CHAPTER 26

The little boat made steady progress all through the day, heading westwards towards the rising sun. When that climbed higher in the northern sky, macShiel made certain that it was on his right shoulder. Crouched in the stern, tiller in one hand, jib line in the other, he eyed the thin line of dark land in front of them.

‘Aeire’s behind us. We have to go north around that, then follow the coast.’

‘Whose land is it?’ asked Elenya.

‘We call the land Sasana, and it’s a wild, lawless place. Best avoided.’

Akisi, jaw still aching where macShiel had hit him, said: ‘They are more barbarous than either of you. They spend their time in filth and fighting.’

Elenya stared him down. ‘No one asked you.’

He fell silent and looked away, rubbing his chin with a wet hand. Salt water was supposed to be good for bruises. macShiel swung the tiller, and the boat turned to the north-west.

The hull bucked as the wind gusted round to a different quarter. The sail canvas wriggled like a worm, and macShiel slackened the jib rope. Elenya pulled hard on its opposite number and the jib came swinging around. The three of them in the stern ducked. The sail snapped taut again, and Elenya passed the end of the rope to macShiel, who tied off the one he was holding before accepting the new one.

Va sat in the bow with the book, straining his eyes through the bursts of spray from the prow at a smudge on the southern horizon.

‘What’s that?’ he said, pointing sternwards.

Everyone turned, and Elenya stood, one foot braced on the gunwale. She shielded her eyes from the glare and squinted.

‘Looks like another boat.’

‘It wasn’t there a little while ago.’ macShiel gave the tiller to Elenya and had a closer look himself. ‘Bigger boat than this.’

‘Did he say it was a bigger boat?’ asked Va, craning his neck. ‘How can he tell?’

‘Don’t be an idiot, Va.’ Elenya kept the boat steady with difficulty. ‘Sit down.’

But Va tucked the book in the angle of the bow, and in two short steps he was halfway up the mast with his legs wrapped around the wood. macShiel balked. ‘Get down, man. You’ll have us over.’

‘I can see two masts,’ he reported.

‘Down!’ macShiel reached up to take hold of Va’s habit, and the boat started to lean. He threw himself across the boat to steady it. Akisi squeaked in fear.

Finally Va dropped down.

‘Never do that again,’ warned macShiel. ‘Brother or not, you won’t be welcome aboard my boat.’

Oblivious to the threat, Va said: ‘It’s not Ardhal. It’s not even an Aeireann ship.’

‘And you’re the expert, Va?’ Elenya kicked Akisi away from her.

‘I thought only macShiel had this three-sided sail. That one has too.’

Elenya told macShiel, and he chewed his lip. ‘Northerners. Could be slavers.’

Even Akisi roused himself from his petulance to see. ‘Is there a flag?’

‘Whatever flag it shows, it’s not going to be good news for us.’

Elenya put her hand on macShiel’s. ‘Rory, can we get away?’

‘I don’t know.’ He gave one last look around and took the tiller back. ‘Jib’s coming round.’ He turned the boat to the south-west, then pointed to the bailing bucket at Va’s feet. ‘Wet the sail. Catches the wind better.’

While Va scooped up sea-water from over the side, Elenya asked Akisi: ‘Worried it might be the emperor coming to get you?’

‘Yes.’

‘He’ll have you soon enough. I’d be more worried that it was a Caliphate boat.’

At mention of the Caliphate, Va went cold inside. ‘They mustn’t catch us. I have to finish my mission.’

‘I don’t care about your mission,’ said Elenya, ‘and if the Caliphate capture you, well, the best you could hope for is a quick death. At worst–well, I’m told there are ways of keeping a man alive through even the worst torture imaginable.’

‘And we both know what would happen to you.’

They stared at each other long enough to make both macShiel and Akisi uncomfortable. Finally Elenya said: ‘Whoever it is, I don’t think we want to meet them.’

‘Why is the monk scared of the Caliphate?’ Akisi snorted with mock laughter. ‘It strikes me that something as mundane as an army should hold no fear for him.’

‘It didn’t when he broke the siege of Novy Rostov, destroyed the Caliphate’s dreams of a greater empire and slaughtered their soldiers to the last man. But he now believes he’s got more important things to do than be a plaything of the caliph.’ macShiel looked at Va with new eyes. ‘He did that? On his own?’

‘He started with nothing. He raised the peasant army. He trained them. He led them. He watched them kill and be killed. He won.’

‘I know what you’re doing, Elenya,’ said Va. He launched the bucket of water at the sail and went back for a second fill. ‘Don’t. You mustn’t boast of things that were a sin.’

‘You saved Novy Rostov. You saved me.’

‘I lost two armies: my own and the Caliphate’s. I emptied the countryside and filled the tombs. That’s nothing to be proud of. Just stop. Please.’

Elenya pulled at the strand of hair that had caught in her mouth and turned away. Va wet the sail again and took stock of the other boat.

‘macShiel. The boat: it follows, yes?’ macShiel checked for himself. ‘Yes. I don’t know whether we can make it to land in time. Our problems won’t end there either.’

‘Better than caliph,’ said Va emphatically.

‘You’re probably right. I much prefer being the master of my own destiny,’ said macShiel, ‘and that ship is moving faster than we are. Right about now is where we ought to throw things overboard to lighten the load.’

They looked at each other. Aside from themselves, there was nothing to get rid of.

‘You need me,’ reminded Akisi. ‘I know what’s happened to the other book. I can even take you to Great Nairobi.’

‘If it was up to me,’ said macShiel, ‘you’d be fish food. It’s the monk and Elenya you need to convince. Are you worth the risk of getting captured by their mortal enemies?’

‘Yes.’

Elenya told Va: ‘The choice is this: throw Akisi over the side and give ourselves a better chance.’

‘Or?’

‘Or not. Can we find the second book without him?’

‘Of course we can. We found this one. It’ll make it difficult, but not impossible.’ Va put his hand down on the book. ‘But I won’t allow it.’

‘Even with the Caliphate breathing down our neck? Look.’ Elenya waved her hand with a flourish. The triangular sails of the other boat were much larger than they had been.

Va pointed ahead. He could make out hills and valleys among the shadowed land. ‘We might make it.’

‘Va,’ added Elenya, ‘what happens if it is the Caliphate? What will Akisi do then, but sell his skills to them. You want to see their army with An Cobh’s weaponry? Better for everyone if he goes.’

‘I can’t be party to this,’ hissed Va. ‘I won’t have his blood on my hands.’

‘Then I’ll do it. You’re right: I’ve no particular wish to end up in a harem and raped repeatedly. I didn’t when they were outside the walls of my city and I haven’t changed my mind.’ Elenya slipped her knife out. ‘Me or the fish, Akisi. You have a choice, which is more than you gave the priest you killed or Cormac’s men.’

Akisi backed away as best he could. ‘For God’s sake, woman. I can’t swim!’

Va struggled to the stern and stood between the two.

‘Will everybody just shut up and sit down!’ shouted macShiel. ‘You want whoever it is to pull us out of the sea like drowning rats? Then keep on jumping around like madmen. Even if I kicked you all out, we wouldn’t stand a chance. That ship is going twice our speed, or hasn’t a little thing like the plain truth broken into your argument?’

They all sat, subdued.

‘What do we do?’ asked Elenya.

‘Furl the sail. Wait and see what happens.’ macShiel undid the jib rope and let the sail flutter aimlessly.

‘I know what I’m going to do,’ said Va, and ducked under the jib. He reached for the book and shook it out of its cloth wrapping. He put it on the gunwale and heaved it over the side.

‘No!’ Akisi lunged for him, his fingers brushing the metal cover and somehow pinning it to the outside of the hull. The book’s weight slid it down until it was underwater. A wave came up, slapped Akisi full in the face, and as he gasped, the book slipped away.

‘If I could bear the sight of you following it, then you would,’ said Va.

Akisi clawed at the expanding circle of wavelets. The book glinted once, then vanished.

‘How could you? It’s lost. The knowledge. The wisdom. Gone.’ His face contorted, his voice cracked.

‘Nothing is lost for ever,’ said Elenya, ‘and we have more immediate problems.’

The larger boat was coming up fast, its prow lost in breaking waves. The crew climbed spider-like up the rigging and started to stow the taut, wind-filled sails they had unfurled for the chase.

As it came alongside, it dwarfed macShiel’s little fishing boat. A rope fell to the deck, and they looked up. A row of grinning dark faces peered down at them. macShiel tied the rope off, and they bumped against the vessel’s hull. Va swayed. ‘It’s the Caliphate.’

‘It might not be,’ said Elenya. She called up in her best Turkic, ‘Is this one of the caliph’s ships?’

The answer came not in Turkic, but in something else. Then two of the sailors were elbowed aside and a man wearing a black turban leaned out. ‘Who’s this that greets us in the name of our enemy?’

‘Me,’ shouted Elenya. ‘The caliph is our enemy too. We thought you were his men.’

‘May Allah pluck out my living entrails and feed them to the vultures if that was true. I spit on the caliph and his sons.’

‘You know Turkic though.’

‘So do you. Come up. We can discuss terms.’ The turbaned captain ordered his men to throw down a net, and Elenya climbed the side of the ship, followed by Akisi.

Va and macShiel looked at each other. ‘You first,’ said Va.

‘My boat. You first.’

Va stared at the sea. He might make it to shore, but probably not. It was still a very long way, and once there, he’d have to contend with the incurably violent Sasans. Could it be that this boatload of foreign devil-worshippers was being used by God to His ineffable ends? He had to trust the Almighty’s plans, not second-guess Him–or worse, assume he knew better.

God was God. If Va believed anything, it was that he was a servant, and servants did not question their master’s orders. He climbed up the net. Rough brown hands helped him over to the deck. macShiel followed Va. ‘What type of ship is this, and who are its crew?’

‘I think they are Maghrebi,’ said Va. ‘Slavers.’

‘I’ll not be taken,’ said macShiel. ‘I’d rather die first.’ He backed to the gunwale and looked at the drop.

Va laid hold of him. ‘Do nothing. Keep quiet. Trust God.’

Elenya broke off her Turkic discussions. ‘Listen to him, Rory. There’s a way through this that might mean we stay free, but you need to keep your nerve. If you don’t want to trust Va’s invisible friend, trust me instead.’

She carried on talking to the captain in the one language they had in common, the language of their shared enemy. Akisi gnawed at his knuckles. Va kept a tight grip on macShiel’s arm and, for his part, muttered his way through a prayer of deliverance.

The sailors stood around them in a loose semicircle, hands on their short swords and clubs, which dangled from sashes around their waists. Their interest and intent was clear. They only held back because their captain hadn’t given the order to subdue the captives.

Then the captain and Elenya slid their palms together. A deal was done, and the order finally given.

Va and macShiel stiffened as the sailors rushed them, but only Akisi went down under a barrage of blows. He was dragged, heels scraping along the deck, to one of the hatches.

‘What? What have you done, you witch? You’ve tricked me. You can’t treat one of the emperor’s subjects like this. I appeal to the emperor himself for justice!’

He was pushed into the hold, and the sailors swarmed after him.

‘You can stop hanging onto each other like frightened girls,’ said Elenya. ‘I’ve made a devil’s pact, but it’s bought us some time.’

‘What did you say? And what’s happened to Akisi?’ asked Va.

‘I told Captain Haida that we were agents of His Imperial Majesty, the Kenyan emperor, escorting a prisoner back to Great Nairobi to be tried by the emperor himself.’

‘And he believed you?’

‘No. But neither can he take the risk of not believing me. If he’s wrong, he’ll lose his ship, his liberty and probably his life. What he’s going to do is dump us at the nearest friendly port in the Maghreb and let the local Kenyan ambassador sort it out. We’re not slaves, and if we play this right, we can get passage all the way to Kenya.’

‘And what of me?’ asked macShiel. ‘Do I go with you?’

‘You still have your boat. Go back to your wife while you still have a chance. Every moment you stand here takes you further away.’

‘They’re setting me free?’ He was already half over the gunwale.

‘In the name of God, get on with it, before they change their mind.’ She reached forward to push him away, and he caught her arm.

‘I should say something.’

‘Goodbye, Rory.’ She pulled away, and his fingers slid from hers.

They watched him cast off, and soon he became a dark spot on a darker ocean.

Va folded his arms in satisfaction. ‘God blesses us even in our darkest moment.’

‘Oh, shut up. Where do you think I learned Turkic?’

Va shrugged.

‘Novy Rostov was under siege for two years. My father thought it politic that I learned: better to survive as some Turkman’s wife than as a common slave-whore. Everything I ever do is a compromise, an expedience against something worse. One day I’ll do something just for me, and surprise everybody. Now,’ Elenya told him, ‘act like you’re in the pay of the Kenyans, or they’ll guess the truth. If they do, I might get to see you die sooner than you’d like.’