Prologue 1
Seventeen weeks ago
The first wave of arrows fell short, splashing into the water, giving us hope that we were out of range still and had time to react yet. The second wave flew over our heads and our still-furled sails, proving that they had only been ranging shots. The third wave was when the dying started.
By the sixth wave of impeccably fletched arrows only two of us were still standing: myself and the steersman, Knife-Hand Kerri. She'd got an arrow through her calf and another pinning her hand to the tiller but she was holding on like grim death. I saw that she was pulling us hard to port and figured she had nothing more planned than a doomed, panicked run, not that I had any better idea. Then I saw the fog bank.
I'd been fortunate thus far, having ducked beneath the lip of the railing before the arrows landed, but seeing what she had in mind, hiding wasn't an option if we wanted a hope of survival. I hefted the bosun's body above me as a shield, legs and back burning in protest at his weight, and managed a shuffling stumble over to the nearest rigging.
The Elven archers sighted in on me instantly, spotting the movement on the deck despite their craft being barely more than a smear on the horizon. Creepy point-eared bastards. "Thank ye yet again, Maro," I said to the corpse shielding me as arrows thunked into it repeatedly, for once grateful for my narrow shoulders. He was enough cover that I got to the rigging without being perforated and with a few quick twists the ropes were uncoiled.
The sails unfurled to catch the wind and our vicious little cutter bolted ahead with all the speed Captain Hallstern had so loved to boast about. Fast as the Grasping Wretch was, we'd never have managed to outrun the bloody point-ears, but not even they could shoot us in a fog bank. What we'd do when we came out of the fog, well, I was just happy to have enough of a future to have issues with it; I'd rather buy another hundred heartbeats with sweat and terror than lie down and die. Yet even as we plunged headlong toward the fog, I could swear that it was hurrying hungrily toward us as well.
Chapter 1
Today