Free Cloak of the Two Winds by Jack Massa Page B

the deck.
    "Bring them," Amlina said.
    Dazed by her witchery, the Iruks hardly resisted as the crewmen grabbed them. Their arms were pinned back, their knives and spears taken. Lonn tried to twist free, but his deadened arms were held fast. With Troneck supervising, the prisoners were half-marched, half-dragged to the mainmast.
    Amlina was fixing a ring of chain, shoulder high on the mast, with numerous tether chains attached. Lonn's weak struggles ceased for a moment, stilled by amazement.
    The chain was gold and extremely fine—jeweler's chain. The tethers ended not in iron manacles but in delicate bracelets of gold filigree.
    Then Lonn's amazement passed, replaced by panic. He gave a roar of defiance, kicked one of the sailors and almost tore loose.
    " Be still! " Amlina ordered.
    A new wave of numbness surged over Lonn's body. His hands were jerked up and the witch snapped the bracelets onto his wrists.
    Lonn's arms hung limply in their fetters. He sank to his knees when the crewmen no longer held him up. The witch had moved on to lock the bracelets on Draven, then Eben.
    The Iruks were chained facing the mast, but with enough tether so they could turn around, or sit on the deck if they chose.
    By the time the witch stepped back to observe her work, Lonn had struggled to his feet again. The numbness was gone, burned away by a brightening rage. Staring at the tether chain, he began to tremble. A growl started low in his throat, and grew to an ear-piercing howl. Distantly, he heard Eben and Draven also howling.
    The Larthangans and even the witch shrank back as the Iruks thrashed in their bonds, straining to tear free. Having never been chained before, they reacted with a savage ferocity.
    "You cannot break those chains, however flimsy they appear," Amlina said. "Captain Troneck, tell them how the chains came to be on board."
    "They belonged to the Archimage of the East, that's how. She had the whole crew fettered in that rig and another like it. Twelve of us pulling together could not even bend a single link. They are witch-chains. They work on the mind."
    But the Iruks showed no sign that they had heard. Draven had his back to the mast, pulling the tether over his shoulder. Jumping about in frenzy, Eben flailed and yanked on his tether. Lonn set one foot against the mast and pulled with all the strength of his arms and back.
    The chains began to glow with yellow witchlight.
    "Leave them," Amlina told the crew. "They'll realize soon enough that their struggles are futile."
    Slowly, on the witch's promptings, the Larthangans dispersed. Amlina was the last to go, following the captain aft to the quarterdeck.
    Tugged and twisted, the witch-chains glimmered with greater intensity, but the metal showed no signs of stretching. Gradually the Iruks' mad howling dwindled to curses and grunts of effort, then to tired groans. One by one they sank to the deck, gasping and thoroughly exhausted, their wrists raw and bloodied.
    The sailors stationed on the main deck watched the prisoners covertly, with stern looks of satisfaction or contempt. After a while Draven shouted to one of these.
    "The witch promised us food and water. Where is it?"
    The rations were brought some time later, small pieces of hard biscuit and a half cup of water for each man.
    "Surely you can do better," Draven complained. "Does the witch mean to starve us too?"
    "You're lucky to have this," was the surly reply. "We've got little enough for ourselves."
    Past mid-morning a call came down from the lookout—another skater had been spotted. The Iruks stood on their toes to see, but their view of the ice ahead was blocked by the raised foredeck and by two ships' boats, which hung forward on either rail. Their anxiously shouted questions elicited the assurance that it was indeed only one skater.
    Not until the coaster slowed in the wind and the skater climbed aboard did they learn it was Brinda. Amlina and a party of Larthangans met her at the rail. They took her