A determination to watch his invention work under battle conditions filled Blade. He sprang into the rigging again, ignoring the steadily increasing beat of the enemy's guns. He had barely settled into the crow's nest when he saw a pirate galley swing out on the left flank, driving in against an Imperial opponent that had wandered too close. Blade held his breath, cursing mentally. The captains were supposed to save the barrels for use against sailing ships first, not against galleys. But a pirate captain who saw a chance to strike down an Imperial opponent would be sorely tempted. This one had obviously yielded to temptation.
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-«