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“I’ve seen them,” MacKi
“Nor will he.” Loholo touched the wine bottle and looked at MacKi
“But you’re willing to come? And bring a crew?”
“Aye.”
“Go on. Why?”
“You’re not a beached captain, Trader. If you had the seawater in your blood, you’d know. My ship went out to fight with me ashore laid out by plague. She never came back. Everything I had was in that ship, Trader. Nothing left to buy the Ironsmiths’ vessel. Even if a warship is no good for trading, I tried to buy Subao, for a ship’s still a ship. I figure you’ll all come to your senses about the ship when you see it won’t work. And you’ll need a man who knows how to sail these seas. I expect to be your shipmaster a week after you leave port. If you live that long. But the chance is worth it to me.”
One way or another, MacKi
“Your own crew went down with your ship?”
“Aye. Every man. It won’t be real seamen I can get you, Trader, but they’ll be willing.”
“Why?”
Loholo gri
“Still, how will you get them to join, with the pirates outside the harbor?”
“Tell them the star men will protect them. They know what happened out in the harbor the day they landed. They’ll believe.”
“And you don’t?”
“If the star men will help you, you don’t need to have the guard captain out giving free wine to find men, Trader. So they won’t.”
MacKi
“There are ways. I know these waters, Trader. When the moons come together, there’s deep water over the reefs. It goes down fast. Get over them at the right time, ahead of anybody chasing you, they never catch you. I doubt the pirates know my waters as I do. We’ll have a chance. That is, if you can row the ship. Got to put the benches back in.”
“What if I told you,” MacKi
Loholo looked at MacKi
“If you serve me faithfully. The first service is to find a crew of twenty men who can fight. Say that we are insane, but that you, Loholo, will get the ship past the pirates. Get us a crew without talk, and have them ready to come aboard by dark tomorrow.”
“And you’ll give me the ship when you return? Mine to sail and command?”
“Yours to sail and command. And the chance at carrying trade from starships all over Makassar. You will become the owner of many vessels if you like.”
Loholo grunted. “One is all I need. You’ll have your crew, Trader. But this man of yours commands this voyage?”
“Yes. He commands. He has a young apprentice who will be a ship’s officer. And there is my guard captain But if MacLean wants you as an officer, he’ll tell you so. I expect he will.”
“I was a crew master once, Trader. I can be one again. Until you need me.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
RIPTIDE
They sailed at dawn. Loholo, now crew master, had brought twenty young apprentices, all well armed. The stores were aboard, and MacLean had fitted the leeboards, huge, fan-shaped, wooden boards pivoted at the small end of the fan and fastened nearly amidships of the vessel. When raised they were like giant shields. MacKi
MacLean had placed the quarters in a traditional ma
In the first light, mist still rising from the water, the crew was turned out from their hammocks to man the sweeps.
Loholo clucked his tongue at the arrangement. There were no rowing benches; instead the men walked the decks with great oars dipping down to the water, two men to an oar. The ship moved slowly away from the shore out into the bay.
“Wouldn’t it be better to go at night?” MacKi
MacLean eyed the distance to the slowly vanishing shore, then peered through the mists ahead and astern before answering. “No, Trader. The night would not keep the pirates from seeing us, and the wind dies away then. By midday there should be a strong wind. The sea breeze and the prevailing westerlies lie together on this shore. It will take a strong wind to outrun the pirate ships.”
“If you say so,” MacKi
“Aye, aye, sir.” There was a note of the contempt seamen have for lubberly owners in MacLean’s voice, but Nathan saw no reason to make a point of it. He needed MacLean to reach Batav.
He went to the rail and stared overboard. Around him the dawn was already turning the dark water clear. Small fish-like creatures swam lazily near the boat, looking at it before they darted away, easily outdistancing the men at the oars in spite of Loholo’s shouted oaths. The crew master counted strokes in a tireless voice, keeping a steady rhythm not interrupted when he fell to cursing one of the men: “Sweep, step, back, back, Fool, step, back, back, Pull, you, stinking, filth, Sweep …”
MacLean left MacKi