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Burton's second shaft went through the back of his knee.
Both schooners struck slantingly with a great crash and shot off with
much tearing up of timbers, men screaming and falling onto the decks or
falling overboard. Even if the boats did not sink, they would be out of
action.
But just before they hit, their archers had put a dozen flaming
arrows into the bamboo sails of The Hadji. The shafts car tied dry grass,
which had been soaked with turpentine made from pine resin, and these,
fanned by the wind, spread the flames quickly.
Burton took the tiller back from the women and shouted orders. The
crew dipped fired-clay vessels and their open grails into The River and then
threw the water on the, flames. Loghu, who could climb like a monkey,
went up the mast with a rope around her shoulder. She let the rope down
and pulled up the containers of water.
This permitted the other schooners and several canoes to draw
close. One on a course which would put it directly in the path of The Hadji.
Burton swung the boat around again, but it was sluggish because of
Loghu's weight on the mast. It wheeled around, the boom swung wildly as
the men failed to keep control of its ropes, and more arrows struck the sail
and spread more fire. Several arrows thanked into the deck. For a moment,
Burton thought that the enemy had changed his mind and was trying to
down them. But the arrows were just misdirected.
Again, The Hadji sliced between two schooners. The captains and
the crew of both were grinning. Perhaps they had been bored for a long
tine and were enjoying the pursuit. Even so, the crews ducked behind the
railings, leaving the officers, helmsmen, and the archers to receive the fire
from The Hadji. There was a strumming, and dark streaks with red heads
and blue tails went halfway through the sails in two dozen places, a
number drove into the mast or the boom, a dozen hissed into the water,
one shot by Burton a few inches from his head.
Alice, Ruach, Kazz, de Greystock, Wilfreda, and he had shot while
Esther handled the tiller. Loghu was frozen halfway up the mast, waiting
until the arrow fire quit. The five arrows found three targets of flesh, a
captain, a helmsman, and a sailor who stuck his head up at the wrong time
for him.
Esther screamed, and Burton spun. The warcanoe had come out
from behind the schooner and was a few feet in front of The Hadji's bow.
There was no way to avoid a collision. The two men on the platform were
diving off the side, and the paddlers were standing up or trying to stand up
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so they could get overboard. Then the Hadji smashed into its port near the
bow, cracking it open, turning it over, and spilling its crew into The River.
Those on the Hadji were thrown forward, and de Greystock went into the
water. Burton slid on his face and chest and knees, burning off the skin.
Esther had been torn from the tiller and rolled across the deck until
she thumped against the edge of the fo'c'sle coaming. She lay there
without moving.
Burton looked upward. The sail was blazing away beyond hope of
being saved. Loghu was gone, so she must have been hurled off at the
moment of impact. Then, getting up, he saw her and de Greystock
swimming back to The Hadji. The water around them was boiling with the
splashing of the dispossessed canoemen, many of whom, judging by their
cries, could not swim. Burton called to the men to help the two aboard
while he inspected the damage. Both prows of the very thin twin hulls had
been smashed open by the crash. Water was pouring inside. And the
smoke from the burning sail and mast was curling around them, causing
Alice and Gwenafra to cough.
Another warcanoe was approaching swiftly from the north; the two
schooners were sailing close-hauled toward them.
They could fight and draw some blood from their enemies, who
would be holding themselves back to keep from killing them or they could
swim for it. Either way, they would be captured. Loghu and de Greystock
were pulled aboard. Frigate reported that Esther could not be brought back
to consciousness. Ruach felt her pulse and opened her eyes and then
walked back to Burton.
`She's not dead, but she's totally out' Burton said, `You women
know what will happen to you. It's up to you, of course, but I suggest you
swim down as deeply as you can and draw in a good breath of water. You'll
wake up tomorrow, good as new.'
Gwenafra had come out from the fo'c'sle. She wrapped her arms
round his waist and looked up, dry-eyed but scared. He hugged her with
one arm and then said, `Alice! Take her with you!'
'Where?' Alice said. She looked at the canoe and back at him. She
coughed again as more smoke wrapped around her and then she moved
forward, upwind.
`When you go down.' He gestured at The River.'
`I can't do that,' she said.
`You wouldn't want those men to get her, too. She's only a little girl
but they'll not stop for that'
Alice looked as if her face was going to crumple and wash away
with tears. But she did not weep. She said, 'Very well. It's no sin now,
killing yourself. I just hope...'
He said, `Yes.' He did not drawl the word; there was no time to
drawl anything out. The canoe was within forty feet of them.
`The next place might be just as bad or worse than this one,' Alice
said. `And Gwenafra will wake up ail alone. You know that the chances of
us being resurrected at the same place are slight.'
`That can't be helped,' he said.
She clamped her lips, then opened them and said, `I'll fight until the
last moment. Then. .'
`It may be too late,' he said. He picked up his bow and drew an
arrow from his quiver. De Greystock had lost his bow, so he took Kazz's.
The Neanderthal placed a stone in a sling and began whirling it. Lev picked
up his sling and chose a stone for its pocket. Monat used Esther's bow,
since he had lost his, also. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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