Dragonsblood by Todd McCaffrey Page B

chance to
    send some men after you.”
    Lorana paused at the doorway. “What about you? Why are you doing this
    for me?”
    Colfet gave her a measuring look. “You might say that I owe you, for fixing
    this arm. Or you might say that I won’t let anyone be taken against their will.
    But mostly I’m thinking of my daughters.”
    Lorana didn’t know what to say.
    Colfet shrugged. “Come on, then, off with you.”
    The captain’s cabin was the next cabin aft. The door was unlocked and they
    made their way through the fore cabin and into the after cabin. Colfet
    opened the shutters quickly and peered out. Seeing what he wanted, he
    grunted affirmatively and then looked around the cabin.
    “We’ve got to find something to grab the line,” he said.
    “Grab the line?” Lorana echoed, looking at the opening. All she could see
    was rain and pitch-darkness. “What line?”
    “The one for the launch,” Colfet answered, upending the captain’s chair. He
    reached out through the opening and hooked the rope with the seat of the
    chair, carefully angling to keep the rope from slipping off. Dragging it into
    the cabin he turned to Lorana.
    “Now all you’ve got to do is climb down this rope into the launch.”
    Lorana eyed the bucking rope. “All?”
    Colfet nodded. “It’s that or wait until Baror and his mates have time to deal
    with you. You can’t stay on this ship, they’ll turn it upside down looking for
    you.” He saw her blanch and added, “Look, all you have to do is grab it with
    your feet and your arms and scale on down. Don’t let go until you’re in the
    launch. The wind’s fierce enough that it won’t drop you in the water, I
    hope.”
    “And if it does?”
    “Keep hold of the rope and climb aboard the launch,” Colfet said. “But don’t
    capsize it.”
    “All right, and then what?” Lorana demanded. “What about you?”
    Colfet thought about that. “It’ll be too tricky with my bad arm.”
    Lorana shook her head. “I don’t know where we are, how to get
    back—anything.” She looked frantically around the cabin, finally coming
    back to him. “Your belt! How about you tie on with that and come on down
    after me! It’d help when you have trouble with your arm.”
    Colfet smiled. “It would at that. You’re right, it could work. Very well then,
    you first.”
    Lorana swallowed and reached for the rope. She climbed out the opening
    and jumped up, looping her feet desperately around the rope. For one sick
    moment she hung there, suspended by hands and feet on a wildly swinging
    rope, and then she gripped it tighter and started climbing down into the
    darkening sea.
    It seemed to take forever. Suddenly a wave swept up at her, dowsing her
    backside with frigid water. She clenched the rope tightly, for fear of being
    pulled off. Then the wave was gone and she started down again.
    Beyond her legs she caught sight of a blob in the distance. The launch. It
    seemed dragonlengths away.
    Another gust came and a wave crashed around her, burying her in water.
    She held her breath, frantically hoping that she could hold on. Finally the
    water parted around her.
    Her feet felt the hard wood of the launch.
    Colfet’s glib description of how she would get in the launch turned out to be
    completely inaccurate. Lorana had to pull her feet over the gunnels and into
    the cockpit of the launch, and then she had to grapple with the prow with her
    hands and turn herself over before she could kneel into the launch. It was a
    hideous maneuver and she nearly lost her last meal as her stomach roiled
    from the exertion and her fear.
    Two encouraging chirps told her that she’d made it, and that the fire-lizards
    were nearby.
    She waited for what seemed forever before she realized that she and
    Colfet had not agreed on any way to let him know that she was safely
    aboard. Hastily she grabbed the rope and gave it two sharp tugs. She
    waited and felt two answering tugs—Colfet must have got the signal.
    Or was