bow of the ship swung a few degrees to port. Instantly, Will felt a tremor run through the deck as the ship leaned, then accelerated.

Halt was rubbing his beard thoughtfully, still watching the pirate galley behind them. He estimated that there were forty or fifty men in her crew and he could see her captain leaning forward to yell encouragement to his rowers as he realised that they were losing ground to this strange ship with its triangular sail.

'And if the wind drops?' Halt asked.

Gundar shrugged. He, too, studied the pirate craft.

'Twelve oars a side to our eight,' he mused aloud. 'Under oars, she's probably faster than us.'

Halt turned that information over in his mind, then added, 'And she's not likely to be the only one of her kind we sight.'

Gundar nodded. 'The sailing notes say these waters are infested with pirates.'

The Ranger studied the pirate galley again. Under a renewed effort from her rowing crew, she had made up a little distance on Wolfwill. But now, after that initial surge of enthusiasm, they were beginning to drop back again. Wolfwill's oars were shipped and at least half her crew were relaxing on the rowing benches, out of sight. Chances were that the pirates thought she was a trader, manned by only a dozen or so men.

'Can you let her catch up to us without them realising you're doing it?' he asked.

Gundar, for once, answered immediately. 'Easily,' he said, grinning evilly. 'I take it you want to give them a little surprise?'

'Something like that.' Halt glanced at the men on the rowing benches. 'Get your weapons ready, but stay out of sight,' he called. He was answered by at least a dozen wolfish grins from the Skandians. Sea wolves loved a fight, Halt thought.

Gundar, meanwhile, eased the bow a little back to starboard, and called more orders to the sail trimmers. The sail came even tauter, and the ship heeled a little further. It looked impressive, but the reality was that she came off her best point of sailing and lost speed in the manoeuvre. The pirates began to gain on them once more. There were a dozen of them gathered in the prow of the galley, yelling threats and waving weapons at their quarry.

'They're a raggle-tail bunch,' Will remarked. 'Do you want me to start the ball rolling?'

He had an arrow nocked to the bowstring and the galley was in easy range now. But Halt shook his head.

'Not yet.' He glanced to where Evanlyn and Alyss were standing by the rail. Evanlyn had her sling ready, slowly swinging it back and forth. Alyss, he saw, had changed her practice sabre for the real thing. She had it belted around her waist.

'You two move back here,' he said, indicating a position in the stern of the ship. Reluctantly, they obeyed. They might have argued with him earlier, but both of them knew that when the ship was about to go into a fight, Halt's orders were to be obeyed without hesitation.

'You can knock a few over with that sling as we get closer,' Halt told Evanlyn. Then he glanced at Alyss. 'You watch her back in case any of them get on board.'

Alyss nodded. 'Is that likely?' she asked, with a faint grin. She'd seen the fighting qualities of Skandians – particularly this crew – in the past.

'I doubt it.' Then, addressing Gundar and his crew, Halt laid out his plan. 'We'll turn up into them as they get closer and take them bow on bow. Grapple them, then board them over the bows and disable their ship.'

'What about their crew?' Nils called from the rowing benches.

'If they get in the way, disable them too,' he said shortly. 'Get rid of their mast, knock holes in the hull, then get back on board.'

'You want us to sink her?' Gundar asked and Halt shook his head.

'No. I want her badly damaged but capable of making it back to port. I want the word to go out that the strange ship with the red falcon ensign,' he gestured to Evanlyn's ensign, flying from the mast top, 'is manned by dangerous, hairy maniacs with axes and is to be avoided at all costs.'

'That sounds like us,' Gundar said cheerfully. And a rumbling growl sounded in the throats of the crew. 'Jens,' he said now to one of the sail handlers, 'you take eight men up to the bows. Have grapnels ready and lead the boarding party when we've got her secured.'

'I'm going too, skirl!' It was Nils Ropehander, from his position on the front port-side rowing bench. Gundar nodded.

'First four rows from either side follow Jens aboard her,' he said. 'But stay out of sight for now!'

'Show yourselves only when I give the word,' Halt called. 'We want the sight of your lovely faces to be a big surprise for these lads.'

Again, a growl of assent from the crew. They lived for this sort of encounter, Will realised. Several of them were already chuckling at the thought of the panic that would fill the pirates' hearts when they realised that the helpless-looking, apparently unarmed sailing ship was literally a wolf in sheep's clothing. A sea wolf in sheep's clothing, in fact.

'Evanlyn, let's see what you can do,' Halt said quietly. The princess needed no further urging. She already had an egg-shaped lead shot loaded into the pouch of her sling. Glancing around to make sure she was unimpeded, she whirled the sling up, let it circle twice, then released and sent the shot whizzing on its way.

They could follow the flight of the shot for a few seconds, then lost it against the mass of the galley. But a second later, one of the shouting, gesticulating pirates in the bow suddenly toppled over, folding up like an empty garment. His companions stepped away in shock, silenced for a moment, then redoubled their threats and insults, urging their rowers to go faster and catch this insolent intruder. They were a ragged group, as Will had mentioned, wearing tattered white and coloured robes and dirty turbans. They were generally thin and dark skinned. As they grew closer, Will could see that their weapons were a mixture of curved swords, dirks and knives. There seemed to be no uniformity among them and Will guessed that they were more accustomed to slaughtering helpless crews than fighting trained warriors.

Halt nodded approvingly at Evanlyn's successful shot.

'Interesting. Just two spins,' he said. 'In Arrida you spun the sling round and round a lot more before releasing.'