“If he can be induced to cooperate.”
Jon-Tom listened dazedly to the conversation. He felt like a participant in a bad dream. There couldn’t be two Corrobocs. Nature wouldn’t permit such a dual abomination. Of course, Kamaulk wasn’t the same bird as his brother. Already it was clear that this more bookish of the unholy pair was less impulsive and more stable than his deceased sibling. That didn’t mean he’d hesitate to have him drawn and quartered if he decided it was in the best interest of the “business.”
“You claim he is a spellsinger. I don’t doubt your story, but if that is the case then why hasn’t he turned us all into toads or himself into an eagle?”
“I believe he has lost his instrument of power, sir.” Sasheem nodded toward the silent Jon-Tom. “The device he carries is not the one he used on us when he was a prisoner on your brother’s ship.”
“I don’t like these uncertainties. Figures are always certain. I cannot believe he is confronting us in this fashion without purpose.”
“I see what he up to!” A lanky dingo pointed frantically toward the inlet.
Everyone turned. Kamaulk flapped his wings, settled down on Sasheem’s shoulder. From this high perch he was able to gaze out across the river.
“I’ve never seen a small craft like that,” the leopard commented. “It must belong to the magician.”
“Broken loose from its moorin’s,” suggested one of the other pirates.
“No,” insisted the one who’d raised the alarm, “see, ’tis all camouflaged like, filled with moss and twigs and such.”
“A diversion, designed to distract us?” The parrot cocked a querulous eye at Jon-Tom who, knowing nothing, said nothing.
“The others are hiding under there,” said the dingo. “The female prisoner and the others who helped her. It has to be.”
“Trying to slip past right under our noses. Be damned. An extra ration of grog for you, Gorswont.” Kamaulk snapped orders. “Oreyt, Tomooto: take down the ship’s boats and we’ll cut them off. They’ve no sail.”
The pirates rushed toward their ship, but not before the parrot instructed a lynx and three others to stay behind to watch Jon-Tom.
“Ware close the spellsinger. If he attacks, defend yourselves and call for aid. If he tries to flee, hamstring him.” Sasheem’s eyes narrowed. “How much power you have left I do not know, man, but we’ll most surely find out when we return with your companions. A little cooperation on your part may be all that keeps me from having your lady friend disemboweled before her lover’s eyes. Remember that.”
Jon-Tom watched as the leopard raced to join the rest of his mates with his captain riding his shoulder. Then his eyes fell as he examined his guards. They held their spears and swords uneasily.
Could he bluff them? Clearly they were discomfited at having been left behind to guard this master of unknown abilities. All four would have been much happier chasing after the drifting zodiac.
“Beware!” This admonition, delivered in his best courtroom tone, caused two of the guards to retreat a couple of steps. “My patience is at an end. Run while empathy lives in me or I will truly turn you all into toads as the first mate suggested.”
The lynx looked to his companions for support and held his ground. “Better a dead lynx than a dead toad. Sasheem and the Cap’n will kill us sure if we let you go.”
Jon-Tom studied the quartet. In addition to the lynx there was a broad-shouldered wolf carrying a razor spear that was half blade, a squirrel with a scimitar, and a spectacled bear who wielded a massive club. Spikes projected from its business end.
He could outrun the bear but not the wolf or the lynx. On the other hand, he could probably overpower the squirrel and maybe the other two, but the bear could fell him with one swipe. Kamaulk had chosen the group of guards with care.
A bold try on Mudge’s part to disguise the zodiac and try drifting past the pirate’s camp, but it hadn’t worked. Kamaulk and his crew would run them down before they could reach the sea and raise sail. A gallant effort. Feeling slightly giddy, he raised the edge of his right hand to his brow.
“I salute thee, Mudge, but even the master of tricks and ruses can’t win ’em all.”
As the side of his hand touched his forehead a small tree fell square on the bear’s head. Bruin eyes rolled up like small window shades and he toppled over in a heap.
“Magic!” The squirrel let out a squeal and turned to run—right into a knife thrown from the bushes. Never one to squander a heady opportunity, Jon-Tom slammed the butt end of his ramwood staff into the side of the wolfs skull. Mudge brought the lynx down with an arrow before he could get ten yards toward the jetty.
Cautious and Weegee emerged to greet him. Hardly a minute had passed since his unexpectedly efficacious salute. Meanwhile the rest of the pirates were paddling furiously down river in their exuberence to overtake the drifting zodiac and its cargo of leaves and moss.
“Thanks,” he told Cautious. “Hi, Weegee. Short time no see.”
She smiled up at him. “I’d like to put this habit of getting separated behind us, tall man.”
He looked over his friends’ heads. “Pretty damn smart. I thought you were out there trying to sneak past, too.”
Her eyes dropped. “Actually, we had kind of a noisy argument about it. I’m a little ashamed to admit I tried to talk Mudge out of trying to rescue you.”
“Don’t give it another thought. I know how otter minds work. I once had to journey across half a world with a dozen of your kind. I figure if I survived that, I’m the next best thing to invulnerable.
“You’re a dear thing, for a human.”
Mudge rejoined them, having lingered over the dispatching of the unfortunate lynx. He was panting hard. “Aye, tried to talk old Mudge out o’ savin’ ’is mate, she did, but I wouldn’t think o’ leavin’ you to the tender mercies o’ Sasheem and ’is bird-boss. ’Avin’ blown a dozen opportunities to abandon you to a well-deserved fate before today, I figured I might as well keep me record consistent.”
“You all crazy, you people. Ever’body know otters crazy, but not humans.” Cautious was shaking his head dolefully.
“I’ve been breathing otter fur too long.” Jon-Tom patted Mudge on the shoulder, then nodded at the river. “What now? They’re almost to the boat.”
“Going be plenty mad when they find crocodile dung in the bottom instead of us.”
“We thought that after expendin’ all that effort they deserved to find somethin’,” Mudge explained blithely.
“They’re going to be a lot madder when they get back here and find these four.” Jon-Tom gestured at the bodies of the four guards. “We’d better not hang around to watch.”
“Agreed.” The raccoon pointed into the swamp. “Not enough time to steal big boat. Take too long to get sails up and maybe they got somebody left on board to watch. They think we try and run toward nearest town. That be my village. So we go other way, south, and pretty soon by and by they give up and forget about us.”
“South. What’s south of here?”
