Cloak of the Two Winds by Jack Massa Page B

encouragement from the main deck. Lonn saw the witch standing behind them at the rail. He took the knife from Karrol's belt, cut the line from the lifebuoy, tossed the buoy up on deck. He tied the rope to Karrol's harness, knotting it securely, then slipped her knife into his belt.
    Almost unconscious, Karrol was hauled up the coaster's side and helped over the rail. Lonn and Draven, moving with care, climbed back on board the way they had come down. They were halfway up the rope ladder when the hoisting machinery clattered into motion. The ship's runners rose on their beams until they rested firmly against the hull. The Plover was already turning off-wind, tacking to the east.
    It occurred to Lonn that the witch might have ordered these maneuvers to occupy the crew, so that she could confront the now-freed Iruks alone. Amlina watched with hands in sleeves as Lonn and Draven dragged themselves over the railing.
    Karrol lay on the deck, panting, Brinda supporting her head and upper body. The ivory skates were still attached to her boots, though her cape and quiver had been lost in the sea.
    Grinning, Eben hugged Lonn and Draven in turn.
    "Bravely done," Amlina added her own congratulations. "Come below with me now, and I'll see you have blankets and a stove to dry your clothes."
    Lonn snatched the knife from his belt and pointed it close to the witch's face. "Don't think to trick us. We'll not be chained again."
    He had to admire the witch: her placid expression never faltered. "I don't intend to chain you again. Obviously it would do no good, since you can break the witch-chains. Come, you can't stay out here in those wet garments."
    "We don't trust you," Lonn said.
    "And I don't trust you." Amlina shrugged. "But what choice do you have? You might kill me with that dagger—and several of the crew besides. But the others would catch you up and throw you into the sea."
    Lonn clutched the knife-handle, glancing about at the sailors who watched from their various stations.
    "Come below," Amlina said. "You can distrust me just as easily there, and you'll be out of the wind."
    She stepped back, then turned and started across the main deck. Lonn lowered the knife, scowling.
    "This witch is crafty," Eben muttered. "She backs down when we have the advantage. When she has it, she slaps us in chains."
    Draven and Brinda each took one of Karrol's arms around their shoulders and helped her across the deck. The klarnmates followed the witch down three steps and through a door below the quarterdeck. Inside was a cramped corridor leading to the witch's cabin and one other, and a stairway spiraling down.
    The witch closed the door behind them and proceeded down the stairway. The Plover's design was typical for small trading ships: crew's quarters and galley forward, main cargo holds amidships. Aft, below the quarterdeck and main cabins, were compartments that could serve either for storage or as extra accommodations for passengers. Amlina took the Iruks through this part of the ship, past partitions and empty lockers, to a relatively spacious room at the very stern. Small windows of stained glass opened onto the ship's wake. There was a portable oil stove and some bedding—padded mats covered with canvas.
    "You'll need more sleeping mats and blankets," the witch said. "And I'll see if the cook won't consent to brewing you some tea."
    Her display of hospitality only increased Lonn' s suspicions. "We're glad to be out of the cold," he said. "But don't think to keep us locked in down here."
    "You won't be locked in," Amlina said. "But I hope your own good sense will keep you here at least till tomorrow. My crewmen hate and fear you—and not without reason. Until I pledge to them that you can be trusted and order them to make peace with you, there isn't likely to be peace. So the less you are in their eyes the better."
    "We don't fear your Larthangans," Lonn asserted.
    "I don't want you slaughtering them any more than I want them slaughtering