His control began to slip and my frenzy increased. I bore down upon him and his hold upon me began to slacken.
Finally, “You devil!” he cried, and moved his band to cover the card that he held.
The contact was broken, and I stood there shaking.
I had done it. I had bested him in a contest of wills. No longer would I fear my tyrant brother in any form of single combat. I was stronger than he.
I sucked in several deep breaths and stood erect, ready for the moment the coldness of a new mental attack occurred. I knew that it wouldn't, though, not from Eric. I sense that he feared my fury.
I looked about me and there was fighting. There was already blood on the decks. A ship had come alongside us and we were being boarded. Another vessel was attempting the same maneuver on the opposite side. A bolt whistled by my head.
I drew my blade and leaped into the fray.
I don't know how many I slew that day. I lost count somewhere after number twelve or thirteen. It was more than twice that, on that engagement alone, though. The strength with which a prince of Amber is naturally endowed, which had allowed me to lift a Mercedes, served me that day, so that I could raise a man with one hand and hurl him over the rail.
We slew everyone aboard both boarding ships and opened their hatches and sent them down to Rebma where Random would be amused by the carnage. My crew had been cut in half in the battle, and I had suffered innumer able nicks and scratches but nothing serious. We went to the aid of a sister vessel and knocked off another of Caine's raiders.
The survivors of the rescued vessel came aboard the flagship and I had a full crew once more.
“Blood!” I called out. “Give me blood and vengeance this day, my warriors, and you will be remembered in Amber forever!”
And as a man. they raised their weapons and cried out, “Blood!” And gallons-no, rivers-of it were let that day. We destroyed two more of Caine's raiders, replenishing our numbers from those of the survivors of our own fleet. As we headed toward a sixth, I climbed the mainmast and tried to take a quick count.
We looked to be outnumbered three to one. There seemed to be between forty-five and fifty-five remaining of my fleet.
We took the sixth, and we didn't have to look for the seventh and the eighth. They came to us. We took them too, but I received several wounds in the fighting that again left me with half a crew. My left shoulder and my right thigh had been cut deeply, and a slash along my right hip was hurting.
As we sent those ships to the bottom, two more moved toward us,
We fled and gained an ally in one of my own ships which had been victorious in its own recent battle. We combined crews once more, this time transferring the standard to the other vessel, which had been less damaged than my own, which had begun shipping water badly and was beginning to list to starboard.
We were allowed no breathing space, as another vessel neared and the men attempted to board.
My men were tired, and I was getting that way. Fortunately the other crew wasn't in such great shape either. Before the second of Caine's vessels came to its aid, we had overwhelmed it, boarded, and transferred the standard again. That ship had been in even better shape.
We took the next and I was left with a good ship, forty men, and gasping.
There was no one in sight to come to our aid now. All of my surviving ships were engaged by at least one of Caine's. A raider was heading toward us and we fled.
We gained perhaps twenty minutes this way. I tried to sail into Shadow, but it's a hard, slow thing that near to Amber. It's much easier to get this close than it is to depart, because Amber is the center, the nexus. If I'd had another ten minutes, I could have made it.
I didn't, though.
As the vessel hove nearer, I saw another one off in the distance turning in our direction. It bore the black and green standard beneath Eric's cotors and the white unicorn. It was Caine's ship. He wanted to be there for the kill.
We took the first one and didn't even have time to open its hatches before Caine was upon us. I was left standing on the bloody deck, with a dozen men about me, and Caine moved to the bow of his ship and called upon me to surrender.
“Will you grant my men their lives if I do this thing?” I asked him.
“Yes,” he said. “I'd lose a few crewmen myself if I didn't, and there's no need for that.”
“On your word as a prince?” I asked.
He thought about it a moment, then nodded.
“Very well.” he said. “Have your men lay down their arms and board my vessel when I come alongside.”
I sheathed my blade and nodded about me.
“You have fought the good fight. and I love you for it,” I said. “But we have lost in this place.” I dried my hands on my cloak as I spoke and wiped them carefully, as I'd hate to smudge a work of art. “Lay down your arms and know that your exploits of this day will never be forgotten. One day I will praise you before the court of Amber.”
The men, the nine big red ones and the three remaining hairy ones, wept as they put down their arms.
“Do not fear that all is lost in the struggle for the city,” I said. “We have lost only one engagement and the battle still continues elsewhere. My brother Bleys hacks his way toward Amber at this moment. Caine will keep his word to spare your lives when he sees that I have gone to join with Bleys upon the land, for he would not have knowledge that he was forsworn come into Amber. I am sorry that I cannot take you with me.”
And with this, I drew Bleys' Trump from the pack and held it low and before me, out of sight of the other vessel.
Just as Caine came alongside, there was movement beneath that cold, cold surface.
“Who?” Bleys asked.
“Corwin,” I said. “How fare you?”
“We won the battle, but lost many troops. We're resting now before we renew the march. How go things with you?”
“I think we've destroyed nearly half of Caine's fleet, but he's won the day. He's about to board me now. Give me escape.”
He held forth his hand and I touched it and collapsed into his arms.
“This is getting to be a habit,” I muttered, and then I saw that he was wounded too, about the head, and there was a bandage around his left hand. “Had to grab the wrong end of a saber,” he remarked, as he saw my eyes fall upon it. “It smarts.”
I caught my breath and then we walked to his tent, where he opened a bottle of wine and gave me bread, cheese, and some dried meat. He still had plenty of cigarettes and I smoked one as a medical officer dressed my wounds.
He still had around a hundred and eighty thousand men behind him. As I stood on a hilltop and the evening began around me, it seemed as if I looked out over every camp I had ever stood within, stretching on and on over the miles and the centuries without end. I suddenly felt tears come into my eyes, for the men who are not like the lords of Amber, living but a brief span and passing into dust, that so many of them must meet their ends upon the battlefields of the world.
I returned to Bleys' tent and we finished the bottle of wine.
Chapter 7
That night there was a bad storm. It hadn't let up when dawn struggled to cross the world's palm with silver, and it continued on through the day's march.
It is a very demoralizing thing to tramp along and be rained on, a cold rain at that. How I've always hated the mud, through which it seems I've spent centuries marching!