Pool of Radiance - James M. Ward [117]
"Hey, it's all right, Tarl. Are you sure you're okay now? Really okay?"
"I… I guess I am." Tarl held his hand out to Shal and started to stand. "I feel completely rested, as if I hadn't used my clerical powers in days. I'm just jittery from the nightmare. Is your shoulder all right?"
Shal didn't get a chance to answer because both she and Tarl turned as one when the captain shouted, "Sail's loose again!" and they leaped like a team for the wayward piece of cloth. Unfortunately the winds were wilder than they had been, stirred even at this distance from the whirlwind force Shal had generated, and the sail flapped high, slapping loudly against itself. It slipped teasingly down and then flapped up again before they could catch it.
It took several tries before Shal caught hold of the sail. Tarl retied the knot, and they went to the bow of the boat, where Ren was securing another guy wire at the captain's direction. As before, once the sail was secured, it filled gloriously, and the small ship scudded forward at a brisk pace.
The captain had steered wide to avoid the still-blackened waters at the mouth of the Stojanow River, and now the ferry was finally approaching the opposite shore.
"You'll be wantin' to debark in a hurry," said the captain, addressing Ren. "You can be certain if a ship of the Black Watch goes down, there'll be more followin'. There's no way I can anchor. I'm afraid that horse is gonna break a leg tryin' to make it down to the water. How'd it get on here, anyhow?"
"The same way he'll get off," answered Shal, pointing to the cloth at her belt.
I'll try the gangplank, the horse argued.
And what? Dive off it? Shal pursed her lips, stared him down, and pointed once more. With no further complaints, Cerulean dove in.
"Well, I'll be!" The captain looked in awe at Shal. "I thought that little storm ye whipped up was pretty fancy, but makin' a horse disappear into your belt-well, that's some magic!" He wagged a finger at the three of them and said, "Now, get offa my boat while the gettin's good. The water here should be about ten foot deep, so its safe to dive."
Shal quickly added some of their gear to the Cloth of Many Pockets, then she, Ren, and Tarl dived overboard and swam for shore.
The captain had already turned the ferry away and was well out in the water before the three even made it to the rocky beach.
"So what now?" Shal pulled off her soaked leather boots and stood in a sandy section of the boulder-strewn beach. "We got out of the city, but the captain was right. The Black Watch will be after us again. And you can be sure they'll let Cadorna know we're alive. We're not accomplishing anything sitting on this beach."
"You're right. We need to get away from the beach," said Ren. "We'll go north and west, toward the graveyard. We'll rest for the night, and then we'll help Tarl get his hammer back."
"No," said Tarl softly.
"I understand," said Ren. "If you aren't ready, I have my own sights set on Valjevo Castle and that gutless monster that sends out assassins to murder women." Ren wiped his salt-caked lips on his sleeve.
"No," Tarl said again. "I'm ready. What I mean is that you won't go with me. I'm the one who lost the hammer, and I'm the one who's going to go get it."
"Be realistic, Tarl," Shal protested. "Just because you're a cleric doesn't mean you have to be a martyr!"
Ren walked around in front of Tarl, put his big hands on his friend's shoulders, and gently pushed him back until he could sit him down on one of the boulders on the beach. "Shal's right. Anyhow, we've been through all this before."
The three argued heatedly until finally Tarl agreed to let Ren and Shal go with him. Since none of them wanted to sit in wet clothes with dusk setting in, waiting for soldiers to follow, they hiked inland, wide of the river, until they were a short distance from the graveyard, in a place with sufficient brush and cover to set up camp. Shal made