Men leaped from the ship into the water.
The ship then seemed again to right itself, but began to settle. I crouched, terrified, gripping the line by the mast. Suddenly I felt on my feet the cold water of Thassa. The deck was awash. The other ship moved away from us, like a silken sleen.
On the high deck the captain, alone, stood, his hand on the rail.
I looked about. The helmdeck was deserted, the benches empty. I heard a man scream from the water.
Too, from afar, I heard signal horns.
The captain looked down, toward me. "There is no safety here," he said. "Release the line and flee to the water."
I shook my head. "No!" I said. "No!" I was terrified.
Suddenly he looked upon me, as a Gorean master. He began to descend from the high deck, toward me.
"Yes, Master!" I cried. I released the line and fled to the railing, and leaped into the water. I was a slave girl. I feared a Gorean master more than the water.
The water was greenish, and cold. I felt miserable. I went beneath the surface and then emerged.
"Come away from the ship," called a man.
I swam toward him. I was some yards from the sinking vessel when it slipped beneath the water. I was dragged back and submerged, but, in moments, I managed to regain the surface.
I could not see for the salt water in my eyes. It burned in my nostrils for a moment. I spit water out.
A hand seized me and pulled me to a piece of wreckage, some plankings from the ship's side.
"We will be picked up momentarily," said a man. There were some four men on the planking.
I could see other ships from the convoy. There were several about, converging upon us.
"Wait!" said one of the men. "They are turning about!"
"There are other ships!" cried another.
I stood up, unsteadily, on the boards. I could see, to be sure, that several of the convoy ships were turning about. Too, in the distance, between some of them, I could see other ships, approaching.
"The convoy," said one, "is under attack."
I saw the young officer in the water. He was assisting the captain of the Jewel of Jad. They found wreckage.
I saw a fin, long and white, suddenly cut the water. A ship passed near us, but it was one which flew the flag of Port Kar, a light galley. It did not pause for us. I saw a trail of smoke looping through the sky as a fire missile was launched from a ship's catapult. Far to our left we saw a galley aflame. It was one of Cos.
Signal horns could be heard.
Two longboats approached, lowered from one of the ships of the convoy. One of them picked up men from the water, and the captain and young officer. The other nosed toward us. The four men boarded the longboat.
I, too, made ready to board the longboat. I was stopped, and thrust back.
"We have no room for a slave," said one of the men.
"Please, Masters!" I begged.
I knelt on the planking. The yellow rep-cloth I wore was wet and thin, and clung close upon me. Gorean slave girls are commonly not permitted brassieres or undergarments.
"Please, Masters!" I begged.
They drew me into the boat.
I knelt between their feet, my head down, making myself small.
In a few moments we drew alongside the mothership and I, and the others, boarded her.
I was taken and put immediately in the hold. "A slave girl!" said a woman's voice. There was a tiny lamp. "Forgive me, Mistress," I said, and knelt. She mounted the stairs. "I will not share the hold with a slave girl!" she cried. "Be silent, Woman!" said an angry man, who was on the deck. She tried to move back the heavy hatch but it had been battened down. She came angrily back down the stairs. I did not dare to look at her. "Forgive me, Mistress," I begged. She paced back and forth. We had both been placed in the hold. We were both women.
I and the free woman, who did not deign to speak to me, remained many hours in the hold, as the fighting and maneuvering continued for several hours, through the afternoon and night. The lamp burned out and we remained in the darkness. Outside and above decks we could hear shouting, and the sound of sprung ropes, as the canisters of flaming pitch were lofted from the deck catapults. Once, late, we were partly sheared, losing several oars on the port side. A few moments later we had been boarded, but the boarders had been repelled.
After the repulsion of the boarders the hatch had been opened, briefly.
"The ship is secure, Lady," had said the captain. "I shall have food brought."
She had ascended the stairs, going to the deck. Behind her, unnoticed, I crept to the height of the stairs.
It was still dark. On deck there were dark lanterns. Sometimes, in the distance, I saw flares lofted from one ship or another, burning upward and then, their silken globelike chutes opening, burning steadily, descending, to settle into the water and be extinguished. Too, there was light on the water, to our left, from flaming ships.
"I will remain no longer in the hold," said the lady to the captain.
"I must insist," said he.
"No," she said.
"You will go below of your own free will," said he, "or I will have you put there, chained to the bottom of the steps."
"You would not dare!" she cried.
"Bring chains," he said.
"I shall comply with your wishes, Captain," she said, angrily, and descended the stairs. I slipped down before her. The hatch was again closed. It was opened in a few moments, and food and drink was brought. She did not share it with me.
I could tell when morning came as I could hear the men above changing the watch.
Then I fell asleep.
I was awakened by the free woman pounding on the hatch, demanding to be released.
That we had not been released led me to believe that there was still danger.
From what I could hear the convoy, as a whole, had maintained good discipline, and given a satisfactory account of itself. We were, apparently, now flanked by several other ships of the convoy.
Then we heard the cry of "Sail! Sail!" Once more the weary men scurried about the decks. We felt the ship shift as oars took the water. We heard the call of the oar master.
"They are coming again!" we heard. "They are coming again!"
We felt the ship come about.
"What happens," asked the free woman of me, "if we, below decks, are rammed?" it was the first time she had spoken to me.
"Perhaps, Mistress," I said, "someone will remember to open the hatch."
"But if not?" she asked.
"Let us hope they will not forget, Mistress," I said.
"We were boarded last night," she said.
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
"If I had fallen into the hands of the enemy," she asked, "what would have been done to me?"
"You would have been stripped, Mistress," I said, "to see if you were pleasing to the men."
"And if I were?" she asked.
"Mistress would have been made a slave," I said. "Forgive me, Mistress," I added.
"And if I were not 'pleasing, " she asked.
"I do not know, Mistress," I said. "The enemy are men of Port Kar. Perhaps you would be thrown to the sharks."
She made a small noise of fear. It pleased me to hear it. I think she understood her womanhood a bit more clearly now than perhaps she had before.
"If we are rammed," she said, frightened, "and the men do not remember to open the hatch, or do not have time to do so, what will occur?"
"Sometimes," I said, "the planking is opened widely. Perhaps we could escape."
"It would not be likely that we would be successful," she said.
"No, Mistress," I said.
We heard the count of the oar master increasing. There was not much other noise on deck.
Then we felt the ship, perhaps half of an Ahn later, suddenly veer to one side. We heard some oars snapped.
"I want to know what is going on!" screamed the free woman. She pounded on the closed hatch. None paid her attention.