The Dragon's Breath

by James Boschert

  “Always go for an unguarded place and strike hard,” Reza admonished him from behind.

  Tarif’s grin had vanished, replaced with a grimace of pain and then anger. He staggered back and rubbed his shin vigorously, then came in again, his stick whirling. This time Reza easily blocked it, then stepped sideways like a dancer and rapped him on the elbow with the tip of his ‘blade’.

  Tarif uttered a yell of pain and almost dropped his weapon. “Always strike immediately after you have blocked a blow, as that is when the opponent is off guard,” the remorseless advice continued.

  Tarif was undeterred. A veteran of many street fights, he didn’t yet recognize just what he was up against, but by this time the rest of the crew were beginning to regard Reza with different eyes. He wasn’t even breathing hard, while Tarif was panting and sweating in the bright sunlight. They grew less boisterous and began to pay attention.

  “Lucky blows. Tarif will still soon put him on the deck,” someone muttered. Still, it was beginning to dawn on them that Reza would be no easy knockover.

  Tarif rubbed his elbow with a rueful laugh and then settled down to circle and watch his opponent more carefully. Reza simply stood in the center of the ring and followed him about as he circled. Tarif tried a few feints, which Reza tapped away with contempt.

  Finally, thinking he had judged the moment just right, Tarif again attacked with wide slashing strikes meant to drive Reza back against the side of the ship and deprive him of room to maneuver. Reza met him head on. He deflected one of the wild blows with a light tap and then went well inside Tarif’s guard, reversed his position so that he was almost crouched facing away from his opponent, and rammed his ‘blade’ backwards into his opponent’s stomach, putting real force into it. Tarif doubled over with an explosion of breath and fell to his knees. His eyes were already crossed when Reza tapped him gently on the top of his head. The man fell over and lay on the deck, admitting defeat with a groan, too breathless to speak.

  Reza stood back and said, “Never rush in, because a knowledgeable swordsman will use that against you… and probably kill you.”

  The rest of the crew roared with laughter and slapped each other on the back with delight, but they were also looking at Reza with real respect. These were men of the sea, toughened by all manner of hardship, so they could appreciate the clean display of weaponry they had just witnessed. There was no difficulty with the training after that.

  *****

  The appearance of three triangular sails in the Northeast after almost three weeks of travel was an unwelcome surprise. The lookout posted on the main mast by the captain for this express purpose shouted down that the ships were bearing down on them.

  The captain looked grim and began to shout orders to tighten sail and altered course a few more points towards the Southeast in an attempt to avoid the ships if at all possible.

  Talon and Reza were brought on deck by the drumming sound of running feet, the shouted orders, and the shift in direction, which was unusual, as they had been on a straight course in calm waters for several days now.

  “What is the problem, Captain?” Talon asked when he climbed the last step onto the steering deck.

  “I think we have company, and it is not the kind that we need. This is a sea full of pirates, but I hoped that God would spare us this.”

  He pointed to the Northeast, where three well-spaced lateen sails were just visible on the horizon. There was no land in sight, but the captain said, “We are about four or five days sail out from land, and that is why they are looking for victims.” He growled unhappily. “God curse them for the parasites they are. We cannot fight three of them at once.” He rubbed his face vigorously with a calloused hand. “I must now try and race them to the port.”

  Talon climbed half way up the stays and stared at the oncoming enemy. He felt a sense of dread. All the warnings of the dangers of these seas came back to him. They had just sailed into an ambush of sorts. The pirates, who had probably been waiting for easy prey to sail into their hands, were in possession of vessels that, while not as large as the Sea Eagle, were speedy and very maneuverable from what he could tell even at this distance. He jumped down to join Reza on the deck and urged him towards a corner of the upper deck.

  “We cannot outrun those ships, Reza. They will catch us before sundown, that’s for sure.”

  “Can’t we lose them in the dark?” Reza asked.

  “Look at them, Reza, they are light and faster than we are. There isn’t a cloud in the sky and the stars overhead at night would show them exactly what we were doing.”

  “Then we fight them and make it very difficult to take us,” Reza stated, as if this was a matter of fact.

  Talon shook his head. “I agree with you that we must fight, Brother. But it has to be during the day. At night they can sneak up on us, and while we are fighting one the others will come in behind us, or on the other side and board us. It has to be during the day!”

  He pounded the rail, tense with frustration. His mind was racing: how to deal with these pirates so that they could gain time to get into port? They could not outrun them, no matter what the captain said. A sea battle was the last thing he wanted at this time, but it looked as though they were faced with one.

  Reza tried to reassure him. “You and I have bows. Our men are better trained than they were before. There are bows available for at least ten men, so perhaps we can surprise them,” he suggested.

  Talon slammed one fist into his palm. “That’s it! You are right, Reza. You are so right, we have to surprise them! Come with me.”

  He led a puzzled Reza back to the captain and asked him to join them. He explained his plan to both men and then waited for their reaction. Reza, predictably, was all for the venture. “I think you are mad, Talon. But you are thinking on your feet, as usual, and besides, I don’t see any other choices.”

  The captain, on the other hand, was horrified. He was almost in tears he was so upset.

  “This is utter madness, Master Talon! How can you be sure that they will fall for this?” he exclaimed. “If it goes wrong we are all dead, or slaves, or worse. Think of the women we have on board, Master Talon! We should try to outrun them, there is still a chance.”

  “I am thinking of the women, Captain. I don’t want to imagine the fate they will suffer if we do not do this. It is futile for us to try and outrun those pirates; they will catch us at night, and then our chances are much worse. Our bowmen won’t be able to see their targets until they are aboard us, and by then it will be too late. And yes, we shall all surely die or be enslaved.” Talon’s tone was harsh. He didn’t see any alternative to a fight.

  Reza nodded agreement. “In daylight I can kill many of them from a great distance, but in poor light it will be much harder to aim true.”

  “The nights have all been clear. They will have the advantage and be able to sneak up on us while we are engaged with one of them, and we will not be able to react in time, nor with sufficient force to drive them away. Call the crew to the deck. I wish to talk to them,” Talon told the captain, his tone brusque now. There was no longer any time to debate the issue.

  Looking rebellious, the captain reluctantly did as he was told, and the crew was quickly assembled in the waist of the ship to hear what Talon had to say. It didn’t take long, and without doubt he had their attention, because everyone could see that no matter how much sail they now had on, the other ships were noticeably gaining on them.

  “We do not have much time. You must hurry and be in position within the hour. Everyone find a spear and a sword,” Talon ordered. “Ten of you will use bows. Do not waste the arrows and do not use them until I say so!” Talon set the men to preparing for the engagement.

  Once he could see that preparations were well under way, he made his way below deck. Rav’an and Jannat greeted him with nervous expressions. News of the pirate ships was all over the ship by now, and they knew of it. Rostam was wide-eyed with excitement.

  Talon st
arted with a careful explanation as to what he needed from them and was reassured when Rav’an nodded her head in reluctant agreement.

  “It might work, Talon, but it is very dangerous... for everyone. Rostam must stay below with Salem all the time, but Jannat and I will do as you ask.”

  “Thank you, my Rav’an,” he said. “There will be a guard on the door, and Dar’an will be here with him.” He knew as he said it that Dar’an would give his life for the boy, but if the pirates made it this far, it would have been the end for all of them on deck anyway.

  “I once told you that you are like a fox. I have faith in you, my husband. God protect us all today,” Rav’an murmured as she kissed him.

  *****

  It was a matter of scant hours before the strange ships were only a few leagues away. The crewmen of the Sea Eagle were in their places, but for the captain and a few men who had to work the sails, and Talon, who stood with the steersmen. Talon was nervous; his plan depended upon so many things going the right way.

  He told himself that he should concentrate and see it through, but that did little to quiet the churning of his stomach. He glanced up at the top deck to where Rav’an and Jannat crouched out of sight. Rav’an caught his look and gave him a tense smile. He relaxed a little. They had no choice now but to place their trust in God and the element of surprise.

  He wanted to give the impression to the pirates that they were just a fat merchant vessel with a small crew that would look like easy pickings. His bow and a full quiver of arrows were close at hand, but out of sight. Most of the crew was crouched beneath the tall sides of the ship with their weapons ready for action.

  He shielded his eyes from the sun as he looked up at the main mast. He could see Reza perched at the top with one other man; Reza had his bow with him and gave him a quick hand wave before ducking out of sight into the large round basket that served as the lookout. The only sound on the ship was that of men using stones to sharpen their swords and spear heads. The harsh, drawn out rasping of the stones on steel jarred nerves already tight with anticipation.

  The captain, who was himself very nervous and decidedly skeptical of the entire operation to come, continued to give orders as though they were trying to flee the oncoming ships, but in fact they had slowed considerably. Talon also cast an apprehensive eye to the West. The sun was still high enough in the sky for them to see what they were doing, but it appeared to be descending far too rapidly, and they needed daylight to conclude this fight.

  It was not long before two of the pursuing ships made lazy turns and began to come up from behind their quarry like a pair of predators converging on their helpless prey. The third ship stayed clear in the rear for the moment. Talon could now make out the figures on the two ships that were speeding towards them. The vessels were crowded with heavily armed men who looked confident and relaxed as they drew nearer.

  “Prepare, they are coming!” he called to the men. The sound of stones on steel ceased and men crouched lower behind the ship’s sides. The entire ship became silent, except for the rush of water along its sides, the creak of timbers and the snap of a sail above.

  He hoped grimly the confidence displayed by the pirates was going to be shaken very soon. Soon the bows of their ships were level with the Sea Eagle’s after decks. When the speeding vessels were about twenty paces away on either side, a man called across from the boat on their port side for them to stop the ship.

  “Drop your sails! We are coming aboard,” he shouted in bad Arabic. He, like most of his crew, wore only a sarong with a knife stuck in a sash wrapped around his waist. He was very dark, almost black, and thin to the point of emaciation. His savage grin displayed large gaps in his teeth and a mouth that was bright red. He spat out a stream of red juice and shouted again, this time with more force.

  “Stop your ship! Do as I tell you!”

  Talon had no intention of doing anything of the sort, but he nodded to the captain, who shouted an order to the skeleton crew headed by Umayr, and they began clumsily to let the after sail down.

  In the short space of time that they carried out this work, both the pirate ships, full of these slim, dark men whom Talon took to be from India, had drawn level with their own. He signaled across to Rav’an and Jannat.

  Both women climbed to their feet and began to run about the after deck, wailing and waving their hands in the air. Their cries and their unmistakable female forms and attire made them look like a pair of hysterical women, terrified of their impending fate. They shrieked with terror, both of them calling loudly on God to protect them. On Talon’s instructions, they didn’t remain in one spot for more than a few seconds.

  Talon made a mental note to tell them later how convincing they were. They were succeeding wonderfully at distracting the men on the pirate ships from the hurried activity now going on in the waist of the Sea Eagle. The pirates began to point and laugh, shouting obscenities and demonstrating with their hips what they were going to do to the two women, who continued to scream and flutter about with feigned fright like winged birds. All the attention of the pirates was centered now on the two women.

  On the Sea Eagle men were hastily lighting the oily rags that had been stuffed into earthenware jars stacked on the deck. Many of the rags were alight by now, and the men were looking up at Talon expectantly, waiting for him to say the word. He prayed that no one would drop one of those lethal pots onto his own deck.

  He stared at the two ships sailing alongside, willing them to come just a little closer and not to notice the smoke now drifting up from the fuses. The pirates were still watching the antics of the women. It was almost time; the ships were only ten long paces away. Then one of the more alert men on the port boat shouted the alarm and pointed to the waist of the Sea Eagle. He had seen the smoke.

  “Now!” Talon shouted and reached for his bow. At his command the men hidden below the sides jumped up and, with blood curdling yells, hurled the small pots with all their might over the sides of the Sea Eagle to shatter against the sides and on the decks of the flanking pirate vessels. More followed, some hurled from the main mast by strong-armed Reza. The sticky, black, oily substance from the pots spread out from the pieces where they fell. In some cases the flaming rags had gone out, but in others the flame caught and an ominous bluish flame spread across the decks like some living thing. Within moments the pirates went from happily contemplating their booty to panic-stricken sailors on board ships that were catching fire.

  It was now the task of the archers to kill as many as they could and prevent anyone from being able to put out the fires. A hail of arrows flew at close range into the ranks of the pirates on both ships, taking surprised men down before they could react.

  Talon quickly accounted for three men and was pleased to see that Rav’an managed to strike another in the thigh with an arrow. His orders had been strict: she and Jannat were to shoot through the gaps in the high sides and not expose themselves. He marveled at the calm she now displayed, kneeling on one knee and shooting across the water, while Jannat handed arrows to her.

  Reza and Yosef, with help from several crew members, were dealing with the ship to their starboard, while Talon focused on the ship to their port side. The men in the waist of the Sea Eagle continued to hurl pots, but now at carefully chosen targets. The next thing to flare was the main sail, first turning a dark color, then exploding into flame and going up like a torch. Then the after sail caught fire also, driving the steersmen away from the intense heat. The ship on their port side lost way and began to wallow in the water, while screaming men were burned horribly as they desperately tried to put the fires out with anything to hand.

  Water didn’t help; all it did was spread the fearsome, viscous liquid wider and make matters worse. Talon concentrated on a tall man near to the steering bar who was shouting frantic orders at the men. He took him down after two tries, while Rav’an fired her arrows into the milling mob of panicked pirates in the ship’s waist, inflicting random damage. Some arrows
began to come their way, but this retaliation was half-hearted and soon stopped as the greater danger of fire occupied all the pirates’ attention. Men began to abandon ship, throwing themselves into the water to escape the inferno. Talon watched dispassionately; theirs was a choice of fates, the fire or the numerous sharks that infested these waters. What the pirates had had in mind for them had been equally unpleasant.

  He turned his attention to the other ship, which was also on fire, and helped Reza and Yosef kill as many of the panicked men on that ship as possible. The steersmen were dead, so Talon assumed that the captain of that ship was too. Reza was deadly at this range from his vantage point.

  Captain Dandachi, who had stayed with the steersmen, shouted to Umayr to haul up the after sail, and other crewman ran to tighten the main sail. They needed to get as far away from the two stricken ships as possible. The very real danger of sparks landing on their own ship lent urgency to their actions.

  Talon waved to Reza up on the masthead. “Do you still have some pots with you?” he called up. “We have that third ship to deal with.”

  “We have three left. Send some more up,” Reza laughed happily. Talon grinned and shook his head, then turned to the captain. “I hope we have more of these pots, Captain. They work well.”

  Captain Dandachi looked ready to weep with relief. “Yes, yes we have more, Master Talon. Waqqas!” he called. “Go and get more pots from the hold. Hurry!” He then embraced Talon, slapping him painfully hard on the back. “I cannot believe it! God has been with us today. We have defeated not one, but two of them!”

  “Don’t thank God too soon. We are not out of trouble yet, Captain,” Talon pointed out, indicating the other vessel with a wave of his hand.

  “They are cowards, Master Talon. I don’t think they will try to fight us. Not after what they have witnessed.”