The Mercenaries - Ed Greenwood [13]
Belmer came back with another blazing load, dumped it into another boat, and rushed away again. There were four boats, but she could see ropes joining only three of them. Sharessa looked up and down the decks at her comrades bending to take the buckets Belgin was handing up to them. Should she say something? Rush to stop him?
What was it he'd said, along with trust*? Something about things not being as they seemed?
And then she let out her breath and relaxed; it was too late to do anything. He'd dumped something smouldering into the third boat-and bright fire leaped up!
Sharessa heard startled shouts from Ingrar and Brindra. They broke into a run, but someone-Rings- darted in from the side and ran under Brindra's legs, and she stumbled, crashed forward onto her face, and skidded along the deck. Rings popped up from the deck to grab Ingrar's wrist and spin him around-and that was all the time their employer needed.
Belmer was fumbling with his shirt, unbuckling something… Some sort of hidden pouch, low on his belly? Sharessa peered, and saw something gleam in the fat man's fingers: a glass vial.
The fat man bent over the three boats in turn, sprinkling something from the vial, looking for all the world like an old crone adding poison to her cooking pots. Whatever that powder was, it made the flames roar.
Belmer tossed the empty vial into one boat and ran for the nearest pry bar. Rings was already moving to another, though it was clear he'd have to leap high into the air even to grab hold of it.
Sharessa had a sudden vision of the dwarf kicking his legs vainly in midair, like a small child dangling from a swing, and burst into hysterical giggles even as she dropped the streaming hose to the deck and ran for the third pry bar herself.
They sweated and gasped and strained together, and then Anvil came out of nowhere to take the third pry bar and heave-and suddenly the boats were moving, slipping away down the greased ramps with perilous speed, rushing and-.
Were gone into the sea with a tremendous splash. They ran to the rail and looked down. Belmer spread his hands to shove Rings and Sharessa away from him. There was another vial in his hand. He unstop-pered it and then threw it, underhand and carefully- straight down into the middle boat.
The night erupted into towering sheets of flame, so hot and so sudden in their roaring birth from the pitching boats that everyone at the rail stumbled back, cursing and clapping their hands over their eyes-except Belmer, whose hand was already shielding his.
Night seemed to become day as the flames went white and spat sparks, and through the blinding brightness Sharessa saw Belmer running along the decks again. She trotted unsteadily after him, shaking her head to banish brilliant afterimages of searing flame.
The fat little man moved like lithe lightning now, wearing an air of command like a mantle. He was bound for the mainmast.
"Jander Turbalt," he snapped, as he slowed in front of the white-faced, sweating man who was bound there, "I want you to up sail, rouse your men, and find guts enough to stay aboard! You're safer obeying and keeping close than leaping into the endless sea, witless dog! We'll be your crew-but I want us out of here, straight out to sea, as fast and as quiet as you can take us? Understood?"
The terrified shipmaster gulped and stammered and nodded his head. Belmer whipped out his sword, and the captain's noises of assent rose into a terrified wail. The small man slashed once, his steel winking in the moonlight.
The captain's bonds fell free, and Turbalt followed them to the deck, pleading and groveling on his knees. Belmer hauled him to his feet and said something soft, level, and menacing. The shipmaster scuttled away down his still-smouldering decks like a shore crab fleeing the claw of a hungry bear. Anvil and a grim-looking Brindra were waiting for him.
Sharessa smirked as she watched him dwindle and then disappear into the tangle of ropes and bound sails in the forethroat. Then