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turncoat soldiers to manage the things and prisoners to work them, he can save
his warriors for better things."
"That is what I would do," she said. She wondered where Gasam and his queen
were. Not out on the wall this morning. She looked up and corrected herself.
The sun was already at zenith; they might be in one of the towers flanking the
harbor gate. She did not think Gasam would be there, though. She trained the
glass on the little plaza just beyond the wharfs. There was a great crowd of
Islanders there, and among them she found the Shasinn, easy to spot because of
the flashing from their extravagant spears. Truly, she thought, they were
golden men. She thought she detected a silver streak among them, but she could
not be sure.
There was a commotion at the far end of the harbor, an area lined with ship
sheds, the covered docks where vessels were kept during winter or when being
repaired. Lean shapes began to slide from them, half a dozen or more from each
shed.
"The canoes," Saan said. "I've been wondering where they were."
"What can they do with canoes in that mad-
house?" she wondered. The ships in the harbor were trying to sort themselves
into some kind of order. They were backing, to get their sterns toward the
northern side of the harbor so that all would be forming a line facing the
city wall. The first three-banker through the entrance was still trying to
clear itself of the wreckage of the ill-fated two-banker. The water was filled
with struggling men and drowned corpses.
They did not manage to get into formation, because now the canoes were among
them. The ships, without the speed and momentum that made them terrible at
sea, became mere fighting platforms. Their stone-casters were no use against
the canoes and the powerful, crossbow-like spear-launchers were not a great
deal better. Some of the canoes stood away from the ships and showered them
with missiles: arrows, javelins and sling-stones. Others paddled in and tried
to board. The rowers fended them off with flailing oars, so they concentrated
on the vulnerable bows and sterns. Warriors with tall shields fended off the
missiles that rained from the ships. Others wielded long spears, thrusting at
the ships' rails to clear a space for boarders. Shazad could see them casting
grapples aboard.
"What do you think?" she asked Saan, lowering the telescope from her aching
eye. Her muscles were stiff and she realized that she must have been watching
far longer than she had thought.
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"It's smart tactics," the seaman said, rubbing his stubbled chin. "They've
figured out how to use boarding pikes. They're not taking many casualties.
That bugger Gasam's being cautious,
using crafty tactics. Most of all, he's denying our navy its greatest
strengths. The ships are just wallowing tubs like this, it's not a real sea
battle. We have a great many marines and soldiers, skilled fighters, but only
so many can get to the rails to fight. If the savages get aboard in any
numbers, all that order and discipline isn't much use. Believe me, my lady, in
a deck fight, it's savagery that counts."
She thought of the carnage in the great battle outside this city, how the
Islanders had surrounded the Nevan army and forced them together, pressing in
until no man had room to use his weapons. Something else came to her.
"Saan, those catapults of theirs . . . why haven't they used them to try to
set our ships afire?"
"I was thinking on that myself, Princess. It's not like a real sea battle,
where they have to worry about setting their own ships aflame. As I figure it,
King Gasam wants those ships."
She was stunned. "Wants them? But ..." It took her only a moment; even before
he spoke the words, the answer was clear to her.
"Gasam has an army, and a better one than ours, if you'll pardon my saying so,
Princess. But he doesn't have a navy, except for some canoes. He'll have one
if he wins this fight." His tone was nonchalant, but his face was pale and
grim beneath his windburn.
"But won't our skippers scuttle their ships before they allow them to be
taken? Are they not bound by oath to do so?" Already she knew how stupid that
was.
"Princess, I don't think I need to tell you what our senior naval officers are
like." He spat to
leeward. "They won't scuttle their ships and they won't fall on their swords.
They'll surrender and take service with Gasam if he gives them the chance.
They'll kiss his backside in gratitude."
She gripped the railing and her knuckles turned white. "What kind of man is
he?" She knew, though. Gasam was a king and a conqueror and, unlike so many
other kings, so many other would-be conquerors, he was every bit as capable as
he thought he was. A new sound came, beating in time with the throbbing in her
temples and at first she thought the sound was inside her head.
"Now what?" she said, looking around.
"It's Crusher, my lady." This was the name the Nevans had adopted in place of
its interminable Chiwan title. The other they called Victorious. Slowly,
ponderously, the ship was maneuvering into the harbor entrance, which was
barely wide enough to admit it. The pounding she heard was the thunder of the
kettledrums beating time for the rowers in the twin hulls.
"Its rails are twenty feet from the waterline," she said, hopefully. "Surely
the barbarians cannot force their way aboard from canoes!"
"Let us hope not, Princess," Saan said. He looked below to make sure all was
in order on his ship. Shazad looked as well. The sailors below were keyed up
and apprehensive, but at the same time happy to be out of the action. The
Chiwan women were all but chewing their shields in frustration. All day they
had been hearing the sounds of battle without being able
to take part, and now their sisters were going into battle aboard Crusher
without them.
Victorious waited outside the harbor entrance, its catapults keeping up a
steady fire on the city wall. Its engines, though, were no more accurate than
those in the city, and were firing from a mobile platform. Most of the stones
were wasted. Behind Crusher came a flotilla of transport ships full of
soldiers.
"What is this foolishness?" Shazad demanded, pointing at the troop ships.
"What are those things coming in for? They have no armament!"
"I think, my lady," Saan said, "that the idea was for the warships to beat the
harbor defenses into submission. Then the Chiwan monster craft were to come
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in, suppressing fire from the city wall and at the same time land assault
forces to seize the dock area. The transports were to tie on behind the Chiwan
ships and send in soldiers to pass over their decks to reinforce the assault
on the harbor gate. The towers on those ships are high enough that they could
drop gangways onto the city walls and assault across them. That was the plan,
anyway, I think. Maybe it can still work." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]