Tangled webs - Elaine Cunningham [35]
The captain's reasoning proved prophetic. No sooner had he fmished speaking than the cog changed course. The heavy ship hurtled toward the Ruathen vessel at ramming speed, bowsprit leveled at them like the lance of a jousting knight.
"Take your positions, lads!" roared the captain with undisguised glee.
Such attacks were expected and anticipated, and every man leaped to the role that had been assigned him. Harreldson dropped the sail and joined several others at the oars. The ship was smaller and lighter than the attacking cog-a single collision could send the Elfmaid to the bottom of the sea. In such attacks, she was best served by her ability to change course quickly and by the fighting strength of her crew.
Fyodor snatched a large wooden shield from its hook on the forecastle. Five other men did the same, kneeling shoulder-to-shoulder to form a shield wall. Five more sailors, armed with arrows and longbows, dove for cover behind the wall. Liriel took her place at Fyodor's side, but her hands remained empty. Ifthe need arose, she had more powerful weapons to hurl.
The cog closed in fast, and the seal hunters' first volley of arrows clattered against the wooden shields. Hrolf's men returned fire; then the Elfmaid turned hard astern and darted past the onrushing cog. Before the merchant ship could change course, Hrolf's rowers spun the ship in a circle and brought her alongside the cog. Two of the pirates twirled ropes that ended with heavy grappling hooks, then let fly. Both of the hooks found purchase on the larger vessel. A seal hunter leaned out to cut the lines; his body fell into the sea, bristling with Ruathen arrows.
Then came the grating shriek of wood against wood as the ships struck, then rebounded. The rowers set their oars and took up weapons just in time. Three of the hunters leaped over the narrow expanse of water that separated the two ships.
Hrolf barreled toward the invaders, roaring, his arms spread wide. He caught them before they could get their footing, and all four men plunged, with a mighty splash, over the side.
"Take the fight to them, lads!" The captain's voice came to them from the water below. "No need to be getting blood all over the Elfmaid's clean deck!"
The pirates tossed boarding planks between the ships and began to swarm up the incline onto the cog. Weapons drawn, the more numerous hunters confidently awaited the pirates. Then, suddenly, the attackers' expressions of certainty melted into astonishment.
All of them had heard stories of Ruathym's berserkers, elite warriors who protected their homeland. Berserkers were never encountered at sea, much less aboard a pirate vessel. Yet the dark-haired warrior stalking toward them could be nothing less.
Fully seven feet tall, he brandished a black sword too large and heavy for most men to lift. There was an aura of magic about him, and his blue eyes burned with inner fire. Equally fearsome-and even more astonishing-was the drow female who followed the berserker like a small dark shadow. There was a long dagger in one slender hand, and a feral gleam in eyes as golden as those of a stalking wolf: The seal hunters' hesitation lasted but a moment, for their black-bearded captain spurred them into battle with the point of his own sword.
The berserker went straight for Captain Farlow, backhanding two pirates out of the way with the flat of his blade as he strode up the boarding plank. He leaped onto the deck of the cog, swinging his black sword downward in a sweeping cut as he came.
Farlow snapped his sword up high to block the attack. His was a fine weapon-a hand-and-a-half sword of dwarfforged steel, tested in two decades of mercenary fighting. The berserker's blade shattered it and sent deadly shards flying. Faster than Farlow would have believed possible, the berserker reversed the direction of