Email:
Lespion@msn.com
Episode
II Return of the Dragon
Che
Sha tied the last of the logs in place.
She had been stranded on the island for several weeks waiting for
someone to come to her aid. It
was now apparent that there wasnt going to be any rescue, so she had
decided to take matters into her own hands.
How Granny Thorn and Uzon had communicated
with the mainland she had no idea.
She had searched the island for a boat, but there wasnt
one. Finding herself stranded
she had made the best of a bad situation.
Immediately after killing Granny Thorn and Uzon she had burned the
giants body by piling driftwood upon
it. Uzon was much too heavy for
her to place on the pyre so she had buried him in the wood and then added
the body of his mother. Granny
Thorns oil-soaked body burned well and Che Sha had kept adding wood
until nothing remained of either of the bodies except a pile of
ashes. She had also burned many
of the items in the cave home, including the skulls of the young women Uzon
had murdered. She had burned
them separately performing a Shang prayer ritual as she did so, and had carefully
collected the ashes for proper burial.
Granny Thorns and Uzons ashes she left to the wind to
eliminate.
Surviving on the island was not
difficult. The cave was well
stocked with food and all other items necessary for a comfortable existence,
and if she had been forced to she would have had little trouble collecting
clams, mussels, and crabs. However,
there was no way off the island, so she had decided to construct a
raft. Although she knew a little
about ships, Che Shas boatbuilding skills were
minimal. She could, however,
tie logs together. The problem
was that the unwieldy craft would be at the mercy of the wind and
waves. Although she had fashioned
a crude paddle it would be difficult for her to move the raft if the sea
decided to push it in the opposite
direction.
But she had little
choice. She could not wait on
the island forever and so she had built the
raft. She had waited until low
tide and then had worked feverishly throughout the day
assembling
it. She made it with about an
hour to spare. Placing a cask
of water on board along with several days food she waited until the
tide floated the raft and then pushed
off. The receding tide now carried
her out to sea. Using her
hand-crafted paddle she steered the raft toward the land, hoping that once
she cleared the lee of the island the waves would push her toward the
mainland.
She had a bout a league to go and for the
first part of the voyage things went
well. She had crossed about half
the distance when the raft was suddenly swept parallel to the coast by a
powerful offshore current. There
was nothing she could do to fight it and so she just let it take her where
it chose. As night closed about
her she clung to the raft and hoped that this time nature would be kinder
and deposit her on a shore where she might find refuge and perhaps someway
to be reunited with her friends.
Vayasha was roused from her exhausted sleep by violent
cursing. At first she was too
confused for the words to register, but then they slowly filtered into her
fogged brain. She became wide
awake at once.
Filthy
whores! If I ever catch those
silver-haired bitches Ill skin them
alive. But only after Ive
mounted them until they cant
walk.
Several other voices joined
in. Vayasha rolled to her knees
and peeked out from the cluster of rocks where she and her sister had
sheltered. Her gaze took in the
beach. Just thirty paces away
was captain Valjo, his red beard wagging as he cursed
enthusiastically. But there was
more than that. Standing beside
him was most of his crew and lying half in and half out of the water was
the ship on which she and her sister had been
imprisoned. It was considerably
the worse for wear, its sails hanging in rags and scarred with the marks
of fire. Its bow was buried in
the sand, the ship having apparently been deliberately run
aground.
She crouched down behind the rocks, thankful
that she and her sister had managed to hide
themselves. If the pirates had
found them
. She shuddered
to think what they would have done to her and
Shasara. She looked back to her
sister and was surprised to discover that Vayashas blue eyes were trained
on her. They had a strange look,
one that she had never seen before, but she seemed alert and the air of defeat
seemed to have disappeared.
Come, my sister, Vayasha said,
taking Shasaras arm.
We must get away from here before we are
discovered.
To her surprise Shasara pulled hr arm
away. No, she
replied. I will not
run. Those brutes defiled
me. They must be
punished.
But they are too many, Vayasha
protested, and we have no weapons.
We have your knife, Shasara said,
her eyes like steel. With
it we can get more.
Vayasha shook her
head. This is
madness. We must get away and
find proper shelter. We need
food and water. She ran
her tongue over her parched lips as if to emphasize her
point.
You go, Shasara said
quietly. I will
stay. I have unfinished
business.
One look at her sisters determined face
told Vayasha that she could not talk her out of her
stand. She seemed to have undergone
some sort of transformation; from a women dishonoured
and despairing, to an avenging spirit intent on destroying the men who had
soiled her virtue.
Alright, acquiesced
Vayasha. We will
stay. It never for a second
entered her head that she should leave her sister
alone. They would fight
together. If one of them died
then they would both die.
But could we wait for night before making our
move?
Shasara smiled, but it was a smile devoid
of warmth. She
nodded. Night then,
she agreed. And then we
make the pirates pay.
The crashing of surf alerted Che Sha to the
fact that the current that had swept her down the coast had released
her. She was being carried toward
the shore by the ingoing tide.
Unfortunately, it was a moonless night and her only way of detecting
the shore was the sound of the waves as they tumbled onto the
beach. Readying herself she
waited. Suddenly the raft was
lifted and then tilted sharply.
Clinging desperately to the ropes she held on for dear life as the
wave picked up the raft and hurled it toward the beach.
And then suddenly the wave broke, tilting
the raft to an impossible angle.
Unable to hold on she tumbled into the water realizing as she did
so that the overturning raft was likely to come down on her
head.
She dove deep, hoping that the raft would
overshoot her, but she was so close to shore that she slammed into the sandy
bottom. For an instant she almost
lost her breath, but although dazed managed to keep her presence of
mind. She was, however, now at
the mercy of the waves. The backwash
dragged her back out and then the next wave picked her up again and hammered
her into the shallows once again.
This time the breath was knocked out of
her. She swallowed water and
was dragged out once more, but this time fate intervened on her
side. The raft came up under
her and with a final rush hurled onto the beach, dumping her unceremoniously
onto the wet sand. She lay there,
coughing and sputtering for several hundred heartbeats, until finally she
revived enough to drag herself out of the
surf. Staggering forward, she
was about to head directly away from the water, when a glimmer of light caught
her eye.
A campfire, she
thought. It was a long way down
the beach, but it promised warmth and human
company. She staggered toward
it.
Fortunately she was not so stupid as the blunder
into the firelight without investigating.
It was well that she did not.
Dropping to her hands and knees, she crawled forward so that she could
see the people huddled around the fire.
They were about as foul a bunch of men as she had ever laid eyes
on. Pirates, she
thought. She
shivered. She had almost walked
right into their camp. She could
imagine how delighted the band of thugs would be to have an attractive young
woman stagger out of the darkness.
She changed direction and began to crawl toward a line of large boulders
at the back of the beach.
Gaining the shelter of the rocks, she got
to her feet and then was struck from
behind. The blow caught her at
the base of her skull. She fell
forward onto her knees and then a hand cupped her mouth preventing her from
crying out. The blade of a knife
touched her throat and she went still, realizing that the slightest move
would result in her throat being cut.
Then a familiar voice whispered in
amazement. Che
Sha! The knife was removed
and the person who had grabbed her took her in her
arms.
Vayasha, Che Sha
murmured. She clasped the Silvani
maiden. Where is
Shasara? Where is
Sha
zhu?
I am here, Shasaras voice
said. But we know nothing
of the Red Dragon.
Che Sha looked toward the
fire. Why are you
here? Those
men
We are here because we choose to be,
Shasara said. Her voice was flat
and unemotional, but Che Sha sensed there was something
wrong. She wished that she could
see the Silvani girls face.
She felt Vayashas had close on hers and give it a warning
squeeze. She suddenly knew without
being told that something terrible had
happened. Her mind immediately
went to her own ordeal, and knew intuitively that Shasara had experienced
something similar.
She looked toward the fire and the figures
gathered about it. I will
help, she said. She removed
her
zjin
ta
from her
belt.
Wait, said Vayasha, we are
weaponless. Our bows were taken
from us by the pirates.
Che Sha
nodded. Then I will get
you weapons. Without another
word she crept from the rocks and headed toward the
water.
It would actually have been better for one
of the Silvani maidens to be doing this, but she judged that Shasara was
probably not up to it and it would be better if Vayasha stayed with her
sister. However, Che Sha was
not entirely unskilled in the art of infiltrating an enemys
camp.
Sha zhu had been trained
as an assassin and she had passed on some of her skills to her
companions.
Che Sha splashed into the waters
edge. By now the tide was receding,
and the height of the waves was reduced.
Lying half in and half out of the water she eased herself closer to
the ship. In this position she
could easily make out the pirates gathered about the
campfire. Correspondingly, they
would be blinded by the light of their own
fire. Slowly she eased closer
to the ship until she was in the shadow of its
hull. Catching hold of a line
trailing into the water she pulled herself up the side until she was level
with one of the oar ports and insinuated herself through the
opening.
Peering toward the stern she noticed the
silhouette of a couple of men against the starlit
sky. Confident, however, that
she could not be seen in the waist of the ship, she moved toward the stern
cabins. With any luck she would
find what she wanted there and eliminate two members of the pirate crew at
the same time.
Entering the stern cabin she probed around
in the dark. In was almost pitch
black and she realized that although no one could see her, she couldnt
see anything either. However,
she had been on enough ships to find what she
needed. Hanging from the ceiling
in the centre of the cabin was a lantern.
Taking it down she took out flint and steel
and struck a light. The lantern
had shutters so that she was able to close off most off the light and shine
it where she needed it.
She was in the captains
cabin. She could tell that from
the size and the fine furniture.
Quickly she scanned the interior.
As she had hoped there was a collection of weapons, mostly swords
and knives secured in racks on one wall.
Then she saw something else, something that confirmed her suspicions
about what had happened to Vayasha and
Shasara. Secured to one of the
racks were two bows and their quivers of
arrows. She had seen that design
of bow before and knew who its owners had
been.
Scum, she
thought. Somehow Vayasha and
Shasara had been captured by the pirates.
She could imagine what might have happened to
them. Her thought went back to
what Uzon had done to her. She
wondered if it would have been worse for the two Silvani girls, surrounded
by several dozen pirates and perhaps raped by all of
them. A wave of anger swept over
her, but she kept calm. They
would be avenged, beginning with the two men on the deck above
her.
Slinging the two bows and quivers over her
shoulders she crept from the cabin.
She took her two razor edged weapons from her belt and started up
the companionway to the stern deck.
The two men standing there were so lax that they never even noticed
her until she was less than two body lengths
away. She killed them before
they were even certain of who she was.
Then, dropping over the stern of the ship she lowered herself into
the water. By now it was no more
than waist deep, and holding the bows over her head to prevent the strings
from getting wet, she waded away from the ship, and then once more concealed
by darkness, moved toward the shore and the hiding place of the two
girls.
Vayasha welcomed her into her hiding
place. My bow, she
said, running her hand lovingly over the heavy yew
stock. She handed the other to
Shasara who took it silently and immediately knocked an arrow to the
string. By the distant light
of the fire Che Sha could see her deadly determination.
We will take them from both sides at
once, Vayasha said. I
will move around to the rocks on the other side.
Shasara said nothing, which Che Sha took as
a sign of agreement. I
will go with you, she said.
The rocks on the other side are
closer.
Right, Vayasha
said. Give us five hundred
heatbeats, she said to Shasara.
Boriz Valjo tossed another log onto the
fire. He glanced back toward
the ship. Tomorrow he and his
crew would try to repair the damage the silver-haired bitches had caused.
He had no doubt that it was the
work of the two women he had captured.
Who else could it have been?
They had to be witches.
Weasel and Gorm had been
right. He should have had them
both thrown overboard.
Unfortunately neither of the two men had survived the fire that had
broken out. He had lost a dozen
men in that fiasco. Even worse
the fire had spread into the part of the hold where the brandy was stored,
completely consuming the high alcohol
brew. That had led to the loss
of half his crew as they had gone stomping off toward the nearest town in
search of drink. There was little
he could do about it. Part of
the pirate creed was the right to join or leave any ship as the crew members
saw fit. It was a part of pirate
tradition, but one that he found occasionally
frustrating. No doubt the lot
of them would be dead drunk by now and totally useless for the next few
days. He would have one demon
of a time refitting his ship.
He spat toward the
fire. He was a mite
thirsty. He had half a mind to
head into town himself. He bent
down to pick up another stick of wood to toss onto the
fire.
Wwzzzt! The
arrow passed so close to his head that the flights brushed his
hair. Instinctively he dropped
and rolled toward the shelter of a large driftwood
log. A scream told him that another
of his crew had not been so lucky.
Then there were several other
screams. The arrows came out
of the darkness like an angry swarm of
bees. Valjo guessed that his
men must be under attack by at least a dozen archers.
The loot, he
thought. Theyre after
the loot. The last voyage
had not been a particularly successful one; nevertheless the ship was loaded
down with goods stolen from several
victims. It would be worth taking
and it was almost certain that was what the attackers were
after.
He cursed to
himself. Half the crew was missing,
leaving the ship poorly defended.
The attackers must have seen the men march off and waited until
dark. Stupidly he had allowed
the crew onto the beach where they could have a fire rather than keeping
them on the ship where they would have some defence against a surprise
attack.
The arrows were not coming quite as quick
and fast now. That was because
most of the men who had been standing in the open were
dead. Whomever was out there
was damned good. Each arrow had
been a killing shot. Silhouetted
by the fire the crew had made perfect
targets.
A scream sounded from the
rocks. Die, pirate
scum. You will despoil no more
women.
The scream sent a chill through
him. Valjo suddenly realized
who was out there. It was the
two silver-haired witches. Through
some sort of supernatural means they had escaped, killing the men that guarded
them and setting fire to his ship.
Now, like demons they had come back to take further
revenge.
But, he realized, he had captured the two
witches before, and that meant they could be captured
again. He raised his head and
shouted to his men. Those that
were still alive in any case.
Its those whores we captured,
boys. Keep low and work your
way to the rocks. Well
flush them out.
Moving on his belly, Valjo followed his own
advice. A number of his man had
been killed, but the remainder still heavily outnumbered the two
witches. Even if they had somehow
found companions he should have more than enough men to flush them
out.
Moving into the rocks, he rallied a dozen
of his men about him. There were
a number of others close by, but they had not dared move from where they
lay for fear of receiving a feathered
shaft. Not all of the men he
had assembled had swords, but they all had
knives. It would be enough to
deal with the two witches who had ambushed
them.
By this time he had determined that the arrows
were coming from two different areas of the
rocks. One of the witches was
right above him and the other was about fifty paces
away. He took a knife in each
hand and got ready to charge. They
would take out the witch closest to them first and deal with the other
later.
He opened his mouth to order the attack and
then froze. In the light of the
fire he picked up a glimmer of steel.
He had just a heartbeat to realize that there was a dark figure moving
toward him and then he screamed as his guts spilled out of his
abdomen. He clutched at his entrails,
trying to stuff them back where they
belonged. In a red haze he realized
that there was considerable screaming all around him and then everything
slowly faded as he lost consciousness.
Burn it, spat
Shasara. Burn it and the
scum who sailed her.
It is full of valuable cargo,
Che Sha replied. Might
it not be better to turn it over to the nearby fishing
village? The people there would
benefit greatly.
Shasara did not answer, instead turning
away. Vayasha looked at Che Sha
and nodded. It was more than
obvious to Che Sha that Shasara had undergone some sort of
ordeal. The normally optimistic
and outgoing Silvani maiden was now withdrawn, but given occasional outbursts
that revealed her inner turmoil.
Considering where Che Sha had found the two girls she was quite sure
that she understood what had happened.
She and Shasara now had a common
experience. Sadly it was not
one that either of them would be comfortable talking
about.
Vayasha took her arm. Come, sister, she said addressing Che Sha by her honorific. We are best away from here. We still have to find Sha zhu.
PREVIOUS
CHAPTER WIZARD'S
LAIR MAIN PAGE
L'ESPION'S
STORY PAGE
NEXT
CHAPTER