Page 64 (1/2)

‘We should board a few,’ Torvald said ‘There will be tools, maybe even weapons I could swim over-there, that raider It’s not yet awash, and I see lots of wreckage’

Karsa sensed the Daru’s hesitation ‘What is wrong? Swim’

‘Uh, I ath left, and these chains onfor a runted ‘So be it No more can be asked of you, Torvald Noard Karsa ‘Coht you to this?’

‘Too hed ‘There are no gifts that co-’

A soft splash sounded, then sputtering and thrashing-the sputtering turning into laughter Torvald, now alongside the raft, ht ‘Noe knohy those ships are canted so!’ And the Teblor saw that Torvald was standing, the water lapping around his upper chest ‘I can drag us over, now This also tells us we’re the ones who’ve been drifting And there’s so else’

‘What?’

The Daru had begun pulling the raft along, using Karsa’s chains ‘These ships all grounded during the battle-I think a lot of the hand to hand fighting was actually between ships, chest-deep in water’

‘How do you know this?’

‘Because there’s bodies all aroundabout on the sands-it’s an unpleasant feeling, let me tell you’

‘Pull one up Let us see these coood time, Teblor We’re almost there Also, these bodies, they’re, uh, rather soft We nizable if there’s any on the ship itself Here’-there was a buside A moment, while I clirunts and gasps, the slipping scrabble of his bare feet, the rustle of chains, finally followed by a muted thud

Then silence

‘Torvald No