Барб Хенди - Dog in the Dark

The look of shock in her eyes at that shout from above almost stunned Leesil.

There was such a loss of hope amid her fury.

Before he could go at Én’nish again, a slender forest gray form rushed in from the corner of his sight. That other one snatched Én’nish by the back of her cowl and dragged her in a race for the ship’s starboard rail.

Leesil almost went after them ... until Magiere, with blood covering half her twisted face, charged after the pair. He grabbed the back of her shirt, and his feet slid as she tried to rush on. Trying to make her stop, he pulled hard and threw himself onto her.

Then he spotted Chap, penned in near the rail by a large crewman with a mace.

A small number of prisoners from below must have come up the rope ladder, because Dirken and two other raggedly dressed men were on deck and trying to clear a path for the others through the remaining crew.

“Help wolf now!” Leesil shouted at them.

That was all he could do as he dropped his winged blade and wrapped his other arm over Magiere’s shoulder to pull her back. He heard splashes in the water below.

The pair of anmaglâhk had jumped overboard.

Chap dodged a falling mace and looked for an opening to lunge in and rip out his attacker’s knee.

A dull clang rose as a shovel blade rebounded off the back of the crewman’s head.

The man’s eyes and mouth went slack, and Chap quickly leaped aside before the crewman fell on top of him. Once clear, he looked up into the face of a shirtless, thickly muscled man watching him warily.

Chap spotted Leesil struggling with Magiere and rushed away down the deck.

Leesil looked wildly around while still trying to control Magiere. The ship’s boarding ramp was up. Most of the crewmen who had appeared were down, and the freed slaves outnumbered the rest. Then two more armed sailors came out of the aftcastle’s far door.

“Valhachkasej’â!” Leesil cursed.

A large form dropped from the aftcastle.

Never slowing, Brot’an flattened both crewmen as he landed, and rushed toward the port side.

“Off—now!” he shouted, as at a full run he snatched up Leesil’s abandoned blade.

Leesil reversed his effort and wrenched Magiere on her own force to the rail. He looked over the top of it and down it at the pier. It was a long jump but straight down. Magiere twisted suddenly, breaking his hold. All he could do was stun her with a slap across her cheek. She whirled on him; half her face was coated in blood, but her one clear eye showed white around an enlarged black pupil.

“Over!” he shouted at her. “Onto the pier!”

Magiere froze as if confused.

From out of nowhere, Chap hit Magiere in a leap with his whole bulk. Both went over the rail. Leesil shook off his surprise and snatched up Magiere’s dagger.

“Dirken!” he shouted in Numanese. “Your people ... jump! To pier!”

Leesil vaulted the rail as Brot’ân’duivé cleared it beside him.

The world went black as Magiere hit the dock and air rushed out of her under Chap’s crushing weight. When her sight returned, Chap was gone, and someone grabbed her arm and shouted at her, “Get up!”

She heard others landing roughly on the dock as she was hauled up. Her scalp and forehead burned as if she’d been cut, and through one eye only, she saw Chap take off down the dock as ragged people rushed by, following his path.

A vaguely familiar shirtless man carried a boy in his arms.

“Run!” Leesil ordered, shoving her. “Down the pier and up the next.”

She didn’t question him and started to race after Chap. Too little of what had occurred was clear in her head. The last thing she remembered was the pass of a white stiletto ... and then pain ... blood ... hunger had followed. She couldn’t even look at Leesil as they ran.

She had failed him, left him, in losing herself again.

They ran onto the waterfront, hurried to the second pier, and broke into a full run again. But as they approached the end of the second pier, everyone began to slow. Through her one clear eye, Magiere took in the sight of the Cloud Queen .

The ramp was down, and it shouldn’t be at night. As Leesil halted beside her, she saw no sentries up on deck.

The ship looked deserted.

After leaping over the side, Dänvârfij hit the water. Impact broke her hold on Én’nish as seawater closed over her head. She kicked to the surface and looked about in the dark. Panic came briefly until she saw Rhysís swimming toward her with Én’nish in tow.

Dänvârfij glanced up at the ship’s rail. She saw no crewmen, though she heard running feet on the dock beyond the Bell Tower .

“Get under the pier,” Rhysís whispered, and he went off, swimming with one arm and dragging Én’nish’s limp form by her collar.

Dänvârfij followed. There was nothing else she could do. The side of her neck burned, and more so the wound on her thigh, even with the water’s chill. The latter injury might be deeper than she had first thought. Even pulling Én’nish, Rhysís outdistanced her. He stopped, treading water, to look back.

“Can you make it?” he asked.

“Go,” she urged.

He kicked onward, swimming around the ship’s prow and in between the dock pilings. Exhausted and wounded, Dänvârfij followed him. It seemed far too long before they reached the shoreline and the walkway below the waterfront.

Rhysís pulled Én’nish out of the water as Dänvârfij barely got herself onto the floating walkway. Breathing heavily, they both knelt beside the young one.

Én’nish opened her eyes slightly and looked up at them. Rhysís pulled back one side of her bloodstained, split tunic. Dänvârfij had no idea how bad the wound might be, but regardless, the night’s failure turned her thoughts down darker paths.

Tavithê was gone, taken by the traitor and left lying in a ship’s hold. Two more of them had been wounded, and though she had done the same to Magiere, their quarry had escaped again ... because of the traitor.

Dänvârfij grabbed Rhysís’s wrist. “Brot’ân’duivé will go for the Cloud Queen . Eywodan is alone there. Go now, and I will watch over Én’nish.”

“No,” Rhysís said and continued attending Én’nish’s wound.

His abrupt disobedience struck Dänvârfij mute at first. “Rhysís—”

“No!” he nearly snarled, looking her in the eyes. “Én’nish is down, and you can barely walk. Do you think I will leave either of you? And what if the traitor does not go for the ship but comes after us? I would, in his place.”

Dänvârfij stared at him as he turned his attention back to Én’nish. She could not force him under the circumstances, and in truth, he could be right.

“If any of us can face the greimasg’äh alone,” Rhysís added, “it is Eywodan. They were old friends once, and they know each other’s ways.” He glanced at her thigh. “Get something to tie around that leg.”

Dänvârfij was at a loss as to what to argue anymore. She tore a strip from her soaked cloak and began wrapping it around her wound.

Magiere was numb as she leaned against Leesil and looked up at the Cloud Queen , deserted from what she could see. She tried with the back of her hand to wipe away the blood in her left eye. She barely remembered what had happened on the other ship.

Chap stood at the boarding ramp’s base. A dark stain matted the fur on his right shoulder. It looked worse than what she suffered; a scalp wound always bled too freely at first.

Brot’an, as well as Dirken and some of the others wishing to escape, had collected around her and Leesil. Most appeared uninjured other than minor cuts and bruises. They were lucky in getting off the ship before too many of the crew had been roused. And she wondered whether the crew would be coming soon, searching for their lost “cargo.”