Melcorka Of Alba

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Melcorka Of Alba Page 24

by Malcolm Archibald


  'Clear the decks,' Jasweer shouted. 'Throw that poor fellow overboard!'

  A second Thiruzha scout came marginally closer, fired a salvo that fell short and rowed away, followed by derisive jeers from Jasweer's Sharks.

  'Give me a bow,' Kulothunga demanded. 'I am a better archer than anybody on this ship.'

  'There are plenty of bows under the deck,' a marine officer told him. 'It's about time you and that pale foreign woman made yourselves useful. Standing about waving your sword and weighing down the boat does not help anybody.'

  For a moment, Melcorka thought that Kulothunga would kill the marine where he stood. Instead, Kulothunga lifted two bows and handed one to Melcorka.

  'A contest, Melcorka,' Kulothunga said. 'I have already bested you with the sword and at wrestling. Let me demonstrate how to fire a bow.'

  Melcorka smiled. 'You do like to boast, Kulothunga, yet I heard some girls giggling about what you cannot do.' She allowed the words to sink in before continuing. 'They mentioned something about inadequacy in bed.'

  Melcorka waited to see the reaction. Most men she had known would have responded with bluster and an immediate rebuttal. Kulothunga, with his vastly greater ego, had no need for such things.

  'Little girls can say such things,' Kulothunga said, 'but only before I have bedded them. Afterwards, their eyes are full of wonder and their bellies full of my seed.' His great laugh boomed across the boat.

  'We'll have less hilarity and more work down there,' Jasweer shouted. 'Get to it, you two! If you can't row, then let's see what else you can do.'

  The third Thiruzha scout was racing toward them, firing a constant stream of arrows from a platform in the bows.

  'There's our target.' Kulothunga strode forward, bent his bow and sent an arrow across the sea in a single movement.

  Melcorka watched as the arrow reached the apex of its flight and plunged down, to land on the hull of the Thiruzha craft. 'You missed, Kulothunga. You were nowhere near your target.'

  'You try,' Kulothunga said. 'That was only a ranging shot.'

  The bow was of an unfamiliar pattern to Melcorka; longer, double-curved and more powerful than those she had used in Alba. Pulling back the string, she aimed and released, for the arrow to fly far over her mark.

  'You see?' Kulothunga laughed. 'I am the better shot.'

  'We'll try again.' Melcorka did not like to be second best at anything. Fitting another arrow to the bow, she fired quickly, and missed again, while Kulothunga's arrow thudded into the quarter-deck of the Thiruzha craft.

  'Archers!' Jasweer yelled. 'Show these two land clowns how it's done. Show them how Jasweer's Sharks fire!'

  The archers grinned and loosed, with every single arrow finding the enemy ship. Melcorka watched their technique and copied it as best she could, so her next arrow landed closer to the Thiruzha vessel, and then there were other things to worry about than a contest with Kulothunga.

  'We're approaching the main Thiruzha fleet,' Jasweer said. 'I want every available sailor and marine on the port side, and everybody to have a bow. That means you two boasting land-sloggers as well.'

  Fifty strong, the Thiruzha fleet carved through the sea, every ship wearing two flags, the yellow-and-blue leopard of Thiruzha and a plain black flag.

  'What's that black flag?' Melcorka asked.

  'It means no quarter,' Kulothunga said. 'The Thiruzha are not taking prisoners.'

  'There is Bhim.' Melcorka touched the hilt of Defender and, in an instant of sudden clarity, she saw Bhim drinking from a gold-and-pearl-mounted skull. Bhim raised the skull and red liquid dribbled down his chin. In that second, Melcorka knew with utter certainty that Bhim was drinking blood; he was not human. The creature who posed as Bhim was a rakshasa. The knowledge sent a cold chill through her. She had been unable to kill one of these demons; how could she destroy two?

  'We are facing forces from another place,' Melcorka said, 'a place of shadows and horrors beyond our imagining.'

  'Is that so?' Kulothunga caressed his sword. 'Well, I would gamble all the gold in the Empire that my sword and I are the equal of any number of rakshasas.' He raised his voice to a shout that carried across the intervening water to the Thiruzha flagship.

  'Did you hear me, Bhim? I am Kulothunga, and I am not afraid of you, whoever or whatever you are. I am not afraid of any man, any woman, any warrior or any demon in this world or the next.'

  Bhim altered his stance to stare directly at Kulothunga. For one fraction of a second, Melcorka caught his glance. She shuddered at the force of pure evil in his smoky yellow eyes.

  'Be careful, Kulothunga. It is better not to stir these creatures up.' Melcorka put her hand on Kulothunga's arm.

  'I will not stir it up,' Kulothunga said. 'I will kill it.' He raised his voice again. 'Do you hear that, Bhim? I am going to fight you, and I am going to kill you.'

  In response, Bhim lifted his skull-cup in salute, took a deep draught and turned his head away. He must have given an order, for the Thiruzha flagship pulled out of formation and headed directly for Jasweer's loola.

  'We've caught their attention.' Jasweer's voice carried to every quarter of the ship. 'I want everybody with a bow to fire at the Thiruzha flagship. Fire and keep firing as fast as you can. Don't stop until you have no arrows left. Try and kill Bhim. Oarsmen, keep rowing. Helmsman, wait for my orders. All the rest, I want you to retrieve any enemy arrows that land on our ship and give them to our archers.'

  Jasweer guided them to within seventy yards of the Thiruzha ship, with long-range arrows humming from both sides. 'Helmsman! Hard a-port. Archers, move to the stern.'

  Melcorka knew that the next few moments would be dangerous as the loola slowed down to turn and presented her vulnerable side to the Thiruzha flagship. Sure enough, the Thiruzha vessel closed the gap, and more of her arrows found a mark, but Jasweer had timed her move perfectly, allowing the loola to escape with only two casualties. One female archer had an arrow through her stomach, and a male oarsman shrieked with an arrow in his groin.

  'Attend to these wounded,' Jasweer ordered. 'Oarsmen, keep the pace. Don't increase it.'

  'Don't increase it?' Kulothunga grinned. 'I see! Jasweer wishes Bhim to board us so I can kill him man-to-monster. In fact, I will kill them all.' He spared Melcorka a glance. 'You may help if you wish.'

  'Thank you.' Melcorka gave an exaggerated salaam. 'However, I believe Jasweer has other ideas. Rajaraja wants Jasweer to lure the Thiruzha into a trap, much as the Thiruzha did to our last fleet.'

  Larger and more powerful than the loola, the Thiruzha vessel surged through the waves with the archers firing non-stop. In return, Jasweer jinked from side to side, using her boat's greater agility to dodge the enemy missiles. Other Thiruzha vessels had broken formation and were streaming behind their flagship, so the sea astern of Jasweer's loola was a mass of enemy ships. Scout vessels tried to close with Jasweer, while the heavier vessels powered through the waves in showers of spray and spindrift.

  'Look ahead,' Melcorka said.

  The Chola fleet was also approaching, mighty thirisdais with the war machines on board, fast vajaras that had already closed with the more impudent of the Thiruzha scouts and the dharanis, the workhorses of the fleet with their crews of seamen and marines.

  'The Thiruzha have seen them,' Kulothunga said. 'They're turning away.'

  'Too late, I think,' Melcorka said, as the Chola vajaras sliced through the Thiruzha scouts in a welter of broken oars and fragmented men, followed by the indestructible majesty of the massive thirisdais. 'What a sight! Now, that's something I can tell my grandchildren about.'

  'Ha! Wait until you see me at the forefront of the battle,' Kulothunga shouted. 'Your grandchildren will listen with open mouths to the tales you tell them.'

  'No doubt.' Melcorka heard Bhim roaring to his oarsmen to back water, but the weight of the Thiruzha flagship kept her moving forward.

  'Hard to port!' Jasweer shouted. 'Oarsmen, row as if a hundred rakshasas were
breathing fire on your collective arse!'

  'Our captain has an interesting turn of phrase,' Melcorka said approvingly.

  Kulothunga laughed. 'She is right, except it won't be a rakshasa breathing fire.'

  Two Thiruzha scouts raced between Bhim's ship and the leading thirisdai, firing arrows uselessly at the massive hull of the Chola vessel. The thirisdai sailed on, brushed the first scout aside without a quiver and capsized the second with her ram.

  'Bhim's next,' Melcorka said.

  Melcorka was wrong. Although the scout ships had only lasted a couple of moments, Bhim had used the time to alter course and call up two of his larger vessels to challenge the thirisdai. While arrows whistled in both directions, marines clustered around the strange machine on the thirisdai's deck.

  'What are they doing?' Melcorka asked.

  'Watch and learn, woman of Alba,' Kulothunga said. 'We of Chola have much to teach you.'

  The machine was like a giant funnel set on the base of a chariot. Ignoring the arrows that felled some of their number, the marines pushed the device toward the bow of the ship. When the shipmaster snapped an order, two middle-aged men ran forward, with a body of marines protecting them with a barrier of shields.

  'These men are engineers,' Kulothunga explained. 'They will operate the machine.'

  Guarded by the shield-carriers, the engineers pointed the end of the funnel toward the nearest Thiruzha vessel, and it gushed out a clear liquid.

  'What's happening?' Absorbed in the machine, Melcorka barely noticed the arrows that were falling on the deck of the loola. She brushed one casually away with Defender.

  As some marines fell under Thiruzha arrows, others took their place to protect the engineers. Within a few moments, the liquid caught fire and a long tongue of flame leapt from the machine toward the enemy ship. Melcorka heard the terrified screams on the unfortunate Thiruzha vessel, with men either fighting the fire or retreating in panic. One seaman, his clothes and hair ablaze, leapt into the sea. Others followed, with prowling sharks waiting in the water.

  'In the name of…!' Melcorka said. 'I've never seen anything like that before.'

  'We are Chola,' Kulothunga said. 'We are the most powerful empire in the world.'

  The other Thiruzha vessels steered away from the horror, so the sea was a mess of retreating Thiruzha ships and triumphant Chola vessels. The thirisdai continued on, slow, ponderous and dangerous, with Thiruzha vessels scattering before it, until one brave Thiruzha scout vessel rowed close, with her archers trying to pick off the engineers that operated the flame machine.

  'That's our target,' Jasweer shouted. 'Protect the thirisdai! Come on, lads and lassies – Jasweer's Sharks are needed!'

  Jasweer had no need to manoeuvre. Steering straight for the Thiruzha scout, she shouted, 'Up oars' and rammed it in a grinding crash of splintered oars and crackling timber.

  'Marines!' Jasweer shouted. The loola's marines poured over the bow, slashing and thrusting at the scout's crew.

  'Come on, Kulothunga!' Melcorka leapt across to the scout.

  Melcorka only had time to see the thirisdai sail serenely past before three Thiruzha warriors attacked her.

  Melcorka ducked the swing of a sword, cut off the swordsman's legs and stepped over the body to deal with the second and third attacker. By the time she had done so, Kulothunga stood grinning over the four men he had killed.

  'You are good, Melcorka, but I am better.'

  Melcorka did not know what made her turn. One minute she was standing triumphantly on the deck of the scout, and the next, she saw the rakshasa rearing from the water. The creature was exactly as she remembered it from her previous encounter, a great, round head with glaring eyes, a snapping red beak and ten pulsating tentacles that reached from the water onto the thirisdai.

  'Kulothunga!' Melcorka yelled and hefted Defender.

  A second rakshasa emerged from the sea in a cascade of water and froth. Its tentacles snaked aboard the thirisdai, feeling for purchase along the deck. While some men ran in panic, the marines and engineers struggled to turn the fire-machine to face the monster. Standing square on his quarterdeck, the shipmaster roared orders for the archers to 'shoot those damned monstrosities off my ship!'

  'Archers!' Jasweer screamed. 'Fire at these things, aim for the eyes!'

  One tentacle lifted a thirisdai oarsman high into the air and tossed him backwards into the sea. Another arm swept along the deck, knocking three marines off their feet as the engineers succeeded in pointing the fire-machine at the monster.

  'Come on, Melcorka!' Kulothunga shouted. 'There is more work for our swords!'

  The engineers operated their weapon, with a stream of liquid pouring onto the first monster. When it closed its eyes and extended two tentacles towards the flame machine, the engineers promptly ran. Two brave marines stepped in to take their place.

  'No!' The shipmaster roared. 'Don't use the flame! You'll burn the ship as well!'

  The order was too late, as the marines set flame to the liquid. Within a moment, the creature was enveloped in fire, with its tentacles writhing in the air, and then, still burning, it pulled itself along the deck, lifted the machine from the deck and threw it away. The marines scattered, with the creature curling its tentacles around them. It tore one man in half in a shower of blood and intestines and thrust another into its great beak of a mouth.

  'Steer for the monsters, Jasweer!' Kulothunga shouted. 'Let me kill them!'

  'I'll not hazard my ship!' Jasweer yelled. It was the first time Melcorka had seen her rattled.

  'It's our duty to protect the thirisdai,' Kulothunga reminded her. 'We are expendable. Steer for it!'

  'May Shiva protect us all!' Jasweer's voice shook. 'Helmsman, steer for these things.'

  All this time, the Chola archers had continued to fire, with their arrows thudding into both rakshasas without effect. The burning rakshasa plunged into the sea, emerging a moment later with the fire doused.

  'Arrows cannot hurt them and fire does not kill them,' Kulothunga said in wonder. 'How do we destroy these rakshasas?'

  'I do not know.' Melcorka ran her hands along the blade of Defender. 'Let's see if we can do better.'

  'Shiva go with you!' Jasweer shouted, as she steered her loola to the stern of the thirisdai. Melcorka and Kulothunga jumped onto the steering oar of the much larger vessel and climbed onto the quarterdeck. The rakshasas were creating havoc, throwing men into the sea, pulling off legs, arms and heads, biting marines with their great beaks and tearing holes in the hull.

  'I am Melcorka of Alba!' Melcorka announced her presence. 'Fight me, rakshasa.' Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kulothunga run to challenge the second rakshasa and then she was too busy to notice anything.

  The rakshasa reared up on three of its tentacles until it was three times as tall as Melcorka, and then swept the remaining five arms toward her. Bracing herself, Melcorka sliced the ends of two of the tentacles. 'You can be killed!' She thrust for the great glaring eyes. 'Die, you thing!'

  Once again, Defender bounced off the eyeball. The shock jarred Melcorka's arms, forcing her to step back. She tried again, putting all her weight behind the thrust, only for Defender to jar against the eye. The rakshasa lunged at her, ripping its beak down the length of Melcorka's left arm.

  Melcorka gasped with the pain. 'Oh, Mother, where are you when I need you most?' She slashed at a tentacle that tried to curl around her ankles, skiffing the wriggling end-piece off the deck.

  The rakshasa snapped at her again and lashed out with three tentacles at once as it slithered along the deck, its eyes wide, glaring and undamaged.

  'What kind of demon are you?' Melcorka backed away, cutting another tentacle in two, holding Defender in front of her, thinking of a new method of offence. 'I can cut your arms but not damage anything vital.'

  'I am the kind of demon that you cannot kill.' The words formed inside Melcorka's brain. 'I am your nemesis, Melcorka of Alba. I am the death you have been seek
ing.'

  'I do not seek death,' Melcorka said. 'I am Melcorka the Swordswoman.'

  'All warriors seek death.' The words crept around her head. 'It is the ultimate end for the way of the sword. Either glorious death in climatic battle witnessed by thousands, or a sordid end, dying by inches in a ditch, unknown and uncared for.'

  Melcorka had said nearly the same words herself. Trying to shake away the voice, she advanced again, thrusting Defender into the great mass that surrounded the two eyes. The blade sunk deep and stuck there, sucked in by the rakshasa's rubbery body. The rakshasa pulled away, nearly tearing Defender from Melcorka's grip. Melcorka held on, gasping, wrestled the sword free and only just managed to parry a swipe from a tentacle.

  'You cannot defeat me, Melcorka. No mortal weapon can kill me. Accept that you will die now.'

  'I am not here to die!' Melcorka attacked again, slicing sideways. Defender dislodged a chunk of the rubbery mass. It lay quivering on the deck, obscene, ugly and useless. A squad of marines ran to help, yelling their battle-cry as they thrust long spears into the creature. It retaliated with a swing of a tentacle that swept three men overboard and shattered the legs of a fourth. He lay on deck, refusing to scream.

  Panting, Melcorka tried again, slicing another piece from the creature. 'I'll kill you bit by bit,' she said, as the rakshasa slithered toward her with a marine's blood dripping from its beak.

  At that point, Melcorka heard Kulothunga roar. He was standing on the head of the other rakshasa, digging into the mass with his sword. The thing coiled its tentacles around him and slid into the sea, to disappear beneath the surface with Kulothunga on top, still thrusting with his sword.

  'So dies Kulothunga,' the voice said in Melcorka's head. 'The best warrior that the world has ever seen.'

  'You foul vermin.' Melcorka felt her anger rise. 'I don't know what you are or from what filthy place you come, but I will send you back in little pieces.'

  Rather than a headlong attack, Melcorka slipped sideways, hacking at one of the remaining tentacles. 'You cannot move without your legs,' she said, 'so I will cut them off one by one and push you overboard for the sharks.'

 

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