Islands in the Sky

6.10

Suddenly there was shouting from further down the woodcutters’ ship. Sema looked around, and saw people hiding against the rail, crouching down behind it.

Sema stood there for a moment, confused, wondering what was happening. Then she realized. There were archers on the island-ship. Now that the two ships were very close, the archers had begun shooting, and arrows were falling onto the woodcutters’ ship. None of the arrows had hit anyone yet, but people were shouting warnings and getting out of the way. None of the arrows had been aimed anywhere near Sema, either, but she was fairly sure they would be if she was the only one still standing up.

She knelt down behind the ship’s wooden side, hiding like everyone else was.

There wasn’t much else to do except hide and hope no arrows hit her.

It was too late to get to her wardrobe-boat now, even if she had been willing to try, which she wasn’t, because she wasn’t going to abandon everyone else. It was too late anyway, since she couldn’t run all the way back down the ship while people shot arrows at her. There was nothing else to do except hide from the archers, so she hid.

She hid, but then, after a moment, it occurred to her that she was crouching behind the rail at the very front of the ship, where it was probably most likely to be hit. She didn’t know what would happen when an island hit a ship, but it was probably not going to be gentle.

She wondered if she would need to hold on. She wondered if she might be hurt.

Whatever happened, she suddenly realized, she might be about to end up right in the middle of a battle, because as soon as the two ships bumped together, everyone from both ships would rush to the point they touched, to try and fight each other.

The point where Sema was now kneeling.

Sema took the knife from her belt and held onto it, not expecting to be able to do very much useful with it, but willing to try if she had to. There wasn’t really much else she could do. She was trapped here, with arrows falling. She couldn’t move somewhere safer with the archers watching her. She couldn’t move, so she stayed where she was, and after a while it occurred to her that perhaps it was a good place to be. If the worst happened and woodcutters’ ship was so badly damaged it began to fall from the sky, then she supposed she could try jumping off of it, onto the island, and saving herself that way.

She didn’t know if it was possible, but at least she could try.

She waited. She could hear shouts from the other island, now. Jeers and taunts and threats of what the people on the island-ship were going to do. She could hear voices on her ship shouting, too, but they were making preparations rather than jeering.

They were making plans, and seemed to know what they were doing.

Sema had become distracted, peering at the island-ship, and had stopped listening to the people around her. She listened now, and suddenly felt a little better. She felt almost hopeful. People on her ship were planning and making ready. The woodcutters had their axes, and the poles they used to lever wood around. And they were strong, Sema realized, since it was physically demanding work, and they were used to climbing around the shores of islands and boats, probably more than a lot of people were. As well, there might be more people on board the woodcutting ship than was obvious from the island-ship, Sema suddenly thought. Because the woodcutting ship was a ship which carried workers, it might have more people aboard than its size might suggest.

The people on the island-ship might well be taken by surprise, Sema thought, hopefully. They might not realize how many people they were about to attack, and how many would fight back.