Jeffrey Lord Blade 23 Empire of Blood

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he dared make, and he hoped it would be clear and unmistakable to Dzhai.
Blade felt more relief than he'd expected to feel for some time. He and Dzhai
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were not just aboard the same galley now. Each had recognized the other. Each
knew the other was an ally and a friend. With luck, something might come of
this.
Blade found himself beginning to smile, in spite of the sound of Tzimon's
screams fading away in the distance.
Chapter 12
The fleet set sail the next morning with fifty galleys and twenty heavily
laden sailing vessels. Blade wondered why the sailing ships were accompanying
the fleet, since their dependence on the wind was likely to slow it down.
As the fleet worked its way north along the coast of Saram, Blade grasped the
answer to that question.
The sailing ships carried extra water and food to transfer to the galleys at
sea. That meant the galleys with their enormous crews could stay at sea for
weeks at a time, rather than days. The short range of galleys had always been
a problem in Home Dimension naval history. In fact, it had been one reason why
they had slowly given way to the sailing ship, slower and more dependent on
the winds, but carrying a smaller crew and far more food and water.
A close look at the sailing ships told Blade of another good reason for their
presence with the Imperial fleet. From stem to stern they bristled with guns,
and their decks swarmed with armored soldiers of the
Corps of Eunuchs.
Again Blade remembered Home Dimension naval history. Another reason for the
galley's decline as a warship had been its lack of fighting power compared
with the sailing ship. A sailing ship might not be able to escape a galley in
a calm sea, but it could carry more and heavier guns and carry them higher
above the water, with far more ammunition. Kukon and her sisters carried six
or eight guns apiece. The sailing ships carried twenty or thirty on each side.
True, galleys could close in and ram. But galleys were lightly built, compared
to sailing ships. They had to be, or they could never be rowed easily. A
galley closing in to ram could be smashed to pieces by heavy cannonballs
before she reached her goal. Even then, the heavier timbers of a sailing
ship's hull meant she could shrug off a ram blow that would send a galley
straight to the bottom.
So it did not always matter if a sailing ship were caught in a calm by a
galley, or even by a fleet of galleys. With good guns and good men behind
them, she could stand off the whole fleet and then go on her way when the wind
rose. The sailing ships were not only a floating supply base for the galleys.
They were also a solid support for them in battle.
The fleet worked its way slowly northward, both sailing ships and galleys
relying on the wind. This gave the galley slaves a comparatively easy time,
apart from the dampness and chill of the nights and the broiling sun by day. A
few of the newer slaves were painfully sunburned, until their backs, necks,
and arms were red, peeling messes. One man came down with a congestion of the
lungs and was thrown overboard, to be quickly taken by the sharks. Otherwise,
Kukon's slaves had as much peace, quiet, and rest as galley slaves at sea
could expect.
Blade had no illusions that this voyage under sail was intended to make things
easy for the slaves. It only kept the fleet together and saved the strength of
the slaves for the days when it would be badly needed-that was all. When the
time came to pursue the pirates, the whips would be cracking and the drums
beating harder than ever.
For three days the fleet sailed north past a coast of rugged mountains with
small fishing villages nestled in lonely coves. Here the mountains that formed
the northern boundary of the Empire came down to the sea. Not far inland,
Blade could see summits rising three and four miles toward the blue sky,
crowned with snow even though summer was approaching.
Blade noticed that the fishing boats from the villages scuttled frantically
for shore as the Imperial fleet came in sight. They had good reason for this.
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Blade saw one galley swing out of formation and chase down a fishing boat. The
five fishermen were snatched from their own deck and vanished aboard the
galley, no doubt to start a grim life at her oars.
North of the mountains the coast leveled out into a series of low, barren
headlands, with occasional clumps of stunted trees. Here was a land held by no
ruler's hand, and by few people of any sort. It was said that it was part of a
great plain that reached all the way around the world and joined the Steppes.
One morning the fleet swung in toward shore and anchored. Blade saw Dzhai
looking toward the gray, rocky headland that was nearest with a longing
expression on his face. Dzhai was in theory a free sailor, but he was aboard
Kukon as much against his will as any slave at her oars. He was also chained
to the ship just as thoroughly as they were, by the maimed arm that would make
swimming nearly impossible.
Blade felt slightly guilty about that arm. At the same time, he could not help
feeling slightly relieved that
Dzhai would be staying aboard, not throwing his life away in a probably futile
attempt to escape to the dubious safety of this nearly lifeless country.
Hundreds of sailors in scores of boats rowed ashore from both the galleys and
the sailing ships. They carried with them empty barrels and brought them back
filled with water from inland streams. Other sailors went out with nets and
lines, bringing up a rich catch of fish. These were split, gutted, dried in
the sun, and salted down in more barrels.
The fleet swung around its anchors in the windless, broiling hot bay for three
days. About noon on the fourth day it weighed anchor and put to sea again.
This time the rams of the galleys and the bowsprits of the sailing ships
turned almost due east. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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