John Norman Gor 16 Guardsman of Gor

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fleet commander.
"What have we here?" asked a man, lifting a lantern, indicating the girl, who
was kneeling on the deck at our feet.
I jerked the blindfold down from her head, until it hung about her neck.
"A pretty one," said the man.
"Yes," said another.
The girl looked wildly about, frightened, a prize, among the enemies of her
former master.
"You are in the presence of men, Woman," I said. "Put your head down, to their
sea boots"
Immediately, kneeling, she put her head down to the deck.
"The Tamira is coming about," said a man. "I think she means to attack."
"She must be very anxious to recover whatever it was which you took," said
Callimachus.
The girl lifted her head, startled.
"Not you, Pretty Slave," I told her, "that which was of value."
She looked at me, tears in her eyes, over the gag, angrily. "Tie her legs, and
throw her below decks," I told a man.
"Yes, Jason," he said.
"Oarsmen to your benches," said Callimachus. "All hands to your stations."
The Tamira must be mad to threaten three ships," said an officer.
"She is desperate," said another.
"Reginald may be ready to lose his ship," I said, "that his loss may be
covered, that it may have seemed unavoidable, a fortune of war."
"Surely he would have no orders to leave the line," said Callimachus.
"No," I said, grinning. A cloak was thrown about my shoulders, to warm me from
the chill of the water. The girl, her ankles now bound, was carried backwards,
her body over the shoulder of a man, to the nearest hatch, that amidships,
leading to the hold. Her eyes were wild over the gag. She would be thrown in
the hold, and the hatch would be secured. I realized that she would have to be
beaten as she had, earlier, raised her head without permission. Such
negligences on the part of a slave seldom go unnoticed on Gor.
"It is clear," said an officer. "Me Tamira plans to attack." He seemed
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perplexed.
"It is as I had hoped," I said to Callimachus. "She will, thus, open a hole in
their lines." To be sure, I had not expected Reginald to notice his loss so
quickly. I had hoped to have more time to formulate my plans with Callimachus.
"I shall have the signal horns sounded," said an officer to Callimachus.
"No," I said, "no, Callimachus!"
"Do not sound them," said Callimachus to the officer. "It is not yet time to
alert and confuse the fleet."
"Precisely," I said. Orders, at our proximity with the Olivia and Tais, could
be, for the moment, verbally conveyed.
"Is it your intention to exploit that aperture in the enemy line?" asked
Callimachus. "It will not remain long. The movement of the Tamira will be
quickly noted."
"Not directly," I said. "That would be transparent Kaissa, as it is said. Yet
the enemy will expect us to dart for that opening."
"Accordingly, they will shift to cover the position," said Callimachus.
"Producing numerous realignments of ships, and perhaps consternation," I said.
"The very wall may be dismantled," said Callimachus, "opened, in a dozen
places"
"It will not be understood why the Tamira left her position," I said. "It may
be assumed by many ships that the attack has been ordered."
"The Tamira is bearing down upon us," said an officer. "Shall we engage her?"
"No," cried Callimachus. "Helmsmen, hard to starboard! Oar Master, full
stroke!" "Full stroke!" called the oar master. "Port oars inboard!" cried
Callimachus. "Port oars inboard!" echoed the oar master.
The Tamira, her port shearing blade passing to port like a quarter moon of
steel, slid past our hull, between us and the Olivia.
"There are lights on other ships!" called an officer. Across the water, here
and there, we could see lanterns moving. We heard battle horns.
"Draw alongside the Olivia, Callimachus," I begged. "Orders must be swiftly
issued, and unhesitantly obeyed."
"Do you plan escape?" asked Callimachus.
"I plan not only escape," I said, "but victory."
We could hear the shouting, as though of a pirate victory, coming from over
the water.
My feet slipping on the sand bar I thrust my shoulder against the hull of the
Tuka, which had been the lead ship in the first major attack against us three
days ago. She had been rammed and wounded, and had been abandoned, left
aground on the sand bar, near the chain, half in the water, half on the bar.
It was a well-known ship of the Voskjard. Near me other men, with their
shoulders, and using oars as levers, pried at the hull, its keel sunk in the
sand. On either side of the bar, the Tina and the Tais, with stout ropes, four
inches in width, strained, too, to free the Tuka.
The shouting carried over the water. There was a reddish glow to the east,
from flames.
"They will soon realize they were tricked," said a man near me.
"Work, work harder," I said.
In the confusion and darkness, and in the movement of ships, we had set the
Olivia afire, her sails set and her rudders tied in place; she was moving
eastward, which would be the likely escape route toward towns such as Port
Cos, Tafa and Victoria. Like a majestic torch she would sail into the midst of
the enemy. Using this as a diversion the Tina and the Tais, with Aemilianus,
and the crew and men of the Olivia, with captured pennons from prize ships
taken earlier from the
Voskjard, had permitted other ships, like sharks, to pass them, following the
light of the
Olivia, taking that light for the locale of battle. Soon, of course, if it had
not already occurred, it would be discovered that the Olivia was unmanned.
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"Work harder!" I said.
We grunted, and pressed our weight against the hull of the stranded
Tuka.
The great ropes strained. Near me I heard the snapping of an oar, it breaking
under the force of the four men using it as a lever. Other men, with spear
points, scraped at the sand under the keel.
"I fear there is little time," called Callimachus from the rail of the
Tina.
"It is hopeless," said the man near me.
The great weight of the
Tuka, so dark, so heavy, so obdurate, so seemingly resistant and fixed in
place, suddenly, unexpectedly, straining, with a heavy, sliding noise, the
keel like the runner of a great sled, leaving a line in the sand, thrust by
our forces, moved by the water, slipped backward, six inches.
"Work!" I whispered. "Push! Work!"
The
Tuka slipped back a foot. Then another foot. There was a cheer. "Be silent!" I
cried.
I left my position and, hurrying, ankle deep in sand and water, lowering my
head to pass under the ropes between the
Tina and the
Tuka, made my way along her hull until I came to the river, and there entered
the water, and swam about her stern quarters. I joined the men on the other
side, on the bar, where the great rent had been torn in her side three days
ago by the ram of the
Tais.
The splintered, gaping hole was easily a yard in height and width, the result
not only of the ram's penetration but of the tearing and breakage in the
strakes attendant upon its withdrawal. The strike had been well above the
water line, when the vessel would ride on an even keel. Yet, in the rolling
and wash of battle, it had sufficed, at the time, to produce a shippage of
water sufficient to produce listing. Rendered unfit for combat her captain and
crew had abandoned her, doubtless with the intention later, at their leisure,
to repair and reclaim her. I peered into the rupture in the strakes. The ropes
strained again and the
Tuka slipped back another yard. She would soon be free of the bar. I
considered, as well as I could, from my position outside the hull, what time
and materials might be requisite to restore the
Tuka to seaworthiness. Such repairs, of course, must be made upon the river, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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