Guardsman of Gor (3 page)

The Tina, shuddering, backing, with a splintering of wood, freed her ram.

I, crouching, peered over the side. The forward deck of the enemy was already awash.

I saw men there, in water to their knees, clinging to rails. The catapult on the enemy's stern castle had broken loose from its large, rotating mount. Its ropage hung down, dangling in the wind. The strands seemed narrow, from the distance from which I viewed them. The largest, however, would be some four inches in diameter. I saw a man leap from the stern castle into the water.

"Look!" cried out a man, in misery. He was pointing to starboard. The second enemy galley had ridden over the chain.

"Me first of the Voskjard's ships has crossed the chainl" cried another.

We saw other galleys, too, approaching the chain.

"Another has crossed!" cried a man, pointing to starboard. Beyond that ship we could see another galley, too, but this one was striking at the chain.

The
Mira was
hastening to engage the galley which had ridden over the chain.

The
Mira
made good her strike. There was a cheer from our vessel. The starboard rudder of the enemy galley had been torn away in crossing the chain. The galleys of the Voskjard, like most Gorean ships, were double ruddered.

"Hard to starboardl" cried Callimachus.

As we came about a pirate galley knifed towards us.

"To starboard!" cried Callimachus. Then he cried, "Oars inboard!"

Her ram missed us. Her port shearing blade tore at our strakes.

"Oars outboard!" called Callimachus. "Come about!"

The two ships had slid past one another. As the ships passed I had looked into the eyes of a pirate. He had not been more than five feet from me.

"Two more ships are over the chain!" called the officer with Callimachus, pointing to port.

"Ships of Port Cos are approaching!" cried another man. There was a cheer on our vessel. Ten such ships were at the chain. Twenty others lay to in the waters near the south guard station, which post was held by Callisthenes. These ships, those of Port Cos, were our hope. It was only these, we feared, who might be able to match the forces of the Voskjard in even combat. The ships of Ar's Station could bring numbers to bear in our favor, but we did not regard them, ship for ship, as the match of either a galley of the Voskjard or of Port Cos. The naval tradition of Cos is an ancient one, and many of the officers of Port Cos were native Cosians, mercenaries or veterans of the Cosian navy, on detached duty to the colony, that the interests of the mother island might be defended on the Vosk.

"There is a ship of Ar's Station!" called out the officer on the stem castle.

There was a cheer at this cry.

We had now come about, but already the galley which had nearly torn us open was facing us.

"She has quick lines," said a man.

"Why has she not attacked?" asked a man.

"She is waiting for support," said a man.

"No," said another. "If we move to the chain, she can ram us amidships."

"She is defending her sisters," said a man.

"We can no longer protect the chain," said another.

But then we saw the galley swinging to starboard. Another galley, one flying the pennons of Port Cos, was speeding towards her.

There was another cheer from our men. "Back to the chain!" called Callimachus, elated.

"Another has slipped overl" cried out a man, angrily, pointing over the bow.

It was free of the chain. We could not catch her. She slipped behind us on the waters of the broad, muddy Vosk.

"How many have passed the chain?" asked a man, glumly.

"Who knows?" asked another.

Here and there, at the chain, again and again, pirate galleys were striking at the great links, and then backing away, and then again, patiently, renewing their attack.

"Doubtless they are hammering at points where they know the chain was weakened in the night," said a man near me. He had been with me in the longboat last night.

"Yes," I said: "Look there!"

I pointed to one of the truncated pylons rising out of the river. It had been splashed with yellow paint.

"Catapults!" called Callimachus.

Two stones looped into the air and then, gracefully, began their descent toward one of the pirate ships.

Huge spumes of water rose into the air as the great rocks plunged into the Vosk

"Bowmen!" called Callimachus.

We neared the first of the galleys and flighted arrows toward her.

She drew back.

'Mere are others," said a man.

We moved along the chain. We came upon the wreckage of a pirate galley, broken in two, deserted. It had broken, attempting to ride over the chain.

"There is a pirate galley behind us, a pasang back, lying to!" called out a man, aft on the stern castle.

"We remain at the chain," said Callimachus.

"It seems to list," called the man. "I think it is crippled."

"We remain at the chain," said Callimachus.

I smiled. He was a good commander. He would not be lured from his post. A ship can be made to seem to list by re-'

Positioning the ballast in its lower hold. If the ship were truly a cripple I did not think it would be lying to. An oared fighting ship is seldom helpless. Too, if the ship were crippled, it posed no immediate threat. And, if it were not crippled, it needed only be kept under observation. Isolated ships can be dealt with on a piecemeal basis. Our duty lay at the chain. He who thoughtlessly abandons his defenses strikes a poor bargain with fortune.

"Look there!" called the officer on the stem castle with Callimachus. He pointed ahead, half a point off the starboard bow..

Callimachus took the glass of the Builders from the officer. "It is the
Sita of
Point Alfred," said Callimachus, "and the Tais of Port Cos."

"They fly distress signals on the stem-castle lines," said the officer.

"Bring her about," called Callimachus.

"It can mean but one thing," said the officer.

Callimachus snapped shut the glass of the Builders.

I could now hear the sound of the horns drifting towards us.

"Acknowledge," said Callimachus. Flags were run on the stern-castle lines.

I could not interpret the horns.

"What is it?" I called up to Callimachus.

"It had to happen," he said.

"What?" I asked.

"It happened to the north," he said.

"What?" I asked.

"The chain has been broken," he said. I held the rail, looking astern.

The
Sita
and the
Tais
were now clearly visible.

"Where are the
Talia,
the
Thenta,
the
Midice,
the
Ina,
the

Tia,
asked the officer.

"I did not see them," said Callimachus. He handed the glass of the Builders back to the officer. "Do you see them?" he asked.

"No," said the man. "No."

"Quarter stroke," said Callimachus.

"Quarter strokel" called the officer to the oar master.

"Quarter strokel" he called to his men.

The Sita and the
Tais
were now abeam, to port.

We moved southward, along the chain.

Callimachus descended from the stem castle and made his way back, between the benches, to the stern castle. I accompanied him. He carried the glass of the Builders.

"There were seven ships," I said. I stood beside Call machus on the stern castle.

"Perhaps some survived," he said.

"I see ships," I said, pointing astern. There were specks at the horizon line, marshaled specks.

Callimachus handed me the glass of the Builders. "Ships of the Voskjard," I said.

"Yes," said Callimachus.

"Apparently the Voskjard has more than fifty ships," I said. I had counted at least forty. And there were several others, I knew, here and there at the chain.

"Me information of Callisthenes was apparently mistaken," said Callimachus. "That is a sore and unwelcome flaw in our intelligence."

"How many can there be?" I asked.

"I do not know," said Callimachus. "Sixty, a hundred?"

"We can never match such ships in open battle," I said.

"Port Cos must fight as she has never fought before," skid Callimachus.

"They are not hurrying," I said to Callimachus. I had been counting the strokes per Ehn.

"They do not wish to tire their oarsmen," said Callimachus. I handed the glass of the Builders back to him.

"Port Cos is the hope of the Vosk," said Callimachus. "We of Ar's Station and of the independent ships must support her in her battle."

"The odds are overwhelming," I said. "Can she win?"

"She must," said Callimachus.

"At least she is commanded by men such as Callisthenes," I said.

"His twenty ships, summoned from the south guard station, will be crucial," said Callimachus.

"We shall need each of them if we are to make a showing," I said.

"Without them," I said, "it would be a slaughter."

"With them, in spite of the odds," said Callimachus, "the tide might be turned in our favor."

"You seem troubled," I said.

"I am only hoping," he said, "that the chain has not been cut south of us."

"We have protected it as well, and as long, as we could," I said:

"Let us hope that the time which we have invested in that work will prove itself to have been well spent," he said.

I shuddered. "I shall hope so," I said. If our fleet did not have time to group, or if our flank were turned, it would be indeed a tragic day for our forces upon the Vosk. The planks of our fleet might litter the river to the wharves of Turmus.

"Have you orders for me?" I asked.

"Sharpen your sword," he said. "And get what rest you can.

"Yes, Captain," I said. I turned away from Callimachus.

"Do you look forward to the fight?" he asked.

"Yes," I said, not turning to regard him.

"That is interesting," said Callimachus.

"Is it significant?" I asked. .

"Perhaps," said Callimachus.

"What does it mean?" I asked.

"Do you think you will be able to sleep before the engagement?" he asked.

"Of course," I said. "Why? Are these things significant?"

"What do you think?" he asked.

"I do not know," I said.

"Sharpen your sword," said he, "and get what rest you can.

"Yes, Captain," I said, and then descended the steps of the stern castle. I made my way toward the bow. The rowers were working only at quarter stroke. I sat down near my gear and, for a time, with a stone, whetted the blade on the weapon I carried. When I was finished I set a light coat of oil on the steel, that it might be protected from rust. Then I lay down on the smoothed deck, near the starboard rail, and, near a coil of mooring rope, fell soon asleep.

THE WEDGE;

RAMS AND SHEARING BLADES

"How many are there?" I heard an officer inquire of Callimachus, above and behind me, on the deck of the stem castle.

"Forty-two," said he.

We lay to, twenty-two ships, in a double line. Our oars were inboard.

"The chain held," said a man near me.

"Yes," I said. It had been broken in the north, but here, closer to the southern shore of the Vosk, it had held. This had permitted us to group. Too, the left flank of our position was protected, still, by the mighty links of the Cosian chain, transported to the Vosk, slung between its pylons.

"Where are the ships of Callisthenes?" inquired an officer of Callimachus.

"They will join us shortly," said Callimachus. "We must hold our lines until they arrive."

Even this far south, and from the height of the stem castle, one could not see the southern shore of the Vosk.

"They are forming the wedge," said an officer beside Callimachus.

Our right flank was protected by seven ships of Port Cos, seven of the ten which had been originally abroad on the

river. The
Midice
and Tia had been lost. The Ira, her starboard oars sheared, had been boarded and taken as a prize. The
Talia
and
Thenta,
the first of Point Alfred and the secand of Jort's Ferry, had been lost in the same action. Both had been merchant ships, acting in support of the ships of Port Cos. Of the group the Sita, of Jort's Ferry, and the Talc of Port Cos, had escaped. In this first engagement, in the north, we had lost five of seven ships. The Voskjard, as we had learned, had lost four.

"Yes," said Callimachus, handing the glass of the Builders back to one of the officers, "it is the wedge."

From my position at the starboard rail, near the bow, below the stem castle, I could not well see the arrangement of the Voskjard's formation.

"There are other ships of the Voskjard west of the chain," said a man, glumly.

These were the ships which, for better than a full day and night, beginning with yesterday's dawn, had been essaying the chain in our sector.

"We can no longer keep them out," said a man.

"True," I admitted.

The chain could now be cut with impunity, behind the shield of the Voskjard's northern fleet, that now some half pasang off our bows.

We had not been able to make a determination on the ships west of the chain in our sector. It was speculated, however, that the southern fleet was larger even than the northern, which had been successful in its strike against the chain.

Acting on the information supplied by Callisthenes we had conjectured that the Voskjard commanded in the neighborhood of fifty ships. This intelligence had now been revealed as substantially in error, perhaps by a factor of two.

"By now," said a man, "the chain has probably been cut."