“Well?”
“A wily vixen, Master Captain,” Svoz called up. In one hand he gripped the carcass of some furry creature, its entrails dangling from its torn, limp body. “Gave me the slip, she did, which is not altogether easy, given my exceptional talents for perception and pursuit.” This he said over a mouthful of bone and gristle. “However, I found this delectable specimen. Not all was lost.”
Niven watched Julian bite back angry words. “How could she escape you? You found Selena in the bloody ocean, sight unseen.”
Svoz shrugged and swallowed. “I was bound to her by blood. This little flesh-tart left a trail in the sand but once I entered the jungle, the trail was lost. Not a bent branch to be found. My superior senses detected nothing but led me to this.” He held up the remains of the animal that Niven thought must have been some sort of small monkey. “A tasty dish, and dying of a broken appendage.”
“Perhaps she was a phantom or mirage, brought to us by the heat,” Niven offered.
“Or perhaps she’s as real as you or me, and cunning too. Svoz’s tasty dish was a gift to throw him from her scent,” Julian said.
“Of course.” Niven felt foolish. “What now? Do we try to find that woman? She could pose a threat to Selena…”
The captain seemed at a momentary loss but then shook his head. He lit a cigarillo. “No. Our plans remain unchanged.” He turned his gaze to the sea. “The tide will be in soon.”
“You plan to sail?” Niven asked, incredulous. “And just leave Selena here?”
Julian exhaled a cloud of smoke, not entirely careful of how much blew into Niven’s face. “I gave her three days, didn’t I? I don’t go back on my word. But Isle Huerta is less than a day’s sail away and my ship needs repairs. There’s a settlement on Huerta. A new one, run by a coffee farmer or some such. We’ll make repairs and come back to pick up whatever’s left.”
“You mean whoever’s left,” Niven said.
Captain Tergus glanced at Niven sideways. “Selena’s got my contract and promissory note,” he said. “Whether she hands them to me or I take them off her corpse is up to the gods.”
He moved away to consult with Grunt and Cur, gesturing with his hands at the island. Niven looked a final time at the teeming jungle.
He’s going to sail away! I could still go after her…
Whistle’s shrill blast cut the air and Niven thought his heart would stop. He sucked in a breath as the sea floor, visible in the clear, ruddy water, begin to shift in patches. Reddish silt shivered and fell away as dozens of sea scorpions, each the size of a small seal, emerged from under their camouflaged holes. They scuttled along the ocean floor, toward the Black Storm, and in moments the clacking, clicking sounds of their legs could be heard scrabbling up the hull.
“Men, to arms!” Julian cried. “Svoz, a sword, you bastard!”
The sirrak replaced his cudgel for an immense broadsword, and the crew dutifully drew their own blades. But the tide washing over the prow of the Black Storm was going to swamp them in a surge of snapping claws and poison barbs.
“There are too many, Captain,” Niven cried.
Julian’s eyes were full of panic as he watched the scorpions flood his deck. The sound of scuttling chitin on wood was almost deafening.
“Captain.” Niven clutched his arm. “We’ll be overrun.”
The main deck was now half-covered in fiery red scorpions; they scrabbled over one another, snapping their pincers at crewmen’s naked legs. More were boiling over the gunwales; an impossible number.
“We are overrun,” Julian breathed, and then he screamed. “Abandon ship! All hands, abandon ship!”
Even in his terror, Niven heard in the captain’s voice how much it pained him to utter those words. Then Julian was grabbing him by the scruff of his neck and dragging him to the rail, where he shoved him against the shrouds.
“Climb!”
Niven obeyed, jumping up onto the gunwale and holding tightly to the interlocking ropes. Around him, crewmen jumped into the soft shallows and began running up the beach but Niven was shackled to the shrouds by fear. Still more scorpions came over the side of the ship, snapping and darting their bulbous, barbed tails over their heads. Niven eyed them, then the drop to the beach, then the scorpions again. The sound of Svoz’s gleeful battle cry came from behind, and Niven turned to see Captain Tergus at the port side anchor, frantically hauling at the knot. He was surrounded; only Svoz’s swinging sword kept the creatures from swarming over him.
“What are you doing?” Niven cried.
Julian glanced up for half a heartbeat, incredulous, but did not pause at his task. “What am I…? Jump, damn you!” He swore as one scorpion breached Svoz’s defense and snapped at the heel of his boot but never ceased his work. Svoz sliced the pincer off and then ended the scorpion as Julian slowly let the anchor line down. Niven felt the anchor bang and then scrape the hull on its descent, and Julian cursed again, but did not hurry, even as Svoz began to falter under the sheer numbers of scorpions. Niven stared, wide-eyed and frozen at the sirrak’ s battle and then at the main deck. It looked and sounded as though it were afire, with hundreds of red bodies teeming over the planking, barrels, hatches; a fire that was roaring straight towards him.
Niven squeezed his eyes shut and jumped.
He landed in the shallows, in soft sand and warm water, and eased a sigh of relief. He wasn’t hurt. Scorpions scuttled here and there on the beach, but they weren’t giving chase into the foliage. Niven thought if he could make to the jungle…
A crushing weight landed on his back, driving him face down into the water. Sharp, stabbing pains knifed his back and legs, and water slipped into his open mouth and burned his nose. The scorpion scuttled over him with quick, insect-like movements that made him want to scream. The poison dart of the scorpion’s tail would find him at any moment; under the water he squeezed his eyes shut and his panicked mind offered a prayer to the Two-Faced God that his death would be quick. Then the weight was lifted off, and rough hands hauled him from the water. Svoz.
The sirrak clutched him in one hand by the scruff of his shirt and half-carried, half-dragged him across the shore, Captain Tergus ran beside them. From this vantage, the adherent saw the Black Storm overtaken with scorpions, and a crimson cascade plummeted down the side. They scuttled after them, but Svoz’s loping stride carried them off the sand and into the cover of the jungle and the scorpions did not follow.
Svoz dumped Niven to the ground, muttering vile oaths to himself over the number of injuries he’d taken in the battle. Beside him, Julian stared, horrified, as scorpions scrabbled over his ship. The other crewmen gathered behind them to watch.