Swebon looked confused. «The Emperor is also a Son of Hapanu, Blade. Can any of them be our friends?»
Blade shrugged. «Friends? I don't know. But I'm almost sure that the Emperor is the enemy of our great enemy, the Protector of Gerhaa. We should do what we can to keep things that way.»
At last Swebon nodded, with a smile that turned into a grin. «Yes. It is said that a wise man does not make water in the cooking pot of the enemy of an enemy or the friend of a friend. So we will not make water in the Emperor's cooking pot.» The smile faded. «How shall we tell one cooking pot from another, Blade?»
Blade described the different banners of the two factions. «All ships flying the Protector's banner are fair game. The Emperor's ships are not to be attacked unless they attack us.»
Swebon sent messengers off in canoes with the new orders. Kuka climbed down from the walls to speak briefly with Blade, reporting that there was no sign of an attack in the city. Blade told him to get back and make sure there wouldn't be any, and Kuka reluctantly returned to the city. The rest of Blade's assault party climbed into the canoes of the Forest People and paddled off to take more of the Protector's ships. There was no sign of Meera, and Blade could only console himself with Swebon's word that she'd been all right the last time he saw her.
The last two canoes of Blade's assault party were getting ready to leave. Blade said farewell to Swebon, then scrambled up to the ship's maintop to take a final look at the battle.
He'd barely reached the top when he saw that the Protector's counterattack was starting.
There were five heavily-manned galleys in the counterattack. Two of them had catapults at bow and stern, and all of them had their decks crammed with crossbowmen. They crept up the harbor from the east, passing insolently close to the Emperor's quietly waiting sailing ships. Then the oars settled to a steady stroke and the galleys began to move.
As they moved, the canoes of the Forest People swarmed toward them. The galleys held their fire until the canoes were within crossbow range. Then they let fly with everything they had, eighty and a hundred bolts at a time.
The canoes might as well have run into machine-gun fire. In some every man was killed within a few seconds. In others the survivors leaped overboard, preferring to risk the creatures in the river to dying under the hail of archery. Dozens of canoes drifted empty except for bodies, in water rapidly turning red with blood and still lashed with crossbow bolts.
Then the catapults on the two lead galleys opened fire, hurling their six-foot spears as fast as their crews could reload and recock them. One of these spears could skewer three or four men at once, like barbecued chickens on a spit. It could split a canoe in two, capsize it, or drill a hole large enough to sink it within minutes. More bodies joined the ones already floating in the red water, and more warriors thrashed frantically toward the surviving canoes. Some of them reached safety. The Forest People with the new bows shot back and kept the battle from being completely one-sided, but not from being a disaster for the canoes.
Blade didn't know how many canoes and warriors were lost. He only knew that after a while the survivors were paddling away from the Protector's deadly galleys. They weren't fleeing in blind panic, however. They crossed the sand bars into the open river. Then they turned and paddled along parallel to the galleys, just out of crossbow range. The galleys picked off a few more canoes with their catapults, then ceased fire.
It was obvious that the canoe-borne warriors of the Forest People couldn't hope to engage the Protector's galleys when the galleys had room to maneuver. It was just as obvious to Blade that the galleys weren't going to have that room much longer. The harbor narrowed toward its western end, and Blade was at almost the narrowest point. If the galleys had to turn around here, they would be nearly immobile while they were doing it, and if they had a few other things on their minds as well-
Blade leaped into the rigging and slid down the shrouds to the deck. He was issuing orders as his feet hit the deck. Fortunately a good many of the river assault party were ex-sailors or at least boatmen, and the Forest People were at home on the water. His plan was going to need a lot of men who at least knew one end of a ship or boat from the other.
Messengers scrambled up ladders and paddled off in canoes. Kuka was to send every archer and every bolt or arrow in Gerhaa to the Blue Bird's Tower. They should climb onto the wall but stay down and hold their fire until Blade gave them the signal. As many of the assault party as Blade could reach were called back to his ship. Men climbed into canoes and paddled off to the other two ships lying closest to Blade's. Blade himself led a few men in cutting the shrouds of their own ship's mainmast. A lookout climbed into the foretop and called down the progress of the Protector's galleys.
The galleys were now coming on more slowly, stopping to send boarding parties aboard ships captured by the rebels and the Forest People. Some of the men caught aboard those ships fought with foolish courage and died for it. Others managed to scramble into their canoes and get clear. Most of these rallied at Blade's ship, Swebon among them. As the galleys slowly came on, Blade's strength grew, until he had more than four hundred men and sixty canoes within easy reach. More than two hundred of the men were archers with either crossbows or the new laminated bows of the People.
As the galleys came within catapult range, Blade and Swebon climbed to the top of the siege tower to make sure they could see everything. Blade saw the glint of metal on helmets on the wall and knew that Kuka's archers were getting into position. The decks of the three ships he was planning to use were nearly deserted-or at least they'd look that way from the galleys. Behind the three ships lay fifty canoes, in clear sight of the galleys but safely out of bowshot until the galleys had passed Blade's ships.
The galleys now seemed to be stopping and lying on their oars. Blade knew that someone aboard was sure to be considering the possibilities of a trap. After all, three ships lying across the harbor so that they'd force the galleys to pass through in single file and at a crawl?
Blade also doubted that common sense would prevail. Just beyond the three ships lay a solid mass of canoes, the last resistance in the harbor. If the galleys sank those, then they could break out into the open river, to engage the remaining canoes with all the maneuvering room they needed. The temptation to go on would be enormous, trap or not.
The risks of retreating would be even greater. The Emperor's general had to be watching by now. The last thing the Protector could afford was to appear cautious or even cowardly under the general's eyes. He'd already lost far too much; he had to gamble if he wanted to be allowed to keep what he had, let alone have any chance to win back what he'd lost.
The galleys rested on their oars so long that Blade was almost ready to signal the archers on the wall to open fire. If the galleys weren't coming on through, he'd have to hit them as hard as he could where they were. Some of them were within bowshot now, and-
The galley flying the Protector's personal standard was on the move again, foam curling away from her oars. She'd been third in line; now she was coming up to take the lead. One by one the other galleys started to move, falling in behind the flagship.
Blade slapped Swebon on the back and pointed. He felt like holding his breath, as if that could draw the galleys on faster. He didn't feel like cheering yet. Too many things could still go wrong.
The galleys came on as if they were running on rails. They were bearing off to port, toward the smallest of Blade's three ships, the one closest to the island and sand bars. When the Protector's galley was a hundred yards from that ship, Blade leaned over the railing of the siege tower and waved a red scarf on a long stick. He went on waving it until another red scarf waved from the bow of the third ship. A moment later red flames spurted up from her amidships.