House of Chains
Karsa shipped the oars and twisted round in his seat. A large, three-masted, black ship was bearing down on them, twin banks of oars flashing dark over the milky water. Beyond it, on the horizon’s very edge, ran a dark, straight line. The Teblor collected his sword then slowly stood.
‘That’s the strangest coast I’ve ever seen,’ Torvald muttered. ‘Would that we’d reached it without the company.’
‘It is a wall,’ Karsa said. ‘A straight wall, before which lies some kind of beach.’ He returned his gaze to the closing ship. ‘It is like those that had been beset by the raiders.’
‘So it is, only somewhat bigger. Flagship, is my guess, though I see no flag.’
They could see figures now, crowding the high forecastle. Tall, though not as tall as Karsa, and much leaner.
‘Not human,’ Torvald muttered. ‘Karsa, I do not think they will be friendly. Just a feeling, mind you. Still…’
‘I have seen one of them before,’ the Teblor replied. ‘Half spilled out from the belly of the catfish.’
‘That beach is rolling with the waves, Karsa. It’s flotsam. Must be two, three thousand paces of it. The wreckage of an entire world. As I suspected, this sea doesn’t belong here.’
‘Aye, meaning they don’t belong here, either.’
Karsa shrugged his indifference to that observation. ‘Have you a weapon, Torvald Nom?’
‘A harpoon… and a mallet. You will not try to talk first?’
Karsa said nothing. The twin banks of oars had lifted from the water and now hovered motionless over the waves as the huge ship slid towards them. The oars dipped suddenly, straight down, the water churning as the ship slowed, then came to a stop.
The dory thumped as it made contact with the hull on the port side, just beyond the prow.
A ring of grey-skinned warriors faced him. Taller than lowlanders, but still a head shorter than the Teblor. Curved sabres were scabbarded to their hips, and much of their clothing was made of some kind of hide, short-haired, dark and glistening. Their long brown hair was intricately braided, hanging down to frame angular, multihued eyes. Behind them, down amidships, there was a pile of severed heads, a few lowlander but most similar in features to the grey-skinned warriors, though with skins of black.
One of the grey-skinned warriors snapped something, his expression as contemptuous as his tone.
Behind Karsa, Torvald reached the railing.
The speaker seemed to be waiting for some sort of response. As the silence stretched, the faces on either side twisted into sneers. The spokesman barked out a command, pointed to the deck.
‘Uh, he wants us to kneel, Karsa,’ Torvald said. ‘I think maybe we should-’
‘I would not kneel when chained,’ Karsa growled. ‘Why would I do so now?’
‘Because I count sixteen of them-and who knows how many more are below. And they’re getting angrier-’
‘Sixteen or sixty,’ Karsa cut in. ‘They know nothing of fighting Teblor.’
Karsa saw two warriors shift gauntleted hands towards sword-grips. The bloodsword flashed out, cut a sweeping horizontal slash across the entire half-circle of grey-skinned warriors. Blood sprayed. Bodies reeled, sprawled backward, tumbling over the low railing and down to the mid-deck.
The forecastle was clear apart from Karsa and, a pace behind him, Torvald Nom.
The seven warriors who had been on the mid-deck drew back as one, then, unsheathing their weapons, they edged forward.
‘They were within my reach,’ Karsa answered the Daru’s question. ‘That is how I know they know nothing of fighting a Teblor. Now, witness while I take this ship.’ With a bellow he leapt down into the midst of the enemy.
The grey-skinned warriors were not lacking in skill, yet it availed them naught. Karsa had known the loss of freedom; he would not accept such again. The demand to kneel before these scrawny, sickly creatures had triggered in him seething fury.
Six of the seven warriors were down; the last one, shouting, had turned about and was running towards the doorway at the other end of the mid-deck. He paused long enough to drag a massive harpoon from a nearby rack, spinning and flinging it at Karsa.