A King`s Commander l-7

by Dewey Lambdin

  "Fetch-to, Mister Knolles," Lewrie commanded. "We go galloping off east, he's sure to slip past us."

  "Aye, sir! Duty watch, hands to the braces and sheets!"

  A quarter-hour later, riding cocked up into the wind, bows almost due north, the ship making no headway. Still nothing to be seen.

  "Signal!"

  Another fuzee skyrocketing into the night, pointing west, a bit closer to them, as Hyde sailed in pursuit of whatever had aroused him. No hope of catching his Chase, of course, whatever she turned out to be. Safe enough for Hyde and his men, Lewrie thought, relieved; Choundas did not have night enough to turn and make her pay for alerting the blockade he'd have to thread. Assuming that so-far unseen vessel was his; if it was, he'd gotten a late start, and lost a precious hour already.

  "We'll begin to stand inshore, Mister Knolles," Lewrie said with impatience, after another quarter-hour had passed. "Slowly, at first."

  "Aye, sir."

  Another half hour, Hyde's barge making no more than five knots at best, even with that stiff broad-reaching wind on her quarters. An hour, so five miles closer to us he's come, Lewrie plotted, almost frantic, but concealed by darkness on the quarterdeck, as Jester prowled without even a single glim burning. A tartane, lateen-rigged, he thought; she'd go around seven knots off such a goodly wind… two miles closer to us than Hyde? Yet not a whiff of her, not hide nor hair?

  Another fuzee, this time fired slantwise, as if Mister Hyde was firing a very long, up-the-stern shot, as a miniature comet arced up and down like the trail of a burning carcase shot from a mortar. Within two miles of Jester's bows, so the Chase surely must be in smelling distance!

  "Haul our wind, Mister Knolles! Time to stand in directly. Due north, Quartermaster!"

  "Sail Ho!" from a larboard forecastle lookout. "One point awrf th' lar-b'd bow! 'Gainst th' town's lights! D'ye hear, there?"

  Lewrie dashed to the larboard side, leaned out over the bulwarks to peer into the gloom as Jester swung. The town of Voltri was three miles north, almost dead ahead, by then. They might have been holding a/esta to celebrate the recent harvests, or some saint's day, for the waterfront and main streets were lit with torches, lanthorns, and a big bonfire, producing a pencil-thin smear of light. And suddenly, there was a ship; a quick, eye-blink glimpse of a ship atop the amber, scintillating fire-glade of the town's lights, stark and black in a second of silhouette-high-pinked stern, sharp bow, and three crescent moon sails, low to the deck; two large lateens, and a long lateen jib!

  "Haul our wind, Mister Knolles, come about to west by north!" he howled. "A tartane, no error! And she's already west of us!"

  Hellish-fast, too, Lewrie shivered, as the night wind went cold; fearing he'd left it too late. Seven knots mine arse, she had to be going eight or nine, or I'm a Turk in a turban! By the time we get turned in pursuit and settled down, she could have a mile lead on us.

  Six bells of the Evening Watch chimed up forrud; eleven o'clock on a dark, filthy night. Jester was quick with the wind on her quarters, he knew, but this tartane would be fast as a witch. He rolled his eyes, to peer without straining or staring, for a glimpse of her, but blackness had swallowed her up, once more.

  He looked astern as Jester came around on her new course, the sea swashing down her flanks, the babble of water 'neath her forefoot, under her transom an urgent mumbling. Hyde was to return on-station till daybreak then come west to safety in Vado Bay. Pray God there were no more signals from him! Had Choundas sent a first vessel out as a false lure, to test the waters and draw any watcher away, there was little he could do about it. For better or worse, he was now committed.

  "We escape her," the captain of the tartane crowed to his crew, to his lone passenger the "Brutto Faccia" Francese huddled deep in his warm boat-cloak. "Barge, signore? Pretty barge of a capitano, I say. I see her before. Ah-gah-mem-non," he pronounced carefully in a poor French, mingled with quick native Italian. "She was only Britannici I see off Genoa. And she is slow. Big and slow, signore!"

  "You are quite certain?" his passenger demanded, unused to being an idle commodity to be carted about, fretful that he had not been given charge of the saucy yachtlike coaster by Pouzin's cabal of plotters, but was now at the mercy of this filthy, unshaven brute with his dark, liquid eyes, olive complexion, and harsh Arabic face. Mongrels, he thought them all, unwanted Persian, Turkish, Egyptian polluters of the ancient Etruscan, Celtic blood of the first Latins.

  "Only Brittanici we see, days and days, signore," the tartane's commander insisted. "Barge, come in today then go back out. Watchers, in fishing boats see ship of this Nel-eh-son-ey go west, meet another, but do not return. We are safe now, signorel" he boasted, thumping his chest. "I sail circle around big, slow ship-of-line! Ecco, we go out to sea. Coast come down to us, at Vado there are Brittanici patrol. We reduce sail, too. No one can catch us."

  "No, we should press on," Guillaume Choundas curtly replied. He almost felt a mythic prickling in his thumbs, an unease that would not be stilled until he was ashore, or back aboard his ship. "I order…"

  "No one order me," the other barked. "I am capitano, you are the passenger. We reduce sail. It is blowing almost too good. We go out from the coast. We get to Finale before sunrise, we go so quick, and cannot land you on that coast in the dark. Lay still, off Finale, and wait till the dawn, we meet Brittanici patrols, you see? If more wind comes, we are safe out at sea, not on rocky coast. You want to live, signore? We do what I say. Angle out, stand back in, go fast all the time. But not too fast, si? Shut up and drink some wine, signore. I am best capitano in all of Genoa, the senatore, he knows this. Why he hires me to carry his letters to you Francese. I command his yacht if he did not give me so many orders. I do not like orders."

  "Whether you like them or not," Choundas protested, "your employer told you to get me to a French-held port. If we're making such good time, then it could be Loano, even Alassio. It doesn't have to be Finale. Stay inshore, keep up your speed, and land me at the port where dawn finds us."

  "Too far for us," the captain objected, turning surly. "There is too much risk coming back to Genoa. I do not ever see ships of you Francese to protect me, signore. You are capitano importante, in such a little navy. There are ten of us… one of you. You do not tell us what to do, Capitano grande."

  With that, he turned away to shout orders to his crew, to reduce sail, and went to the tiller-bar aft, to direct the helmsman to wear out to sea. The tartane slowed, began to slough and rock. Lateen rigs were horrid when it came to sailing so fine downwind. A square sail, off the wind, would belly full, strain equally from corner to corner, and reduce the excess wallowing motion, which robbed a ship of speed.

  Shop clerks, Choundas was forced to fume in silence! Eager for their own beds tomorrow evening, no stomach for a long voyage. Working for the gold, the excitement… but with no sense of discipline, purpose, or loyalty. Mongrels, he added to the list of their sins. Just as bad as those swaggering, cockscomb mercenary privateers; all bluster and brag. Once Genoa was theirs, Choundas vowed, and the guillotines came, to winnow out the "aristos," the usurers, those opposed to the new regime, he would be sure that this captain's name was found in the book of the damned.

  Mongrels, he thought, squinting his eyes in fury; so dumb they cling to barbaric Arabian lateens, when even the most famous man of Genoa, Christopher Columbus, knew to change over to square rig! An ignorant, mongrel race!

  "I'd not be pressin' closer ashore, sir," Buchanon warned him. "Too dark t'see what we're about. Nor whether we're still chasin' yon tartane."

  "There's depth enough, Mister Buchanon?" Lewrie countered. "A nor'east wind to drive us offshore, for once? Not a lee shore…"

  "But th' coast trend's southerly, sir," Buchanon insisted. "I suggest we come t' west by south, Captain. E'en does our Chase stand inshore o' us durin' th' night, the coast'll shoulder her out."

  "It's the coast he wants, to land on, Mister Buchanon," Lewrie spat, as two bells of the Middle Watch
chimed at one a.m.

  "Which he'd be a purblind fool t'do, with such a sea runnin," Buchanon countered. "He can't close it till dawn, same'z us, sir."

  "Very well, Mister Buchanon. West by south it is. Mister Knolles, we'll haul our wind a mite more, to west by south. Hands aloft, take in sail. First reefs in the main course, mizzen and maintop'sls. I don't wish to shoot past her in the dark. Nor be blown too far loo'rd of the coast by sunrise… by this nor'east wind."

  Should there be a wind shift, which usually happened along such a coast, should it moderate or clock northerly, he'd be headed, robbed of power when he needed it most, and badly placed for pursuit.

  Assumin' there's somethin' t'see at dawn, he sighed, frustrated. Jester had logged a steady eight knots since espying their Chase around Voltri. Three hours later, and they were almost level with Vado Bay, at that speed. And still had no further sighting of that spectral tartane. He had to admit that Buchanon was right to be cautious. Rocks aplenty inshore, the sea not so boisterous they'd be warned of risk by white foam breaking on them, the moonlight too weak to give them first sight to steer clear. Stout as the wind had blown, he'd expected some rain with it, such a pall of storm cloud overhead that what poor view the lookouts had would be blotted out entirely; but that hadn't come. The solid black of the shore could still be guessed at, if one didn't peer too long or hard at it; whitecaps could be espied all about, by the faint moon. But no sign of that damned tartane!

  Jester slowed as her sail was reduced, even with the wind fine on her starboard quarter. Purring now, as three bells chimed, solidly surefooted and ploughing. But to where?

  CHAPTER

  7

  "Sir?" Knolles prompted, a little closer to Lewrie's ear, and giving him a "gentlemanly" nudge. "Sir?"

  "I'm awake, sir," Lewrie grumbled, rising from a treacly sleep from his wood-and-canvas deck chair. He fought the constricting folds of his boat cloak, sensing immediately that the weather had changed.

  "Wind's died out, sir," Knolles reported, fighting a yawn himself. "The last five minutes, it went scant, then… nothing."

  Jester was rocking and heaving, her timbers and yards groaning in protest, and her sails slatting like flapping laundry amidst all the squeaking of parrel blocks and pulleys. Lewrie marveled that he could have slept so soundly through all that. "What's the time?" he asked.

  "Two bells of the morning just went, sir," Knolles informed him. "I make it about a quarter-hour to false dawn, sir. Sorry, sir, but as we kept both watches on deck all night, I held off on pumping and swabbing, and let the hands caulk for a bit. Do you wish me to…"

  "No, no, you did quite right, Mister Knolles." Lewrie shivered, wrapping himself in the boat cloak again. "Galley fires going? Soup's the thing. Soup and gruel. Cold… but clear."

  "Remarkably clear, sir." Knolles grinned. Or fought a yawn, it was hard to tell. "The sea's moderating, too."

  "Just what I feared." Lewrie groaned. "Good as stranded, much too far to seaward. Northerly, or a Levanter easterly to come, after sunrise proper. Beat for hours to get back inshore, against the land breeze. I s'pose there's no sign of our Chase?"

  "Uhm… not yet, sir," Knolles had to admit. "But we can see a bit better now."

  The moon had set, but their world was a nebulous charcoal gray, disturbed only by an occasional whitecap. The coast was definable… just barely. About ten miles off, that solid blackness? he thought. Off which a morning's land breeze would flow, dammit to hell. Maybe a nor'wester, to begin with, before the ocean heated and countered, from whatever capricious direction the Ligurian Sea had in mind today?

  "If the galley fires are going, I'd admire some coffee," Lewrie said. "And an idea how far west we were blown during the night."

  "I'll send a messenger down to roust your steward, sir," Lieutenant Knolles offered. But Aspinall clomped up the larboard ladder from the gun deck, having already made a trip to the galley. For a warm-up, if nothing else, Lewrie thought, uncharitable that early in the morning. He cradled a battered old lidded pot, and bore some tin mugs on a string.

  "Coffee, sir? Coffee, Mister Knolles, sir?" He beamed. "Got enough fer all, sir. Thought th' gennlemen'd relish a spot o' hot."

  Toulon had gone with him on his errand, for a bite of something from the cooks, who ever would spoil him. Now he came prancing up the ladders to the quarterdeck, tail stiffly erect and "maiwee ?"-ing for a good-morning rub. He leaped atop the hammock nettings to greet Lewrie with loud demands for attention. After a warming sip or two, Alan went to him to give at least a one-handed tussling and stroking.

  He stiffened suddenly, stopped his frantic purring, and turned to look to the north. His ears laid back, his back hairs and tail got bottled up, and he craned his neck, whiskers well forward.

  A faint whicker of wind came from there, the worst direction of all, to Lewrie's lights, just as Knolles extracted his pocket watch to state that it was now time for false dawn.

  "Sail Ho!" a forecastle lookout yelped. "Four points off th' star-b'd bows!"

  "Due north?" Lewrie gulped. "Due north of us?" He looked at the cat, wondering whether he'd sensed the wind's arrival, or caught a scent of that ship… Toulon was now busy washing himself, intent on a paw, and the side of his face that Lewrie had tussled.

  "What sort o' sail?" Knolles bellowed back.

  "Tartane, sir!" came the quick reply. "Close-hauled t'th' nor-east! "Tis her, d'ye hear, there!"

  "Get us underway on starboard tack, Mister Knolles. Sheet home and brace in. Full-and-by to weather," Lewrie demanded. Coffee mug in one hand, telescope slung open in the other, and laid on the mizzen shrouds to starboard, he espied her. Aye, a two-masted tartane, about three miles off, showing them her stern as she ghosted against a faint land breeze, pointing higher than Jester ever could but riding so slow her decks were level, even with her bows as close to the wind's eye as she could lie, with her lateen yards braced in almost fore-and-aft.

  Slowly, just as painfully slowly as the tartane crawled, Jester began to gather headway, to pinch up point at a time to the wind, her bows at last aimed west-nor'west, as close as she could lie. Two knots were reported, then three, when the log was cast astern.

  "Good mornin', sir," Buchanon reported to the quarterdeck.

  "I'm happy someone can find something good about it," Alan said as he finished his coffee. "Do you give me a rough idea of position, I would be much obliged, Mister Buchanon."

  "Aye, sir," Buchanon replied, crisply cheerful as Aspinall gave him a mug as well. "But I make 'at cape off th' larb'd bows t'be th' one guardin' Finale. 'At isle t'th' north'rd, 'at'd be sou'-sou'west o' Vado Bay, sir. 'Bout ten mile offshore, we are. Didn't get blown half so far'z I'd thought, Cap'um. 'At our Chase, at last? Th' poor bugger's on th' wrong tack, don't ya think, sir?"

  "She's three miles ahead, sir, that's what I think," Lewrie shot back. "Up to windward, safe as houses."

  On a hugely diverging course, too. The tartane was beating to the nor'east, but had bags of room in which to tack, safely two miles out of gun range. She could turn nor'west for the coast between the island and the western headland, and there were inlets aplenty for a beaching, in shallow water where Jester could never dare go.

  "Four knots! Four knots t'this log!"

  The best Lewrie could hope was to stay on this starboard tack, gain speed as the wind rose, as it seemed to be wanting to, to deny her a shot at tacking further west. It wasn't over yet… there might come a patrol from Vado Bay. But so far, though, they had the morning sea to themselves.

  "Five knots, sir!" Spendlove shouted.

  "We'll tack, sir?" Knolles asked. "There's wind enough."

  "No, not yet, sir," Lewrie decided, feeling an urge to chew on a thumbnail. "We'd lose ground on her, she'd tack once we were on a new course, and force us to do it all over again. We'd fall even more behind. Hands aloft, and shake out the night reefs. Let's fill every sail bellyful."

  "Aye aye, sir!"

  * * *

  S
ix knots, then seven at times; nothing to write home about with pleasure, but Jester was increasing her speed, two miles nearer to that coast, pointed just east of Finale's headland. Now and then the winds grew a tiny bit stronger, backing a little east of north, and Spenser and Brauer luffed her up into it to wring every inch of advantage from the puffs.

  "Deck, there!" a foremast lookout called down. Once the dawn had come, men could be posted aloft, once more. "Chase is tackin'!"

  "Had to, sir," Buchanon opined. "She stood any more east'rd… she'd end up in Vado Bay. She was a'ready level with th' island."

  "We're at west-nor'west, she's making nor'west, two points higher to windward, though, Mister Buchanon."

  "But closin' th' range, sir. Closin' th' range."

  Lewrie eyed her again with his telescope. The tartane was hard on the wind, on starboard tack now. Her decks were still fairly level, though, which puzzled him. Jester was beginning to heel, as if being two miles farther out at sea they'd caught a suffer wind than what it might be like closer inshore, under the shadow of the rugged coastal heights.

  "Run out the starboard battery, run-in larboard!" Lewrie barked.

  "Seven-and-a-half knots, sir!" Spendlove shrilled.

  Jester was really moving now, no matter how average the winds. With her longer waterline and greater weight, once she got a way on she tenaciously held it, in even the lightest winds, as the tartane could not. For once, she was the shorter vessel, the one more prone to fall off, to slough and slow. As she did, even as he watched! To sail as fast as she needed to, she'd have to fall away from close-hauled, let the wind cross her decks a little more abeam, on a close reach. Slow to gather way, and quick to lose it, beating to windward could result in her crawling at a snail's pace, cocked up but going nowhere.

  Was it his imagination, did she appear to be falling off? To the same compass heading as Jester, west-nor'west? And trending aft.