Chapter
19: The Slave Ship
Shailaja fought to control
the heaving of her guts. It had
taken barely half a turn of the glass for the ugliness of seasickness to
return. However, her current
circumstances promised little hope for improvement.
She was placed at the end
of a long chain connecting her to the rest of the female
slaves. Her position at the end
of the chain along with Vasanta and several of the more attractive women
seemed quite ominous. Although
she could understand nothing of the language the slavers spoke, the way they
had looked at her and Vasanta spoke volumes for their
intentions. They had now been
at sea for what she guessed was half a
day. It was hard to tell time
in the dark bowels of the ship, but they had not yet been brought food or
water so she guessed they had not been under way for very
long.
She and the other slaves
had been brought aboard in chains, each connected to the woman next to
her. Once aboard the ship they
had been paraded across the deck to a dark hatchway and then forced to descend
a ladder to the lower levels of the ship.
With each slave chained to the other, climbing down the steep ladder
had not been easy, but somehow they made it with only one or two of the women
slipping as they came down. By
some minor miracle no one suffered more than a few cuts and
bruises. Once in the lower hold
they had been herded to the starboard side of the ship and placed along it
in two rows facing one another. The
slavers had made sure that they would stay there by running a length of chain
through a single shackle on each of their ankles and locking it to a large
padlock attached to a heavy staple at the end of the
line. It was a somewhat lengthy
process, but most of the women were thoroughly cowed and there were enough
slavers to make sure that they behaved while they were
chained.
The place where they had
been chained was so cramped that Shailaja could almost touch the feet of
the woman across from her. In
confined space of the hold she counted one hundred and forty
women. It reminded her very much
of the way pigs were crowded together in the back of a wagon on the way to
market.
The male slaves, including
Guered, were placed on the opposite side of the ship and secured in the same
way. It made for horribly crowded
conditions that soon got worse.
Unable to move from where they had been placed, there was no choice
for any of the slaves but to fowl the area where they
sat. Shailaja and Vasanta managed
to hold out, but few of their fellow slaves lasted
long. Soon the hold stank of
urine and feces.
Shailaja made her own
contribution to the stench, heaving the contents of her stomach between her
legs. It made for an utterly
miserable situation and one that Shailaja vowed would not last
long. However, in spite of the
misery of her situation she knew that he could not act
immediately. First she had to
wait until the slavers performed an expected task.
She had to wait until nightfall,
a time of day that was revealed only when the hatch leading to the main deck
was opened. Four men descended
the ladder, but before they did they lowered two large sacks and two wooden
buckets. Reaching the bottom
of the ladder, two of them picked up the sacks and the other two the
buckets. Then they paired off,
one man with a bucket and one with a sack going to each side of the
ship.
As Shailaja had expected
the sack contained food, in this case a half loaf of hard bread; and the
bucket water. She knew from past
experience that she would not be able to keep the bread down and gave her
share to Vasanta and the woman next to
her. She was able to swallow
some of the water before the slaver serving her moved
on. He said something, grinning
lasciviously as he did so. Shailaja
understood not a word, but his meaning was clear enough from the way he looked
at her and Vasanta. It was obvious
that she and her companion, along with a few of the other young women were
to provide entertainment for the crew.
However, she had her own ideas about that.
She waited until the slavers
had returned to the main deck and closed the
hatch. Although she was now in
complete darkness, she knew what she was
about. She stretched her right
arm along the chain as far as she could reach, eventually locating the heavy
padlock. Had she not been so
long-limbed she would not have been able to reach it, but it was something
that the slavers had overlooked and Shailaja took full advantage of
it. She also took advantage of
what she had managed to palm while on the stone
dock. When forced to her knees
by the slavers she had knelt upon a sharp
object. Disguising her pain she
had ignored it until ordered to her feet; then she had quickly picked it
up.
Her acquisition was unobserved
and she later discovered that she had managed to find a copper
nail. It had not injured her
seriously and she was able to conceal it from her
captors. Now she went to work
on the heavy padlock that was connected to the chain about her
neck.
It was not a complicated
lock, but Shailaja had not done much in the way of picking locks during her
career. However, she had seen
others work on similar locks when she had been part of the mercenary band
she had followed for three years and she was aware of the general
principles. One member of the
band in particular, a dark-haired Arkanian called Trelg, had exhibited special
skill with locks, although he was pretty much useless on the
battlefield. However, she and
the other members of the band had found it quite convenient to have him along
when it came to opening the heavy iron-bound strongboxes many wealthy merchants
possessed.
She had watched with interest
as he quickly opened even the most complex locks and remembered some of the
techniques he employed. The heavy
padlock she was trying to open was not nearly as complicated as her
companion-in-arms had overcome, but she did not come close to possessing
his level of skill. However,
she remembered to bend the end of the nail in order to trip the lock
mechanism. She also remembered
that Trelg sometimes worked with two or even three lock-picks at
once. Her bent nail did not measure
up to that, but it would just have to do.
She soon found that picking
locks was not nearly as easy as Trelg had made it
look. Stretching as far as she
could barely allowed her to reach the
lock. She worked the nail in
the lock mechanism hoping to hear the click that would tell her she had
succeeded. However, her first
attempt at lock-picking turned out to be incredibly
frustrating.
Again and again she twisted
her makeshift pick in the lock, and again and again she
failed. Stretched as far as she
could reach, she quickly found the work exhausting, and even with her great
strength she had to frequently stop and
rest. But she kept at it knowing
that this might be her only chance of
escape. If the slavers had planned
for her what she thought they did she would be far too busy
entertaining them to have any chance of
escape.
Patiently she worked at
the lock, refusing to give in to
frustration. In this her experience
as a hunter helped her to control her
temper. There was no point becoming
angry because a fish would not take her hook or a deer would not come within
range of her arrow, and there was no point in raging against the stubbornness
of a lock either.
Her nude body was soon dripping
with sweat, her unbound hair clinging to her
body. Her arm felt as if she
had been swinging a blade all day, her shoulder aching with the strain of
keeping her arm extended, but she kept at it, trying to find the elusive
combination that would spring the
padlock.
How many turns of the glass
it took she had no idea, but the only sounds other than the weeping and moaning
of the other women were those that the ship made as it slapped into each
swell.
By now the stench of the
lower hold was becoming distinctly rank.
The odour of sweat, vomit, urine, and feces made the air into a soup
that Shailaja could barely draw into her
lungs. It gave her an added incentive
to succeed at her task, provided success was even remotely
possible. And that was the
difficulty. Picking the lock
with her crude instrument might be beyond her ability and as the night wore
on and the sweat rolled down her body and her muscles strained to continue
her task she began to despair that she would have any
success.
In spite of her exhaustion
and her doubts Shailaja kept at her repetitive task, twisting the thin piece
of metal within the lock until finally, and by now unexpectedly, there was
the welcome click of release and the padlock fell
open. Hardly daring to believe
her luck, Shailaja grasped the padlock and released the end of the chain
that held her and then turned to Vasanta.
The Nahn princess has waited
patiently while Shailaja worked on the lock, stretching her own chain as
far as it would go in order to give Shailaja the slack she needed to reach
the padlock. Now she quickly
pulled the chain through the link that held it to the heavy shackle on her
right ankle. She could not remove
the shackle, but she could free herself from the
chain. Once free she got to her
feet and stretched her cramped muscles.
The woman next to her began
to pull the chain through her shackles.
The chain rattled against the metal, but Vasanta doubted that the
noise could be heard above the noise of the ship by any of the
slavers. What she did hear was
Nardas voice.
What are you doing?
she asked out of the darkness.
How did you manage to get
free? Dont you know we
will be punished for removing the chain?
Vasanta ignored her and
tried to remember if there was anything in the hold that might be used as
a weapon. She doubted that there
would be and her chances of finding anything in the stygian darkness was
quite remote.
She remembered that as they
had climbed down the ladder into the lower hold they had passed another deck
that was directly above the place where she was
now. It too had been filled with
slaves, mostly men, but she recalled seeing a heavy door toward the
stern. It was possible that she
might find something useful there, provided she could open
it.
Narda was whining
again. Well all get
our ears cropped for this.
Thats what the Seldarians
do. Put the chain
back.
Vasanta realized from the
noise around the heavyset woman that she was preventing the other women from
freeing themselves. Stumbling
slightly she found her way toward the sound of the
altercation. She couldnt
see Narda, but she could hear her well
enough. From the sounds of struggle
she determined that she was on her feet and battling with the other women
who had been freed.
She positioned herself as
well as she could and then called out.
Get away from her, I will deal with
this. She waited a few
seconds and then moved forward. It
didnt take her long to find Narda, in fact the woman foolishly helped
her.
Come on you black-haired
bitch. You redheaded friend
isnt here to help you now.
Vasanta moved toward the
voice. She extended one arm and
touched flesh. Narda reacted
immediately gripping her arm and pulling her
closer. Got you bitch,
she shouted triumphantly.
Vasanta made no effort to
escape instead she allowed herself to be pulled foreword and then she slammed
her elbow into the space where she judged Nardas face would
be. Her elbow came into contact
with something hard. There was
a crunch and a scream of pain as she broke Nardas nose and sent her
tumbling hard against the side of the
ship.
If youre going
to pick a fight you should learn how, you big cow, Vasanta
mocked. Now shut up or
Ill kill you.
Nardas agonized yells
quickly diminished and Vasanta hoped that if the slavers heard it they would
take it for nothing more than one of the slaves screaming in despair.
Her warning seemed to have an
affect of the other women as well.
Most of them stopped their moaning and the only sound was that of
the chain as it was dragged through the iron ring on their
shackles.
On the other side of the
ship Shailaja had managed to make her way to the
padlock. The man at the end of
the chain did not speak her language or the Common Tongue, but he seemed
to understand what she was doing and whispered something to the man next
to him. The message went down
the line as she worked on the padlock.
Being able to stand made the work considerably easier, even if the
heaving of the ship and her seasickness attempted to distract her from her
task.
Whether her skill had improved
or if she was just luckier this time the work on the lock went much
faster. The padlock clicked open
and she removed the chain and then waited while the men did the
rest. She didnt know how
far down the line Guered was, but she decided to wait for
him. If it came to a fight he
was highly skilled and she knew none of the qualities of the other male
slaves.
Shailaja, Vasanta,
is that you? The voice
came from the darkness.
It is, Shailaja
answered. Have you any
notion as to where we might find weapons?
I know nothing of ships.
I suspect they are
kept topside, Guered answered, moving
closer. Was it you who
released us?
It was, Shailaja
replied. I thought to wait
for you and then free those on the deck above
us. However, I do not wish to
raise the alarm and they are much closer to the main
deck.
I will go with you,
Guered asked. I know something
of the languages of western Vedra.
He spoke to some of the other men who had freed themselves; first
in a language similar to that of Thar and then in another she did not
understand.
I have told the men
we plan to free those on the deck above us before we move against the crew
and they have agreed to wait. So
far we are fortunate that no one has raised the
alarm. Reaching the main deck
may present something of a problem as the hatchways are
locked.
Yes, Shailaja
agreed. She had already thought
of that. Being free meant very
little if the crew could keep them bottled up below deck and deny them food
and water. Somewhere on the ship
must be a place where the stores were
kept. She suspected it was behind
the bulkheads at either end of the slave compartment as the space the slaves
had been squeezed into was far too small to account for the full length of
the ship.
His explanation finished,
Guered followed Shailaja to the ladder leading to the deck above
them. She located it without
too much difficulty as she had stumbled into it on the way to free Guered
and the other male slaves. It
was just a matter of fumbling her way back through the dark until she once
again found the rungs of the ladder.
Then she and Guered climbed to the second
level.
Once there Guered spoke
quietly to the slave on the end of the chain, explaining what they were going
to do; then he whispered to Shailaja.
How did you release the padlock?
I used this,
she answered, pushing the bent nail into his hand.
Now I am even more
impressed, Guered commented.
I had no idea you were so skilled.
I am not, Shailaja
confessed. If you can do
better, you are free to try.
I do have some skill
in that area, Guered said modestly.
He applied himself to the padlock and in what to Shailaja seemed an
astoundingly short time he had it open.
They then felt their way to the other side of the ship and released
the women slaves.
That left every man and
woman below the main deck free of their chains, but they were in no way free
of the slavers. There was still
the matter of making their way to the deck and seizing control of the ship,
something that Shailaja had already determined was going to be more difficult
to achieve than she had hoped.
While Guered was busy with the padlocks she had climbed the ladder
to the deck hatch and found it firmly
closed. Somehow she had to find
a way to open it or being free of her chains would be
irrelevant. However, she already
had a couple of ideas.
The simplest was to simply
wait until one of the crew opened the
hatch. If she was ready she could
push her way to the deck before the unsuspecting crew knew what was going
on. With numbers on their side
it would not matter if they had no arms they would simply overwhelm the crew
and take possession of the ship.
That optimistic plan, however,
was shattered within a few heartbeats of the
thought. Up on deck a bell began
ringing wildly and loud shouts showed that someone had determined that the
several hundred slaves were no longer locked into their
shackles. These alarms were followed
by the sound of running feet as the crew as the crew responded to the
emergency. There was now no easy
way to the deck.
However, Shailaja had another
plan; one that made use of the large number of
slaves. There was just one problem;
getting the other prisoners to accept her
authority. Nude and without weapons,
Shailaja had only her imposing height and sheer physical presence to influence
the other prisoners. But she
knew that they did not have unlimited
time. A shift in the angle of
the deck told her that the ship had turned; no doubt heading back to the
kingdom of the lizards.
However, there was no way
of convincing anyone of anything in the darkness of the
hold. She would have to wait
until morning and hope that when she was able to se the other prisoners and
they could see her, that she would be able to convince them to follow her
plan. In the meantime all she
could do was explain her idea to Vasanta and Guered.
It turned out her decision
to speak with Guered solved most of her
concerns. It is a good
idea, Guered said. I
will see what I can do to get things organized.
Somewhat to Shailajas
displeasure Guered somehow managed to organize the freed prisoners before
morning. That bastard must
have a tongue coated with honey, Vasanta
mused. But it is well that
he has saved us the trouble of beating sense into the heads of this
rabble.
Shailaja had to
agree. Much as she hated to admit
it, there was something about Guered that enabled him to convince others
to do his bidding. As the light
of day began to filter through the gratings of the deck hatches her plan
was ready to put into motion.
It was a simple idea really,
which was why even the motley assortment of prisoners was able to carry it
out. Shailaja doubted that there
were more than a half dozen warriors among the three hundred or so slaves
packed into the hold, but their numbers more than made up for their fighting
ability; and they also provided the muscle her plan
required.
The freed slaves dragged
the four heavy lengths of chain that had been used to shackle them to the
base of the ladders below the hatches that led to the main
deck. There were three of these
hatches; one fore, one aft, and one
amidships. Shailaja climbed the
centre one and pushing the chain through the grating pulled it back through
and secured it using one of the padlocks.
The chain, which was already held by half the prisoners, was then
pulled tight. Heaving hard they
put all of their strength into it in an attempt to tear away the locked
hatchway.
Had the members of the
ships crew been alert to such a plan they could have stopped it easily
simply by placing a square of canvas over the grating, but it had not occurred
to any of them that the escaped slaves might have the imagination to devise
a way out of the hold. And once
the chain was in place it could not be
removed.
While the crew was distracted
by the efforts at the main hatch two more chains were secured to the fore
and aft hatches. Vasanta put
one of them in place, and the other was fastened by one of the male slaves,
a powerfully built man who handled the heavy chain with
ease.
With a crash the first hatch
gave way and Shailaja clambered up the
ladder. She was faced by most
of the crew, but within a few heartbeats there were two more grinding crashes
as the other two hatches gave way.
It forced the crew to divide its defence, leaving a smaller number
to face Shailaja. It should have
been enough if the men had been any sort of real
warriors. Shailaja was unarmed
and she faced a dozen or so armed men, but they had never faced a Kaltaran
warrior in battle before and were unprepared for the suddenness and the ferocity
of her attack.
Naked and still suffering
the effects of seasickness, Shailaja was nonetheless possessed by the fire
of battle. She surged up the
ladder, climbing as easily as if it had been a grand
staircase. The slaver standing
closest to the opening took a cut at her head as she emerged from the
opening. He was armed with a
heavy curved sword that would have split her skull to the chin if the blow
had landed, but Shailaja caught his wrist and using her strength along with
the impetus of her assailants body pulled him toward
her. The action served two purposes;
preventing for a heartbeat any further strikes by the other men clustered
around the opening, as such an action would have resulted in them striking
their own comrade. It also sent
the man plunging down the open hatchway and into the bowels of the ship,
the fall serving to render him out of action even if he had not landed in
to midst of dozens of ex-slaves who quickly put him out of his
misery. But he did not fall with
the weapon he had used against Shailaja.
She had twisted it from his grip as he fell, and now armed she charged
into her enemies.
The slavers must have thought
themselves attacked by a demon as they backed away from her with cries of
terror, as she whirled, clearing a space about herself with the edge of her
sword while at the same time ripping open the throat of one of her adversaries
and taking off the hand of another.
Realizing that the only chance she had against so many, she continued
her attack, driving straight at the men closest to
her. They cut at her frantically
with their swords, but she deflected one blow with her own blade, sidestepped
another, and drove her left fist into the face of third
man.
By now the rest of the freed
slaves were clambering out of the
hatchway. In spite of his wounds
Guered was the next one out, and snatching up a sword one of Shailajas
opponents had dropped he quickly entered the
fray. He was followed by several
more men. At the other end of
the ship, Vasanta had emerged from the forward hatchway and was leading her
band into battle while at the same time other freed slaves charged out of
the aft hatch.
It was all a bit too much
for the slavers. Abandoning any
attempt to fight they fled for the stern castle, even the steersman deserting
his post and joining the others. It
left the freed slaves in charge of the ship, with the minor problem of what
to do about the captain and crew of the slave
ship.
Shailaja surveyed the
situation. They revolt had shed
very little blood other than the few she had killed and wounded and few of
the slaves who had been injured except in the mad scramble to the
deck. It seemed an overwhelmingly
successful uprising. However,
the moment of triumph lasted only a few heartbeats.
Theres another
ship, screamed one of the women.
And its coming this way.
Every head turned in the
direction she was pointing. And
found that she had understated the
situation. Two ships could be
seen moving toward them.
Shailajas keen eyesight detected the glint of metal indicating
that these were more than just a couple of slaver ships coming to the aid
of a stricken companion. Behind
the ships was the mountainous coastline of western Vedra and, Shailaja supposed,
the port where she had been taken on board the slave
ship.
The sight of the other vessel
caused a minor panic among the other freed
slaves. Once again Nardas
voice was raised in angry denunciation of the uprising.
I told you that we would
be punished, she shrilled.
Surrender now and we might not be punished too
badly.
Ill tell you
what, Vasanta raged.
You surrender.
I will stand and
fight. Typically, she acted
as she spoke, striding over to the hulking
woman. Although still naked,
she was no longer defenceless, holding a sword she had taken from one of
the slavers. Narda backed away
from her, and snatched up a belaying pin.
Come no closer,
Narda warned, or Ill crush your
skull.
Vasanta laughed and stepped
forward. Narda swung wide her
club, but the Nahn princess ducked under the blow and using the guard of
her sword, staggered the larger woman with a blow to the
jaw. Narda swayed and almost
fell, but Vasanta caught her, twisted her right arm behind her and shoved
her hard against the rail. The
impact pitched the woman half over the side and Vasanta helped her the rest
of the way by lifting her heels and giving her a quick
heave.
Your friends are over
there, Vasanta jeered, gesturing with the sword toward the approaching
ships. Swim over to them
if you wish to surrender.
Her violent act eliminated
any more talk of surrender, but it did nothing to solve the problem of the
approaching ships. The vessel
the ex-slaves now controlled was drifting without any control, its sails
fluttering idly in the wind. Just
as important, Guered had found that before fleeing to safety the two slavers
in charge of the steering oars had released them from their pinnings and
dropped them into the sea. Even
if the ship could be brought under control there was no way of steering
it.
It looks like we
fight, Shailaja said.
Lets see if we do something about getting hold of a few
weapons.
Still nude but brandishing
one of the few swords, Shailaja moved toward the stern castle of the
ship. Inside was the captain
and crew and she guessed the ships store of
weapons. It was simple matter
to organize a few of the ex-slaves who were milling about the deck into a
squad capable of battering down the door through which the crew had
fled.
Her actions against the
slavers had given her a certain authority among the ex-slaves and she had
little difficulty convincing several of them to help cut loose one of the
spars and utilize it as a battering ram.
The fact that the heavy timber was important in the sailing of the
ship seemed irrelevant since there was no way of controlling
it.
Maneuvering the heavy timber
into position the team Shailaja had assembled swung it against the door to
the captains cabin. In
spite of its solid construction the door lasted only a few blows before its
planks splintered and it was smashed
open. That left the way clear
for Shailaja to move against the demoralized defenders on the other side.
The narrow opening to the
captains cabin forced her to go one-on-one against anyone inside, however,
she quickly found that few of the slavers had the nerve to face
her. Within a few heartbeats
they had thrown down their weapons and placed themselves at the mercy of
those they had enslaved.
Unfortunately those they
had enslaved were not inclined to be particularly charitable and within a
few heartbeats of surrendering all of them joined
Narda. Shailaja was somewhat
disturbed at so ruthless an action, but she was not particularly inclined
to interfere on the side of slavers, and the action took place so quickly
she could not have saved them all in any case.
Guered too was somewhat
irked at the action. They
might have been useful to us as hostages.
If those ships are what I think they are we will wish we had kept
them.
Shailaja looked toward the
approaching vessels. To her one
ship looked pretty much like another, but even she could see that these ships
seemed a little sleeker than the one she was on and they had raised platforms
on the bows that resemble something with which she was
familiar.
Her guess proved right as
the ships moved even closer.
Catapults.
They dont even have to close with
us. They can bombard us from
a safe distance and we cant fight
back. She made known
her fears to Guered, who agreed with her.
But he did add one point she had not considered.
I doubt that they
will try to sink us, Guered
observed. The ship is worth
much gold. And each of us is
valuable as well. However, a
few well placed shots with that a catapult will have most of our companions
clamouring for surrender.
Dont they fear
punishment? Shailaja asked.
She could full understand how the ex-slaves might not wish to fight,
but surely after what they had done to the slavers they could expect no mercy
if they were recaptured.
They fear death
more, Guered replied.
And dont forget that each of us is
valuable. If we are recaptured
an example might be made of a few of us, but the rest will be spared so that
they can fetch their proper amount of gold.
It took little imagination
to realize who would be singled out for
punishment. Shailaja and Vasanta
were clearly the ringleaders in the slave revolt and she had little doubt
that the other slaves would single them out if they thought it might in any
way save their skins. Her
prognostication was proven correct a half turn of the glass later when the
closest of the pursuing ships began to hurl heavy stone balls toward
them.
With their own ship drifting
helplessly they were unable to flee or fight back and when one of the heavy
stone balls slammed amidships, scattering splinters everywhere and injuring
two of the men, most of the ex-slaves panicked, many heading below decks
to where they had only recently been chained while still others shouted for
surrender.
This wont do,
muttered Shailaja.
Theyll keep it up until we
surrender.
She had little hope that
any of the ex-slaves other than Guered and Vasanta might stand with her to
fight. Even organizing them would
be difficult given the fact that she did not speak their
language. However, there was
one who did and she quickly explained a spur of the moment plan to
Guered.
It might work,
Guered agreed. Not that
we have much of a choice, given the circumstances.
It took a quarter turn of
the glass to implement, Shailajas
plan. Most of the involved finding
enough men who would actually fight.
Fortunately, it turned out that there were a few warriors among the
ex-slaves; enough to use the weapons they had taken from the
slavers.
In all they ended up with
around fifty men of dubious military skills, but they agreed to the plan
Guered explained to them and took their positions as the warship that was
bombarding them closed the distance.
Her plan counted on the
fact that the approaching enemy would expect the ex-slaves to act in a manner
typical of those slaves they usually took
captive. In other words she hoped
that they would expect the usual frightened and unresisting victims they
favoured.
Shailaja hid in the stern
compartments of the ship with twenty-five
men. In the bow Vasanta led a
similar number. Completely at
the mercy of the closing warships they could do nothing but wait and hope
that their plan would work.
Waiting, Shailaja had learned,
was one of the most difficult of military
skills. With every instinct she
wanted to rush out on deck and confront her enemies, but she knew that would
be fatal. She and her companions
had no defence against the catapults of the
enemy. To show themselves would
be to invite slaughter.
And so they hid and waited,
hoping that their ruse would lure the enemy close enough that they would
have some chance against him. Even
that chance was slim. The fighters
Shailaja had gathered gave her little
confidence. It appeared that
most of them had some knowledge of arms, but none other than Vasanta and
Guered had the level of skill she
possessed. She would have to
hope that their opponents would be unprepared for the ambush she had
planned.
As she crouched in the darkness
of the captains cabin Shailaja noticed one little bonus associated
with her recent activity. Gone
was the seasickness that seemed to plague her on every
voyage. She hadnt been
aware of it from the time she had freed herself from her
shackles. It was a welcome change
and one she hoped would continue after she had defeated the
slavers.
It did not occur to her
that she would lose the battle.
Desperate as her situation was, she had never gone into any battle
expecting to be defeated. She
would fight and she would win. As
the ship shuddered from the impact of the warship coming alongside the ship
that hid her Shailaja readied herself for her surprise
attack.
She waited until the thump
of boots on the deck told her that the soldiers of the warship had begun
to board before giving the signal.
The plan she had worked out with Vasanta and Guered was that they
would allow a few of the enemy to get aboard and then attack before they
had a chance to organize. She
would attack first, the sound of her battle cry signalling
Vasanta.
All things considered, it
wasnt much of a plan, but it was the best one she could come up with
under the circumstances especially considering the quality of the forces
she led. She waited a few more
heartbeats and then bursting through the door of the cabin, shouted her battle
cry and charged onto the deck.
There had been no time to
find suitable attire and there was nothing aboard the ship that passed as
armour so Shailaja was dressed as she had been when she seized the
ship. Whether it was her
blood-curdling scream or the sight of a six-foot-six redheaded and nude barbarian
charging across the deck toward them, the men boarding the slave ship froze
as she charged toward them. They
gaped at her in stunned amazement as she reached the first of
them.
It took the death of two
of them before they reacted and by that time Shailaja was well among
them. She had seen as soon as
she emerged from the captains cabin that the foe she faced was both
more numerous and better armed than the men who stood with
her. With some surprise she saw
that many of those who had boarded the ship were the lizards who had taken
her prisoner in the first place.
But that fact did not slow her
attack. Sacrificing her safety
in order to deliver maximum impact she struck right to the centre of her
opponents cutting to the right and left with her blade, each blow taking
out an enemy.
The attack had the desired
result, throwing her adversaries into complete
disarray. Confused by her assault
the enemy soldiers slashed desperately at her, but Shailaja was not quite
so easy to hit. She carried in
her left hand a belaying pin which she used to deflect several of the blows
aimed at her. In her other was
the curved sword she had learned was called a
cutlass. It was a crude weapon,
but well suited to fighting at close
quarters. She slammed the heavy
guard into one warriors face and followed it up with an elbow smash
into the helmet of the man next to him.
Both men went down and she hardly noticed the pain in her elbow as
she deflected a sword cut aimed at her head and followed through with a slash
of her own that took off the hand of the lizard that had struck at
her. As before the lizard proved
hard to defeat and kept on coming at her until she drew her blade across
its throat.
The unexpected ferocity
of her attack gave the others the time they needed to join the
ambush. One drawback of the places
they had chosen to hide in order to stage their ambush was that each had
only one small doorway leading to the
deck. Shailajas action
cleared the way for them and they joined in the
fray. From the other side Vasanta
and her followers joined in, catching the forces of the enemy between
them.
Expecting an easy victory
over docile slaves the boarding party now found itself in a fight to survive
as the ex-slaves drove in from both
sides. Still, it was a hard
fight. The soldiers were well
trained and better armed.
Recovering from the initial shock they fought back hard and it was
only the fact that the ex-slaves had Shailaja, Vasanta, and Guered on their
side that carried the day. Each
of the warriors was worth a dozen of the others who fought on their side
and they drove the enemy soldiers across the deck eventually reaching the
boarding planks from the other ship.
But they did not stop
there. Little as she knew about
the sea, Shailaja had no intention of remaining in control of a ship that
she could not steer and which was defenceless against
warships. Before the boarding
planks could be withdrawn she leaped onto them and took the battle to the
deck of the other vessel. She
was followed by Vasanta and Guered and what was left of the slaves who had
joined her. They had started
out fifty in number, but had lost more than half; however, they were now
joined by a few more ex-slaves from below decks, all eager to fight for their
freedom now that they saw some chance of
success.
Now defending their own
vessel, the soldiers and sailors fought even harder, but Shailaja, Vasanta,
and Guered battled like demons, killing every enemy who came before
them. The decks soon became slick
with blood of both friends and enemies, but there were soon more of the latter
as the forces of the slavers were driven steadily
backward. Eventually the only
space left to them was the castle in the bow where the catapult was
housed. They stormed toward it
and then matters took an ugly turn.
The ship shuddered as the
second warship arrived alongside the first sending many of the combatants
sprawling. Shailaja managed to
retain her footing, but realized immediately that the situation had radically
changed and not for the better.
Soldiers from the other ship swarmed over the deck completely turning
the tide of the battle.
Now it was Shailaja and
what was left of her band that was caught between two attacking
forces. Backed up against the
castle they were surrounded on every other
side. They were also exhausted
from the intensity of the battle, but there was no thought of surrendering
on Shailajas part. During
the fray she had picked up another sword and dealt death to anyone who dared
come within range. Unfortunately,
the warriors attacking her had a solution to that
danger. Several were armed with
long spears called boarding pikes.
These snaked toward her attempting to skewer her from a
distance.
Shailaja was hard press
to fight so many attackers. She
wove an intricate web of steel in front of her deflecting attack after attack
while at the same time slashing out at any attacker foolish enough to get
too close. But she could not
block everything, especially a spear that was thrown from outside her closest
adversaries.
She saw the movement of
the warriors arm as he hurled his weapon and knew she could not avoid
it. She managed a half step to
the side and the spear took her in her left
shoulder. She felt it grate against
bone, but was so filled with the fury of battle she felt no
pain. Nevertheless, her arm went
numb and her sword dropped from her fingers, exposing her to further
attack. A sword cut gave her
a second wound in her thigh, and a reversed spear slammed into her
temple.
It was fortunate that the
lizard delivering the blow had not sought to kill her, as it might well have
done; but it seemed some of the attackers were intent on taking her alive,
a humiliation Shailaja was desperate to
avoid. But it was not to be,
as she staggered under the blow another of the lizard warriors engaged
Vasanta. She fended off the attack,
driving her cutlass into its belly with such force that the tip of her blade
tore out through its backbone.
However, the deadly thrust temporarily trapped her blade allowing
the other warriors to close with her.
A blow from the flat of a sword sent her to her knees where she was
quickly seized by several other attackers and wrestled to her knees.
Guered fared no
better. With his barbarian allies
hors de combat, he was set upon by both
sides. Even his exemplary weapons
skills could not hold off so many.
Like Shailaja he was first wounded, taking a sword slash across his
ribs and then as he staggered back he was tackled and quickly
disarmed.
Shailaja battled with her
usual ferocity and desperation as she was forced to her
knees. But she could do little
against the overwhelming numbers that swarmed over
her. Once again her arms were
forced behind her back and ropes bound tightly about her arms just above
the elbows. Once again she had
battled for freedom and failed.
Once again she was enslaved.
Burning with shame and rage she could only wonder what punishment
her captors would inflict upon her this time.
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