Текст книги "Birds of Prey"

Автор книги: Wilbur Smith

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"Perhaps you are wiser than the rest of us." Hal nodded, and he was not saddened by the decision. Dicky was long past his glory days when he had been the man to beat to the masthead when they reefed sail in a full gale. This last winter had stiffened his limbs and greyed his hair. He would be non-paying cargo to carry on this voyage. Paul was Dicky's ship-wife. They had been together for twenty years, and though Paul was still a fury with a cutlass in his hand he would stay with his ageing lover.

"Good luck to both of you. You're as good a pair as I ever sailed with," Hal said, and looked at Wally Finch and Stan Sparrow. "What about you two birds? Will you fly with us, lads?"

"As high and as far as you're going." Wally spoke for both of them, and Hal clapped his shoulder.

"That makes six of us, eight with Aboli and Althuda, and it'll be high and far enough to suit all our tastes, I warrant you." here was a final exchange of. messages as Aboli and Sukeena explained the plan they had worked out. Hal suggested refinements and drew up a list of items that Aboli and Sukeena must try to steal to make their existence in the wilderness more certain. Chief among these were a chart and compass, and a backstaff if they could find one.

Aboli and Sukeena made their final preparation without letting their trepidation or excitement become apparent to the rest of the household. Dark eyes were always watching everything that happened in the slave quarters, and they trusted nobody now that they were so close to the chosen day. Sukeena gradually assembled those items for which Hal had asked, and added a few of her own that she knew they would need.

The day before the planned escape, Sukeena summoned Aboli into the main living area of the residence where before he had never been allowed to enter. "I need your strength to move the carved armoire in the banquet hall," she told him, in front of the cook and two others of the kitchen staff. Aboli followed her submissively as a trained hound on a leash. Once they were alone, Aboli dropped the demeanour of the meek slave.

"Be quick!" Sukeena warned him. "The mistress will return very soon. She is with Slow John at the bottom of the garden." She moved swiftly to the shutter of the window that overlooked the lawns, and saw that the ill-assorted couple were still in earnest conversation under the oak trees.

"There is no limit to her depravity," she whispered to herself, as she watched Katinka laugh at something the executioner had said. "She would make love to a pig or a poisonous snake if the fancy came upon her." Sukeena shuddered at the memory of that ophidian tongue exploring. the secret recesses of her own body. It will never happen again, she promised herself, only four more days to endure before Althuda will be safe. If she calls me to her nest before then I will plead that my courses are flowing.

She heard something whirl in the air like a great bird in flight and glanced back over her shoulder to see that Aboli had taken one of the swords from the display of weapons in the hallway. He was testing its balance and temper, swinging it in singing circles around his head, so that the reflections of light off the blade danced on the white walls.

He set it aside and chose another, but liked it not at all and placed it back with a frown. "Hurry!" she called softly to him. Within minutes he had picked out three blades, not for the jewels that decorated the hilts but for the litheness and temper of their blades. All three were curved scimitars made by the annourers of Shah Jahan at Agra on the Indian continent. "They were made for a Mogul prince and sit ill in the hand of a rough sailor, but they will do until I can find a cutlass of good Sheffield steel to replace them." Then he picked out a shorter blade, a kukri knife used by the hill people of Further India, and he shaved a patch of hair off his forearm.

"This will do for the close work I have in mind." He grunted with satisfaction.

"I have marked well those you have chosen," Sukeena told him. "Now leave them on the rack or their empty slots will be noticed by the other house slaves. I will pass them to you on the evening before the day."

That afternoon she took her basket and, the conical straw Hat on her head, went up into the mountain. Although any watcher would not have understood her intent, she made certain that she was out of sight, hidden in the forest that filled the great ravine below the summit. There was a dead tree that she had noted on many previous outings. From the rotting pith sprouted a thicket of tiny purple toadstools. She pulled on a pair of gloves before she began to pick them. The gills beneath the parasol-shaped tops were of a pretty yellow colour. These fungi were toxic, but only if eaten in quantity would they be fatal. She had chosen them for this quality she did not want the lives of innocent men and their families on her conscience. She placed them in the bottom of the basket and covered them with other roots and herbs before she descended the steep mountainside and walked sedately back through the vineyards to the residence.

That evening Governor van de Velde held a gala dinner in the great hall, and invited the notables from the settlement and all the Company dignitaries. These festivities continued late, and after the guests had left the household staff and slaves were exhausted. They left Sukeena to make her rounds and lock up the kitchens for the night.

Once she was alone she boiled the purple toadstools and reduced the essence to the consistency of new honey. She poured the liquid into one of the empty wine bottles from the feast. It had no odour and she did not have to sample it to know that it had only the faintest taste of the fungi. One of the women who worked in the kitchens at the castle barracks was in her debt. Sukeena's potions had saved her eldest son when he had been stricken by the smallpox. The next morning she left the bottle in a basket with remedies and potions in the carriage for Aboli to deliver to the woman.

When Aboli drove the Governor down to the castle, van de Velde was ashen-faced and grumpy with the effects of the previous night's debauchery. Aboli left a message in the slot in the wall that– read, "Eat nothing from the garrison kitchen on the last evening."

That night Hal poured the contents of the stew kettle into the latrine bucket before any of the men were tempted to sample it. The steaming aroma filled the cell and to the starving seamen it smelled like the promise of eternal life. They groaned and gritted their teeth, and cursed Hal, their fates and themselves to see it wasted.

The next morning at the accustomed hour the dungeon began to stir with life. Long before dawn outlined the four small, barred windows, men groaned and coughed and then crept, one at a time to ease themselves, grunting and farting as they voided in the latrine bucket. Then, as the significance of the day dawned upon them, a steely, charged silence gripped them.

Slowly the light of day filtered down upon them from the windows and they looked at each other askance. They had never been left this late before. On every other morning they had been at work on the walls an hour earlier than this.

When at last Manseer's keys rattled in the lock, he looked pale and sickly. The two men with him were in no better case.

"What ails you, Manseer?" Hal asked. "We thought you had changed your affections and that we would never see you again." The gaoler was an honest simpleton, with little malice in him, and over the months Hal had cultivated a superficially amicable relationship with him.

"I spent the night sitting in the shithouse," Manseer moaned. "And I had company, for every man in the garrison was trying to get in there with me. Even at this hour half of them are still in their bunks-" He broke off as his belly rumbled like distant thunder, and a desperate expression came over his face. "Here I go again! I swear I'll kill that poxy cook." He started back up the stairs and left them waiting another half-hour before he returned to open the grille gate and lead them out into the courtyard.

Hugo Barnard was waiting to take over from him. He was in a foul mood. "We have lost half a day's work," he snarled at Manseer. "Colonel Schreuder will blame me for this, and when he does I'll come back to you, Manseer!" He turned on the line of convicts. "Don't you bastards stand there smirking! By God, you're going to give me a full day's work even if I have to keep you on the scaffold until midnight. Now leap to it, and quickly too!" Barnard was in fine fettle, his face ruddy and his temper already on the boil. It was clear that the colic and diarrhoea that afflicted the rest of the garrison had not touched him. Hal remembered Manseer remarking that Barnard lived with a Hottentot girl in the settlement down by the shore, and did not eat in the garrison mess.

He looked around quickly as he walked across the courtyard to the foot of the ladder. The sun was already well up and its rays lit the western redoubt of the castle. There were less than half the usual number of gaolers and guards. one sentry instead of four at the gates, none at the entrance to the armoury and only one more at the head of the staircase that led to the Company offices and the Governor's suite on the south side of the courtyard.

When he climbed the ladder and reached the top of the wall he looked across the parade to the avenue, and could just make out the roof of the Governor's residence among the trees.

"God speed, Aboli," he whispered. "We are ready for you Aboli brought the carriage round to the front of the residence a few minutes earlier than the Governor's wife had ordered it, and pulled up the horses below the portico. Almost immediately Sukeena appeared in the doorway and called to him. "Aboli! The mistress has some packages to take with us in the carriage." Her tone was light and easy, with no hint of strain. "Please come and carry them down." This was for the benefit of the others whom she knew would be listening.

Obediently Aboli locked the brake on the carriage wheels and, with a quiet word to the horses, jumped down from the coachman's seat. He moved without haste and his expression was calm as he followed Sukeena into the house. He came out again a minute later carrying a rolled-up silk rug and a set of leather saddle-bags. He went to the back of the carriage and placed this luggage in the panniers, then closed the lid. There was no air of secrecy about his movements and no furtiveness to alert any of the other slaves. The two maids who were busy sweeping the front terrace did not even look up at him. He went back to his seat and picked up the reins, waiting with a slave's infinite patience.

Katinka was late, but that was not unusual. She came at last in a cloud of French perfume and rustling silks, sweeping down the stairs and scolding Sukeena for some fancied misdemeanour. Sukeena glided beside her on small, silent, slippered feet, contrite and smiling.

Katinka climbed up into the carriage like a queen on her way to her coronation, and imperiously ordered Sukeena, "Come and sit here beside me!" Sukeena gave her a curtsy with her hands to her lips. She had hoped that Katinka would give her that command. When she was in the mood for physical intimacy, Katinka wanted her close enough to be able to stretch out her hand and touch her. At other times she was cold and aloof, but at all times unpredictable.

"Tis an omen for good that she does what I intended, Sukeena encouraged herself, as she took the seat opposite her mistress and smiled at her lovingly.

"Drive on, Aboli!" Katinka called and then, as the carriage pulled away, gave her attention to Sukeena "How does this colour suit me in the sunlight? Does it not make me seem pale and insipid?"

"It goes beautifully with your skin, mistress." Sukeena told her what she wanted to hear. "Even better than it does indoors. Also it brings out the violet lights in your eyes."

"Should there not be a touch more lace in the collar, do you think?" Katinka tilted her head prettily.

Sukeena considered her reply. "Your beauty does not rely on even the finest lace from Brussels," she told her. "It stands alone."

"Do you think so, Sukeena? You are such a flatterer, but I must say you yourself are looking particularly fetching this morning." She considered the girl thoughtfully. The carriage was now bowling down the avenue at a trot, the greys arching their necks and stepping out handsomely. "There is colour in your cheeks and a twinkle in your eye.

One might be forgiven for thinking that you were in love."

Sukeena looked at her in a way that made Katinka's skin tingle. "Oh, but I am in love with a special person," she whispered.

"My naughty little darling," Katinka putted.

The carriage came out into the Parade and turned towards the castle. Katinka was so engrossed that for some while she did not realize where they were heading. Then a shadow of annoyance crossed her face and she called sharply, "Aboli! What are you doing, idiot? Not the castle. We are going to Mevrouw de Wool."

Aboli seemed not to have heard her. The greys trotted straight on towards the castle gates.

"Sukeena, tell the fool to turn round."

Sukeena stood up quickly in the swaying carriage then sat down close beside Katinka and slipped her arm through that of her mistress, holding her firmly.

"What on earth are you doing, child? Not here. Have you lost your mind? Not in front of the whole colony." She tried to pull away her arm, but Sukeena held it with a strength that shocked her.

"We are going into the castle," Sukeena said quietly. "And you are to do exactly what I tell you to do."

"Aboli! Stop the carriage this in stand Katinka raised her voice and made to stand up. But Sukeena jerked her down in her seat.

"Don't struggle," Sukeena ordered, "or I will cut you. I will cut your face first, so that you are no longer beautiful. Then if you still do not obey I will send this blade through your slimy, evil heart."

Katinka looked down and, for the first time, saw the blade that Sukeena held to her side. That dagger had been a gift from one of Katinka's lovers and she knew just how sharp was its slender blade. Sukeena had stolen it from Katinka's closet.

"Are you mad?" Katinka blanched with terror, and tried to squirm away from the needle point.

"Yes. Mad enough to kill you and to enjoy doing it." Sukeena pressed the dagger to her side and Katinka screamed. The horses pricked their ears. "If you scream again I will draw your blood," Sukeena warned. "Now hold your tongue and listen while I tell you what you are to do."

"I will give you to Slow John and laugh as he draws out your entrails," Katinka blustered, but her voice shook and terror was in her eyes.

"You will never laugh again, not unless you obey me. This dagger will see to that," and she pricked Katinka again, hard enough to pierce cloth and skin, so that a spot of blood the size of a silver guilder appeared on her bodice.

"Please!" Katinka whimpered. "Please, Sukeena, I will do as you say. Please don't hurt me again. You said you loved me."

"And I lied," Sukeena hissed at her. "I lied for my brother's sake. I hate you. You will never know the strength of my hatred. I loath the touch of your hands. I am revolted by every filthy, evil thing you forced me to do. So do not trade on any love from me. I will crush you with as little pity as I would rid my hair of lice." Katinka saw death in her eyes, and she was afraid as she had seldom been in her life before.

"I will do as you tell me," she whispered, and Sukeena instructed her in a flat, hard tone that was more threatening than any shouting or raging.

Aboli drove the carriage through the castle gates, the usual stir of activity heralded its Arrival. The single sentry came to attention and presented his musket. Aboli wheeled the team of greys and brought the carriage to a halt in front of the Company offices. The captain of the guard hurried from the armoury, hastily strapping on his sword-belt. He was a young subaltern, freshly out from Holland, and he had been taken by surprise by the unexpected arrival of the Governor's wife.

"The devil's horns!" he muttered to himself. "Why does the bitch pick today to arrive when half my men are sick as dogs?" He looked anxiously at the single guard at the door to the Company offices, and saw that the man's face still had a pale greenish tinge. Then he realized that the Governor's wife was beckoning to him from her seat in the carriage. He broke into a run across the courtyard, straightening his cap and tightening the strap under his chin as he went. He reached the carriage and saluted Katinka "Good morning, Mevrouw. May I assist you to dismount?"

The Governor's wife had a strained, nervous look and her voice was high and breathless. The subaltern was instantly alarmed. "Is something amiss, Mevrouw?"

"Yes, something is very much amiss. Call my husband!" "Will you go to his office?"

"No. I will remain here in the carriage. Go to him this instant and tell him that I say he must come immediately. It is a matter of the utmost importance. Life and death! Go! Hurry!"

The subaltern looked startled and saluted quickly, then bounded up the steps two at a time and shot through the double doors into the offices. While he was gone Aboli dismounted, went to the panniers at the back of the carriage and opened the lid. Then he glanced around the courtyard.

There was one guard at the gates and another at the head of the stairs but, as usual, the slow-match in their muskets was unlit. There was no sentry posted at the doors to the armoury, but from where he stood he could see through the window that three men were in the guard room. Each of the five overseers in the courtyard carried swords as well as their whips and canes. Hugo Barnard was at the far end of the yard and had both his hounds on the leash. He was haranguing the gang of common convicts laying the paving stones along the foot of the east wall. These other convicts, not part of the crew of the Resolution, might be a hazard when they made their attempt to escape. Nearly two hundred were working on the walls, the multihued dregs of humanity. They could easily hamper the rescue attempt by blocking the escape route or even by trying to join in with the Resolution's crew and mobbing the carriage when they realized what was happening.

We will deal with that when it happens, he thought grimly, and turned his full attention to the armed guards and overseers who were the primary threat. With Barnard and his gang, there were ten art ned men in sight but any outcry could bring another twenty or thirty soldiers hurrying out of the barracks and across the yard. The whole business could get out of hand quickly.

He looked up to find Hal and Big Daniel watching him from the scaffold. Hal already had the rope of the gantry in his hand, the tail looped around his wrist. Ned Tyler and Billy Rogers were on the lower tier, and the two birds, Finch and Sparrow, were working near Althuda in the courtyard. They were all pretending to carry on with their tasks, but were eyeing Aboli surreptitiously.

Aboli reached into the pannier and loosened the twine that secured the rolled silk carpet. He opened a flap of it and, without lifting them clear, revealed the three Mogul scimitars and the single kukii knife that he had chosen for himself. He knew that, from their vantage point, Hal and Big Daniel could see into the pannier. Then he stood immobile and expressionless at the back wheel of the carriage.

Suddenly the Governor burst hatless and in his shirt sleeves through the double doors at the head of the staircase and came down at an ungainly lurching run.

"What is it, Mevrouw?" he called urgently to his wife, when he was half-way down. "They say you sent for me, and it's a matter of life and death."

"Hurry!" Katinka cried plaintively. "I am in the most terrible predicament."

He arrived at the door of the carriage, panting wildly. "Tell me what ails you, Mevrouw!" he gasped.

Aboli stepped up behind him and hooked one great arm around his neck, pinning him helplessly. Van de Velde began to struggle. For all his obesity he was a powerful man and even Aboli had difficulty in holding him.

"What in the devil's name are you doing?" he roared in outrage. Aboli placed the blade of the knife at his throat. When van de Velde felt the cold touch of steel and the sting of the razor edge, his struggles ceased.

"I will slit your throat like the great hog you are," Aboli whispered in his ear, "and Sukeena has a dagger at your wife's heart. Tell your soldiers to stay where they are and throw down their arms."

The subaltern had started forward at van de Velde's cry, and his sword was half-way out of its scabbard as he rushed down the stairs.

St opP van de Velde shouted at him in terror. "Don't move, you fool. You will have me killed." The subaltern halted and dithered uncertainly.

Aboli tightened his lock around the Governor's throat. "Tell him to throw down his sword."

"Throw down your sword!" van de Velde whinnied. "Do as he says. Can't you see he has a knife at my throat?" The subaltern dropped his sword, which clattered down the steps.

Fifty feet above the courtyard, Hal sprang out from the scaffold, hanging on the rope from the gantry, and Big Daniel belayed the other end, braking the speed of his fall. The sheave squealed as he plummeted down and landed in balance on the cobbles. He leaped to the rear of the carriage and seized one of the jewelled scimitars. With the next leap he was half-way up the steps where he stooped and swept up the subaltern's sword in his left hand. He placed the point under the officer's chin and said, "Order your men to throw down their weapons!"

"Lay down your arms, all of you!" the subaltern yelled. "If any man among you brings harm to the Governor or his lady, he will pay for it with his own life." The sentries obeyed with alacrity, dropping their muskets and sidearms to the paving stones.

"You too!" van de Velde howled at the overseers, and with reluctance they obeyed. However, at that moment Hugo Barnard was screened by a pile of masonry blocks. He stepped quietly into the doorway to the kitchens, dragging his two hounds with him, and crouched there, waiting his opportunity.

Down from the scaffold scrambled the other seamen. Sparrow and Finch from the lower tier were first to reach the courtyard but Ned, Big Daniel and Billy Rogers were seconds behind them.

"Come on, Althuda!" Hal called, and Althuda dropped his mallet and chisel and ran to join him. "Catch!" Hal lobbed the jewelled scimitar in a high, glinting parabola, and Althuda reached up and caught it by the hilt, plucking it neatly out of the air. Hal wondered what class of swordsman he was. As a fisherman it was unlikely that he would have had much practice.

I shall have to shield him if it comes to a fight, he thought, and looked around quickly. He saw Daniel pulling the other weapons out of the pannier at the back of the carriage. The twin scimitars looked like toys in his huge fist. He tossed one to Ned Tyler and kept the other for himself as he ran to join Hal.

Hal picked up a sword that a sentry had dropped and threw it to Big Daniel. "This one is more your style, Master Danny," he yelled, and Daniel grinned, showing his broken black teeth, as he caught the heavy infantry weapon and made it hiss in the air as he cut left and right.

"Sweet Jesus, it's good to have a re all blade in my hand again!" he exulted, and tossed the light scimitar to Wally Finch. "A tool for a man, but a toy for a boy."

"Aboli, keep a firm hold on that great hog. Cut his ears off if he tries to be crafty," Hal shouted. "The rest of you follow me!" He dropped down the staircase and raced towards the doors of the armoury with Big Daniel and the others on his heels. Althuda began to follow him also, but Hal stopped him. "Not you. You look after Sukeena!" As Althuda turned back and they ran on across the courtyard, Hal snapped at Daniel, "Where's Barnard?"

"The murdering bastard was here not a moment past, but I don't see him now."

"Keep a good lookout for his top sails. We'll have trouble with that swine yet."

Hal burst into the armoury. The three men in the guard room were slumped on the bench. two were asleep and the third scrambled to his feet in bewilderment. Before he could recover his wits, Hal's point was pressed to his chest. "Stay where you are, or I'll look at the colour of your liver." The man dropped back into his seat. "Here, Ned!" Hal called to him as Ned rushed in.. "Play wet-nurse to these infants," and left them in his charge as he ran after Daniel and the other seamen.

Daniel charged the heavy teak door at the end of the passage and it burst open before his rush. They had never before had a chance to look into the armoury, but now at a glance Hal saw that it was all laid out in a neat and orderly fashion. The weapons were in racks along the walls, and the powder kegs stacked to the ceiling at the far end.

"Pick your weapons and bring a keg of powder each," he ordered, and they ran to the long racks of infantry swords, polished, gleaming and sharpened to a bright edge. Further back were the racks of muskets and pistols. Hal thrust a pair of pistols into the rope that served him as a belt. "Remember, you'll have to carry everything you take with you up the mountains, so don't be greedy," he warned them, and picked up a fifty-pound keg of gunpowder from the pyramid at the far end of the armoury, which he hoisted to his shoulder. Then he turned for the door. "That's enough, lads. Get out! Daniel, lay a powder trail as you go! Daniel used the butt of a musket to stove in the bungs of two of the powder kegs. At the foot of the pyramid of barrels he poured a mound of black gunpowder. "That lot will go off with an almighty bang!" He grinned, as he backed towards the door, the other keg under his arm spilling a long dark trail behind him.

Under their burdens they staggered out into the sunlight. Hal was the last to leave. "Get out of here, Ned!" he ordered, and handed him the weapons he carried as Ned ran for the door. Then Hal turned on the three Dutch soldiers, who were cowering on the bench. Ned had disarmed them their weapons were thrown in the corner of the guard room.

"I'm going to blow this place to hell," he told them in Dutch. "Run for the gates, and if you're wise you'll keep running without looking back. Go!" They sprang up and, in their haste to get clear, jammed in the doorway. They struggled and fought each other until they burst out into the courtyard and raced across it.

"Look out!" they yelled, as they sprinted for the gates. "They're going to blow up the powder store!" The gaolers and the other common convicts who, until this point, had stood gaping at the carriage and the hostage Governor in Aboli's grip, now turned their heads towards the armoury and stared at it in stupid surprise.

Hal appeared in the armoury doorway with a sword in one hand and a burning torch that he had seized from its bracket in the other.

"I am counting to ten," Hal shouted, "and then I am lighting the powder train!" In his rags, and with his great bushy black beard and wild eyes, he looked like a maniac.

A moan of horror and fear went up from every man in the yard. One of the convicts threw down his spade and followed the fleeing soldiers in a rush for the gate. Immediately pandemonium overwhelmed them all. Two hundred convicts and soldiers stormed the gates in a rush for safety.

Van de Velde struggled in Aboli's grip and screamed, "Let me go! The idiot is going to blow us all to perdition. Let me go! Run! Run!" His shrieks added to the panic, and within the time it takes to draw and hold a long breath the courtyard was deserted except for the group of seamen around the carriage and Hal. Katinka was screaming and sobbing hysterically, but Sukeena slapped her hard across the face. "Keep quiet, you simpering ninny, or I'll give you good reason to blubber," and Katinka gulped back her distress.

"Aboli, get van de Velde into the carriage! He and his wife are coming with us," Hal called, and Aboli lifted the Governor bodily and hurled him over the top of the door. He landed in an ungainly heap on the floorboards and struggled there, like an insect on a pin. "Althuda, put your sword point to his heart and be ready to kill him when I give the word."

"I look forward to it!" Althuda shouted, dragged van de Velde upright and thrust him into the seat facing his wife. "Where should I give it to you?" he asked him. "In your fat gut, perhaps?"

Van de Velde had lost his wig in the scuffle and his expression was abject, every inch of his huge frame seeming to quiver with despair. "Don't kill me. I can protect you," he pleaded, and Katinka started weeping and keening again. This time, Sukeena merely held her a little tighter, lifted the point of the dagger to her throat and whispered, "We don't need you now we have the Governor. It won't matter at all if I kill you." Katinka choked back the next sob.

"Daniel, load the powder and the spare weapons," Hal ordered, and. they piled them into the carriage. The elegant vehicle was no wagon, and the coach work sagged under the load on its delicately sprung suspension.

"That's enough! It will take no more." Aboli stopped them throwing the last few powder kegs on board.

"One man to each horse!" Hal commanded. "Don't try to board them, lads. You're none of you riders. You'll fall off and break your necks, which won't matter much, but your weight will kill the poor beasts before we have gone a mile, and that will matter. Lay hold of their rigging and let them tow you along." They ran to their places around the team of horses, and latched onto their harness. "Leave space for me on the larboard bow, lads," he called, and even in her excitement and agitation Sukeena laughed aloud at his use of the nautical terms. His men understood, though, and left the offside lead horse for him.