Shadow of a Dark Queen (67 page)

As they steered clear of the rocks, they began to follow along the long breakwater they had used to enter the city. Movement caught Erik's eye and he said, “What's that over there?”

In the rain he could barely see, but Calis said, “Some of our men.”

He told Sho Pi to move closer, but pulled up short of letting the boat get too close to the rocks. Erik looked and saw three of the men who had been lost in the river the night before. One looked seriously injured, and the other two waved frantically.

Calis stood and shouted, “You've got to swim. We can't risk coming any closer.”

The men nodded and one slipped into the water. The other helped the injured man in, and the two aided him as he slowly swam to the boat.

One of the men was Jadow, and Erik was glad to see a familiar face. But of his own company, only Sho Pi was left. Roo and Luis were not with these men. Neither was Greylock.

As Calis sat down to start rowing once more, Erik heard something. It was faint and distant but familiar.

“Wait!” he said, looking down the breakwater.

In the distance, a tiny figure picked its way along the rocks. As it got closer, Erik felt a weight lift from his shoulders, for Roo was limping along toward them. “Hey!” he shouted, waving his hand above his head.

Erik stood and waved back. “We see you!” he shouted.

Roo came to the closest point he could, then jumped feet first into the water. He thrashed through the water and Erik was over the side before anyone could say anything.

Near exhaustion a moment before, he gained renewed strength from Roo's plight, and he struck out through the water as if he had all the strength he had ever possessed. Reaching the smaller man, he took him by the shirt and half carried, half dragged him back through the water.

He pushed Roo into the boat, pulled himself up half over the gunwales, and let the others pull him aboard. As he fell into the bottom of the boat, Erik said, “What kept you?”

“Some damn fool turned loose a horse that kicked me. Damn near broke my leg.” He sat up. “I knew there was too much going on near the harbor, so I figured if any of you got out, you'd be coming this way. So here I am.”

“Smart,” said de Loungville as he and Calis began to row. “Now start bailing.”

“What's bailing?” said Roo.

Erik pointed to the bucket in the bottom of the boat. “Take that, fill it there”—he pointed at the bilge—“then dump it over the side.”

“I'm injured!” Roo protested.

Looking around the boat, where no man sat without a scar, Erik said, “My heart bleeds for you. Bail!”

“Natombi, Greylock?” asked Erik.

Roo said, “Natombi's dead. He was hit from behind by a soldier while trying to get past another. I haven't seen Greylock since we started back from the harbor.”

De Loungville said, “Talk all you want, but start bailing!”

Roo muttered under his breath, but he dipped the bucket into the water gathering at the bottom of the boat and lifted it to dump it over the side.

Power manifested in the air and a singing sound caused every man to turn back toward the city. They had rowed for nearly an hour and were well clear of the harbor mouth, far enough away to have backed off the pace, and now they were turning northeast, making along the coast to the City of the Serpent River.

The bridge of light was close to touching down and armies were now upon it from end to end. But this strange keening, loud enough to cause the men
in the boat to flinch, ranged over the landscape, and while they could see nothing of those on the bridge, Erik imagined it must be painful for those close to it.

Then the bridge was gone.

“What?” said Roo.

A thundering report sounded a moment later, and then a warm wind washed over them, rocking the smack against the roll of the sea. Sho Pi said, “Someone made the bridge away.”

De Loungville laughed. It was a dirty, unpleasant sound.

Erik looked at him and asked, “What?”

“I hope those Saaur on the bridge know how to swim.”

Jadow, his broad grin lighting up his face in the gloom, said, “As high as that bridge was, man, I hope
fly
.”

Roo winced. “Must have been a few thousand of them up there.”

“The more the better,” said de Loungville. “Now, one of you lads needs to take over for me.” Suddenly he was falling forward into the boat.

Roo and Sho Pi moved him, while Erik took his place. “He was wounded in the arm,” said Erik.

Sho Pi examined him. “And in the side. He's lost a great deal of blood.”

Jadow took the tiller and Calis said, “I mean to row until dawn, then we'll put in. That should put us ahead of most of those fleeing up the coast, and maybe we can find a place to lay up.”

Sho Pi stood up. “Captain!”

“What?”

Pointing ahead, he said, “I think I see a ship.”

Calis stopped rowing and turned to look.
Looming up out of the late afternoon darkness, a white sail rose against dark thunderclouds.

“I hope they're friendly,” said Roo.

After a moment, Calis turned, and there was no masking the broad grin on his face. “Thank the gods! It's the
Ranger
!”

“Oh, man, I'm going to kiss that Captain,” said Jadow.

“Shut up,” said Roo. “We want him to stop, not run away.”

The others laughed. Then Calis said, “Start waving anything that will draw their attention.”

The men stood and started waving swords, trying to catch the late afternoon sunlight, as faint as it was, and reflect it from the blade, or wave a shirt.

Then the ship started to turn and make its way toward them. After a seemingly endless time, it came close enough for a man in the bow to shout, “Is that you, Lord Calis?”

“Get some help down here! I've got injured men.”

The ship slowed and sailors scrambled down and helped get the injured aboard. The smack was left to drift, and once they were all on deck, the Captain came forward and said, “Good to see you again.”

Erik's eyes widened. “Highness,” he said.

Nicholas, Prince of Krondor, said, “Here I'm just ‘Admiral.' ”

“How did you convince the King to let you come?” asked Calis.

“As soon as the
Ranger
returned with the intelligence you'd sent back, I just told Borric I was going. Erland's in Krondor with Patrick, acting as his son's Regent, so we're both where we want to be. I'll catch you up on court politics later. Right now let's get you below and into some dry clothing.”

Calis nodded. “We need to get far from here. And there's much to speak of.”

Nicholas called out, “Mr. Williams!”

“Aye, sir?”

“Turn us around and set as much sail as she'll carry. We're making for home!”

“Aye, aye, sir!” came the reply.

Erik was certain he heard relief in the first mate's voice. Sailors led Erik and the others below, and somewhere between then and the next morning, Erik passed out, and was undressed and put into a warm bunk by someone.

Miranda said, “You took a chance.”

Pug smiled. “Not much of one, given the circumstances. All I did was irritate them, really. The city was already theirs.”

“What next?”

“More waiting,” said Pug, and for an instant she saw his chafing at the need to do so. “When the Queen is ready to make her next move, and she shows us how she is going to dispose of those things in her possession, then we'll know what we must do next.”

Miranda stretched. “I'm thinking we need to travel.”

“Where?”

“Somewhere warm and pleasant, with empty beaches. We've been locked up over these books for months now, and we're no closer to finding the key to the puzzle.”

“There you are wrong, my dear,” said Pug. “I've known what the key is for some time. The key is Macros the Black. The problem is where is the bloody lock?”

Miranda stood up and knelt next to him. Putting her arm around his shoulder in a familiar gesture, she said, “Why don't we worry about that some other time. I need a rest. You do as well.”

Pug laughed. “I know just the place. Warm beaches, few distractions—if the cannibals don't notice you—and we can relax.”

“Good,” she said, kissing him lightly on the cheek. “I'll go get my things.”

As she left the room, Pug sat back and pondered this strange woman. The light brush of her lips on his cheek was a small gesture, but the touch lingered and he knew it was an open invitation, if a demure one. He had not found time to become involved with any woman since his wife had died, nearly thirty years before. He had known lovers, but they had been companions or distractions. Miranda was possibly something else.

Suddenly he smiled and stood up as he considered that a lonely beach without distractions was the perfect place to begin unraveling her mysteries. The northern great archipelago would be lovely this time of the year, and there were far more deserted islands than populated ones.

As he returned to his own quarters, Pug felt a spring in his step he hadn't experienced since he was a boy, and suddenly he felt the troubles of the world were far away, at least for a little while.

Erik looked at the whitecaps as the ship sped through the ocean. Roo had caught him up on the gossip: Prince Nicholas had come down from Krondor with the returning
Freeport Ranger
and had taken personal command of the situation. He had read the reports
Calis had sent downriver from his first meeting with Hatonis, and had kept himself abreast of the enemy's movement. He had kept
Trenchard's Revenge
anchored at the City of the Serpent River and had come down the coast against the possibility of Calis and his men having to flee that way.

They had been anchored in the harbor at Maharta for a month when agents in the city got word to him of the coming blockading of the harbor. He had raised anchor and sailed out past a skiff full of city guards and an angry harbormaster, then sailed away from a pursuing cutter. He had stayed out to sea for a week, then returned to find the harbor mouth scaled.

Nicholas had then sailed up the coast for a day, keeping out of sight of the city against the possibility of enemy ships coming up the coast. When he had seen the smoke from the first battle, he had given the order to hug the coastline as closely as safely possible, to determine what was occurring on the land. He had been sailing toward the harbor for a better look when he'd spied the fishing smack carrying the last of Calis's party.

De Loungville came up on deck, his arm and ribs bandaged, and came to stand next to Erik. “How goes it?”

Erik shrugged. “Well enough. Everyone's resting. I'm still sore, but I'll live.”

De Loungville said, “You did well back there.”

“I did what I could,” answered Erik. “What do we do next?”

“We?” said de Loungville. “Nothing. We're going home. It's back to the City of the Serpent River, give the Clan Chieftains what we know in case Hatonis
and Praji don't get there, then we pick up
Trenchard's Revenge
and head back to Krondor.

“Once we're there, you're a free man.”

Erik said nothing for a while until: “That's a strange thought.”

“What's a strange thought?” asked Roo, limping as he came up beside them. He yawned. “Never thought I'd live to see the day I'd enjoy waking up on a ship.”

“I was just saying,” said Erik, “that the idea of being a free man is strange.”

Roo said, “I can still feel the noose around my neck. I know it's not there, but I can feel it.”

Erik nodded.

De Loungville said, “I was asking what you two were planning next.”

Erik shrugged, but Roo said, “There's a merchant in Krondor who has an ugly daughter. I plan on marrying her and getting rich.”

De Loungville laughed while Erik smiled and shook his head in disbelief. “Helmut Grindle,” said Erik.

“That's the man,” said Roo. “I've got a plan that will make me rich in a year, two at the outside.”

“What's that?” said de Loungville.

“If I tell you, and you tell someone else, then there's no advantage, is there?”

De Loungville seemed genuinely amused as he said, “I guess not.” He turned to Erik. “And what about you?”

Erik said, “I don't know. I'm going back to Ravensburg, to visit my mother. Then I don't know.”

“I don't suppose it would hurt to let you boys know there's a bonus of gold in this for you.”

Erik smiled and Roo's eyes lit up.

De Loungville said, “Enough for you to start up that smithy.”

Erik said, “That seems like a faint dream.”

De Loungville said, “Well, it's a long voyage, and you have a lot of time to think on it. But I have a suggestion.”

“What?” asked Erik.

“This battle's just one of many, nothing more. We cut them and they're bleeding, but they're a long way from dead. Burning down the shipyards gained us a few years. Calis thinks maybe five, perhaps six, then the ships will start being built in earnest. Hatonis and the others will run a war, irregulars striking at the lumber trains as they caravan down the mountains and raiding the barges on the rivers; it'll slow them down, but sooner or later the ships will be built.

“We've got agents all through the area, and we'll burn a few of the ships and cause them general grief for a while, but sooner or later . . .”

“They will come,” finished Erik.

“Across the Endless Sea, right into the Bitter Sea, and to the gates of Krondor.” He waved back toward Maharta, out of sight hut still fresh in their memory. “You think on that happening to the Prince's city.”

“Not a pretty thought,” admitted Roo.

“We've got a lot of work to do, Calis and I. And I could use a corporal.”

Roo grinned and Erik said, “Corporal?”