‘No passengers should be up here,’ he said.
Druss grinned at the young man. ‘How can you just stand there, as if you were on a wide road? A puff of breeze could blow you away.’
‘Like this?’ asked the sailor, stepping from the beam. He twisted in mid-air, his hands fastening to a sail rope. For a moment he hung there, then lithely pulled himself up alongside the axeman.
‘Very good,’ said Druss. His eye was caught by a silver-blue flash in the water below and the sailor chuckled.
‘The gods of the sea,’he told the passenger. ‘Dolphins. If they are in the mood, you should see some wonderful sights.’ A gleaming shape rose out of the water, spinning into the air before entering the sea again with scarcely a splash. Druss clambered down the rigging, determined to get a closer look at the sleek and beautiful animals performing in the water. High-pitched cries echoed around the ship as the creatures bobbed their heads above the surface.
Suddenly an arrow sped from the ship, plunging into one of the dolphins as it soared out of the water.
Within an instant the creatures had disappeared.
Druss glared at the archer while other men shouted at him, their anger sudden, their mood ugly.
‘It was just a fish!’ said the archer.
Milus Bar pushed his way through the crowd. ‘You fool!’ he said, his face almost grey beneath his tan. ‘They are the gods of the sea; they come for us to pay homage. Sometimes they will even lead us through treacherous waters. Why did you have to shoot?’
‘It was a good target,’ said the man. ‘And why not? It was my choice.’
‘Aye, it was, lad,’ Milus told him, ‘but if our luck turns bad now it will be my choice to cut out your innards and feed them to the sharks.’ The burly skipper stalked back to the tiller deck. The earlier good mood had evaporated now and the men drifted back to their pursuits with little pleasure.
Sieben approached Druss. ‘By the gods, they were wondrous,’ said the poet. ‘According to legend, Asia’s chariot is drawn by six white dolphins.’
Druss sighed. ‘Who would have thought that anyone would consider killing one of them? Do they make good food, do you know?’
‘No,’ said Sieben. ‘In the north they sometimes become entangled in the nets and drown. I have known men who cooked the meat; they say it tastes foul, and is impossible to digest.’
‘Even worse then,’ Druss grunted.
‘It is no different from any other kind of hunting for sport, Druss. Is not a doe as beautiful as a dolphin?’
‘You can eat a doe. Venison is fine meat.’
‘But most of them don’t hunt for food, do they? Not the nobles. They hunt for pleasure. They enjoy the chase, the terror of the prey, the final moment of the kill. Do not blame this man alone for his stupidity. He comes, as do we all, from a cruel world.’
Eskodas joined them. ‘Not very inspiring, was he?’ said the bowman.
‘Who?’
‘The man who shot the fish.’
‘We were just talking about it.’
‘I didn’t know you understood the skills of archery,’ said Eskodas, surprised.
‘Archery? What are you talking about?’
‘The bowman. He drew and loosed in a single movement. No hesitation. It is vital to pause and sight your target; he was overanxious for the kill.’
‘Be that as it may,’ said Sieben, his irritation rising, ‘we were talking about the morality of hunting.’
‘Man is a killer by nature,’ said Eskodas amiably. ‘A natural hunter. Like him there!’ Sieben and Druss both turned to see a silver-white fin cutting through the water. ‘That’s a shark. He scented the blood from the wounded dolphin. Now he’ll hunt him down, following the trail as well as a Sathuli scout.’
Druss leaned over the side and watched the shimmering form slide by. ‘Big fellow,’ he said.
‘They come bigger than that,’ said Eskodas. ‘I was on a ship once that sank in a storm off the Lentrian coast. Forty of us survived the wreck, and struck out for shore. Then the sharks arrived. Only three of us made it – and one of those had his right leg ripped away. He died three days later.’