Outrageous Fortune-Errant Freight Book One

Chapter 37

Colin and Mary both were on the move by the time Galileo's knees hit the deck, but John didn't advance to meet them.

Instead, he spun towards Eitan, swinging the axe so, by the time he was in range, it struck the nearest end of the wooden dowel to which Eitan's wrist was bound.

"Here they come," Eitan said, grabbing hold of the dowel. John, nodding, moved to his other side, already raising the axe again. By that time Colin was in range, so Eitan dropped into a reverse bow and swept his extending leg at the mercenary's ankles.

Unprepared for an attack from that quarter, Colin tripped and stumbled backwards, losing his grip on Ysabel's sword.

Mary, coming up from behind, hesitated only long enough to pick up the lightly curved nimcha blade, which she turned towards John, who finished chopping through the heavy doweling on Eitan's left barely in time to spin and block Mary's overhead swipe.

Eitan rolled up to his feet and Colin moved to meet him, pulling a shock stick from under his coat and thumbing it to life.

Rory, still locked to the starboard bulkhead, looked from the fallen Galileo to where Eitan engaged Colin. If, he thought, one could call the singleminded decimation occurring mid-deck as an engagement.

Like the kata Rory had witnessed the previous afternoon, Eitan's motions were lightning-quick defiance of physics as, with one hand, he swept the unwieldy dowel in a series of arcs, spins, and jabs to drive the muscular Colin across the deck. He didn't bother avoiding the shock stick. He didn't have to avoid it, because try as he might, Colin never managed to connect with his target.

No blame to Colin, Rory thought. He'd no way of knowing his opponent had survived five years in the Illyrian arena.

A rattle from across the bay had him turning back to see Jinna, tugging the shackle's chain through the D-ring to free herself.

"Brilliant!" Rory called as she sidestepped past the fallen Galileo. "Only, you wouldn't have that lock pick, would you?"

She froze, looked up, then behind her. "I think I dropped it."

"Pity," Rory said as, aft, John ducked a whistling swipe from Mary's sword and Eitan's staff at the same time.

"Pardon," Eitan called, reversing the swing.

"No worry," John replied, parrying the next swipe, and the next.

"It is for me," Mary told him. "I want you all to myself."

Rory and Jinna shared a grimace, then both looked at the pallet of water casks which, lacking the dowel Eitan was even now spinning like a bo staff, was open on one side.

"I've got—" Rory began.

"I have an idea," Jinna said, and they grinned at one another before she crossed the deck to the pallet.

"Don't overdo, now," he cautioned, reaching for his left hand with his right.

"Are you kidding?" she asked, crouching down and preparing to muscle the first cask over to one side.

"Right, sorry, forgot myself. Carry on."

She carried on. Then she carried on again because, while not large—emergency stores or not, they'd have to be hauled up to the companionway to be of use—the casks were still heavy.

"But truly," he said, "don't..."

Her glare had him clamping his mouth shut, and the spark of metal on metal drew Rory's attention from her efforts to where John was busy holding off Mary.