Free Deborah Hale by The Destined Queen Page B

sharp, men!” shouted Gull as the galleys on either side of them edged closer together. “Don’t get cocky!”
    From high in the rigging, a scream pierced the air and a crewmen plunged to the deck below, knocking down one of his mates who had been standing near the mast.
    “Hanish archers!” someone called. “Firing from the galley!”
    Rath pulled Maura down as an arrow whistled over their heads, ripping through one of the Phantom’s sails.
    She shook off his protective grasp and began crawling across the deck toward the tangle of twitching limbs. “I must see if I can help those poor men!”
    The four bowmen on the Phantom returned fire and Rath had the grim satisfaction of seeing a Hanish archer plunge from his ship into the sea.
    Maura quickly checked the injured men lying on the deck. “They’re both still alive.” She unwadded more linen from her sash to staunch the bleeding of the man who’d been hit by the arrow. “It is in his shoulder and may have hit bone. I won’t be able to push the barb through, the way Langbard did for you…even if I knew how.”
    Both men had been knocked senseless. Now the fellow who had been struck by the falling body began to waken, moaning.
    “We must get them belowdecks,” said Rath, “where you can tend them properly.”
    And where she would be in a little less danger…for now.
    The rest of the crew were occupied, returning bow fire and navigating the Phantom through the perilously narrow strip of water between ore galleys.
    Rath reached for the arrow shaft sticking out of the wounded man’s shoulder. Grasping it near the base where it stuck out of the flesh, he snapped off the rest of the shaft, thankful the injured man could not feel what he was doing.
    “So it will not catch on anything when we move him,” Rath explained to Maura as he hoisted the injured man under his arms. “Can you get his feet?”
    The words had barely left his lips before Maura lifted the fellow’s ankles. Fortunately, he was not too heavy and the hatch that led down to the ship’s hold was not far off.
    “Set him…right here,” Maura gasped when they had wrestled the unconscious man down the ladder, “so I willhave…some light coming through the hatch…to see what I’m doing.”
    Rath did as she bid him, laying the injured man out to one side of the ladder. “You stay here and see to his wound. I’ll go back for the other fellow.”
    “Are you sure you can manage on your own?” Maura rummaged in the pockets of her sash for healing herbs.
    “If I can’t, I will fetch you to help me,” Rath lied. He would find some way to get the man down here without bestirring Maura from the relative safety of the hold.
    As he squeezed past her to reach the ladder, his hands closed over her shoulders in a swift caress.
    She reached up to cover his hands with hers, making him linger for a moment, which he was glad to do. “The other man may have broken bones. Check if any of his limbs are twisted at odd angles. If one is, tie it to a piece of wood or anything you can find to keep the break from shifting worse.”
    “Aye, aira. ” He dropped a fleeting kiss on her neck before heading off. “I may not have your gentle touch, but I will do my best for him.”
    “Water,” he heard her mutter as he climbed back up to the deck. “A whole sea out there, but not a drop where I need it.”
    “There’s a barrel over in that corner.” Rath pointed. “If it is empty, I will find you water as soon as I get back.”
    He had just crawled out of the hold when he met two crewmen carrying their injured comrade toward the hatch. The fellow was conscious now, his features twisted in pain.
    Rath caught the injured man’s eye. “The lady will soon set you to rights, friend. She has healed me of a good many wounds and always left me better than I was before.”
    He made a hasty circuit of the deck, looking for more wounded he could send down to Maura, but he found none.
    When he asked Gull, the captain