“If it just wasn’t for this wind!” Black Skull roared. “And, Trader, they have more darts than we do for this kind of drawn out fight. They can retrieve what they shoot at us. Our darts are gone forever with each cast.”
At his words, the wind picked up again, scalloping the surface of the waves, whipping up bits of scud.
“The wind … ” Pearl whispered.
Another dart made a thooshmg sound as it smacked the water and bobbed up, the fletched shaft angled leeward.
One by one, darts dropped down around them, one splintering a groove out of Wave Dancer’?, gunwale. Each time, Black Skull would turn, only to see the attacker’s canoe drifting back out of range.
Thunk! and Green Spider gasped, looking down at where a still-shivering dart had pinned his shirt to the hull.
“Rot this wind!” Black Skull raged. “Why will it not help us?”
Pearl laughed then, and dove for the packs, lifting the heavy sacks away from the matting.
“What are you looking for?” Otter asked. Arms aching and leaden, he tried to wet his dry lips and blinked sweat from his eyes.
A burning—as if his chest were going to rip apart—followed each gulped breath. This time, we’re not going to make it.
Another dart hissed down to thoosh into the water just ahead of the fox-head prow. This one Black Skull snagged out with the barest break in his paddling.
And what are you going to do’! You know what they’ll do to Pearl. He would die slowly, tortured and screaming. But before they got their hands on the woman he loved, he’d use his paddle one last time. She’d never know, “never feel a thing.
Pearl, meanwhile, had displaced Catcher to rise with a big roll of palmetto matting. A grin widened her face. “Pray for more wind.”
“That’s the last thing we need!” Sweat streaked the side of Black Skull’s face as he cast a worried glance over his shoulder.
“Help me,” Pearl told Otter. “Hold this other side. Don’t just stare at me like I’m. daft, do it!”
“You mean you want me to stop paddling?”
“Yes! Now!”
Otter scrambled forward to take one side of the tightly woven matting. Palmetto fronds made strong, yet light mats, and this one was a fair-sized piece, as tall as a man and twice as wide.
He’d threatened to throw it out—and would have Traded it long before now had the journey not been so rushed. Pearl spread the mat, and when the wind caught it, it jerked Otter forward so fast that he nearly went overboard.
“That’s it!” Pearl cried. “Use it to catch the wind!”
And Otter saw how it could work.
“This is what the saltwater Traders do!” he cried as he braced a foot on the polished gunwale. “I’ve seen them. They—”
“Of course!” The wind whipped her hair around her face as the mat bulged and swelled. Wave Dancer surged ahead, and Otter scrambled as he struggled to keep his balance and stretch the heavy mat with trembling arms.
“Black Skull, keep us on course! Steer us!”
The warrior looked back, shook his head, then paddled all the harder.
Otter squinted into the wind at the pursuing canoes. Would this give Wave Dancer the edge they needed? For the moment, they seemed to be breaking even, and holding the mat might be deadening to the arms, but now muscles different than the ones used for rowing were trembling. White spray was leaping from under the fox-head bow to spatter on the dark, crystal-blue water.
‘
Ancestors, help us! Pearl might have found a way to save our lives again! She gave him a ravishing smile, sparks of joy dancing in her eyes. He whooped, living for the moment, enjoying that surge of vitality they’d shared in the storm. “Did I ever tell you that I love you?”
“No!” Green Spider chirped. “But I’m glad you do, Otter.”
“Not you!” Otter snapped, then added, “Green Spider, hold your paddle up here in the middle of the mat … help us support it.” At the Contrary’s blank look, Otter pleaded, “Just this once.
Green Spider, don’t force me to think in reverse! Just help us.”
A wan smile curled the Contrary’s lips as he climbed back and used his paddle as Otter directed. Otter could feel the additional push it gave them, and in response, he leaned out, hanging over the water to stretch the matting wider.
The Badger people held about even, but now all hands were paddling—and the wind seemed to be stiffening again.
“If the wind holds … ” Otter tried to stretch the mat even wider, leaning out perilously. To his surprise, Wave Dancer had come alive and was skipping over the waves. Black Skull switched sides in the bow, paddling like mad to bring the canoe back on line with the wind. Without the keel, it would have been a maddening job.