As Calis sat down to start rowing once more, Erik heard something. It was faint and distant but familiar.
“Wait!” he said, looking down the breakwater.
In the distance, a tiny figure picked its way along the rocks. As it got closer, Erik felt a weight lift from his shoulders, for Roo was limping along toward them. “Hey!” he shouted, waving his hand above his head.
Erik stood and waved back. “We see you!” he shouted.
Roo came to the closest point he could, then jumped feet first into the water. He thrashed through the water and Erik was over the side before anyone could say anything.
Near exhaustion a moment before, he gained renewed strength from Roo’s plight, and he struck out through the water as if he had all the strength he had ever possessed. Reaching the smaller man, he took him by the shirt and half carried, half dragged him back through the water.
He pushed Roo into the boat, pulled himself up half over the gunwales, and let the others pull him aboard. As he fell into the bottom of the boat, Erik said, “What kept you?”
“Some damn fool turned loose a horse that kicked me. Damn near broke my leg.” He sat up. “I knew there was too much going on near the harbor, so I figured if any of you got out, you’d be coming this way. So here I am.”
“Smart,” said de Loungville as he and Calis began to row. “Now start bailing.”
“What’s bailing?” said Roo.
Erik pointed to the bucket in the bottom of the boat. “Take that, fill it there”—he pointed at the bilge—“then dump it over the side.”
“I’m injured!” Roo protested.
Looking around the boat, where no man sat without a scar, Erik said, “My heart bleeds for you. Bail!”
“Natombi, Greylock?” asked Erik.
Roo said, “Natombi’s dead. He was hit from behind by a soldier while trying to get past another. I haven’t seen Greylock since we started back from the harbor.”
De Loungville said, “Talk all you want, but start bailing!”
Roo muttered under his breath, but he dipped the bucket into the water gathering at the bottom of the boat and lifted it to dump it over the side.
Power manifested in the air and a singing sound caused every man to turn back toward the city. They had rowed for nearly an hour and were well clear of the harbor mouth, far enough away to have backed off the pace, and now they were turning northeast, making along the coast to the City of the Serpent River.
The bridge of light was close to touching down and armies were now upon it from end to end. But this strange keening, loud enough to cause the men in the boat to flinch, ranged over the landscape, and while they could see nothing of those on the bridge, Erik imagined it must be painful for those close to it.
Then the bridge was gone.
“What?” said Roo.
A thundering report sounded a moment later, and then a warm wind washed over them, rocking the smack against the roll of the sea. Sho Pi said, “Someone made the bridge away.”
De Loungville laughed. It was a dirty, unpleasant sound.
Erik looked at him and asked, “What?”
“I hope those Saaur on the bridge know how to swim.”
Jadow, his broad grin lighting up his face in the gloom, said, “As high as that bridge was, man, I hope fly.”
Roo winced. “Must have been a few thousand of them up there.”
“The more the better,” said de Loungville. “Now, one of you lads needs to take over for me.” Suddenly he was falling forward into the boat.
Roo and Sho Pi moved him, while Erik took his place. “He was wounded in the arm,” said Erik.
Sho Pi examined him. “And in the side. He’s lost a great deal of blood.”
Jadow took the tiller and Calis said, “I mean to row until dawn, then we’ll put in. That should put us ahead of most of those fleeing up the coast, and maybe we can find a place to lay up.”
Sho Pi stood up. “Captain!”
“What?”
Pointing ahead, he said, “I think I see a ship.”
Calis stopped rowing and turned to look. Looming up out of the late afternoon darkness, a white sail rose against dark thunderclouds.
“I hope they’re friendly,” said Roo.
After a moment, Calis turned, and there was no masking the broad grin on his face. “Thank the gods! It’s the Ranger!”
“Oh, man, I’m going to kiss that Captain,” said Jadow.
“Shut up,” said Roo. “We want him to stop, not run away.”
The others laughed. Then Calis said, “Start waving anything that will draw their attention.”
The men stood and started waving swords, trying to catch the late afternoon sunlight, as faint as it was, and reflect it from the blade, or wave a shirt.
Then the ship started to turn and make its way toward them. After a seemingly endless time, it came close enough for a man in the bow to shout, “Is that you, Lord Calis?”
“Get some help down here! I’ve got injured men.”
The ship slowed and sailors scrambled down and helped get the injured aboard. The smack was left to drift, and once they were all on deck, the Captain came forward and said, “Good to see you again.”