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meal and rubbed his hands on his breeches. The water flasks were nearly empty.
If he encountered no land in the next three days, he would be obliged to head
about and return to Westisle to restock his supplies.
A glance at the compass showed the wind steady from the south. Jaric ran a
calculating glance over the mild swell and the clear arch of the sky, then
sheeted headsails and spanker on opposite sides. With the mainsail furled on
the yard, Callinde would ride out the night hove to. After a quick check to be
sure all gear was stowed, the boy settled in his accustomed nook in the stern.
Twilight deepened over the face of the ocean. Rocked upon the waves, Jaric lay
still and listened to the slap of
Callinde's halyards. Stars pricked the cobalt of the zenith overhead. The boy
watched them brighten, and wondered whether Taen watched the same sky many
leagues to the north. Presently weariness overcame him. His eyes fell closed.
Of necessity, Jaric slept lightly at sea; even a slight change in weather
could endanger him if he failed to rouse in time to adjust
Callinde's sails.
Alone in a world of wind and waves, Jaric rested dream-lessly. When the
late-rising summer moon lifted above the horizon, a presence brushed his mind.
Gently, furtively, it probed his sleeping thoughts for information. Jaric
stirred against the stern seat, vaguely aware the disturbance originated
elsewhere.
"Taen?" he murmured, wondering whether she might have tried contact. But the
presence subsided at the mention of her name. Jaric sighed. He nestled his
head in the sun-browned crook of his elbow and settled back into slumber. The
moon rose high over
Callinde's starboard quarter, tracing silver highlights over the wave crests.
But Jaric no longer drifted alone. A whisper of foam sheared the water. A
tiller creaked, and a dense black triangle of sail eclipsed the sky. As
Callinde plunged into shadow, a wiry figure leaned from the newcomer's rigging
and snagged the smaller craft's stay. Froglike hands caught her thwarts. In
silence, two other figures leaped across the water between the rails.
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Callinde rocked under the stealthy weight of boarders. Jaric roused in the
stern, eyes opened and alert.
Dark as ink against the stars, he saw two crested, lizardlike heads. Blunt,
smooth-skinned faces trained toward him, revealing a glint of gimlet eyes and
no nostrils at all. With a jolt of fear, Jaric recognized the Thienz. The
creatures had been hunting since Taen's encounter with Shadowfane; but Jaric's
stop at Land-fast had muddled their search.
Thienz had overtaken
Callinde much farther south than they planned. Though the demons' eyesight was
all but useless, they would stalk prey by sensing the thoughts in their
victims' minds.
Desperate and frightened, Jaric fixed his attention upon the innocuous memory
of a book he had copied as an apprentice scribe. The text had expounded at
boring length upon the particulars of planting; in hopes that farming might
mask his intent from the Thienz, the boy eased back his sleeve, where he kept
a knife to slash rigging in emergencies. The haft slipped coldly into his
palm. One Thienz stiffened in the bow. Jaric
jerked his blade from the scabbard and threw.
Steel flashed and struck. Air whuffed through the demon's gill flaps. It
staggered backward, the knife buried to the hilt in the folds of its broad
neck.
Expecting the swift, crippling attack upon the mind which had brought down
Deison Corley, Jaric kicked off from the stern seat. He could not know that,
even untrained, the intensity of his inborn potential made his awareness
difficult to grapple. His hands shook as he tripped the latch on the locker
beneath the steering oar and snatched the spare rigging knife from its
bracket. Bitterly he regretted the sword left on
Moonless as he confronted the demon who remained.
It carried a short, curved saber, unsuitable for throwing, but deadly enough
against a man armed with nothing but a knife. Jaric moved forward with
caution. Frantically he reviewed the strategies taught by
Corley and Brith. The Thienz did not wait. Disadvantaged by poor eyesight, and
sensing murder in the boy's mind, it raised its blade to cut the head stay and
bring down mast and rigging in a tangle to trap its adversary.
Jaric launched himself with a shout. Unable to clear the mast before the
demon's blade fell, he sawed frantically at the headsail halyard just above at
the cleat. Plies popped and parted, and the line snapped.
Loosened canvas slithered in a heap over the bow. Knocked off balance, the
Thienz tumbled across the thwart with a croak of surprise. Its sword flailed
clumsily through the air as
Callinde swung into the wind.
Jaric lunged and stabbed it in the back. Flesh shuddered under his hand as he
jerked his steel free for a second strike, then a third. The slick heat of the
creature's blood on his hands caused the breath to gag in his throat.
Half-sick with shock, Jaric stumbled back from his dying enemy. He shrank
against the thwart and only that moment noticed the boat which trailed
Callinde, a second party of demons poised by her rail to board. Moonlight
glanced off blowguns and darts pinched in demon fists. Jaric freed his feet
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