The Disjointed Tales Of Renryre Island

07-1: Third Time's Revenge

"Do you think we should help him?"

"He fell a hundred feet down a cliff, and landed rather uncomfortably on some jagged rocks. The blood is already pooling in the surf. I suspect he is beyond our help."

Madrik looked up to the top of the cliff. The old man in the grey cloak was storming off along the edge, flashing his fists at random in the air, his voice echoing back towards the boat. The gangster looked back down to the sea just in time to see the frenzied and savage dance of reddened water cut by the fins of numerous tailsharks.

"Pleasant," commented Talyreina. "What do we do now?"

"We head for Helen's Bay, Tally, to find Tailfin, and make him pay. Excessively."

"Right, I get that. But how the hell are we to sail to Helen's Bay when neither of us knows a damn thing about sailing?"

Talyreina, for some reason, seemed a little less confident about their chances. But Madrik had already made it out of the desert alive twice; floating along the coast in a nice sailing boat – and with a girl for company – was a rather more appealing experience. Besides, he was determined to make it back to see Tailfin. The previous two occasions hadn't gone so well. The third time's revenge.

"We just follow the coast. How difficult can it be? Pull a few ropes here, turn the rudder there..."

"Is it my imagination, or are the sails and rudder both doing very little right now? We seem to be headed directly to that strait. The one with the rickety rope bridge above, and all the rocks sticking out of the water below it."

Madrik quickly scanned the sails, and looked back to the rudder. Talyreina was right. A current had taken them. He ran back to the stern and leaned hard on the rudder, pulling some lines while he was at it.

"What the hell are you doing, Madrik?"

"Something. Anything. Those tailsharks seem to know where we are going better than we do."

"Why did you have to go and throw the crew overboard?"

"Godsdammit, Tally, I told you – I didn't throw them over!"

"Then who did?"

"You did!"

"No I didn't."

"Dammit! How do I know that?"

"I was with you the whole night!"

"Then why the hell do you think it was me?"

"I don't know where you went when I was sleeping."

"And I don't know... aargh, this won't get us anywhere."

The argument had gone the same way a few times during the day. They had woken up in the morning and found themselves adrift; sails flapping, oars scattered, and two plates of lukewarm egg and sausage cooling on the deck, but not a sailor to be seen. Where the hell had the crew gone?

Tally grabbed a line of rope and pulled on it.

"I have been working the salt pans at Rhytheport since I was a kid. What do I know about sailing?"

Still, it seemed to do something.

"Yes! Keep pulling that one."

Talyreina smiled as she clung onto the rope, hanging most of her insufficient weight on it. The boat seemed to angle away from the shore, and soon the rudder began to take effect again. She slowly eased off the rope, and winked at Madrik.

"Don't forget who got us out of this one!"

Madrik had no reply. He couldn't give her the satisfaction.