VIII
Captain Woshaan Bloodslinger cl’n Pahjuk, Deathblade, Cloudkiller, and other titles that he’d long forgotten, turned the wheel and tried to keep his ship from getting crushed by the impossibly moving sky island. He’d understood enough of what the Beheriim and his magickers had talked about while receiving the crate of raw sky shards and in his dozen or so years as a pirate within the Shattered Sea he knew when a deal was going bad. Getting back to his skyship and finding his crew mostly slaughtered drove him into a rage and he set his sights on getting back as many sky shards as possible and selling them to respectable buyers.
Now he had his four guardsmen, stripped down to sailor's breeches, and two wounded scullery skanks to sail his ship. It wasn’t easy, but the difficulty would lead to glory and riches. He backed off on the turn when he felt the stern start to skirl. It looked like he’d miss the sky shard structure on his first pass.
The ship was seventy feet long and fifteen abeam. Two masted, lateen sails, and stern cabins with a quarterdeck atop them, the ship had a low profile which was perfect for pirating. Woshaan stood on the rear deck, hands on the wheel. A mounted ballista sat high on a swiveling platform behind him. The foc’sl had a similar platform with another ballista but he had no one to man either of them. Affixed to the stern of the ship was the rudderfan, a huge vertical sail like the tail of a shark.
His sails were rigged tight and low. He lacked maneuverability but it freed up two of his guardsmen to use halberds and billhooks to bring aboard as many sky shards as they could.
Scanning across the field, Woshaan noted the Beheriim was missing and that was a good thing. He could see the magickers out in the grass doing whatever they said they would be doing. Passing by the west end of the wooden structure, he could see a few other people standing by some destroyed posts. They matched the description given by his wounded crewmen. It was perfect. He could get rich and get revenge all in the same action.
However, the island was tilting further to the west. In all his years on the Shattered Sea he’d never seen an island move like that. It didn’t look like he had much time.
The ship passed close to the east end of the structure. Woshaan shouted for the sails to be raised three points. His crew responded quickly and he felt the wind grab canvas and start keeling the ship over towards the island. Woshaan held the wheel and watched the end of the structure dip out of view. Then he spun hard and the rudderfan kicked the stern out. The ship went into a sideways slip and pivoted on its bow. It swung all the way around and pointed back to the west. His small crew knew their business and unhooked the yardarms, letting them swing to the port side so they could catch the wind from the other direction.
Woshaan now had a clear path down the field to the other side of the structure and his scampering targets would soon be dead.
