Blade and Khraishamo were a different matter. The pirate chief was the first up, and even when he rose he wasn’t attacked. Apparently the other Sarumi didn’t know quite what to make of seeing one of their own people aboard a human ship. Then Khraishamo punched one of the boarders in the stomach, heaved a second overboard, and went to work with his ax. In five strokes he killed four enemies and cleared a circle around himself and around Blade.

  Blade used this chance to spring to his feet, stabbing upward into the stomach of a boarder as he did. A Sarumi came at him and got in too close for Blade to use his sword, so he used the knife again, this time in the throat. Then Blade made his own fighting room, stood back-to-back with Khraishamo, and also went to work.

  In five minutes the wreckage of the foc’sle was covered with dead and dying Sarumi. Blade and Khraishamo had enough room to fight, but the boarders had no room to get past them. Other Sarumi took to the water, swimming alongside Lioness and trying to board her amidships. The archers picked off some in the water and the rowers from below knocked more on the head as they climbed up.

  Enough Sarumi made it aboard to interfere with the archers. The hail of arrows from Lioness slackened and two other Sarumi ships started creeping in toward her, ignoring the dead and wounded on their decks. Meanwhile, Lioness’s ram was still wedged deeply in the side of the first enemy ship. Blade felt the deck under him begin to tilt toward the bow as water poured into the rammed ship, and saw that she was already lower in the water. If Lioness didn’t back clear, she might go down with her victim, but all her rowers were now up on deck fighting for their lives. Blade started to look around for an ax, an iron bar, anything for chopping or prying the two ships apart before they sank in their deadly embrace.

  As he searched, he looked to starboard for the first time since the ramming. The Goharan fleet hadn’t closed the distance as much as Blade would have expected-except for one ship.

  Kloret’s big galley was bearing down on Lioness and her victim, oars flashing at nearly ramming speed and her ram completely buried in a rainbow of foam. It was hard to tell if Kloret planned on actually ramming Lioness, but he certainly had a perfect excuse to close in. From a distance, it must look as if Lioness was already in Sarumi hands. He could ram or send a boarding party, and in the confusion it would be easy for Blade to be «accidentally» killed.

  However, two men could think of that idea. Blade would be at a disadvantage, because at first he’d have only himself and Khraishamo. Kloret would have his whole galley’s crew. On the other hand, two fast-moving men with speed and surprise on their side could do the job.

  Nobody was coming across from the rammed Sarumi ship now. The few men left on her deck were trying to get the wounded in shape to swim before the ship went down. Khraishamo was also dealing with the wounded Sarumi around him, muttering a few words over each one, then bringing his ax down. The expression on his face made Blade reluctant to speak to him. And what would Rhodina say if he dragged Khraishamo into this adventure and the man didn’t come back? Nonetheless, he needed Khraishamo’s help. He couldn’t trust anyone else.

  At a hand on his shoulder the pirate spun around, eyes blazing, ax coming up by sheer reflex and stopping just before it came down on Blade’s head.

  «Khraishamo. Our next enemy isn’t Sarumi.» He pointed to the approaching galley and the flag at its masthead.

  «Ah.»

  «Coming right into our hands, too.» He spoke quickly, summarizing his plan in a few sentences. Khraishamo nodded, then started strapping his ax to his belt.

  «No. Sword and knife only. The ax will weigh you down too much.» They were going to have to swim like fish, then possibly climb like monkeys.

  «All right.»

  Blade looked to starboard again. Kloret’s galley was heading straight for Lioness. Now she could hardly avoid ramming if she wanted to. It was time for him and Khraishamo to get over the side, before anyone aboard the approaching ship recognized them.

  Lioness’s bow was now down so far her deck was only five feet above the water. Khraishamo swung himself over the railing and lowered himself into the water. Blade followed. Then both of them took several deep breaths and plunged under, heading toward the rammed Sarumi ship.

  They dove completely under the sinking ship. Looking up, Blade could see barnacles and waving weeds on her keel, timbers cracked and planks bulged from the ramming, and the dim shape of Lioness with her ram embedded in the enemy’s side. Looking downward, Blade saw only a greenish darkness. The sea here was no more than sixty or seventy feet deep, but the water was murky with silt churned up from the bottom by the recent bad weather. Blade saw a number of large fish moving slowly in the dimness, and hoped none of them were sharks attracted by the noise of the battle and the scent of blood.

  They popped to the surface on the far side of the ship, nearly amidships. Both Blade and Khraishamo kept their heads low as they breathed. They didn’t want to be spotted by the people on the ships, who were now shooting arrows and throwing spears indiscriminately at the swimmers.

  Another dive, and they swam aft along the side of the rammed Sarumi. Air was beginning to bubble out of her through ruptured seams as she sank lower and lower. They came up under the overhanging stern of the ship. For the first time in several minutes they could see Kloret’s galley. She was still driving in at nearly full speed, her decks packed with archers and soldiers. Blade could make out Kloret himself in gilded armor, standing by the break of the foc’sle.

  Now it was impossible to doubt that Kloret was headed for Lioness, and hard to doubt that he was planning to ram. Both Mythorans and Sarumi stopped fighting, to stare at the massive green hull driving down upon them. Then the archers on Kloret’s foc’sle let fly, some of the starers fell, and the rest scrambled wildly for the railing.

  Kloret’s rowers trailed their oars, and a moment later his galley rammed Lioness. The smaller galley was thrown nearly on her beam ends, and the foremast went over the side to crush swimmers in the water. Her ram twisted free of the planks of the Sarumi ship, and air poured out in great bursts of foam as water poured in. As the Sarumi ship’s bow disappeared below the surface, Blade and Khraishamo took their bearings on Kloret’s galley, gulped air, and dove.

  Kloret’s flagship was so large Blade saw its shadow in the water the moment he went under. It was easy to keep a straight course toward it, then surface alongside. Khraishamo surfaced beside Blade, his knife already drawn. He gripped a trailing oar with one hand, pulled himself up until he could reach the leather seal of the oarport, and slashed away with the knife.

  In three cuts, the leather was gone. Blade put both hands on the port sill and hauled himself up until he could look in. As he’d expected, three grim faces stared back at him. Two were Sarumi, one was human, and all three were pinched with starvation and exhaustion. All three men were chained to the bench under him, and both of the Sarumi had fresh lash marks across back and shoulders.

  For two men to attack Kloret’s galley would have been madness even in the middle of a confused and desperate battle, except for one thing. Most of Gohar’s galleys were rowed by free men who could double as fighters. The work of rowing the big two-deckers was too brutal to let a rower also remain in shape. So the big flagships carried their fighting men on deck, and were rowed by two or three hundred chained Goharan and Sarumi slaves. Blade intended to unchain the ones aboard Kloret’s ship.

  He shifted his grip, then heaved himself completely out of the water. One of the Sarumi stopped staring and gave Blade a hand. Blade practically flew through the port and sprawled across the knees of the three slaves.

  «Huh, what gives here?» came a shout almost in Blade’s ear. It was an overseer who’d run aft between the benches. Blade coughed and choked, pretending to be half-drowned, until he saw that the man was within striking distance. He also saw that the overseer carried a bunch of keys at his waist.

  Blade rolled off the knees of the galley slaves, fell to the deck, gripped both the overseer’s ankles, and jerked his feet out from under him. He fell with a crash and a surprised yell, then let out another kind of yell as Blade chopped him across the throat. With one hand Blade drew his sword, with the other he picked up the keys and handed them to the nearest slave.

  «Get yourself loose.»

  An arrow whistled past Blade and struck a slave on another bench. He screamed and fell to the deck, nearly rolling under Khraishamo’s feet as the pirate climbed in through the hatch. He spotted the archer standing amidships and nocking another arrow, snatched up a wooden bucket, and threw it as hard as he could. It didn’t hit the archer but it spoiled his aim. Before he could shoot again, Blade and Khraishamo were on him. The archer went down and didn’t get up again. If he wasn’t dead from Blade’s sword, he certainly died as the first of the freed galley slaves swarmed over him.

  Blade and Khraishamo charged ahead of the slaves, their swords and knives slashing a path through the guards. They didn’t bother killing, just knocked the guards down or disabled them and left them for the galley slaves.

  The lower deck of Kloret’s flagship quickly turned into an inferno of blood, weapons, and screaming or dying men. Bench after bench of slaves set themselves free. As word of what was happening reached the soldiers above, they swarmed down the main ladder. Blade and Khraishamo stationed themselves just out of bowshot, one on each side of the ladder, and tackled the soldiers as they came down.

  Blade put his sword into a soldier’s throat, then jerked the weapon free to parry a club swung by a second man. The soldier with the slashed throat reeled off, into the arms of the galley slaves. The man with the club was good. He and Blade stood toe-to-toe for nearly a minute before Khraishamo ran the soldier through from behind. Khraishamo left his position to do this, though, and two soldiers got off the ladder on to the deck. One of them stepped on a dying slave, who bit him in the ankle. The soldier screamed and fell against his comrade, knocking the man against the stairs and making him drop his sword. Another slave snatched up the fallen weapon and attacked both soldiers.

  At last the flow of soldiers down the ladder slowed, and Blade noticed that among the slaves Sarumi and humans were fighting side by side. He saw a blond-bearded man trip a soldier so that a pirate could stamp him into the deck. He saw two Sarumi pull a soldier off a human’s back with their bare hands, both taking wounds in the process.

  If you’d been a slave aboard this ship, it didn’t matter whether you were human or Sarumi. You were a friend.

  Then the soldiers stopped coming down the ladder. Khraishamo was only a moment behind Blade as they both scrambled up the ladder to the ship’s middle deck. As they came up through the hatch, they dropped to the deck and rolled one to either side: Several arrows smacked the deck where they’d been. Then they were up and charging the archers.

  The middle deck of the galley was clear except for two hatches and the three masts, and completely covered over. It provided a sheltered place for the soldiers and sailors to sleep, cook, and wait for battle. Most of the soldiers and sailors were either on the upper deck fighting or down below getting killed by the galley slaves. Blade and Khraishamo went to work on the few left, closing in to avoid being targets for the archers.

  An archer was trying to block Blade’s sword with his bow when Khraishamo shouted.

  «Blade! It’s him!»

  Blade whirled. There was only one man aboard this ship Khraishamo would call «him.»

  Kloret was hurrying down the ladder from the upper deck, wearing gold-scaled armor and with silver-armored guards on either side of him. As his foot touched the deck, Blade snatched a fallen spear from the deck, fended off the clumsy lunge of a soldier, aimed for the Prime Minister’s groin, and threw.

  One of the guards leaped forward, throwing himself in front of his master. He took the spear in the thigh, howled in pain, and reeled. As he reeled, he crashed heavily against the Prime Minister. Kloret was in the act of drawing his sword, and had only one hand free to fight for balance. It wasn’t enough. He stumbled on the raised edge of the after hatch, let out a scream of sheer terror, then vanished down the hatch with a clatter and a crash.

  There was a moment’s silence, while everyone on the main deck stood paralyzed. Then an animal howl from fifty throats rose from the hatch, followed by a single man’s gurgling scream. Blade started looking for the nearest ladder to the upper deck. He didn’t need to worry about Kloret anymore. When a man falls into a pool of hungry sharks, you don’t need to watch each bite they take out of him to know he’s dead.

  Blade didn’t bother with looking around once he reached the upper deck. He dashed for the railing, Khraishamo beside him. In fact, the pirate reached the railing first, in spite of his short legs. He plunged through a splintered gap, and Blade heard a clean splash from below.

  As Blade reached the gap he had a vague impression of a second large ship looming up at the edge of his vision. Then he was springing out into midair, and at the same moment he felt a sharp blow in the left buttock. Then he felt the stinging impact with the water, and was thrashing downward and outward to get away from Kloret’s ship.

  For a long time the world was only green water and dim shadows. Some of them looked unpleasantly like sharks, but none of them came close enough to let Blade be sure. Then he popped to the surface, sucked air into bursting lungs, and saw Khraishamo rise like a dolphin beside him. Directly in front of them loomed a huge blue galley, with Harkrat’s banners flying from all her masts.

  Blade and Khraishamo swam toward King Bull, trying to look harmless. The galley was lying on her oars. Blade reached the ends of the oars, ignored a dull ache in his left buttock, trod water, and shouted: «Ahoy, Your Radiance! It’s Blade of England and Khraishamo, a friend.»

  Somebody on deck let out a strangled squawk, like a chicken with its neck being wrung. Then a rope ladder snaked down the galley’s side.

  «I guess they believe you,» said Khraishamo.

  «Maybe,» said Blade. «At least it’s too big a lie for two ordinary slaves to think of!»

  They climbed up the ladder, and on deck Harkrat met them. He was wearing full armor, and looked ten years older than when Blade last saw him. He’d also lost a good deal of weight, but that was an improvement.

  The Emperor looked Blade up and down, while on either hand his guards and councilors fidgeted and muttered about his spending time on these madmen. Then: «By HemiGohar, it is Blade!» He looked at Khraishamo. «And this is the Bloodskin-«

  «Sarumi,» said Blade.

  «You haven’t changed,» said Harkrat. «All right, this is Khraishamo. Welcome aboard, and-oh, excuse me.» He reached around behind Blade and tugged. Blade felt the dull ache in his left buttock turn into a sharp pain, and then Harkrat was holding up a bloody arrow.

  «This was sticking out of your arse when you climbed on board. Hope you’ve got a good story how it hit you there.» He looked from Blade to Khraishamo and back to Blade. «And maybe a few other good stories too. Go on below to my cabin. This time we’ve got something better than Blue Swallow’s ale.»

  Chapter 26

  Harkrat sent a doctor to treat Blade’s wound, but didn’t come below himself for several hours. Khraishamo wanted to spend the time on deck, but found that even with the Emperor’s blessing he drew too many peculiar looks. So he came below again.

  They were into the second jug of wine when the Emperor rejoined them. He chased out all the servants, poured himself a cup, and gave them a brief summary of the rest of the battle. It was definitely a victory for the odd alliance of Goharans and Mythoran rebels, but not a complete and final disaster for the Sarumi. Sixty of their ships were able to break off the action and flee. The Mythoran sailing ships couldn’t pursue, Degyat’s galleys had lost too many men, and the Goharan admirals were slow to grasp what was happening. Harkrat hadn’t cared for that, and he’d gone aboard a few of the other flagships to tell them so.

  «It didn’t help much, though,» he said, emptying his cup and pouring it full again. «By the time I got those bastards awake, the weather started going bad on us. Looks like there’s another storm brewing, so we’re heading back for Mythor. Bit of a wind blowing, though, so we can rest the rowers.»

  Blade and Khraishamo looked at each other. The escape of about half the Sarumi was good news for both of them. Khraishamo could be happy that hundreds of warriors who’d once been his comrades would live to fight another day.

  Blade was happy for a different reason. If the Sarumi remained a menace for a generation or so, they would force Gohar and Mythor to keep peace with each other. The two great trading cities of the Sea wouldn’t care to waste men and money fighting each other as long as they needed to protect their ships from the Pirate Folk. That, however, was not a reason the others in this cabin would appreciate now.

  Harkrat refilled Blade’s and Khraishamo’s cups, called for more wine, then glared at Blade. «And now, Man from the Future, it’s time you told me what you’ve been doing these past few months. If it isn’t a good story…»

  «It is,» said Blade, and started telling of his adventures, straight through from his first night with Fierssa to the death of Kloret at the hands of the galley slaves. At times Harkrat asked for names Blade wouldn’t supply, but Blade always refused, until the Emperor burst out: «Damn it, Blade! You can trust me. I want to know these people so I can honor them or at least talk to them. I’m not interested in lopping off anybody’s heads, not now. Mythor’s made its rebellion and that’s an end of it. Now our job’s to get together, Mythor and Gohar, and work out a peace we can all live with.»

  «You say that,» said Khraishamo. «What about others in Gohar?»

  «What others?» said Harkrat. «I’m Emperor, and if they forget that I’ll remind them. Nobody to help them, either, now that Kloret’s dead.»

  So Blade went back and filled in the details he’d left out, then finished his story. By the time he’d done this, the new wine had arrived. He found he wasn’t thirsty.

 

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