Chapter 14

The first part of my plan was the easiest. I had Tagus turn his craft out towards the sea in the hopes of catching the wind in his sails. With our sails filled I wanted to swing out towards the seaward craft and get it on our portside. I figured that once we were on course towards it, the pirates would ship their oars and prepare themselves to board us. That would give us a couple of seconds in which we could let loose with the second part of my plan. If everything worked out we'd have one less boat to worry about.

The pirate boat was about half the length of the Windrunner. I counted ten oars per side so I figured that we were going up against twenty-five to thirty men at the most. Considering that between Tagus' crew and my party we numbered twenty-two the odds were fairly even. Hopefully the fact that my people all had bows would turn things even more in our favour. We'd see soon enough. In the meantime we got ready.

The pirate boat did exactly as I had suspected it to do as we came about and bore down on it. Quickly the other crew shipped their oars and started scurrying about preparing themselves for combat. I watched them for a moment and then shouted out my orders to my party and Tagus. On my word Tagus turned into the oncoming craft as if we were preparing to board it. That action alone probably had their captain scratching his head. Still he was committed as were we and seconds flew by as the two crafts drew closer together.

I attacked first. I had waited patiently in the bow with my bow ready and when I decided that we were close enough for my weapon, I rose up and let loose with an arrow. It was one of the spares that I'd taken from Jared's armoury just before leaving Stone Lodge. My target was any man I could spot in the bow of the other craft, knowing rightly that they were probably armed with bows as well. My first arrow struck home as unerringly as ever and the man it hit pitched over and went into the sea. A second later I'd dropped two more men before anyone on the other craft had the opportunity to return fire. As they did, I came up again and this time picked out their helmsman. My shot was true again and the man slumped to the rolling deck of his craft as the arrow sank into his flesh.

By now the two crafts were coming along side each other and everyone was prepared for battle. My people rose from behind the railing and they loosed a volley of arrows down onto the crew of the other vessel. Three more pirates dropped in their assault. The pirates flung across grappling hooks in an attempt to snare us. Only one caught the railing and one of Tagus' crew cut it free with a hand axe. As he did, I sprung into action again, releasing the second part of my plan.

At my feet lay a medium size amphora held steady by a crewman. I quickly handed him my bow and I grabbed it up into my hands and hefted it above my head. With my enhanced strength it felt like it weighed almost nothing. Then with a shout to my party I heaved the amphora across the distance that separated our two crafts. It wasn't much; no more than six feet at best and given my enhanced strength, it wasn't an impossible throw. As the amphora struck the deck of the pirate vessel, it exploded spilling out its contents everywhere. A second later a rain of fire arrows struck the boat and that was it for the craft.

The amphora had contained linseed oil, a substance that was highly flammable. It had been amongst Tagus' cargo and I'd appropriated it when I had told him my plan. With the fire arrows fired by my party, the liquid caught flame with a whoosh and it started to spread. To add insult to injury I followed up the first amphora with a second. The added fuel augmented the already billowing flames and smoke and caused panic to spread throughout the pirate crew. As they ran to deal with the conflagration, Tagus heaved over his helm and we started to pull away from the vessel. As we did, I grabbed up my bow again and rained death down upon the pirates one last time. By the time we were out of range, I'd dropped three more men and my party had done me proud and they'd dropped eight on their own. In minutes we'd slaughtered at least half their crew and if they survived the fire, they'd be hard pressed to follow us. Now we had another boat to deal with.

Tagus kept his helm over hard and we circled about and then cut across the bow of the craft we'd set ablaze. By now the other boat was within a thousand yards of us and its oars were beating the sea in an effort to reach us. I just smiled at the approaching target and yelled out once more to prepare for battle. Again I nocked an arrow to my bow and waited.

To our amazement our opponent tried to turn and flee. We watched with disbelief as the helmsman hauled over his tiller paddle and tried to turn the craft. It was absolute madness given how close we were to each other, but it was obvious to me that the vessel's captain was in a panic. On seeing their action, I yelled to Tagus to slacken our sails a bit until the craft had come about so we wouldn't ram it. With luck we'd be able to come up along their starboard and shear their oars.

It was close but Tagus and his helmsman knew their job and we avoided ramming the second ship. We did come up on their starboard as planned and as we did, I loosed my first arrow taking out the helmsman. My second arrow killed the man trying to replace him and then I threw myself to the starboard side of the Windrunner as Tagus swept along their side removing that bank of oars. As we did, crewmen from Tagus' vessel threw grappling hooks towards the pirate ship. There'd be no fire for this boat. I wanted a prize.

Things started to happen quickly. Grapples were thrown and hauled in and secured. Sails were slackened and tied down. My party rained arrows on the opposing crew and a plank was thrown over the side to breech the gap between the two vessels. At that point I sprung into action again. I tossed my bow to the crewman who had been attending me and grabbed up my shield and drew my sword. With a battle cry I headed to the gangplank and leapt upon it. A second later I was on the other craft's deck and my sword was striking down pirates left and right. Behind me came Nimue. Within seconds we were both standing back to back and our blades were thinning out the few survivors that were left to us to deal with. It didn't take long. Between Nimue and I and the continuous rain of arrows from the remainder of our party, the pirates didn't stand a chance. A few minutes later it was all over but the clean up; or so we thought.

It was Felicity's scream that caught my attention. I'd just skewered my last pirate when her voice rang out from the stern of the Windrunner. I quickly leapt to a railing, grabbing a rope to steady myself and I was stunned at what I saw. Four men dressed in armour were standing amidships and they were armed to the teeth. Lying before them was a dead sailor and one of them was holding onto Felicity. I had to do something and I did. I leapt the gap. It was foolhardy but it was the quickest way to return to the Windrunner. Thankfully my enhanced strength and my agility came in to play and I was able to do it. With a bound I was over the gap and onto the Windrunner's deck and I was pushing my way forward.

"Let the girl go," I shouted to the man holding her, "and I might let you live."

"Big talk asshole," the man replied with a sneer on his face, "but I'm not worried. If you take another step towards us, I'll cut the slut's neck and spill her bright red blood and then we'll do the same to you and your friends."

"You'll do no such thing," I shouted back at him, "because the moment your blade draws blood, I'll be on you and your pals and when I'm done with you, you'll be nothing but fish bait. Now put down the knife and we can talk."

"No fucking way asshole," spat back the man just as vehemently as before. "The way I see it, we've got a stand off here and the only way to resolve it is for you to surrender. There's a bounty on your head and I mean to collect it. Now if you want your friends to survive you'll drop your weapons and give up."

"And I think you're full of it," I growled in response, "and I think I'm done talking to you. As far as I'm concerned you can kill the girl and then we can start fighting."

With that I took a step forward and raised my sword menacingly. It made the talker baulk at my audacity and the men screening him with their shields flinch.

"Stay where you are!" the man shouted frantically. "I mean it. If you move another foot I'll kill the girl."

"Sorry Felicity," I shouted to the woman, ignoring the man's threats, "but I can't let these bastards win."

"No... !" Felicity gasped in disbelief. That's when an arrow struck the man holding her.

Nimue had not followed me back across the gap. Instead she'd stayed aboard the pirate ship and she'd hurriedly salvaged a bow and a quiver from amongst the fallen crew. I'd seen her scurrying about while I'd stood on the railing and I'd gotten a good idea what she had in mind. I'd given her a smile and a nod of acknowledgement before leaping the gap. Then I'd kept the surprise party distracted while Nimue had gotten into position. Now she'd struck. She'd crept to the stern of the pirate vessel so that she was behind the men and then she'd risen up and took aim. Her shot was as accurate as always and it had sunk into to the back of the man's neck, severing his spinal column before tearing out his oesophagus. His death was instantaneous.

I won't say the other three men were easy because they weren't. As the man threatening Felicity coughed up blood and then dropped to the deck dead, I leapt into action. I lead with my shield, taking the men off guard, surprised by the fate of their colleague. I slammed into the man in the middle and the impact of my shield hitting his sent him sprawling backwards. As he fell away from me I turned and met the man on my right, striking out at him with my sword. As I did, I brought my shield up and protected my left. Thankfully Nimue was still with me and another arrow sped through the air a second after I had shifted positions, striking the man to my left in the upper arm.

By then the rest of my party and a few of the crewmen of the Windrunner decided to join in. While I slashed and hacked and parried and blocked the man that I'd gone after, beating him back towards a railing and away from Felicity, two crewmen fell on the man that I'd bowled over, assailing him with clubs. With him still struggling to his feet, he didn't have a chance. They beat his head to a pulp. As for the man wounded by Nimue, Rory and Zahra hemmed him in and kept him at bay until Nimue could drop him with another arrow. It didn't take long. While they did that Kola and Caitlin went to Felicity's aid. By then I'd unarmed the man that I'd been fighting and in a bid to save his life he begged me for quarter.

"Drop your arms to the deck," I told him sternly, "allow yourself to be bound and I might consider sparing your life."

The man did what he was told. He was a tall, muscular man, although not as tall as me. From the kit he was wearing it was obvious that he was well supplied. His armour looked to be almost as good as mine. He told me his name was Jacques Argent and that he was French.

"So," I said to him in French, once the man was tightly secured, "tell me how you got here and what the plan was and make it good or I'll turn you over to the women and let them carve you up."

Jacques talked. Like me and the rest of my party, he was an outworlder. A man had approached him and his friends and offered them a trip home if they did this job for the man. It was a sweet deal from their perspective, especially when the man gave them new armour and shields and weapons that were better than what they'd already had. The man had teleported them to the ship and had told the men to grab the first woman from my party and threaten her and I'd surrender. I just shook my head at that.

"The guy lied to you," I told him coldly, "and he sent you to your death. There was no way that I was going to surrender and he knew it. I've already killed men who've tried this plan before. It hasn't worked yet and it won't work. My mission is too important for me to surrender because some asshole threatens someone that I care about. If necessary, they will die so that I will succeed and they understand that."

Well that got the man's attention. My cold manner and my matter of fact retort stunned him and the fact that not one of my companions raised a protest startled him even more. Realizing the situation he was in, he begged and pleaded for his life.

He was no better than Antonio and I knew it, but the man had surrendered on the possibility of quarter and I was inclined to grant it. First however I needed to see to my people and the situation that we were still in. I told a couple of crewmen to tie the man to the bow and to watch over him for the time being. Tagus nodded his consent.

The other pirate vessel was still aflame and the conflagration had enveloped the entire craft. Flames were now climbing the craft's mast and its sail was ablaze. From where I stood, it looked like the crew had abandoned the vessel. A quick glance about showed me a head or two bobbing in the water, heading towards land and I pointed them out to Tagus. He posted sentries to ensure none approached his boat. As for casualties we had but one fatality and one man who'd been struck by an arrow. Fortunately for him, it had struck him the upper arm and while painful, it wasn't fatal, especially given the fact that we had a doctor at our disposal.

"Are you all right," I asked the woman when I finally got over to her. By then the rest of my party was surrounding her and comforting her.

"Yes," Felicity was able to stammer in reply, looking up at me with questioning eyes.

"You were never in danger," I reassured her, pulling her into my arms. "Nimue was stalking the bastard who was holding you and I knew that she'd take care of him. All I needed was to keep his attention for a couple of minutes."

"But you said..." Felicity started to mutter in protest. I silenced her with a kiss. That took everyone by surprise.