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.
Chapter 25
The galley's captain chose as his target two Sarumi ships swinging wide around the end of the Mythoran fleet. They were leading five more, and Blade saw Khraishamo looking astern of Lioness.
«Want to see if anyone's following us?»
The pirate laughed. «You might say that. Fighting seven-to-one's fine for the reputation, but it makes too many widows.»
That reminded Blade that Khraishamo and Rhodina hadn't been able to hold their wedding. Rhodina wouldn't even be a proper widow. Blade hoped that for her sake either he or Khraishamo would return from this day's fighting.