The Invaders by John Flanagan
“Lydia! Lydia! Lydia!”
Realizing there was no way out of it, she pushed her way through and stepped up onto the podium, ignoring Barat’s outstretched hand. Her face was flushed red. He quickly drew her to him, one arm around her.
Reluctantly, she resisted the temptation to pull away.
“Here she is, my friends. No braver girl ever graced this town, and I’m proud to tell you, she’s going to be my wife!”
“What?” Stig said aloud. Then he saw Lydia’s reaction, saw her head shaking as she spoke angrily to Barat. But the crowd had gone wild with the idea, and Barat merely smiled at her as they cheered. Crowds love a good romance, after all, and Barat was aware of the fact.
He held up his hand for silence again. When the noise died down, he spoke in a serious tone.
“As I said, we’ve all lost friends this past week or two. But we didn’t give in when things looked blackest. We kept fighting!”
“You ran off into the marshes, more like,” said Edvin angrily. The other Heron crew members muttered agreement as Barat continued.
“We came up with a plan for our counterattack, a counterattack that I led in person. And we won through!”
“Funny,” Stefan said, following Edvin’s lead, “I could have sworn that Hal came up with that plan. Don’t remember Barat did much but object.”
“Shut up,” Hal said, through set teeth.
Barat glanced over the heads of the crowd then to where he could see the small knot of Skandians.
“And I’d like to thank our allies for providing the diversion that helped us prevail.” He led a gracious round of applause then, while the Herons seethed.
Jesper turned to Hal, who was watching, stony faced. “You knocked down the watchtowers. You transported Barat and his men to the east wall. You beat back the defenders at the beach gate. You sent Zavac and his men packing! What did he do? He climbed a wall!”
“Let it go,” Hal said. “Can’t you see he’s running for office? He’s planning to get himself elected mayor.”
The former mayor of Limmat had been one of the pirates’ first targets. He had been killed in the early days. Now, Hal realized, Barat was using the respect he’d gained as leader of the Limmatan forces, and the positive emotion of his public proposal to Lydia, to cement his own position as the new leader of the town. As he had the thought, Hal realized that Lydia was no longer on the podium. In the past few minutes, she had slipped away somewhere.
“So, my friends,” Barat was concluding, “let me say to you all, if there is any way I can serve you or our town in the coming weeks, then I humbly make myself available.”
There was a ripple of applause and appreciation through the crowd. He smiled, then raised his hands to them all.
“But tonight let’s celebrate our victory. Tomorrow, we can start picking up the pieces and making this town great again.”
The crowd cheered and he held up both hands to them. He glanced around, aware that Lydia was no longer beside him. A quick frown crossed his face, then he covered it with a smile, bowing and waving to the crowd.
“Come on,” Hal said to his crew. “Let’s get out of here before I’m ill.”
Svengal and some of Wolfwind’s crew accompanied them to the harbor, where the Heron was moored alongside the quay. Ingvar was sleeping amidships on a sheepskin, covered with blankets. Edvin went to check him, saw that he was sleeping peacefully and nodded reassurance to Hal. They had discussed whether it might be better to leave Ingvar to recover in Limmat, but once he had regained consciousness, the big boy had vetoed that idea with great vigor.
“I’m a Heron,” he said decisively. “I’m coming with you.” And since he seemed to be recovering from his wound quite well, Hal had agreed. It wouldn’t be the same without Ingvar, he thought.
Thorn and Stefan were waiting at the ship when they arrived, and once he had seen that Ingvar was comfortable, Hal eyed them curiously.
“What have you two been up to?”
Stefan’s grin almost split his face apart. “We broke Rikard out of jail,” he said. He gestured to a tarpaulin piled untidily in the forward rowing benches. “He’s under there.”
Hal said nothing for several minutes. Then he looked Thorn straight in the eye.
“All right,” he said. “Why?”
“He knows where Zavac is heading,” Thorn told him. “I made a deal with him. He tells us and we help him get away.”
“Exactly how did you break him out?” Hal asked.
Thorn hesitated but Stefan was ready with the answer.
“Thorn thumped the jailer. Knocked him cold. Then we just walked out.”
“You… thumped… the jailer. Did he recognize you?” Hal asked.
Thorn shrugged. “Not a chance. He’ll probably confuse me with some other one-armed Skandian.”
“And what if Rikard is lying?”
“We’ll hold on to him until we know one way or the other. If he is lying, I’ll toss him overboard.”
Hal screwed up his lips while he thought about it. “Fair enough,” he said. “But let’s get going before the jailer wakes up and raises the alarm.”
They clambered down into the Heron. Svengal and two of his crewmen made ready to cast off the bow and stern lines as the crew settled into the rowing benches.
“I’ll send a man along to open the boom,” Svengal said.
Hal nodded his thanks. “Fair winds, Svengal,” he said.
“Fair winds, Hal. We’ll see you again in Hallasholm.”
“With the Andomal,” Hal said firmly. He glanced around, making sure the way was clear. He was about to signal Svengal’s men to cast off when a slim figure darted out of the shadows.
“Hold it a moment,” Hal said to the line handlers. “Lydia? Is that you?”
The girl had paused at the edge of the pier. She looked down into the Heron, looking at the faces turned up to her. She saw several smiles of welcome.
“I want to come with you,” she said.
Hal went to speak, stopped, not sure what to say. So she continued.
“You heard him, didn’t you? I couldn’t stand to stay here with that pompous, overbearing prat of a man. How dare he announce that I would marry him? How dare he?”
Still Hal said nothing, lost for words. She went on desperately.
“If I stay here, I’ll stick one of my darts in him before the month is out. Besides, I still have a score to settle with Zavac. His men killed my grandfather.”
“Let her come, Hal,” Stig said, and the rest of the crew chorused their agreement. Hal threw his hands in the air in a gesture of defeat.
“Why not? Who am I to refuse? Anyone else want to come? How about you, Svengal?”
The wolfship skirl grinned. “I’d love to, as a matter of fact. But I’d better get Wolfwind repaired.”
Lydia had her bedroll, a rucksack and her weapons fastened in a bundle and she tossed them down to Wulf, who caught them easily. Then as she prepared to climb down into the ship, Stig stepped forward, grinning, his arms out to help her down.
She eyed him disdainfully.
“Back off, Skandian,” she said. “Just because I don’t fancy Barat doesn’t mean I do fancy you.”
She dropped easily down into the boat as Stig backed away, turning his gesture into a courtly bow.
Thorn cast his eyes to the sky as the Heron pulled away from the quay.
“Oh, it’s going to be such an interesting voyage,” he said.
John Flanagan, The Invaders
(Series: Brotherband Chronicles # 2)