When they searched the Salvationthey discovered that one of the whaleboats was missing. Cyrus Ogg was no longer on board the ship. Nor was Pyra Quadde.
"Slipped the cable and away in the fog," Deacon concluded. "Be damned to it! There's scant hope of picking her up by the dawn. The mist clears but slowly."
"Which way will she have gone?" Ryan asked. "To shore?"
"Aye."
"Can the two of them handle the boat on their own?" Donfil asked.
"On such a sea!" Deacon laughed bitterly. "My eight-year-old nephew and his pet rabbit could scull to the shore in such a calm."
"Can we man the other boats and go after her? We've got enough men, surely?" Krysty suggested.
"No, mistress," Deacon said. "Pyra Quadde's cunning as a butter keg of polecats. She'll wriggle, twist and hide and, save us all, come grinning back to Claggartville."
"Are we near the... old redoubt?" J.B. asked cautiously.
"The fortress? Aye. By true reckoning we lie off that lee shore, no more than a couple of miles. If that."
"To row in that far? She could land safely, could she?"
"Neither she nor Cyrus were wounded? No? Then by now they are probably safe and snug. Beached the boat and beginning to strike inland for the old coast blacktop. She could be home before us and have her reception waiting. We can have little hope of the wind rising 'ere noon on the morrow."
Ryan sucked at a back tooth. "I guess your helping us won't make the slut love you. Mebbe we should come back to the ville with you and face her down?"
Deacon sighed. "Bad business. I dearly wish that ye had not chosen the Phoenixas the agent of your relief."
"Price you pay for being the Good Samaritan, Captain," Doc observed.
"I recall nothing in the Good Book, Doctor, about the Good Samaritan finding his help enforced with a large-bore blaster pressed to his temples."
"Ah, yes. Point taken, Captain," the old man muttered.
"But what do we do now?" Donfil asked, now in his own clothes, eyes hidden once more behind his mirrored sunglasses.
J.B. was reloading his Steyr AUG pistol with rounds dug from the capacious pockets of his coat. "We got the crew quiet. Put the chills over the side. And that's brought us a fair crop of sharks to the feeding. I say we take a boat and pull for shore. Make for the redoubt and then go from there. Just like we usually do."
"And Pyra Quadde?" Lori asked. "What are done about her?"
Nobody answered the blond girl. Finally Ryan spoke.
"Chances are we'll never see her again. She'd lost her ship and half her crew. Depends on her power base back at the ville." He looked at Captain Deacon.
"Can't say. If I can persuade the remnants of her men that her authority is done, then she will find it hard to win back her place."
"Figure trouble with her seamen?" J.B. asked.
The sailor shook his head. "No. Pyra Quadde ruled with her fists and with fear. As long as she's not around, then the fear's gone as well. Course, it could return the moment she appears, hull up, over the horizon."
"Dawn's not far off," Doc said.
For several long seconds, nobody spoke. Ryan was struggling to make a decision. Over the past few months he'd almost begun to think of himself and his companions as being on a kind of a mission: they traveled through the Deathlands encountering wickedness, cleansed the land like a driving wind and then moved on.
They'd flirted with death and disaster with Pyra Quadde, and now they seemed to have broken her power. But if they went back to Claggartville with Deacon and the Phoenix, they might find a civil war in the township.
The harsh days at sea had taken their toll, even on Ryan Cawdor's great strength, and he felt tired.
"We'll go in with a whaleboat," he said, finally breaking the silence.
Captain Deacon nodded. "And go on thine own way, Outlander Cawdor?"
Ryan shook his head. "No."
"No?" Jak and Lori said in perfect unison.
"No," Ryan repeated. "We've got tracking skills and we outblast them. We row in now and try to pick up their trail. Can't be difficult. They'll be pressed to head for the ville. We should easily overtake them and chill them."
"Murder them!" the sea captain exclaimed.
"Try to shoot them from behind or from cover. Yeah," Ryan replied. "You'd want me to go and stand in front of them and challenge them to draw fastest? Like the old westie vids? Come on." He shook his head in disgust.
"But ye... Oh, I suppose that it's only justice for her. But ye can catch her?"
"Yeah. They've got no more than an hour or so's start. Two to their boat. We can close fast with seven of us at the oars."
"Six," Donfil said quietly.
"How's that?"
The Apache smiled gently at Krysty. "Ryan knows that... if we survived... I wanted to say farewell to you all. And remain."
"And do what?" Jak asked.
Captain Deacon answered for the shaman. "The whole ville was abuzz with talk of Outlander Ten-from-Ten. I hear from Pyra Quadde's crew that the Indian acquitted himself well and bravely against the monsters of the deep."
"I shall sail back with the Phoenix. When the Salvationis sold at public auction — unless the woman betters you, Ryan — then I may ship on her as first harpooneer. Or with Captain Deacon here." He smiled again, eyes glinting behind the polished lenses of his glasses. "It will all depend on who offers me the best lay of the profits."
"It will be me, I'll promise thee, my lofty friend," Deacon said, patting him on the shoulder. "And thou wilt look right handsome in one of my red sweaters, I'll warrant."
The last goodbyes and handclasps were, of necessity, very brief. Every minute that passed put Pyra Quadde and her taciturn first mate another hundred paces away from them.
Lori smiled at Donfil and turned her face to accept a kiss on the cheek.
Jak shook his hand. "Try and grow a little, Eyes of Wolf," the Apache said with a smile.
"Try and shrink bit," the boy retorted.
J.B. shook hands firmly. "Always watch your back," he advised. Donfil nodded.
Doc Tanner was next. Half bowing, he placed one hand over his heart. "I swear that I shall greatly miss your friendship and your wisdom. I truly will." He sniffed, wiping at his nose with his kerchief. "I fear that some specks of this damned mist have got into my eyes," he muttered, on the brink of weeping. Donfil stooped and clutched the old man to his chest, arms enfolding him.
"I have enjoyed being with you, Dr. Tanner," he said, "And I shall miss you. Miss you very much, I think."
"Gaia go with you, Donfil," Krysty said, kissing him on both cheeks.
"And Ysun ride always at your shoulder, Fire Hair Woman," he replied.
She held out the small black polished stone. "I shall keep this Apache tear with me forever, Donfil, and it will hold your memory for me."
Ryan was last. The whaleboat rocked gently below him, provisioned and watered by Captain Deacon's men. The whaling irons were still in their place, laid on the starboard side, close to the harpooneer's position in the bow.
"I do not think we shall ever meet again, Ryan Cawdor," Donfil said, taking off his reflecting shades, nodding solemnly. "This is a good day to part, I think. Good luck and may all your gods go with you."
"We might see you again in Claggartville if we don't hunt down the bitch queen before then."
"No. No, Ryan. I do not see that happening. I see you leaving and going into a darkness. But I do not see us meeting again."
"Fair enough, Donfil. Then, goodbye."
After a brief, firm handshake Ryan straddled the rail of the Salvation.
Captain Deacon lifted his hand to the peak of his cap in a salute, which Ryan returned, then swung easily down the rope, taking his place in the narrow bow of the whaleboat. J.B. was at the tiller, the other four manning the long oars.
"Sure ye know your course?" Deacon called. "Dawn'll be on the way in an hour. Keep it to your starboard hand and ye cannot go wrong."
Raggedly, they began to row, the rudder hard over to carry them away from the two ships, still tethered together. The red-sweatered crew of the Phoenixlined the side and gave them three hearty cheers to speed them on their way.
The fog was patchy, lying low on the dull gray surface of the Lantic. Ryan, in the bow, stated behind them, seeing the bulk of the Phoenixvanish, but the top spars of both vessels were still visible. There was clearly a light breeze springing up, and a bright moon peeked through the mist.
When they were a good two hundred yards off, Ryan took one last glance backward, over his friends' heads, and saw the very top of the Salvation'smainmast, with the ensign fluttering in the pallid silver glow. As it folded on itself, he saw the crimson shape against the darkness. Once more he was struck by how much like a bloody skull was Pyra Quadde's chosen flag.
"In and out and in and out. Try and keep it together, Doc," the Armorer moaned. "You'll have us crabbing around in circles."
The next time that Ryan looked astern, both ships had totally disappeared in the shifting murk. He turned and looked only ahead, watching for the first sign of the distant shore.