03 - Death's Legacy by Sandy Mitchell - (ebook by Undead)

them. Get below!” Shenk grabbed the weapon and
quiver in one hand, the other holding the cutlass he’d returned to his cabin
for, and sprinted across the deck towards Rudi. Hanna ducked out of sight again.
“I hope you know how to use this.”
    “I can use it all right on the land,” Rudi said. Needing both
hands to draw the bow, he re-sheathed his sword, and shrugged the quiver into
place across his shoulders. “How good are you with that wood chopper?”
    “Good as I have to be,” Shenk said, with more confidence than
Rudi had expected. He turned to call out to his crew. “Spread out, cover the
deck. When they try to board, we’ll take them.” He took a guard position,
slightly stiffly to Rudi’s practiced eye, but well enough to show him that the
riverman actually knew how to use the weapon. The blade seemed to burn in the
reddening light, picking out a few nicks along its length. That was reassuring
too, Shenk had obviously used it successfully before.
    “You sound confident at any rate.” Rudi nocked an arrow and
drew back smoothly, seeking a target. He’d feared the faint rocking of the boat
would throw off his aim, but he had his river legs, and found himself
compensating for the motion as instinctively as all the other factors his
conscious mind barely registered, following the advice his adoptive father had
tried so hard to instil in him, he drew and loosed in one fluid movement,
leaving it to the arrow to find the target without trying too hard to aim.
    The shot was a smooth one, and confident that it would find
the mark, Rudi began reaching for another shaft even before the arrow buried
itself in the chest of one of the pirates crowding the rail. The man fell back,
choking, and Rudi drew the next arrow from his quiver, marvelling at the
distance the marauding vessel had managed to close in so short a time. It had
been well within range, and was coming closer with every passing moment. The
sunset had been completely eclipsed by the pirates’ boat, and he was able to
pick out a surprising amount of detail, despite the mist that seemed to be
shrouding its deck.
    “Down!” he shouted, dropping the shaft he’d been about to
nock, and crouching below the level of the rail. Ansbach hunkered down as best
he could, looking confused and apprehensive, while Shenk dropped to the deck at
once. He clearly trusted Rudi’s instincts in this sort of situation.
    “What’s the…?” Ansbach started to ask, but the question was
answered by a volley of overlapping reports that echoed flatly across the water.
The thick wood of the boat’s rail splintered under the impact of a hail of
musket balls, and a few higher up whined across the deck.
    “Mannan’s bloody dolphins!” Shenk turned a panic-stricken
face to Rudi. “They’ve got guns!”
    “Anyone hurt?” Rudi rose to his feet, nocking the arrow in
his hand, and let fly again. One of the gunners pitched to the deck of the
pirate vessel, still in the act of reloading. He found himself wishing that
Hanna was here to do her trick with the powder flasks again, but she was out of
sight in the hold, and there was no way to communicate with her.
    “Pieter’s down!” Berta’s voice was shrill with panic, and
Rudi glanced across to see the deckhand lying on the planking a few yards away,
a pool of blood spreading around him. He was trying to sit up, looking dazed,
and Rudi breathed a sigh of relief at the woman’s next words. “He took a bullet
in the shoulder!”
    “Get him below!” Shenk bawled. “Hanna should know what to
do!” He glanced at Rudi, and raised an eyebrow. “Right?”
    “Right,” Rudi agreed. The girl had been a healer all her
life, and should be able to stem the bleeding without too much difficulty.
Besides, with a casualty to tend to, she was less likely to do something rash.
He wondered for a moment if Berta would be able to manage the job on her own,
but the stocky woman was used to lugging heavy weights