The erinye howled and unfolded his leather-webbed wings. Like a hurled
spear he streaked into the air, rushed down on the nearest Xanthian
like a thunderbolt--claws, teeth, barbed tail, a blinding fury of blood
and death, ripping flesh as if it were parchment.
The ship's ballista _chunked_ and balls of the ever-burning Achaeran
fire were hurled out to fall blazing among the enemy. Chryseis' bow
hummed beside Corun, a Xanthian went under with an arrow in his
throat--the air was thick with shafts as the crew fired.
Still the Xanthi rushed on, ducking up and down, near impossible to
hit. The first of them came up to the hull and sank their clawed
fingers into the wood. The sailors thrust downward with pikes, howling
in fear-maddened rage.
The man near Corun went down with a hurled javelin through him. At
once a huge golden form was slithering over the rail, onto the deck.
The sword in his hand flashed, another Umlotuan's weapon was knocked
spinning from his hand and the reptile hewed him down.
Corun sprang to do battle. The swords clashed together with a shock
that jarred the man backward. Corun spread his feet and smote out. His
blade whirled down to strike the shoulder, gash the chest, and drive
the hissing monster back.
With a rising cold fury, Corun followed it up. _That_ for the long
inquisition--_that_ for being a horror out of the sea bottom--_that_
for threatening Chryseis! The Xanthian writhed with a belly ripped
open. Still he wouldn't die--he flopped and struck from the deck. Corun
evaded the sweeping tail and cut off the creature's head.
They were pouring onto the ship through gaps in the line. Chryseis
stood on the foredeck in a line of defending men, her bow singing
death. Battle snarled about the mast, men against monsters, sword and
halberd and ax belling in cloven bone.
A giant's blow bowled Corun off his feet, the tail of a Xanthian. He
rolled over and thrust upward as the Sea Demon sprang on him. The sword
went through the heart. Hissing and snapping, his foe toppled on him.
He heaved the struggling body away and sprang back to his stance.
"To me!" bellowed Imazu. "To me, men!"
He stood wielding a huge battle ax by the mast, striking at the beasts
that raged around him, lopping heads and arms and tails like a woodman.
The scattered humans rallied and began to fight their way toward him,
step by bloody step.
Perias the erinye was everywhere, a flying fury, ripping and biting and
smashing with wing-blows. Corun loomed huge over the men who fought
beside him, the sword shrieking and thundering in his hands. Imazu
stood stolidly against the mast, smashing at all comers. A rush of
Xanthi broke past him and surged against the foredeck. The defenders
beat them off, Chryseis thrusting as savagely with her sword as any
man, and they reeled back against the masthead warriors to be cut down.
A Xanthian sprang at Corun, wielding a long-shafted ax that shivered
the sword in his hand. The Conahurian struck back, his blade darting
past the monster's guard to stab through the throat. The Xanthian
staggered. Corun wrenched the blade loose and brought it down again to
sing in the reptile skull.
Before he could pull it loose, another was on him. Corun ducked under
the spear he carried and closed his hands around the slippery sides.
The clawed feet raked his legs. He lifted the thing and hurled it into
another with bone-shattering force. One of them threshed wildly, neck
broken--the other bounded at Corun. The man yanked his sword free and
it whistled against the golden head.
* * * * *
Back and forth the struggle swayed, crashing of metal and howling of
warriors. And the Xanthi were driven to the rails--they could not stand
against the rallying human line in the narrow confines of the ship.
"Kill them!" roared Imazu. "Kill the misbegotten snakes!"
[Illustration: _"Kill them!" roared Imazu. "Kill the misbegotten
snakes!"_]
Suddenly the Xanthi were slipping overboard, swimming for their mounts
beyond the zone of magic. Perias followed, harrying them, pulling them
half out of the water to rip their throats out.
The ship was wet, streaming with human red and reptile yellow blood.
Dead and wounded littered the decks. Corun saw the Xanthi cavalry
retreating out of sight.
"We've won," he gasped. "We've won--"
"No--wait--" Chryseis inclined her head sharply, seeming to listen,
then darted past him to open a hatch. Light streamed down into the
hold. It was filling--the bilge was rising. "I thought so," she said
grimly. "They're below us, chopping into the hull."
"We'll see about that," said Corun, and unbuckled his cuirass. "All who
can swim, after me!"
"No--no, they'll kill you--"
"Come on!" rapped Imazu, letting his own breastplate clang to the deck.
Corun sprang overboard. He was wearing nothing but a kilt now, and had
a spear in one hand and a dirk in his teeth. Fear was gone, washed out
by the red tides of battle. There was only a bleak, terrible triumph in
him. Men _had_ beaten the Sea Demons!
Underwater, it was green and dim. He swam down, down, brushing the
hull, pulling himself along the length of the keel. There were half a
dozen shapes clustered near the waist, working with axes.
He pushed against the keel and darted at them, holding the spear like a
lance. The keen point stabbed into the belly of one monster. The others
turned, their eyes terrible in the gloom. Corun took the dirk in his
hand, got a grip on the next nearest, and stabbed.
Claws ripped his flanks and back. His lungs were bursting, there was a
roaring in his head and darkness before his eyes. He stabbed blindly,
furiously.
Suddenly the struggling form let go. Corun broke the surface and gasped
in a lungful of air. A Sea Demon leaped up beside him. At once the
erinye was on him. The Xanthian screamed as he was torn apart.
Corun dove back under water. The other seamen were down there, fighting
for their lives. They outnumbered the Xanthi, but the monsters were in
their native element. Blood streaked the water, blinding them all. It
was a strange, horrible battle for survival.
In the end, Corun and Imazu and the others--except for four--were
hauled back aboard. "We drove them off," said the pirate wearily.
"Oh, my dear--my dearest dear--" Chryseis, who had laughed in battle,
was sobbing on his breast.
Shorzon was on deck, looking over the scene. "We did well," he said.
"We stood them off, killed about thirty, and only lost fifteen men."
"At that rate," said Corun, "it won't take them long to clear our
decks."
"I don't think they will try again," said Shorzon.
He went over to a captured Xanthian. The Sea Demon had had a foot
chopped off in the battle and been pinned to the deck by a pike, but he
still lived and rasped defiance at them. If allowed to live, he would
grow new members--the monsters were tougher than they had a right to be.
"Hark, you," said Shorzon in the Xanthian tongue, which he had learned
with astonishing ease. "We come on a mission of peace, with an offer
that your king will be pleased to hear. You have seen only a small part
of our powers. It is not beyond us to sail to your palace and bring it
crumbling to earth."
Corun wondered how much was bluff. The old sorcerer might really be
able to do it. In any case--he had nerve!
"What can you things offer us?" asked the Xanthian.
"That is only for the king to hear," said Shorzon coldly. "He will not
thank you for molesting us. Now we will let you go to bear word back to
your rulers. Tell them we are coming whether they will or no, but that
we come in friendship if they will but show it. After all, if they wish
to kill us it can be just as easily done--if at all--after they have
heard us out. Now go!"
Imazu pulled the pike loose and the yellow-bleeding Xanthian writhed
overboard.
"I do not think we will be bothered again," said Shorzon calmly. "Not
before we get to the black palace."
"You may be right," admitted Corun. "You gave them a good argument by
their standards."
"Friends?" muttered Imazu. "Friends with those things? As soon expect
the erinye to lie down by the bovan, _I_ think."
"Come," said Chryseis impatiently. "We have to repair the leak and
clean the decks and get under way again. It is a long trip yet to the
black palace."
She turned to Corun and her eyes were dark flames. "How you fought!"
she whispered. "How you fought, beloved!"