I fell back and lashed out with my dagger, more on instinct than thought. My blade bit deep into the monster’s hand, severing a finger. The hand withdrew, but didn’t loosen its grip—it ripped a few planks out of the hull as it fell back.
I stared out the now-massive hole in the hull, hoping to watch the beast splash into the sea below.
But instead I saw it dangling from the launch by one hand. It would have been nine feet tall if it were standing, and its arms were long even for its body. It glared up at me, and its hideous pointed nose and crooked teeth would have been enough to unsettle the hardiest of soldiers—and I was no soldier! I looked into its murderous eyes and I felt as if my heart had stopped.
My mind cried out to stab it, to attack, to kill it while it hung from the rowboat. But my body would not answer that call. All I could do was retreat a few steps as the thing ripped at the hull, pulling planks off with ease. When the hole was large enough, it swung itself through.
A surge of fear snapped me from my stupor, and I took the only action I could think of.
I turned and ran.
I hoped my small size would help me. I was able to navigate through the tight spaces of the hold easily, and the hulking thing surely could not. I realized my error as the first few boxes went soaring over my head.
“Come out, tasssty snack,” the thing gurgled. Its voice was something between a roaring bear and a drowning cat, every bit as ugly as the monster itself.
I picked my way through the familiar cask maze, toward the hatch to the deck, to anywhere the beast was not. But the ship’s sharp turn and the crash had tossed the contents of the hold, and I could barely keep my footing.
The troll tossed another barrel at my head, and it crashed among several casks of water, one of which burst open. Other crates and boxes tumbled about.
One of the crates, full of dried and salted meat, landed directly on me, knocking me down and blasting the breath from my lungs. The troll ripped through the last stack of barrels right behind me.
“Oh–ho! Cannot hide!” the brute shouted in delight. Then it stopped abruptly, and when I dared to glance back, it stood staring at me.
It stared at my chest, where my shirt had been torn open. Stared at the sash holding the black stone.
“Ohhh, the demon wantsss it, don’t it be?” Its voice was a shrill whisper, like a nail pulled across glass. “ ’E’ll pay me well, won’t ’e, then?”
I snapped my wrist out, extending the magical blade, and swung as hard as I could. But the creature was quicker than I thought, and it stepped out of my reach.
“Eet hasss bite, eet does!” snarled the troll in a strange half-laugh. “But so does I!”
It lunged forward.
I dodged to my left and cut a quick backhand with my saber, aiming to hit the creature in the ear, or at least force it back.
But the beast caught my arm in its hand.
In desperation, I reached my other hand into the nearest barrel and grabbed a handful of powder. Without thinking, I hurled the white stuff into the beast’s ugly face.
The sea-green thing howled but didn’t loosen its grip on my forearm. “Sssalt!” it shrieked. “The tasssty snack attacks with salt! Oh ho! I leeve in the sea, foolish thing. Salt is my friend, is not yours.”
At least it wasn’t eating me as it spoke, I thought, reaching into the next barrel. Again, only powder, but I threw it in the troll’s face, hoping to buy some time.
But this time the powder was black—it was pepper imported from the town of Nesmé, that rare spice I had found when I first came aboard. The creature yelped in pain.
It released my hand and grasped at its face with its filthy claws. I grabbed another handful and ran between its massive legs, heading toward the wall through the path the brute had just cleared, a plan forming in my head.
I pocketed the spice as I approached the gaping hole in the hull. Quickly I scanned the nearby barrels to be sure everything I needed was still there, popping open a barrel and a box. Then I went to the hole, using my sword to pull the dangling rope back onto the ship. Perrault’s sword was a good one, and I quickly cut the other rope tying the launch to the hull, allowing the small craft to swing freely from the overhead rope.
Heavy footsteps thumped behind me like the beating of my own heart. I had no time!
I turned and grabbed three small objects from the open box—the ivory carvings.
Quickly I put them up into the air in a graceful juggle.
“Hey, you,” I called to the monster. “If you don’t eat me, I’ll give you these!”
“Oh ho, the tasssty snack does not want to be snack, does it then? Eet bribes me! But no, I thinksss, I want the snack. Sailing is hungry work, so eet ees.” The thing stopped, deep in thought—as deep as such a creature was capable of, I figured. It spoke again. “I can take the treenkets from eets corpse, can’t I?” It moved forward again.
I tossed one of the pieces toward the beast, yelling, “Catch!”
Sure enough, the dim-witted troll glanced up at the flying object—not for long, but long enough. I pegged off the other two pieces, hitting the thing right between the eyes with both. But it hardly felt the blows.
It roared and charged.
I grabbed the open barrel and tipped its contents—hundreds of tiny ceramic marbles— directly into the wretch’s path.
The monster slipped and fell, crashing heavily into the wall beside the gaping hole.
I did not wait. As soon as the barrel fell, I grabbed the loose rope and swung myself out toward the launch, climbing as fast as I could, hand over hand, up onto the small boat. The creature oriented itself quickly and appeared at the hole, snarling in rage.
“You die now.” Its voice, that unearthly gurgle, was lower in pitch and more intense. Even several feet away, I could feel and smell its horrid breath.
The creature reached at me with its long arms and grabbed the side of the launch. Slowly, it began to pull the boat nearer.
I could have cut at those hands with my saber, but I knew I would not dislodge the thing. Instead, I grabbed the rope still attached to the launch and began to climb.
“You not escape,” the troll promised, pulling harder, trying to bring the launch close enough to grab me before I got away. It leaned out of the ship, its foul breath billowing at me, its teeth gnashing hungrily. It leaned, and it pulled …
I gripped the rope more tightly with my left hand and swung my sword with my right, cutting the rope just about where my knees dangled.
Off balance, and suddenly burdened with the weight of the boat while leaning too far forward, the troll toppled and fell. It reached up to swat at me, but the strike had no strength and its claws did not dig in.
Down fell the launch and the wretched beast along with it. The boat landed with a splash, and the troll landed atop it, smashing right through, reducing the rowboat to flotsam. The ripples looked an awful lot like those created by the ball of pitch, in precisely the same spot.
The troll’s strike had caused me to swing, and suddenly I was veering back toward the ship, toward the hole where the troll had ripped planks out of the vessel. I saw the sharp edges of broken wood rising up to meet me even as I fell, but I felt the pain of it gashing my chest for only a moment.
Then I felt no more.