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Date Posted: 03:53:19 03/28/02 Thu
Author: Zora
Subject: Pirate story - last revision - needs a title!

Can anyone think of a good title for this?

-------------------

"I can't go any higher." Lise gripped the rigging so tightly that the ropes cut into her palms. Her knees shook so hard that all the ropes shook with her, a tremor not disguised by the rising wind. She didn't look down. She didn't look up, or across, or around, but focussed on the mast in front of her, close now, as she neared the top.

She had to climb on. Jani was watching. Lise thought bitter thoughts; fat chance of catching Jani volunteering to stand watch, or doing anything really flaming useful… she felt a fleeting brush of guilt – deep down she knew Jani was the brave one, and right now Lise hated her for that. “I wish we’d never come away.” she muttered. She risked a glance down. The ship looked impossibly small below her, and as it rocked, her perch on the rigging swayed out over the water, like an inverted pendulum. Dizzied, she snatched her gaze back to the mast.

"Lise! Are you coming?” Jome, above her in the crows nest. His voice sounded thin, snatched away by the wind. Lise gingerly tilted her head back. She felt sick, but she could see the handrail. Almost there.

As she fought to uncurl her fingers, she saw Jome's attention flick away to the horizon, and the smile fall from his lips. She felt a cold hand clench inside her chest, and her blood seemed to drain away down the ropes to the deck far below. "Pirates!" yelled Jome. "Pirates! Windward, closing quick!" He turned to Lise again. "Get up here girl, now! Move!" Lise scrambled those last few feet in a matter of seconds.

Captain Goran ordered all hands on deck, and the sails they had just recently lowered were quickly hoisted. They snapped taut as soon as they were raised; the wind was fierce now. The N'eliyavha bucked and leaped forward, the canvas booming and cracking. Lise shuddered, as spasms ran through the hull and up the mast with the crash of each wave. "Don't let us down, Nellie," she murmured. The shocks diminished when the ship came around, and they ran before the wind.

Down on the foredeck, Jani scrambled to keep out of the way of the scurrying sailors. She was on her knees, struggling to shoot the bolt on the main hatch when she felt the movement of the ship change. They had heeled around to port, and the waves were breaking against the side of the ship. She stood up, pulling strands of wet, salty hair from her eyes and mouth.

The pirates’ ship was a lean, elegant barque. She was closing fast; Jani could see men on the deck readying grappling hooks. Nowhere to run to. Someone thrust something into her hands. She looked down, and found herself holding a carved bone knife. The brown-stained blade curved sinuously into a lethal point. Jani didn't blanch; she could use it.

The pirates were close, closer; she could see eyes, teeth, knives glinting. Her sodden clothes slapped her, icy spray bit her face and hands, but she balanced herself as best she could, and took a deep breath.

In a heartbeat the raiders were upon them. They swung the grappling hooks, up, over, until each had bitten into the deck or caught fast on the rail. Then they drew the two ships into a deadly embrace. Some with knives between their teeth, some with short swords strapped across their backs, all quick and deadly, they swarmed aboard the N’eliyavha. Jani could see that they were not just tough, but surprisingly disciplined. The merchant sailors were outclassed, and soon outnumbered.

Jani darted, cat-like around the fringes of the skirmish, jabbing with her knife, never hesitating enough to be grabbed. On the pitching deck she couldn’t settle into any rhythm, and soon she was exhausted. She fell, stood, fell again, rolling across the deck and under the feet of fighting men, tripping friends and foes alike. She tumbled into a loose barrel, the impact punching the air out of her lungs.

When she could breathe again, however raggedly, she cautiously rose, and saw that the crew of the N'eliyavha were holding on, tightly grouped on the foredeck, their desperation driving them to fight more viciously that Jani would have thought possible. Neither side was giving any quarter.

Her eyes found Captain Goran, who was locked in combat with a big, bearded rogue; Goran was not a small man, but this fellow was taller by half a head and had the reach on him. The Captain fought ferociously, but was coming off worse from every exchange, his sword arm shaking as he parried blows from the pirate’s two hooked knives. The pirate cut his left forearm with the tip of one blade, and as Goran tried, too late, to block, he brought his right knife up and jammed the hooked end into the Captain’s bicep. Goran dropped his sword and stumbled backward, falling heavily across the deck. Fear sprung to the faces of nearby crewmembers; the pirates yelled triumphantly, and pressed forward.

Jani moved before the thought reached her brain; if the Captain was lost, the ship was lost. She leapt across the three shifting, slippery metres separating her from the attacker, and as he raised his left blade to deliver the killing blow, she plunged her knife into the middle of his back His legs collapsed under him, and he dropped, face down, and didn’t move again.

Jani half expected a cheer, but the cry that went up around her was not of joy, but alarm and despair. She looked up. The helmsman was pointing off to starboard. Jani followed the direction of his arm, and saw, bearing down on them, a second sleek, dangerous looking barque.

She helped Captain Goran to his feet. It was all over. They could not hope to stand against a second enemy. Bleeding from a cut on his cheekbone, his right arm limp at his side, the captain’s face was so grim that Jani shivered.

Up in the nest, Lise watched the newcomer, as she drew alongside the pirate ship. Grappling hooks shot from her side like killing claws, and more dark figures flowed across the ropes and up over the rail. They crossed the pirates’ ship almost without pause. She watched, her heart a stone in her stomach, as they came relentlessly on, spilling over the Nellie's rails. The mainsail blocked her view; she craned anxiously around it. She bit her lip, not quite daring to hope, and yet… There! The pirates were definitely being driven back to their own vessel, whilst the newcomers were sparing her crewmates. And there was something strange about those figures, those rather slender yet… decidedly curvaceous figures. She turned to Jome and yelled against the wind “I'm going down!”

Hand over hand, she dragged herself out of the nest and worked her way down the rigging. As she neared the deck, she hunted for Jani, her eyes darting everywhere at once. She saw those who had fallen to the enemy, lying on the deck like broken dolls. Keelan was there, the cook, and Gervy, the first mate, who had taught her how to tie knots. Seaman Harr, who had sung her some thoroughly unsuitable ballads, and others, too many others. Was Jani among them? She lowered herself onto the slick, dark boards.

Her heart leapt into her throat when she was grabbed around the waist from behind. "Who? What?" she gasped. "Me, you idiot!" snapped Jani. She wrapped Lise in a bear hug, half-throttling the smaller girl. Tears streamed down both their faces.

“Oh Lise, I’m so sorry! If we hadn’t left Cermia… whatever made me think we’d be safe on a merchant ship? We should go back home, this has all been a mistake.”
“But Jani, we are safe! I saw the women from the other ship come aboard, and save everyone, and- isn’t it strange? I was sure they’d be more pirates.” Lise looked up at Jani, and her eyes were shining. “I don’t know who they are, but we should talk to them… I never knew, I never thought women could command whole ships! Fighting ships! We should go with them- if they’ll take us.” Lise stopped, surprised at herself.

“Lise, you amaze me. You really do. If we go with them, you’re going to have to learn to fight – and climb rigging!”
Lise grinned, though her face was still streaked with tears. “I climbed the rigging, didn’t I? And if you can skewer a pirate, so can I. You’ll teach me, won’t you?”
“Of course I will.” Jani agreed, grinning back, and hugged Lise to her again.
And so the two friends, aching with weariness and sorrow, trembling with relief and hope, went to help clean up; to tend the injured, to lay out the dead, and to learn what their future might bring them.

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