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table, and they were just as capable of killing him.
    “Help me,” she cried softly.
    Sparked by his own sense of justice, Jherek spun into battle. He whirled quickly, smashing the flat of his blade into the nearest pirate’s face.
    The man’s nose broke in a bloody rush and an audible crack. He stumbled backward, cursing Jherek in Umberlee’s name. His size and the drunkenness of his companions sent a small group of them reeling back for the short bar.
    Pressing his advantage as the other pirates fell back and tried to bring their weapons into play, Jherek stepped forward. He swung the chair he’d picked up as he’d approached the group, breaking it across Tharyg’s back.
    The big man roared in pain and anger as he dropped to his knees on the floor. He turned his baleful gaze toward Jherek and reached for his sword.
    Jherek focused on the two men who lunged at him from the left. He met their swords with his own, slamming the blades aside. He twisted the cutlass, wounding one of the men deeply across the forearm. Blood spurted on the man and his nearest fellows.
    “Make way, you damned sot-heads!” one of the bouncers standing watch at the tavern called.
    Turning to the right, Jherek overturned a table, then kicked it at the three armed men coming at him. The table skidded across the sawdust-covered floor and slammed into their legs. If they hadn’t been so impaired by their drinking, maybe they’d have remained standing. As it was all three of them tumbled across the table.
    Still in motion, Jherek set himself and met the blade of the man who came at him from the front. The young sailor was already aware that pirates were circling behind him, closing off his escape route to the front door.
    “Kill him!” Tharyg ordered. “A gold piece to the man who takes that bastard’s head!”
    Jherek hardened himself, driving out all merciful feelings that remained within him. Despite their drunkenness, the men were all killers, skilled and experienced at their profession.
    His cutlass leaped out like a thing alive, sliding along the man’s sword and opening his throat in a tight riposte. Gurgling, dying, the man fell backward, clawing at his mates to help him.
    Two men rushed at Jherek with long knives. The young sailor dropped almost to his knees and caught himself on his empty hand. He pushed forward, catching the man on the right just above the knees with his shoulder. Jherek drove the man backward, Lifting him off his feet
    A and hurling him into the pirates behind him. They collapsed in a staggering melee.
    Recovering, Jherek ripped his cutlass up in time to block the overhand blow Tharyg directed at his head. The young sailor shifted his footing, parrying two more blows from the bigger man, then pushing the cutlass’s point through the pirate’s heart.
    “Bloody hell!” Tharyg gasped, staring down at the steel blade thrust into his chest. “You’ve done killed me!”
    Jherek pulled his sword free, feeling the steel grate along bone. The young sailor gave himself over to his training and to the blade. The cutlass whirled before him, striking sparks from the other blades that reached out for him, creating a rhythm of metal rasping against metal.
    He sliced a man across the stomach, spilling the pirate’s entrails onto the floor. The other pirates shouted in horror and disgust while the wounded man screamed in fear and struggled to hold himself together. Jherek whirled again, bringing the cutlass around in a flat arc that all but decapitated another pirate.
    Seizing the moment when the area briefly cleared around him, Jherek reached the side of the young woman. He sliced the hand from a man who’d been slow in releasing his grip on the girl. With his free hand, the young sailor grabbed the girl’s arm and pulled her from the table. The floor around them was slippery with blood in spite of the sawdust. The girl remained wild-eyed, trying desperately to hold onto the young sailor.
    “No, lady,” Jherek told