She slid down the boat until she was at his feet and just in time. Arrows began hitting the water around them, the sound like seagulls diving for fish. One whipped past too close. There was only one chance to end this without both of them being killed.
Lifting one oar into the boat, he shoved the other deep into the water, their vessel turning quickly as Jessica grabbed onto the sides. “What are you doing?” she yelled.
“Whatever I can,” he replied.
The guards hadn’t expected that and they had no time to maneuver out the way. The flimsy rowing boat crashed into the side of their ship, knocking the archers off balance.
Eddard was up and into their boat in a second, swinging the oar from left to right. A sword jabbed at him from behind but he ignored it. There would be time to deal with it shortly. First he had to redress the balance.
The oar cracked an archer on the head. As the man fell into the water, Eddard swung at the man beside him, catching him an almighty blow in the stomach. That was two thrashing in the depths.
He spun on his heels and shifted the oar over his head, rewarded by a crunch behind him. Turning he saw the third man go in and the fourth was just notching an arrow when he stabbed the oar onto his feet, breaking at least three of his toes.
The man yelled and leaped back, giving Eddard room to shove him off. Two left, both armed with swords. They lunged, catching him on the chest but he leaned back enough to turn fatal blows into glancing ones.
Blood poured freely as he smacked the swords away with the oar, taking tiny steps backward, keeping them both in view.
“Oi!” Jessica shouted from the remains of the rowing boat.
One glanced back at her as she hurled a broken piece of wood at him. It did no harm but knocked him off balance and gave Eddard all the chance he needed.
He dropped the oar and sprinted forward, catching the blade in his hand, letting it cut him but not releasing his grip. With his shoulder down he shoved hard and the man went into the water, leaving Eddard with the sword.
He flipped it in the air, catching it by the handle and turning to the last man who took one look at the odds before leaping out of the boat into the water, swimming away for his life.
Eddard caught hold of Jessica just as the rowing boat sank beneath the waves, lifting her into the sailboat. “You’re bleeding,” she said. “Let me look at you.”
“Not yet,” he said, turning the ropes that held the sail, ignoring the pain in his hands. “We need some distance. They may want another round.”
The boat began to move toward the shore, leaving the cursing men to spit and shake their fists at him from the water. Only when they were specks in the distance did he let himself relax. The shore was minutes away. They had made it.
He staggered, almost falling. That wasn’t like him. Blinking the fuzziness away from his eyes he concentrated on the ropes, guiding them closer to the mainland. At last it was there.
Ten feet away.
Five.
The boat hit the shore and scraped the bottom, throwing the two of them to their knees. She was up first and he had to work hard to get back onto his feet. His limbs felt heavier than ever.
“Let me look at you,” she said again. “Sit down.”
“We have to keep moving,” he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her away from the shore. “They’ll be after us in greater numbers soon. Time is our only help. We must be inland before they make it to shore. Then you can look at me all you want.”
“You’ll never make it thirty miles to the castle. You’re bleeding too much you stubborn fool.”
“We dinnae need to make it thirty. We need to make it five.”
“Five? What’s in five miles?”
“The Dog and Fox.”
“What’s that?”
“A tavern run by a friend of mine. Get there and we can hide out the night.”
He took one last look behind him, gratified to see no one swimming nearby. The vision blurred and he had to blink it clear. They had cut him worse than he thought. Still, there would be time to tend to his wounds when they were safe.
He turned his back to the loch and together they headed in land in search of the tavern, and the safety it represented. He staggered and would have fallen if Jessica didn’t take his arm and let him lean on her.
