to pull, then heave for all your strength! We shan't get a second chance."
Wulfgar took up the heavy rope with a grunt of determination, wrapping it
tightly around his wrists and hands.
"Fire in the sky!" one of the crewmen yelled, pointing back to the south,
toward the bulky pirate ship. A ball of flaming pitch soared through the air,
splashing harmlessly into the ocean with a hiss of protest, many yards short of
the Sea Sprite.
"A tracing shot," Deudermont explained, "to give them our range."
Deudermont estimated the distance and figured how much closer the pirates
would get before the Sea Sprite put the island between them.
"We'll slip them if we make the channel between the reef and the island," he
told Drizzt, nodding to indicate that he thought the prospects promising.
But even as the drow and the captain began to comfort themselves with
thoughts of escape, the masts of a third vessel loomed before them in the west,
slipping out of the very channel that Deudermont had hoped to enter. This ship
had its sails furled and was prepared for boarding.
Deudermont's jaw dropped open. "They were lying for us," he said to Drizzt.
He turned to the elf helplessly. "They were lying for us.
"But we've no cargo of particular value," the captain continued, trying to
reason through the unusual turn of events. "Why would pirates run three vessels
in a strike against a single ship?"
Drizzt knew the answer.
* * *
The ride was easier for Bruenor and Catti-brie now. The dwarf had settled
comfortably at the reins of the fiery chariot, and the morning haze had burned
away. They cruised down the Sword Coast, amused by the ships they passed over
and the astonished expressions of every sailor who turned his eyes heavenward.
Soon after, they crossed the entrance to the River Chionthar, the gateway to
Baldur's Gate. Bruenor paused a moment to consider a sudden impulse, then veered
the chariot away from the coast.
"The lady bid us to stay to the coast," said Catti-brie as soon as she
realized the shift in course.
Bruenor grabbed Alustriel's magical locket, which he had strung around his
neck, and shrugged his shoulders. "It's tellin' me different," he replied.
* * *
A second load of burning pitch hit the water, this time dangerously close to
the Sea Sprite.
"We can run by her," Drizzt said to Deudermont, for the third ship still had
not raised its sails.
The experienced captain recognized the flaw in the reasoning. The primary
purpose of the ship coming out from the island was to block the channel's
entrance. The Sea Sprite could indeed sail past that ship, but Deudermont would
have to take his ship outside the dangerous reef and back into open water. And
by then, they would be well within the catapult's range.
Deudermont looked over his shoulder. The remaining pirate ship, the one
farthest to the east, had its sails full of wind and was cutting the water even
more swiftly than the Sea Sprite. If a ball of pitch came in on the mark and the
Sea Sprite took any damage at all to its sails, it would be quickly overtaken.
And then a second problem dramatically grabbed the captain's attention. A
bolt of lightning blasted across the Sea Sprite's deck, severing some lines and
splintering off pieces of the mainmast. The structure leaned and groaned against
the strain of the full sails. Wulfgar found a foothold and tugged against the
pull with all his strength.
"Hold her!" Deudermont cheered him. "Keep us straight and strong!"
"They've a wizard," Drizzt remarked, realizing that the blast had come from
the ship ahead of them.
"I feared as much," Deudermont replied grimly.
The seething fire in Drizzt's eyes told Deudermont that the elf had already
decided upon his first task in the fight. Even in their obvious disadvantage,
the captain felt a tug of pity for the wizard.
A sly expression came over Deudermont's face as the sight of Drizzt inspired
a desperate plan of action. "Take us right up on her port," he told the
helmsman. "Close enough to spit on them!"
"But, Captain," the sailor protested, "that'd put us in line for the reef!"
"Just what the dogs had hoped," Deudermont came back. "Let them think that
we do not know these waters; let them think that the rocks will do their
business for them!"
Drizzt felt comfortable with the security in the captain's tone. The wily
old sailor had something in mind.
"Steady?" Deudermont called to Wulfgar.
The barbarian nodded.
"When I call for you, pull, man, as if your life depends on it!" Deudermont
told him.
Next to the captain, Drizzt made a quiet observation. "It does."
* * *
From the bridge of his flagship, the fast-flying vessel on the east,
Pinochet the pirate watched the maneuvering of the Sea Sprite with concern. He
knew Deudermont's reputation well enough to know that the captain would not be
so foolish as to put his ship onto a reef under a bright midday sun at low tide.
Deudermont meant to fight.
Pinochet looked to the bulky ship and measured the angle to the Sea Sprite.
The catapult would get two more shots, maybe three, before their target ran
alongside the blocking ship in the channel. Pinochet's own ship was still many
minutes behind the action, and the pirate captain wondered how much damage
Deudermont would inflict before he could aid his allies.
But Pinochet quickly put thoughts of the cost of this mission out of his
mind. He was doing a personal favor for the guildmaster of the largest gang of
thieves in all of Calimport. Whatever the price, Pasha Pook's payment would
surely outweigh it!
* * *
Catti-brie watched eagerly as each new ship came into view, but Bruenor,
confident that the magical locket was leading him to the drow, paid them no
heed. The dwarf snapped the reins, trying to urge the flaming horses on faster.
Somehow - perhaps it was another property of the locket - Bruenor felt that
Drizzt was in trouble and that speed was essential.
The dwarf then snapped a stubby finger in front of him. "There!" he cried as
soon as the Sea Sprite came into view.
Catti-brie did not question his observation. She quickly surveyed the
dramatic situation unfolding below her.
Another ball of pitch soared though the air, slapping into the tail of the
Sea Sprite at water level but catching too little of the ship to do any real
damage.
Catti-brie and Bruenor watched the catapult being pulled back for another
shot; they watched the brutish crew of the ship in the channel, their swords in
hand, awaiting the approach of the Sea Sprite; and they watched the third pirate
ship, rushing in from behind to close the trap.
Bruenor veered the chariot to the south, toward the bulkiest of the ships.
"First for the catapult!" the dwarf cried in rage.
* * *
Pinochet, as well as most of the crewmen on the back two pirate ships,
watched the fiery craft cutting a streak down from the northern sky, but the
captain and crew of the Sea Sprite and the other ship were too enmeshed in the
desperation of their own situation to worry about events behind them. Drizzt did
give the chariot a second look, though, noticing a glistening reflection that
might have been a single horn of a broken helmet peeking above the flames, and a
form in back of that with flowing hair that seemed more than vaguely familiar.
But perhaps it was just a trick of the light and Drizzt's own undying hopes.
The chariot moved away into a fiery blur and Drizzt let it go, having no time
now to give it further thought.
The Sea Sprite's crew lined the foredeck, firing crossbows at the pirate
ship, hoping, more than anything else, to keep the wizard too engaged to hit
them again.
A second lightning bolt did roar in, but the Sea Sprite was rocking wildly
in the breakers rolling off the reef, and the wizard's blast cut only a minor
hole in the mainsail.
Deudermont looked hopefully to Wulfgar, tensed and ready for the command.
And then they were crossing beside the pirates, barely fifteen yards from
the other ship, and apparently heading on a deadly course into the reef.
"Pull!" Deudermont cried, and Wulfgar heaved, every muscle in his huge body
reddening with a sudden influx of blood and adrenaline.
The mainmast groaned in protest, beams creaked and cracked, and the
wind-filled sails fought back as Wulfgar looped the rope over his shoulder and
drove himself forward. The Sea Sprite verily pivoted in the water, its front end
lifting over the roll of a wave and lurching at the pirate vessel. Deudermont's
crew, though they had witnessed Wulfgar's power in the River Chionthar, grabbed
desperately at the rail and held on, awestruck.
And the stunned pirates, never suspecting that a ship under full sail could
possibly cut so tight a turn, reacted not at all. They watched in blank
amazement as the prow of the Sea Sprite smashed into their port flank,
entangling the two ships in a deadly embrace.
"Take it to them!" Deudermont cried. Grapples soared through the air,
further securing the Sea Sprite's hold, and boarding planks were thrown down and
fastened into place.
Wulfgar scrambled to his feet and pulled Aegis-fang off his back. Drizzt
drew his scimitars but made no immediate move, instead scanning the deck of the
enemy ship. He quickly focused on one man, not dressed like a wizard, but
unarmed as far as Drizzt could tell.
The man went through some motions, as if in spellcasting, and the telltale
magical sprinkles dusted the air around him.
But Drizzt was quicker. Calling on the innate abilities of his heritage, the
drow limned the wizard's form in harmless purplish flames. The wizard's
corporeal body faded from sight as his invisibility spell took effect.
But the purple outline remained.
"Wizard, Wulfgar!" Drizzt called.
The barbarian rushed to the rail and surveyed the pirate ship, easily
spotting the magical outline.
The wizard, realizing his predicament, dove behind some casks.
Wulfgar didn't hesitate. He sent Aegis-fang hurtling end over end. The
mighty war hammer drove through the casks, sending wood and water exploding into
the air, and then found its mark on the other side.
The hammer blasted the wizard's broken body - still visible only by the
outline of the drow's faerie fire - into the air and over the far rail of the
pirate ship.
Drizzt and Wulfgar nodded to each other, grimly satisfied.
Deudermont slapped a hand across his unbelieving eyes.
Perhaps they did have a chance.
* * *
The pirates on the two back ships paused in their duties to consider the
flying chariot. As Bruenor swung around the back of the bulky catapult ship and
came in from behind, Catti-brie pulled the Taulmaril's bowstring tight.
"Think o' yer friends," Bruenor comforted her, seeing her hesitation. Only a
few weeks earlier, Catti-brie had killed a human out of necessity, and the act
had not set well with her. Now, as they closed on the ship from above, she could
rain death among the exposed sailors.
She huffed a deep breath to steady herself and took a bead on a sailor,
standing mouth agape, not even realizing that he was about to die.
There was another way.
Out of the corner of her eye, Catti-brie spotted a better target. She swung
the bow toward the back of the ship and sent a silver arrow streaking down. It
blasted into the arm of the catapult, cracking the wood, the arrow's magical
energy scorching a black hole as the silver shaft ripped through.
"Taste me flames!" Bruenor cried, steering the chariot downward. The wild
dwarf drove his flaming horses straight through the mainsail, leaving a tattered
rag in his wake.
And Catti-brie's aim was perfect; again and again the silver arrows whistled
into the catapult. As the chariot rushed past a second time, the ships gunners
tried to respond with a ball of burning pitch, but the catapult's wooden arm had
taken too much damage to retain any strength, and the ball of pitch lobbed
weakly, a few feet up and a few feet out.
And dropped onto the deck of its own ship!
"One more pass!" Bruenor growled, looking back over his shoulder at the
fires now roaring on the mast and the deck.
But Catti-brie's eyes were forward, to where the Sea Sprite had just crashed
onto one vessel, and where the second pirate ship would soon join the fray. "No
time!" she yelled. "They be needin' us up ahead!"
* * *
Steel rang against steel as the crew of the Sea Sprite locked against the
pirates. One rogue, seeing Wulfgar launch the war hammer, crossed over to the
Sea Sprite and made for the unarmed barbarian, thinking him easy prey. He rushed
in, thrusting his sword ahead.
Wulfgar easily sidestepped the blow, caught the pirate by the wrist, and
slapped his other hand into the man's crotch. Changing the pirate's direction
slightly but not breaking his momentum, Wulfgar hoisted him into the air and
heaved him over the back rail of the Sea Sprite. Two other pirates, having the
same initial response to the unarmed barbarian as their unfortunate comrade,
stopped in their tracks and sought out better armed, but less dangerous,
