Clutching the heavy chum pot, Thru clambered out of the front of the rowboat and splashed ashore. He set it down carefully and went back for the big coil of rope.
"Every minute is precious, Juf."
But Juf needed no reminding. He drove the oars into the water and propelled the boat back out into the sea.
Thru watched Juf go, then shouldered the rope, took up the smelly clay pot, and ran up the rocky point to the trees. There had been no cry of outrage from the ship yet, but it couldn't be too long before the pirates found they'd been boarded by stealth and robbed of the meat they'd planned to roast the next day.
Thru had much to do in that time.
He left the pot on the beach, took one last look at the fishing vessel sitting at anchor just fifty feet away, and went up into the tangled forest. He found a stout enough tree just ten feet or so up from the sand. With several low branches it was easy to climb. He took one end of the rope up with him and tied it around the trunk some twelve feet up. He dropped down quickly, then pulled the rope behind him out through the lower bushes and down to the beach.
Now came the least pleasant part of the task. He removed the lid of the chum pot and, using a leafy twig stripped from a bush, began to splash the rope with the sticky muck. The smell was appalling, but he could see by the moonlight that the chum left a dark stain on the rope wherever it landed. In a couple of minutes it was done. The rope was thoroughly stained.
He walked out into the water with the stinking rope over one shoulder, slid in on the other side, and swam sidestroke out toward the ship. As he went he unreeled the rope from his shoulder and played it out behind him. When he reached the ship, he pulled himself up at the bow on the anchor cable. The cable passed through an oval hole in the gunwale before fastening to a bollard just aft of the bow. Thru slipped the end of his chum-stained rope through that hole, then crawled back onboard and heaved on the rope to pull it clear of the water. It came up quickly, and he wound it around the bollard with a double hitch. Now it stretched above the water all the way back to the tree on the shore and, being stained, was hard to see in the dark.
Mergas was still unconscious on the deck behind the mast. Back in the cabin, the men were still singing some bawdy song. They broke into guffaws with the conclusion of each verse.
There was still time to save Simona.
Thru climbed back over the bow, and this time he dove in headfirst, knifing down into the water. They weren't likely to hear him now. He stayed under the surface all the way back to the shore, coming up only when he could put his feet down.
Still, no sound of uproar from the ship. The fates were with him. He hurried up the beach, grabbed the chum pot, and slipped into the forest.
Back at the bottom of the tree, he dipped his branch in the pot and smeared the awful stuff onto the trunk all the way up to the rope. He put a thick gob or two on the rope as well. Then he climbed down and took the pot farther inland.
Through the undergrowth he spread the stuff, flicking it here, there, and everywhere, on bark and ground and fallen leaves. Within a few minutes he'd spread the stench far and wide above the narrow beach. Then he traced a path back to the tree, redoubling the spatters on the ground, right up to the trunk of the tree.
The powerful smell hung under the trees. Everything that lived there was immediately aware of it.
He did not have long to wait. He saw the first ants scurrying across white sand under the moonlight before he got back to the tree. A moment later, a sharp pain on his left ankle warned him that it was time to get out of the bushes. Several more stings were delivered before he could get down to the beach and throw himself back into the water.
He stayed in the surf, keeping low, and swam for the point.
He was halfway there when the ship erupted at last into roars of rage. The men had finished their wine, emerged from the cabin, and found Mergas out cold. Being excited by wine, they misinterpreted the scene at first, thinking him merely malingering.
"Should've known you'd try and sleep through your watch!" one of the men charged. Mergas did not respond, even to a less than gentle nudge by Tricko's boot.
Then someone noticed the substitution of a bag of sailcloth for the creature they'd planned to eat for breakfast.
They howled in anger. In sudden dread they turned and all tried to get into the passage at once in their haste to assure themselves that the girl was still captive. That set them to squabbling, even exchanging a few blows. Finally someone announced that she was still there, untouched, and they gave a universal sigh of relief.
By this time, unseen by the fishermen, the first ants had reached the ship. The chum-soaked line was a highway covered in ants, and they were heading one way.
Thru swam around the shallow headland before emerging onto the rocks. Fortunately, the wind was keeping the surf off the headland that night. He scrambled up into a position from which he could see both the fishing ship and the eastward side of the point to the northern part of the lagoon, where the
Sea Wasp
lay at anchor.
The aftereffects of the previous half hour struck him now that he was sitting down. He shivered, feeling a sudden chill. He worked himself back into a crack in the rocks from which he could still keep watch.
He was sure that Juf should be back at the
Sea Wasp
soon. Mentu would hurry. They had a chance of saving Simona.
Back on the fishing boat, the men, still arguing, were about to set down their dinghy to search for any sign of their missing breakfast, when someone discovered that they had an invasion of ants.
By then the ants had found the contents of their hold: a ton of well-dried flatfish, taken on the Basalt Banks. News of this discovery among the ant nests on the island had produced an explosion of activity. The tide of ants scurrying along Thru's rope thickened until it was three and four deep.
It was the worst nightmare for a fishing crew in the ant-infested Marukas.
Yells of anger, horror, and, soon, of pain rang out on the ship. Using whatever came to hand, the men flung themselves on the ants. Brooms and boots, palms and feet—everything was employed to smash them.
The line was finally discovered and cut, but by then the ship was inundated with ten thousand little red horrors. The battle intensified. Every pirate had been stung again and again, and still the struggle went on while shouts of pain and rage echoed around the lagoon.
Thru caught a gleam on a taut sail and then another coming out of the north. Hurrying down the lagoon's length came the
Sea Wasp
with sails full, on a freshening seaward breeze.
Never was a sight so welcome. As the
Sea Wasp
approached, he ran down to the water's edge and tore off his shirt and waved it above his head.
They were watching for him and soon spotted him. The
Sea Wasp
came about while the sails were lowered. The boat was set down, and Juf rowed swiftly over to the point. Thru swam out to meet him halfway, and they returned in haste to the
Sea Wasp
.
Once onboard, he took a swig of warmed coconut juice and explained the situation. "I arranged for a little ant invasion of their ship. They're still dealing with it."
Unconsciously, everyone in the room blinked and shivered. The pain of their own experiences in battling the ants were all too recent.
"So, right now they're probably not being very observant. They know that Jevvi is gone and that somebody boarded their ship without them knowing, but they have a more pressing problem on their hands."
"So that's what the stink pot was for," exclaimed Juf.
"But we still have not freed Simona, and we will have to take their ship to do it."
"Then it's best if we swim to the ship and attack by stealth, while they are occupied with the ants."
"Unnnh," groaned Pern Glazen. "You mean, their ship is covered in the ants?"
"Yes. Just listen—you can hear them cursing."
And it was true. Howls of pain wafted over the rocky point.
"I wonder if that was such a good move," grumbled Pern.
"If it keeps them from seeing us until we're onboard, then it's worth it."
"And if we get onboard, are we going to kill them?" asked Janbur.
"If we have to, we will kill them. Jevvi may not recover from the beating they gave him. The best swimmers will swim out. Juf and Janbur will follow in the boat, and we'll use that to make our getaway."
Plans made, they selected weapons. The swimmers took the swords and knives and tied them tightly to their waists before they dropped from the boat and began to swim.
Aboard the pirate vessel, the fight with the ants was still very much alive. Four men were down in the hold swatting and wielding brooms. Even with the line cut to prevent any more of the little horrors getting aboard, the men faced a terrible ordeal. The worst thing would be for a few hundred ants to escape and start a nest. One of them would be selected to become the queen, and the ship would never be free of the infestation.
Ter-Saab was the first to reach the ship. Thru was close behind him, alongside Mentu and Pern Glazen. They gathered there, listening carefully. Thru crawled up the sternpost and found a seam in which to plant his feet and slide over the rail. Ter-Saab quickly joined him, with Mentu and Pern close behind.
"I count five men down there."
"The others are in the hold, I'd say," whispered Mentu.
"Then we have a chance," said Thru.
"Now!" said Ter-Saab, and they got up and hurled themselves forward.
The fishermen saw them coming only at the last moment and turned in stunned surprise at the attack. Ter-Saab walloped the closest over the head and threw him headlong down into the hold.
A general melee followed while the men in the hold looked up astonished. With a shout they jumped to the ladder, but Ter-Saab was already there, wielding a broken oar, and the first man on the ladder paid the price.
Thru pitched another man down to the hold, and Pern Glazen hammered a third to the deck. The two who remained on deck drew back into the bow, holding out their knives. Their faces were contorted in terror, for in the moonlight they perceived they were fighting inhuman foes.
"Demons!" one of them shouted. "They're fornicating demons!"
"They look like the thing we caught in the woods. Apes of some sort," shouted Tricko from down in the hold.
"They're apes who know how to fight," shouted back the man on deck.
Thru Gillo leaned over the lip of the hold and called down in the tongue of the men of Shasht. "If you try to get out, we will kill you, do you understand? You will stay in the hold until we are gone."
The men fell silent.
"It speaks?" said one.
"I do indeed," said Thru very clearly. "You have done us a great wrong and severely hurt our comrade. For that you will pay, but we will not have your blood on our hands if we can avoid it."
"You saying you ain't going to kill us?" said Tricko, the leader and de facto captain of the ship.
Just then Janbur came running up, for Juf had brought the boat alongside the pirate vessel. Janbur carried one of the bows that Thru had made, and with it Thru's quiver of arrows. He gave this to Ter-Saab, who notched an arrow and held it ready above the men in the hold.
"We will not kill you. But we will be avenged."
The men stood there, clenching and unclenching their fists, their faces twisted in frustrated rage.
The two men at the bow still held out their knives, prepared to sell themselves dearly. Pern at one side and Mentu at the other confronted them with hammer and sword. Janbur went forward to join Mentu. Juf had climbed up at last, and he joined Pern.
The men in the hold seethed.
"Who the hell are you?" roared their leader.
Mentu leaned over the hold.
"We are men of Shasht, with our friends here, who are a folk from a distant land."
"They are furred demons. What do you do with them? You are unclean."
"No, they are a good-hearted people. We can learn much from them."
"Abomination! You speak abomination. We are men—we cannot learn from animals!"
"So you say. I think you are wrong."
Thru spoke to the men who crouched in the bow with drawn knives.
"Put down your knives. Jump down into the hold, and we will not harm you."
The men looked to each other with wide eyes.
"What should we do?" shouted one of them down to Tricko, the leader.
Tricko hesitated, undecided.
"Move down!" said Thru. "Or we will kill you." He gestured to the bow in Ter-Saab's hands.
At twenty feet, Ter-Saab couldn't miss. The men realized this. Both of them laid their knives on the deck and swung over into the hold and dropped down.
The ants were still boiling below, and the men could not stand still. They had to defend themselves from the red hordes.
Ter-Saab chuckled, watching the men stamping their feet and slapping their hands against the walls of the hold. "So that's what it looks like when you're fighting ants," he said to the others.
They all laughed. Another man gave a howl and swatted at his neck.
Thru and Janbur went back to the cabin. Breaking down the door, they cut Simona free of the post to which she'd been tied. She was unhurt but for a few cuts and bruises.
They helped her to her feet and she embraced Thru, thanking him for saving her from a dreadful fate. As they held each other, a frown formed on Janbur's brow.
"So, dear Simona," said Thru, "can you walk? Are you hurt?"
"I can walk. Thank you, Thru, you came back for me..."
"Of course. We all did."
He helped her into the passage, past the frowning Janbur.
Suddenly the opposite door opened and Mergas emerged, having finally woken up with a splitting headache. He gave a shriek at the sight of them and swung blindly at Thru, clipping him on the ear. A moment later, Mergas's knife was out, and he drove in at them, growling.
Taken by surprise, Thru reeled from the blow. Simona gave a scream and fell against the pirate. His knife cut her along her side as she went down, but his thrust at Thru's belly went wide. Mergas stumbled over Simona and lost his balance. Thru shoved him backward, and he fell over in the passageway.