To Rescue Tanelorn Read Online Free PDF

went aboard the king’s great man-o’-war, a ship with fifty pairs of oars and eight tall masts. Alone for a while in the sumptuous cabin assigned me I parted from Iolinda with a tender kiss.
    She went ashore. The king and the captain, his dark eyes veiled, joined me. Katorn seemed to dislike me. For my part I was not attracted to his sullen personality, but he was a good soldier and I allowed no emotion to guide my decisions in the Matter of the Human Kingdoms.
    We hauled in our anchors and the drums pounded out the slow rowing rhythm. We beat down the Droonaa River, with the current, moving fast towards Noonos of the Jeweled Towers and the fleets.
    “Goodbye, Iolinda,” I said softly, waving from the stern of the swaying vessel, and then we had rounded a bend in the river and saw only the rearing city of Necranal above and behind us.
    Goodbye, Iolinda.
    I was sweating in my war gear for the day was oppressed by a great flaming sun, blazing in a cloudless sky.
    The drums beat on. The rowers pulled. Speedily we sailed to Noonos and the Fleets of Humanity.

    Excited, tense, alert and confident of victory, we sailed for Paphanaal, gateway to Mernadin and conquest.
    I knew little of the Eldren for they were constantly described in terms of hatred and fear. They were inhumanly beautiful, it seemed, inhumanly merciless, amoral and evil. They were slightly taller than the average man, had long heads with slanting cheekbones—devilish, Rigenos had said—and had no orbs to their eyes. Terrible reckless fighters, they were, cunning and ruthless.
    But I felt the need to know more of them. My cloudy memory, as Erekosë, could only conjure an impression of confused battles against them and, also, somewhere a feeling of emotional pain. That was all.
    The sea was a good one for the whole month of our sailing and, one day, we came close to Mernadin and lookouts shouted that ships approached. We saw them, at last—a fleet of scarcely half our number. I smiled without humour because I knew we should be victorious.
    The Eldren ships came close! I gasped at their rare grace as they leapt lightly over the water like dolphins.
    They were not galleons, but ships of sail only and the sails were diaphanous on slim masts. White hulls broke the darker white of the surf as they surged wildly, without faltering, towards us. They mounted a few cannon, but not so many as ours. Their cannon, however, were slender and silver and when I saw them I feared their power.
    I saw glimpses of eldritch faces, but could not, at that distance, make out special characteristics.
    We gave the orders to heave to, rocked in the sea awaiting the Eldren shark-ships speeding towards us. We manoeuvred, as planned, to form a square with one end opened.
             
    Some eighty ships were at the far end of the square, set stem to stern with cannon bristling while the two other sides were leveled at a safe distance across so that their cannon were out of range of each other. We placed a thinner wall of ships, about twelve, at the open end to give the impression of a closed square.
    The Eldren craft, cannon roaring, smashed into the twelve ‘bait’ ships and, under their own impetus, sailed on to find themselves surrounded on three sides. As they came through, the far ships slowly closed in to form a triangle, trapping the Eldren vessels.
    I had never seen such highly manoeuvrable sailing craft as those used by the Eldren. Slightly smaller than our men-o’-war, they darted about and their cannon bellowed roaring balls of flame—fire-bombs, not solid shot. Many of our ships were fired and blazed, crackling and groaning as the flames consumed them. Our ranks began to break and we sailed implacably in to crush the Eldren ships.
    So far there had been no hand-to-hand fighting. The battle had depended upon tactics, but now as we closed, grapples were hurled towards the shark-ships of the Eldren and their barbs cut into the white rails, pulling the sailing craft