The Spectre Cycle [The fifteenth Dray Prescot omnibus]

Shadows over Kregen

A note on Dray Prescot

Lit by the ruby and emerald fires of Antares, the planet Kregen, four hundred light years from Earth, is a world cruel yet beautiful, terrible yet alluring. There any woman or man may achieve what the heart desires, if they plan and persevere with all the spirit within them. To this world of opportunity Dray Prescot has been brought by the Star Lords to serve their mysterious purposes.

Dray Prescot is a man above middle height, with brown hair and level brown eyes, brooding and dominating, with enormously broad shoulders and powerful physique. There is about him an abrasive honesty and an indomitable courage. He moves like a savage hunting cat, silent and deadly. Reared in the harsh conditions of Nelson’s Navy, his character is far more complex than he reveals. Because he possesses the yrium, a super charisma, he has been chosen by the Star Lords to bring all the lands of Paz together, as the so-called Emperor of All Paz. They must resist the deadly Shanks who raid from over the curve of the world.

Delia and Dray Prescot have abdicated the throne of Vallia and now seek to make the dream of a united Paz come true. Fate, though, has other headlong adventures for them under the streaming mingled lights of the Suns of Scorpio.

Alan Burt Akers

Chapter one

Rumors of the activities of slavers had brought us flying to Djasra Island and now as we sat our mounts and looked through a thin screen of trees onto the beach we saw that rumor had not lied.

By the Veiled Froyvil, my old dom! We can’t have this!

My blade comrade Seg’s strong handsome face glowered with loathing upon the scene on the beach where coffles of men, women and children shuffled in their chains down to the waiting boats. Offshore, three fat-bellied argenters rode at anchor with furled sails, already low in the water from their ghastly freight.

We shall, said my blade comrade Inch, freeing his long-handled axe, have to teach a lesson here as well as freeing the people.

There was no way I could disagree with that sentiment. Yet — there were but a score of us and the slavers down there numbered at least fifty. The Suns of Scorpio blazed in molten ruby and jade overhead, the scents of flowers filled the bright air with heady perfumes, birds sang and cavorted, and we chosen brethren of the Kroveres of Iztar must ride down and risk all to follow the precepts of our self-imposed duty.

Benighted Whiptails! quoth Nath Javed, quietening the zorca between his knees. Hack ’n’ Slay ’em all!

For, yes, indeed, the slavers were Katakis, as unpleasant a race of diffs as you’d ever wish to cross swords with on a wet and murky night.

The captured people down there were ordinary normal folk, farmers mostly, earning an honest living from the land. And now these Opaz-forsaken Katakis had swooped and swept them up in iron chains. Already the dismal moaning floated mournfully into the bright suns-shine of the morning. Oh, yes, by Vox, twenty against fifty or a hundred or even more — we Kroveres of Iztar knew well what was required of us.

No use lollygagging about then. Beyond the screen of trees the beach trended away in a slope that began steeply enough and evened out as the sand was washed by the waves. This was going to be a full-blooded charge, a whoop and holler helter-skelter, by Krun!

The smells of oiled leather and steel, the warm friendly animal scent of the zorcas, surrounded us. Sober reflection showed me instantly that this was not a holler and a whoop attack. Oh, no.

Seg unslung his Great Lohvian Longbow. When you reach the bottom of the slope. He selected a shaft with finicky precision.

Feeling the pressures of the moment, I said: What d’you think? Four? Five? A talen apiece?

Done, my old dom, and you’ll be poorer tonight. Ha!

I lifted in my stirrups and looked left and right. The lads were as bonny a bunch as you could hope to meet. Naturally, Korero the Shield drew a sword and pushed the two shields higher, and started to speak. I interrupted him with a: And mind you don’t get killed.

In a line we moved forward between the trees. A little breeze kicked up sandy dust from the crest as we passed. I said one more word. Silence! Then, free of the trees and with the beach ahead, we rode carefully down the slope. At the foot I sensed the tensing up, the gathering together, of the lads. Side by side, comrades in arms, we charged.

Spiral horns thrusting onward, polished hooves kicking sand, all the passionate animate beauty of the zorcas expressed itself as sublime poetry in that headlong charge. Lance heads with their brave scarlet and yellow pennons fluttering lowered into a wicked hedge. Onwards we rushed over the beach, nearer and nearer the damned Whiptails.

Clearly, just like an image seen through a telescope, circumscribed, I saw a Kataki lifting his heavy whip to bring the lash down across the naked back of a woman stumbling to her knees under her chains. Abruptly, the Kataki stood up, stiff, rigid. The whip dropped from his hand. He turned like a marionette, and fell face-first into the sand. From his back sprouted the long Lohvian arrow.

The first one to Seg, then.

There is no archer in all of Kregen — or all of Earth, come to that — who can compare with the incomparable Seg Segutorio. A second Kataki spun around with the smashing force of the shaft through his neck above the corselet rim. Two down. By this time the slavers, preoccupied with their favorite pastime of hitting poor people with whips, sluggishly became aware of our presence. A third Whiptail dropped and this wight let out a screech. Three to Seg.

Now our straining zorcas fleeting over the sand dragged shouts of alarm from the slavers. Katakis began to run and draw weapons and try to form some kind of defense. Katakis — so-called Jibrfarils — do have courage of a dark variety and we did not think they would just run away. They’d fight, particularly when they saw how few we were, and even more particularly in defense of their human spoils.

We hit a bunch of them as they scrambled to form up and the lances struck and swung and withdrew. The bright pennons now stained a darker red.

My lance did not break, although some did, and I went bald-headed for the next rast of a Whiptail as he flailed a sword above his miserable head. Almost he deflected the small keen lance head. The steel went in, anyway, and this time the lance snapped. I threw the stump at the next Kataki and whipped out my Krozair Longsword.

He went down screeching and an arrow snicked off my saddle and caromed away with a most unpleasant sound. In the next instant in the hubbub I spotted the shooter who was busily nocking the next shaft. Before I could urge faithful Baldik across I saw that was unnecessary so I swung the zorca the other way. A Lohvian shaft with the red fletchings from the Zim-korf had done the fellow’s business for him.

Thinking that was number four to Seg I realized it was five as the zorca nimbly avoided a sprawled Whiptail with one of Seg’s messages through his eye.

One more and I’d be paying out gold to my comrade.

And, by Krun, that’d please me mightily!

The fight had settled into a scrambling, slashing, up and down affair now. The screeching sound of blade on blade rasped the nerves. The Katakis had recovered from their initial surprise under the silence and ferocity of our attack. Now we had a battle royal on our hands.

Swirling the Krozair blade in a cunning underhand I hoicked a damned Whiptail up and over and so dispatched him down to the Ice Floes of Sicce. Recovering and looking the other way I saw a zorca standing still with head down and reins dangling. By his front hooves a man lay prostrate. His insignia were red and yellow. A welling sadness suffused through me, sadness and anger and futile remorse.

That was young Nath Arumsted ti Volsover, a new and enthusiastic member of the Kroveres of Iztar. Rather, that had been young Nath.

Three more Whiptails went down to their personal hells before I had myself fully under control. I shook blood drops from the Krozair brand. I breathed in gulps, the smell of the sea and the stink of blood coiling like a miasma. All the time the people who had been doomed to be slaves were screaming and caterwauling away in a most distressing fashion.

One or two of them tried to help, using chains or what weapons they could pick up from fallen Jibrfarils. The suddenness of our onslaught had served us well. Now we had the long slog as numbers began to tell. If more people joined us — but then, ordinary folk, even on Kregen, which is barbaric enough, Opaz knows, aren’t in the habit of snatching up swords and fighting. Although, mind you, sometimes it does seem as though battles and combats flower all the hours Opaz gives to the world.

A swift glance back to the dune crest showed a hurtling figure already at the foot of the slope and haring across the sand towards us. Good old Seg!

A fleeting glimpse of an incredibly tall fellow swinging a long-handled axe in lethal circles showed Inch was in action. Good old Inch! And, as was to be expected, the battering yells of: Hack ’n’ Slay! reverberated over the clangor of the combat. Good old Nath Javed, known as Old Hack ’n’ Slay.

All the brothers of the KRVI were in violent action, smiting the ungodly. The pathetic coffles of slaves lay in their chains, their eyes like curdled milk, shaking. All save those hardy few who lapped a bight of iron around a Whiptail’s throat, risking the lethal stab of the blade strapped to his tail.

I looked around for the next antagonist. Seg reined up, sword in fist.

Any left?

Other brothers were looking about, weapons bloodied. The slaves keened their dolorous dirge. The only Katakis we could see lay sprawled on the sand in their own blood.

I thought, but did not voice the thought, that perhaps the rightness of our purpose had conferred a victory beyond normal expectations. Certainly, we had won this battle. We had suffered two dead, Nath Arumsted, and Ornol the Firm. Sundry cuts and bruises adorned our skins; yet we still possessed our hides. Opaz be thanked!

Seg hitched his zorca around. The boats.

Aye.

Across the gap of water the three argenters were setting sail. The canvas came down and was sheeted home smartly enough; yet my old sailorman’s eye detected an odd hesitancy in the operation. Strange.

The boats in which the slaves had been transferred to the fat-bellied merchant ships lay hauled up along the shore. We’d never catch the slave ships if we pulled out. The brisk little breeze would see to that.

Damned Whiptails, said Inch, methodically cleaning his axe. Don’t even bother to see if any of their friends are alive.

Oh, I expect they’ve had a spyglass trained on us, Rolan Ledwidge said, starting to turn his zorca about. Rolan, a spry, useful old barnacle, had served many seasons in the Vallian Navy. They may be Opaz confounded slavers. They ain’t stupid, no, by Corg!

Aye. Seg turned his zorca. Best get back to the flier.

Before we returned to our voller we freed some of the slaves with keys discovered upon the bloodied bodies of Katakis. The rest of the people, overjoyed, thankful, would be released in turn.

Proper arrangements for our dead would be made later. Now we had pressing business to conclude.

The voller nestled safely among trees where we’d landed. Rollo the Runner, who was, by Krun! not so young any more, had remained aboard to maintain contact. Mind you, as a Wizard of Loh, he still was not totally happy about going into lupu and scrying out. When he heard our report, he nodded in his fresh determined way and told us that he’d go into lupu at once. His preparations included spinning about, contemplation, the concentration of all his energies, so that he could reach out through that weird other dimension frequented by mages. Everybody politely took no notice of Rollo as he brought all his faculties into a single piercing thrust of thaumaturgical power. A line of sweat glistened on his smooth forehead.

Yes, I did look covertly at him, just to make sure.

Presently he returned to the mundane world. He’d got through and the main body was on its way.

Although a natural sense of urgency gripped me, I knew we had plenty of time. Those plump argenters with their square sails and bluff bows could never outsail fliers. The problem would be to deal with the damned Katakis without harming the innocent folk.

Katakis are an unpleasant lot, to be sure. Their thick black hair is habitually oiled and curled. Their faces are a snarl of low brow, flaring nostrils, jagged snaggly teeth in a wide cruel mouth, and eyes as narrow and cold as the Ice Caves of Gundarlo. The steel blades strapped to their long whiplike tails make them dangerous foes.

Opaz-forsaken slavers!

Now we brothers of the KRVI are a hard-bitten bunch. We’ve seen, if not all, then most of it. We understand the pressures on men and women. But do not run away with the notion that we do not care, that we do not react to situations. The horrific scenes on the beach had not left us unaffected. Callousness had not overcome all human feeling. All the same, we had a task set to our hands and until that task was fulfilled and seen to be fulfilled there was no room to shake and quiver and feel sick.

As the voller soared into the bright air of Kregen, guided by the piloting skills of young Oby — who, again, by Vox, was no longer a youngster! — we could not rest until our duty was accomplished.

Somberly, I reflected that the miserable maggot-begotten Katakis might hurl the slaves over into the sea. The chains would quickly drag them down. That tactic to escape pursuit had been well-known on Earth when slavers to the Americas were being chased by the Royal Navy. Even Whiptails, who were notorious for not wishing to give up their merchandise, might do that dreadful thing.

We’d have to be ready for that and have airboats on standby to lower down to the water and snatch up the poor wretches before they sank.

Inch’s acid comment about the Whiptails not bothering to see if any of their comrades were still alive made me think on, as they say. The slavers must, as Rolan Ledwidge said, have watched us through a telescope. So they’d see how few we were. Still they hadn’t come roaring ashore brandishing weapons. With the ships laden down they were prepared to leave the last of their merchandise on the beach.

From these facts and the clumsy although reasonably rapid fashion in which they’d got under way I deduced that they were short-handed. Possibly our small force actually would outnumber the crew of each individual vessel.

By Zair! That was a mighty fine thought!

The invigorating air of Kregen blustered past as the voller sped on. The streaming mingled rays of the Suns of Scorpio shone down splendidly in a riot of reds and greens. We flew on, soaring above the countryside at no great altitude heading for the coast.

The voller’s speed would carry us swiftly to our destination; but in the time we’d taken to ride from the beach back to the flier the three argenters, despite their sluggish sailing qualities, had dropped the coast astern and were now well out to sea.

Keep her low, Oby. His face intent, his hands on the controls sure, Oby nodded, and in the same instant we spotted our quarry he dropped us down again out of sight.

Three ships and one voller did not add up, did not balance. We would just have to wait for the main body to reach us.

Now this did not square with my impatience. We all could visualize the conditions of horror in which the slaves were held cramped and chained below decks. The quicker we could start the quicker they’d be freed.

Yet if my optimistic deductions about the strength of the crews proved correct the two we didn’t attack could deal with their cargos before we could finish the first and get stuck into them.

Really and truly I ought not to have been surprised by the suddenness and completeness of our victory over the slavers. Truth to tell, the Brotherhood of the Kroveres of Iztar was not idly named. The Order owed allegiance to Zena Iztar, that mysterious supernatural woman of awe-inspiring powers. She bestowed ability upon us over and above that of normal men when we were engaged on the duties of the Order. Yes, we were bound by notions of honor and chivalry. We championed the weak against the strong. But our achievements for the Brotherhood could only be reached through the mystic support of Zena Iztar.

Each member of the Order could use the honor title of Ver, particular to the Brotherhood. We carried the memories of our martyrs as bright guiding lights. The first martyr for the KRVI, Dredd Pyvorr, had died on the tiny island of Nikzm, off the coast of my home island stromnate of Valka. That island was now called Drayzm, and Seg had remarked in all seriousness that we of the Order could call ourselves the Kroveres of Drayzm.

Needless to say, I shrugged that off, more than a trifle embarrassed.

After all, Seg Segutorio was the Grand Archbold of the KRVI.

As I thus ruminated these unsettling thoughts, Oby kept the voller discreetly low, occasionally lifting and dropping to continue our observation of the damned Katakis.

And — that brought to my attention the unwelcome fact that I’d given the orders, both to Oby to fly low and to the others. My blade comrade Seg was the Grand Archbold. As a comrade and true friend he’d let me have my head in my old intemperate way. This, also, was a result of the charisma, rather, the super charisma foisted off on me by a hardhearted fate, this so-called yrium that curses and blesses.

I favored Seg with a wary glance. His dark mop of hair emphasized the handsomeness of his face. His fey blue eyes, usually so merry, now stared bleakly ahead. Seven-feet tall Inch shuffled up at our backs to stare out over our heads. I felt a chill, as of a sudden blast from the Snowfields of Sandora-feyl.

Speaking carefully, each word pronounced with the utmost precision, I suggested we might drop a third of our strength upon each of the argenters.

A great meanness of spirit descended upon me at what I almost added; thankfully, I snapped my old black-fanged winespout shut in time.

For I’d almost gone on to say that Seg was the Grand Archbold of the Order and should make the decision.

The enormity of that betrayal of friendship made me brace up, I can tell you! By the barnacle on Beng Thrax’s backside! What a miserable specimen of humanity I must be even to contemplate such cowardly and dastardly an act!

Seg said: So let’s do it.

Aye, said Inch.

A muted chorus of approval and agreement rose from the brothers clustered for’ard on the deck.

Below us the sea glittered blue, above us the Suns of Scorpio slanted across a high blue sky. Yes, this was a bright bonny day on which to die.

Flags snapped against their staffs as the little breeze played with the bright colors. There were two flags there whose owners now lay sprawled in their own blood back on the beach awaiting a decent interment. Brave flags, a brave day, a brave time to go down through the encircling mists to the Ice Floes of Sicce.

This enterprise was strictly harebrained. Any emperor and leader of armies ought to be most reluctant to split his forces except in the most urgent circumstances. That, the general feeling agreed, was the case here.

Rollo would stay to fly the airboat, whose name was Pink Lily. There is no accounting for taste in these matters. I gripped the rail, staring ahead over that blue glittering sea. On Kregen eighteen divided by three comes to six, just as it does on this Earth.

Six of us to drop onto each deck where we would encounter — how many Katakis? Seg was always one for a little wager in the most fraught of circumstances. So I put forward the opinion that we might face odds of three to one, at which Seg immediately fired up and declared roundly that there’d only be two to one. Gold was wagered.

Then — with a curve to his lips indicating joy in my approaching discomfiture — Seg said: As the Grand Archbold I shall, naturally—

What! I exclaimed. You’re pulling rank!

Oh, aye, my old dom. So that’s settled.

Do not forget, Seg Segutorio was the Emperor of Pandahem, which really existed. I was supposed to be the Emperor of All Paz, which remained more of a dream than a reality.

Inch would take his five men down onto the first argenter. Then I’d assault the second and Seg would attack last. This meant, as even the most simple swod with a spear in the ranks could see, that the Katakis would be ready and waiting to hit him as he touched down.

Fret though I might over my comrade, I could do nothing in honor to change that decision.

Ready?

Aye, ready.

With that, Rollo, who’d taken over from Oby at the controls, swung Pink Lily round ready for the mad dash low over the sea. We popped up and a screeching yell erupted at our backs.

We turned sharply to look back. Engar Valmin stood tall, left arm pointing rigidly back, sword in fist, yelling: They’re here!

Here they came, like a handful of flung pebbles, hurtling on over the heave of the sea, their flags streaming in their onrush. Thank Zair! I said to myself. The main body had arrived to save us from an all too probable fate.

Among the fliers soared two vast skyships, many-decked and tiered, bristling with weapons. The suns struck sparks of fire from their flanks. They looked absolutely marvelous.

Not all the warriors crowding those decks were members of the KRVI. There were elements of the bodyguards owing allegiance to Seg and Inch, and others of the brotherhood’s guard formations. The guards of my own Emperor’s Sword Watch and Emperor’s Yellow Jackets, stout fellows all, would be craning overside to get a first glimpse of their quarry. Oh, yes, by Vox! I felt a warm glow of pleasure at that gorgeous sight, I can tell you!

Looking ahead again we could see the argenters lolloping along with the spray bursting around their plump sides. Not long now, and we’d be pouncing upon them, stooping with steel in our fists.

Black specks appeared in the sky beyond the ships.

Staring up as the spots drew closer and grew larger and took on recognizable outlines, I felt an enormous weight fall upon my shoulders. A sense of despair shocked all through me.

Those fliers up there with their sleek black hulls and squared-off upperworks, brightly-painted, had voyaged from the other side of Kregen. They were here over the curve of the world to slay and pillage and burn. They came from Schan. They were the scourge of every living person in Paz.

Someone said the word, the dread name.

Shanks!

Chapter two

Shanks!

The very name itself was enough to drive terror into the hearts of the simple folk of Paz. And, by Krun, truth to tell many a grizzled veteran who had fought in the wars and bore his scars would far prefer to fight any other foes than the Shanks. The Fish-heads from over the curve of the world were by many degrees far, far worse than even the Katakis.

The converging forces looked to be evenly matched. Any commander of sense would like to go into action against the Shanks with odds in his or her favor of two to one at the very least.

The brilliance of Zim and Genodras still smiled in streaming ruby and jade radiance across the sea. The clouds drifted, high and white and fluffy. Gulls pivoted on cranked wings and screeched their cries. The world of Kregen still existed as it had only moments before.

Yet now I felt a chill as though the Ice Floes of Sicce reached out to seize me up in their frozen embrace.

Look at those three! snapped Seg. Instantly I was brought up short, facing the prospect ahead and to a Herrelldrin Hell with all morbid thoughts.

All but three of the Fish-heads’ vollers sped straight on over the argenters, heading directly for our main force, dark and powerful and ominous. The three airboats dropped down. They were obviously of a different design from the others, bulkier, and with a lot of cargo space between decks.

By the slime-filled nostrils and dangling putrescent eyeballs of Makki Grodno! I saw at once what they were and what they intended.

They were slave vollers. The evil plan was laid bare. The Katakis rounded up the slaves for the Shanks who kept off the coast to avoid detection. Now they were dropping down to load their holds with the miserable folk taken up by the Whiptails.

Now I owe you gold. Seg looked savage. That fierce expression was not because he’d lost our little wager. No, he, like us all, saw the diabolical scheme and what it meant.

Moving with deliberateness, I looked back. The force of airboats drove on as though broomed by a hurricane. The two skyships made directly for the main body of Shanks. Aboard that little armada were men and women who understood politics, warfare — and the fishfaces. As that thought crossed my mind three fast vollers swooped down in a long slanting rush towards the three slave argenters.

Your gold’s safe, Seg. I spoke, I confess, with a kind of grunt. Praise Opaz it be so.

Swiveling around to face front I gave Seg a hard stare. Now Seg Segutorio as the Grand Archbold of the Kroveres ran the Order without questions from me. He took advice and then made up his own mind. The two forces of airboats drew closer together. Time was running out. Now it was up to Seg to make the decision.

Easy enough for me, by Krun, to decide what I’d do. The advent of our main body had changed everything. My utter faith in my blade comrade was never in question. After all, he was Seg Segutorio, in my opinion the best archer of two worlds.

He spoke with a hard metallic snap to his voice.

The Brotherhood is saved. The Katakis with their damned Shank customers overhead won’t dispose of their merchandize now. We go down on the furthest argenter. Our lads coming on can take the other two. There will be, as Zena Iztar is my witness, enough time. To Rollo: Take her down!

So down we plunged, hurtling through thin air, plummeting full on our target. Good old Seg Segutorio!

Air screamed past. The flags stood out stiff as best starched linen. The slave ship bloated in size. The glitter of the sea, the heave of the waves, the white scuds breaking, all roared up to us in a welter of scattered impressions.

With the speed of our descent the ship appeared to leap up at us. A quick glance back showed me that Seg’s appreciation of the tactical situation was askew by a small point; but that point a matter of honest human emotion. Seg had said our three vollers would go for the other two slave argenters. The men and women aboard those airboats knew the people who were aboard Pink Lily. As I expected, two fliers went hell for leather for the other two sailing ships. One dropped down swiftly in our wake.

Oh, yes, by Zair! Those grim warriors of ours were not about to let their friends and commanders go into action unsupported.

Seg nodded briskly. Yes, I expected that.

Inch laughed. By the flags, Alten Schongar commands.

A fine fellow. Nath Javed delivered himself of the verdict with relish. He can Hack ’n’ Slay with the best. Then, because he was who he was, he added: Indubitably!

In that all-embracing glance back and up I saw the rolling banks of clouds boiling in to cover the sky. The dun gray masses cast a pall on all the bright sea in our wake. Ominous, unhealthy, they spread a chill into the brilliance of the Kregish afternoon.

A last fleeting glance upwards before we struck showed the three Shank slave vollers hovering. Clearly, they were uncertain with the swift Pazzian airboats lunging into the attack. Bad cess to ’em!

In a whirlwind of erupting action Pink Lily smashed heavily down onto the fat deck of the argenter bringing down the mainmast in a rending welter of splintering timbers and lashing rigging. We went over the sides as leems leap on their prey by the waterholes. The Shanks faced us. Oh, yes, those Fish-heads from around the curve of the world have courage. They fight. Now we had to overcome them without thought or pity. That was the duty laid on us, the Brothers of the Kroveres of Iztar.

The argenter bore on, slowing as the drag of the mainmast tangled in its web of rigging overside slewed her. The deck felt hard underfoot. Under the gloom of the stormclouds there was no gallant glitter of blades. The steel looked gray, honed to penetrate guts and lop heads. The Shanks screeched: Ishtish! Ishtish!

A single savage bellow of: Iztar! and we were into them.

There were, indeed, more of them than us. That we expected.

The Fish-heads know how to fight. Normally their name is enough to make fellows who do not have the steel up their backbone run off. The misfortune of this bunch was to come up against the bonny lads with me. Screams burst up. Blood spurted. Swords thrust in the short lethal jabs of close combat. Shank tridents darted for our stomachs or throats and were met and parried on good Vallian steel.

All the time above the staccato sounds of combat there rose the long dreadful moans of the slaves chained below decks.

If anything, that dolorous sound drove our blades into quicker action, our muscles into more ferocious onslaught. The battle swayed across the cumbered deck. We held them; but for the moment could not make headway against their numbers. Very well, then! By the Blade of Kurin! If there were more than us we would have to cut them down and so reduce the imbalance.

Cold, impersonal words for strife and blood and death!

Death spread his dark wings above that blood-stained deck. Death’s companion, Destruction, plied her gory trade with every slash of blade. We struggled and the gloom about us deepened. The glory of the Suns of Scorpio dwindled and died in the encroaching storm clouds.

Spots of rain began to hiss onto the deck. Footing became treacherous. A neat backhanded slash aimed at the scaly head of a fishface thrusting his trident at me missed as I slipped. The argenter’s motions in the sea, checked by the mainmast overside, were unpredictable. Recovering by the expedient of ducking away I managed to deflect the trident.

A sword sliced in above my head and the Shank screeched and toppled away.

Here’s another, my old dom.

No need for me to gasp out a thankyou to Seg; we’d done this before, and, by Vox, we’d do it again. I took the newcomer with a straight pass as Seg switched around to chop another.

No need, either, for us to prattle on about Warm work!

The combat was warm, and would grow hotter.

The ship surged sluggishly and again I nearly lost my balance. Me, an old Sailorman! With more than a trifle of irritation I took the next Shank, chopped him, glared around for some more.

The darkness swooped as the thunderclouds rolled above. Rain thickened into a gray sheet, bouncing off the deck. Water ran down our faces. Lurid lightning split the sky. Thunder drenched everything in noise.

The vollers flying up there must be having a ball, by Krun!

The Pazzian voller coming down to our assistance showed as a mere shadowed blot against the dimness. She bore in, her bows touched the foremast, brought that down in a welter of confusion, and she crunched full onto the forecastle. Warriors leaped out, the steel naked in their hands, roaring unheard in the din.

Now we’d have the damned fishfaced reivers!

The fight edged towards the ship’s stern. We were now pressing our enemies back with a relentless wall of steel. Just about then the rigging holding the mainmast to the vessel’s side chafed clean through. Unable to see the mast surging away among the waves, I could feel the instant change in the way the ship gyrated. A number of men staggered and fell. The Shanks let out their screeching: Ishtish Ishtish audible above the uproar of the gale.

The deck went up and down like a roller coaster. The ship twisted herself in the sea gyrating like one of those abandoned dancing girls of the desert tribes of Dordre-Um, hostile to strangers. My left fist fastened on the rail and for a moment I, like everyone else, clung on for dear life.

Those poor unfortunate slaves chained below must be going through hell right now. The Kataki slavers were bad enough; the Fish-heads who had dropped down to take over were far far worse — and now the slaves were being thrown about like apples in a barrel rolling downhill over bumpy cobbles. Still, feel for them though we did, we knew that it would be disastrous to free them and bring them up on deck. The chaos that would cause didn’t bear thinking of.

In the ranks of our foes, Katakis had fallen with commendable regularity and their Shank customers were not now likely to rejoin their confounded slave voller. All in all, this little fracas could be going a lot worse.

Now we had to hold on, clear the rest of the slavers out, ride through the gale, and then jury-rig the argenter enough to sail her back.

This was late afternoon of a Kregan day when the Suns of Scorpio should be beaming their ruby and emerald rays to turn the sea into a fairyland of glitter and color. Instead the pall lay dark and dense and the rain lashed viciously in long battering streaks and the lightning crackled and the thunder roared.

In one lacerating lightning flash it was just possible to catch a fleeting glimpse of dark forms leaping into the sea off the poop. The Shanks were abandoning the vessel!

Good riddance! said Seg, breathing hard through his nose.

Aye. Old Hack ’n’ Slay grasped the rail with one massive fist. Indubitably.

We were experienced enough in warfare to be thankful when our enemies ran off, or, in this case, jumped into the sea when there was no need to chase after them.

Others of our people, those from the voller, ardent in their detestation of Kataki and Shank alike, determined to carry on the fight to the bitter end. Half a dozen of them ran and staggered aft.

Seg let rip a: By the Veiled Froyvil! and started after them. Between lightning strokes he vanished into the gloom.

Shouting with extreme venom, I bellowed into Nath Javed’s ear: D’you go down and see to the slaves, Nath! Without giving him time to expostulate, I hared off after Seg, sliding and lurching across the deck. Water broke green and white in a lightning flash, foaming over the bulwarks. For an instant waist deep in the swirl I thought I was done for, washed overboard. But the level sank, a desperate grasp at the rail and I hauled myself on after Seg.

Even in that instant of cursing the idiots who so tempted fate, I spared a wry thought for poor old Hack ’n’ Slay. Still, there was no doubt he would obey, mumbling away to himself in baffled fury. What the huddled slaves would think of his enormous frame, black with water, girded for war, suddenly appearing before them like a spectre devil from Cottmer’s Caverns I didn’t care to dwell on. Forcing myself on I followed Seg as fast as I could.

Not all the Fish-heads were jumping overboard.

The shards of lightning piercing the darkness flashed more frequently. The thunder melded into one continuous uproar. In that stark illumination the Shanks battled our impetuous folk.

The deck gave a tremendous heave as a giant wave hit the ship. Skidding with flailing arms I was pitched headlong into the starboard door under the poop. My head rang with the impact, and I saw enough stars to populate the heavens.

A savage grasp of the ladder and an even more savage wrench around set my foot on the second rung. Up I went in no mood to be polite. If the situation was not so fraught the scene on the poop would have been farcical.

Pazzian and Shank staggered about like loons, trying to strike their opponents. Swords went swishing about Fish-heads and tridents stabbed into the deck. By Makki Grodno’s diseased left nostril and fungus-infested armpits! I said to myself. What a bunch of clowns!

That macabre scene luridly illuminated by the strokes of blue fire presented a conundrum. A flicker of motion in the corner of my eye swung me about and in the next flash I saw that however bizarre the scene was, it must be left to sort itself out. There was work to my hands, here and now, over by the poop rail.

The lightning sizzled less frequently and the intervening stretches of dimness lengthened. I must be quick. Damned quick!

I had seen what I’d seen and I knew what I’d seen. The brief flare of electrical discharge showed me two men — a Kataki and a Shank — ferociously attacking a Pazzian. By the slim lissomness of the figure, by its shape, that Pazzian was a girl, a young girl warrior desperately battling for her life.

Sink me! I snarled, hurling myself forward, sword in fist. I’m not having this!

The lunge of the ship skittled me off a direct run and the general dimness hampered a clean thrust — but! But, all the same, my brand skewered into the Kataki as his wicked bladed tail swished around in a slanting cut at the Jikai Vuvushi’s head.

Right fist gripping the sword stuck through the Whiptail I brought my left hand up, wrapped my fingers around the fellow’s tail and hauled back. In the contortions of the vessel the two anchorages on the Kataki maintained my balance, the six inches of daggered steel strapped to the end of his tail missed the girl and he toppled back. His screech broke clearly above the clamor of the gale.

The ungainly motions of the vessel, the Kataki’s twist as he went back, together with the urgent need to grab onto the rail, tore the hilt of the sword out of my hand which in the next instant fastened on the poop rail. I swung about. Letting go of the tail I crashed heavily into the rail. A bolt of light showed me the girl’s back a pace away as she swirled her sword facing the Shank.

The Fish-head had lost his trident and now wielded a sword with a double-curved blade, a nasty looking object. The Jikai Vuvushi’s thraxter, a straight cut and thrust weapon, glanced off her foeman’s steel and I saw that in a twinkling of an eye that double curved length of death would transfix her. A single leap, a savage heave back with my arm wrapped round a slim waist, and she toppled away to slide across the deck into the darkness.

The Shank let out a hissing I could hear and so sharp and fierce had been his attack he smashed into me, body to body, the double-curved sword going past my side — as I then thought.

Locked together we struggled. Locked together as the ship rolled we went over the side together. As a single item we plunged into the hostile sea. Black waves enveloped us. The argenter vanished. Washed away, we struggled for life in an empty sea. In that fraught moment, from somewhere, I heard — did I hear or was it merely a fevered figment of imagination? — a shrill voice call: He’s fallen in the water!

Chapter three

Black as the cloak of Notor Zan, the water pressed in all about us. Down we sank. The water was not cold, warmed by the twin suns during the day; but the coldness of finality awaited me if I did not do two things remarkably quickly.

Able to hold my breath under water for an extraordinarily long time I fancied I could accomplish the two items on the agenda and still have air enough to last me back to the surface.

One obvious task was to shed my armor. That was not the first priority though, no, by Krun! This pesky Shank clinging to me like a leech had to be dislodged. He’d lost his sword and now he attempted to draw the dagger strapped to his thigh with one hand whilst the other dug into my windpipe.

Putting my own hand up I wrapped my fingers around his throat. He was a damned Fishman, wasn’t he? He ought to be able to swim like a fish, then. I squeezed — I squeezed with the hard determination that I’d do for him before he did for me.

We were both struggling about with thrashing legs in the constricting confines of the sea. My other fist fastened on his wrist forcing the dagger away from its intended destination — my guts.

The name of Makki Grodno floated across my consciousness. Fool! This unpleasant experience had thoroughly addled my brain. What tomfoolery did I think I was up to? I, Dray Prescot, was acting like the biggest onker of all time.

On the instant I whipped my fist away from the Shank’s throat and, with all the savagery my muscles could command, drove a straight arm jab into his stomach.

I didn’t want to stop him from breathing! No, by Krun, I wanted to let him breathe as much as he damned-well liked. I wanted him to breathe all right — breathe water!

He jerked like a fish landed on the bank, which in a way he was, and a string of bubbles broke from his mouth, going straight up. He tried to shut that nasty fish mouth of his, so I gave him another jab. A froth of bubbles exploded past his fangs and gyrated upwards.

Now I know the Star Lords must have given me this useful gift of being able to see well in dim conditions, for I’d experienced the handiness of that before. At first I’d not really believed. But events had more or less forced me into acceptance.

All the same, here we were under the water, with a black cloud-filled sky above, and I could see enough to check his dagger and see his stomach to hit him. I felt a tingling about my body. I looked down at myself. I did not feel shock, only startlement.

Thin threads of light writhed all over my body, forming a constantly-moving net. The dream-like effect of this web was heightened by the color of the wriggling lines, a sickly green-tinged blue. As I watched, feeling the tingling like a mild electric current, the web began to expand.

My fingers were still wrapped around the Shank’s dagger-hand. The bubbles from his fishy mouth thinned and slackened. He was quite clearly done for. Even in these moments of supernatural peril I felt my hate for him drifting away. I cannot say I felt true sympathy, but I suppose any human being must feel a tinge of sorrow when Death reaps his grisly harvest. Not so much sorrow for the Shank victim but general sorrow that Life has lost another to Death. I always feel that, keenly.

The blue-green writhing threads forming the net expanded in a globe about me, the spaces between the lines remaining less than a hand’s breadth apart, the numbers of lines constantly increasing.

The threads crept along my extended arm where I still held the Fish-head. They curved over my wrist, my knuckles, clustered around the Shank’s hand. I felt nothing apart from the pleasant tingling. I was still holding the Fishman’s hand. But the threads of lambent light amputated that hand as cleanly as a bacon slicer. Cut through at the wrist, the Fish-head’s arm was no longer held by me. The body was pushed away. The webbed globe thrust it away into the dark sea that encompassed the globe of light.

There I hung suspended in the center. The tingling over my body persisted even though the wriggling threads of fire had gone to form the protective globe. This was about ten paces in diameter. There was no water inside. By this time I knew I could not hold my breath much longer.

Unless the interior of this occult globe was a vacuum, as it might damn-well be, by Vox! — there had to be air. Breathable air or not, vacuum or not, whatever chanced, I had to open my mouth.

A huge gulp — air! Sweet, clean, lovely Kregish air!

When anyone is fortunate enough to live on Kregen under the twin suns of Antares, magical mysteries form part of daily experience. That may be an exaggeration, I suppose, for perhaps not every single day witnesses its miracle. But, by Vox, it’s not too far from the truth! So I sucked in the blessed air thankfully.

This whole eerie experience could be the doing of any number of human mages, or supernatural beings. I wondered with a curiosity I found to my surprise was not particularly strong, if this globe could be the handiwork of the Star Lords.

Well, whatever was to happen, would happen. Selah!

As to that, of course, The Star Lords brought me to Kregen from Earth, the planet of my birth four hundred light years off, and flung me about the world willy-nilly to do their bidding. They might perhaps regard me as far more useful to their plans than I had been; I was not weak enough to imagine they cared any more for my hide than they ever had.

Of two things I was keenly aware.

One, I needed a good square Kregan meal inside me.

Two, I needed a good Kregan draught to quench my thirst.

A moment’s sober reflection convinced me that those two requirements were not selfish, not weak. On Kregen six or eight regular meals are the norm. If whoever — or whatever, by Zair! — had brought me here to save my life then she, he or it ought to be aware I needed to be fed.

So this brought me round to worrying about the fate of my comrades left up there fighting Katakis and Shanks in bloody combat. Whenever I am in battle with my comrades I tremble for their safety. The fact is when I know they are fighting and I am not shoulder to shoulder with them I shudder for their welfare a thousand-fold.

These fragmented thoughts made me fret and fume away — totally uselessly. By the nit-laden hair and sagging bosom of the Divine Madam of Belschutz! If the supernatural wonders who’d snatched me here didn’t make an appearance soon, I’d — I’d what?

By the Black Chunkrah! I snarled. Get a move on! Bratch!

The wriggling lines of blue-green fire forming the encompassing globe continued. We sank down. In the illuminated area just beyond the capsule of air fishes glimmered and swarmed. Eyes, red, yellow, purple, glowed hungrily. Vast shapes moved on the periphery of vision. Giant jaws, edged with razor teeth, gaped.

Well, you onkers, I said to these fishy monsters. You haven’t a chance in a Herrelldrin Hell of biting through here!

That pettiness made me feel a trifle better. The severed hand still clutching the dagger