00.1 - The Blood Price by Dan Abnett, Mike Lee - (ebook by Undead) Read Free Book Online Page B

of the crew and the slaves.” He noticed the bloodstained
bandage on the highborn’s leg. “Will you head back with the loot?”
    And look weak in front of the men, Malus thought? Oh, no. That would only
encourage Lurhan’s hidden assassin. The highborn shook his head. “Get the boats
loaded as quickly as you can,” he said. “I’ll go with the second wave.”
    The second mate nodded. “Of course, sir,” he said with a faintly mocking
smile. Before Malus could reply, Amaleth had turned and was running back to the
boats.
    They loaded the plunder aboard double-quick, and less than ten minutes later
the longboats were rowing back to Manticore, burdened with loot and a
third of the surviving raiders. Once there, however, it seemed to take hours to
unload their cargo. Before long Malus was looking worriedly to the east,
expecting to see the first rays of dawn at any moment. “What’s taking them so
long?” Malus muttered.
    Just then there was a commotion from farther down the south road. One of the
lookouts came charging onto the beach and delivered a breathless report to
Lhunara. The first mate sent the corsair back the way he came and hurried over
to Malus, her expression grim.
    “There’s a column of troops coming up fast along the coast road,” she said.
“Looks like Sea Guard.”
    “By the Dark Mother!” Malus swore. “How did they get here so fast?”
    Beside him, Silar pointed out to sea. “That’s how,” the young knight said.
    It was the warship that had chased Manticore into the mists near the
Blighted Isle, her white sails billowing like wings in the moonlight. She was
bearing down fast upon the druchii corsair, eager for revenge. The hunters had
now become the hunted.
    “Can our boats make it back to us in time?” he asked Lhunara.
    “It doesn’t look like it,” she said, her voice hollow. Malus turned to the
first mate and saw she was staring at the distant Manticore. The corsair
ship was taking her boats aboard. Gul was abandoning the rest of the raiding
party to its fate.
    In an awful flash of intuition Malus saw the trap that Gul had sprung on him.
The ship’s master had delayed the offloading at the ship as long as he could to
increase the chance they would be found. It was possible he’d even taken steps
earlier to make the corsair easier to discover. And the timing had worked out to
perfection. Gul now had a hold full of treasure and just enough sailors to make
it back home and claim Lurhan’s reward.
    Lhunara looked up at Malus, a stricken expression on her face. “The Sea Guard
will be here any minute,” she said. “What do we do now?”
    Malus straightened in his seat and took stock of their situation. Around
fifty corsairs waited on the sand, surrounding thirty increasingly defiant
slaves. Bile rose in Malus’ throat. He shook his head. There was only one thing
left to do.
    “We die,” the highborn said.
     
    Ten minutes later came the soft jingle of harness and the drumming of swift
feet along the coast road, and the relief column of Sea Guard troops came
swarming down onto the beach, weapons at the ready. The sight that awaited them
left many of the young warriors reeling in shock.
    The white sands were black with blood in the fading moonlight. Dark-robed
bodies lay everywhere, their limbs strangely contorted in death. Bloodstained
figures in the simple garb of fisherman sat or staggered about the scene of
carnage, many with slave manacles still dangling from their wrists. Many wielded
gory knives as they stalked among the dead.
    In moments the leader of the column arrived at the beach, and he, too, was
stunned by the brutality of what had happened. He pulled his winged helm from
his head, his face pale with shock. “For pity’s sake, help them,” he commanded
his troops, and the spearmen put down their weapons and moved to help the
survivors.
    The lieutenant bit back a wave of despair as he surveyed the awful scene. His
gaze fell upon