If all went well a and since when did that ever happen in battle, Gareth thought, and pressed Cosyra's hand for morale's sake.

The sky had just begun to lighten when Gareth heard, across the water, the thud of musketry. The eastern force was attacking the fort on the other promontory.

That was his cue to move forward, with twenty men, all sailors, to the foot of the fort's walls. He crept around the side until he could see the sallyport.

Again, he waited.

Across the mouth of the bay, white smoke billowed, then came the louder slap of a cannon. Gareth made a face. Either he'd missed a cannon on the landward side, or the Linyati across the water had a field gun that could be easily muscled about.

A metal gate rattled open at the sallyport, and Gareth shrank back into cover. Two groups of Linyati a" Gareth hastily counted them, got around thirty a" hurried down the hill to a dock, where a dozen boats were moored.

After a time, he chanced another look, saw the boats moving steadily across the bay's mouth to reinforce the eastern fort.

Above that fort, a dark swirl formed in the sky. Everything was going as planned. That was Dafflemere and Labala's casting, a smallish cyclone, hopefully able to pluck a man from a wall and drop him to his death.

The swirl moved across the fort, and Gareth thought he could hear screams.

Now Tehidy and Froln should be retreating. Instead he heard the musketry grow louder, and the field gun bang once more. The deception appeared to be turning into a full-scale attack.

He trotted back to where the sailors waited, and motioned. They spread out, unslinging the grapneled lines wound over their shoulders.

A sailor cast. His grapnel didn't find a hold, but grated against the stone and fell back. Gareth winced, knowing the sound must have alerted the remaining Linyati within, but there was no challenge.

Nomios threw next, and his hook caught firm, then another and another grapnel arced up. As soon as a sailor's grapnel caught, he swarmed up the knotted rope. Other men came out of the jungle, and went up the ropes behind them. These carried other ropes, with loops for the unhandy soldiery.

Gareth had no time to watch, was climbing up, hand over hand. He saw a olive-complected head peer over the parapet, cry the alarm. A musket barrel came next, and fired down.

Gareth heard a grunt, saw, out of the corner of his eye, a sailor release his hold and fall limply down onto the fort's talus.

That Linyati made the mistake of looking at the results of his shot Gareth had a precarious toehold and a pistol out when Cosyra, on the next rope, fired, and the Linyati sprawled, motionless, over the battlements.

Other ropes were tied off by sailors and dropped down, and bundled, loaded muskets were pulled up as Gareth reached the top of the wall.

A Linyati ran at Cosyra, pike leveled, and Gareth shot him down, pulled a second pistol from his sash.

The fort was simply constructed, the walls sheltering a barracks at one end, a magazine at the other, a cookshed at the third, and a small drill ground on the last.

Pirates swarmed over the walls as the Linyati formed a wedge, came up a ramp to the parapets. Musket fire volleyed down at the Slavers. They fell back, came again, were shot down.

Discipline like this was completely foreign to the sailors, and with a yell, in spite of shouted orders from officers, they charged down into the square into a vicious melee, no quarter asked or given.

Gareth grimaced at his men's independence, and knew he had to be at their forefront. He ran halfway down the ramp and leapt into the rear of a knot of Linyati. He shot down two with his remaining pistols, realized he should have reloaded before he jumped, and then a giant Slaver was on him, swinging a double-bitted ax, face wide in battle-madness. Gareth knew better than to parry with his thin blade, and back-rolled into the dirt, across a body. The Linyati came in again and Gareth heard the crack of a pistol, and the Slaver's throat vanished in a spray of blood.

Cosyra was behind him, dropping her empty pistol and pulling her rapier. A Linyati came at her, and she brushed his sword aside, drilled him neatly through the heart, pulled her blade free as another attacked shouting something.

Gareth, from behind, put his sword into the back of the man's skull. He spasmed like a headless chicken and went down, as another Slaver cut at Gareth, and Radnor slashed his guts open.

Then there was no one left to kill, and even the wounded Linyati wouldn't let themselves scream in pain.

Gareth spotted N'b'ry.

"Look for Runners on that side," he shouted, grabbing a freshly loaded musket from a man who'd remembered his orders, unlike the others.

"Come on," Gareth ordered, pointing. "You a" you a" you a" check for any survivors. We could use a prisoner."

They quickly combed the barracks, then the cookshed, found no Linyati alive, none of the dominating Runners. N'b'ry shouted the cookhouse was clear as well.

Gareth ordered him to take more men and make sure there weren't any manholes or secret rooms, remembering the cleverness lizards had in hiding themselves while waiting for prey. But the only living beings in the fort were the pirates.

And the flies, swarming in, smelling blood, as the sun rose higher, turning the fort into an oven.

Gareth told Nomios to raise the flag he was carrying wrapped around his midsection, and moments later, the pirates' banner lifted over the fort.

Gareth went to the battlements with a glass he'd found in the barracks, peering across the water at the other fort. Smoke still boiled, and he heard the crackle of musketry.

He wondered why Froln and Tehidy hadn't withdrawn, as the plan ordered, and why the Linyati cannon had fallen silent.

A pirate with very sharp eyes pointed across, and shouted in glee.

Gareth hastily refocused his glass, and saw his black, green, and white skull-embroidered flag float into sight, above the other fort's parapets. He heard cheering from behind him.

Now they had the Linyati, Gareth thought. With both sides of the bay controlled, there would be nothing for the Slavers to do but surrender.

Which brought a host of other problems to mind.

But first was celebrating a and counting the price.

a a a It was high. Almost seventy-five soldiers had been shot down charging across open ground outside the other fort, the Linyati grapeshot sweeping their line. They'd paid no mind to the plan of withdrawal once the shooting had begun, but kept attacking. Eventually a man had scrambled to the top of the wall and held the parapet long enough for others to clamber up.

They jumped down into the courtyard and opened the gates for the rest of the attackers. Fifteen seamen had died in that struggle.

Gareth didn't like it, but if Froln and his men had withdrawn, as planned, they'd still have to attack that fort sooner or later.

In his own attack, twenty-five soldiers and eleven sailors were casualties. Labala and one of the two chirurgeons with the expedition were busy treating them.

Gareth ordered the fort's guns loaded and run out, and gunners were detailed to the cannon. Then there was nothing to do but wait, and meditate on what to do next.

The problem was, no one really knew very much about the Linyati. Gareth, because of his interrogation of captured Slavers, knew more than most, and realized how ignorant he was.

On the voyage out, he'd quizzed Dihr and the other men of Kashi who'd been Linyati slaves, and found out how secretive these people were.

None of the slaves had ever seen a Linyati woman or child.

All of the men from Kashi had served in the Linyati cities along the Kashi coast, none being taken to the homeland.

None of the slaves knew anything about Linyati social customs a" slaves were used, unlike in other countries, strictly for outside work and manual labor, so there was no one who could provide information on the Slavers' private lives. Once they disappeared into their blank-walled houses, all knowledge stopped.

So Gareth had no idea what to expect inside the low walls of Noorat.

He chanced taking a small boat with a white flag toward the city a" but he crewed the boat, a very quick little cutter, with sailors with boat racing experience. Of course, he was behind the cutter's tiller.

The sea was calm, the sky clear, and the white stone walls were silent. He saw no sign of life as the cutter closed on Noorat, nor was there a response to the white flag.

Not for a long moment, until he saw smoke boil up from one of the walls. A cannon ball flew overhead, and Gareth put the tiller hard over and, zigging, fled back to the mouth of the bay. Other cannon fired, and Gareth noted with interest they were all small bore and short-ranged.

So the Slavers wouldn't be logical and surrender.

Very well, it would be a fight. But it would have to be won quickly, for Gareth estimated the treasure fleet would be due in about a month.

a a a The pirate fleet sailed into the bay, and the transports anchored under the cover of the forts' guns.

The warships went on line and sailed back and forth, just out of range of Noorat's cannon, slamming broadsides over the city's walls. But again, there was no sign of surrender, and the only mark of infliction Gareth could see was an occasional plume of smoke.

Small groups of men were secretly landed, and reconnoitered the land around Noorat. To the east was tropical forest, to the west, swamp. Only to the rear of the city were there fingers of land, leading into the unknown interior.

So the Slavers' city would have to be taken the hard way, by main force.

a a a Cosyra came to him the night before the attack, as he was pacing the quarterdeck of the Steadfast.

"About the fight?"

"Yes?"

"We break into the city a and then what?"

"We put anyone who resists to the sword," Gareth said. "And seize whatever gold they've got stored, like good pirates are supposed to do."

"What about the Linyati women?"

"We don't even know if they have any."

Gareth saw Cosyra was looking at him steadily in the light from the binnacle.

"What if there are?" she asked again.

Gareth shifted uncomfortably. "Do you mean they'll come to harm? I'm afraid so," he said. "I don't think there'll be holding my sailors back, let alone the soldiery, if they see the chance for rape."

"Even if you ordered anyone doing that to be shot?"

"Cosyra, I won't a I can't a do that," Gareth said. "My men wouldn't stand for that order, and I know very well the mercenaries would either hoot and ignore me a" or shoot me down where I stand."

She looked at him, then at the scattering of lights from Noorat, said no more, but went below.

a a a At dawn, a dozen warships sailed as close as they dared to the wall marking Noorat's eastern border, and began shelling it. The shelling lasted all day, and the Linyati began moving their guns to that wall to respond.

All that night, the cannonading kept on. At the second glass of the first watch, soldiers boarded boats, and, with a sorcerous fog covering them, closed on the city's western wall.

But the Linyati magicians saw through the casting, sent a counterspell, and, just at false dawn, the fog lifted suddenly and the Slavers' small guns opened up, as soldiers were leaping into the low surf and charging the wall.

Grapeshot swept the beach, and the soldiers flattened, pinned behind low dunes.

The Catspaw, a small sloop, took it on herself to close on the city, and, with very accurate shooting from her bow guns, smash at the city gates.

Gareth sent flags up to tell the Catspaw to pull back, she was within range of the Linyati guns, but her captain ignored the signals, turned broadside and opened fire.

Balls smashed into the heavy timber, and Gareth could see it begin to sag.

At that moment, flame shot high on the Catspaw, and an instant later its magazine caught and the ship was no more than a ball of dark smoke and fire, timbers cascading through the air.

Wishing he was a man of profanity, Gareth sent up flags ordering two of the larger pirate ships to follow his command, not knowing if they were obeyed as he ordered the Steadfast to close on the bits of smoking ruin that had been the Catspaw.

"When you're in range," he called to Tehidy, in the bows with the two culverins, "do me more damage."

"Aye," came the shout back, then cannon balls splashed into the clear water just short of the Steadfast. Tehidy's cannon boomed, and Gareth could see little of Noorat's walls, which made him grateful, not particularly wanting to see the inevitable doom.

Other, bigger guns slammed to his left and right, and Gareth saw the two ships he'd ordered in firing away.

He heard a shout from the foredeck: "Th' gates're down!"

Gareth paid no mind, but ordered the Steadfast about, and away from harm's way. Chainshot a" at least that was what he guessed it was a" whirred overhead, and a yard snapped, crashed down, and Gareth heard someone scream.

Then his ship was out of danger, the other two backwatering as well, almost grounding.

The soldiers ashore were up, running, pouring through the gate, and Noorat's defenses were breached.

"Stand by to put a landing party ashore," Gareth called. "Nomios, take the deck."

He ran down the ladder to the main deck where boats were being hoisted out, and Cosyra was ahead of him, clambering over the rail, teeth bared in a hard grin.

a a a Noorat was very alien. The buildings, most of them two- or three-storied, had domed roofs. What Gareth called houses were generally clustered around two or three larger buildings. Stores? Community halls? He didn't know.

The streets were wide, and curved, so there was never a clear view for long.

Here and there were odd obelisks, commemorating who knew what.

Noorat was not only alien, but almost deserted.

Gareth wondered why a" had the city been built with the expectation of colonists who never materialized? Was this where the Slavers based their raiding expeditions, and the Linyati were off at sea? Again, no answers came.

The pirates moved systematically through the city, clearing as they went. Mostly the buildings were empty, but sometimes a knot of Linyati would explode out into battle.

They asked, and gave, no mercy.

There were others in the city. Slaves. These were chained in low barracks, and when the doors were broken in, cowered, expecting death at first, then exploded into hysterical joy when their chains were struck off and they were allowed to arm themselves.

Instantly, they became the most savage hunters of their former masters.

Most were men from Kashi, although there were a few bearded white men, speaking no known language. Gareth tried to talk to two of them, got nowhere, and didn't have time to find Labala and have a language spell cast. He could find out where they were from later.