aqua's sizzling sun was getting hazy as it settled behind lower pelo head, outlining the violent peaks like teeth in some savage jaw. ward stood on the bridge of the first-liner, bad weather, and watched the fleet and the late returning gliders. he never failed to marvel at these ships—sleek, sea-flying catamarans, steady, tall and wonderously beautiful. their twin hulls skimmed the seas with hardly a roll. their speed was something you had to feel to believe.
he watched the second-liner. south bird, come around to catch her glider.
both soaring upwind, they aimed for an intersection. as they drew closer, two long booms with netting between were extended over the stern. slowly they angled together. when it appeared that the glider would crash the bridge it pulled up, stalled and fell softly into the net.
he never failed to exhale a long breath after such a landing—catching, rather.
launching was even more spectacular. the ship raced out on fast beam reach with its glider poised upwind on its two poles. then a streaking corvette hissed up under the stern, swung slightly upwind, caught the braided stretch-line and actually yanked the glider aloft. ward was quite sure it was something he never wanted to try.
the bad weather was coming around now. he caught the white flash of her glider high downwind. tahn came to stand by him, his quick, cat-like motions betraying his eagerness.
"they bring more news," he grinned. "the grimnal in anda bay is starting to raise sail."
ward frowned.
"they think to trap us between them. perhaps they expect us to race into the passage after dark."
tahn coughed his pleased cough.
"but our—uh—tactics, is it? they are to keep out of the passage?"
ward smiled.
"for now. we fight them as two separate fights, not as one. we will overwhelm each in turn."
tahn's cough was one of agreement.
"yes," he breathed. "just as long as we fight."
they turned to watch the glider make its long floating approach. it had dumped its spoilers and was losing altitude, when it suddenly climbed impossibly fast, spun completely around and exploded in a hundred pieces.
tahn leaped to the rail, stared, then keened the kali howl of alarm. ward squinted downwind in puzzlement, then saw it—the seething, wild slice of a wind devil arcing toward the fleet.
curling, lashing, faster than any ship, it bore down on them in a track of boiling foam. other ships took up the cry. knives flashed as sheets were cut and sails crashed down. seamen ran aloft to furl the wild cloth. some of the leading corvettes tried to turn and run out of the way, but the wind was too fast.
a corvette suddenly lifted her bows, flipped over backwards and slammed down like a thrown stone. a frigate lost her sails and masts in less than two seconds. another corvette rose sideways on one hull, spun and broke in two. the wind shriek became deafening.
another frigate lost its masts, lifted on its stern and fell back in an explosion of water. the first-liner, thunder, lost its masts and rigging, put its bows down as if stepped on, spun a full ninety degrees and finally relaxed. a corvette went tumbling end over end into the side of a second liner, which immediately lost its masts and half its bridge. a corvette went streaking out of the fleet at blinding speed, one hull hiked entirely out of the water, and disappeared in a wall of spray.
it was abruptly silent.
the foaming wind track left the fleet and slashed toward the open sea. with a soft flutter, then a breeze, the westerly quietly resumed its push. the kali appeared on deck again and slowly gazed about them. and the fleet lay dead in the water.
ships lay heading in all directions. wreckage, lines and bits of sail littered the water. a frigate lay listed hard over. damage reports were coming in to the bad weather: the thunder dismasted and leaking; another first dismasted; one second leaking badly, perhaps going down; three other seconds dismasted; one frigate sinking fast; two more dismasted and leaking; two more dismasted; six corvettes lost; four dismasted and damaged.
tahn was grim as he scratched marks on a slate. twenty-one ships out of action in less than a minute. ward cursed and slammed the rail. damned planet! damned grimnal! damned everything! tahn coughed beside him. and damned coughing!
"there is more news," tahn said quietly. "we just fished out a glider flyer who had returned from cruising pelo head."
ward turned. there seemed to be a smile flickering on tahn's swarthy face.
"he says there is a great grimnal force coming into the break from the north. sixteen firsts, eighteen seconds and ten frigates. there are no corvettes."
ward's whole body seemed to tighten. thanks to a damned wind the trap was sprung.
"can they come through the break?" he asked, more to stall for time than gain information. tahn coughed three times.
"it is a brave thing to do. even for kali it would be brave. it is bad water in the break. the wind goes up; the current comes down. it is slow, but it can be done."
"how slow?"
tahn tilted his head, stared at where the slice of the break was barely visible on the horizon, and shrugged, almost.
"maybe—uh—two hours. maybe more." he coughed. "maybe less."
ward glared at the crippled ships.
"and they would try it at night?"
tahn coughed assent.
"there will be a good moon. i would try it."
damn. forces from three sides that, united, would blow them right out of the water. they could meet any of them alone, but....
"if we could slip south," he pondered aloud, "we could—"
tahn snarled, his face an unearthly mask in the dimming light. his breath whistled between his teeth.
"you polasti!" he hissed. ward straightened and faced him. the kali around froze in their tracks. polasti was the foulest word in their language.
"kali have died in this water just now," tahn was barely able to manage his voice. "they are down there right now. we will not run and disgrace them! we will stand here. we will put a wall of sails and guns around this spot, and if we die it will be in honor. we will run no more. we will run no more!"
he was trembling when he finished, and ward expected a knife to make one final arc. it was impossible to try to explain. it was broken....
that thought crashed through as a knife never could.
it's over. the grimnal will surround this pitiful fleet like a storm. it's over; we've lost the fight, the war and the planet. and i've done it. it's my baby.
the thing seared him, roared through him, shook him—and touched a secret place. a deep place where he stored his anger. all his past angers, big and little; covered stifled, caught and hidden. old hurts, old dreams, old reproaches screamed and gibbered through him like a thousand ghosts and devils. they swamped the gentle man. they dragged him down and gagged him. and something else took his place—something that had never been allowed to stand before.
"you stupid bastards!" he roared, wheeling to face them all. "you god-forsaken fools! a grimnal baby is a greater fighter than your bravest man. look what he has done to you. look! like blind animals you have been led into a trap. you have been put in a cage of your own ignorance. you call me polasti! i am the only one who can show you how to win. the only thing you know is to bunch together and be killed like animals at slaughter. you stand together in one tight group to make it easy for him. you know how it will be? look!"
he sprang to the glass globe that held the magnetized needle, seized it and hurled it to the deck. it exploded like a small bomb. the kali moved back.
"that is what the grimnal will do to you. your bravery will be as that glass, nice to see—but look at it now!"
water from the globe trickled slowly through the shattered glass. the chips winked red in the dying sun. only the cry of the wind sounded through the ship. ward forced his choking breath to an even rhythm.
"now go die like the fools you are."
he left the quiet bridge and threaded his way to his cabin. night was coming softly to the grimnal sea.
it was dark in the cabin when the knock sounded. there was no answer, and it came again.
"come," ward said in a very tired, hollow voice.
the door swung open and someone entered. after a long moment, tahn's voice came softly in the dark.
"no one has ever spoken to the kali like that."
ward did not answer.
"it is a brave man that can do that. and bravery is something we understand." there was a silent moment. tahn coughed. "may i light the lamp?"
ward swung around in the chair.
"certainly."
flint flicked on steel, a spark glowed, caught, and light wavered in the cabin. the two faced each other, ward sagged low in the chair, the kali by the lamp. tahn coughed again.
"there is a way?"
ward let a moment pass.
"there is a way to try."
"fighting?"
"yes, fighting."
tahn paused the barest second.
"tell me."
