Birds of Prey - Smith Wilbur (полная версия книги .TXT) 📗

In the uncertain light of the torches he saw the Tabernacle in the hands of the two armed soldiers, screamed with horror at the sacrilege and fell to his knees. Schreuder had the woman's arm in his left hand and the naked Neptune sword in his right. He killed the kneeling priest with a single thrust through his ribs.

They all listened quietly for a while, but there was no outcry.

"Lead on!" Schreuder ordered.

Their guide stopped again suddenly. "The gate is only a short distance ahead. There are three men in the guardroom beside it." Schreuder could make out the glow of their lamp falling through the open doorway. "I must leave you here."

"Go with GOd." said Schreuder ironically, and the man darted away.

"Ezekiel, lay down the chest. Go forward and deal with the guards." Three of them crept down the passage, while Schreuder kept the nursemaid in his grasp. Ezekiel slipped into the guardroom. There was silence for a moment and then the clatter of something falling to the stone floor.

Schreuder winced, but all was quiet again, and Ezekiel came back. "It is done!"

"You grow old and clumsy," Schreuder chided him, and led them to the massive door. It took three of them to lift the great wooden beams that locked it, then Ezekiel wound the handle of the primitive winch wheel and the door trundled open.

"Keep close together now!" Schreuder warned, and led them in a running group across the bridge and out onto the rocky track. He paused in the moonlight and whistled once softly. There was the soft thudding of muffled hoofs, as the horse-holders left the rocks where they had been concealed. Ezekiel lifted the Tabernacle onto the pack saddle of the spare horse, and lashed it securely in place. Then each man seized the reins of his own mount and swung up into the saddle. Schreuder reached down and lifted the sleeping child out of the arms of his nursemaid. The boy squawked drowsily but Schreuder hushed him and settled him firmly on the pommel of his saddle.

"GO!" he ordered the nursemaid. "You are no longer needed."

"I cannot leave my baby." The woman's voice was high and agitated.

Schreuder leaned down again and, with a thrust of the Neptune sword, killed the nursemaid cleanly. He left her lying beside the track and led the raiding party away down the mountainside.

"One of the priests from the monastery were able to follow the blasphemers when they fled," Judith Nazet explained to Hal. Even in the face of disaster her lips was firm and her eyes calm and steady.

He admired her fortitude, and saw how she had been able to take command of a broken army and turn it victorious.

"Where are they now?" Hal demanded. He was so shaken by the dreadful news that it was difficult to think clearly and logically.

"They rode directly from the monastery to Tenwera. They reached there just before dawn, three hours ago, and there was a great ship waiting for them, anchored in the bay."

"Did they describe this vessel to you?" Hal demanded. "Yes, it was the privateer that has the commission of the Mogul. The one we spoke of before, at our last meeting. The same one that has caused such havoc among our fleet of transports."

"The Buzzard!" Hal exclaimed.

"Yes, that is what he is called even by his allies." Judith nodded. "While my people watched from the cliffs, a small boat took both the Emperor and the Tabernacle out to where this ship was anchored. As soon as they were aboard the Buzzard weighed anchor and set out to sea."

"Which direction?"

"When he was out of the bay, he turned south."

"Yes, of course." Hal nodded. "He will have been ordered to take Iyasu and the Tabernacle to Muscat, or even to India, to the realm of the Great Mogul."

"I have already sent one of our fastest ships to follow him. It was only an hour or so behind him and the wind is light. It is a small dhow and could never attack such a powerful ship as his. But if God is merciful it should still be shadowing him."

"We must follow at once." He turned away and called urgently to Ned

Tyler. "Bring her around, and lay her on the opposite tack. Set all sail, every yard of canvas you can cram onto her. Course is south-south-east for the Bah El Mandeb."

He took Judith's arm, the first time he had ever touched her, and led her down to his cabin. "You are weary," he said. "I can see it in your eyes," "No, Captain," she replied. "It is not weariness you see, but sorrow. If you cannot save us, then all is lost. A king, a country, a faith."

"Please sir," she insisted. "I will show you what we must do." He opened the chart in front of her. "The Buzzard might sail straight across to the western coast of Arabia. If he does that then we have lost. Even in this ship I cannot hope to catch him before he reaches the other shore."

The early-morning sun shone in through the stern windows, and cruelly showed up the marks of anguish chiselled into her lovely face. It was a terrible thing for Hal to see the pain his words had caused, and he looked down at the chart to spare her.

"However, I do not believe that that is what he will do. If he sails directly to Arabia, the Emperor and the Tabernacle would have a dangerous and difficult overland journey to reach either Muscat or India." He shook his head. "No. He will sail south through the Bah El Mandeb."

Hal placed his finger on the narrow entrance to the Red Sea. "If we can reach there before he does, then he cannot avoid us. The Bah is too narrow. We must be able to catch him there."