by Pedro Urvi
“Yes, it’s an incredible landscape. I never thought I’d see anything like it… we’re certainly very far from the western lands…”
Aliana nodded slowly.
“True… our homes are far away, Komir,” she said. There was a touch of nostalgia in her voice.
“Hmmm…” agreed Komir, although he did not feel nostalgic at all. His painful past in his village would not allow that.
“On the other hand, it’s an exceptional experience I think we’ll never forget.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” he said as he looked at her. The Healer’s eyes were like the ocean, and the moonlight fell on her hair of burnished gold like a halo. Her lily-white face took his breath away and when she looked at him shyly, Komir felt ecstatic, wishing he could lose himself in her eyes and never return.
Aliana smiled an honest, sweet smile. Then she looked away and cleared her throat.
“Do you foresee… any more trouble?” she asked, bringing him back to earth. Komir was afraid his face had betrayed his feelings: Not really… well, at least not until we reach the first big Nocean cities of the South. Once we step on land… we’ll have problems. That’s what Kendas and Kayti have told me.”
Aliana nodded. “Nocean territory…”
“Yes, every day we’re going deeper into the wolf’s den. We have no safe-conduct to travel through the Empire, and without one no matter how well we disguise ourselves under Nocean clothes, we won’t be able to avoid the armies of the desert forever. Sooner or later they’ll find us or someone will give us away. There’s a war on and we’re from the opposing side. If they capture us they won’t show any mercy.”
She bent her head: his words had upset her.
“We might be lucky and manage to avoid them, though,” Komir added hastily, hoping to ease her mind a little.
“Perhaps…” she said, unconvinced.
Komir leaned on the rail, and his hand brushed Aliana’s. The Healer glanced down at their hands, and then at him. Komir was filled with an instant joy that spread throughout his whole body. He felt something else he had never felt before, something like butterflies dancing in his stomach: an unbelievable feeling he struggled to make sense of.
Aliana looked away, and he could have sworn she was blushing. Not wanting the moment to end, Komir put his hand over hers, gently caressing her silken skin.
She looked up at him and their eyes locked: the girl’s shy blue, the boy’s intense emerald. Komir felt passion rising inside him like a volcano. He could barely hold back. He wished to hold Aliana, feel her against him, kiss her honey lips and love her right there, on the starlit deck, with the moon as sole witness.
She looked at him, and in her eyes he read a silent plea, a mixture of desire and forbidding.
Komir bent over her, but she moved her head. He understood his advances were unwelcome, and felt his heart freeze. His soul filled with painful disappointment. He straightened up and looked ahead once more, trying to hide his embarrassment, wishing the river could swallow him so that he could disappear forever.
“I’m sorry…” she whispered.
“You don’t need to apologize…” he replied, not upset, but with a terrible sense of vulnerability.
“Let me explain, Komir…”
“You don’t need to… on the contrary, please forgive my behavior. I’m terribly sorry, I shouldn’t have… I have no right…”
The two of them got caught in one another’s gaze. The moon witnessed the tension between them. Desire was so strong that its scarlet aura was nearly visible. A desire that grew with every heartbeat and was on the point of bursting like a flooded dam.
Neither spoke: they remained like that, facing one another, afraid to move and thus break the magic moment. In the end Komir could hold back no more. He bent to kiss the Healer’s sweet lips, and this time she did not move away. Komir felt her lips open like a rose and his excitement grew.
A creak behind him made him stop.
He turned his head and saw a shadow moving where the noise had come from.
“What the …”
The shadow divided and several new ones fell onto the deck silently, moving among the sleeping passengers and sailors as if night itself had broken into a hundred dark silhouettes.
“What is it, Komir?” Aliana asked, alarmed.
“I don’t know, but I fear it’s nothing good. Stay here while I see what it is. If you see anything strange wake Hartz and the others.”
“All right…” she said uneasily.
Komir moved warily, sword in hand, to where he had seen the shadows. When he got to the spot he discovered several hooked ropes anchored on the rail. He looked down at the river and saw five barges close to their ship. Armed men were climbing the ropes in total silence.
They were being boarded!
Komir turned just in time to see two pirates leap on him.
He defended himself and shouted to Aliana: “Sound the alarm! We’re being boarded!”
With terror in her face, Aliana began to shout: “Danger! Alarm! We’re under attack!”
Komir fought the two men off while another six reached the deck. He swore and began to retreat in search of Hartz. But four pirates fell upon him, and he fended them off desperately.
With Aliana shouting her lungs out, all hell broke loose on board the ship. The pirates began to kill whoever got in their way. Captain Albatros, his first officers and several sailors appeared on the stern, formed a defensive line and began to repel the attack.
Hartz woke up and sprang to his feet. He unsheathed his big Ilenian sword and cried: “Come over here, you bunch of halfwits, come to me! I’m going to rip your guts open!”
When he heard his friend, Komir felt an enormous sense of relief.
Kendas armed himself and protected Asti as he deflected an attacker.
Chaos and fear spread over the deck. There were desperate screams, blood, men overboard, fighting everywhere. The pirates were river men, blood-thirsty and fierce, killing passengers and sailors alike. They wanted the ship and its cargo, and they knew exactly what they were doing. They were dressed in dark clothes, with their faces covered by scarves so that only their fierce eyes and tanned brows could be seen. They were trying to quell all resistance from the few who dared to stand in their way. The passengers fled in terror to whatever hiding-places they could find.
Hartz ran to help Komir.
“Hold on! I’m coming!” he yelled. At the same time he raised his two-handed Ilenian sword over his head.
Komir blocked a hissing thrust from his right, then twisted to deflect another from his left with his hunting knife. Behind him Aliana was searching for something to fight with. Her bow was out of reach, among her belongings. A curved sword swished by Komir’s head. He managed to duck at the last second. He had barely seen it coming: there were too many to defend themselves against. He heard a cry of rage in Nocean, and when he looked up he saw a raised arm wielding a huge scimitar. He tried to free his sword to parry the enemy’s stroke, but realized there was no way he could manage it in time.
The scimitar began to descend, the silver edge bringing bloody death with it.
Komir swallowed.
His enemy’s arm flew in an arc, amputated cleanly by Hartz’s sword.
“I’m here!” announced the huge Norriel. “Let’s finish off these little fresh-water pirates!” he shouted with overwhelming confidence.
Relieved and catching something of his friend’s enthusiasm, Komir felt his courage revive. The weapons of the two Norriel flew in deadly arcs, and the four pirates were neatly cut down.
Kayti and Kendas were fighting by the mast, protecting Asti and a handful of other passengers who had taken shelter behind them.
Captain Albatros, together with several of his men, had made a stronghold of the stern and were defending themselves desperately.
“We have to reach Kayti!” yelled Hartz as he impaled one of the pirates.
“Right, let’s go!” replied Ko
mir, gesturing to Aliana to follow them.
The two Norriel began to move forward shoulder to shoulder, looking in all directions. The fighting around them was frantic: pure chaos, men fighting desperately, passengers trying to escape from death.
“Time to crush some skulls!” howled Hartz over the din of the fighting. He began to strike right and left at the attackers.
Unable to believe his friend’s daring, Komir shook his head and went to stand beside him. They were going deeper into the fray, and the last thing he wanted was to leave Hartz’s side unprotected. His huge friend taunted their assailants with insults, and challenges. Aliana, close behind them, was trying to steer any passenger they found still alive into safety. Hartz opened the way with great sweeping strokes, while Komir defended him from any treacherous lower attacks. The big warrior paid no attention to protecting himself. He was like a force of nature set loose upon the deck of the ship, driving off any opposition he met. But that particular fighting strategy could cost him his life, and Komir was well aware of the fact. A treacherous or simply unexpected stab in the side or back, and the mighty Norriel would fall without even knowing what had felled him.
“You’ve got to be more careful, Hartz! You fight as if you were immortal and I can assure you you’re not!” Komir scolded him. “Have you forgotten everything Master Warrior Gudin taught us in the Udag?”
“Of course I haven’t forgotten. But, what is there for me to be afraid of? Those ridiculous pirates?” He said while decapitating one of them with such a swift stroke that it almost seemed he hadn’t touched him. “I may not be immortal, but I’m certainly invincible as far as this puny rabble is concerned!”
Komir saw the flash of a knife-stroke aimed at his friend’s stomach and stopped it with a twist of his wrist. Something was happening to his friend: he was not himself. Hartz skewered a pirate with a two-handed stroke. As he watched, Komir realized that it was the Ilenian sword which was responsible for Hartz’s behavior. More and more, the bewitched sword possessed the great Norriel, poisoning his spirit with dangerous feelings of vain glory. “We must do something about that sword,” he thought with deep unease, “or else I’m really worried about what might happen to Hartz’s sanity.”
They made their way to the great mast amidships, where Kendas, Kayti and Asti were anxiously waiting for them. They had not moved from that post, and had been defending themselves as best they could.
“Will you please take some notice of your friend, you half-wit!” said Kayti as soon as he reached them.
“My, you have a temper! Aren’t you happy to see me safe and sound? Anyone would think you’re always waiting for a chance to get angry with me.”
“I’m at my wit’s end with you!” said the redhead, half-closing her eyes. “Be careful and pay attention to the battle, or we’ll end up having to attend a funeral at sea. Yours, bone-head!” she burst out, her eyes furious.
“All right, all right… I’ll be more careful… don’t worry,” said Hartz somewhat subdued by now.
Komir found the fat, richly-dressed nobleman sheltering close to Kendas and Kayti. He had his arms around the young girl they had rescued from the river before. The man’s bodyguards lay dead on the deck in a pool of blood, together with several fallen pirates.
The girl was crying, while the wealthy man tried to calm her, stroking her hair and murmuring comforting words in her ear. In the midst of all that horror, fighting, screaming and blood, the girl’s terror was absolutely logical. The fat man looked at Komir appealingly, with frightened eyes. The young warrior understood and nodded.
Captain Albatros, together with several of his sailors, was still defending the ship’s stern in a desperate attempt to stand fast against a large group of assailants.
Komir identified the leader of the pirates. He was a giant of a man, taller even than Hartz, with a black scarf on his head. His mere presence froze one’s heart. He was wielding two short curved swords in his muscular arms. He shouted orders to his men as he made his way to Captain Albatros, cutting anyone who got in his way to pieces. Komir realized that if the Captain fell, the ship would be lost, the situation was critical.
“We can’t let them kill the Captain!” he shouted, pointing his sword in Albatros’s direction.
“Let’s go get them, then!” said Hartz. He was smiling cheerfully, and excitement shone in his eyes.
Let’s keep a compact line and advance together,” said Kendas, bringing his military training to bear. “That way it’ll be less risky. The fighting is too chaotic to go in separately. I’ll take the right flank.”
“I’ll take the left,” said Kayti, getting into position while she threw a warning look at the big warrior in the center. “And no bravado,” she added, looking grim.
“And I’ll stay at the back to help the wounded,” said Aliana. She was kneeling beside a passenger whose head was bleeding. “There are too many of them. If I don’t hurry, many of them will die. I have to try and save as many as I can…”
“Me help,” said Asti kneeling beside Aliana.
“Agreed, then,” said Komir, his eyes on the fray taking place in front of them. “Let’s go!”
No more than a few steps ahead, they were attacked by several pirates. Hartz struck so hard that he almost sliced a man in two. Kayti blocked an attack, then with a twist of her hand caught her assailant in the arm. Komir deflected a stroke to his face, then took a step forward and stabbed the pirate in the stomach. He then looked for the enemy leader, who by now had noticed the group’s presence and was shouting orders to his men. Komir went for him at once. Another pirate tried to intercept him, but Hartz blocked his way.
“Come to papa!” he yelled, drawing the pirate’s attention to him.
Komir went straight for the man who had led the assault. The giant met him with a thrust to the chest with one of his curved swords. Komir threw himself to one side and avoided the stroke by a hair’s breadth. Then he had the pirate leader upon him, striking right and left with short powerful thrusts. Komir defended himself, blocking the attack with sword and knife, but he was forced to back up before the enormous strength of the attack. His waist hit the railing of the ship. There was nowhere else to retreat.
The pirate crossed his swords on Komir’s neck, and the Norriel barely managed to block them by doing the same. The giant smiled triumphantly, showing two golden teeth. With all the force of his powerful arms he pushed both swords, looking for Komir’s jugular. The Norriel’s arms were shaking, from the effort.
I’m not going to die like this! I can’t! he thought. Nobody’s going to deny me justice!
With a surge of fury that sprang from the depths of his heart he pulled his head back, then whipped it forward and butted his enemy’s nose. There was an audible crack and the pirate’s nose broke, bringing tears to his eyes and drawing blood profusely. This weakened his opponent, and Komir took advantage of it to slide his weapons along the two enemy swords until they were free.
The pirate leader took a step back and shook his head, trying to clear it. His entire chest was stained with blood from his nose.
Komir raised his gaze and saw Hartz and Kendas leading the fray amid the cries of the blood bath. The pirates, undecided and fearful, gave way before them. Kayti freed Captain Albatros, who had been taken prisoner, and stood in front of him defensively.
Komir smiled. They were winning. All they had to do now was put an end to the situation. He had to get rid of the pirate leader, then they would have saved the ship. Komir showed his weapons to the dark skinned giant.
But the leader grinned, spat blood and moved forward.
Just then he heard a plea behind him: “Be careful, Komir!” It was the Healer’s voice.
He could not help himself looking in Aliana’s direction, and at that same instant, the pirate jumped on him. His swords came down with devastating strength, Komir could barely block the attack and lost his hunting knife in the process. The pirate struck again with both swords, and Komir blocked
him with his own, holding it with both hands. The impact was terrible, and he nearly lost his weapon. He stepped back until he hit the rail.
The pirate struck once more. Komir lost his sword and fell onto one knee.
The giant laughed.
Aliana screamed.
Hartz ran as he yelled, “Let him be!”
Komir did not believe his friend would make it. Too far away, he thought.
Both the enemy’s swords rose for the final blow.
Komir closed his eyes desperately and lunged forward, pushing himself off the rail to gather momentum. He struck the giant in the stomach with his shoulder and grabbed the Nocean’s waist with both arms. The man bent over with a grunt, and Komir used all his strength to lift him over his head and push him overboard. The pirate leader flew in an arc and fell into the river.
Hartz arrived, and the two of them stared down at the water. The pirate leader was swimming towards one of the barges.
Hartz slapped Komir’s back so hard he nearly made him lose his balance. “Well played!”
“I was almost done. I don’t even know why I thought of butting him. I was only thinking of how to get rid of him. His blows were brutal. My arms and wrists are worn out.”
Kendas came up to them. “The rest of the pirates jumped in the river when they saw their chief fall. We’ve saved the ship, by a hair’s breadth, but we did it. It was close but that was a great fight, Komir, I’m glad you beat him.”
“Not half as glad as I am!” said Komir. He half-smiled, but pain soon wiped that from his face.
Hartz gave Komir a bear-hug and lifted him off the floor of the deck.
“I sure am glad!” he said, smiling, as he twirled his friend in the air.
“For goodness’ sake, put me down!” scolded Komir. But he could not help feeling tremendous admiration and happiness at his luck in having a friend like that always at his side.