When the bundle was in place, Tal said, “Here’s the plan. It’ll be a month and a half to three months before the next ship arrives. That gives us six to twelve weeks to get off the island and head to safety before Zirga can send word to Olasko we’ve escaped. If the ship goes straight to Opardum, that’s another two weeks we’re away from here.
“There’s a strong current, and we’re going to let it do some of our work for us pushing us north while we head for shore. Most of you are too weak to swim more than a few hundred yards, if that, but you can hang on, and the rest of us will kick. The wind will do a little of the work for us. We’ll take turns pushing this raft toward the beaches. A man gets too weak to hang on, he can rest on the logs a bit. I reckon it’ll take us a few hours to get to the mainland and carry us north while we’re doing it. We should land five, maybe six miles north of here.”
“Where are we going?” asked Masterson.
“Karesh’kaar to start.” Tal looked around, and said, “In Bardac’s Holdfast we’ll be a company of mercenaries. After we get there, I will tell you what’s next. I’ll tell you this much now: some of you will not make it. Some of you will die in the attempt, but you were dead men in those cells anyway, so you will die free.
“For those who reach Karesh’kaar, I promise this much: if you want to quit and strike out on your own, I won’t stop you. But if you stick with me, and if the gods favor us, one day we will be standing on the battlements of the citadel of Opardum, with Kaspar’s head on a pike!”
The men actually cheered, and Tal said, “Get the paddles.” He pointed to the cave.
Four men returned with the roughly carved pieces of wood, barely recognizable as paddles. He had found four matching pieces of wood that he’d carved with a kitchen knife. “They’re not much,” said Tal, “but they are all we have. Now, get this raft in the water.”
The men picked up the makeshift vessel and waded quickly into the sea. With the moons down, the breakers were rolling lightly, breaking at chest height. After getting completely soaked, Tal and Will stood at the mast, and Tal said, “Four men will sit on each outer log, and take turns paddling. The rest of you will hang on to the rear of the raft and you must kick and push. We have less than an hour before sunrise. Zirga and the others will be up within an hour after that, and I want to make sure we are far enough away that they can’t see us from the top of the keep.” He detailed the eight strongest men, including Masterson and Quint, to paddle. The others hung on the back of the raft and let it carry them along until ordered to kick.
The current moved them northward, while the paddlers and kickers made slight headway toward the mainland. Except for Quint and Masterson, most of the men had almost no stamina; so at intervals, Tal had two men change places, coming out of the water to paddle, while those who had just paddled rested on the makeshift canvas deck. He hoped by rotating the duty more men might survive to reach the shore.
The progress was torturously slow, but when at last the sun rose over the eastern horizon, the keep was a distant dot to the southeast. Tal had better eyesight than most men, and he was convinced no one left at the keep would be able to see them from the roof.
At least that was his hope.
Zirga yawned as he left his quarters and scratched his backside. He saw Kyle standing at the door of the guards’ room and knew instantly something was wrong. “What is it? Did someone die during the night?”
Kyle shook his head and said, “No. It’s the prisoners.”
“What about them?”
“They’re gone.”
“What do you mean, they’re gone?”
“None of them are in their cells.”
“That’s impossible.” Zirga hurried to look in the cells himself, as if not trusting the guard’s word. After a few minutes, he said, “Someone’s playing a game. Look in all the cells.” He shouted, and in a few minutes Anatoli, Benson, and Royce also appeared, looking equally confused. Zirga told them to search the entire keep, and when they returned reporting no one was around, he shouted, “Then search the island!”
They took off, and Zirga headed up to the roof of the keep. He blinked at the rising sun and looked around in every direction. For a brief instant he thought he saw a speck to the northwest, just on the horizon, but after a moment, he saw only water and sky. Knowing what he would hear when his men returned, Zirga descended slowly and walked to the kitchen.
As he suspected, there were clear signs that the armory and pantry had been raided. He sat at the small table where Tal and Will ate every night and waited. Within an hour, the men returned, all reporting the same thing: no sign of the prisoners anywhere.
Zirga said, “Who looked at the north beach?”
Benson, a portly man with almost no chin, said, “I did, sir.”
“What did you see?”