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almost as raggedly as the Sarumi, with little clusters of ships following
their own paths. Kloret's ship was well out ahead of one cluster, bearing off
to port.
The big ship Blade thought might be King Bull wasn't moving yet.
The Sarumi came on, the Goharans came on, the Mythorans stayed where they were
and waited.
Blade's grip on the railing tightened until he felt splinters of wood forcing
their way into his skin. Suddenly the flutes and drums of the Sarumi started
to die away. Then one pirate ship after another put her helm over and bore
down on the Mythorans. It was a remarkably well-done maneuver, considering how
badly the Sarumi had done up until now.
Then suddenly one of Degyat's galleys was on the move, wheeling to present her
ram to a pirate ship.
She couldn't work up much speed, so her ram blow missed the enemy's hull. But
as she slid along the enemy's side, the ram ploughed through the pirate's
oars. Blade could imagine the screams and cracking wood. Then the galley's
deck turned dark, as the archers swarmed up from below mostly Maghri, but with
Mythorans and Goharan sailors mixed in with them. Blade saw a faint haze
flickering over the deck of the pirate ship as the arrows came down. Then the
pirate ship was blundering on, the movements on her deck now strangely
confused and erratic. Even from where he was, Blade could see the pirate's
deck slowly turning red under the dead and the dying. Against this many
archers striking all at once, the Sarumi tactics of lying down on the deck
wouldn't be much help.
If Blade had used a radio, he couldn't have done more to get all the captains
in the Mythoran fleet to
act together. Every Mythoran ship in sight of the first fight started spewing
out archers. As fast as their neighbors saw what was happening, their archers
came up too. In five minutes every Mythoran ship was blazing away as fast as
her archers could shoot, and most of Degyat's galleys were underway.
The trap was sprung, but a little too soon. If the Sarumi admirals could order
their ships clear in time, they still might get most of them away. The
Goharans were coming on steadily, but not fast.
Degyat's flagship rammed a Sarumi, then found herself grappled by two more.
Boarders swarmed over the decks of all four ships, even the one sinking under
their feet. It was hard to tell what Degyat's archers might have done
before the close action started, and now Degyat's men were badly
outnumbered. Then the galley backed free, Degyat's banner still flying,
leaving smoke pouring up from one of her attackers. Blade saw tiny figures
leaping overboard from the galley, and hoped they were
Sarumi and not Degyat's sailors.
Blade saw other rammings, farther off. He also saw Sarumi ships drifting
helplessly, so many men dead or wounded that the survivors couldn't handle the
ship. Sometimes Sarumi ships would come alongside their crippled comrades and
pass towlines. Other times they would be ignored until one of
Degyat's galleys came up and rammed or boarded.
After a while it was impossible to pick individual combats out of the vast
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sprawling chaos of fighting men and ships. Blade couldn't tell who was
winning. The Sarumi had the edge in number of ships, and they were certainly
driving in their attack hard, but they didn't have the edge in number of men
and they didn't have archers.
So far there were no enemies within easy striking distance of Lioness. Blade
looked to see the
Goharans beginning to spread wide, to surround the other two fleets. Kloret's
galley was still in the lead, and the other big galley was looking more like
King Bull every minute.
Then Blade heard Khraishamo calling from the deck: "Blade! Come down! We're
getting underway, and the masts may go when we ram."
Blade realized that he'd forgotten this and swung himself into the rigging. As
he climbed down he saw both battleflags in place, Khraishamo's white claw on
black and his own golden sword on blue. If Kloret wanted to find him, the
Prime Minister knew where to look. He'd done his best to set himself up as
bait.
Now it was time to pull his weight in this battle.
As Blade's feet touched the deck, the galley's oars started moving and her
archers began climbing up from below. They'd have targets before long. Blade
pulled off his helmet, mopped his forehead, put the helmet back on, and
tightened the chin strap. Then he went forward to join Khraishamo on the
foc'sle.
Chapter 25
«^»
The galley's captain chose as his target two Sarumi ships swinging wide around
the end of the Mythoran fleet. They were leading five more, and Blade saw
Khraishamo looking astern of Lioness.
"Want to see if anyone's following us?"
The pirate laughed. "You might say that. Fighting seven-to-one's fine for the
reputation, but it makes too many widows."
That reminded Blade that Khraishamo and Rhodina hadn't been able to hold their
wedding. Rhodina wouldn't even be a proper widow. Blade hoped that for her
sake either he or Khraishamo would return from this day's fighting.
The oars rattled and splashed, and the archers shuffled back and forth across
the deck, checking their bows, greasing their bowstrings against the salt air,
and muttering to comrades. Some pulled biscuits and salt fish out of their
belt pouches and ate a few bites, but most weren't hungry. Blade did a quick
inspection of the weapons of the men who would fight at close
quarters, boarding or fighting off boarders.
"Damned archers, getting all the glory and none of the danger," said one man
with a mace.
Blade slapped him on the shoulder. "Say that after this day's over, if you
still think it's true."
Lioness heeled slightly as the helm went over to put her on course for the
first of the Sarumi. The enemy's oars churned up foam, pulling it out of
Lioness's path. The galley's captain swung the ram toward the second enemy
ship. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]