The Rover Page 14

  “Aye, sir.”

  The captain pulled his robes tighter against the chill breeze sweeping One-Eyed Peggie’s deck. “Get us under way as soon as possible, Hallekk. If there’s a goblin ship out there, we’ve got to find it.”

  Personally, Wick thought that was the last thing they needed to do, and hoped the Blood-Soaked Sea proved too big and too foggy for them to do that. And if there was a goblin ship out in the Blood-Soaked Sea, what did that mean for them—and for Greydawn Moors?

  Within three days, shipboard life returned to normal aboard One-Eyed Peggie, and talk no longer centered on the dead goblin that had been found in Gretchen’s tentacles. Wick continued working on his watches and his book, constantly filling the pages with images and words. At noon on the third day, the pirates hoisted a net full of bluefin up from the Blood-Soaked Sea.

  Wick sat on the steps leading up to the stern castle and watched. Even Captain Farok had come out on deck to watch.

  The pulleys shrilled and the lines creaked as the heavy net was lifted and swung over to One-Eyed Peggie’s hold. Seawater cascaded down, splattering the deck. The pirate ship rocked as the huge weight teetered in the net.

  Without warning, Zeddar’s urgent voice cut through the air from the crow’s-nest. “Sails! Sails off the starboard bow!”

  Wick put his book away. During the past hour he’d sketched four different pictures that depicted the fishing efforts. The little librarian’s stomach turned cold.

  The sails faded in and out of the roiling fogbank to One-Eyed Peggie’s starboard. The belled canvas looked dirty against the white fog.

  “She’s got the wind!” Zeddar yelled down from the crow’s-nest. “She’s behind us, an’ she’s got the wind!”

  “Man yer stations,” Captain Farok ordered. “Can ye see who they are, Zeddar?”

  Wick rushed to the railing and peered through the swirling fog. The ships seemed thinner than the pirate vessel, like they were on edge and cut through the water rather than gathering speed and breaking across the top of it the way One-Eyed Peggie did.

  “It’s goblins, Cap’n!” Zeddar cried back over the whip and crack of the sails.

  “Stand an’ face ’em, Cap’n?” Hallekk asked. “Or do we let ‘em try to overtake us, then pick ’em off?”

  “They’ve got the wind, Hallekk,” Captain Farok replied. “If we turn an’ face ’em an’ they have an inexperienced crew, we could find ’em broadsides of us an’ us all a-goin’ down into the briny deep. Ye can’t trust goblins to run a ship the way she should be run.”

  “Aye, Cap’n.”

  “Give ol’ Peggie her head and let’s see what kind of seafarin’ goblins they be,” Farok ordered. “An’ run up our true colors.”

  “Aye, Cap’n.” Hallekk gave the order and the black flag ran up the main mast. It furled in the air. The fishing crew let go the net and the load of fish dropped into the hold for later duty.

  Even though he was prepared for it, Wick was still almost tossed from his feet when One-Eyed Peggie’s spread sails reached out and caught up the wind. The pirate ship rose up in the water and ran. Still, for all of One-Eyed Peggie’s speed and her crew’s skill, the goblin ship came on.

  The long minutes stretched as the chase played out, but Wick knew how it would end. The goblin ship had already built up too much speed.

  “She’s going to overtake us,” the little librarian said to Hallekk, who stood beside him.

  “Aye. That she is. But we’ll run her a bonny little chase before she does.”

  Wick wiped the brine spray from his face, trying to ignore the sting in his eyes. “What do we do when she catches us?”

  “We fight,” Hallekk answered simply. “Ain’t no two ways about it. Killin’ them goblins what’s got brave enough to invade the Blood-Soaked Sea is what we was put here to do. Every one of them we kill is a message to the rest that they ought not come out here. Elsewise, the Vault ain’t gonna be safe like we promised.”

  Wick studied the ship, noting its clean lines. “Do goblins usually have a ship so neat-looking?” From the way he knew the goblinkin to live, he didn’t expect such a ship.

  “No.” Hallekk squinted and stared at the goblin ship. “Mayhap that’s one they stole, but they sail it like they know it.”

  “So what has drawn them out here?”

  “I don’t know, little man. But if’n we get our hands on a couple of them, mayhap we’ll get the chance to ask.”

  Less than a half hour later, the goblin ship came alongside One-Eyed Peggie but stayed out of bowshot range.

  Wick held onto the railing as the pirate ship sped across the waves. He was drenched with sea spray. Fear kept his belly tight. Other than the dead goblin, he’d never seen goblins before. But they gathered along the railing of the other ship.

  “Steady as she goes,” Farok called out from the stern castle.

  Dwarven archers stood alongside the railing.

  Surprisingly, a white flag ran up the goblin ship’s main mast where a red flag with a black fist clutching a sword already rode.

  “They’re surrendering?” Wick asked Hallekk in surprise.

  “They want to talk,” the big dwarf replied. “An’ that’s passin’ strange, ’cause goblinkin always want to fight.”

  “How many have you fought aboard ships?”

  “A couple,” Hallekk admitted.

  “But they were never in ships like these?”

  Hallekk glanced at the little librarian. “Never. What are ye a-thinkin’, little man?”

  Wick shrugged, still turning the ideas over in his head. “I was just thinking that if they weren’t concerned about themselves, then it must be the ship they were concerned about. And why would they be concerned about the ship?”

  “Well,” Hallekk said, “goblinkin ain’t well known for their swimmin’. Ye seen the drownt one the other day.”

  “Hallekk,” Farok called.

  “Aye, Cap’n.”

  The old captain shifted up by the railing, never taking his eyes from the goblin vessel. “What are ye a-thinkin’ about their white flag?”

  “I’m a-thinkin’ how goblinkin always turn things to their advantage if’n they can.”

  “They can overtake us now if’n they care to,” Farok pointed out. “They’ve proved that.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  “An’ if’n we were to stop an’ offer to listen to what they had to say?”

  “We’d be within bowshot of each other as well as hailing distance.”

  A sour smile twisted Farok’s haggard face. “An’ I’m a-willin’ to believe we got better archers.”

  “Aye, sir. That’d be right.”

  “Then, mayhap, a bit of parley will benefit us. Run up the white flag, Hallekk.”

  Hallekk turned and shouted the commands.

  Wick watched the fluttering white flag snake up the main mast to join the black one that flew so proudly. A sense of foreboding stole over the little librarian. Grimly, he turned and surveyed the goblin ship as it pulled closer.

  The goblins crossed the ship’s deck, taking up positions. They crowded the prow and stern castles, and many of them even hung in the rigging. They looked, Wick couldn’t help thinking, like a clutch of locusts clinging to cornstalks.

  It only took the goblin ship a few moments to match One-Eyed Peggie’s speed. A crowd of goblins wearing chainmail and loose red shirts marked with the black fist holding the sword pushed through the goblinkin on the deck. They surrounded a huge warrior festooned with knives and two swords, one carried at his hip and the other carried sheathed down his back.

  “I am Arghant Dhane,” the big goblin declared in his guttural speech. He thumped a fist against his breastplate. “I’m captain of Ill Wind. Who’s yer captain?”

  “I am Captain Farok, master of One-Eyed Peggie,” Farok replied.

  “I’ve heard of ye,” Arghant said. “There’s some in these waters what fear ye.”

  “They’ve got reason,”
Farok stated evenly.

  “Faugh!” Arghant struck his breastplate again. “Ye’ve never crossed blades with me, Cap’n Farok. Mayhap ye’ve got a reason to fear me.”

  “I’ve never met goblinkin I had any reason to fear.”

  Sensing that things were going to remain peaceable at least for a few minutes, Wick quietly stole his book from his blouse and opened it to a blank page. He licked the end of his charcoal and quickly blocked out the goblin ship. He took brief pauses, catching bits of dialogue and phrases from the goblin and the pirate captain as they continued their discussions, and wrote on still other pages.

  “Then ye should learn to fear me, Cap’n Farok,” Arghant said. “I’ve sent seven ships an’ seven crews to the bottom of the Blood-Soaked Sea theses past two months, an’ I’m prepared to send even more. I got no mercy in me heart for the likes of ye and yers.”

  “I wasn’t the one who suggested we talk,” Captain Farok said sternly.

  And in that moment, Wick realized how proud he was of the old man. The way Farok disciplined the crew, and the way he was able to put steel in his spine when he was facing his enemies was nothing less than heroic. Despite his pirate calling, the little librarian couldn’t help thinking, Grand-magister Ludaan would have liked Captain Farok.

  “I didn’t come to just talk,” Arghant said. “I come to negotiate the terms of yer surrender.”

  “Surrender, is it?” Farok roared.

  The crew of One-Eyed Peggie cheered him on, stamping their feet against the deck and rattling their weapons against the railing.

  The goblin crew roared insults and spat over the side of their ship. Vile and crude oaths filled the air on both sides.

  Anxiety filled Wick, but while his stomach churned, his hand somehow remained steady enough to capture pictures and words.

  “Why,” Farok went on, “I’d never surrender to the likes of ye if’n ye had to come rouse me from me deathbed.”

  “If ye value yer crew, ye’d think twice—”

  “Ye loathsome creature,” Farok roared. “Ye’re not makin’ any sense a-tall. First ye’re a-braggin’ about how ye sent seven ships’ crews down into the brine and their ship with ‘em, and then ye’re offerin’ me terms? Why, I ain’t a-gonna believe ye.”

  “Fine!” Arghant yelled. “Ye don’t have to believe me. But I didn’t come here alone.”

  The words rolled over One-Eyed Peggie’s deck. For a moment, the hoarse shouts the pirate crew offered the goblinkin came to a halt.

  “Ship!” Zeddar suddenly squalled. “Ship’s a-comin’ hard aft!”

  Wick turned, as did most of the crew, to peer through the fog into the distance. Nearly three hundred yards back, looking like a pale ghost, another ship like the one Arghant commanded shifted in and out of the fog layers. The sound of beating drums, faint at first, began to grow in intensity as the new ship sailed closer.

  Hallekk swore. “Blasted goblinkin foxed us.” He ran across the deck and pulled himself up into the railing. “An’ I never seen two goblin ships at one time anymore. There’s more a-goin’ on than what we’re a-seein’ here, little man.”

  “Put on sail!” Farok commanded.

  Hallekk quickly took up the order, bellowing it across the deck till it seemed his voice rolled like thunder. In short order, the crew put on more sheets, and One-Eyed Peggie once more leaned into the wind. But drums sounded aboard both goblin vessels now as they sailed in pursuit. The savage beat pulsed, almost loud enough to drown out the shouted conversations aboard the pirate ship. The little librarian had read about such tactics in books that discussed battles with goblins, but even his great imagination had never come close to how frightening the sound actually was.

  Wick followed Hallekk up into the rigging, but he knew at once that the pirate ship was no match for either of the two goblin ships. The new vessel lined up directly behind One-Eyed Peggie. At almost the same time, the belled canvas sails relaxed, drooping on the lanyards and yardarms.

  “She’s stolen our wind,” Hallekk declared hoarsely. “If the captain can match us, we’re dead in the water.”

  Farok called out orders to the helmsman, but the goblin ship behind them, blocking the wind off so that One-Eyed Peggie slowed, mirrored every move the dwarf made.

  The first goblin ship sailed up on the port side of the pirate vessel. For the first time, Wick became aware of the stench that clung to the goblin ship. The vessel smelled of death and decay and old blood. The little librarian sneezed at the strength of the stink even in the wind.

  “Yonder ship is a slaver,” one of the pirates commented. “Ye can tell by the foul stench a-clingin’ to her. Once ye get that smell in yer nose, why ye never forgets it.”

  Arghant stood at the railing and yelled across the splashing waves between the two ships. “Yer choice, Cap’n Farok. Ye can surrender to me, or ye can die.”

  “One’s pretty much the same as the other,” Farok yelled back. “But if’n ye try taking me ship, me crew will slit yer gizzard for ye, they will.”

  Arghant turned to his men and screamed orders. In the next instant, the goblin archers fired arrows. The projectiles streaked across the sea, snapping in half or bouncing off dwarven shields. Other arrows struck the side of the ship or tangled in the drooping sails.

  “Get up, ye scurvy seadogs!” Hallekk yelled. “If’n they want a taste of steel, why we’ll be after givin’ it to them! Ready bows!”

  Wick watched as the dwarven pirates lifted their bows and nocked arrows, pulling the strings back to their bearded chins. The little librarian put his journal away, but he knew he could trust those images to stay fresh in his mind. He took cover behind the railing. One-Eyed Peggie rolled awkwardly to the top of the next wave, waddling like a plump duck without the wind under her wings.

  “Fire!” Hallekk ordered.

  The dwarven archers let fly, and the arrows rained down on the goblin ship. Goblins fell back, pierced by the arrows. Blood spread across the ship’s deck, becoming treacherous to those standing beside a fallen shipmate.

  “Ready bows,” Hallekk cried out almost immediately.

  On board the goblin ship, Arghant screamed orders, but most of his crew was in disorder.

  “Fire!” Hallekk commanded.

  The dwarven arrows flew again, and again they raked victims from the goblinkin. Still, the goblins readily took up their positions as Arghant urged them on.

  There are simply too many of them, Wick thought as he watched the battle. The dwarven archers were much better than the goblinkin, but the goblinkin carried a larger ship’s crew on one vessel, much less the two of them. Hallekk has to realize that, too.

  “Aft ship is comin’ around!” Zeddar called from the crow’s-nest.

  “Lay on sail!” Farok commanded.

  As soon as the goblinship following the pirate ship pulled away from the stern, One-Eyed Peggie dug her canvas claws into the wind and yanked. The ship cleaved through the sea again, gaining speed immediately.

  How do the goblins know to work their ships in tandem? Wick wondered. And how did Arghant manage to get two nearly new ships? The questions plagued him even during the time he feared for his very life.

  Without warning, Arghant’s ship steered into One-Eyed Peggie. A crash of thunder mixed with the crack of splintering wood, and part of the pirate ship’s port railing broke free. Goblins hurled boarding lines, striving to lash the two ships together.

  Pulling the skinning knife Hallekk had given him from his boot, Wick took a quick breath and ran along the railing. He reached between the rails and sawed at the lines. As each line was cut, it dropped back into the sea. An arrow thudded into his boot, piercing the toe but miraculously missing his foot. Still, the arrow nailed his boot to the deck and tripped him, sending him sprawling. Even as he looked up, Hallekk severed the last boarding line with his axe.

  “Archers, fire!” the big dwarf bellowed.

  The hum of bowstrings, like the buzz of dragonfly wings, rang out over W
ick’s head. He glanced through the railing as he reached down and snapped the arrow shaft in two. He yanked his boot free of the stub as he saw the forward line of attacking goblinkin go down like a wave crashing onto a beach.

  A huge cheer went up from the pirate crew, and it drew increased vile oaths from the goblinkin.

  Then the wind died again as the goblin ship coming up on the starboard side settled back into the stern position, stealing the breeze.

  “Ready bows!” Hallekk growled.

  The archers nocked more arrows.

  “Cap’n Farok!” Arghant bellowed from his ship, now eighty yards away.

  Farok held a hand out to Hallekk. The big quartermaster signaled his crew of archers to stand down. The pirates quickly spread out to aid their fallen comrades. Wick knew that a few of them were already dead. Although the goblin archers weren’t as good as their pirate counterparts, some of the arrows had still struck home.

  “Cap’n Farok!” Arghant called again.

  “What is it ye’re a-wantin’?” Farok demanded.

  “If’n I want, I can take yer ship,” the goblin captain shouted.

  “We got a lot of pride in One-Eyed Peggie,” Farok countered. “If’n ye do take her by some chance, she ain’t a-gonna come cheap.”

  Arghant stood in the stern castle. Two goblins holding full shields stood on either side of him, ready to defend him. “I don’t have to kill ye. I’d settle for robbin’ ye.”

  “If’n I say no?” Farok argued.

  “I got more warriors than ye do. I’ll worry at ye for days, and I’ll take bites outta ye an’ yer crew every chance I get. An’ there’ll be plenty of chances.”

  “Ye come all this way for me cargo?”

  Wick glanced at Hallekk, who shook his head.

  “That don’t make no sense,” the big dwarf muttered. “Goblinkin ain’t all that interested in trade. They’ve only been interested in gettin’ what they needed to get by.”

  “I said I’d settle for the cargo,” Arghant replied.

  Farok paused. “Might be worth it to me to see ye work for it.”

  “If I do,” Arghant said, “I swear to ye that not a one of yer crew will escape. I won’t rest till I see ‘em all dead.”