Scorpion Mountain by Flanagan John A

Author:Flanagan, John A. [Flanagan, John A.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780399163562
Publisher: Philomel
Published: 2014-12-02T08:00:00+00:00

Lydia ran onto the wharf, her soft-soled boots making a grating noise on the crushed gravel that formed the surface. Edvin was now aboard Ishtfana. He waved to her and she headed gratefully for the galley. Since they had been gone, he had hauled the Heron alongside the larger ship and tied them together. Kloof, seeing him wave, stood up on her hind legs to peer over the bow of the galley and barked a cheerful greeting to Lydia.

Kloof!

Lydia clambered up onto the ship, then stepped down onto the foredeck, absentmindedly patting Kloof’s huge head as she did so.

‘What’s the rush?’ Edvin said. ‘Is there some kind of trouble?’

‘There’s plenty of trouble,’ she told him. In spite of her run back to the wharf, she wasn’t even breathing heavily. Lydia was in excellent condition and, as a hunter, she had spent years running down fast-moving prey. ‘There are a lot more defenders than we were told and we’re badly outnumbered. The crew are bottled up in an alley by about sixty men and can’t make headway. If we don’t get them moving, Selethen’s force will be wiped out.’

Before she had finished speaking, Edvin had clambered back aboard the Heron, where he retrieved his sword belt and shield. He rejoined her now, a doubtful look on his face.

‘Well, I’ll come back with you. And we can take Kloof. But I’m not sure we’ll make much of a difference.’

‘I was thinking of enlisting the rowing crew,’ Lydia said. ‘There are over thirty of them and if we can make a flanking attack, that should turn the tide. Are they still on board?’

He nodded. ‘They’re below. I guess they’re used to it there and they didn’t see much point in going ashore into the middle of a battle. Do you think they’ll fight?’

Lydia shrugged and ran to the hatch leading to the rowing deck. ‘If they don’t, they’ll be slaves again in less than an hour.’

There was a low buzz of conversation on the rowing deck. As she came down the companionway, the noise ceased and thirty-five pairs of eyes studied her curiously.

‘We need your help,’ she said bluntly.

‘Again?’ It was the rower who had originally questioned Hal when he had asked them to row the ship to Tabork. Lydia singled him out and nodded.

‘Again,’ she said. ‘The battle is going badly. Our men are outnumbered. There are far more Tualaghi in the town than we’d been told. If we don’t break through them, and soon, the attack will fail. Selethen’s men are already outnumbered and they won’t have any way of getting into the town. They need Hal and the others to fight their way through and get the gates open.’

‘And how is that our problem?’ another man asked, and his companions’ eyes all turned briefly to him, then back to Lydia.

‘If we lose,’ Lydia told him, with a grim note in her voice, ‘Hal and the others will be killed.’ She saw the man beginning to shrug, and added quickly, ‘And

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