Her legs were wobbly as Katrina climbed the stairs onto the main deck. She saw Elouise standing on the main deck with her crew. They were all looking at the same thing, and when she saw the grim looks on their faces, Katrina clenched the hilt of her sword tight. She realized now that most of what she said earlier had been bluster. Now that the prospect of a fight erupting seemed all too real, she was terrified and wanted nothing more than to retreat into the leaking hold. The hold was leaking! Perhaps it held the clue to how their vessel was being held, but even if it didn’t, it was surely something important enough to report.
Once she stepped onto the deck, Katrina turned around and saw that Gamlin’s Trading Post was built on almost every available square inch of a rocky outcropping in the middle of the sea. Her eyes widened in alarm as armed men began streaming like an army of angry ants out of the building and onto a floating wooden jetty. Some wore patchwork leather armour over their bare chests, but others were clad in steel. Standing at the fore was a short, squat man, who Katrina assumed was Gamlin. An ample gut poked up from his bright orange sea coat, which framed by his broad shoulders, made him look like a perfect cube topped by a jowly head.
Towering over him was a powerfully built man clad in thick steel armour which had been intricately etched with mesmerising patterns and finished with gold leaf. His helmet was tall, and its steel visor had been moulded into the shape of a man’s face depicting a furious grimace. A gold braid hung from each of his shoulders, identifying him as an officer of the Karru. When he saw Katrina, he lifted his visor to reveal a thin and severe face.
“The Empire Lives,” Cossus began.
“The Empire Lives,” Katrina said, feeling a twinge of embarrassment, and conscious of the bemused stares the Black Marlin’s crew were giving her.
One of the last Malcith Emperors had decreed it to be the formal method for loyal citizens of the Empire to greet one another. A cry of defiance against the erosion and breaking up of the once proud empire. The tradition had eroded to the point where it was only used amongst Malcith nobility, and even within those circles was said with a measure of derision when not in the presence of the Karru or the royal family.
“Princess Katrina,” his voice was rich and deep. “I’ve found you at last. Please stop this nonsense and come with me to the palace at once. Your father has promised that your punishment will not be severe if you return what you have stolen.”
Katrina felt accusatory glares on her from the Black Marlin’s crew. However, this wasn’t the time. Failure was out of the question. Not after all the sacrifices.
“There’s a leak in the hold,” she said tersely, deliberately choosing a path towards the prow that would take her past the captain. “That might be a clue in what’s dragging us in.”
Elouise nodded slightly and whispered orders to the crew and in the corner of her eye, Katrina saw Stolya and Croocq discretely slip below decks. She took a deep breath and continued her advance towards the prow. The sails had been lowered, and the Black Marlin seemed to protest as it was being dragged by an unseen force towards the jetty which was now less than two hundred yards away.
Katrina stepped arrogantly onto the prow and folded her arms across her chest. “What is the meaning of this, Cossus?”
The tall Karru stared back at her, unimpressed by her bravado. The only sound to be heard was that of the ripples in the water caused by the Black Marlin’s unnatural movement. Katrina was quickly overpowered by the intensity of the Karru captain’s gaze and averted her own. She then spotted something curious amongst the crush of men on the jetty. A dozen men were stripped to the waist putting their backs into a winch. That was probably connected to the mechanism that was hauling them in. If only they could damage it somehow.
“I know what you are trying to do, Princess,” Cossus said at length. “I admire your bravery, as does your father.”
“That’s a lie,” Katrina spat as she felt bitterness well up inside. “Father has not once looked fondly upon anything I’ve done.”
“However,” Cossus continued. “What you are doing is a fool’s errand. His Majesty has ordered me to bring you back alive for your own safety.”
“Vanham didn’t think it was a fool’s errand,” Katrina shot back, doing her best to ignore the dull thuds that were coming from below decks.
She was stalling for time and fervently hoped that Stolya and Croocq had discovered what was holding them and would deal with it quickly. They were now just over a hundred yards away from the jetty, and it would be all over once the armed men were able to board. There had to be at least sixty of them, while those on the Black Marlin numbered just seven.
The Karru captain’s face hardened, and several of the other steel clad warriors bristled when she uttered the name.
“Vanham Stophlin was an oath breaker who died in disgrace,” Cossus spat. “It’s a shame his line had to pay the price for his betrayal.”
It broke Katrina’s heart to hear her guardian being spoken of with such venom and was aghast to learn that his family had been punished. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew it was inevitable, for the Karru swore absolute fealty to the throne, and to break that oath meant that all living generations of his family, up to four times removed, would be put to death.
“He… he was your friend,” Katrina stammered. “You were practically brothers.”
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Something came loose below, and the vessel shuddered underfoot, and Katrina saw the men on the winch say something in alarm behind Cossus.
“A lapse in judgement on my part,” the Karru captain retorted, who hadn’t yet realized something was amiss. “I am grateful to King Cierno, long may he reign, for giving me the opportunity to right that wrong.”
One of the leather armour clad men rushed up to Gamlin and whispered into his ear. The rotund man wasted no time in barking, “Grapples, men! Archers, to the fore!”
“No archers!” Cossus roared. The giant of a man drew his sword, and Katrina held her breath, thinking for a moment that he would use it to cut Gamlin and his men down. She had no such luck, however, and he shouted, “The King wants her alive!”
“We don’t serve your king,” one of Gamlin’s men sniffed.
Cossus glowered down at the men. “You won’t get paid a penny if so much as a hair on her head is harmed. She is royalty, you maggot.”
“You heard his lordship,” Gamlin said sardonically as he pushed his way to the rear of the jetty. His voice was high and nasally. “Grapples! Prepare for boarding!”
“Prepare to repel boarders!” Elouise roared from the quarterdeck.
Gamlin’s men flung eight grappling hooks attached to ropes at the Black Marlin just as the vessel shuddered again. Free from whatever had grasped onto it, the black cutter came to a stop. However, the grappling hooks quickly found purchase on the gunwales as they were pulled taut by the crews on the jetty, and the Black Marlin began drifting towards it again at a quicker clip. However, Nismond, Logrin, and Croocq sprang forward armed with hatchets and hacked at the ropes. More grappling hooks caught the deck as Stolya and Kerran burst out of the hold.
“We’re still taking on water,” Stolya panted. The Marlin was lower in the water now. “But I thought we’d be needed up here.”
“Croocq, break out the oars!” Elouise roared.
“Captain, these ropes are already coming in faster than we can cut them!” the old man complained and weaved his head as a grappling hook came perilously close to landing on his head.
Sure enough, there were now twelve hooks connected caught on the gunwales with more coming in, though none landed around the prow where Katrina was standing for fear of hitting her. They were now forty yards from the jetty.
“Stolya, give us some breathing room!” Elouise barked.
The red haired young woman blinked her green eyes. “Are you sure, captain?”
Elouise smiled sadly from the quarterdeck. “I’m afraid our backs are against the wall here.”
Stolya swallowed and ran up to the prow. “Take this and make yourself useful!” she cried, pushing a hatchet into Katrina’s hands.
Katrina ran over to the closest grappling hook, but her swing went wild, and the hatchet splintered the wood of the gunwale. She cursed and was about to take another swing when she heard chanting from the prow. The words were alien to her, but they made her hair stand on end. She turned around to see Stolya standing on the prow with her hands held up in the air. She had taken her hat off, and Katrina could see that her red hair was streaked with blue. The wind began to swirl as her chant grew louder. There was electricity in the air, now, and Katrina felt a wave of nausea overwhelm her. Then, her nose began to bleed.
“She’s a witch!” Gamlin cried over the wind. “Archers, what are you waiting for?”
“But the Karru said…” someone began.
Without wasting a moment, Katrina ran back to the prow and placed herself between Stolya and the jetty. The archers who had taken aim hesitated for a moment. The Black Marlin was now only ten yards from the jetty. Boarding ramps had been readied and other, more intrepid men looked poised to jump aboard.
“Get down!” Elouise roared from the quarterdeck.
“Divine Wind cut down my enemies!” Stolya roared. Katrina felt the wind knocked out of her lungs as someone tackled her to the ground.
She scrambled back to her feet and saw that most of the men on the jetty had been swept into the sea. Those who remained had been clattered to the ground and looked dazed. She looked on in horror as one of the steel armoured Karru teetered on the edge of the jetty before plunging into the sea and sinking like a rock.
Stolya meanwhile, crumpled to the deck like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Katrina took her mind off the fate of her pursuers to rush to Stolya’s side.
“She’ll be fine!” Elouise roared. “Kerran, girly, cut us loose! Nismond, Logrin, man the oars!”
Katrina scrambled to comply and was quickly able to sever the thick ropes that were almost as thick as her arm with a single strike from her hatchet. Soon, they were free, and the oars bit into the water, propelling them away from the jetty.
“Kerran, Croocq, unfurl the sails! Girly, get below and check on the flooding!” Elouise roared as she turned the Black Marlin away from the jetty. “Step lively now!”
Katrina ran to the stairs and turned to descend when she spotted Cossus charging down the jetty. He ran past men who were still picking themselves up and hurtled towards the Black Marlin.
“Don’t do it!” Katrina cried.
The cutter was only eight feet from the jetty now, but the distance was beginning to grow. He would surely sink like a rock and drown if he missed the vessel, weighed down as he was in his steel armour. However, the risk of death by drowning didn’t seem to factor in the Karru captain’s mind as he leapt from the jetty. There was a surprising spring in his leap, given his age, and he managed to clear the distance to the Black Marlin and wrapped his fingers around the gunwale at the prow.
“Uncle Cossus!” Katrina bellowed as she ran to the prow.
Though he was here to capture her, Cossus and Vanham had both practically raised Katrina and the last thing she wanted was for him to die in agony. As she approached the prow, she could see that he was clinging on by his fingertips, unable to get enough purchase on the water slick wood of the gunwale to haul himself up. Just then, the Marlin’s sails were unfurled, and they caught the wind, causing the cutter to jerk forward. Cossus grunted from the sudden movement and his left hand came free. His right hand began to slip, but Katrina grabbed hold of it just in time to prevent him from falling into the sea.
“What are you doing, girly?” Croocq cried, aghast as he hopped down from the mast. “Those devils killed Brandir!”
“Don’t let him on board, you idiot!” Logrin added.
Katrina shut out their warnings and gritted her teeth as she pulled on the Cossus’ arm with all her might. However, the Karru captain was heavy, and all she could do was haul his hand to the gunwale. He gripped it and with a mighty effort, hauled himself on board.
“Uncle, please, let’s end this,” Katrina panted with tears in her eyes.
The heavyset man looked up at her and was about to speak when Nismond struck him across the back of the head with a belaying pin. The Karru captain’s steel helmet was the only thing that prevented the burly Nismond’s blow from cracking his skull like an egg. Cossus crumpled, and Nismond was quick to leap on top of him, pinning him to the deck with his tremendous weight.
“No, stop!” Katrina cried as he raised the belaying pin to deliver another blow.
“Keep him alive!” Elouise barked from the quarterdeck, and Nismond’s hand froze.
“That’s insane, captain!” Croocq protested. The old man had a hatchet in his hand and was eying Cossus’ prone form carefully.
“He could prove useful,” Elouise said. “Secure him and I’ll decide what to do with him once I’ve assessed our situation.”