Chapter 14: Boarding Party

The silhouette of the other sloop gained on them as they sailed down the river. Falinor ordered that the lights be doused. He ran to the lantern closest to himself, using his sword to lift it from its place of hanging. He tossed it off into the water as fast as he could. Harrkania took the lantern on the bow and flung it away as if it were a creature that might viciously attack her.

Orvin glanced back at the other boat, his eyes wild and his movements jerky, the panic within him evident. The swordsman ran across the messy deck covered in bundled nets and strewn with buckets, making his way to the wheel where the man was steering their boat, the princess close on his heels.

“We are only three,” breathed Orvin. “How will we fight them off?”

“More like two,” said Harrkania, her tone somewhat regretful.

Falinor made a face. “I’m worth a few giants, Princess.”

“I hope so.”

Looking off into the dark mist, the silhouette of the boat was still there, clear in the fog, and getting closer. What’s more, the lanterns were still alight. The crew, who could be heard shouting orders as they readied for a fight, did not seem to think they needed to surprise their enemy.

That gave them an advantage, at least for visibility.

“We could abandon the boat,” suggested Orvin, “swim to shore? They may not know it until we have gotten away.”

“Hush!” said Harrkania. “Orvin—they may hear you.”

“I am sorry, my lady.” He swallowed. “Do you think it would work?” He glanced between the giantess and the swordsman, his idea still offered.

“No,” said Harrkania as she shook her head. “That may work, but then we won’t be able to get to the God’s Eye.”

“There are other boats, Princess,” said Orvin with a note of separation.

She shook her head.

It seemed the princess’ mind was made up and there was nothing they could do to change that. Even if they could—they did not have the time. “She is stubborn,” observed Falinor.

Orvin looked at him, his eyes wide, but he said nothing in response to Falinor’s comment about the giantess standing on the decks beside them.

“We have a quest,” said Harrkania. “We are not leaving this boat.”

The lantern on the fore of the other sloop was not ten paces across the water now, the very bowsprit of the pursuing ship visible through the mist.

Something thrummed from the other sloop. Falinor knew that sound—know it all to well as the sound of a loosed shaft.

“Get down!” he snapped as he grabbed their shoulders.

Orvin jumped forward as Harrkania crouched low over the deck when the whistling arrow came. It thudded harmlessly into a rumpled net.

Lifting his hands from the back of his head, the small man glanced back in the direction of their pursuers with incredulity. “Do they not know the princess is aships?”

Springing to his feet, a bravery—of a kind, filled his demeanor and countenance. “Leave off, you fools—Princess Harrkania’Dar stands on these decks!”

“Orvin!” she cried. “Stay down!”

“No,” he said, frustrated as he glanced back at them. Then to the pursuers he added, “If you fell the princess the king will have you!”

Another arrow whistled past them and stuck into the deck. They all lurched with sudden startlement and Falinor bent, pulled the shaft free and looked at it. The arrow was somewhat larger than the arrows of humans—certainly a heavy shaft that could easily pierce through either he or Orvin’s body with ease.

The small man was lucky to be alive right now.

“I do not think that they care,” said Falinor. “Perhaps you should lower yourself, man?”

“Hmph!” Harrkania sniffed with disappointment. Then she glanced to the swordsman. “You will protect me, will you not, Falinor?”

With a nod, he said, “Yes, Princess—I will protect you.”

“Then you have permission to kill these giants if you must.”

Orvin crouched low beside them and they all looked at each other, the heaviness of her statement left in the air. Finally Falinor nodded. “I will defend you and do what I must, Harrkania’Dar.”

“They are upon us!” Orvin shouted as the bowsprit of the other sloop pushed past on their starboard side.

“Then let us fight!” Falinor called. “Princess, stay close to me. I have an idea.” He grabbed Orvin by the scruff of the neck and hauled him up. “With us, little man,” Then the swordsman pulled Orvin across the deck and made for the bow of their own sloop, the front of the boat hardly visible in the mist. “Stay close,” he called hurriedly and not without some sense of urgency.

Harrkania’s boots thumped forward from behind. “I am right here!”

Sandals slapping across the deck, Falinor raced to the front of the sloop, the giantess thundering behind him.

When the giants boarded their vessel, their boots hit heavily over the deck near the wheel of their own sloop. They growled and cursed about.

“Where are they?!”

“Did they jump?”

“No—keep looking!”

“The foredecks, you fools!”

“Oh.”

The boarded giants were not far from discovering them, Falinor knew as he stopped at the very prow of their sloop.

“What are we doing?” cried Orvin.

Shushing the man with a hiss and finger, he said, “We board them now!”

“What?” asked Harrkania in astonishment. “Falinor—what are you—“

“Just trust me, Princess.”

She took pause.

The swordsman could not expect them to simply obey as if they were pieces on a board. He turned to the giantess. “Do you trust me?”

She looked at him.

“Princess,” persisted Falinor, a sense of apprehension climbing through his nerves—as he did not know if this plan would work. It was an arrow in the dark at best. “Princess, do you trust me?”

Finally, she nodded. “I trust you.”

“Then over onto the sloop!”

She nodded. “All right!”

Orvin stumbled toward the edge and as the giants behind them made their way up the deck, Falinor realized they were out of time.

We have to go now!