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Rudi thought swiftly and spoke to Abdou.?Take her straight in and to the dock.? ?Dock?? ? That dock!? Rudi said.
Abdou blinked as if he were only then aware of the tangle of quays ahead. Rudi realized with a chill in some distant part of his mind that the Moor hadn?t seen them until that moment. ?Ram it. We?ll leap off-the ship is doomed anyway. Ignatius, see that the wounded all have someone to carry them.?
Unexpectedly, Abdou spoke:?I, my men not fight. We carry hurt, though.?
Rudi nodded grateful acknowledgment as the corsair called orders in his own language. ?Ingolf?? he went on.
The Richlander swallowed. Rudi didn?t think that was the dangers of battle that brought the sheen of sweat to his face despite the cold. ?I came in the other way. But… right up that street from the harbor, the one the maps call Center, and then left where it forks. The house with the pillars on your right. I think. It was… mixed up, there, at the end.? ?That?s what we?ll do, then. You lead and-?
Ignatius shook his head.?You and the Princess must go first, Your Majesty,? he said.?I will hold the rearguard with the rest.?
He smiled when Rudi started to object.?What have we made this journey for if not to get you to the Sword? And the Princess is my charge. If you would save us, accomplish your mission swiftly.?
The smile grew broader as he patted his own hilt.?Gain your Lady?s Sword, your Majesty. I also have a sword blessed by a Lady, and a mission laid upon me. I will fulfill it.? ?Right,? Rudi said tightly.
More smoke was coming out of the stern windows, trailing along on either side of them as the wind that pushed the ship took it. It gave a little cover, and the Gisandu had to turn slightly every time she fired; the bow-chaser couldn?t shoot directly over her own bowsprit. The stern-chaser on their own ship could, but… ?The deck?s starting to get very hot here!? Mathilda called; not alarmed, just reporting.
She jerked the lanyard. Tu
Edain and his picked archers crowded onto the poop deck. He was firing like a machine across the hundred-yard gap, draw-aim-loose nock-draw, chanting under his breath: ? We are the darts that -got you bad, bastard!- Hecate cast!?
Rudi made himself turn. As he did he realized that something had been inhibiting him, something besides his natural desire to keep his eyes on the men trying to kill them all. He blinked and shook his head, but there was nothing wrong with his eyes. It was as if he saw multiple images laid one upon another, like paintings on layers of glass. A festival where men and women danced through snow. Tall-masted ships tied at the docks. Something smooth and silvery and massive that floated above the water, then turned its nose skyward and rose with impossible speed…
Then a very solid dock and roadway, wharfs on barnacle-encrusted tree trunks, what looked like a street of low brick buildings, interspersed with white-trimmed gray shingle shops and leafless winter trees, with church steeples rearing beyond. No dwellers… or was that a band in oilskins with duffel bags over their shoulders? No, they were gone. And the dock was there. ?Brace for impact!? he shouted, as it loomed before their bowsprit, and looped his elbow around a line.
Crack. His feet skidded out from beneath him. A long crunching, grinding sound, and the bow reared up as the huge momentum of the two-hundred-ton vessel ground into timber and stone. Nearly everyone else fell too; Mathilda went sliding past him as the impact pitched her off the gu
Silence except for snapping wood and the growing burr of the fire beneath them. ?Go, go, go!? Ignatius shouted.
Rudi hauled Mathilda upright as if her solid weight and the armor were nothing. They ran along the side to the buckled rail, up to it, down onto the crazy-quilt mess of the dock where the schooner?s weight had struck. His leg went through a broken board and he wrenched it free. Then they were ru
Shields locked on either side, and the archers fa
The endless wail was as much shriek as word, and less a protest than a single long scream of what he was, or what the thing that wore the man like a glove was. Ignatius raised his sword and brought up his shield, but behind the visor of his helm he shouted for joy as his gaze met those wells of night without end. ?Yes!? he cried.?Eternally, yes!?
Behind him Edain barked:?Let the gray geese fly. Wholly togetherShoot!?
The bows snapped, and men went down in the ragged mob of Bekwa and Sword troopers and corsairs who rushed forward as the arrows sleeted into them, but there were too many, far too many. Three punched into the High Seeker, but his body simply flexed and came on. ?Nooooooo!? ?You shall not pass, Hollow Man!? Ignatius cried.
And then Knight-brother Ignatius snatched at his sword. It wasn?t there, nor was his armor and gear. Instead he wore the simple Benedictine robe and cowl; after an instant he was conscious that he sat on a bench. Before him was a cloister, slender white stone columns supporting arches on three sides of a garden and fountain where water played before an image of the Virgin. The shadows within the walk hid tall doors; behind them was a hint of bookcases full of leather-bound volumes. Within the court the sun ran dappled on the water that lifted and fell in its basin, shifting in spots of brightness through the leaves of tall beeches; a few flower beds stood in troughs between walkways of worn brick, shimmering in gold and silver and hyacinth blue.
The day was mild and dry and warm, with scents of rock and wet and warm dust, and somewhere a hint of incense. It was very quiet; the sound of the plashing fountain, a few cu-currrus from doves that stalked past, perhaps very faintly a hint of chanted plainsong in the distance. He smiled. It wasn?t Mt. Angel, but it was as if…
As if it is the distilled essence of everything I loved about the abbey, he thought. Peace, beauty, wisdom. God.