Pirates Of Gohar

Chapter 24

The sea was flat and oily, and ships were everywhere. From the masthead of the galley Lioness, Blade could count nearly three hundred ships in sight. The Sarumi had at least a hundred and twenty, seventy were from Mythor, and ninety were in the Goharan Second Fleet under Kloret.

The Goharans hadn't been there until a few hours ago. Then they'd come up over the horizon, running fast and free, Kloret's banner flying from the two-decked galley in the lead. Mythor's strange fleet-of merchant ships and Degyat's galleys-was already on its way out to meet the Sarumi, so Kloret slipped in between them and the city. There'd been a bad moment, as the Mythorans watched for signs that Kloret was landing troops to attack the city. The city was well-garrisoned compared to what it had been, but its walls were still too weak to stand against a determined attack from the land side.

Instead, Kloret's ships paraded back and forth across the mouth of the harbor, as if Kloret was waiting for something. Then the wind died, which turned out to be a blessing. It gave all three fleets an excuse to do nothing until their admirals figured out exactly what was going on.

The Mythorans were still the worst off. They couldn't move against the Sarumi, since half their strength was sailing ships. These were crammed with Maghri archers, but couldn't move until they got a wind. Also, they couldn't be sure that Kloret wouldn't attack them once they were engaged with the pirates. To be sure, the other half of their strength was Degyat's galleys, and the Prime Minister probably wouldn't attack the First Fleet simply for joining with Mythor's rebels in a battle against the common enemy. On the other hand, Degyat was one of the Emperor's most trusted men, and any plausible excuse to destroy him might be enough for Kloret.

In other circumstances, the uncertainty might have been amusing. Nobody in the Mythoran or Goharan fleets really knew what the other might do. The Sarumi at least could be sure that the other two fleets were their enemies, but they couldn't be sure the two would act together.

Mythor's fleet lay in three lines, the sailing ships in the middle and the galleys on either side. Five miles toward shore lay Kloret's fleet, and five miles farther out to sea lay the Sarumi. Aboard Lioness, Blade and Khraishamo were making a brief inspection tour, since there didn't seem to be anything better to do.

Lioness moved slowly down the line of sailing ships. Peacock, Sigluf's ship, was coming up. Her deck was nearly empty, except for the normal number of guards and sailors. Good. The Sarumi couldn't board without getting close, and if they got close they were in for a nasty surprise from the archers.

Blade didn't see Sigluf among the men on Peacock's deck. He picked up the leather speaking trumpet and shouted down, «Where's the chief?»

«Asleep,» came up faintly from below. Blade laughed. Sigluf had spent last night saying farewell to all his Mythoran lady friends. He'd finished his work first, though-getting three thousand Maghri with bows and war clubs aboard the ships of the Mythoran fleet. Sigluf had a right to sleep late.

Blade turned, to scan the horizon in a complete circle, then stopped with his eyes toward the land. A new squadron of galleys was coming up to join Kloret's fleet. In the lead was an even bigger galley than the Prime Minister's. At this distance even Blade's eyes couldn't make out the banner, and he wasn't certain of the galley's color. It certainly looked like Harkrat's King Bull, though.

He hadn't heard that the Emperor was joining his fleet before Mythor, but if he was, the fighting might take some interesting directions. Blade swung himself over the railing of the top and into the rigging, calling for Khraishamo as he scrambled down to the deck.

The pirate met Blade as his feet struck the deck. «Have our battleflags hoisted, and pass the word to the rowers to keep their weapons handy. I suspect we'll be doing more fighting than rowing in this battle.»

«It's starting?»

«I'll be surprised if it doesn't in another hour. The Emperor may be joining Kloret's fleet.»

«The Emp-«

Blade put a finger to his lips. «Yes. At least I think I recognize King Bull. Harkrat's arrival may get Kloret moving. If it does, the Sarumi will have to attack before the two fleets can join against them.»

Khraishamo nodded. «We'll be moving up to the head of the line?»

«There will be plenty of fighting all along the line. No one will question our courage if we stay here. I want to be where I can watch Kloret's movements. The man himself, not just his fleet.»

Khraishamo showed all his teeth in a grin. «I won't ask what your plan is, Blade. But if you need me at your back-«

A shout came from the masthead. «Hulloooo, the deck! The Bloodskins are getting underway toward us!»

Blade's eyes met Khraishamo's, and he smiled. «Thanks. I may need you very badly.»

The lookouts all along the lines had seen the same thing. Blade heard their shouts and saw men running on the decks while battleflags appeared at the mastheads. They still hung limply in the still air.

From far away, a faint murmur reached Blade's ears-the drums and flutes of the Sarumi as their ships got underway.

For the moment, Blade's biggest and nearly only job was to keep track of what everybody was doing. Khraishamo could give any urgent orders aboard Lioness and the other ships would be fighting their own battles. So he scrambled aloft again, and reached the masthead just as the Sarumi's tactics became clear. Their fleet was dividing itself into two lines, to pass down both sides of the Mythoran fleet.

Blade watched the maneuver with the eye of an experienced sea fighter and realized that the sheer numbers of the Sarumi were going to handicap them. They were good sailors and shiphandlers, but until today they'd never needed a system of fleet tactics. They could handle three or four ships as a unit, but not two columns of sixty or more.

This meant the Sarumi couldn't possibly beat the Mythorans, at least before the Goharan fleet came into action. After that the Sarumi could either die or run. Blade didn't much care, as long as they didn't beat the Mythorans. If a large part of the rebels' fighting strength was destroyed today, Kloret might find the temptation to finish them off too much to resist.

The battle took shape slowly. This was inevitable, when the same men were going to have to row their ships into action and then fight all day. That was another advantage the Mythorans had-they could wait for the enemy to come to them. Apart from Lioness only half a dozen galleys had their oars out, and even these were only using them to hold position.

Minutes crawled past, giving the impression of being hours. Blade kept looking at the sun, always surprised that it wasn't past noon or even getting toward twilight. Damn it, he told himself. You've been in too many battles to start getting nervous over this one. You don't even have much responsibility when the fighting starts.

Strictly speaking, this was true. It would be a battle of every ship for herself, and Blade was sure the Mythorans, Goharans, and Maghri all knew their jobs. But driving off the Sarumi was only part of today's work. In fact, it was the less important part. All the Sarumi together were less of a menace to this Dimension than one man, Prime Minister Kloret.

More minutes. The Sarumi seemed to want to get into a position to attack the whole Mythoran fleet at once. That was fine with Blade. The longer the Mythoran fleet's horde of Maghri archers could stay hidden, the better.

The morning haze was burning off as the sun rose higher. Now the sunlight blazed from the sea until Blade had to shade his eyes in order to see anything at all. Over Mythor faint curls of smoke rose from forges and watchfires along the walls. Even if Mythor could defend itself on land, Blade hoped it wouldn't have to. Such a battle would be even bloodier than one at sea, leave deeper scars, and make peace between the two great cities of the Sea far more difficult. He hadn't joined the Mythorans to start a perpetual war in this Dimension.

Blade blinked. Was it just a trick his half-dazzled eyes were playing on him, or were the Goharan ships moving? He blinked again, looked away, and then looked more carefully, searching for Kloret's ship.

The Goharans were moving. He could see the foam their oars were leaving behind, and their battleflags fluttering at mastheads. They were moving 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 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.