Water engulfed me and stung the cut on the back of my head. I tucked my stolen dagger into my belt and kicked my way to the surface. Night darkened the green-blue shade of the sea to a deep sapphire. The temperature was pleasant enough, somewhere between where we kept the bathhouse’s frigidarium and tepidarium.
Cecilia and Cornario were already ahead of me, and the chain tugged me toward them. I filled my lungs with air so I could better float, and I tried to keep up with them, but with the chains on our ankles, letting them pull me was more effective. I wasn’t accustomed to being so useless.
Most of the Turks on the rowboat stayed where they were and called to their comrades on the corsair. One dove into the sea and followed us. Stroke by stroke, he gained. He caught me first, and his grip was like another chain—one much heavier than the links that connected me to Cecilia and Cornario—and he pulled me under. I fought, but every movement was hampered by the water enveloping me and the Turk dragging me down and the chain towing me landward. A pain in my chest howled for air. I jabbed at the Turk, freed my stolen dagger, and plunged it into his side. His grip loosened, and I shook him off, pulling my dagger with me. I gasped as my head broke water again, and then the others tugged me away from him.
No Turks waited on the beach. We’d been in the last group to head to the ship, so the Venetians swam toward shore. The Turks in the rowboat found an oar and gave chase, and so did the massive ship. The rowboat would catch us first. I was slowing the others down, but I couldn’t do anything to change that.
Arrows peppered the water all around us. They came from the ship, but at that distance, their aim was imprecise. Both vessels gained on us. An arrow flew into Cornario’s back, and he floundered for a few strokes, then slowed, then sank.
He pulled me down with him. I clawed at the water, trying to keep from getting sucked under, but between the chains and the weight of the wounded Venetian, the downward tug was too strong.
My feet brushed bottom, and I pushed off hard enough to break the surface. I took in a lungful of air and then sank again. I used the chain to reel Cornario closer, grabbed him, and shoved off the bottom again, trying to propel myself and Cornario toward shore.
My muscles grew tired, and my lungs burned. But I made progress, bobbing up and down and pushing off the rocky bottom. Cecilia continued pulling me toward land with her end of the chain, and the closer we got to shore, the easier it was to breathe. Yet Cornario grew heavier as the water became shallower.
Cecilia stumbled through the breakers and then onto the sand, and I hauled myself and Cornario after her. The man was dead weight, and when I glanced at him, I suspected the dead part was literal. But he was chained to us, so I dragged him away from the water, along the shore, away from the rowboat.
Two Turks climbed from the small craft, drew out swords, and ran at us.
“Stay down,” I told Cecilia.
The Turks both picked me as their target, but they didn’t coordinate their attack. I couldn’t have defended against both of them had they cut toward me with their blades at the same time, but one reached me first. I evaded his swing and lunged at him with my stolen dagger. I grabbed and pulled him off-balance, then ran my knife across his neck. As he fell, I ripped his sword from his grip and turned just in time to meet the blade of the second Turk.
I stepped into him, and the chain at my ankle tripped me. I fell into the wet sand and rolled toward Cecilia and Cornario since the chain was stretched too tightly for me to roll away from them. I used the sword to block the downward swing of the Turkish blade and kicked at his knees with my unchained foot. A clump of wet sand hit the side of his face—I suspected Cecilia threw it, but I hadn’t seen the motion. He fell back but only for a moment. I stopped the next downward swing of his blade with mine, then dodged to the left and swiped my sword across his right calf. He stumbled back, and I slashed at his other leg. When he fell, I hopped to my feet and stabbed my sword into his torso.
I yanked it out in time to stop the next Turk who had left the rowboat to attack me. Our blades held, and both of us tried to gain control of the bind. I gave a bit of space, then rammed my shoulder into his, pushing him back—and reaching the edge of my tether. I backed up so the chain wouldn’t constrain me as much. I preferred to fight farther from Cecilia and Cornario, but I needed slack so I could maneuver.
The Turk hesitated and stepped to the right. I pivoted to follow, then lunged forward. He parried my thrust, but I caught him under the arm in the next moment. He stumbled backward as the last Turk from the rowboat attacked. He held his blade high and brought it down quickly to block when I struck. The clash of steel echoed along the beach. I felt the wet weight of my clothes and the chafing of the iron band around my ankle. I cut toward him, and he blocked me again and again and again. He practically danced around me, but my chain prevented all but the most basic of maneuvers.
Cecilia threw either a rock or a shell, but it hit his shoulder instead of his face. He growled as he thrust toward me again. I barely evaded a blow that would have rendered my left arm useless, then snapped my wrists around and drove my blade into his side.
The man I’d wounded earlier stepped forward as the other one ducked back. I feigned with a cut toward his head, then twisted my blade to fall lower and pushed the metal deep into his flesh. He fell. The last of the Turks stayed back. He remained a threat but out of reach. I plucked up the dagger I’d stolen earlier and threw it at him. I’d spent many a slow afternoon in the courtyard of the bathhouse throwing knives with Eudocia and Michali. I hit my target. The Turk clutched at his wound, stumbled backward, and collapsed.
The corsair drew closer. We didn’t have much time.
I pointed to Cornario. “Is he alive?” I asked Cecilia.
“No.” Her voice was strained, either from grief or shock or cold.
I found a rock and laid the chain over it, then slashed at it with the sword. Sparks flew, but the Turks from the ship would be on us before I made more than a scratch. I didn’t know whether they had another rowboat or not, but they could come within arrow range. They might even risk damaging their hull if it meant recapturing two slaves and avenging their fallen crewmates.
I knelt over Cornario to verify what Cecilia had told me. He was dead, poor man. Either the arrow or the water had finished him off. That left me one option. I brought my blade down hard on his ankle, leaving me chained only to Cecilia.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“We have to run, and we can’t take him with us.”
“But we can’t just leave his body on the beach for the Turks!”
I sighed and bent over one of the dead pirates. I stripped off his cloak, water bladder, and shoes. “I would not wish my body left on the beach. But nor would I want my friends to die because they were unwilling to leave it.” I tossed her the water bladder and the cloak, then grabbed a knife, another cloak, more shoes, and a turban from another enemy.
An arrow struck the sand only a few paces from us. That knocked Cecilia out of her shock. I picked up the empty band that had once surrounded Cornario’s ankle, draped the chain around my arm, and the two of us ran.
Our first task was gaining protection from the Turkish arrows flying toward us from the corsair. We sprinted from the sand to an outcropping of rocks. I made my speed match hers because we had only a few paces’ worth of chain between us, and if we tried to go past it, we’d both fall.
We holed up behind the rocks. Our clothes were wet and heavy and cold. We wrapped ourselves in the cloaks to stop the wind from cutting into our skin, and I pulled on a pair of Turkish shoes and cut the fabric of the turban in two.
I motioned to her feet. “If we wrap these around your feet, the shoes might stay on. We have to be ready to run.”
She nodded and wrapped one foot while I wrapped the other. “Thank you. On the beach—I can hardly believe you fought all of them.”
“Only one at a time, or the results would have been different. And the rest of them will probably learn from their friends’ mistakes, so we won’t have it that easy if they find us again.” I reached for her hand and helped her to her feet. “Will the shoes work?”
“Well enough.”
We ran. First, we went inland a little, outside of arrow range but close enough to the water to keep track of the Turkish ship’s location. Eventually, they got men on shore to hunt for us, but by then, we were some distance ahead of them.