David Drake - Godess of the Ice Realm

"What's that?" Kulit said, his voice rising. "Where is it? What are we going to do?"

"Master Chalcus!" Ilna said. "Take this, if you will. You've seen how to use it."

She held the pattern to him, bunched; Chalcus sheathed his weapons with quick understanding, then reached for the fabric. Ilna placed it in his hands deliberately, making sure the correct side would be outward when he spread it to the monster.

"All right, lads," Chalcus said, turning with a grin that might well be genuine. "We know the drill, so Mistress Ilna is letting us handle it ourselves. Let's get on with it, hey?"

The ground shuddered; Ilna turned. She'd thought the sheer rock to the left was a butte. Now she saw that it was two walls standing close together; between them lurched a third monster.

Ilna walked toward the creature, smiling faintly. She'd taken more lengths of yarn out of her sleeve and was knotting them. At worst, devouring her might delay the creature long enough that Chalcus and the crew could dispatch their opponent and turn their attention to the new threat.

"All right, boys!" Hutena snarled behind her. "You heard the captain!"

Ilna'd thought of giving the fabric to the bosun or another of the crewmen, freeing Chalcus to do whatever was most important But holding the pattern steady before the oncoming monsterwas the most important thing, beyond question. The sailors' courage went beyond the standard even of brave men, but Ilna knew from her own experience just how heavy the weight of the creature's eyes felt. Chalcus wouldn't fail.

Whether Ilna would succeed in knotting a second pattern in the time she had-that was another matter. If she didn't-her smile was broad-she wouldn't have to worry about listening to reproaches on her performance.

The creature walking toward her wasn't as tall as the other two, but it looked as broad as both of them together. Its chestplate was flat instead of having a keel down the center. A different breed or simply the other sex? She didn't suppose it mattered.

The thing's arms unfolded toward her with the smooth certainty of a pair of bluefish driving their prey together for the kill. The pincers clacked open; the inner edges were black and undulating.

Ilna raised the new pattern high. For an instant she didn't know whether the figure her fingers had knotted was complete, only that she'd run out of time to do more.

The creature froze. If Ilna'd believed in the Gods, she'd have thanked Them. Smiling wryly, she whispered a prayer of thanks anyway. She'd much rather seem a fool for thanking nonexistent beings than she wanted to seem ungrateful.

There were shouts and cries behind her, then the clang of steel on armor that was very nearly as hard. Ilna's eyesight blurred from the rasping sulphurous wind. She blinked repeatedly but didn't notice much improvement. Well, there was very little in this place that she wanted to see anyway.

She felt the ground shake through the soles of her feet. There was a tremendous crash, then a lesser shock and crash. The sailors had brought down the creature Chalcus held for them. It had hit the rock like a felled tree and bounced.

"Come on, boys!" Chalcus croaked in a voice scarcely his and scarcely human. "If anything happens to the mistress, then Sister take my soul if I'll bother to go back!"

Ilna felt herself swaying. She continued to stare at the monster, but it'd become a pulsing haze whose color shifted from orange to purple and back.

Polished swordblades flashed brighter than the yellow light they reflected. The creature lowed like a bull, the first sound Ilna had heard come from the mouth of one of them.

"Get her clear!" Chalcus shouted. "Don't let the green devil-"

Hutena caught Ilna around the waist and dragged her back. "You numbskull!" she shouted, her voice trembling an octave higher with fury. "You've killed us-"

The monster fell forward, smashing the rock. Had Ilna not moved-had Hutena not moved her-she'd have been pulped as surely as a fool of a woodsman who trips in front of the tree he's toppled.

The bosun set Ilna on her feet again. "Aboard theBird!" a voice called from a great distance. " Quick! You can feel it coming!"

Ilna took a step, wobbled, and felt Hutena lift her again in his left arm. He had the axe in the other hand, its head black and gummy with the blood of the monsters it had brought down.

Now that Ilna no longer focused on her own art, she felt the ripples of power which'd warned Chalcus that Lusius' wizard was at work again. Once she even thought she saw an azure flicker, but that could've been a trick of her eyes or mind rather than Gaur's doing.

Hutena lifted Ilna over theBird 's railing, passing her to Kulit. She felt a flash of anger at being treated like an invalid when she could've boarded by herself And so she could've done, but the men hadn't been sure and therefore hadn't taken any chances. There wasn't time for a mistake, and there wasn't time for the pride of Ilna os-Kenset either. There was never time for that!

Chalcus brought up the rear, his sword and dagger out. He'd wrapped Ilna's loose fabric of knots around his waist. The sash fouled with monster's blood lay crinkled on the ground behind him.

Chalcus caught Ilna's eyes and grinned; but he stumbled as he jumped to the railing and had to catch himself. "I've a better appreciation for your work now, dear heart," he said, not whispering but in a voice few others could hear. "And I'll take all day as stroke oar on a trireme before I'll play at being you again."

She smiled in acknowledgment, but the comment made her imagine being at a warship's oar all day. It was an absurd notion… and yet she'd do it if she had to, poorly beyond question but do it regardless.

Another wash of power made Ilna's skin prickle. The blue quiver on the masthead and the tips of the spar couldn't have been her imagination this time.

"Into the hold, lads," Chalcus ordered, his voice gaining strength as he returned to his familiar occupations. "No sound, now, till I give the word."

Nabarbi slid the hatch cover away; it'd lain part open when the crew returned to the vessel. "Captain!" he shouted.

Pointin lay on his back beside the iron-bound chest that was theBird 's only cargo. The smell of camphor filled the hold, strong enough to be noticed despite this hellworld's brimstone stench.

Ilna had seen many dead men, and no few corpses of men who'd died horribly. She had never seen a look of more consummate agony than that on the supercargo's distorted face.

"May the shepherd save us if he's let them out!" Hutena cried.

Chalcus hopped into the shallow hold. "He didn't," he said. "He reached in to empty the chest for his own use, but he got no farther. And if he had, we'd still have no choice but to take the risk. Briskly, lads! There's not much time."

Ilna helped herself into the hold by her arms. She could still see the ravaged landscape over the portside railing. A pair of creatures, similar to the others but half the size, had come out. They were tearing chunks of flesh from the last one slain. She wondered if they were the dead monster's cubs.

"Shall we throw him out?" Hutena said, prodding Pointin's corpse with his foot.

"He's not in our way," said Chalcus. "Given what he paid to avoid being eaten by our demon friends here, I think we can carry him back for a burial in the sea he knew."

Two sailors lifted the hatch cover overhead and set it back askew on the coaming. Ilna could see wedges of the burning sky on all four sides.

There was a roaring azure flash. Ilna was falling again, gripped by wizardry.

"Ah, the great wizard is landing," said Beard, jarring Sharina out of her reverie. Her eyes passed over the seascape and occasional islands which the Queen Ship sailed by, but the view meant nothing to her. Images struck her mind and glanced off like reflections from the surface of a pond.