In Mid-Battle

The Man Who Counts XVII, see here.

Thrilling battle scenes:

canoes circle ice ships like wolves around a buffalo herd;

arrows, catapult bolts, flung stones and exploding oil jugs hit the ships;

but flying Lannachska with buckets douse the burning sails;

one ship is dismasted but its crew flies to others;

Lannachska air power hammers the canoes;

ships, ramming and burning the canoes, approach the Drak'ho Fleet of interlinked rafts which pulls into war formation with churning oars;

"The sea itself burned and smoked behind; ahead lay the great rafts." (p. 468);

"...the massed rafts became a storm... Bat-winged devils sought each other's lives through one red chaos... whirling, shrieking destruction." (p. 469);

"Red-stained water, littered with dropped spears and bows..." (p. 470);

when the mast on van Rijn's flag ship ignites, he cuts it loose so that it falls onto and burns a Drak'ho raft;

Lannachska ships follow van Rijn's into the Fleet where the wooden rafts burn whereas the ice ships do not;

the next move is not to burn a raft but to capture it;

but the Drak'ho Expeditionary Forces approaches;

the chapter ends...