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Royal Moon Circles
831d71
The anger, now incapable of much except to blister all her hearts with its denial, had no worth. Not until later. So, then, looking out across the wake of her failure, the amazon sat herself upon the deck, and breath by breath she pushed that anger back; grappled with it, took it to the ground, and then bled its strength into lending labour to the ship. Zorya lacked the degree of skill that the seafaring zisura honed with every day, but she had traveled wide, and paid attention to practical knowledge. Rope she could haul, and sail pull, well enough, and gradually she cleared her head. Korovo’s hired guards, uncertain of their situation, turned their remaining useful hands to task as well, for what good will it could get them. That left the sail-tribe to watch, and fret, and argue over currents and position, and work the oars below when they turned against the wind. The slip of the trader through her hands had cost the giant a few shreds of awe, but much the better that they didn’t think she could save them single-handed. They still feared her, well enough.
She considered what she had to work with. The vessel, though the sailors thought of it as one, had once been two, a greater and a smaller. They had fastened them together by bridging frames of wood, spars creating a squared space they hung with nets. That smaller hull was where they carved and stored the fresh-caught fish - some they brought out now, and for fear of sight or smell of cooking passing across the water, all aboard enjoyed it cold and bloody - and where they carried, underneath, the messier or more pungent cargo, leaving a more pleasant home on board the larger. Nineteen zisura made the fraction of their hive that crewed this ship, and Zorya understood they had three others on the water. With their queen commanding one of those, the sailors here did not have formal ranks among themselves, only intuitive gradations of respect and skill. She singled out a woman called Lerini as the elder others looked to when it came to talk with outsiders. “We charge a different price for passengers,” she had said, after another distant horn had told them that the pirates still had their trail. She did not mention the damage to the ship. Zorya didn’t have a perfect grasp on interpreting the fire from the sailors’ souls, but she could make a guess. “I’ll pay the difference,” she’d responded gruffly, though she considered whether she should be offended. It took fools to only look to save their own hides when there was an ally for a larger threat, and it was poor of them to think she might be foolish in that way.
Again she smithed her feelings into muscle-work, the wrangling of cords and the wrestling of tiller as the craft was forced to twist and turn a close-cut path that tested its agility and the vigor of its crew. Built more as a home than as a cutter, it demanded much for little gains, but after putting a steady push of wash behind them, some sense of safety tempted as the rocky Teeth finally fell back. The waves swelled larger, darkened by the depth, promising free running, and the tension humming through the spirits of the ship almost began to slack. Until the lookout yelled.
There, distant, was the pirate’s ship. In the mist beyond the stern it was only a shadow, yet, but it was broader and bulkier in hull than the traders’ ship, with a mainsail looming high and wide and two smaller stretching winglike out in front. Despite its size, it seemed to glide out from the treacherous passages of the maze that they’d just left with easy expertise. A fancy struck Zorya that, somehow, that ship was mocking how they’d fled. Its coming into view was worse. The prow was carved with the weathered visage of a snarling scaly carnivore, but the message of savage bestiality was clearer in the realities following behind the decoration. An irregular, stitched-up patching of the massive sails that first appeared to be battle damage was revealed as the leathered skins of giant creatures. Half the ribbing of the ship itself, too organically curved and smoothed, was truly built of giant ribs, and other bones, harvested from similarly massive carcasses. Even among the timber, the mismatched colors and weathering of planks suggested that most or all was sourced from wrecks and driftwood. Despite its grisly materials, however, the craftsworkship was fine. The stitches of the sails were even, the wood and bone fit neat and tight, and the riggings that arced across its heights were a complex, ordered web well beyond the workings of the ship Zorya stood upon. As she drew in the focus of her sight, she saw away to its rearward height that there was no tiller she could find. There was only a strange wheel whose attendants, though only small shapes yet and beyond the range of sensing through her soul, Zorya felt were laying eyes upon her. Other strange protrusions of wood and metal dotted the ship where ropes converged, to no immediately sensible purpose, though some resembled massive bows with odd assemblages attached. There was a suggestion, too, of shapes moving on the quarterdeck that were larger and of different form than most zisura.
Whatever the means, one advantage that it had came clear: it was faster. The winds were not strong, and their enemy could catch far more of what there was than them. Some among the merchant crew who still favoured an attempt to flee began to shout for dumping cargo and cutting the second hull. But to the older sailors, keener to the measuring of weight and wind and pull, it was obvious that it would do nothing other than extending the inevitable. Zorya felt attention turn to her again, seeking the reassurance of her massive size and reputation.
It could only come to boarding, just as she’d thought. In her mind, the best tactic was to…
a) Take up spears and bows - if there were any - climb the masts, and shower pain onto the pirates as they came, to test their courage and slow their striking arms as much as possible before meeting them in closer combat.
b) Bring up cargo on the deck and build makeshift walls and barricades, to bleed the boarders with a miniature siege.
c) Turn around and counter-charge just before the pirates reached the range of sensing their intentions, and take the fight to their ship, hoping to gut their leadership.
d) Combine their tactics, splitting the ship’s efforts for a less effective but multi-layered strategy.
e) _________________
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