Empire Of Blood

Chapter 24

They first guessed what had happened to Parine when they were a day's sail away.

Kukon took a course that swung to the east of the principality, toward the coast of Nullar. In those waters there would be less danger of meeting the Imperial fleet. There would also be a greater chance of meeting a ship from Nullar or one of the other Five Kingdoms, one that could take the message of the new alliance to the kings and fleets on the mainland.

They found neither. Instead, they found a fishing boat of Parine, drifting aimlessly. Aboard were four men, three dead and one dying. All four of them showed the unmistakable signs of prolonged and horrible torture in the style of Saram. The dying man died without speaking a coherent word, but no one aboard Kukon needed to be told what had happened. Blade doubled the lookouts and pressed on.

Two hours later they began to smell smoke on the wind that blew out of the west-from Parine. Just before sunset they passed a mass of floating timber, much of it charred black. They moved on through the darkness, the rowers setting a fast cruising stroke whether the drummers beat it out or not. The smoke smell grew stronger hour by hour. Three more times they passed floating wreckage or abandoned fishing boats.

Then the dawn came, and with it gray smoke smeared all across the western horizon. Under that smoke they found Parine, but so changed that it hardly seemed right to call it by the same name as the island they'd left. It was as if mad giants had swarmed across the island, killing everything that lived, burning everything that would burn, and stamping into rubble everything that was neither living nor burnable.

They swung in close enough to the harbor and town to see that the harbor was a mass of floating wreckage and the town a mass of rubble that still trickled smoke. The main fort on top of the cliffs had been blackened and split open by a tremendous explosion.

Bodies floated or lay everywhere-men, women, and children of Parine, soldiers of the forts' garrisons and the princess' household troops, mules and horses and goats, and a surprising number of the soldiers and sailors of the Empire of Saram.

«Our friends of Parine died hard,» said Prince Durouman quietly. «I hope the gods give them better thanks for that than I can.»

Blade nodded. «I wonder-did they all die?»

The two men's eyes met. Each knew without a word what was in the other's mind. Finally Prince Durouman shrugged.

«We can only go and find out.»

Kukon left the ruined town and harbor and headed toward the north coast of the island. The shortest overland route to the little white palace in the valley started there. Blade did not want to take much of an overland journey now or leave his ship very long. Some of Kul-Nam's soldiers might still be roaming the interior of the island or his galleys sweeping along the coast.

They found nothing except more death and destruction all the way to their landing place. It was no different when Blade and Prince Durouman led inland a party of forty men, all of them armed to the teeth. The only variation was the number of Kul-Nam's soldiers among the corpses. Usually there were a great many-sometimes half the total. Blade's spirits could not rise among such ghastly scenes, but he began to wonder just how many men Kul-Nam had lost here on Parine. Enough to weaken him? Perhaps.

There was no surprise when they finally reached Princess Tarassa's private valley. The bodies of soldiers from both sides lay thicker here than anywhere else, and from them rose such a stench that the air was almost unbreathable. Blade could see that many of Tarassa's guards had died literally fighting tooth and nail, biting and clawing at their enemies. But they had all died in the end, and so had Princess Tarassa.

They found her lying behind the blackened rubble of the palace. She had been a long and horrible time dying. Her face was already so swollen and blackened that it was impossible to see what expression had been on it when she died. That was just as well.

They buried Tarassa as deeply as they could and piled blocks of marble from her palace over the grave to make it safe. It was only after the princess was buried that Prince Durouman finally went off behind some blackened stumps and vomited himself empty. When he returned his face was still pale, but there was a ghastly, cold control in his voice when he spoke.

«I think there is no more question of whether the Five Kingdoms will come to aid us. The only question is which one will send the first ships.» His face split in a grim smile. «Would you care to make a bet on it, Blade?»

The first ships came in on the evening of the next day, three galleys from Belthanor, the southernmost of the Five Kingdoms. Blade and Prince Durouman told the captains all they needed to know of the situation and organized the crews into search parties. Prince Durouman would gladly have left the island and its dead behind. Blade thought otherwise. He was determined to comb Parine thoroughly for survivors and anything Kul-Nam's men might have left behind that might be useful in the coming war.

«Besides,» he added, «what better way to convince people of what is at stake in this war than by showing them Parine? You will have few traitors among those who have seen this.» He swept a hand around them, taking in all the rubble and corpses.

Prince Durouman had to admit Blade's point.

The search parties turned up two welcome surprises in the first two days. One was Princess Tarassa's son, alive and reasonably healthy. Two of the household servants had fled with him before the palace was surrounded and had hidden in a cave. The other surprise was more than a thousand of Parine's famous barrels, seasoned and ready for use, left completely intact in their sheds in the countryside.

«Kul-Nam's soldiers must have found them too bulky to carry away and not valuable enough to be worth destroying,» said Prince Durouman. «I imagine they'll be useful for our supplies when we sail, but-Blade, why are you smiling like that?»

So Blade finally had to explain the weapon he had conceived for use against the sailing ships of Kul-Nam's fleet.

It was extremely simple. Put a sealed barrel of gunpowder on the end of a long spar, preferably at least sixty feet long-

«A ship's mast?» asked the prince.

«Perhaps. Something long and strong, in any case.»

In the end of the barrel, put an iron rod, moving back and forth through a hole sealed with greased leather. Fasten the other end of the spar to the ram of a galley. Row the galley straight at a sailing ship until the barrel strikes the enemy's side. The iron rod is driven in through the hole, passing across a piece of flint. This strikes sparks. The sparks set off the powder. Anything from sixty to four hundred pounds of gunpowder- explodes against the enemy's hull well below the water line.

«That will blow a hole large enough for a man to ride through on horseback,» said Blade. «The ship will be on the bottom in minutes.»

«It will also knock the caulking out of every seam in the galley and the teeth out of the jaws of every man aboard her,» said Prince Durouman. «Assuming the sailing ship's guns haven't sunk the galley on the way in.»

«True. There is a risk. But it is only a risk on the way in. Once the barrel has exploded, the galley can back off with little further danger from her victim. If the enemy's men are still on their feet at all, they will be thinking about bucket brigades or sharks, not about manning their guns.»

«Very well,» said Prince Durouman. «I can think of all sorts of petty objections. But this is no time for them, and besides, I know better by now than to try arguing with you.»

«Good,» said Blade. «Men should immediately be put to work filling and arming barrels and trimming down spars. If we have enough material, I would like each galley to have several of these weapons aboard when we sail. No one should be told exactly what they are making or how it will be used until we sail, not even the galley captains.»

«Spies?»

«Exactly. This is a weapon that can be used successfully in only one battle, and it cannot even be used in that battle unless it is a complete surprise. Otherwise Kul-Nam's admirals will be able to think of tactics to meet it.»

«If they are still interested in winning battles for a ruler who shows such poor judgment as Kul-Nam.»

«They may not be interested in victory for its own sake. They will still be interested in winning for the sake of not being tortured to death by the Emperor.»

The galleys were now coming in from the mainland, three, five, eight each day. As fast as they came, Blade snatched their carpenters and other skilled workers ashore. Some of the galleys were sent back for more powder and masts. The armed and filled barrels and the trimmed spars began to pile up. They were kept under close guard in dry caves not far from the sea.

There was no problem getting the men to work, even without knowing exactly what they were making. They knew that whatever they were making would help destroy Kul-Nam's fleet and bring him down. Any man who had seen the ruins of Parine or helped bury its dead in mass graves could imagine the same thing happening to his home and family, and he would return to his work with more enthusiasm than ever. The workers would in fact have gladly stayed on their jobs twenty hours a day. Blade refused to let them do so, fearing that exhaustion would set in and lead to carelessness, and carelessness to accidents. He was not going to see many weeks' work and the best chance for victory wiped out by the mistake of some worker too tired to see straight.

The pirates of Nongai came as they had promised. They were fifty galleys, each crammed with all the fighting men and supplies she could hold and a little bit more. The officers and men from the galleys of the Five Kingdoms looked dubiously at the pirates at first. Then they saw the pirates behaving themselves on shore, standing guard like disciplined men, and obeying the orders of Blade and Prince Durouman without question. Old suspicions did not vanish overnight, but nothing remained to keep pirates and Five Kingdom sailors from fighting side by side as long as the enemy was Kul-Nam.

Two days after the pirates arrived, the entire royal fleet of Nullar appeared, twenty-six galleys. Prince Durouman was openly astonished and asked their admiral what had inspired the king to such unusual boldness.

«The lady who shall be your wife inspired him,» replied the admiral. «She said that if the fleet were not sent to aid you, she would set forth to do so, though she had to set forth in a fishing boat clad only in her night shift.»

«She will make a fine empress for Saram,» said Durouman, only half to himself. He seemed to be getting accustomed to the idea of himself on the throne of Saram.

In another two days the fleet received its last reinforcements. These were small, but surprising and very welcome, especially to Blade. They consisted of two galleys, formerly of the Imperial fleet but now flying the flag of the House of Kudai. Aboard them were Tulu, now Duke of Kudai, and as many of the guards and servants of the house as he'd been able to save after his father's arrest and execution.

Tulu looked ten years older than when Blade had last seen him. His voice was brittle as he told his tale. «I will spare you the details of my father's death. They were as vile as you may imagine.»

«What was the charge?»

Tulu shrugged. «The Emperor had never much cared for my father's independent spirit. He had doubtless been accumulating grievances for many years. In the end, though, there was no charge at all. It was Kul-Nam's whim, and he made no effort to disguise it as anything else.»

Prince Durouman's eyebrows rose very high. «If he has reached that point, he is mad indeed. What is said of this is Saram?»

«Very little is said,» replied Tulu. «There is still too much fear of His Bloodiness's long arm. But little is done against those who wish to take themselves out of reach of that arm. That is how I was able to escape.»

«The galleys surrendered to you?»

«Yes. Still, I do not think they would have surrendered to me alone. But-Blade, this was your work. I remembered you and Tzimon and Dzhai and the ways of England. The lesson went home to me. Instead of fleeing alone, I gathered together all the fighting men and servants who would come with me, and we marched to the coast. There we found the galleys. Everywhere the men of Kul-Nam stood aside from us. The strength of my company gave them an excuse, but one man alone would not have given them that excuse. I owe you my life, Blade, and so do all those who came with me. I hope they will be welcome in your ranks.»

«They will be.»

«I thought so,» said Tulu, and smiled for the first time. «One of them should be even more welcome than the rest. Haleen is among those who fled with me.» Blade said nothing, only smiled in turn.

«This is welcome news indeed,» said Prince Durouman. «if there is so little enthusiasm for Kul-Nam among those who must fight for him, our task begins to look easy.»

«Easier,» corrected Tulu. «The Corps of Eunuchs will fight to the death. They know they are doomed if Kul-Nam falls. Everyone else will also fight as long as there is any chance that Kul-Nam will live to take vengeance.»

«Very well, then, easier,» said Prince Durouman. «But would it be fair to say that if we strike off the head-Kul-Nam-the body will submit without more fighting?»

«If you are proposing yourself as the new head, yes,» said Tulu.

«I am,» said the prince. He rose. «I think we have done and said all that is necessary before we strike. Let us prepare to sail. Blade, do you agree?»

Blade nodded. A hundred and forty galleys were assembled at Parine now, all as well manned and well equipped as they ever would be. Each had at least three of the exploding barrels stowed in her hold, apart from her other weapons. Nothing worthwhile would be accomplished by further delay. He also had to admit that he was impatient to strike.

«Very well,» said the prince. «I shall give no commands as Emperor of Saram until the Eagle Crown rests on my brow. But I shall make one request of you, Blade, as a friend and battle comrade.»

«That is?»

«If I am to ride into battle aboard Kukon once more, I would like to see her name changed.»

Blade opened his mouth to object. He had found here, as in practically every Dimension that had ships, a superstition against changing ships' names. It was bad luck, pure and simple.

Prince Durouman went on. «I should like Kukon to be renamed Avenger.»

Blade's mouth snapped shut, his objections suddenly meaningless. No one in his right mind could object to that name. Even the most superstitious would consider it a good omen.

There were so many to be avenged. Tzimon, Dzhai, Duke Boros and all of the House of Kudai who had not escaped with Tulu. Princess Tarassa and all the thousands of her people. Kukon's first captain. Prince Durouman's ancestors and those ancestors' supporters, a century ago. Hundreds of thousands of anonymous victims of Kul-Nam and those who had preceded him over an entire century and in half a dozen lands. Men tortured, women raped, children worked to death. A toll that it turned Blade's stomach to think about.

«Yes,» he said finally. «I think Avenger is a very good name for our flagship.»

That was the end of the conference. Blade went in search of Haleen. Somewhat to his surprise, he found that she did not need much consolation for Dzhai's death.

«He always knew that he would not live to grow gray,» she said with a sad smile. «That was his fate. Indeed, he was fortunate, for he died a warrior's death in a great battle for a good cause, and he never hoped for that much even in his dreams. I do mourn him, Blade. But-I would not care to be alone here, at least at night.»

Blade took care to see that Haleen was not left alone during the next three nights. On the fourth day, the fleet set sail from Parine.