by Джеффри Лорд
The two galleys seemed to be drawn together as if both were magnetized. Then the sea erupted all along the port side of the Imperial galley. Oars, planks, and men flew into the air on top of a great upheaval of dirty water. The water seemed to hang suspended for a moment, then crashed down on the Imperial galley’s deck and the wreckage along with it. Before the spray stopped falling the wounded galley was already beginning to list sharply to port.
The pirate galley slid to a stop with her ram almost against her victim’s side. Then she started backing away. A puff of smoke from her foc’sle told Blade that at least one gun remained in action. Both masts were tilted at unlikely angles, but both still stood. Otherwise she showed no signs of damage.
Blade swung his gaze to the opposite side of the fleet as another explosion roared out there. Black smoke towered up from the sea, and at the base of the tower the broken halves of a galley from Nullar were slowly settling into the water. Not as agreeable a sight as the first explosion.
The enemy’s gunfire still mounted steadily, most of it apparently aimed at the flanks of the allied fleet. One of the galleys in the first line of the center was dropping back past Avenger with her foc’sle a splintered and smashed wreck. Otherwise only a few shots seemed to be passing close enough for Blade to hear them or even see their fall.
He could ignore that. What he could not ignore was the damage the lighter galleys on the flanks were taking. One galley after another was dropping out now. There were no longer fairly neat lines on either side but a series of ragged clusters of ships, some of them already too crippled to maneuver their secret weapons. Imperial galleys were swooping down on them like vultures on dying animals, guns hammering and the sun gleaming on the armor of the boarding parties that crowded their decks.
Not all of the damage was on one side, of course. An Imperial galley made the mistake of stopping a hundred yards in front of a galley of Belthanor that still had her full speed. There was a sudden surge forward, a barrel driven hard against the Imperial galley’s stern, and an explosion that made Blade wince. Half of the Imperial galley was gone when the smoke lifted, blown to pieces by the magazine explosion. The other half floated for a couple of minutes, then slipped down out of sight.
The Belthanor galley backed away slowly, only a few oars working on each side. She was not fast enough to escape an Imperial galley that drove in past the floating wreckage and swept alongside. Instantly the decks of both ships were a tangle of fighting men. The battle was still going on when smoke from guns and burning ships laid a curtain across that stretch of sea and cut off Blade’s view.
Blade was a worried man. The barrels were working. He’d conceived and built a successful weapon. But they weren’t doing what he’d planned. The Imperial attack was hammering on his flanks as if there were no other ships in the whole allied fleet that could be any danger to them. It was all galley against galley so far, and he had not expected this to happen. He had built a sailing-ship killer, and now there were no sailing ships within range.
In another fifteen minutes there would be. The Imperial center was holding position and formation as if every ship were tied to every other. But in another fifteen minutes his attack on the center would have no protection for its flanks. From what he’d seen, he guessed that twenty of his flanking ships were out of action entirely, another twenty too slowed to use their weapons. That left-A rocket soared up above the enemy’s center, trailing a broad cloud of green smoke. Instantly other rockets rose from either end of the first line of the Imperial sailing ships. A moment later Blade realized that the ships of that line were beginning to turn, separating into two groups as they did so. One group was swinging to starboard, the other to port. Behind them Blade could at last begin to make out the Imperial second line.
He forgot about the flanks now as his mind leaped ahead, painting in seconds a complete, detailed picture of the Imperial battle plan. The sailing ships that were turning now would go on turning, swinging far out to port and starboard. By that time the Imperial galleys would have fought their way through the allied flanks. They might have to trade galley for galley to do it, but they would if they had to. There would be no holding back, not under Kul-Nam’s eyes and particularly not when he now stood a good chance of living to take vengeance.
So half the Imperial sailing ships would sweep in to the allied rear. The other half-Blade could see them clearly now, and see them slowly swinging to open their broadsides-would wait where they were, hammering away with their guns, standing against the attack of the allied center. The allied galleys would be caught with enemies ahead and enemies behind, no room to maneuver, and shot whistling about their ears every minute.
It was ironic. The exploding barrels were obviously a complete surprise to the enemy and every bit as deadly as Blade had intended. It was just as obvious they weren’t going to win the battle. They weren’t causing any panic-no one in the Imperial fleet would fear anything half as much as the wrath of the Emperor. Nor could they do much against the Imperial battle plan-a plan perfectly designed to meet a weapon that the planners hadn’t dreamed existed.
Had he miscalculated? Perhaps. Yet certainly neither he nor anyone else could have predicted this freakish coincidence. Freakish-and lethal. If something was not done and done fast, before this day’s sunset the coincidence would end the lives of twenty-five thousand men and all hope for Prince Durouman’s cause.
Fortunately, there were still things that could be done. Blade scanned the sea and the ships ahead, rapidly calculating speeds and distances. If the attack of the allied center could be shifted to one end of the Imperial second line instead of charging straight at it—
Blade again leaped into the rigging and slid down to the deck. He went even faster than before, stripped more skin off his palms, but ignored the pain. Then he ran aft along the port gangway, heading for the drummers and the men at the tiller.
As he leaped up onto the quarterdeck, he nearly collided with Prince Durouman. The prince seemed half hysterical with excitement and delight. Blade wondered if the man were completely ignorant of what was happening to the allied fleet, or if he’d finally cracked under the strain, or if
Then Blade noticed that the prince had drawn his sword and kept pointing with it in one direction, over Blade’s shoulder. Blade turned and saw what was drawing the prince’s attention.
Squarely in the center of the Imperial line facing them, half hidden by the smoke of its own guns, lay a highcastled, three-masted sailing ship. From all three of the masts floated enormous standards-red, with a black eagle in the center.
Chapter 26
Prince Durouman regained his voice. «The flagship!» he screamed. «The Imperial flagship! Kul-Nam himself! Steer for the flagship, tillermen! Steer for-«
«No!» Blade roared. Somehow he managed to outshout even the hysterical prince. Durouman jumped into the air and came down glaring at Blade, his sword raised:
For a moment Blade was certain he was going to have to knock the prince down and send him below for the rest of the battle. That would do nothing for their future relations, but letting Durouman guide Avenger in his present frame of mind would do absolutely nothing at all except lose the battle.
The moment passed. Durouman’s mouth snapped shut and he turned away, shaking all over. Blade slapped the chief tillerman on the shoulder. «Get ready to swing us to port when I give the word.» Then he shouted down to the drummers. «New stroke-all oars, reverse!» The drummers broke off to stare up at him for a moment. Then they shrugged and started beating the reverse. Avenger began to back off.
There was only one way to make sure of shifting the direction of the allied attack. Avenger would have to lead it on its new course. That meant getting clear of the close formation so that she could turn and be clearly seen turning. «Follow the leader» was the only reliable signal in a battle like this.
Avenger could not break out of the formation by going ahead, into easy range of the Imperial guns. So there was nothing to do but d
rop back through the formation to the rear.
During the next few minutes Blade was quite sure that he would finish up this day with his hair and beard as white as milk, if he lived through it at all. As Avenger slowed, the other galleys seemed to be racing past her. For one ghastly moment it seemed that Avenger’s next astern was going to ram her barrel straight up the flagship’s stern and set it off almost under Blade’s feet. By a margin so narrow that it made Blade sweat, that disaster was avoided.
Another galley shot up from astern and, by an even narrower margin, avoided plowing along Avenger’s starboard side. That would have smashed half of the flagship’s oars and flattened a good many of her rowers for good.
A third galley swerved in plenty of time to avoid coming close to Avenger. In the process she found herself almost across the bows of still another galley. This one had to swerve in turn, missed blowing her comrade to bits, but came so close to her stern that one anchor caught in the other’s main rigging. Shrouds parted with dismal twangs and the mainmast went over with a tremendous crash, amid a chorus of furious yells. For the moment it looked as if those two galleys were about to start a private war of their own.
Finally Avenger slid out of the formation. As Blade watched from the quarterdeck, he could see some of the other galleys in the allied center already following his lead and coming about to port. Still others were trying to follow but were too mixed up with their comrades to maneuver safely. Around and among and occasionally on all of them the shot from the Imperial line still fell. Kul-Nam’s captains either had unlimited powder or were less afraid of wasting it than of seeming not to be doing their best for their terrible master.
Avenger was now racing along almost parallel to the Imperial line, within range but not taking any fire for the moment. Blade looked away toward the rest of the battle. A bank of smoke was slowly swallowing everything astern, but he could see no real changes. He could barely make out the rest of the Imperial sailing ships. Apparently they were following through on their planned movements.
Fine. If he couldn’t see the ships, neither could Kul-Nam. If Kul-Nam couldn’t see them, he couldn’t signal to them. If he couldn’t signal new orders to them, they would go right on obeying the old ones. Fear of the Emperor was making his captains incredibly brave and stubborn. At the same time, it would also make them incredibly rigid in obeying what they thought were his orders.
Rule by fear was a two-edged sword.
Twenty galleys were now moving after Avenger in something that might be called a formation. Even better. They were gaining on the sailing ships. Soon they could swing around and cross the bows of the Imperial line. Instead of twenty sailing ships shooting at sixty galleys, there would be twenty galleys surrounding two or three sailing ships at a time, with full room to maneuver-and full room to swing in and strike with what they thrust ahead of them.
It had been a bloody battle and it would become still bloodier before it was over. But it might also turn into a victory. Blade mentally crossed his fingers-he’d done everything else that could be done for the moment.
Eventually the Imperial ships noticed Avenger and the galleys following her. They couldn’t figure out what the galleys’ maneuvers meant, but they could see a lot of targets. By now, though, Avenger was using the room created by all the confusion to swing still farther to port. Most of the other galleys were following her. Two-thirds of Blade’s attacking force was now out of range from the Imperial line, but the Imperial captains didn’t seem to realize this. They went on blazing away as if the galleys were practically alongside.
«They can’t see very well, can they?» said Prince Durouman.
«No,» said Blade. «Or perhaps they can see nothing but Kul-Nam’s flag-and Kul-Nam’s rage if they stop firing. We shall have to ask them, after we win the battle.»
Durouman looked sharply at Blade, realized that Blade had spoken with a perfectly straight face, and nodded.
Blade was glad to see that the galleys were drawing ahead of the Imperial ships. They were moving at a pace the rowers could not hold for much longer, if they were to have any strength left for the actual attack. That would have to be made at absolute top speed, for they would be closing to ranges where a gunner blind drunk and half paralyzed could hardly miss.
Avenger was a mile out ahead of the leading Imperial ship when Blade ordered the helm over again and the rowers to increase to the ramming stroke. Looking astern, he saw one galley after another doing the same. He heaved a sigh of relief. They had done all the complicated things he’d wanted them to do as if all the captains had been reading his mind. Now it was going to be a straight, uncomplicated attack again, with every galley for herself.
Avenger swung in a wide circle around the head of the Imperial line. Some of the galley captains behind her were too impatient to do that. They put their helms hard over and drove straight in at the enemy. Blade prayed that no more than half of them would be sunk as a price for that magnificently foolish courage.
It was not Avenger that drove home the first attack with Blade’s secret weapon against a sailing ship of the Empire. It was a galley of Nullar and a pirate galley, racing in almost side by side, not firing their guns, every man aboard except the rowers lying flat on the decks. They raced in, waves rising so high over the bows that Blade half expected them to drive right under.
They struck. There was a thudding roar, and a great column of water spewed up alongside an Imperial ship, then broke apart in a cloud of smoke and spray. Moments later the other galley struck, farther forward. Her barrel must have risen clear of the water at the last second, for it went off with a great sheet of flame. From the enemy’s foc’sle guns, men, and planks flew in all directions, and the bowsprit cartwheeled through the air to splash into the sea a hundred yards away. Then the mainmast tottered, toppled, and crashed down squarely on the deck of the first galley. She was dragged in alongside her dying enemy as the fallen mast twisted about. Blade saw the smoke of muskets suddenly spring up from both ships as both crews leaped to board or repel boarders.
It was bad luck, being caught that way. Blade had anticipated the risk, but there wasn’t anything to be done about it. When a large sailing ship started falling violently to pieces, there was no predicting where the pieces would land.
Avenger was now around on the far side of the enemy line and beginning to work her way back along it toward the flagship. The smoke and the enemy’s ships now cut off Blade’s view of the attack. He heard two more thudding roars as barrels were driven home and saw two more clouds of smoke rising through and above the murk from the guns. He saw one tremendous flash high in the rigging of a ship, as a powder barrel hurled by a siege engine exploded in her tops. Both masts went down in a rain of spars and blocks and sails; then the dismasted hull was blotted out in the smoke. All this time the guns still rolled.
Then Blade saw something that made him take off his helmet and wave it wildly, because he could no longer control his excitement. Two, three, four of the Imperial sailing ships were coming about, turning away out of line, turning their sterns to the allied galleys-turning to flee! At last the courage of Kul-Nam’s captains and crews was beginning to fade. The death that was coming at them out of the smoke filled them with a fear that drove any thought of what Kul-Nam might do out of their minds. All they could think of was what the enemy galleys would do if they didn’t flee.
Now the whole enemy line was falling into confusion as ship after ship tried to turn away. It looked like a stampede of drunken elephants, as fifteen or more large ships tried to maneuver in an area of sea that would have been cramped for half that number. All of the ships were clumsy to begin with, and none of them had been improved by the damage they’d sustained.
Blade saw a barrel crash down on one ship’s deck and explode. It must have been filled with sulphur, for an enormous cloud of yellowish smoke swirled up from the deck. Flames followed, rapidly climbing the masts and reducing the sails to blackened shreds. Blade heard the crackle and roar,
heard the explosions of powder charges on deck, saw men jump over the side with clothing and hair aflame, preferring drowning or sharks to burning alive.
Then another sailing ship loomed out of the smoke too close to the burning one to avoid her. They crashed together and all the masts of both ships went down. Now they were as firmly linked as if a dozen sailors had spent hours tying them together.
Then a galley attacked. Her barrel smashed into the second ship-and it touched off the ship’s magazines.
The explosion could not have been louder if a volcano had risen from the bottom of the sea to create a new island. Blade clapped both hands over his ears, quite sure that he was going to be deaf for a week. The entire sea around Avenger seemed to be blotted out by the great flash and the smoke that followed it.
The smoke was so thick that Blade never saw or heard any of the pieces of the three ships and their men fall back into the sea. It was as if all three ships and crews had been blown into dust so fine that the wind carried it away.
Avenger moved on. By now her rowers were deaf to everything except the beat of the drums. She swept through the smoke without slowing down and broke out into the daylight again.
Three hundred yards away rose the towering mass of Kul-Nam’s flagship.
Instantly the ship let fly with an entire broadside, thirty or more guns. In spite of the range, only one or two shots struck Avenger. Even the Emperor’s eye directly on them could no longer make the Empire’s gunners shoot straight. Without any orders, the boarding party began rushing forward, the men from the stern guns joining them. Avenger surged forward, and in that moment the big galley seemed as alive and eager as the men on her decks.
Blade yelled what he hoped everyone heard as «Get down!» and threw himself flat on the deck. The heavy gun on the bow went off. Several balls from the flagship whistled overhead. Then Avenger drove her deadly weapon hard against the flagship’s bow.
