Ian Irvine - Alchymist

'Come out, you bloody old fool,' Nish said. 'There's not much time.'

The scrutator came out into the light. He looked as if he had been beaten, though he was not cowed. 'What the blazes are you doing here? I gave you your orders.' 'A situation arose that they didn't cover. Do you know the way out?'

'Haven't a clue,' said Flydd.

Nish prodded the master with his sword. 'Show us to the stables. Better hurry; you're looking faint. You must have lost quite a lot of blood.'

There was a puddle on the floor next to him. The master nodded and stumbled down the corridor. By the time they had negotiated several more flights of stairs and long passages, he was weaving from side to side.

'I don't think he's got much left in him,' said Flydd.

'Blood or courage?'

'Either.’

'How far?' Nish said to the master, 'Just around the corner,' he whispered.

They emerged in the stables. 'Can you ride bareback, Nish?' Flydd said.

'If I have to.'

They mounted two sleepy horses. The master collapsed into the straw. Nish urged his horse towards the stable doors, stopping on the way to kick the side of a manger where a sta-bleboy lay sleeping. 'Open the doors!' Nish roared.

The boy ran to comply. 'Your master lies back there, bleeding.' Nish pointed with his sword. 'Attend to him before he dies.'

He kicked his horse into the rainy night. Flydd followed. Five minutes later, by the time the alert had been raised, they were weighing anchor.

The wind was blowing even harder now, a fierce gale. 'Are you sure it's safe to go out?' Nish said as they headed for the entrance. The Sea of Thurkad was a mess of white. Waves could no longer be seen, just white, driven foam.

'Been out in worse,' said the captain. 'Not by much, mind you, but for double the payment, we'll dare it.'

Flydd's head jerked around and he gave Nish a hard stare. Nish smiled blandly back. 'I thought your life was worth it. Was I right, or was I wrong?'

'For all you knew,' hissed Flydd, 'being taken prisoner might have been part of my plan.'

'You just can't admit you've been bested.'

After a long pause, Flydd said, 'I thought I was done for. You're a tough sod, Nish.'

'I was taught by the best.'

'Don't let it become a habit.'

The vessel passed between the arms of the breakwater. The blast heeled them over till the gunwale practically touched the water. The captain brought the ship around, the current caught her, the wind kicked her in the stern and she turned down the channel under just a rag of sail. 'If the wind comes up any further,' the captain said, 'even that'll be too much, and we'll have to sail on bare poles.’

'At least we're in no danger from the lyrinx,' said Nish. 'There's nothing can harm us tonight, save wind and rocks.' 'How far till we reach the Sea of Mists?' 'About twenty leagues. Four or five hours at the rate we're going. But there are a few things to worry about before we get there.’

'Like what?'

'The Pinch,' said Flydd, dashing spray out of his eyes. It burst over the bows with every plunge of the boat, smacking them in the faces.

'What's that?'

'Ahead, the sea narrows till you could practically shoot an arrow from one side to the other. The current is fast there, as fast as you've ever gone. It requires a strong hand on the tiller and the right kind of wind, or none at all, to get through. You don't recover from your mistakes in the Pinch.'

'How do you come back?' Nish wondered.

'They all ask that,' chuckled the captain mirthlessly. 'They pull us through. Windmills and cables. No boat can sail against this current.'

'Pull you through? I'd like to see that.' 'You'd fill your breeches,' said the captain. 'Now get out of my way. I've got work to do.'

Nish went to the rail but it was too dangerous to stand there. He leaned against the wall of the captain's cabin, where there was a modicum of shelter from the wind and rain, quietly going over the past hours. He'd surprised himself, dominating the master in that violent, ruthless way. It wasn't like him at all. More like his father, in fact. And most shocking of all, he realised now that he'd enjoyed it.

The wind screamed, the spray flew, the iron cliffs raced past. Nish never understood how the captain could see to navigate his way between them, but somehow he did. The Pinch was a league long and they roared through it in ten minutes. The crescent of the waning moon came out through racing clouds; the cliffs disappeared; the current slackened. They were out of the Sea of Thurkad into the Karama Malama, where the waves were mast high. The little vessel rolled like a cradle in the wind.

Nish groped his way below, into the reeking dark, and found an empty hammock, though he could not sleep. The ship's timbers, strained to the limit, shrieked and groaned. The hammock swayed through the same arc as the rolling vessel, before jerking back the other way. The landlubber soldiers were already spewing their guts into the bilge. Soon Nish was doing the same. The smell was abominable.

Morning came, but he was too seasick to notice it. Hours later he staggered up on deck, where Flydd and the captain were talking anxiously. 'What's the matter?' asked Nish.

'We want to go east,' said Flydd, but the wind's driving us south and west, and there's nothing we can do about it.'

'What lies to the west?'

'Just wild sea for a hundred leagues—'

'And the Reefs of Karints,' said the captain.

'Where are all the other ships?'

'Safely in the port of Hardlar, I hope.'

'So we're all alone.'.

No one answered. Flydd jerked his thumb in the direction of the hold. Nish went below, where he discovered that a soldier had thrown up green bile in his hammock. Nish turned the hammock over, his stomach groaning as loudly as the ship's timbers, and crawled into it.

Finally, in the middle of the day, in spite of the reek of vomit, he slept. He slept all through that day and woke after midnight, not that he could tell, then slept again. It had been weeks since he'd had a full night's rest.

He was woken by cries and an almighty crash that spun him full circle in his hammock. The other occupants of the hold were not as lucky. He heard thuds and groans. Another crash, not so loud, made everyone cry out. Nish fell out of the hammock onto someone, who groaned. Picking the man up, Nash stood on shaky legs and made for the ladder Crash, crash, crash. It sounded as if the ship were beating itself to death. He made the deck, which was tilted at the angle of a slippery-dip. They had run full tilt onto a rocky reef in the night, and it was all that was keeping the ship from going to the bottom.

Huge waves broke in a curving line from one side of the reef to the other. Each breaker lifted the ship and drove it fur ther onto the spine of the rocks, wedging the timbers apart. After each wave, the vessel was lower in the water. On the seaward side, the sailors had managed to launch a boat. Half a dozen jumped in, took the oars and clawed at the water. The boat moved out into the wind and was driven away. Nish soon lost sight of it in the towering waves. He peered over the side. Men were struggling in the water and being crushed between the boat and the reef. 'Scrutator!' he yelled.

No answer. 'Scrutator? Flydd?'

He put his head down into the hold and screamed Flydd's name. No answer from there either. Nish was about to go down when he saw him, clinging to the shrouds at the stern, Nish ran that way. 'What's the matter?'

'The reef seemed to come up out of the water,' said the scrutator. 'Got a prize bang on the head. I'm all right.' 'Where are we?'

'Middle of bloody nowhere.' 'Any chance of the other boats rescuing us?' 'They wouldn't know where to look.' 'Hadn't we better try and get the people in the hold out?' 'They'll have a better death down there,' said the scrutator, watching an enormous wave moving towards them. 'Look at the sea pounding at the reef. It'll tear us to pieces.' 'I'll just go down for my sword.' It was his most precious possession. 'I won't be a—' The stern was tossed up on the wave, lifting them into the air, then the whole vessel was thrust sideways. When they came down, there was nothing under them but water.