The Return of Kavin Read Online Free Page B

fights spawned from the first, spreading across the deck. The two men stood, on their vantage of the quarter deck, and watched grimly.
    “Ha, little man… excuse me, friend Hugon!” Zamor corrected himself. He was staring at the top of the nearer mast.
    “Clouds,” Zamor said, thoughtfully. “The stars are gone.”
    “And the wind’s rising,” Hugon said. “Hm. Had you noticed any sort of boat, perhaps, about this ship?”
    “There’s none at all,” Zamor answered. He glanced out, to the darkness. “Not that it would help us much, anyway. The sea is growing heavier by the minute.”
    Hugon rubbed his chin and laughed, sharply. “Do you know , it looks as if we’ve jumped off the roasting spit and into the soup pot, as the saying goes, doesn’t it?”
    “If we drown, we drown free men,” Zamor said.
    “Yes, but it’s not the best of company to be entering the Rainbow Gates with,” Hugon said. “You and I are the only honest men aboard, at that.”
    The ship heeled sharply, and he clutched at the rail; as she swayed slowly back, men on deck rolled into the scuppers, or sprawled where they had fallen. But those who could still stand were continuing to fight.
    “To hell with the lot of them,” Hugon grunted. “Come, let’s go back and see whether there’s another flask of that excellent wine left. Also, I intend to keep an eye on our prize to the last. I’m not giving up hope of fetching her to market till the breath’s gone out of me.”
    They went back, through the doors, and into the inner cabin; within, the lamp swung in long arcs, and fallen objects rolled back and forth on the floor. The dragonet was talking quietly to itself, in despairing tones, as it clung to its perch. Seeing Hugon enter, it squawked with joy and spread its wings.
    The Lady Gwynna had emerged from her hiding place, and sat on the bunk now, wrapped in a white woolen cloak, stiff backed and stony faced. She stared at them, her green eyes lit with silent fury, and said nothing.
    Zamor kicked the door shut and braced himself against the deepening roll of the ship; Hugon held a stanchion with one hand, watching the girl with a wry grin on his face.
    “We may all die soon, Lady Gwynna,” he said, quietly.
    “Good,” she snapped.
    The ship rolled heavily, again.
    “Well… it was my thought that it was only fair to let you be warned,” Hugon said, lightly, and gripped the stanchion with his other hand against a wilder lurch. He glanced toward Zamor. The big black man’s face was without a sign of fear, but his lips moved, silently, as though praying to his Numori Snake God.
    Outside, above the now strident wind, there was a sudden new uproar, and the sound of running feet, and shouting. And then, a terrific thud made the deck shake under their feet; there was a steady roaring, and over it the explosive cracking sound of breaking masts and splintered planks. The cabin began to tilt.
    “We’ve struck!” Hugon shouted over the noise, as he clung to the stanchion. The cabin lamp slammed over and went out, and everything in the place fell, seemingly all at once.

TWO
     
    The great galley lay broken among jagged black rocks; only the high-pooped after end was entire. The ship had turned as it struck, coming in stern first. Beyond, in the boiling surf, parts of the ship lay; and on the gray sand, there was a drift of smaller fragments, oars and planks, and the bodies of drowned men.
    Hugon, soaked and staggering, came up the slope of sand, toward the scrubby trees at the upper edge. The dragonet clung to his shoulder, whimpering and terrified. Behind him, Zamor came, as wet and weary as he, but lugging the girl over his wide shoulder, slung like a sack. Behind them a man crawled out of the surf, and a few moments later, another; both followed the dimly seen forms ahead, by some vague instinct.
    Among the trees there was some shelter from the wind, and Hugon halted; he scratched together the drier bits of fallen wood, shuddering