That night and the next day passed peacefully as we made our slow progress upriver. Even though I could tell that the rowers were putting their backs into the task, we probably didn’t move much faster than a person could walk. I wondered if I had made a mistake making the trip by boat instead of by road but after I considered the fact that we weren’t sleeping on the ground and instead were making our way back south with a reasonable degree of comfort, I realized that walking or taking wagons would have been a mistake. This was true even though we anchored at night and only made progress during daylight hours. Rivers were not the same as deep oceans. There were many obstacles lurking beneath their surfaces and avoiding those obstacles required eyesight.
I spent a lot of time just watching the scenery roll by. Although we passed a couple of small cities, the majority of the settlements built near the river were small, bucolic looking villages. They made me think of Greynard and I wondered how Goulug and the rest of the people I knew that we left behind were faring. I hoped we hadn’t caused them too much trouble. I imagined when the Shroud Hallow guards showed up they might not be too gentle in their questioning. Goulug, of course, could claim that he paid good money for the property that I deeded him and nobody would be the wiser.
From time to time, Captain Benedek would draw us within hailing distance of other vessels moving down the river and news would be exchanged. As we moved further south, the number of villages dwindled as the topography got a little more hilly and forested. Soon, it was hours between any sign of human life. I assumed that once we got closer to Kollavik, the number of towns and villages would start increasing in frequency again. Cities couldn’t really feed themselves and a variety of outlying agricultural settlements would be needed to provide things that the city needed to prosper.
As I wandered around deck, alone or with Aleyda by my side, I was greeted by several other passengers. Don’t ask me their names because I don’t remember them. Dice diplomacy must have paid some dividends, though, because everyone seemed friendly. From time to time, I had to provide some rules clarifications to some of the others. It seemed like to date Yahtzee was my Earth’s most popular export.
We were finishing dinner the second night when Captain Benedek stood and declared that he needed to make an announcement.
“News from upriver is somewhat concerning,” he began. “There are reports of river pirates in small boats accosting trade vessels over the stretch of river that we will be traveling tomorrow morning. There is no cause for alarm, though. My men are hearty, stalwart fighters and well trained. The pirates are not active every day. I assume that the government has already dispatched troops to root them out of the area as well. The odds of us encountering them are small. If we see them, we will turn back downriver and run from them using our banks of oars. That will add a day or two to our trip, but arriving alive and intact is more important than arriving on time. Does anyone have any questions?”
While some of the other passengers asked questions, mostly trying to seek reassurance that everything would be fine, I translated the speech for the rest of my people. As I did, I glanced around the room trying to take stock of anyone who looked like they could fight. There weren’t many, except for the few bodyguards of some of the richer patrons in the first class area. All together, there were maybe nine or ten of them. I hoped the Captain was not exaggerating the prowess of his crew. Many of the crew members that I had seen did appear to be of the rough and tumble variety but getting into a fight to the death out on the river was a far cry from a couple of drunken brawls in a bar.
Turning back to my people, I began talking. “Tomorrow, for the morning at least, the only people of ours on deck will be those who can fight. We will keep our weapons close by. I’ll be damned, though, if we are going to let a group of river pirates take everything we have worked so hard for. If they attack us, they will be met with steel. I think Captain Benedek’s plan to flee back downriver is a good one. We aren’t on a specific timetable, so when we get there doesn’t really matter. If the fighters among us go out on the deck, we will stay together. This isn’t the first time we have faced off against people intent on stealing our wealth or taking our lives, and it likely won’t be the last.”
“Good plan,” Anxo said.
“Hopefully the danger will be past by the afternoon tomorrow and we can go back to enjoying our voyage,” I continued. “If worst comes to worst, we will make our way to land and finish our journey that way.”
The rest of dinner was subdued. Nobody talked much and when they did it was mainly about our plans for the next day. Those of us who could fight went back to our cabins and started working on our gear, making certain it was in top shape in case we needed to use it. Later that evening, I was back on the deck wandering around. I couldn’t sleep and I was keeping Aleyda and Mero up with my tossing and turning, so I left the cabin. While I was topside, I happened to walk past Captain Benedek. As he was passing, I stopped him to chat for a second.
“Captain,” I began, “several of my people are experienced fighters. Would it be alright if we stood guard tomorrow morning with your men and had our weapons on deck with us?”
“That would be good,” he replied. “I really don’t expect we will have any trouble, but if we do, your lives are at risk as well. I would be a poor host if I deprived you of the means to defend yourselves.”
“You look like you have something else on your mind,” I said. “Care to share your burdens.”
“I think I may be jumping at shadows,” he said, “but I am worried that the pirates may have infiltrated my crew or put some of their number among the passengers on the boat. We took on several new crew members before our last voyage that I have not worked with enough to fully trust.”
“That does seem like a valid concern,” I offered. “I can assure you that we are not plants by the pirates. We need to go to Kollavik to do a little work for the government. We are carrying everything of value that we have with us. We will not give our wealth up without a fight.”
“The government?” he said. “Which branch?”
“The military,” I replied.
He seemed satisfied with my answer. Although he was more than a little stressed, my answer did seem to put him at ease.
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“Which branch of the military?” he inquired.
“Captain Barinov,” I replied.
My answer seemed to give him pause. Finally, he muttered “What you are doing for him I don’t want to know. What I don’t know can’t hurt me.”
“Ah, so you are acquainted with the Captain?” I asked.
“He has some level of fame, or should I say notoriety, in Kollavik,” he responded.
Then we took our leave from one another and I managed to get a couple of hours of fitful slumber.
As always, the next dawn came too early. I rousted our fighters – Xeng, Patrick, Sathebeena, Anxo, Bowen and Aleyda – and we all went up on deck carrying our weapons. Aleyda and Sathebeena were both armored. I pointed out to both that if they fell overboard, they wouldn’t be able to swim in it and would likely drown.
“We’ll need to make certain we don’t fall overboard, then,” Sathebeena said. It was hard to argue with that logic.
“I talked to Captain Benedek last night and he is worried that his crew or the passengers may have been infiltrated by the pirates,” I said. “Aleyda and Sathebeena, I want you to guard our noncombatants and make certain that they stay safe.” If they were below decks, there was much less of a chance that they would fall over the side. “If anyone comes for them, no matter who they are, defend yourselves appropriately.”
Both women turned and headed back below decks to guard the hallway that contained all our small staterooms.
“What about the rest of us?” Xeng asked.
“We stay up here together,” I said. “And if pirates board, we kill them.”
“That’s a simple plan,” Patrick said. “I like simple plans.”
The next several hours passed peacefully as we clawed our way slowly upstream. Maybe Captain Benedek was right. Maybe there was nothing to actually fear. I noticed that we weren’t the only contingent of guards on the deck. Several people that I had identified at dinner the previous night were armed and alert and patrolling the deck as well. Finally, after exchanging hard looks a couple of dozen times, I went over to talk to one of them.
“James Smith,” I said, introducing myself to an older, broad shouldered man with short salt and pepper hair and a sword sheathed at his waist. The sword looked similar to the ones the Gremmans forces had carried on the island. I assumed he was ex-military.
“Fekhlachev Antonovich,” he replied, offering his name in return. “It looks like you lot are ready for war.”
“As do you and your men,” I said. “If the pirates come, how do you want to do this?”
“Well, fighting generally involve striking your opponent with your weapon over and over again,” he said with a grim laugh.
I couldn’t help it. That caused me to laugh as well.
“I think we know that part,” I said. “Do you want to split up the ship by sides or something so we don’t get in each other’s way?”
“That’s a good plan,” he said. “But how do we know we can trust you with our backs?”
“You don’t,” I replied. “And the misgivings are mutual. We don’t know you either. View this as a case of mutual self interest. I want to keep what’s mine. I don’t want my people to get hurt. You want to keep what’s yours, or at least your employer does. I assume you don’t want to get hurt either. The better we coordinate, the less chance someone gets seriously hurt.”
“You have a point,” he said. “We’ll take this side,” he said, pointing at the starboard side of the riverboat.
“Good enough,” I said. Then I walked off to usher my people to the port side of the boat.
More time passed and there were still no pirates. Late in the morning, we were wending around a wide curve in the river where the river had meandered enough in the past to create an oxbow lake off in the distance. We were sticking to the middle of the channel because if a threat appeared we didn’t know which direction it would come from. Suddenly, I noticed a number of small craft launch from the bank closest to our side. They were not large, carrying no more than six or eight people per boat but there were at least three of them. I went trotting over to the other rail to warn Fekhlachev but when I got there I saw that an equal number of craft had launched from the opposite bank. Without saying anything, I returned to our side of the riverboat.
About that time, a bell started loudly ringing on deck and crew members started spilling out onto it. They were armed, but they were certainly a mixed lot. Some of them gripped their weapons – swords, axes, gaffs – like they had seen a scrape or two. Others looked almost paralyzed with fear, nervously shifting their weight back and forth on rubbery legs as they sweated and quaked. There would be some help there but not as much as I hoped there would be.
Anxo had drawn his bow and was waiting to fire until the boats made their way within range. It wouldn’t be very long, I imagined. The riverboat lurched under my feet and I almost lost my balance as it started negotiating a tight turn to the right. Of course, that put us closer to the right hand bank and the pursuit from that side. Once the turn was completed, we were facing the boats that had originally been on the other side of the ship and they were much closer than they had been. I heard the thump of Anxo’s bowstring followed by a curse from him. He had obviously missed, thrown off by the movement of the boat. The miss didn’t deter him from trying again, though. I heard him fire his bow over and over again. Some of his shots missed, but several didn’t, lodging in the bodies of the pirates who were trying to row after us. That clearly threw off their rhythm and one of the boats started falling behind.
The problem was the pair that did not fall behind. Being lighter and more agile, they started making up distance fairly quickly.
“I’m out of arrows,” I heard Anxo loudly announce.
The two closest boats quickly closed with us. Captain Benedek’s plan, which seemed so good at the time, was failing because even with all of our oars madly sweeping against the water, we were more ponderous than our lithe pursuers. One of the two closest boats drew even and then ahead of the prow of the riverboat. Then, whoever was commanding it had the bright idea of trying to cut in front of the riverboat in an attempt to force the vessel to turn, giving the boats from the other side time to catch up. What a stupid plan. Captain Benedek didn’t deviate from his course by a single degree. A loud crunching noise erupted from the front of the ship. Ramming speed, indeed.
The other boat was close to our side and was attempting to foul some of the oars we were using for propulsion. The pirates did manage to slow our progress a little bit, and then slid in closer to the riverboat. I saw them toss grappling hooks up into the oar ports and begin to climb.
Grabbing Xeng, Patrick and Bowen, I told them to follow me.
“Come on,” I said. “If they manage to board, the initial fight is going to be below decks.”
I had no idea how to get to where the fight was. I grabbed a member of the crew and demanded that he show us the way. It was one of the ones who didn’t look like he could fight, so it would be no big loss to the defense efforts. On the way past, I asked Aleyda to come with us, leaving Bowen to back up Sathebeena. Then we charged through corridors and down a narrow set of stairs into the area that held the rowers for this side of the vessel.
The sounds of combat echoed from ahead.